Before streaming, I was a big DVD collector. I bought nearly a thousand movies. I thought I was building a library. And I will tell you a secret:
DVDs rot.
The glue that holds the layers together can become opaque so the laser doesn’t read the disc properly or it can simply degrade so the disc falls apart or it can warp or expand so the disc won’t spin properly in the drive.
So, in addition to needing to keep antique hardware with delicate moving parts in working order to play these games or watch these movies, the media itself is degrading.
Yeah, your purchased digital movie might get deleted from the network over rights issues at some point in the future or the service that provides it might shut down. But if you buy a BluRay and put it on a shelf for five years and then decide to watch it, there is a decent chance it won’t work.
I love a beautiful Criterion movie box set or a game with cool box art and a manual as much as the next guy, but people overly romanticize physical media. The universe is governed by entropy and everything is falling apart.
Here’s how to understand James Gunn’s approach to storytelling.
James Gunn approaches every project with this question: “Can I make this like my wacky ensemble action-comedy Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed?”
SD2MU is literally the only film James Gunn knows how to make.
My daughter Gala pointed out to me today that the only thing Carpenter got wrong in the otherwise prescient They Live was MARRY AND REPRODUCE.
“Turns out they don’t want us to do that,” she said.
Like many others, I have been alarmed by the success of certain politicians in our country who identify as extreme socialists or communists.
This is not a matter of classical liberals triumphing over standard-issue conservatives; this is the victory of people who stand athwart the fundamental principles that undergird our country.
There are many reasons why I detest Communism, but I want to draw attention to just one issue of supreme importance.
Karl Marx said that the first critique is the critique of religion. He meant that, before a complete re-working of the politics and economics of a society can take place, religion has to be taken down.
This is because religion, as he saw it, is the “opium of the masses,” a drug taken to dull our sensitivity to the suffering caused by economic exploitation. As long as the suffering populace is lured into complacency by fantasies about God's providence and the promise of eternal life, they will never rise up and throw off their chains.
But there is a second reason why the elimination of religion is of paramount significance for Marx.
Communism aspires to be a totalizing system, involving the government's control over education, entertainment, communication, politics, and especially economics.
What stands resolutely athwart this ambition is religion, which declares that all of these societal expressions are finally under the judgment of God. So, if you want Communism to succeed, religion has to be stamped out.
If you doubt me on any of this, I would encourage you to read the recent histories of China, Russia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Venezuela. Revisit those histories and tell me I'm wrong about the attack on religion.
Might I encourage my fellow believers in God not to be complacent in the face of this very troubling development in the American body politic?
Warren Buffet: "I can end the deficit in five minutes. You juts pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for reelection."