The Bigsibling Blog

Reading the StartNewsOnline.com headline “Republican: Scripts need reviewing” set off all kinds of warning lights in my brain.  Red rotating flashers like what was on top of the old police cars, accompanied by the blaring woooOOOT..woooOOOT..woooOOOT sound of the Enterpises ‘red alert’ claxon.

WTF is this?  A republican senator wants the government to vet hollywood scripts?  What kind of socialist propagandizing censorship is this?  Once past the first paragraph, my blood pressure starting returning to normal…a little.  

The senator in question is not a U.S. Senator, but rather state Senator Phil Berger of North Carolina.  And he doens’t want the government to approve all Hollywood scripts, and not even all scripts for films shot in North Carolina. Only scripts for films that seek the state’s filmmaker incentive.  The state has a program whereby tax money would refund as much as 15 percent of what the production companies spend in North Carolina.

While this seems on the surface, to be almost, but not quite censorship, in reality it is just that.  Censorship is defined as “deleting parts of publications or correspondence or theatrical performances.”  What Sen. Berger’s bill would do is give the government control over what they deem to be acceptable, before the film is even completed.

The current law that entices filmmakers with the kick-backs already has a provision for denying the benefits based on the content of the finished product.  If the content is obscene or what-not, the production company will not receive the money.  Seems to me that the problem Sen. Berger wants to fix is already fixed in the current law.  A new law will only cost more tax dollars as one would have to figure the state is going to pay someone to go over the script.

It seems that Sen. Berger is offering a knee-jerk reaction to outrage by some people about a scene in a film they have not even viewed.  Sure, the scene’s description sounds horrific (Fanning is raped by a man…and it is Fanning that is acting throughout the scene).  And sure, by the current law this filmmaker will probably not get any of the tax supplied kick-back money.  And so the system works.

Go to North Carolina, make your film, apply for the kick-back, and if the government believes the film is a worthwhile venture that will not harm or degrade the public interest, then you’ll get your kick-back, otherwise you won’t. No harm no foul.

The next logical step in the Senator’s plan, would be to deny the fimmakers who make films with which he and his cronies disagree, the priveledge of filming in North Carolina.  And by proxy, deny the business and other individuals and entities their fair share of the Hollywood dollar in the process.

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Tech Tags: North Carolina film industry Hollywood censorship Hounddog

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Newton, Kansas is a smallish town a couple (maybe 40) miles north of the metropolis of Wichita, Kansas.  It’s one of those Mayberry towns where everyone knows everyone else pretty much.  The kids walk to school without any worries by the parents.  At least they did.

The real world caught up with sleepy little Newton this week as six men,  count them SIX men were arrested for sexually violating three middle school girls…repeatedly. 

While all of the men have hispanic surnames, it is not known whether or not they are illegal aliens.  My guess is, at least some of them probably are.  The girls, apperantly, went to the mens’ apartment willingly, and admitted to the sexual relations.  But that is all I know at this point.

I have to wonder why the girls would do this.  Willingly have relations with six different men, unless there was something else going on.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to blame the girls or anything, I’m just wondering if the bastard pervs were possibly paying them for the favors.

Man, stuff like this just makes me sick.  Sick!  These guys should be locked up forever!  But knowing the way Kansas courts have been leaning lately, they’ll probably get probation and counseling.

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Tech Tags: Newton Kansas middle school girls rape

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The RegOnline manager is easy to use and navigate, a tree view on the left with information in the right pane gives one the familiar look and feel of the Windows Explorer.

All-in-all, I am very impressed with this site, and if I or my employers were going to host an event, I would certainly recommend RegOnline as the event registration system.

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I’m no fan of Kevin Federline (you know, the soon-to-be former Mr. Britney Spears).  In fact, if he dropped off the face of the earth, I would be the first in line to not shed any tears.  But I believe he is coming under some unfair criticism for appearing in a Nationwide Insurance Super Bowl commercial.

In the commercial K-Fed is rapping his little heart out, all jacked with bling and shiney things and hot girls.  Then he wakes up and finds it was all a dream, and he is actually working in a fast food place, his manager yelling at him.

Enter the National Restaurant Association.  They are whining that K-Fed is implying that working in the restaurant industry is demeaning and unpleasant. Umm…hello?  Is there anybody ther at the restaurant place?  First off, K-Fed is not working at a restaurant, he is working at a fast food joint.

Frankly, for anyone 28 years old, and working at a fast food joint, I would hope to hell he feels demeaned.  Working as a burger flipper in a fast food dump is an unpleasant experience.  It’s kids work.  Work you get when you’re 16 and you need to put gas in your car so you can take your girl to the movies next weekend.  It’s not a career.  At least not for normal people.  

Sure there are the management types in those places, and people do make a career as fast food eatery managers, and probably pretty good careers. But that is not the role K-Fed plays in the commerical.  He’s the guy that asks “you want fries with that?”.

