Calling it “First World Problems” is Wrong?

Man, I never thought that the day would come where I would find a really, REALLY stupid quote from NPR.  I always figured that my best stupidity quotes would come from Real Catholic TV, Pat Robertson, or Fox News.  And to date, most of them have.  But then I stumbled upon this little gem.  And I gotta say, it really did open my eyes to just how entitled this culture is here in America.  Like we have gotten to the point where we are so entitled that we legitimately don’t recognize it anymore.  Here is the link, so you know I’m not lying about this coming from NPR.  Here is the quote -

I don’t like this expression ‘First World problems.’ It is false and it is condescending. Yes, Nigerians struggle with floods or infant mortality. But these same Nigerians also deal with mundane and seemingly luxurious hassles. Connectivity issues on your BlackBerry, cost of car repair, how to sync your iPad, what brand of noodles to buy: Third World problems. All the silly stuff of life doesn’t disappear just because you’re black and live in a poorer country. People in the richer nations need a more robust sense of the lives being lived in the darker nations. Here’s a First World problem: the inability to see that others are as fully complex and as keen on technology and pleasure as you are.

Okay, let’s take this apart, piece by piece, because I am in a bad mood, and I have something to attack.  First, who is it condescending?  Americans?  Oh yeah, because telling Americans to stop their whining about all the stupid bullshit in their lives is such a bad thing, right?

For real, how many of you have heard somebody go off into a screaming tirade because of their Blackberry going dead on them?  Like it is the end of the fucking world.  Like their lives are over because of it.  Or when somebody can’t connect to the internet, how many times do you hear them becoming very, very upset.

Now look, I get that people in other countries, in a lot of places, have these problems.  But here is why I think this quote is so fucking stupid – because I guarantee you that they don’t have those reactions!  Most of these people are just glad to have a mobile device, or a luxury item of any kind.  Most of them are probably grateful to be able to get online.

It kills me how incredibly entitled people in this country are.  Yes, people all over the world deal with these issues, but honestly, how is it condescending to say that the extreme reactions to this are First World problems?  Are we insulting the Third World?  No, we aren’t.  The reason for that is simple – because the truth is, when a person in Ethiopia is starving to death, I guarantee you that they don’t give a shit about if their car is in need of repair.

But then this person poses that last bit -

Here’s a First World problem: the inability to see that others are as fully complex and as keen on technology and pleasure as you are.

Hey, here’s a First World problem for you – the inability to understand that Americans REALLY take for granted just how well we have it.  Even the lower-end of the middle class has it pretty damn well in this country.  Think about this – the iPhone isn’t prohibitively expensive here in America.  Even a lower-middle class family can afford that without much hassle.  But go to a Third World nation.  You better believe that a $99 phone is a luxury that they can’t afford.

Is the person making this quote really having us to believe that the people of Third World nations have these problems just as much as Americans do?  That they have just as much negativity toward them as we do?  Man, talk about condescending.  That is almost offensive in how narrow-minded and outright stupid it is.  It’s like if I were to say that we in the First World shouldn’t feel bad about when there isn’t a Subway around, because people in the Third World get just as bummed.

Wanna know the irony – I agree with this quote when it says that we need a more robust understanding of what life is like in the Third World.  We are a nation filled with people who are totally unaware of just how good we got it.

But Lucien, you are bitching all the time about how shitty things in this country are!

Yup, and they are.  And getting worse, too.  But guess what?  I also have a healthy perspective on the fact that as an American, I have it pretty damn good.  And call me a piece of shit if you must, but the reason that I bitch is because I want to keep things good.  If we keep as we are, and let our infrastructure fall apart like we are doing, we will be joining the Third World, and sooner than you think.  I don’t want that.

So yeah, this quote is stupid, and the person who said it is clearly trying to justify a culture that needs a LOT of work.

Until next time, a quote,

“I don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer, but I consistently fail to see what is so damn special about the human race.”  -TJ Kincaid, HUMANITY IS OVERRATED 

Peace out,

Maverick

Lucien’s Opinion about the 2012 Election

Why the fuck do we care?  That’s my entire opinion.  Who fucking cares?  This is just another election that shows the greatest failure of modern democracy – that we actually think that it is worth something.

I tried to explain my position on my professional blog, in a way that makes sense, but people still seem to want to know what I think.  You wanna know what I think?  Well, here it is – this is so stupid!  There is a reality about the current social and political climate in this country that I don’t think people respect.  Or if they do, they don’t respect it enough.

There are two parties who control the bulk of politics in this country.  One is the Democrats.  At best, and I do mean at the very, very best, they are completely spineless cowards who will kowtow to Wall Street and the banks, unwilling to fight for anything and totally bending over for anything that big business wants.  At worst, they are completely and utterly complicit in the system that Matt Taibbi wrote about in his newest book, “Griftopia.”  People who are robbing us blind and don’t care about what happens to the rest of us.  We are little more than slaves to these people.  There was a bit on FRONTLINE about this, where a woman who worked at the bank said that when she saw the Occupy protestors outside of her building, she legitimately didn’t understand why they were so angry.  And the Democrats are 100% behind this, at worst.

Then you have the Republicans.  They are evil.  Straight-up, no bullshit, evil.  They are a party who has been engaged for the last few years in social battles that they lost in the 60′s, and have no chance of winning today, all for the purpose of keeping the eyes of the people away from Wall Street.  To keep people subservient and stupid.  And the worst part of all is that it works.  The people are totally behind this.  Their base of ignorant, white, middle-class voters stands up and cheers for the corporate slavish behavior of their party, saying how good business is, and how bad government is.  If only they knew that the government they so deride is a slave to big business.  A servant.  Oh well, that was too much to dream.

