Get Cynical

So, like, why can’t we tax religions?

Michelle Bachmann baffling her opponents using nothing more than the genius of her stupidity.

(via Arbroath)

From AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Postmaster General John Potter says that without help, the U.S. Postal Service will run out of money this year.

Potter told a House subcommittee Wednesday the lingering question is: Which bills will get paid and which will not.

He said he will make sure that salaries are paid, but also said other bills might have to wait. Potter is seeking permission to reduce mail delivery to five days a week and wants to reduce other costs.

He said the post office is “facing losses of historic proportion. Our situation is critical.”

(via J-Walk)

(via SF Signal)

From CNN:

DARWIN, Australia (CNN) — If you’re hoping to make record time doing laps in the pool, perhaps you should consider employing a training technique that one swim instructor in Australia’s Northern Territory claims yields record-breaking results: a crocodile.

Swimming coach Mark Davies says his young swimmers are beating the clock, now that they’re being chased by a hungry “croc.”

Davies says he lets his swimmers dive into the pool first. Then, he tosses in the crocodile.

One young girl described the experience as “absolutely terrifying.”

But for those of you who think the coach is irresponsible or a raving maniac:

Davies says he checks the croc’s swimming speed first, and makes sure the swimmer has enough of a head start that the crocodile can’t really catch up.

(via DanielFlorien)

One star Amazon reviews of classic movies, music and literature. Today we take a look at Schindler’s List:

Anyone who makes a feel good movie about the Holocaust is a total crackpot. Move over, Mel Gibson.

Mr. S should stick with kiddie flicks like ET – although even there he was cruel to the actress who performed inside the ET suit.

This film is very empty, for not only does it portray the Germans as “evil, lop-sided, devil worshippers” but it shows the Jews as being “promising, alluring, good guys”. If one is to question morality, then do so, but do not give us the black vs white issue found in this film. Speilberg, immature since day one as director, tells us what to think, he strips away our humanity by overdosing us on excessive amounts of guilt and sentimentality. In effect, the film lacks any moral basis except to denounce all evil men and with that, we learn absolutely nothing…..

Hey don’t get me wrong I like Holocaust movies as much as the next guy , but this one was a real let down. First of all there are no Americans(at least not American characters)hey spielzy what gives, wheres are hero, schindler is no indiana jones. Perhaps he should of handed the script over to michael cricton.I think spielberg is our greatest “dreamweaver”, to quote someone else, but this film has no pizazz, or more importantly no color. plus it doesn’t have any great action scenes or excitement like saving private ryan. I guess the holocaust is a good topic to make a movie about, but brother this movie aint no “hook”. hopefully people will forget about this turkey and pay more attention to stephen’s better work, ‘amistad’ ‘field of dreams’ ‘ the lost world’.

It makes me very sad that people so love Steven Spielberg movies. Spielberg only makes movies about the most simplistic emotions in the most simple ways. Most of the time it boils down to a child’s feeling of fear running away from a monster. Is there really any difference for Spielberg between running from a killer shark or a killer dinosaur or a killer Nazi? I don’t think there is. Showing bad things happening to people and saying, “Here’s a great holocaust movie” is so insulting. It’s the worst thing one can possibly do to take something very complicated and through propogandistic techniques (cutting between party scenes and scenes of suffering etc.) make it look simple. I beg you not to go for the cheap and easy way out.

Yeah. Easily. Spielberg has to stop with the Germans. It’s becoming uncomfortable. What is the word when you constantly portray an entire race, it’s culture and it’s language as evil and subhuman? I await the next Indiana Jones film with interest.

(more…)

The real searcher after truth will not receive the old because
it is old, or reject the new because it is new. He will not believe
men because they are dead, or contradict them because they are
alive. With him an utterance is worth the truth, the reason it
contains, without the slightest regard to the author. He may have
been a king or serf — a philosopher or servant, — but the
utterance neither gains nor loses in truth or reason. Its value is
absolutely independent of the fame or station of the man who gave
it to the world.

Robert Green Ingersoll – “Truth” (1897)