The Recreational Nihilist

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	Idle Thoughts After a Movie By Frederik Sisa @ 10:00 PM January 18, 2010 Found in: The Recreational Nihilist Well, I’ve done it. I’ve finally succeeded in squeezing into my schedule a little 2 hour and 40 minute long film (excluding previews) you may or may not have heard about called Avatar. And surprise, surprise, it turns out to be an anti-colonial tirade. This isn’t especially notable, as Avatar isn’t the first or only film to draw blood from politics. Yet I can’t help but wonder what the point of it all is. Is a movie just a movie?read
	CAPS' Peaceful Protest at Bark Works Reminds Us to Adopt From Shelters By Frederik Sisa @ 4:00 PM December 21, 2009 Found in: The Recreational Nihilist Note: My discussion of climate change will continue in January. This week, I take a detour to a protest that took place outside of Bark Works at the Westside Pavilion mall. If you’ve been to Westside Pavilion, chances are you’ve seen them. Cute little balls of fur frolicking in the storefront displays or snoozing peacefully in their cages, priced at hundreds of dollars. Puppies! But the Companion Animal Protection Society, an organization devoted to investigating pet shops and puppy mills, wants you to know something about Bark Worksread
	Why Won’t Climate Change Deniers Accept the Science? By Frederik Sisa @ 4:00 PM December 14, 2009 Found in: The Recreational Nihilist There is the view – recently expressed by TFPO’s fearless editor Ari Noonan – that the word “denier” is colloquially reserved for Holocaust deniers. This is news to me. A denier, unless my command of the English language is faulty, is simply someone who denies, which seems pretty straightforward. read
	Climate Change Denial, Science, and the Burden of Proof By Frederik Sisa @ 12:00 PM December 07, 2009 Found in: The Recreational Nihilist The ongoing controversy of climate changes illustrates a rather important relationship in science and reason: The relationship between claims and the burden of proof. We’ve all heard Carl Sagan’s observation that extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof. In the bigger picture, the issue is whether it’s reasonable to doubt climate change enough to do nothing or whether that doubt is irrational to the point we are compelled to act decisively to forestall disaster. The question is whether the fundamental concept of climate change, specifically human-caused climate change, is an ordinary claim subject to an ordinary burden of proof or an extraordinary claim requiring extraordinary evidence. read
	What the Fort Hood Shooting Reveals About Right-Wing Commentary…and Us (Part 2) By Frederik Sisa @ 2:00 PM November 23, 2009 Found in: The Recreational Nihilist A large problem with media reporting of the Fort Hood shooting has been unreliable information, at least initially. From the death of Maj. Hassan to incorrect statements about cop Kimberley Munney (http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/), who was originally credited with bringing down Hasan until Sergeant Mark Todd’s primary role was revealed, certainty about what happened during the Fort Hood shooting is hard to come by, never mind explanations for why it happened. Patience is a virtue, they say, and so it is for journalists as well as anyone else. We have nothing to gain by rushing to judgment before all the facts are in and much to lose if we act on bad information. read
	What the Fort Hood Shooting Reveals About Right-Wing Commentary…and Us (Part 1) By Frederik Sisa @ 2:00 PM November 16, 2009 Found in: The Recreational Nihilist So, what are Muslims? The new Jews or Blacks? Just when I hoped that, as a society, we had made progress in overcoming bigotry like anti-Semitism and racism, along come yet more signs that Muslims are the proper, universal subjects of regularly scheduled two-minutes hate. Two minutes, amplified and repeated in the media’s 24/7 echo chamber, leading to the depressing fact that we haven’t even remotely overcome our prejudicial ways of thinking. Major Hasan’s shooting of 13 people at Fort Hood has brought to the surface not only the usual confusion as to how anything like this can happen, but ire directed towards Muslims that is sometimes glaring but more often subtle.read
	A Second Look at the Man From Plains By Frederik Sisa @ 3:00 PM November 09, 2009 Found in: The Recreational Nihilist Sure, I know about his Nobel Peace Prize and his good work with Habitat for Humanity. I know about his travels across the world and his service as election monitor. I’ve even read some of his op-ed pieces. But surely, I distantly wondered, a one-term President is like, in music terms, a one-hit wonder. Then there’s the antipathy many people, notably on the right, express towards Mr. Carter, raising many questions. Is he really such a horrible individual? Is he really a closet anti-Semite? Was he really that dismal a President? Truthfully, I’ve just never given much thought one way or another to former President Jimmy Carter.read
	Suffer the Little Children By Frederik Sisa @ 4:00 PM November 02, 2009 Found in: The Recreational Nihilist Commenting on an article about a 5-year-old girl who bit her mother after watching Where The Wild Things Are, Sci Fi Wire reader Mandy asked, “Some five-year-old isn't clever enough to tell the difference between fiction and reality, so now parents are going to think this is bad for kids?” Answer: Of course the film is bad for kids, at least the ones not old enough to distinguish between reality and fiction. More significantly, everything about the film — from director/co-writer Spike Jonze’s cinematic vision to the film’s marketing by Warner Brothers — demonstrates the persistence of an adult perspective. And from this comes a rather odd conundrum: The film adaptation of a children’s book is all about a child’s experience but is not, in itself, suitable for children.read
	Not Another Obama Column By Frederik Sisa @ 11:00 AM October 13, 2009 Found in: The Recreational Nihilist I can hardly think of anything more overblown and uninteresting than President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize. With the peanut gallery overcome with hysteria and the floor littered with broken hearts torn from chests – where’s Campaign Obama, people ask? Where are the accomplishments? — it seems like there’s nothing else of any importance going on in the world.read
	Fake Anarchists, Useless Politicians, and Fox News By Frederik Sisa @ 1:00 PM October 05, 2009 Found in: The Recreational Nihilist The latest version of Ronald Reagan’s famous statement that “Government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem,” comes from Charles Grassley, the Republican Senator from Iowa. In arguing against a public healthcare insurance option that would allegedly bankrupt the county, Sen. Grassley said “Government is not a competitor. Government is a predator.” He neglected to add “with big fangs, sharp claws, and a really mean disposition.” I wrote about this faux-anarchist anti-publicanism a few months ago, but this time I have to raise the question of motivation and integrity.read

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