These are the people who control our government, and make all the big decisions.  And as we have seen with the Occupy movement, they don’t give a flying fuck what the people have to say!  When the people came in solidarity against SOPA and PIPA, what did they do?  They took down MegaUpload.  They did what those acts were designed to do, but without the legal crutch to lean on.  They just did it because they could.  That’s how this government works.  To hell with the people.  To hell with what they want.  It is all about what they want.  And what they want right now is whatever Wall Street wants.

Once upon a time, Obama was quoted saying, “America is back.”  Thank non-existent God that the people were smart enough to see that bullshit line for what it is – bullshit.  They didn’t buy it then, and they don’t buy it now that things are good.  We are smart enough to realize that things are really, really bad.

After the collapse of the economy in 2008, people expected massive reforms, to prevent this from happening again.  What did we get?  We got nothing.  We got toothless, in the most profound way, Wall Street reforms.  We got a Health Care Reform Act that is nothing more than a birthday present to the private insurance companies, since there is no public option.  We got Obama having the same people who got us into this mess telling him what to do with the economy.  And for some ridiculous reason, this is what people think is a good thing.  It’s good that we have a President who is showing his true colors of being Wall Street’s bitch.  Just like Bush, just like Clinton, just like Bush I, and just like Reagan.  Just like all of the Presidents of recent memory.

So, what do I think about this latest election?  I think it’s a fucking joke.  And the punch line is that people are talking about this like it actually matters.  It doesn’t!  This is the most stupid, asinine, pointless bullshit in all of existence!  No matter who you choose, it all ends the same!  We get a Wall Street slave who will continue this country’s downward spiral.

You know what hurts me the most about American culture?  How hard we have fought to get here.  To get to this point, so many people, from the million black people who marched on Washington, to the LGBT community, who even now has to deal with a massive culture of hatred, bigotry, and disgust.  So many people have tried so hard, and what do they get for their trouble?  They get where we are now.  They get this pathetic, shell of what was once a great country.

So, my thoughts about this election – who the fuck cares?  I don’t.  I am just enjoying watching people pretend that it matters.  That is always good for a laugh.

Until next time, a quote,

“At best, humanity is a bunch of simple-minded assholes who are so misinformed that they think voting means something.”  -TJ Kincaid, HUMANITY IS OVERRATED 

Peace out,

Maverick

Michael Bay: The Most Awe-Inspiring (not in a good way) Thing to Happen to American Cinema

If any of you have had the chance to see any of the really constructive videos about any of Michael Bay’s films, you will see the portrait of one of the most amazing (and I am genuinely amazed, but not for the reasons you’d think) filmmakers in this country.  What Michael Bay and the reception to his movies has done to American cinema is truly amazing.  This man and everything that he has ever made should be put into a time capsule.  Because even though this wasn’t what America was, this is what the media and the cinema world desperately wanted America to be.

It all started with Armageddon.  This film was a masterpiece of awfulness. For real, it damn-near starts out with scene after scene after scene of racism.  The entire bit where the city of New York was getting blasted by meteor has dozens of racial stereotypes being racial stereotypes and acting exactly the way that some part of America must believe black, Samoan and Asian people to be.  In today’s PC culture, this amount of racism put all the racism in the Transformers movies to shame.  Michael Bay has never had more stereotypes in a film than in this film.

From beginning to end, this movie is Michael Bay cheese at its finest.  But what kills me – I have and still hear a LOT of people praising this movie.  From the rednecks who are smarter than the academics, to the woman character who is a total idiot (because in Michael Bay’s universe, women exist to be hot, and love the man characters).  He has it all.  Wanna know something neat?  Bay responded to one of the many critics who bashed this movie for the crap that it is by saying that because so many people saw it, the critic is an idiot.  Yeah, because America isn’t filled with stupid people, right?  Right??

But seriously, take a look at everything this guy has made.  Every single piece of film that has ever come from this man is totally and completely void of thought.  There aren’t two bits of originality, subtlety, or character in any of it.  It is literally just explosions, explosions, titties, racism and more explosions.  This man is incredible!  How does he get away with this?!  I am genuinely baffled.

Like Nostalgia Critic, I am waiting on the edge of my seat to see where Bay goes now that he is making a Teenage Mutant (now aliens) Ninja Turtles film.  I mean, come on, how can you not just be totally and completely stoked for that?!

I won’t lie, I didn’t hate the first Transformers movie.  As a popcorn film (because Bay isn’t smart enough to make anything else), it wasn’t horribly terrible.  But then I saw Transformers 2.  And then I saw Transformers 3.  And did you know that he is making ANOTHER Transformers movie?  Where the hell does he have left to go with it?!  It’s like this guy is unable to stop himself.  Like if he doesn’t have money pouring in from completely stereotypical explosion garbage, he can’t exist.

Of course, Bay takes pride in the fact that so many people see his crap.  Worldwide, Transformers 3 made $1.3 billion.  Think about that.  A movie about nothing but shit getting blown up made that kind of money.  Bay believes that if the dim-witted and obviously accepting of racism, sexism, and stereotyping masses approved of his work, that means that it was good.  Right?  Wrong, but don’t tell him that.

For someone like me, who is actually kind of amused at the slow destruction of American culture, this guy is awe-inspiring.  This man might as well have a giant American flag on the cover of all his movies.  He blows up France in Armageddon, just to show that he doesn’t like France.  Red, White and Blue must be the colors that this guy shits.  And I love every minute of it.  It’s so bad, it is amazing.  And Bay has a point, in a way.  SO many people go and see it, it does reflect on our culture.  Sadly, it says something really, really awful about it.  What does it say…?

That America is filled with fucking idiots who like this crap!

Thank non-existent God for you, Michael Bay.  Reminding the rest of world how dumb we are.  Thank you.

