Oh you wacky Fox News racist!

More fun on Fox News as some of their talking heads discussed a study that suggested that couples who enjoy long marriages showed a reduced tendency to develop Alzheimer's disease. Here's the video if you want to watch.

Brian Kilmeade: We keep marrying other species and other ethnics--

GRETCHEN CARLSON: Are you sure you're not suffering from some of the causes of dementia right now?

Brian Kilmeade: The problem is the Swedes have pure genes. They marry other Swedes, that's the rule. Finns marry other Finns; they have a pure society. In America we marry everybody. We will marry Italians and Irish.

DAVE BRIGGS: This study does not apply?

Brian Kilmeade: Does not apply to us.

[pause]

DAVE BRIGGS: Huh.

I hate to go all Godwin on the thread but sheesh, Brian. Hitler called. He wants his ideas back.

Seriously, other species? What other species are American humans marrying? And pure genes? Yikes.

Blog response - The MJ Memorial

This morning one of my friends posted about the Michael Jackson memorial service. The post is here but I'll put the whole thing below as well. I wanted to reply to his blog directly but you have to join Multiply to do it so, no, I'm not going there. Here's his post:

Michael Jackson's exit from his last stage performance reflects the lunacy of the people who surrounded him and the blatant hypocrisy of the elitist media in America.

In short, yesterday's memorial service for Michael Jackson was not about him but the people involved in the show. The musical performances were less than stellar - and quite inappropriate. Mariah Carey's song in particular seemed lackluster and lifeless. Their appearance - while probably a sincere attempt to express their appreciation for Michael - seemed motivated by their need for media attention. The two media whores, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, looked old and their message filled with the type of racist bigotry that Michael hated. Too many people turned a solemn opportunity to celebrate the life of a great entertainer into a political pulpit.

And of course the Lamestream Media (h/t to the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler website for that term) were there to lap up all of this shallow drivel like a starving man at a Golden Corral. I heard some talk radio host yesterday trying to give the media a pass on the whole mess, claiming they were only reporting what the culture wanted. Nonsense! During the Civil Rights struggle in this country, the people of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas were clearly against integration and the freedom for all qualified Americans to vote. Did that stop the reporters from showing images of non-violent protesters being water hosed by Birmingham firefighters or Mississippi Klansmen raging around a Black church? The truth is that the Lamestream media show the images they want others to see. They - like the rest of our ridiculously superstar-driven culture - love both the opportunity to worship and destroy media figures for their own pleasure and even financial profit.

The whole Michael Jackson death, media coverage, and memorial service were a commentary on how shallow America has become, how ridiculously hypocritical the media are, and why the cult of celebrity should be shunned and ridiculed for the source of idiocy, immorality, and psychic pain that it is.

Here's my reply.

I am astounded at your uncharitable reaction to this. I think it’s in poor taste to question the motives of people at a memorial service to mourn a friend and imply they did it for the exposure. What should they have done? Not attended the event? Not participated when asked? Michael Jackson did have some impact on the civil rights struggle and even if you don't like Jesse Jackson and Sharpton (I'm not a big fan either) it seems perfectly appropriate for them to speak if that's what the family wanted.

What about the songs performed was "inappropriate"? And I have to say that criticizing someone's performance at a memorial service as "lackluster and lifeless" is, oh what's the word? Dickish? Douchebaggy? No, dickish is the word.

I don't think your point about the media is well made. What are you suggesting the "mainstream" media should have done? Not covered it? Was there some other story they should have been covering at that very moment? What didn't they show that you wanted to see? Your charge of hypocrisy has me baffled because you didn't explain it at all. It sounds to me like this is a stock anti-media rant you've pasted on to these circumstances. (BTW, is Fox News included in your assessment?)

Estimates are that a billion people watched the event on-line. Clearly MJ was a major artist of the last half of the 20th century, perhaps the greatest artist, and a huge cultural influence. He was also involved in some great humanitarian campaigns. I’m not a fan of his and the last 15 years of allegations certainly make me ambivalent about him, but I can't deny that he had a huge influence on our culture. I'm not at all surprised that his death caused such a stir and would certainly expect the media to cover his death and the funeral. It literally is NEWS.

Finally, the existence of the cult of personality is hardly surprising or shocking. It's just human nature to idolize someone who's obviously talented and created art that's impacted your life. Why get all bent out of shape over humans acting human?

