Saturday, March 13, 2010

Constance McMillen/Bigots? In Mississippi? Update

Constance McMillen was a guest on the Wanda Sykes show tonight.

First, an aside about Sykes: She really needs to get better at reading the cue cards without looking like she's reading the cue cards. I haven't seen readings that stiff since a mid-'80s Bob Hope special or Anthony Michael Hall on Saturday Night Live.

Now, to Ms. McMillen: She said she plans to remain in Mississippi for college, and then move...to Tennessee.

Ever get the feeling you're being tested?

As in many things, the answer was on South Park

First:

Baruch Marzel, on behalf of Israeli Nationalist group Lehava, sent Israeli model Bar Refaeli, and her mother, a letter urging her to ditch her non-Jewish boyfriend, Leonardo DiCaprio.

“It is not by chance that you were born Jewish. Your grandmother and her grandmother did not dream that one of their descendants would one day remove the family’s future generations from the Jewish people. Assimilation has forever been one of the enemies of the Jewish people . . .


Now:

Th' hell?

Just when you thought Glenn Beck couldn't possibly get any freakier...he starts hatin' on Bruce Springsteen.

I'm reminded of something Hawkeye and (I think) BJ said about Frank Burns in an episode of "Mash:” His wheels grind slowly, but exceedingly dumb.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Further on the subject of "not needing an original plot to make a movie..."

Last December, after An Education had made the festival rounds and hit limited theaters, we learned that [director Lone] Scherfig would be directing the romantic comedy One Day, and now ComingSoon discovers that Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess are attached to this story,



Well. I know An Education was acclaimed, but it looked hateful to me. However, you know how I feel about Hathaway, and Jim Sturgess was good in Across the Universe--I don't think Taymor used him as well as she might've but he was good.

So let's see what this is about. It's

about Dexter and Emma, who meet for the first time during their graduation in 1988, and proceed to meet one day every year for the next 20 years


Wait a minute...

I call shenanigans. That's Same Time, Next Year.

You go 'head and tell it on the MOUNTAINTOP, brother Ebert!

(From his review of The Yellow Handkerchief, which I already had an idea I wanted to see.)

You don't need an original story for a movie. You need original characters and living dialogue.

No impeachment, no indictments, no public option...

Gosh, I'm glad to be a Democrat.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Bigots? In Mississippi?

Ok. Remember when I wrote here last November about the crazy high school principal in Alabama who tried canceling an entire prom rather than let two lesbian students attend together?

It's spreading.

Dateline: Jackson, "We'd Like To Be Known As Even Crazier Than Alabama" Mississippi:

A northern Mississippi school district decided Wednesday not to host a high school prom after a lesbian student demanded she be able to attend with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo.


The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi had given the district until Wednesday to change that policy and allow 18-year-old Constance McMillen to escort her girlfriend, who is also a student, to the dance on April 2.

Instead, the school board met and issued a statement announcing it wouldn't host the event at Itawamba County Agricultural High School in Fulton, "due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events."


Oh, I disagree. This is very educational.

The statement didn't mention McMillen or the ACLU.


Of course it didn't mention McMillen. Naming someone makes it that much harder not to treat them as a person.

Finally, notice something about the AP piece:
Anna Watson, a 17-year-old junior at the high school, was looking forward to the prom, especially since the town's only hotspot is the bowling alley, she said.

"I am a little bummed out about it. I guess it's a decision that had to be made. Either way someone was going to get disappointed — either Constance was or we were," Watson said. "I don't agree with homosexuality, but I can't change what another person thinks or does."

Other students are on McMillen's side.

McKenzie Chaney, 16, said she wasn't planning to attend the prom, but "it's kind of ridiculous that they can't let her wear the tuxedo and it all be over with."


The way I read it, both those quotes are on McMillen's side.
Watson said. "I don't agree with homosexuality, but I can't change what another person thinks or does."


Emphasis mine.

she thinks that it makes her feel right...

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Sunday, March 07, 2010

A question...

What fool decided that what the Oscars needed was more congratulatory, fawning bullshit?

Damnit, I miss Larry Gelbart.

That is all.