I do know of him and your comment inspired me to do a little Internet searching which quickly led me to this: http://www.upworthy.com/neil-d...

Except for the part about having too much gore, I completely disagree with you. It does falter a bit when it tries to switch between comedy and action modes as the plot to kill Kim Jong Un unravels. But it still works well as a satire of our celebrity obsessed media culture.

James Franco plays his character perfectly. (Granted his character is the sort of smug, smarmy asshole which is not a huge stretch from Franco's current media image.) Kim is more than just a caricature here. He is portrayed as a charismatic master manipulator with breathtaking daddy issues. A lot of the movie looks cheap and fake but even that very fakeness starts to make sense when you see just how far Kim is willing to go to make his "worker's paradise" seem real.

So while this movie may not work for film aficionados who only like the kind cinematic masterpieces put out the Herzogs, Kurosawas, and Michael Bays of this world it is funny and watchable. Obviously if Seth Rogan and James Franco give you a huge hate boner, this is not the film for you. But if you usually like their work, you'll enjoy this movie too.

These people are already part of the workforce and are already competing for low wage jobs (in some sectors like agriculture, they are only competing against each other because American citizens don't do those jobs). If anything this change in immigration law takes away some of the leverage that employers could traditionally use against these people.

Does the ESA use RTGs in its missions? The impression I got from TFA is that it doesn't.

Dead Like Me. A girl is killed by a toilet seat from the deorbiting space station. She became a grim reaper because that's what happens to people who aren't ready to "move on" in that show's universe. I think it lasted three seasons.

So it was never about ethics in journalism? It was about Obama with gaming journalism as a metaphor for health care reform? OK.

Except that it's not a rich dude blowing $100k of his own money, at least not yet. It's two "ordinary" people risking their lives so rich people won’t have to. It's a little like crashing a luxury car with real, living human beings instead of crash test dummies. I'm exaggerating for effect here because that was basically TFA's argument, that this is going to be a thrill ride for the rich and not a way to explore space so why are people dying?

But as TFA also points out, a lot of worthwhile endeavors start out with less than laudable goals. The Apollo program started as a way to win a pissing contest with the Russians. It's possible that a space tourism industry might turn out to be a training ground where the astronauts who will explore Mars develop and hone their skills.

I suppose that causation could work both ways. In my experience some atheists can be just as close-minded and judgemental as some religious fanatics. So anything that helps either group think about their beliefs and why they hold those beliefs is ultimately a good thing.

In fact this sounds a lot like the Harvard grads only dating site the Winklevoss twins claimed that Mark Zuckerberg stole from them and and turned into Facebook. I wouldn't be surprised if this website also fails and turns into a footnote in some other tech billionaire's life story.

While I suppose that this kind of attitude, if indeed she does think this way, would make her a terrible Secretary of Labor or Commerce, the office of CTO of the United States would require a different way of thinking than other departments of the Executive Branch. Presumably her job, if she gets it, would require her to apply technology to policy problems. If that is the case, then somebody "brought up in the culture of Google solutionism" would be perfect for a position like this one.

A less polite person might suggest that the parent comment meant to use "phallacy" as a synonym for "dickheadedness" which may not technically be a word but let's face it, we've all had days when we wished that it was one.

You seem to be filled with paranoia, an easy sense of outrage, and distrust of all media. Are you by any chance a news pundit?

Vader was Luke and Leia's father and embittered by years of service to the emperor. He deliberately hired incompetent engineers and starship captains in hopes that his children would be able to fix his mistakes and help him kill the emperor.

I think you're conflating several batshit insane religious nutjob theories. I've heard some Mormons for example suggest that black people suffered from slavery because they were descended from Cam, Noah's youngest son who was cursed for ridiculing Noah who was the one who got drunk and naked in his tent.

The part about the lost tribes of Israel I've seen comes from certain evangelical groups as a justification for America's westward expansion (and the death and destruction for American Indians that came with it). Basically Jacob, the ancestor of all the Isrealites, promised his favorite son Joseph that his own sons, Manassas and Ephraim, would give rise to great nations of their own. Flash forward a couple thousand years and somehow these two lost tribes of Israel go on to found England and another group of them breaks away and founds a little country called the United States of America. So basically according these groups, WASPS (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) were destined for greatness by God because they are a lost tribe of Israel. This was a hugely mind-blowing idea when I first heard it at age twelve.

The point of all this nostalgia for a more superstitious time is that the same people who are coming up with all these crazy ideas are the same people who are trying to make Creationism sound scientific. And a lot of them are perfectly nice, friendly people so it's not like you want to (or even can if they're family) cut them out of your life. Eventually mocking them with tales of Flying Spaghetti Monsters gets tiring and you just find yourself talking about sports.....