Until next time, a quote,

“The movie is an assault on the eyes, the ears, the brain, common sense and the human desire to be entertained.”  -Roger Ebert, reviewing Armageddon

Peace out,

Maverick

Christians Threaten to Rape a Pro-LGBT Woman

For any of you who wonder why I do what I do, and why I go so hard after the religious idiots that I find, it’s shit like this.  When I see stories like the one that I just read, I can’t help but feel more than a little bit pissed off, and have a definitive need to throw down some vengeance on these people.  If only to do it in written form.

So, a brief summary of what happened: There was a special event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, called “Gay Day.”  This was a day organized by a pro-LGBT group called Tolerance, Equality and Awareness Movement (TEAM).  Many pro-LGBT activists, along with many gays and lesbians, came out and showed their support for equality and for equal rights.  A noble cause, to be sure.

But, as with anytime that these community comes out and declares that they aren’t going to sit down and take the bullshit that Christian America throws at them, Christian America decided to come out and make themselves heard.  Here are some lovely tidbits from that interaction.

Back in the day there was no free power, there was no going to the mall.  There was, ‘sit your ass in this house until I bring my ass home.

Yeah, I have heard about that time.  It was a time when sexist assholes ruled over women and treated them like second-class citizens.  It was such a lovely time, wasn’t it?  Mind you, all of this is directed at just one woman.  But another protestor chimed in.

And if your ass get to going out there like you said, guess what?  You get raped. And that’s what’s going to happen to you. … Keep your pussy clean, that’s all you need to do. Do you understand?

Wow!  What a complete piece of shit.  Yeah, if a woman decides that she is going to be herself, assert her rights, or be pro-LGBT, she gets raped.  And all she has to do is keep her pussy clean?  What a fucking sack of useless garbage.  This person is so pathetic, such scum, and of course, he believes that God is totally behind him.  These people protesting against the pro-LGBT activists were all carrying Bibles.  That great prop that so many Americans have to justify their disgusting bigotry.  That prop that has kept so many people in fear and in danger and has justified rape to people before.  The Bible, the most destructive, morally bankrupt, socially backward book that has ever been written, and what kills me is that it is 2,000 years old, and people still follow it.  I know books that are 10 years old that people think are full of shit after they are debunked by science.  Why do they follow this 2,000 year old one that science and reason have beat to shit?

When the protestor said that “the Lord said that,” basically implying that God thinks that a woman’s only role is to keep her pussy clean, she challenges him to find a Bible verse to back that up.  Well, here is what the protestor found -

He responds with Isaiah 13: “Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.”

First off, that isn’t even defending your position.  This story was about armies who were commanded by God to slay innocent people in his name.  More proof that God is a psychotic piece of shit.  Next, you had so many better verses to pick from.  The sexism of the Bible is all over the place.  Like how about the verse where God says that a woman should be silent in church, only asking a question when she gets home, to her husband?  Or how about the many verses saying that wives are to be subservient to their husbands?  You had so many better choices, you disgusting bastard, why choose this one?

Well, the protestor does try to justify what he said.

What does ‘ravished’ mean? It means, we going to rape your ass.  And I’m going to have fun doing that shit. And you going to like that. I promise you.

Does this person just have no conscience at all?  It’s shit like this that makes me wish that a bunch of butch women would find this guy, tie him down, fuck him repeatedly with a strap-on until he is bleeding out of his ass.  No lube, just fuck him with it.  Let him feel what it is like to get raped.  It’s shit like this that just gets on my nerves because these people can be so cavalier about raping this woman.  If only all the men who can do that would get raped themselves.  Find out how disgusting, how painful, and how mentally and emotionally destructive that can be.

The woman says that he is misinterpreting the Bible, and when he doesn’t seem to care, she hits back at him that anything she says, he won’t listen.  His reply is just as disgusting as everything else.

It’s going to matter right now.  It’s going to matter when your clothes off and I’m going inside of you repeatedly. That’s when it’s going to matter. Because you going to enjoy yourself.

So much of that Christian love and acceptance here, isn’t there?  Don’t you just feel it?  Don’t you just feel those Christians being all loving and accepting of these people?  The people who were screaming at this woman recited her boyfriend’s license plate number, promising that they were going to kill him, in addition to raping her.

The woman called 911, but they told her that there is nothing they could do.  Bullshit.  But you know what, I don’t even care about that.

God-dammit, Christians, you have a fucking obligation.  You either have to lambast these people, as I am doing, or you have to join them.  This kind of sick shit cannot be allowed to stand unaccounted for.  The problem is that because the atheist crowd gets such a bad rap in this country, the moderate Christians have no opinion, and won’t stand with us.  And with stuff like this, taking no stand is even worse, because it says that you aren’t against this.  That this kind of shit is totally fine with you.  That somebody saying that they are going to rape a woman and she will like it is just A-okay in your eyes.  NO!  You have to make yourselves heard, but I am getting tired of being one of the smaller group of people who fight against this.  This is disgusting.  Stand up, or shut up.

Until next time, a quote,

“We created god in our own image and likeness!”  – George Carlin

Peace out,

Maverick

Tomorrow

There was a great video that was put out by a YouTube channel.  It was an amalgamation of many interviews with Neil deGrasse Tyson.  He spoke about how the race to the moon wasn’t just a scientific achievement.  It was a cultural phenomenon.  It was a cultural epic that played out all over this country.  From the youngest child, who looked up at the stars and dreamed that he was going to get to see the moon, to the oldest man, who wanted to help the effort to get further, in whatever way he could.  The entire nation was dreaming, but not about getting to the moon.  We were dreaming about tomorrow.

We dreamed about how tomorrow could be a better place.  We dreamed about how we could all become so much more than we already are.  We dreamed about a better life, waiting just outside the bounds of our world.  When the astronauts came home, and talked about how beautiful this world is from orbit, that got people talking even more.