What's interesting about it is that the cult of personality has even infected the Protestant church in America. Back in the day, Jesus was the son of god and part of the Trinity, more father figure than anything else. Over the past 20 years or so he's become a rock star, best friend and pal, obviously through an attempt by the church to attract and keep youth in the church.

No, I don't have swine flu, thank you very much

It's 2:30AM on a work night and I'm downstairs at the computer.

A couple of weeks ago I had my annual physical and my doctor decided it was time to start protecting my kidneys from my diabetes. (Which is under good control, thank you very much.) He put me on a daily dose of Cozaar, a blood pressure medication which also helps kidney function, and said several times that a common side effect is coughing.

I've never heard of coughing as a side effect before (cue foreboding music) so I was somewhat amused. My amusement turned out to be ironic when, after six days of taking the drug, bam. I woke up last Monday morning with a cough. Actually, it was more of a mild upper respiratory infection accompanied by a cough.

I stayed home that first Monday and felt good enough to go to work the next day. I stopped coughing up phlegm but the cough persisted. I was hoping it would pass so I could continue to take the medicine but instead the cough continued to worsen. Last Wednesday I stopped taking the Cozaar.

If only that had helped.

We went to a party on Friday and I hacked my way through 10 hours of fun. Over the weekend I started coughing whenever I lay down. On the packed train the other day I couldn't get a seat and stood over people coughing into my hand until some guy gave me a cough drop.

It's now been almost a week since my last dose and I'm still coughing through the night. The last few nights I've slept sitting up to minimize the coughing. I came down here tonight to spare Carol of my constant loud cough. (Hilariously, earlier tonight in her half-awake state after a loud fit of my coughing, she drowsily told me to "stop smashing things".) The cough is slowly getting better, I'm coughing less and less each day, but geez!

I now have a new medicine, Avapro, to replace the Cozaar but I'm not taking it until the cough is gone. And if it too causes coughing, it's going at the first sign.

So, I can report that, yes, coughing is a very real side effect of some medications. And while it sounds somewhat funny, it really, really, sucks.

Harry Potter and the Non-existent God

I've always known Daniel Radcliffe was a smart fellow.

Of course, this will really put the fear in those who think Harry Potter is Demonic or Satanic or some other -ic.

Though many people have suspected that Daniel Radcliffe is an atheist for some time now, he confirmed it in an interview with Esquire according to a report published on the Telegraph Web site. The Harry Potter star said:

I'm an atheist, but I'm very relaxed about it. I don't preach my atheism, but I have a huge amount of respect for people like Richard Dawkins who do. Anything he does on television, I will watch.

Cool.

Monorail, monorail, monorail, monorail

Here's another sight I hoped never to see.

The driver was killed. The first fatality on the monorail since it opened 37 years ago.

Disney World lets families ride with the drivers in the pilot compartment. We rode with the Driver from Epcot back to our hotel a few years ago, one of our fun memories from Disney. It's very fortunate no family was with the driver in this case. I hope this doesn't cause Disney to change their policy.

Yes, we'd be so much better off if Hitler were around today

Rich or poor, successful or failed, stupidity and ignorance know no bounds. In this case, we see the EPIC FAIL of a very rich man who has enjoyed the fruits of freedom but doesn't seem to have paid very much attention to reality some decades ago.

Bernie Ecclestone, the man who controls Formula One auto racing, said Friday that he preferred totalitarian regimes to democracies and praised Adolf Hitler for his ability to "get things done."

In an outspoken interview with The Times of London, the 78-year-old British billionaire chastised contemporary politicians for their weaknesses and extolled the virtues of strong leadership.

Ecclestone said: "In a lot of ways, terrible to say this I suppose, but apart from the fact that Hitler got taken away and persuaded to do things that I have no idea whether he wanted to do or not, he was in the way that he could command a lot of people, able to get things done.

"In the end he got lost, so he wasn't a very good dictator because either he had all these things and knew what was going on and insisted, or he just went along with it ... so either way he wasn't a dictator." He also criticized democracy, claiming that "it hasn't done a lot of good for many countries — including this one [Britain]."

Hiter wasn't a victim, he didn't get misled or go along with anything. He was the driving force, the prime motivator. If you have "no idea whether he wanted" to do the things he did, then you must be either ignorant of history or willfully deceiving yourself.

Gee, I almost feel stupid for having to point that out.

Fireworks! Happy Birthday, America!

