How It Should Have Ended: Man Of Steel

Honest Trailers: Independence Day

But really, I fucking unironically love Independence Day. It is a big, dumb action film, but it's just so well constructed and filled with so many characters that you care about that it doesn't matter whether it's original (great artists steal) or ethnocentric (it was 1996); it's just a fun movie.

Doctor Who Drinking Game

The Route (Yeah, it's a commercial)

Begins with "H"

So there was a kinetically-induced structural failure of my keyboard last night, but luckily it also managed to give me some solid, blog-based advice:

Be back on Thursday, August 1st. Just four short Tuesday videos away.

Wait, is it Wednesday Already?

Dang, this one just got away from me. I know I've been spotty-to-not-at-all on putting up the blogs, but--

Look at the monkey!

I'm also working on a roleplaying setting which takes place in the aftermath of a civil war that leaves The United States...well, not united. And there are no guns. But there are trains. And cannons. It's a work in progress.

But hey, io9 put up an article asking about the coolest sword in fiction. My money is on Scott Pilgrim's sword of love, because it's a manifestation of Scott's own growth, but Frostmorne probably gets it on a technicality.

Nerdgasm on Jonathan Ross

The Doctor (11th), Tywin Lannister, Ygritte, John Snow, and Gandalf the Magneto sit down with the guy who writes America's Got Powers.

Humility in Democracy

So, last week was crazy. The Supreme Court struck down DOMA, eliminated vital portions of The Votings Rights Act of 1965, and declared that the freelance supporters of California's Proposition 8 weren't authorized to defend it in lieu of the state. Texas Congresswoman Wendy Davis performed a 10-hour Texas filibuster^[1], only for Texas Lt. Governor David Dewhurst to try and pass the bill after the legislative session had ended. Most notably, the saga of the NSA's Prism program continued unfolding, as whistleblower Edward Snowden was charged with espionage.

Democracy is great because it's rife with conflict. The conflict that comes from groups talking about opposing ideas helps participants develop their principles and sharpen their skills at expressing ideas. Two people can shout at each other for twenty years, but one would be mistaken if they thought that constituted a conversation. The powerful can impose their will on the weak, but no matter how they do that, it's not democracy. It's the interactive conflict that's great, not the decision that's reached. The humility to learn and reevaluate your position is one of the cornerstones of democracy ^[2].