Alas, history is not so kind to the dreamers.  Once the Cold War was over, and it was clear that the Russians were never going to get to the Moon, the drive to get back there, and to go further left.  The dream of tomorrow left.  What was left?  Well, over time, the culture went into decay.  The hope and dreams of the 60′s and 70′s faded into obscurity.  The people became content with mediocrity, with sub-standard, with just enough.  And in doing so, they have planted the seeds for our future.

Something that people of this country need to learn is that what we do today is so far beyond tomorrow.  Tomorrow is already written.  The actions of our corrupt politicians, of our corrupt business leaders, of the people who will do whatever they have to do in order to get by have already shaped tomorrow.  The crimes of today, the environmental disasters of our species, and the purposeful neglect of the least of humanity has already written what tomorrow is going to be.

But what about the tomorrow after that?  Or maybe the one after that?  Maybe we can talk about the tomorrow a generation or two down the road.  People talk a lot about the legacy that we leave our children and our grand-children, but what people don’t seem to get is that this isn’t for nothing!  There are real consequences to what we do, right now!  We aren’t going to live to see those consequences.  We aren’t going to get to have the chance to exist in a world where our choices have shaped the actions of a generation.

Tomorrow is already written, because we can’t seem to realize that change has to happen.  Right now!  We have to grow up as a species, and learn that things aren’t as simple as we want them to be.  We can’t just look at the short-term anymore.  In a global world, a global economy, and a global culture, our species simply cannot survive if we are that short-sighted.

This truly is the best time to live.  Our world is connected in ways that the people who founded this country couldn’t have possibly foreseen.  There is no singular culture, thanks to the internet.  There is a global culture.  There is a global future.  Now, more than ever, people are understanding that it isn’t just America, or isn’t just the UK, or isn’t just Japan.  We are understanding that it is everybody.  We are understanding that it is all people.  We are all connected.

Through instant tele-communication, I am able to send this blog out into the world.  In a nano-second, you are going to be able to see it.  You are going to be able to see this message, and whether or not you think it’s a bunch of shit, or whether you think that it is amazing, you have the ability to see it, from any corner of this planet.  Do any of you fully comprehend how amazing this is?!  It’s incredible!  The future of ideas, the future of thinking has been made in this place.  With an online market of ideas, we are able to shape tomorrow in ways that we couldn’t have possibly imagined before.  I am so grateful to live in this time.

I am a dreamer.  I dream of a better tomorrow.  Though not for me.  I know that for me, things are just going to stagnate.  I dream of a better tomorrow for the people who matter to me.  People like my friend Lizzy.  She’s so young at heart.  So pure and innocent.  But she’s young at heart, trying to live in a grown-up world.  And this world isn’t kind to people like her.  This world is often very mean to her.  She’s smart, and a good person, but misunderstood by people who live out here, looking in.  People like my friend Emily.  She works her ass off.  She works like nobody that I have ever seen.  She lets her personal relationships suffer for it.  She fights through everything.  No matter how hard things get, she doesn’t stop.  She will do whatever she has to do, and disregard people, not out of spite, but out of necessity.  She knows that this is what has to be done.  Because tomorrow for her is going to be beyond daunting.  People like my friend Mark.  He is a man who is driven by such a small need.  Yet through this simple drive, he is on his way to becoming one of the youngest surgeons in this country.

You know what all these people have in common?  They all dream.  They all want that tomorrow.  They all look at it, and they want it to be here for them.  But what if they can’t get it?  What if the actions of today doom that tomorrow?  What if they are unable to live in a world that can be kind to them?  And don’t say that it isn’t your problem!  You have friends just like them!  You have people in your own life who are here for tomorrow, trying their hardest today.

What is the point of existing in this world if we don’t try and make this world a better place for everybody?  Why are we here if it is all about ourselves?  It doesn’t have to be.  Thanks to the global culture, we now live in a world where tomorrow truly is in our hands.

I’m not saying that getting it will be easy.  It’ll be hard as hell.  But it is still ours, if we want it to be.

That is what I keep working toward, and even if I can never find true happiness, my life has meaning through that pursuit.

Until next time, a quote,

“Meanwhile, however, that entire era, galvanized the nation – forget the war, the driver, it galvanized us all to dream about tomorrow.  To think about the homes of tomorrow, the cities of tomorrow, the food of tomorrow.  Everything was Future World, Futureland.  The World’s Fair, all of this, was focused on making tomorrow come.”  -Neil deGrasse Tyson

Peace out,

Maverick

Another Hateful Message to a Gay Person (Some People Don’t Deserve to Live)

I remember that around Christmas, I put up a reply to a correspondence that I saw between a parent and child.  The kid, now grown up and living on his own, came out that he was gay.  The parent had some of the most hateful things that I have ever seen said.  There were the messages about how he (I think it was the dad) didn’t want the child in the house anymore.  He didn’t want the child to see his younger sibling, because he might rub off some of that gayness on the kid, along with saying that because he’s gay, he’s a pedophile.

But the young man responded with some of the greatest displays of strength that I have ever seen.  After barrage of hate after hate after hate, he said that the greatest tragedy was that his father would forever be unable to love him, while he would forever be unable to hate his father, even after being disowned.

It is a reality all over this country that Christian and other religious zealots have been attacking gay kids.  The story of this young man being disowned by his family is nothing new.  There are plenty of kids just like him.  Kids who are lost, disowned, and forced to live either on the street, or couch-surfing, or in shelters, if they can be found.

Here is another lovely message of hate toward a kid.  It is one of the most disgusting pieces of inhumanity that I have ever seen.  Any parent who thinks that this kind of thing is okay, I have one thing to say to you – you don’t deserve to have children.  You should have your ability to reproduce cut the fuck off.  For real, surgical castration, because you are such a piece of shit that you don’t deserve to be given the slightest inkling of respect to bring life into this world.

