Notes from the Petting Zoo

It’s a piece of software. It slows my system down tremendously while it runs. It doesn’t appear to do anything.

Yet it’s there because the manufacturer of the operating system wants to offer you protection from online nasties, such as spyware, etc.

So, after you run it, you feel good.

Until you run Ad-Aware, which uncovers loads of things this lame-ass tool never even saw.

You know, up until a few years ago, if someone was showing me a vacuum cleaner and it picked up more crap from the floor after my vacuum cleaner had finished, chances are, they would have sold me that vacuum cleaner.

But in this case, it’s like I have to have two vacuums — the one the super wants me to use and the other one I use when I want a clean floor. Can just a few of those Homeland Defense dollars go to fighting spyware? Please?

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“I’m never critical or judgmental about whether or not a movie is any good. The way I look at it, if several hundred people got together every day for a year or so — a number of them willing to put on heavy makeup, wear clothes that weren’t their own and pretend to be people other than themselves — and their whole purpose for doing this was to entertain me, then I’m not gonna start worrying about whether or not they did a good job. The effort alone was enough to make me happy.”

from his book “When will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?”

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Sometimes, the risks of using a resource outweigh the benefits. Sometimes we don’t notice until we’re nearly faint from loss of blood.

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Well, here’s the rub:

Countries turn backs on Hollywood

In a nutshell, Unesco states have voted that it is perfectly okay to enforce each their own rules regarding the importation of movies. France seems to be spearheading this is what they call a block against globalization, to protect their culture (sounds reasonable at first).

This language is pretty much picked up by most of the member states, most of whom feel strongly that their people are obviously in need of a little state guidance for their entertainment euro.

Now, while I’m not overly fond the the Giant American Moviemaking Machine, I will also admit that it is in many ways a ballsy, gutsy thing that is totally at the whim of the customer. The Great American Moviemaking Machine risks a lot of money on guesses and speculation and the fact that multimillion dollar movies flop on occasion will always be my proof that no matter how much money you throw at researching time travel, it’s still all guesswork. The Great American Moviemaking Machine is aggressively competitive — sometimes wins, sometimes loses.

But that’s not my point.

Near the end is the paragraph: “French culture minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres said nations had a right to set artistic quotas because 85% of the world’s spending on cinema tickets went to Hollywood.”

Really? 85%? Now, I might be missing a few key points here, but it seems to me that if 85% of your people’s euros are going toward American movies, then that would tell me that there’s something in American movies that they want, but are not getting from French movies. In other words, French movies — French culture — is not giving the people what they want, so they look elsewhere. In this case, America wins the prize (tomorrow, it might be Japan, or China, or Germany).

So, I suppose if the culture ministers of the world want to set “artistic quotas”, great. After all, the people will get what they want anyway. If the people want to spend money on American movies and Japanese comics and German automobiles and Colombian drugs and Russian porn, then they will. If it’s illegal, then there will be a black market.

Any country that doesn’t realize this is stupid.

Hey Unesco nations — if you want to make it so that more of your money goes to local movie productions, then try the novel approach of making better movies! Beat us at our own game. Encourage local pride, rather than enforcing it. Hell, be even gutsier and make movies that will be successful in our home turf. Wouldn’t that be nice — a legitimate way to suck out American dollars and put them into your own artistic community. Isn’t that worth thinking about, instead of worrying that your people aren’t doing or watching what you think they ought to be doing or watching?

Pussies.

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There is just something unmistakably adorable about this car. If it were legal in the US, I would very much want one. If it weren’t legal, I would still want one.

I know, I know, I tend to tow things around and need a little more power for that kind of business, but still, it’s hard to say “no” to a car that gets better than 60 miles per gallon and can fit in your pocket!

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