We have utterly awesome seats for the Gaithersburg fireworks!

Posted Afterwards:

You can see how close we were to the launchers in this first picture.

It's the thought that counts

Alaskan Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, who will succeed Gov. Sarah Palin:

"She's accomplished more in these two and a half years than most governors accomplish in one or two terms," he said. "Our governor has been a great governor. She is going to be Alaska's and is Alaska's greatest gift to our country."

No thanks. Where the heck do we go to return this particular gift?

Palin added in a statement that she was "determined to take the right path for Alaska even though it is not the easiest path. Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional 'lame duck' status in this particular climate would just be another dose of 'politics as usual,' something I campaigned against and will always oppose."

So quitting your post with another 18 months to go in office is somehow serving the people of Alaska? It's the "right thing" for Alaska?

Is she now admitting that she sucks as Governor?

When asked if he would complete Palin's term, Parnell said yes and ended his interview on a surreal note.

"But I am also conscious that we don't control life, so I may be dead tomorrow, and I'm not going to commit beyond that," he said, smiling.

I think the EPA may want to do some tests on Alaska's water.

Biden "does it" with US troops

"We did it in Saddam's palace and I can think of nothing better. That S.O.B. is rolling over in his grave right now," Biden said.

Heh heh heh heh heh heh Heh.

Gee, if the whole planet were destroyed, then we'd really be on to something!

I'd like to say this video is unbelievable, but it's become par for the course from some of these wingnuts. The video is Glenn Beck and former CIA idiot, Michael Scheuer, talking about what America needs to get right. That is, what America needs to do to validate their sick, twisted dystopian view of America.



Basically, they're hoping that Osama Bin Laden nukes an American city so that the government will then behave the way these two lunatics want the government to behave. They are actually calling for the death of thousands of American citizens so that American citizens can be protected.

Obviously, logic isn't their strong suit, but it's clear that they would rather we live in a constant state of fear, a police state where rights are sacrificed in the name of Freedom and the American military roams the planet in order to somehow free us from fear of the very thing Beck and Scheuer are calling for.

What hateful, barbaric, utterly repulsive scumbags.

Gotham, I don't think you're really helping

New Age doofus, Deepak Chopra, was good friends with Michael Jackson. In a eulogy on the Huffington Post, he talks about Jackson and how his son, Gotham, spent lots of time with Jackson and Deepak never worried for a second about all those icky molestation claims. Good for him.

Gotham also writes a eulogy. The comments afterward are all "Oh, what a touching story!" and "I have tears in my eyes." and "Beautiful!" Bleh.

The story is actually deeply sad and disturbing not because of Jackson's death but because it shows what too much celebrity and wealth can do to a person. Gotham writes of times when he'd go down to Jackson's apartment to help the King of Pop write lyrics.

I'd wander downtown with a backpack full of dictionaries, and thesauri, and rhyming books. Michael would hum songs and talk about what he wanted to say with the song and we'd try and marry our skillsets and come up with something. We came up with great stuff. Michael swore me to secrecy those days. I happily complied. After we were done with those sessions - they'd usually go until about 2 AM or so - Michael would wander into the bathroom and come out with a sack he'd pulled out from under the toilet. In it, he kept several thousands of dollars. He'd ask me how much I wanted. I just sort of shrugged and he'd hand me a couple of thousand dollars.

Then there's this.

Michael was always envious when I told him about my adventures with my friends. More than a few times, he'd get dressed up - dawning some sort of quasi-disguise - preparing to go with me, only to back down at the last minute or be held back by his security who would shake their heads and plainly say no to his misguided ambitions. Instead, he'd pour himself a tall glass of orange juice and settle in for the night to watch an old movie on TV, telling me to spend a few extra bucks for him. I happily complied.

And this is just . . .

Back to those college days. One night he did call me in a panic. He had just gotten married to Lisa Marie Presley and needed advice - sex advice. He was incredibly nervous and said that he wanted to make sure that Lisa was impressed with his "moves." He asked me if I had any advice. I answered with one word: "foreplay."

"Really?" He answered. "Girls really like that?"

Ew.

Just on what planet is this "beautiful" and "touching"?

That was a hell of a thing.

Rachel wanted to watch a movie the other night. To my delight, she suggested one of my favorites, Galaxy Quest. She had seen it years ago but remembered very little. Since she's been exposed to some Star Trek over the past year, most notably the current summer Blockbuster, she wanted to watch it.