Here is the letter -

First, how the fuck was this letter necessary?  What possible explanation do you have for calling a letter specifically to be hateful toward your own child necessary?  How could you justify that in a way that makes sense?  Do you honestly think that somehow, you are in the right for this?  That you are a better person because of it.

Next, how is his lifestyle degraded?  Because he chooses to love somebody of the same gender?  Wow, what a real great person you are.  You won’t even have a slightly accepting tone to this.  You come right out of the gate that this is to not be nice.  Good for you.  And you just choose to leave all the love that you had for this kid in the past?  Is it that easy to just let go of it?  What a real piece of work you are.  Guess you must not have truly cared for that kid, because let me tell you, you inhuman and immoral piece of shit, if you have ever truly cared about anybody, you can’t just pack up and move on.

And of course, like any other bigot Christian, the moment that they say something hateful like this, they have to have God there to back them up.  Does it not strike the Christians as interesting that this God character that they all worship shares the same prejudice and bigotry as they do?  If they hate a group, you can guarantee that God hates them.  And if they think a group is just great, you can bet that God does too.  This God sure is a convenient guy.  Doesn’t sound at all like a character who was created based on the pathetic and petty prejudices of a primitive people in the desert.  Nope, not at all.

Oh, and another thing – do none of you Christians see the contradiction?  God created all things, right?  God created all matter and all life, exactly how he wanted.  Everything that exists in this world is part of his creation.  That means that he created these people with the ability to be gay.  They are born that way.  There is no choice.  This kid didn’t make a choice.  He was born gay.  If God created a person with the ability to do this, did you ever stop to consider that maybe he doesn’t look down on it?  Maybe it is just the way a person is?  No, that would be too hard.  It’s easy to hate a person.  To see a group of people that you don’t understand and to simply hate them is the easy thing to do.  It’s hard to accept a person who is different, and not what you understand.  But I guess you already knew that, you fucking loser parent.

By the way, good for mentioning that if the kid doesn’t attend your funeral, the family and friends would get it.  They are probably just as bigoted as you, given that they are still your friends.  And you know what, kiddo, you shouldn’t attend.  Let that old bastard rot away in misery.  Let him stew in his loneliness, confident in the knowledge that he disowned his own kid just because he was different.  This man is a bastard.  Don’t forget that.

This letter was received by this kid five years ago.  He was disowned from his family, via letter.  This father is a piece of shit.  If, by some completely miracle, he finds this post and reads what it says, I hope he gets to ponder what a piece of shit he actually is.  You don’t deserve any love, and kindness, or any respect.  And I bet that if the kid is a good guy, he still does love this man, and respect him.

Your gay son is better than you, you disgusting, immoral, piece of shit.  Kid, I hope you do have a nice life.  Fuck this guy.  He’s not worth losing sleep over.

Until next time, a quote,

“And it is part of human nature.  I’m not going to be one of these people who says, ‘bigotry is always learned.’  I don’t think it is.  I think is a natural instinct for us to hate and be fearful, and aggressive, and be scared, and intimidated, by that which we view and don’t understand.  And I knew that that point that no matter what I was, it didn’t matter.  It’s what people perceived me to be.  And whether or not I was gay or not didn’t matter.  Because I just laid there on the floor, knowing that at that moment, I was in a position, I had walked a day in the shoes of someone who has to live like that.  Openly, in places that are much more hostile than where I come from.”  -Richard Coughlin, It’s getting better…

Peace out,

Maverick

Top 20 House M.D. Episodes (Part Two)

Well, if you read my last post, then you know what’s coming.  Here is the second part of my favorite episodes of this series.  It really is a shame that it’s done.  Oh well, it did have a rather nice ending, which actually was able to wrap things up, unlike other series’s that I have been into that had garbage endings.  Again, I promise to try and keep the spoilers to a minimum.  I hope you enjoy.

10. Detox
Season 1
This was the first episode that really delved into House’s addiction to Vicodin.  While it is often addressed throughout the series, in this episode, there is a rather interesting twist.  Cuddy challenges House to go a week without Vicodin.  He does that, he gets out of the Clinic for a month.  He takes her challenge, while at the same time getting a new patient.  While he is detoxing from the medication, he is trying to solve the mystery, and it shines a rather ugly light on both House and his addiction.  At the end, it also shines a rather bitter light on another character as well.  I won’t say who, but it is kind of interesting to see.  House also has some rather interesting dialogue at the end about this addiction, and how it affects him, and how it has made him the person that he is, but not for the reasons that you might think.  Overall, this is a very poignant episode, and it sets the stage for others about this addiction to walk on later.

9. Last Resort
Season 5
This episode is really awesome for both the medical mystery, and the character discovery.  The premise is that a man comes into the Clinic.  He has been sick for years, and now he is desperate for a cure.  He takes the entire clinic hostage with a gun, and by sheer chance just happens to have House and one of his new doctors, Remy Hadley, aka, 13 as well.  This episode has a cool mystery, which House, since he has absolutely no shame, pushes to the limits.  Watching House push a madman’s buttons and mess with him however he wants is just awesome.  Plus, it isn’t the first time that 13′s position of where she stands with life and her self-destructive nature is examined, but this is the episode where she truly figures out who she is, and what she wants to do with her life.  This episode is so intense, and that is what makes it so good.  House is playing with not only his life and his employees life, but the life of a man with a gun and all the people he has kidnapped.  It’s unbelievably dark.  One of the few episodes that never lets up on its subject matter until the very end.  The climax of this episode is one of the best in the series.

