Kit's Friday Thoughts: Rubio's Speedboat & Jurassic World

By Kit

Sorry I'm a bit late. I fell asleep last night before I could write it.

Marco Rubio’s Speedboat

The New York Times decided to devote a considerable amount of ink and dead trees to uncovering what they claim are disturbing skeletons in Marco Rubio’s closet. Oral sex from an intern? Nope. Do he and his spouse have a charity foundation that might have been involved in some shady deals? No, not that, either.

Did he drunkenly drive a car into a creek killing a young woman he was having an affair with and then, instead of calling emergency services contact his lawyer who immediately did everything he could to cover it up?

Of course not.

No, what they uncovered was (1) he got 17 tickets over the course of twenty years, (2) he had some financial difficulties in his twenties, and (3) he bought a “luxury speedboat” after his made a bunch of money off his book deal.

Now, let’s take this apart.

(1) I’ve been driving for about 9 years or so and in that time I have received a few warnings, a ticket for an outdated license plate and a ticket failing to stop in. . That’s two. I’ve also gotten probably 3-5 warnings but I can’t remember.. Now, I’ve heard Florida cops are a bit more ticket friendly (with claims of cops being put under massive ticket quotas), so, if you do the math and turn those warnings to tickets then if I lived in Florida I would probably have as many as Rubio.

(2) Rubio’s financial difficulties. When I was somewhere between 3 and 5 my parents, who were about 33-35, hit some financial difficulties. Many people in their twenties and thirties have financial issues. Many have mortgages, student loan debts, etc. Most people have some kind of debt. So, why is this a shock.

(3) As for the “luxury speedboat”, let’s do some comparisons.

Here is a photo of the kind of boat he owns: LINK

Here is a photo of the kind of boat my parents own (and neither of them is not US senators with a book): LINK

And, lastly, here is a photo of the yacht John Kerry owns: LINK

And the interior of John Kerry’s yacht: LINK

Jurassic World

I saw Jurassic World last night. Was it silly? Yes. Did it over-use CGI? Definitely. Did I have fun. Of course!

As long as you don’t expect it to come anywhere near the first one, you’ll have fun. It was better than three and not as pretentious as Lost World. Yes, the dinosaurs are made smart to almost ridiculous levels. I think I had to hold back a small chuckle

As for the characters, they are ok. The two kids are not Tim and Lex and our two leads are not Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler by any stretch. Mosrani is not Hammond. But, on the other hand, you won’t spend the movie hating all of the characters and groaning at their idiotic decisions like you did with Lost World and Jurassic Park 3 (Why take the baby T-Rex back to your juiced-up winnebago? Why not tell Dr. Grant you are looking for your kid? And why build a ^%$#ing Dino park in San Diego?!?! At least on an island its isolated!).

Part of this is because when the characters do make some rather stupid decisions, and this being a Jurassic Park movie you know at least a few will, those decisions are for the most part explained and handled well enough that we believe it —even if we know it won’t end well.

The only glaring exception is Vincent D’Onofrio’s gloriously over-the-top head of security.

So the characters, while not particularly interesting or memorable, are tolerable enough for a two hour movie.

Another thing I liked was that its nods to the original are handled with just enough cleverness that they work on their own while at the same time giving a treat to fans of the original. Unlike, say, J.J. Abrams’ nods to Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan in Star Trek: Into Darkness.

Of course, some might argue that saying “this movie handles its nods to the original better than Star Trek: Into Darkness” is damning with faint praise.

In short, I enjoyed it.

The movie is largely geared to the late-Gen Xers and Millennials who grew up with the movie. We all wanted to visit a real Jurassic Park as kids. We wished for it to be real, despite the obvious dangers present in the movie. Because dinosaurs = awesome.

Case in point; I was about 3 and watched it, as well as the Land Before Time movies, on a near-endless loop. Now, I had no real burning desire to see it until about a week ago when I was walking through Target buying groceries and happened to walk past the toy section, with its cardboard display of two velociraptors jumping out. I took just one look, reversed to my inner 5 year old, and realized “Dammit, now I have to see it.”

In fact, I just might see it again…

Links and Sundry

On Jurassic World, a writer at the Daily Beast attacked the movie for being “Sexist” because the main female lead becomes less corporate obsessed and more maternal towards the two kids in her care or something.
LINK

This, along with the people who attacked Avengers 2 was sexist because she was upset over being sterilized as part of the Black Widow program shows a rather disturbing anti-motherhood trend among certain feminist circles.

LINK

That or they just want an excuse to be offended at something in Western culture. Beats having to discuss the gentile mutilation, stoning, and sexual slavery going on in the Muslim world.

Which might actually be true given that at Vox a writer has decide that saying “You guys” is sexist and compared it to your grand-parent that uses the word “Negro”. I’m not kidding.
LINK

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post where he called for catastrophic climate change skeptics to be charged under RICO. And he’s not the only person to call for this, read the outright glee in the comments at the prospect of people being arrested for holding differing views. If the science is so settled then why is it so many climate change activists would rather bring criminal charges against critics than debate them.*
LINK
I wonder if soon an environmentalist will start claiming that “denying climate change” is traumatic and should be censored on those grounds.

LA cop Jack Dunphy (a pseudonym) has a lot of questions for McKinney police officer Eric Casebolt. It is worth noting that, according to Dunphy, the action that makes the most sense is the decision by Casebolt to pull out his gun. Worth a read.
LINK

Dirty Jobs’s Mike Rowe was attacked by someone for doing “right-wing propaganda.” He replied. LINK

I made a decision today; I’m never having kids. Why? This Reason story on actions taken by the CPS. LINK

People complain a lot about helicopter parenting but it seems if you want to avoid getting put in handcuffs, then it’s the safest route.

Any other thoughts? Anything else you want to discuss?

*For the record; I do think the Earth is getting warmer and that human activity has had some role in that. What I “deny” is that the consequences will be catastrophic; New York City under water, massive extinctions, dogs and cats living together, etcetera.