What a fantastically fun movie.

The film is about a group of actors who starred on a cheesy science fiction show nearly 20 years before (a la Star Trek) and they're basically living off their appearances at science fiction conventions. A group of aliens who have been watching the shows, thinking they're historical records, come to Earth to enlist the "crew" to save them from a very nasty bad guy who is destroying their people. And hilarity ensues!

First of all, the cast is amazing for what could have been a low budget Trek satire. Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Daryl Mitchell, Tim Allen at his best, Tony Shaloub, and the awesome Sam Rockwell. They work together well with a tight script that knows the conventions of Trek and its brethren and breathes satirical life into the cliches.

What's even more amazing is the group who play the odd, Pakledish, Thermian crew come off as much more sympathetic, sophisticated and heroic than they have any right to. Of course Missi Pyle, Rainn Wilson, Patrick Breen, Jed Rees and the great Enrico Colantoni, who invented the Thermian's odd speech patterns, as their leader, Mathesar, just knock this one out of the park.

The movie is so good, the biggest laugh line in the whole thing is the completely unexpected, "Let's get out of here before one of those things kills Guy!" It makes me laugh just thinking about it. And then there's Tony Shaloub's laid-back chief engineer, Fred Kwan, "Hey guys, I just wanted you to know that, the reactors won't take it; the ship is breaking apart and all that... Just FYI."

If you haven't seen it, check it out. It's great. I'm tempted to go watch it again right now.

For a great review that gets everything just right, check this out.

I'll leave you with this dialogue, as Tim Allen's character (Jason Nesmith) fights a giant rock monster while the rest of the crew advise him over the communicator.

Alexander Dane: You're just going to have to kill it.
Jason Nesmith: Kill it? Well, I'm open to any suggestions.
Tommy Webber: Go for the eyes, like in episode 22!
Jason Nesmith: He doesn't have any eyes, Tommy!
Tommy Webber: Go for the mouth, then, the throat, his vulnerable spots!
Jason Nesmith: It's a rock! It doesn't have any vulnerable spots!
Guy Fleegman: I know! You construct a weapon. Look around, can you form some sort of rudimentary lathe?

Someone please remind them again what century this is

There are just a few things wrong with what this church is doing.

The boy writhes uncontrollably on the floor, but the church members remain calm, if increasingly loud. They're trying to drive a "demon" out of him.

"You homosexual demon, get up on outta here!" they say. "You demon, loose yourself!" "You sex demon ... you snake!"

The shouts, the convulsions, the references to homosexual spirits -- they are all captured on a video posted on YouTube by the Manifested Glory Ministries. The video has sparked anger among gay youth advocacy groups and put the small church from Bridgeport, Connecticut, in the middle of an ongoing national debate on gay issues.
...
McHaelen said she doesn't think the church acted maliciously -- but that's part of her problem with the video.

"None of the people in this video were intending to hurt this kid," she said. "They performed this ritual in an attempt to rid him of feelings that he didn't want to have."

So, let's go down the list and count the stupidity.

1. A person can be both a Christian and gay.
2. This kid doesn't want to have these feelings because of judgmental dipwads like the Manifested Glory Ministries.
3. You can't make someone "Not Gay" by primitive superstitious rituals.
   
4. Causing a child to writhe on the floor in shame and humiliation is malicious and abusive.
   
5. Demons don't cause "Teh Gay".
6. Demons, homosexual or otherwise, wouldn't be driven out of a kid by someone else using the phrase, "get up on outta here!"
7. There are no such things as Demons, dumbasses.

"He's 16 and having the feelings that he's having, the relationships he's having, and then [he's] being tormented by 'What if I'm going to go to hell because of what I feel and who I am?'" she said.

Well done. Your scare tactics and prejudices are making this kid's life a living hell. Kudos. You should be proud of yourselves, asshats.

Yet another episode of "God, we're stupid"

Some Americans are so lacking in common sense and decency that we had to litigate a matter all the way up to the Supreme Court to determine that, yes, it is frakking wrong to strip-search a 13 year old girl in school. And almost as bad, it was over concerns that she was hiding ibuprofen.

Seriously, what kind of stupid policy results in anyone thinking they have the right or responsibility to strip-search a middle schooler?

Of course, one Justice thought it was perfectly okay because apparently the school was one Advil away from anarchy.

But Justice Clarence Thomas took the opposite view: that administrators deserved immunity and that the search was permissible.

