Fascism?

I wrote the bulk of this one year ago. It is a comparison between Fascism as proposed by Mussolini in his Doctrine of Fascism written in 1932 and the Republican Party in America as it currently stands in 2012. I was reminded of this rant since the topic of Fascism came up (albeit by me) during the conversation I had in a recent post titled, “Manufactured Outrage,” on 28 February. Please give it a perusal if you haven’t already. Personally, I find the conversation posts to be more interesting than my mono-perspective rants.

I’ve been calling Republican ideals Fascist for a while now. But I’m not doing it in the ignorant, baseless, moronic, fear-mongering way that Republicans proclaim anything not right-wing extreme to be Marxist, communist, Muslim, anti-Constitutional, anti-Christ, Kenyan, no birth certificate, illegals. I base what I say on actual, researchable facts.

But tell me, is my ‘Republican Fascism’ hypothesis wrong?

The problem with not speaking in bumper sticker-length phrases for small minds to comprehend is that this one’s quite lengthy, so make a pot of coffee first.

Enjoy…

Racism: It's What's For Dinner

I’m pretty sure the title gives a good enough set-up for this rant.

Enjoy…

Good 'n' Plenty

Just a few more incidentals running around in my head.

Enjoy…

Manufactured Outrage

I told you in my 14 February post, “Preconceived Reality," to stay tuned for another post about a self-aggrandizing soldier. Though, he isn’t just self-aggrandizing, he’s downright dis-fucking-respectful. And quite shameful to boot.

Other than that, this one’s fun. I lay out a bunch of facts, only to be rebutted with, basically: Nuh-uh. You’re a liar and I’m a soldier, so I’m awesome.

If you’ve been following my blog, you may have noticed a pattern in the Republican thought process. It never varies and is absolutely amazing. I explain it in my last response of this thread.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty – and all the shady characters in between.

Enjoy…

Fun, Fun, Fun!

More random bits of fun.  New levels of insanity, folks. Republicans are really working hard at making America the land of the mindless and the home of the stupid. Go ahead, sing it. I know you want to.

Enjoy...

Fantasy Island Doctrine

Here’s an oldie from when the Arab Spring began almost a year ago. The short discussion started out with a simple misquote that turned into a hoax, which then took a hard right toward fantasy.

The plane, boss! The plane!

Don’t get me wrong, fantasy is fine when you’re roll-playing – either in bed or with Dungeons & Dragons. Just not when dealing with real-world issues. Real-world fantasy can occur when you start from a pre-determined political outcome and attempt to forcibly fit it to your party’s goals. Instead of simply following the truth. Wherever it leads.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty – and all the shady characters in between.

Enjoy…

Shameless Self-Promotion

When not bitching about politics, my day job is to sculpt toys and collectibles. Been doonit nigh on twenny year now. Sorry, that was my ‘old prospector’ voice. He appears every now and then. I have no control over him. That was the first time he showed up in print, though.

Anyway, here are a few reviews for a pair of model kits I sculpted for Fairbanx Models. The models are companion pieces to the old plastic Aurora Model kits of the 60’s. Please buy them. The Fairbanx ones, not the Aurora ones. I’ve already been paid for my work, so I’m not promoting the purchasing of them for personal gain. Wouldn’t mind if you did Fairbanx a solid, though.

Enjoy…

Preconceived Reality

This is another fine example of fact versus fantasy.

After using facts and logic, I’m told I was twisting the truth and providing no facts. This Republican style of pure denial of anything they don’t agree with is a fucking amazing thing to me. I know there have been studies on this subject, but holy shit. It’s like their eyes and ears are just physically unable to process the words and sounds that they don’t like. It’s as if the facts only exist in some ultraviolet and ultrasound environment undetectable to a Conservative’s sensory perception.

Christ.

To be fair, he never says he’s a Republican. But it’s pretty evident from where he gets his opinions told to him. After reading this, decide for yourself.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty – and all the shady characters in between.

Enjoy…

Catholic Condom-nation

Apparently, Obama is waging another war. This time against religious freedom. If I believed the deliriously extreme over-reactions of the political right, Obama wages war on average of three times a week. He’s been in office approximately 156 weeks. Wow. President Obama has waged nearly 468 wars on the American people. I guess I should start building a secret bunker under my house before he gets me.

What the hell am I talking about? Read on, fellow information-seekers…

Sunday Sundries

Just some more random observations and such.

Enjoy...

Mythical Beasties

You know the guy the Republicans say they are running against? 

The guy who made the economy worse. The guy whose policies are destroying jobs. The guy who increased taxes. The guy who doled out the most food stamps ever. The guy who gives everyone else your money. The guy who decreased the military. The guy who's weak on defense. The guy who's weak on fighting terrorism. The guy who's weak on immigration.

Observation Post

This is just another post of random observations I've made going back the last two months or so.

Enjoy...

True Lies

OK. I know I’m a little late to this topic, seeing as how the war in Iraq is over (until next time), but I recently found myself falling down the YouTube rabbit hole. This topic was not the subject of my research. I went searching for 80’s techno-pop music – and somehow ended up on Bill O’Reilly videos. The last one being of Billo the Clown berating a 9-year war veteran because he didn’t agree with Bill’s loaded question.

As is proven time and time again, Bill O’Reilly is a stupid fucking asshole.

Keystone Republi-Cops

Republicans in Congress attached an arbitrary deadline to the payroll tax bill last November – which had nothing to do with payroll taxes. It required President Obama to make a decision on whether or not to approve the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline within two months. The State Department expressed it wouldn’t have the time to conduct environmental impact studies and find viable alternate routes. 

Are You There, Ralph? It's Me, Tim.

