New York City and the San Francisco bridge

Recently I saw the movie Man of Steel. Not my favorite superhero movie but I enjoyed it. Towards the end of the movie Superman and his Kripton rivals are duking in out in New York City. This is also quite similar to how The Avengers ended.

What occurred to me is that the fight scenes in both of these movies are similar to the September 11 terrorists attacks. Both destroyed a bunch of buildings, both were in New York City, and both could be considered Terrorist attacks from foreign enemies..

So why do we enjoy watching these movies. When the first tower was attacked on 9/11 if anyone felt anything other than sadness it was confusion. I've heard people tell stories hearing it on the radio and thinking "what, a plane flew into a building?" Others I heard saw it on the news and thought it was movie. After the second tower was attacked it was clear that it was a terrorist attack rather than an accident or hoax.

When watching superhero movies we see the villains attacking several building in NYC or the San Francisco and the movie never confirms that they're empty. When Superman's enemy kryoptonians knock over a building we don't normally think of think of any of the people inside, the people who just lost a spouse or parent, the damage to the environment, or economy.

I don't wish to condemn anyone who enjoyed these movies. But there seems to be an interesting paradox or fallacy at hand.

Ground Zero revisited

Well a few years ago I made a post about ground zero. Well the mosque or cultural center or whatever it was ended up not being built in that location. I feel I need to post about it because I've heard some stuff about it since then that I don't know if I can believe.

First of all. I'm not sure if it actually was a mosque or just a cultural or recreation center.

One thing I also heard that I think is false is that Obama wanted to build it. I've heard this a few times and I don't think that it's true. If I remember Obama is on the record as saying that Muslims have the right to build their building. The response from some was that he wanted to build the project. (This is where some ignorant conservatives must have stopped paying attention) The next response was, "no, he didn't say that he supported it, he just said that they have the right to build it." (This is where some not so ignorant people kept paying attention) And then the president real feelings about the project were left ambiguous. Even Sarah Palin acknowledged the right of the Muslim community to build the building but nobody said she was supporting the project.

I imagine what happened was Obama was in the white house discussing the issue with a few of his staff members and he didn't support the project but also didn't want to offend the Muslim population. And I think the decision they arrived at was for him to make some simple commentary on the first amendment but not express his real feelings but to give the impression that he did. Thus leaving the issue ambiguous.

I've also heard that Obama wants a universal coinage for North America. I've heard that he wants to change the constitution for a third term. And I think I've heard some other stuff that is just false but some people will believe. And that's how the world is.

Female Suspect

These are the words that I saw on a few news articles relating to this weeks's shooting by the United States capital this week. What comes across to me as interesting is that the articles felt that sense the suspect is female, it must be clarified that she is female. So apparently our society feels that the word suspect is more masculine than feminine. Which is probably because big crimes such as this are committed more frequently by men.

Also consider this. Is it as common to hear someone revering somebody else as being a good woman.  I feel that it is a sort of a noble honor to be referred to a good man but there doesn't seem to be an equivalent honor for women. It seems to me that being good is more common or impressive or unusual for men than it is for women. Which very well could be true.

That's me thoughts of today

One more thing.

I saw something on the news about Congress applauding the police officer who was injured in capturing the suspect. I am glad that the District of Columbia has brave police officers who will do their duty at large sacrifice. I am sad that that is one of the only things congress can agree on. The government has been shutdown for four days and my life has been essentially the same. All though that is not the case for Federal government employees who have a hard time making ends meet. Likewise for anyone who needs to get a social security card or passport for any number of important reasons.