I was recently reminded of a police chase story from a while back, in which a sixteen-year-old girl had stolen her mother’s car and taken it with her boyfriend to New Jersey, where her grandmother lived. When they got there, they picked up another girl, Jessica Martinez, age 15, a friend that the driver knew from visits to her grandmother’s, and drove around for a while before the police noticed the stolen vehicle (which had been reported) and began pursuit. This freaked out the driver of the vehicle, who increased her speed and eventually crashed into a utility pole, killing Jessica.

Now, I know the driver bears a good amount of responsibility for what happened, but so do the police. Pursuit is fucking ridiculous except for in extreme circumstances, or when the vehicle is already driving dangerously. I’m certain that with most of these chases, the danger doesn’t begin until the police actually commence with the pursuit. It would make a lot more sense to inconspicuously follow the safely-traveling vehicle to wherever it’s going and then TRY TO APPREHEND THE DRIVER WHEN THEY ARE NOT OPERATING A VERY HEAVY, RELATIVELY MASSIVE PIECE OF MACHINERY CAPABLE OF MOVING AT GREAT SPEEDS.

I have no idea who made the decision that chasing and agitating a safely-driving criminal is a good idea, but it’s time we modified our strategy before more children die.

“Gee, I WONDER why PEOPLE STOP WATCHING SHOWS that we put on SUNDAY NIGHTS. WHY do we end up REPEATEDLY CANCELING SHOWS like FAMILY GUY, only to end up BRINGING THEM BACK because the fans end up BUYING IMPRESSIVE NUMBERS of DVDs and WRITING TO US TO COMPLAIN?” “I don’t KNOW. Do you THINK it MIGHT HAVE SOMETHING TO DO with the fact that we PUT THEM IN AN INCREDIBLY SHITTY TIME SLOT and then RUN WEEKS AFTER WEEKS OF SPECIAL PROGRAMS LIKE STAR WARS: EPISODE II AND SOME FUCKING DUMB NASCAR THING after only TWO WEEKS of AIRING EPISODES OF THE TELEVISION SHOW PEOPLE WANT TO ACTUALLY BE WATCHING INSTEAD, and then PANIC ABOUT THE RATINGS DROPPING?” “NAAH, CAN’T BE.”

Seth McFarlane needs to come to the realization that he’s being fucked by FOX right out of the bloody gate, and just start releasing new episodes directly to DVD. Or figure out a way to leak them all to the Internet like what happened with the first new episode, so that fans don’t lose interest on account of FOX’s shitty, ridiculous scheduling.

Huh. So THIS is why they want to bring all those babies to full term.

Republican Pedophilia Chronicles

(Thanks to Jane for the link.)

Piracy: It’s nature’s way of saying Capitalism is getting a little out of control.

Not only do high parking rates discourage actually going to a given location they also discourage patronizing the places you’d have gone had you parked there. If not for movies, I wouldn’t even go to the mall, since Amazon.com offers free shipping for orders over $25 and it comes directly to me, I don’t have to go to it and pay exorbitant parking costs to do so.

Speaking of movies, Star Wars Episode III was surprisingly good. The dialog was still kind of shitty, though. We were hoping for something creative like “Padme, my love for you burns like my legs off” (Janet came up with that one in the car). We also came up with some great commentary while watching it. (Padme: “Do you think Obi Wan can help us?” Me: “We can only hope.” (Anakin: “We don’t need his help.”))

Given the dialog of the originals, though, this would have been as good as, if not better than, them. Though, they did rely pretty heavily on Anakin being a dumb shit.

There were also a few moments of great contemporary political commentary from this planet. “So this is how liberty dies–with thunderous applause.” and “Only Siths think in absolutes.” and such.

Regarding the argument over displaying the Ten Commandments in courtrooms and schools, I have a quick question for any Christians–particularly fundamentalists–who may be reading:

Did God say to obey the Ten Commandments, or enforce them? Correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s “Thou shalt not commit adultery”, for example, and not “Thou shalt punish those who commit adultery”.