When I read the entry for last night's episode of Family Guy in TV Guide, I thought "Oh brother, they're really running out of ideas." But the Good Wife was about a death penalty case, so I decided to give the Family Guy episode a chance. It was... alright.
Brian pretends to want to travel back in time to retrieve a tennis ball he buried back in 1999, but his real reason is to tell his former self about 9/11 so he can become a hero by preventing it. Naturally, this has unforeseen bad consequences. Next thing you know, there are dozens of Brians and Stewies on the Griffin lawn trying to untangle the Gordian knot of causes and effects all their time traveling has caused.
Any time travel story is bound to have some confusing aspects. One of the Stewies acknowledges this, admitting to being confused. But some other questions naturally arise: why is Stewie still a baby? It has been fairly clearly established that Brian is now 8-years-old, and he was 7 when the show started. But now this episode cements the notion that time on the show is concurrent with real-life time: since Stewie's first birthday, Bush the Lesser has served two terms as President of the United States.
Also, what would be the true, unintended consequences of preventing 9/11? Wouldn't George W. Bush simply have asked his good buddy Osama bin Laden for another attack?
Monday, November 14, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Take a shower and get a job... how exactly?
So a lot of conservative pundits are saying that those Occupy Wall Street kids need to go home, take a shower and get a job. It sure sounds easy when you put it like that. But, just for the heck of it, let's nitpick those instructions.
First, "go home." Most of the Occupy Wall Street protesters are young adults. If they have a place of their own, it's most likely a rented apartment. But, for reasons we'll get into later, some of those young adults have had to move back in with their parents. For the most part, though, they have somewhere they can call home and go to it.
Second, "take a shower." This is perhaps the easiest one. If you have somewhere to go home to, it's almost a given that you can take a shower.
Lastly, "get a job." I feel like I'm repeating myself here: the conservatives love to bitch and whine about how high taxes are, and they say that without tax breaks, the private sector can't create jobs. Well, the rich are now taxed at very low rates compared to just a few decades ago, so where are the jobs? With all that dough rolling in, what is the excuse for not creating jobs?
The bottom line is that getting a job these days is not easy at all. And if you manage to beat the odds, you find yourself overworked and underpaid. Rich people feel that just for doling out a few pennies, the working poor should be bending over backwards with gratitude, ready to do absolutely anything that is asked of them.
Next time some conservative jackass tells the Occupy Wall Street protesters to take a shower and get a job, they ought to tell him to create some jobs first.
First, "go home." Most of the Occupy Wall Street protesters are young adults. If they have a place of their own, it's most likely a rented apartment. But, for reasons we'll get into later, some of those young adults have had to move back in with their parents. For the most part, though, they have somewhere they can call home and go to it.
Second, "take a shower." This is perhaps the easiest one. If you have somewhere to go home to, it's almost a given that you can take a shower.
Lastly, "get a job." I feel like I'm repeating myself here: the conservatives love to bitch and whine about how high taxes are, and they say that without tax breaks, the private sector can't create jobs. Well, the rich are now taxed at very low rates compared to just a few decades ago, so where are the jobs? With all that dough rolling in, what is the excuse for not creating jobs?
The bottom line is that getting a job these days is not easy at all. And if you manage to beat the odds, you find yourself overworked and underpaid. Rich people feel that just for doling out a few pennies, the working poor should be bending over backwards with gratitude, ready to do absolutely anything that is asked of them.
Next time some conservative jackass tells the Occupy Wall Street protesters to take a shower and get a job, they ought to tell him to create some jobs first.
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