8. The C-Word
Season 8
The final season of this show brought everything to a fever pitch.  Because I don’t want to ruin it for you if you haven’t seen it yet, I will say that the premise for this episode is that Wilson finds something medically wrong with him.  He is facing. potentially (emphasis on potentially), his own mortality.  He has an idea for a radical treatment, and goes to his best and closest friend, House, for help.  House takes him back to his place, after agreeing to the treatment.  What follows is one of the most intense and true examinations of their friendship in the entire series.  I won’t spoil what it all builds to, but there were genuine tear-jerker moments in this episode.  It was great.  I remember not being able to look away as it was happening.  You also see House having to face something equally traumatic – potentially losing his best and only friend.  How he reacts to this is just great.  Putting these two in this situation was just what the show needed, and the friendship of these two characters has never been more believable.  And it starts the final arc of the series, which is just great.

7. Baggage
Season 6
The episode right before the season finale, this is unique and fun for a couple of reasons.  The first is the medical mystery.  A woman comes into the ER who can’t remember who she is.  House takes on her case, intrigued because if there is no memory, she can’t lie to him.  The other reason is how the episode is told.  It is told through an interaction between House and his psychiatrist.  Oh, and it also gets a look into how far House has come since the beginning of the season.  With the style of how it is told, it does lend itself to some very clever vignettes between him and the psych.  There are also some clever comedic moments when both House and the psych get annoyed by each others story’s.  But more than anything else, what I love about this episode is where it all goes.  At the end, House comes to a conclusion about all of it, and man, it is great.  The last speech he has at the end is just amazing.  It isn’t fiery, but there is so much passion, and all due to just a simple sentence, that leaves you feeling in awe of how it was delivered.  This was a fun episode, and it leads to one of the coolest season finales in the series.

6. Broken
Season 6
Well, we talked about how season 6 was ending, now this episode is how it began.  The premise is that House is in a mental hospital, finally deciding to break his addiction to Vicodin.  This episode was shot very much like a short movie.  What I love most about this episode is that it is the only episode of this show where House is the patient.  Well, there is no patient, but if there was, he is as close as it gets.  The opening of this episode is just great.  It would have been better with no sound, but hey, it is still pretty damn good.  There is also the interaction between House and a friend of one of the mental patients.  She is immediately drawn to House, even though he uses her to no end, and even does something horrible with what she allowed him to get away with.  But the two find a connection in each other that neither was expecting.  It was a strangely honest and heart-warming episode.  Still, the cinematography in the opening alone puts it at this spot.  Plus, I got to see House hitting on the woman from The Bourne Identity.  What’s not to love about that?!

5. House Divided/Under My Skin/Both Sides Now
Season 5
Yeah, I know what it looks like, but let me explain.  These three episodes are part of an arc that ends season 5.  These episodes are on here not because of the medicine, but the arc itself.  House is hallucinating.  The cool thing about this arc is how it plays out.  In the first episode, the hallucinations are something to explore.  House is getting a look into his own mind.  In the second, the hallucinations are something to fear.  House’s mission to escape them leads to one of the biggest shit-your-pants creepy moments.  I’m serious, when you see it, you are freaked the fuck out.  It is awesome how well they set up that scene.  I watched it in the dark here the other day, reviewing for this list, and it still gets my heart pumping.  The third episode brings the arc full circle.  This one has a pretty neat twist.  Even though it isn’t hugely unexpected, it still works, because of how well the scene comes together.  I loved every minute of all three.  How it all ends is another really heart-wrenching scene.  Especially when you look at what it’s paired up with.  It is two scenes happening, mixed with each other.  They are both so different in theme and appearance that it is a little hard to watch.  A fantastic way to close out what I think was the best season of the show.

4. House’s Head/Wilson’s Heart
Season 4
An actual two-part episode, I couldn’t count them seperately.  They are both excellent.  Yet ironically, they are both excellent in totally different ways.  For the first, it is the cinematography.  A lot of shows do a lot of tricks to symbolize what’s real and what’s not when they are diving into a person’s mind.  This episode has a rather unique solution – light.  Strobing lights are used whenever they are in House’s mind.  That’s another reason that I love this episode so much.  I love mental stuff.  In movies, books, you name it.  If I can go into a person’s mind, that makes it so much better.  When they go into House’s mind, it is not only interesting, but also intense, and sometimes funny.  The best kind of mental stories.  The second episode is another great episode which shows House and Wilson’s friendship.  Ironically, this one looks at the darker aspect of it.  House definitely has abused his friendship with Wilson before.  But in this episode, he pushes things WAY beyond where he had gone before, and how it all ends is just amazing.  The season finale episodes of this series have this weird way of being the best ones.  This one is no exception.

3. Everybody Dies
Season 8
Hey, speaking of season finales, how about the series finale?  This episode marks the end of the entire series.  I won’t spoil how it ends, because it is pretty awesome, but the premise is very cool.  House wakes up in a building that is slowly burning down.  He is in there with a patient of his, who is dead.  Over the course of the episode, various people who worked for him, he loved, or were in his life appear as hallucinations, and the series comes full circle, as he is looking toward the future, trying to find a reason to live as the building he is in burns to the ground.  It was an episode worthy of being the one that this show ends on.  It was really cool to see a lot of these characters again.  Cameron was there, so was Stacy, Kutner, Amber, and Cuddy.  Looking at who House is, on a completely subconscious level, it was very cool.  And like I said, how it all ends is just great.  It was a very good ending, to an amazing show.

2. Help Me
Season 6
Yet-another season finale.  This one strikes a chord with me for many reasons.  First, the use of darkness in shooting it.  This episode is so gray and so plays with light and shadow.  Every minute of it is a visual masterpiece.  The only flaw was in the fact that there was a constant cut through the collapsed building that House was navigating.  The premise of this episode is that a crane fell onto an apartment building.  House and Cuddy are on the scene, trying to help as many people as they can.  Meanwhile, House is having to deal with some emotional loneliness at the same time.  Through sheer chance, he finds somebody buried deep inside of the building.  Now, it is a race against time to get her out of there.  Her leg is pinned underneath the rubble.  She is desperate not to lose the leg.  It is another of those episodes where House is with a patient, and there is a connection between them.  This girl only wants him to be there, to not be alone, which is exactly how he feels.  But the real seller on this episode for this spot is almost right at the end.  House has an emotional outburst that is one of the few times in the series that he genuinely enraged.  He has gotten angry a lot, but true rage almost never happens.  An amazing finish to another amazing season.

