Yesterday, the girlfriend and I set out on a long journey to try and see Capturing the Friedmans, a new documentary about a family torn apart by accusations of sexual molestation. Interesting film, but even the process of getting there bears mentioning. The theatre address was something like 1314 Wilshire (Los Angeles) so I drove all the way down Wilshire for what must of been a hundred blocks before realizing we were at the wrong end. And, as we we're going there, we almost had a serious accident. I was in the right lane, cruising along, and looked over to my left at the possibility of changing lanes. Suddenly, I hear the gf gasp. At first I thought she might've overcome with my sexual presence, something that happens quite often, but when I turned to face the road I realized some nimrod had pulled out of a parking space, directly into our lane. The Subaru handled quite well and I easily swerved around the guy in the seconds I had - stopping was not an option.

Anyway, we finally found the film at another theater. I don't want to give too much away, but this movie could be about as close as you could ever come to the mind of a sexual predator (aside from being molested by one yourself.) Or it could simply be an expose of a another series of false accusations. It's hard to say. The gf was pretty convinced of the accused's guilt, but I'm constantly reminded of the infamous case that took place near Olympia, WA about ten years back, in which accusations of sexual abuse ran rampant, over a hundred people were locked up, but as the decade drug on, it became apparent that most were guilty of nothing and set free. That pretty much shattered my faith in the purity of the justice system, especially in matters of sexual abuse, so I walked out of CTF unsure of what I'd seen. I think the argument against the accused parties would have been strengthened by more compelling "victims" - the one or two who are interviewed seem unsure of their own story, and freely admit the recalled nothing until being put under hypnosis.

Then we went home and drank vodka and pomegranite juice while playing poker.
posted by wil forbis 6/30/2003 02:31:04 PM

Friday, June 27, 2003
Right to Privacy Goes to Far

"By extending legal protections to homosexual behavior, the court's majority not only struck down its 1986 precedent in Bowers vs. Hardwick, which upheld Georgia's anti-sodomy law, it also threatens the legal foundation of marriage. "

Mmm, yes. Not letting men fuck each other in the ass is an important part of marriage.

posted by wil forbis 6/27/2003 07:40:48 PM

Just had a rather odd moment at Starbucks. As I walked in, I read the LA Times headline about the Supreme Court overturning the Texas sodomy laws. When I got up to the counter and placed my order with the overtly gay barrista, I almost said, "Congratulations!"
posted by wil forbis 6/27/2003 09:26:59 AM

Thursday, June 26, 2003
Like the great cultural elitist that I am, I detest reality shows. They are, at best, entertainment for the same simple minded idiots that will feel the hard steel of my broadsword when I conquer earth. That said, I have to concede that I've fallen under the spell of "Last Comic Standing." It's a "Survivor" type scenerio, where comics have to live together and then challenge each other to comedy face offs that determine who gets eliminated each week. The fact that comedians are intrinsically paranoid and frightened creatures only makes their antics more enjoyable. Yesterday they kicked off Sean, some douche from Austin. My current fav is this gigantic fat guy named Ralphie who does a great ebonics act. GO RALPHIE GO!

P.S. If you watch "Last Comic Standing" I may allow you to live in one of my more pleasent penal colonies, once I've conquered the world.
posted by wil forbis 6/26/2003 04:04:51 PM

Tuesday, June 24, 2003
Salon.com News | Foam chunk likely caused Columbia crash

Yeah, that and last night's indigestion!
posted by wil forbis 6/24/2003 08:24:05 PM

If I may, I'd like like to make a unsubstanciated, completely unproveable observation about Iraq. It seems like there is a entirely different controversy amidst all this that is being completly ignored. I provide it as follows: A bulk of the Iraqi citizens that Saddam killed over the past ten years seem to have been murdered under the assumption that they were part of the Kurdish uprising that took place in the last period of the first Dessert Storm - the one prompted, but unfortunately not aided, by the first Bush. Bush I encouraged these people to revolt, and then stood by as they were crushed.

There's several reasons why this controversy will never gather steam:
A) That was two administrations ago. Little Bow Wow probably wasn't even born yet.
B) Obviously Bush II isn't going to point fingers at the failures of his own father.
C) Inversly, the anti-war movement, against invading Iraq this time, can hardly say they were for it last time.

Since both pro and anti war forces have nothing to gain by bring this this light, Bush I gets off scott free. Yet I would argue his lack of follow through in the first Desert Storm was the gravest mistake anti-Saddam forces made is this whole situation.
posted by wil forbis 6/24/2003 01:23:30 PM

I've seen a few people on the web compliment Adam Sandler in the attractiveness of his new wife, but I think she's kind of beneath the standard of what you'd think a superstar actor could pull in.

He's probably got a set of implants all ready to go.
posted by wil forbis 6/24/2003 10:50:48 AM

Sunday, June 22, 2003
You know, I love Weird Al. His music was instrumental to my years as a teenager. But this Werid Al TV show on VH1 sucks monkey scotums.
posted by wil forbis 6/22/2003 11:12:57 PM

Hey - this blog alledging that the new Harry Potter book has libertarian themes might be of interest. Especially if you place it side by side with Pete Moss's old acid logic article that framed J.K. Rolling's sucess as something of a denunciation of liberterian ideas.

Personally, I've yet to read a Potter book and probably never will, but I did recently see one of the schlockiest 80's films in existance: Tuff Turf. Fuckin' James Spader is a preppy "rebel" who moves to the tough section of Los Angeles (that somehow has no black people.) He has all the weird Spader mannerisms, but is still sold to the viewer as some sort of tough guy, who woos a gang leader's girlfriend by singing a piano ballad called "We Walk the Night." I'm a big defender of the 80's, but there's no way you can look at this film and not shake your head. Very high on the "So bad it's good" thermometer. I'm actually surprised it doesn't have more of a rep with the ironic hipster crowd. I dunno how it escaped mention in VH1's "I Love the 80's" show.
posted by wil forbis 6/22/2003 05:00:55 PM

Friday, June 20, 2003
Heh, it's pretty embarrassing for Orin Hatch that he was linking to a porn web page off his own site as mentioned in this AP article.Salon.com Technology | Sen. Hatch removes link to porn Web wite Sen. Hatch removes link to porn Web wite

But equally embarrassing is that the AP went to "press" with such an obvious typo. Truly a wite to behold.
posted by wil forbis 6/20/2003 06:35:56 PM

I was talking to friend from Olympia last night and he mentioned that the drummer from the Oly-Rock band, Karp, died recently. (you gotta scroll down a bit to see the obit.) I was never a big fan of the group, but did meet the guy a couple times in early 90's when he was roomates with the same guy who filled me in on this.

What's pretty amazing is how he died. Apparently he was on a boat that crashed into a dock, sailed into the air and hit a tree! If you have to go, go out in a bang.
posted by wil forbis 6/20/2003 03:33:33 PM

Wednesday, June 18, 2003 e="1" face="verdana, arial">posted by wil forbis 6/7/2003 08:13:09 PM