There is a reason that Oxford’s English Dictionary puts the definition of “low paying dead end job” as a “McJob.”  I mean, c’mon people.  Grow a sense of humor and realize that this company is not poking fun of people who work in real restaurants.

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Tech Tags: Federline Nationwide Super Bowl commericial fast food

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This was sent to me by my sister-in-law in an e-mail.  Normally, I simply through away her e-mails because I know that if I send them to 100 other people, Starbucks will not suddenly pop up on my computer a coupon for a lifetime supply of free coffee.  But I read this one…dunno why, fate I guess.

Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this! To anyone with kids of any age, here’s some advice. Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

• Rule 1: Life is not fair – get used to it!
• Rule 2: The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect
  you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
• Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t
  be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
• Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
• Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your
  Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it
  opportunity.
• Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about
  your mistakes, learn from them.
• Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are
  now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and
  listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you
  save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try
  delousing the closet in your own room.
• Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS
  NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give
  you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the
  slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
• Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and
  very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on
  your own time.
• Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually
  Have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
• Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

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So you can get an address that is a real address, but also a fake address. You can have things sent to you, wihtout the sender ever knowing where your real address is.

Cool, huh?

Tech Tags: mail drop remailing service mailboxes

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Bigsibling’s a hater sometimes.  I admit it.  I hate things.  One thing I really hate is Eminent Domain.  Not ED in and of itself, because Bigsibling realizes that ED is neccessary to keep civilization rolling.  But the abuse, misuse and overuse of ED really sticks in my craw.  I’m not kidding.  This just really pisses me off.  When SCOTUS told the cities they could take away private property from hard working tax paying citizens and just hand it over to some other private individual or entity because the new guy was going to generate more tax revenue, that just really flew in the face of all that is right with the world, and a lot of what America is all about.
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In Topeka, KS tonight, there is an anti-Eminent Domain rally being staged.  On the surface, the city needs the property to widen some streets and make an area where three streets converge a bit safer.  That is the proper use of Eminent Domain.  The problem these people have is they believe the city appraiser tilted property values in favor of the city. And they claim they are hitting roadblocks when trying to view details of the appraisals.  They say the city won’t let them see the appraisals, which the city is using to gauge the value of the property.
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I gotta tell ya, this has council Clark Duffy written all over it.  The whole city council is corrupt, but that guy takes the take (and your property if you don’t watch out!)

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Tech Tags: Topeka city Eminent+Domain bully shifty

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No good deed goes unpunished.  People (including Bigsibling) have asked time and again; “what happened to our society?  where is the honor people displayed in the past?  why can’t people just do the right thing anymore?”  I’ll tell you where it has all gone.  Up in smoke.  And when people do try and do the right thing, it’s usually a giant pain in the arse for them in the long run.
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Take Lance Miller in Wichita, KS.  This guy is a blue collar worker at the Household Hazardous Waste Facility.  In 2006 he found a five gallon container with over $17,000 in various demonination of bills.  What a find!  Miller could have just held onto the money, after all, someone threw it away, it’s not their’s any longer. Finders keepers right?  Easy enough, no one would be the wiser.
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Except that Miller is an honest hard working midwesterner.  And midwesterners, by and large, are all about doing the right thing. Growing up everyone hears that if you find money, you should turn it over to the police.  If they can’t track down who it belongs too, then you get to keep it.  w00t, free money!
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So Miller, being the good hardworking Midwesterner that he is, turns this loot over to the sheriff’s department.  The sheriff discovers the guy who owned the container is dead.  Been dead 15 years (that money’s been hanging around a long time eh?), and has no next of kin.  So you’d think, in a case like that, as we have been told all our lives, that Miller should get the coinage.  WRONG.  Miller has to SUE the sheriff to get what is rightfully (in all aspects of any civilized reckoning) his.
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Man, what happened to honor and honesty?  It’s been shat upon to the point where its too much of hassle to deal with it.  That’ll teach Miller.  Next time he better just stuff the money back in the container and let the next guy go through the hassle.

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money Wichita sheriff honor good deed honesty punishment

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Dean Yee, a local service station owner, makes a pretty good argument for Kansas’ new conceal carry permit law.  This year a new law went into effect whereby the state must issue to its citizens a permit to carry conealed weapons, this is different from the previous law which said the state may issue.  And lets face it, the state almost never issued.  With the exception of licensed private investigators and law enforcement personnel, only the very wealthy and politically connected were permitted the right to carry a concealed weapon on their person.

The new law has changed all that.  In addition, the state of Kansas will recognize the conceal carry permits of 22 other states, inlcuding Oklahoma, which is good for the customer of Dean Yee’s Philips 66 station in Topeka.  Two would-be robbers entered Yee’s station with guns and demanded money.  The customer, from Oklahoma – with a permit to carry – shot one of the perps, and the other ran off.

If not for the quick thinking of Yee’s customer, he might very well be dead today.  For all those people who only want the criminals to have weapons, I’m sure Yee would disagree with you (but the criminal who tried to rob him probably wouldn’t).

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Tech Tags: handguns weapons concealed permit carry Kansas

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