"Preservation of order, discipline and safety in public schools is simply not the domain of the Constitution," he said. "And, common sense is not a judicial monopoly or a constitutional imperative."

Seems like common sense has nothing to do with Justice Thomas.

One last desperate bid for attention

Nice going, Michael. You just had to steal Farrah's limelight, didn't you?

Okay Metro. Now I hate you.

Lest we adapt to the now typical delay from the Fort Totten end of the Red Line, tonight we had an extra special surprise!  While inspecting the tracks, they found a crack in a rail outside Medical Center on the other end of the Red Line and we're single-tracking around it.
Trains are now running approximately 25 minutes apart.
Yippee!

Metro Woes

Two days after the tragic accident and the Metro is still running like the accident just happened. Trains are spaced way too far apart, wait times are long and huge crowds are piling up at the stations.

Get it together, Metro!

Quarterly Blood Analysis

Here are the results of my quarterly blood test.

85 Glucose (Excellent)
120 Total Cholesterol (less than 200 is desirable)
165 Triglycerides (less than 150 is normal)
43 LDL (bad) Cholesterol (less than 100 is optimal)
44 HDL (good) Cholesterol (normal is 40-50)
5.6 A1C (4-5.9 is normal)

Great in some areas, marginal in a couple. My HDL is up and my LDL is down so that’s all good. My Triglycerides are up somewhat which is troubling. They did a couple of new tests, or at least ones I haven’t reported before.

White Count 7.4 (normal range is 4.3 to 10)
Thyroid 2.94 (normal range is .3 to 3)

They put me on a low dose of a blood pressure medicine to protect my kidneys. And life goes on.

Ode to XBOX 360 by Ben (10 years old) (01/05/09)

Oh, Xbox 360 you make me happy
with a bang with a gun
you tell me Im great
Im even great with a P.S.P.
Xbox 360 you make me go whoo every time I see you
Your better than a crack in a pie
you bring me happiness
for an Xbox 360, I would rather sign
with your bang bang bang in games
you make me think your so cool.
You are the most wonderful technology I ever had.
Now it's Christmas eve
and I wonder what my gift will be
this year. Oh what a huge surprize, I got a new wii!
But Xbox 360 your still the best.

And they seemed so rational . . .

Rats. Sometimes, just when you think someone's going to turn out okay, they do something you can't get over.

The St. Petersburg Times is running a fascinating three-part series on the Church of Scientology based largely on interviews with four top church executives who have defected.

Among the paper's findings:

**Physical violence permeated the church's international management team. It alleges that David Miscavige, the movement's leader, routinely attacked his lieutenants, even kicking and beating some in front of their colleagues.

One of the defectors, Mike Rinder, says he was attacked some 50 times. "It had become the accepted way of doing things," Rinder tells the Times. "If COB (Miscavige) did it, it was okay for everybody else to do it, too."

**Staffers are disciplined and controlled by a multi-layered system of "ecclesiastical justice.'' It includes publicly confessing sins and crimes to a group of peers, being ordered to jump into a pool fully clothed, facing embarrassing "security checks'' or, worse, being isolated as a "suppressive person.''

**Church staffers allegedly covered up how they botched the care of Lisa McPherson, a Scientologist who died after they held her 17 days in isolation at a hotel in Clearwater, Fla., the church's world spiritual headquarters.

The newspaper quotes a church spokesman as saying the defectors are "lying."

I mean, I could overlook the whole "Xenu, Galactic Warlord, imprisoning billions of his people into volcanoes on Earth trillions of years ago and blowing them up with hydrogen bombs" story because come on, on some level that story just makes sense. Ya know? At worst it's just the embellishment of a proud religious tradition.

But hitting people? I am shocked, I tell you! Shocked!

Okay, not that shocked. Scientology is a thuggish cult so it's no surprise they use violence to intimidate and control. The world would be much better off without this stupid nonsense.

Here's the St. Petersburg Times article. It is just stunning.

And check out this interesting story about someone who accidentally interviewed for a job with them.

Metro Crash

I'm signed up to get e-mail alerts when there's a delay on my Metro line. Today I got this:

(ID 55699) Disruption at Fort Totten. Trains are turning back at Rhode Island Ave & Silver Spring due to a train experiencing mechanical difficulties outside of Ft. Totten. Shuttle service has been established.

That's a bit of an understatement.


