Before I left to see this movie last night, I told myself I would write a full review when I got home. I got home at 3:30, and as giddy and hyper as I was, I’d also been up for a good 21 hours, and I’d gotten no sleep the night before due to excitement, so I just fell into bed and figured I’d write today.

The problem is that I can’t write a serious review. There are movies for which I could do so, but not this one. This movie was just such a wonderful experience that explaining it would be very much like explaining why Pizza is good. It’s not something that you can explain

However, I’ll try. The original Spider-Man movie did a lot of things wonderfully, but in the end, it was still tied down by the limitations of its villain (not the actor, but the villain. At the end of the day, the Goblin’s just not that impressive) and his rather unimpressive mask. Even if I accept the remake of the costume due to the fact that it was battle armor for the glider and stuff, the MASK wasn’t — it could’ve been a lot more expressive, or, at least, cool.

Doctor Octopus, on the other hand, was done beautifully. His insanity quite the same as Norman’s, so there are no big scenes with him talking to the mirror, but we still get some very good scenes with glimpses into his thinking, and considering that Octavius is a really likeable guy at the beginning of the movie, I’m very pleased by the way that he was handled throughout — it’s not just “boom, I’ve got arms and I’m suddenly an evil man.”

On a scale of one to four stars, I’d've given the original 3. This one earns a solid 4.5 (extra bonus points for having my 2nd favorite villain).

I can’t wait for Spider-Man 3 now (though I want Serenity first).
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This, like my DeadJournal entry I just posted, was originally a better structured entry. I may rewrite the better structured one later, but right now, I’m not going to bother.

I ran across a discussion on homosexuality in which someone said how disappointed they were that Orson Scott Card was such a homophobic bigot. I, too, was disappointed until I realized that I was only going on what they said about the man, and considering how much respect I had for him, I thought I owed it to him to find out exactly what he’d said. So, I did. (There are two links there, incidentally.)

I don’t always agree with Card’s politics, but judging from the “Uncle Orson Reviews Everything” and “World Watch” essays he writes weekly, I think that simply dismissing his well-conveyed thoughts as mere bigotry is a crime beyond description.
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Assuming that this editorial is correct, and Bush believes that our democracy works because our society is inherently “good,” I’d really have to start questioning the man’s intelligence. Until now, while I often find myself rolling my eyes at some of the things he says, or I disagree with his opinions about certain things, I’ve believed that Bush is at least in the top quarter of our population in intelligence (though, I must admit that a large number of our population watches “Reality TV,” which leads me to conclude that my computer’s MOUSE is smarter than a good 1/4 to 1/2 of them).

No one can look at our society and say we’re somehow inherently good. There are (relatively) good people out there (Coming from a religious stance, I don’t believe anyone’s really “good” in an empirical sense, but most people aren’t COMPLETELY stupid, selfish and evil), but our society seems to give way too much power to those who’ll take it… unfortunately, more often than not, those are the worst offenders.

Our society isn’t any more “good” than any other — it’s the system of checks and balances, the idea that NO ONE has so much power that they can turn this nation into a place I’d be ashamed to live, that keeps our nation from being just as bad as any of the worst nations in history. Unfortunately, it sometimes seems that those checks and balances are being broken down.
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Everyone hates taxes. I hate taxes. I’m always highly annoyed when I get my paycheck and see that a good chunk of my money (around 20%) was taken. I realize that part of my money goes to programs I have no issues with, like repairing the roads that I actually drive on, or paying the fire department or ambulance service. (Note that the police department isn’t listed there — Trust me, if you ever want to kill anyone, do it in Clay County, WV on a weekend. IF you can find a police officer (state or county), they’ll simply say “I’ll be out there shortly” and never show up.)

Welfare programs, as a whole, disgust me. I go to work, I do what was agreed upon between my employer and myself, and they give me the money that they agreed to give me for my work. It’s a pretty simple system, and I hate the fact that so much money is spent allowing other people who don’t work to have a lot of things that I can’t afford.

Personally, if we must have welfare programs, I’d run them a lot like jails, except people would be allowed to leave the building. I wouldn’t give people money. Not for rent, not for food, and especially not to fund a nice kegger every couple of weeks. They get a room to sleep in (possibly with a bunk mate), they get fed very basic meals, and I’d provide some basic training to help them get an entry level job. More advanced schooling would be provided only by giving student loans. For entertainment, they can have a library card, with candles to read by at night… and MAYBE a community television in a large lounge area.

On the other hand, while I don’t much care for programs that give people enough money to have all the little luxuries (see: Satellite television and high-speed internet), I don’t have a big problem with allowing some assistance for the “working poor.” Those who work, but have problems making ends meet with utility bills and daycare and whatnot, I want to help. I’m not completely sure that it’s the government’s place to force charity on those who’re less kind-hearted, but I’ve been in the situation where I wasn’t earning enough to get by (because college was limiting my work hours), and while it was my parents, not the government, that helped me out, I like the idea of helping those who’re trying to help themselves.

Like I said, there are completely legitimate uses for our taxes (maintaining infrastructure and protecting the peace, whether from internal threats or external), but we use a lot of tax money to help people who only want a handout, and many of them are perfectly capable of working. For a good number, I realize that they’d like to have a job, but they can’t find one, or aren’t able to work. Others, though, simply don’t work because there’s no reason for them to do so. I realize that the saying is usually used for something else entirely, but why should they buy the cow, if they get their milk for free?
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I haven’t forgotten about this blog.

On the contrary, I think daily of things about which to write, things that are impersonal enough to be put here, and relevant enough to my life that I feel I need to write.

Then, of course, I come home from work and I forget every last one of them.

This is why I need to be able to telecommute (and the ungodly amount of money I spend on gasoline every week is a minor secondary reason).
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