monkeypup, a blog

I wonder when it was that parents decided to absolve themselves of all parental responsibility. When did society decide that it was no longer a parent’s job to supervise and guide their children? If a kid has problems, it’s no longer an issue of parenting. No. It’s now because of the music they listen to, the video games they play, the television they watch or the websites they go to.

None of this, of course, could be monitored or supervised by a parent. That idea is just ludicrous.

I think I want to take a cue from the lazy, blameless, useless parents out there and start blaming everyone else for my problems. Forget to do something at work? Blame it on Myspace. Hit a car when trying to parallel parking? Blame it on Gran Turismo.

Continue reading ‘We’ve tried nothing, and we’re all out of ideas…’

Currently, there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 or 5 shows dealing with law enforcement agents who (at some time) specialize in handling kidnappings.

Kidnapped is not one of them.

Jeremy Sisto plays a man who doesn’t care about capturing criminals. He doesn’t care about obeying the law. He is willing to kill, torture and maim in order to find and save your loved ones. But it’ll cost you. A lot.

Sisto is the man you call when you don’t want the police involved. As he explains early in the show, the police have more than one goal. They want to rescue the victim, but they also want to capture the criminals and procure evidence to cement convictions. He wants only to get your loved one back and collect his sizeable fee.
Continue reading ‘Kidnapped’

Brainwave, by sci-fi legend Poul Anderson, is one of the best reads I’ve had all year. For a book that’s 52 years old, that’s saying a lot.

Set in the 50s, Brain Wave deals with a cosmic phenomenon that transforms the brain of every man, woman, child and animal on Earth. Almost overnight, the intelligence of every sentient creature on Earth is dramatically increased. The mentally retarded suddenly are capable of lucid and cogent thought. Morons become geniuses, Normal men become super-geniuses. Those who were already geniuses? They become intelligent on a level that defies description. Likewise, animals go from primal, instinctual creatures to thinking beings.

The world is thrown into turmoil as people begin to see how small and ineffective the government truly is. The smartest begin to cure all of mankind’s ills, while those that were stupid before the change struggle to cope with the new and foreign thoughts rushing through their minds. Some farmers, soon realizing that their pigs, cows and sheep are almost as smart as they used to be, have to choose between starving or killing thinking, feeling creatures.

And once mankind has solved its problems and figured out the answers to the greatest scientific questions, what remains for them to do?

Anderson serves up a great, thought-provoking read that asks one central question: Is it better to be ignorant or omniscient? Personally, I’ll pick ignorance, but not everyone will agree at the end of this book. Add it to your reading list now. Now, I said!