Patrick's Rants

The comment/referrer spam keeps rolling in. End users don’t see it, but I get notifications everytime a spammer’s post doesn’t make it to the front page – or whichever page they are trying to hit. Needless to say this fills up the logs with bogus data. Supposed referrals from sites with gambling phrases in their names.
So far I have installed something called Kitten’s Spaminator and Kitten’s Spam words (neither available anymore), Tarpit – which slows down spammers and eventually prevents them from posting, AutoClose which closes comments after a period of time has passed, and even tried to prevent a particular IP from accessing the machine altogether by setting the firewall rules to prevent access (it didn’t work – somehow the spammer kept hitting the machine)
Today I installed Bad Behavior and threw on something called Referrer Karma. Referrer Karma is supposed to block bad referrers before these other plugins get their shot at these vile despicable bandwidth hogs. Now I just have to find the logs that ref-karma is supposed to create
All referenced plugins can be found on the WordPress Codex site.

Did you keep that attorney on retainer? No need.
Have you seen these insurance commercials that start out like an existing home remodel show, they start swinging that big wrecking ball – and it’s the wrong house?
The commercial seems to imply that you would be in trouble if this was your house accidently destroyed and you didn’t have replacement coverage, when the truth is you have this company by the wrecking ball. The only thing your insurance company will do is sue the damagers, who should have their own insurance and a bond to cover their work and mistakes.

And then it hits you, is your insurance company trying to scare you into paying more money? (Note: replacement cost insurance, not replacement value insurance is the best bang for your buck, but will cost a tiny bit more)

Halle Berry stars as Miranda Grey, psychologist turned patient in a mental institute/womens’ prison. The movie twists and turns through hallucinogenic drugs, dream sequences and flash backs.
Grey is charged with killing her husband, but can’t remember anything about the crime. She collaborates with ghosts of crime victims to break out of prison, find their killer and eventually to determine her own innocence. The movie is dark, both on film and in subject matter; the dingy dark scenes contribute to the heavy, scary feeling of the movie. It does make use of a few clichés, but there are very few films that don’t here and there. Just don’t be surprised at the “jump scenes” (designed to make you jump, but not really the scary parts of the film)
All in all fairly good.

As I check over the new shows destined to become my favorites I have some interesting – to me anyway – observations of the line ups.
Despite what I started to see as a trend at the beginning of the year, I am pleased to say that the only upcoming show of any kind of “religious bend” is a reality show called Three Wishes and only because singer Amy Grant is part of the show. I was afraid that Dubya’s so-called mandate and the manufactured “uproar”^1,2 over nipple displays would cause the television industry to change what they broadcast. (Interestingly enough if you search for for FCC Indecency complaint in the first three results you get a form from the so-called Parent’s Television Council. Instead of using the V-Chip, which gives parents the ability to lock out certain ratings during times of the day when parents are not home, they use email to the FCC to try to mold what the rest of us can watch.)
In the new line up of approximately 31 shows there are far more of the Maxi-series (mini-series expanded to fill the whole season but has a very limited expected life span) than ever. Commander-In-Chief, Fathom, Invasion, The Night Stalker, Prison Break, Reunion, Supernatural, and Threshold are destined to be replaced because you can’t make these kinds of shows last more than that long – look at television versions of The Fugitive and The Net for a couple of examples. These shows all have a natural conclusion and if not people will become tired of the show and it will die anyway.
There are pleasantly a large number of “supernatural” shows from the Ghost Whisperer to the alien invader shows, Fathom, Invasion and Threshold in the lineup. The success of Medium no doubt is partially behind this large showing. Of course the true test is to see which of these shows is still on in December.
So there you have it, crime shows, maxi-series and supernatural (and the ever gag-tastic reality shows) but no Billie Graham Reunion Tour. Looks like it could be a good fall season.

1 – http://www.avrev.com/news/0105/6.indecency.html
2 – http://americaforsale.org/mt/archives/000143.php
3 – Fall lineup grid
4 – Fall season new shows

local6.com – News – Finger Scanning At Disney Parks Causes Concern

Now if you want to enjoy the “Wonderful World of Disney” you have to give them your fingerprints – wait, you really only have to give a biometric comparison of your fingerprint to the Micky Police. While they currently claim to only take a “fingerprint of your fingerprint” it isn’t too far until they actually have your fingerprints on file.
And I thought their push for perpetual copyright was bad.