After all these great episodes, what is on the top of this list might surprise you.

1. No Reason
Season 2
Again, a season finale.  The premise of this one is that a patient comes into House’s office.  After he finds out who House is, he shoots him, twice.  House wakes up next to the man who shot him.  He has another case, but finds that as he is working on this case, not everything is as it seems.  Reality comes into question, and as House is losing control of what is real and what isn’t, you get some amazing insight into his mental state, culminating in by far the coolest reveal of what the final prognosis is in the entire series.  But the real seller for me as to why I love this episode so much is because it is an episode that is better in hindsight.  For real, watch the entire series, and then watch this episode.  Looking at it, and listening to what House says about his views on reality, it is just so much better.  For him, logic is the ultimate truth.  Strip that away, then life is meaningless.  This episode is amazing because it puts a man for whom reason and rationality are key into a position where nothing is true.  That is simply amazing, and how it all ends up is the best episode.  For me.

This was an incredible series.  From beginning to end, it was amazing.  I loved every minute of it, and I genuinely am sorry that it’s gone.  Sure, it was about time, but still, it’s always sad, even when you know that’s the case.  I hope that you loved this series as much as I did.

Until next time, a quote,

“You think that the only truth that matters is the truth that can be measured. Good intentions don’t count. What’s in your heart doesn’t count. But a man’s life can be measured by how many tears are shed when he dies. Just because you can’t measure them, just because you don’t want to measure them, doesn’t mean it’s not real.”  -Jack Moriarty, No Reason

Peace out,

Maverick

Top 20 House M.D. Episodes (Part One)

Well, a great legacy in television has come to an end.  I remember when I was young, and I first saw the previews for this show.  I had little knowledge of who Hugh Laurie was.  I was a lot younger, and from the moment I saw the character of Gregory House on the TV, I was entranced.  A lot of people had the belief that this show got progressively worse as time went by.  I’m not one of them.  While some episodes I liked better than others, I didn’t have a single problem with any season.  They were all amazing.  This show has been awesome, and even though I am a little late to this party, I thought that now that it is done, I would offer my top 20 episodes that I enjoyed.  It started out as a Top 10 list.  Then it became a Top 15 list.  Now I have actually been able to settle on 20.  Since this list will be insanely long, I decided that I would make it two parts.  I hope you all have enjoyed this series as much as I have.  I will truly miss it now that it’s gone.  That said, here we go.  I promise that I will try and keep as many spoilers out of this as possible.

20. House vs. God
Season 2
Most of the episodes that are on here are very intense and emotionally powerful episodes.  Not this one.  This episode is on here specifically because it was funny.  House gets a patient who is a “faith healer.”  House, being an atheist who thinks that religion is as stupid as it gets, immediately is annoyed by this kid.  But thanks to a series of events with the patient, somebody mysteriously puts on his white-board two columns – House and God, with tally marks under each.  The medical mystery in this episode isn’t especially interesting, and there are no huge character interactions.  This episode is just fun because of the idea that House is competing with God in a medical mystery.  I won’t spoil who the victor is, but it is pretty funny to see how it all turns out.

19. Cane and Able
Season 3
This is an episode that I place on here because of the character development.  But there is also a pretty neat medical mystery as well.  This episode is on here in equal parts for both.  House is given the ability to walk normally and without pain.  It is a dream come true for him.  However, he is plagued by returning pain.  Fearing having to return to the pain, the addiction to Vicodin, and his limp, he has a new medical mystery.  A young boy has hallucinations about aliens abducting him.  I don’t want to spoil how the medical side is resolved.  It is really, really cool.  One of the coolest diagnoses in the entire series.  As for the personal side, it is a rather harsh look at House.  He is given, for just a brief moment, a view of what life without pain would be like.  For him to potentially have to lose that, it is very hard.  How that also resolves is very poignant.  And also says a lot about another character in the process.  Three cool endings for the price of one.  What’s not to love?

18. Autopsy
Season 2
Another episode that I love exclusively for the medical mystery.  This case revolves around a young girl.  She is nine years old, and terminal with cancer.  However, before the cancer can claim her life, a new medical mystery pops up.  This episode has a couple of very cool moments.  The first is with Dr. Chase, who up until this point had been a pretty shallow character.  I won’t say what his interaction with the girl was that shows a whole different side to him, but not only is in incredibly nuts, but when it is looked at in hindsight, it is hysterical.  The team’s reaction to it is priceless.  The other cool moment is when House is very candid with the girl.  I won’t say as to why or what, but I will say that he has a conversation with her which is surprisingly compassionate and not condescending.  He takes her seriously, which doesn’t happen for very many patients.  Oh, and the medical mystery is also resolved in one of the coolest ways.  It definitely is a cool ending to a cool episode with a very unique little girl.

17. Mirror Mirror
Season 4
Yet-another episode for fun, this one gives us an inside-look into a lot of new characters.  The patient in this episode has a rather unique medical problem.  He is able to perfectly imitate the personality of anybody who is in the room with him.  If more than one person is in the room, he imitates whoever is the more dominant of those two.  And even though you know that many of the characters he is imitating are only temporary, it is still very fun to get an outside, albeit very accurate perspective on who they all are.  But what is more interesting is each of the characters reactions to this.  It is never easy to be facing your own inner person, and how each of them looks into the Mirror is either very amusing, or very intense, as happens with one character, who sees into the mirror and is more than a little bit disturbed by what she sees.  How they diagnose the guy is very cool.  Think about mirrors, it’ll come to you.