Given Metro's controls, I didn't think this kind of collision was even possible.

Iran and the US Reaction

Lots of Republicans have been criticizing the President for not coming out more strongly in support of the protestors in Iran. In fact, he has been supportive of the protestors but is taking a measured approach.

CNN has an interview with Middle East expert and good guy, Fareed Zakaria and he has something to say about it. I think he’s exactly right.

CNN: What should the United States do?

Zakaria: I would say continue what we have been doing. By reaching out to Iran, publicly and repeatedly, President Obama has made it extremely difficult for the Iranian regime to claim that they are battling an aggressive America bent on attacking Iran. In his inaugural address, his New Year greetings, and his Cairo speech, there is a consistent effort to convey respect and friendship for Iranians. That is why Khamenei reacted so angrily to the New Year greeting. It undermined the image of the Great Satan that he routinely paints in his sermons. In his Friday sermon, Khamenei said that the United States, Israel, and especially the United Kingdom were behind the street protests, an accusation that will surely sound ridiculous to most Iranians. The fact that Obama has been cautious in his reaction makes it all the harder for Khamenei and Ahmadinejad to wrap themselves in a nationalist flag.

CNN: But shouldn't the U.S. be more vocal in support for the Iranian protesters?

Zakaria: I think a good historic analogy is President George H.W. Bush's cautious response to the cracks in the Soviet empire in 1989. Then, many neo-conservatives were livid with Bush for not loudly supporting those trying to topple the communist regimes in Eastern Europe. But Bush's concern was that the situation was fragile. Those regimes could easily crack down on the protestors and the Soviet Union could send in tanks. Handing the communists reasons to react forcefully would help no one, least of all the protesters. Bush's basic approach was correct and has been vindicated by history.

A Tale of Two Movies: The Hangover & S.Darko

The Hangover

Very funny movie. The humor comes out of rich, odd characters dealing with the outrageous situations they find themselves in after a blowout of a bachelor party. If you want to see a good adult comedy, go see it. Really very funny. (I will admit that seeing it with Rachel and her friend was slightly uncomfortable.)

S. Darko

Rachel and I watched Donnie Darko last year. It was odd, but beautifully filmed and we really enjoyed it. When we saw S. Darko, the straight-to-video sequel, at Blockbuster, we rented it.

Now, I've known this movie was coming out for some time but I didn't expect a straight-to-video version (which is not a good sign). And of course there's the problem of even trying to do a sequel to a unique and unusual cult movie. As a rule, it's almost never a good idea. Turns out, in this case . . . that's still the rule.

This movie was pointless. Really, really pointless. I mean, it's as if they were trying to make this movie as pointless as possible but got sidetracked by all the pointlessness and accidentally made it even more pointless. If this movie was in the Olympics in the Pointless Movie event, they'd have to invent a new medal way better than Gold for them to win. The medal would have to be made out of some new metal (hey, a homonym!) which is the epitome of pointless (maybe pointlessite), and electro-plate it with a covering of pure pointlessness.

Anyway, we thought it was pointless. And also it had Elizabeth Berkley from Saved by the Bell and Showgirls.

Wegmans

We were in Virginia today and so had our first opportunity to visit a Wegmans supermarket this evening.

Holy crap was that store cool. Huge floorplan, all kinds of exotic goods, and an excellent food court where we dined on comfortable seating on the second floor balconies.

And what's more, the prices were not way off the chart as I expected. On many items we buy, the Wegmans price was cheaper.

If we had one in our area, we'd definitely shop there.

I did snap one picture of prices that were a bit high.

I guess we'll buy our truffles elsewhere.

Note to 20th Century Fox

Dear Creators of ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS,

Please note the timeline below. (click to embiggen)


The wooly mammoth, the "star" of your series of family-friendly animated movies, did exist during the last major ice age on earth about 20,000 years ago. One presumes that's the ice age referenced in the title of your film and the association of ice age to mammoth is correct. Well done. (By the way, I am especially fond of the sabertoothed squirrel, Scrat. He's awesome.)

If you reference the timeline, however, you may notice a problem with the title of your current offering. The last of the dinosaurs became extinct approximately 65 million years ago.

This means that dinosaurs pre-dated mammoths by about 65 million years. This makes it highly improbable that your title MAKES ANY FRAKKING SENSE WHATSOEVER!

Just wanted to get that off my chest. Thank you for your attention.

Ipecac