Next time I go to buy a DVD player I’m looking for an option with a button that looks like this:
Its function will be to skip the “You’re a filthy thief, you watching this legitimate DVD” it will probably be called “The MPAA is a bunch of tea bagging bastards who blame poor movie sales on Jack Sparrow instead of their own inability to write, produce and distribute movies that people really want to see, so I’m going to skip your accusations of thievery you tea bagging bastards”
If you actually spent time and money on producing movies that people want to see instead of the hogwash that currently spews forth from Hollywood (and Tom Cruise’s mouth) instead of spending it on these “Featurettes” about people mugging old ladies (all the while raising ticket prices) then we might watch the films you produce.

Except for the “Don’t Steal Movies” commercial at the beginning of this DVD, I have to say an overall positive viewing experience. John Travolta plays mob collector, turned movie producer Chili Palmer, trying to break into the music business after his long time friend Tommy Athens, played by James Woods, gets mowed down by a toupé wearing Russian mobster.
Many of the characters are steriotypical sleazy record producers, gangsta rappers, wanna be white dudes (Vince Vaughn plays what amounts to an over the hill Vanilla Ice), with a few people playing themselves.
Great lines include Steven Tyler (himself) saying that he hadn’t needed to sink low enough to be in film, Chili’s complaining about sequels and only being able to use the F-word once in a PG-13 film (he did say Fuck em within the first 5 minutes of this PG-13 rated film, and I don’t believe he or anyone else said it again during the whole film, and in a film comprised of 10~20% gansta rappers that’s something)
Although the “real” critics didn’t really like this film, I usually take my cue from that. Movies that get all kinds of awards especially the more esoteric ones, make me gag… so when the critics say they hate it I gotta check it out.

Typical anti-Hollywood rant follows: (more…)

In a move that must keep George scratching his head, Chief Justice Rehnquist, stated that he will keep working as long as his health permits. This raises some interesting questions. Is Rehnquist going to retire on Bush’s watch at all? Is he fearful of the extreme religious angle that Dubya seems to want to play? Is he waiting for a Liberal Dem to take back the White House (considering the nasty way they let Bush “win” the 2000 election) before retiring? We’ll just have to wait and see.

On Wednesday, my 12 year old daughter’s soccer team played their second game of the season; against a team that called themselves, The Shiz Nit. I shizzle you not. And not only that, they managed to get the name on their team banner – made happily if obliviously by a team mom. I overheard some of the parents talking. They had no idea what the fizzuck shitnit meant thinking it was a phrase from a movie. Further one mom would not shut up! She just kept shouting, “come on Shiznit, you can do it!”
You know, just when I think I’m out of touch with the youth of today I see them pull some shizzle over on their middle-aged white parents and it cracks me up.

Definition: Shiznit (warning: if you are easily offended by words like shit, feces and poo, do not click the link )

Recently we have seen the kinds of tactics used in Iraq flow into Afghanistan. Road side bombings and IEDs or improvised explosive devices have begun to turn up in the formerly quiet Afghanistan. Remember in 2001 when we went in there to run out the hard line government, chasing the Taliban out of power and capturing Osama bin Ladin? Oh. We didn’t capture Osama. Iraq, once an oppressed country under a cruel dictator, is now an oppressed country under a cruel foreign leader who chooses to not see that he has created more hate, resentment and resistance than any invasion since Vietnam. Osama is hanging out somewhere around or in Pakistan and the Afghan border according to recent theories.
We were doing a pretty decent job until the revenge war that is Iraq. Afghanistan was under control and in that one part of the world we were accepted. There have been free elections and people have embraced democracy. Then there is the tarpit that is Iraq where the more we struggle the ‘stucker’ we get. Under the leadership of George W. Bush and Co. Iraq has become a terrorist training ground. We should invade Iraq to protect our sovereignty.
And Saddam Hussein gets to eat all the Doritos he wants.