16. Locked In
Season 5
Another episode that I picked for the medical mystery.  It won’t spoil anything to say what the premise is.  A man comes into the hospital, trapped in his own brain.  His doctors want to give up on him, but blind luck has him ending up in the hospital right next to Dr. Gregory House.  House is convinced that this man isn’t brain-dead, merely locked in his own mind.  And the game is on to find a way to open that door.  This episode gives some surprisingly interesting insight into the mind of House.  He likes the fact that the patient can’t talk to him.  He doesn’t want something that will spoil the mystery for him.  It is an episode where you get a rather candid look into the fact that for House, it is not at all about the person, it is entirely about the mystery.  He views people as lying and selfish idiots who are too stupid for their own good.  But the perspective from this case was very cool.  It was almost all in this guy’s head.  The person who played the patient’s voice (Mos Def) was a good choice.  It is a mix of something we all fear – being sick, and being helpless.  Being locked in your own mind.  Welcome to Hell, right?

15. Kids
Season 1
I didn’t want to have any episodes from the Vogler story arc.  I hated both the Vogler and Tritter arcs for a reason – they both sucked.  The only time I genuinely didn’t like this show was during those.  Whenever they wanted a villain, this show got worse.  Ironically, this episode was right after the Vogler arc ended, and man, did it come back strong.  The reason that I like this episode is because it is feel-good.  There aren’t many of those in this show.  Sure, there is a medical mystery, and sure it is intense, but this episode is just one that is enjoyable.  The hospital is experiencing an outbreak of meningitis.  At the same time, a young swimmer is presenting at the hospital with a totally unrelated illness, and House is on the case.  Meanwhile, he is also trying to get back one of his employees.  How that ends is…well, priceless.  It goes into another episode, which the only reason it isn’t on here is because I didn’t want to go any higher.  Still, this episode feels good, leaves you the viewer feeling good, and is a lot of fun.  Good times.

14. Family Practice
Season 7
This is one of the more emotionally gripping episodes.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the House/Cuddy relationship arc.  But this episode was one of the few times that their relationship ever felt like something that was going somewhere.  Cuddy’s mother falls ill.  The two don’t get along, but Cuddy will do anything to help her.  What I love most about this episode, aside from the emotional weight, is the cinematography.  If you watch through it, you will notice a really neat trick of light and shadow as the episode goes on.  It is a very cool trick to get you to think about what is going to come next.  I am a person who enjoys darkness in something more than light.  Since this show is based in a hospital, white is a common color, but in this episode, they really make the most of what they have.  Plus, it is very cool to see a much more human side to Cuddy.  I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t like her character much.  She was always kind of a whiny and annoying bitchy character to me.  But in this episode, there are real stakes, and it gives a very relatable side to a character who I don’t think that many people liked.  She needed it, trust me.

13. Birthmarks.
Season 5
You are going to see a lot of episodes with House and his best friend, James Wilson on here.  I have always enjoyed these two’s interactions.  Not wanting to spoil why, their friendship has fallen on life-support.  However, with House’s father having died, which isn’t a spoiler, by the way, it’s just a premise, the two are together on a road trip down for his funeral.  House is working to sabotage the trip every step of the way.  The two are both confronting their pasts, and in the process, they are finding what made them friends again.  But what finally puts it over the edge is when the two talk about a case that House has at the same time.  The two work together, albeit at the start a bit begrudgingly, and figure out what the mystery is.  This is another feel-good episode.  These two’s friendship is a key part of the series.  Since the character of House was based off of Sherlock Holmes, Wilson is modeled after Watson.  And these two are practically destined to be friends.  No matter how hard they try to move apart, they keep coming back together again.  A fun episode, with some very dramatic moments, but in the end, still feel-good.  Worth the watch.

12. Three Stories
Season 1
The premise of this episode was what got me.  This episode is what the name says – three stories in one.  The connecting theme between all of them is the same – a leg.  Each patient in these three stories has a leg problem.  One of them is a very familiar character, but just who it is will blow your mind.  Once that is revealed, you get more into the third character, but all of them have interesting stories.  Plus, how it is told is pretty unique.  House is sitting in on a class where the teacher is sick.  His mission is to get the students to get a diagnosis for each case from the class.  Having some new characters tackling a medical mystery is pretty cool, especially in the first season.  There is also the fact that one of the cases has a very cool twist that gives a lot of back-story to a character who we all wanted to know what the story is.  I won’t spoil it for the ten people who haven’t seen it, but trust me, it is really awesome.  Definitely worth the watch for that story alone.  Oh, and getting to see Carmen Electra’s legs is pretty nice too.  House’s idea, not mine.

11. Bombshells
Season 7
Another episode that I really love for the cinematography.  Or rather, not how it is shown, but all the sections in it that have very cool shooting.  This episode has a lot of really freaky dream sequences.  I don’t want to spoil what they are connected to, but trust me when I say – it’s really cool.  But these dreams are awesome.  It gets into House’s and Cuddy’s head.  It serves to both address their fears, but to also get to show off in front of the camera, which is always fun.  Plus, it is another episode that serves to humanize Cuddy, which is very cool.  I will say that her mind has some pretty cool concept when it comes to dreams.  But all the dream vignettes are just awesome.  Some will claim that they served no point, but I call bullshit.  They serve the point of being awesome!  One in-particular was just great.  I won’t say what it is, but I will end this post with a quote that will put it into perspective.  Enjoy.

The rest of this list will be in my next post.

Until next time, a quote,

“Thank God I remembered my axe-cane.”  -Gregory House, House M.D.

Peace out,

Maverick