Movie Review: Liar, Liar

Yesterday night I watched the movie Liar, Liar on DVD with my family. The plot synopsis is fairly simple: Jim Carrey plays a lawyer who succeeds in life by lying not just to his clients and coworkers but to his family as well. When he promises to show up at his son's 5th birthday party but fails to do so, his son makes a wish that his father can't tell a lie for a day, and it comes true; from that, hilarity ensues.
I thought the movie was full of laughs from start to finish. It's family-friendly, and never once is it truly raunchy (save of course for the sex scene with Jim Carrey's character's partner, which is the reason why he can't make it to the birthday party). I did think the ending with him driving the airplane staircase next to the airplane was too exaggerated and overwrought. Other than that, though, it's a movie I would recommend to anyone.

A Few Loose Ends - 2009 October 2

I'm sorry that I haven't blogged in a while as there hasn't been much to talk about recently. I'm just finishing up college essays, and even this post will be a few smaller ones combined.

1.
This is a follow-up to the story about Joe Wilson and "YOU LIE!"
(source - Brett Dykes, Y! News; I've been told that I should cite my sources a bit more thoroughly (i.e. a simple link isn't enough))
To summarize, Representative Alan Grayson (D-FL) decided to make a similar ruckus on the House floor. He held up a series of signs describing the Republican health care plan as "1. Don't Get Sick\2. And If You Do Get Sick ...\3. Die Quickly".
["But Prashanth, don't you agree with this? You are pretty liberal after all!"]
Shenanigans on both sides need to be called out.
No, I don't think the Republican plan will work, as it essentially maintains the status quo (in favor of private insurers).
But no, I don't think Grayson's signs were fair, necessary, or decent. For one, those signs portray the GOP plan in an unfairly negative light and really exaggerate (and in some cases lie) about the plan. It's just as bad as the whole "death panels" furor, as both dealt with (and lied about) the respective plans' stance on the very touchy issue of death.
To add insult to injury, Grayson hasn't even apologized yet. While I'm still mad that Joe Wilson didn't apologize on the House floor (figuratively, not literally - I'm not that sadistic), at least he made some sort of apology and the target in question (the President) accepted the apology and asked the rest of us to collectively move on. Grayson, where's your decency?
Even with a Democrat-controlled Congress, I think House Democrats should make it a point to give Grayson the same punishment they gave to Wilson. It's only fair.

2.
I'm doing an internship at NIST; I've been doing it since the beginning of summer and am doing it this semester for credit. The thing is, I need to go through a certain coordinator (whom I shall not name). It sucks.
I already turned in my site information form twice, and the coordinator asks for another one.
I need to turn in an emergency form too (even though all information on the sheet is redundant - literally).
The coordinator gave me all of this stuff last Friday (2009 September 25). This week, I was sick for 2 days and out of school for 1. The coordinator claims that [s/he] gave the forms to me many weeks before and threatens to revoke all of my credit-hours for the quarter if I don't hand it in by the next Monday (2009 October 5). This, when I'm not given a due date in advance and I'm basically out for 2 days.
What?
It's patently ridiculous that [s/he] can do this. I'll be glad when I don't have to talk to [him/her] anymore.

3.
Don't worry, the house is fine, though there is a nasty burnt smell lingering in that area. There is no visible damage anywhere.

UPDATE:
I can't believe I forgot this one!
4.
I'm really happy that Rio de Janeiro got the selection for the 2016 Summer Olympics. I like and admire Obama as a person and as a president, but I don't think Chicago was the right city. It has too many issues to be dealt with right now (compared to the other cities). Plus, even multiple polls among Chicago residents showed that they didn't want the Olympics there.
Furthermore, Tokyo has already hosted the games, and Madrid didn't really need it (due to relative proximity to former Olympic host cities).
Above all, there has never been a Game in South America.
Congrats, Rio de Janeiro!

Civility got Killed - Key Word "Brutally"

I was listening to President Obama's speech on health care yesterday. I really liked the way he delivered it and the fact that he gave far more specifics - enough to get critics in the Democratic Party (including myself at times) to stop complaining about any lack of specific requirements in the health care proposal.
Most of what I'm going to say has been written elsewhere (mostly on the Washington Post), so what I'm writing is a summary of Post writers' arguments.
Obama was specific enough, as said above.
Some people are saying that this is too little, too late, but as we have seen from the raucous/violent town hall meetings, this is the perfect time to call out the opponents for who they really are and really call for civility; if he gave the speech before the bad stuff happened, the speech wouldn't really have stuck and he would have had to repeat something later on to the effect of returning to some civility.
However, the moment during this speech to Congress was the loud outburst from Senator Joe Wilson (R-SC). When Obama expounded upon the idea that illegal immigrants would not get this kind of coverage, Wilson shouted, "You liar!"
This, of course, is among other happenings, like other GOP Senators rudely texting on their smartphones or holding up papers like signs like "Ironic" or "What Bill?" or the supposed GOP health care plan (basically, keep everything the same, which is why it's only 15-20 pages long).
Whatever shred of credibility the GOP had as a party of at least slightly respectable politicians was torn to pieces then.
These actions may have been legal, but they certainly weren't right. Did anyone see Democratic Congresspeople do the same to Bush or Republican Congresspeople do the same to Clinton? (No.)
This even just went to show that the GOP Congresspeople are just as crude, uncouth, loudmouthed, inflexible, and blockheaded as the gun-toting constituents who went to town hall meetings that these people represent. Furthermore, it just goes to show how out-of-touch the Republican Party is with the times and the people; though approval of Obama is dropping (but will probably spike a bit after this speech), nearly 60% of people still support health care reform of any kind (mostly what Obama and other Democratic Congresspeople are proposing). Truly, all the GOP cares about now is a political victory of some kind; Obama should give up bipartisanship in the sense that working with the GOP is futile, so he really should only work with the more conservative elements of the Democratic Party to achieve this "bipartisan" consensus.
And truly, the Republican Party has finally shown its colors once and for all as the extreme right-wing fringe party. Bye-bye, GOP!