I wrote this supplementary to my previous Tim Tebow post (“Ralph Is Not A Vengeful God” – January 4, 2012) because Jesus himself directly told me to. And you can’t say otherwise – you just have to have faith that I’m telling you the truth.

Corporate Personhood

If corporations are people, then they must have done these things…

Circumventing Reality

President Obama appointed Richard Cordray as the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau during congress' winter recess. He did this because in the Republicans' usual manner of putting party before country, they blocked every effort to this appointment in the past. And stated they will continue to do so until the Consumer Protection Bureau's power is whittled down to pointless. Because they don't want people to be protected from corporations' and banks' ability to squeeze every last fucking penny from you using hidden fees, predatory lending and 400% interest rates on payday loans. Follow the profits.

Ralph Is Not A Vengeful GoD

This blog about Tim Tebow was originally in the neighborhood of 300 words. But the longer I sat on it, the larger it grew. I’m posting it now before a continuing incubation period creates an uncontrollable monster impervious to pain and empathy. It’s already almost five times larger than planned.

Enjoy…

Happy Whateverthefuck!

Oh, for the life of Brian. Stop fucking pretending there's a war on Christmas. There is none. No matter what FOX “News” falsely promulgates every single fucking year. Take a walk up your block. Count the amount of homes with Christmas decorations compared to ALL the other celebratory ideologies put together. Christmas: one bazillion. All others lumped together: one. Chances are, there’s a Jewish family on the block somewhere.

Our Kenyan-Born President

“Donny the Clown” Trump was recently spouting again that Obama wasn’t born in America. I guess he wanted to stir up some more extreme right-wing stupidity before his awesome classy debate that everybody would certainly fight to be in since he’s the most important person in the world – well, at least in his dead-squirrel-covered mind. What? It was cancelled due to complete lack of interest by everyone except the second biggest ego in the world, Newt Gingrich? And the most pathetic sack of shit, Rick Santorum?

Don’t Google ‘Santorum.’

I’m inspired to post this Facebook rant from February.

Enjoy...

Filibuster Me? Filibuster You!

These subjects were originally going to be the next two entries in my “¡Vete a la Chingada, los Republicanos!” series, but more and more words kept coming out of the tips of my fingers. And since they have the ‘filibuster’ commonality, my brain then decided on doing some research. And my fingers typed some more.

Then a little bit more.

Here is the result. Enjoy…

A New Pair for the President?

On Monday, 12/5, President Obama said, regarding Republicans trying to stop the continuation of the payroll tax cuts for hardworking taxpayers*, "Now, I know many Republicans have sworn an oath** [to lobbyist, Grover Norquist] never to raise taxes as long as they live. How could it be that the only time there's a catch is when it comes to raising taxes on middle class families? How can you fight tooth and nail to protect high-end tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and yet barely lift a finger to prevent taxes going up for 160 million Americans who really need the help? It doesn't make sense."

The Republican response to this statement was (predictably) that these tax cuts need to be paid for.

No More Immunity Shots

Massachusetts has filed the first major lawsuit against the nation's biggest banks for unfair and deceptive foreclosure practices.

In the past, banks just negotiated a minuscule settlement (bribe) to cover up their illegal practices. This lawsuit will end that.

Spin Cycle

Republican expert language manipulator, Conservative pollster and top FOX contributor Frank Luntz has now entered the Occupy Wall Street fray. 

Horse Meat Horse Shit

Ok. There's some horseshit (heh) going around about President Obama making horse meat legal for human consumption. Let me clear up this lie.

Thought Bomb

Again, a bunch of things quickly piled up in my brain. To dole them out one-by-one would take too much time. So, I'm opening the bay doors and releasing them all at once.

Enjoy...

Bullshit, Inc.

I can't quite recall how many times I've pointed out how FOX "News" lies all the time about everything. Somewhere between 1 and 1,000. But let's go there again...

Mirror, Mirror

Do I live in some sort of self-contradicting universe where what is, simultaneously isn’t?

Corporations are America

The Occupy Wall Street movement is a little over two months old. Relatively still an infant as far as protest movements go. At this point, the targets of this protest movement should still not be concerned. Comparatively, women still did not have the right to vote, blacks were still segregated, Vietnam was still in full swing, hell, there were still slaves for decades and decades and decades. Even alcohol was still legal – the only Constitutional amendment that ever took away a right. None of the people opposed to these movements were concerned.

And as far as I know, the LGBT community still has a long battle ahead regarding civil rights equality...

No Sympathy For The Devil

You know why the rest of the world is not only sympathetic toward, but also joining America in #Occupy? Because, I think for the first time since the 60's/early 70's, they see the same thievery and brutality exhibited by the American government toward its own citizens as they see regularly in their own countries. They see America much like their own countries in that our oppressive rich and arrogant 1% is very much like their oppressive rich and arrogant 1%. Solidarity among the citizens of the world.

In my humble opinion.

And even though the "main stream" media seems to miss all these "main stream" events, we have the internet revolution to fill in...

Self-Restraint

We all have Facebook friends that are really just casual acquaintances. When they post something stupid, I usually ignore it. Because contrary to popular belief (mostly my own), I do not go looking for battles (mostly).

Sometimes, I type something out and catch myself before hitting 'enter.' Then I delete my response.

Here is one such instance...

You Lie!

Originally posted on Facebook 2/7/11

I saw a political cartoon the other day that was blatantly biased. It pissed me off.

As an artist myself, I usually enjoy political cartoons. No matter which party it favors, I can appreciate the talent and effort behind its creation.

If it’s honest…

Fact vs. Truth

Being biased is usually fairly innocuous. Bias toward a sports team can lead to a beer gut and yelling at the TV. Bias toward a comicbook superhero can lead to being a nerd and a 40 year-old virgin. Bias toward a political party can lead to, well, yelling at the TV.

However, being biased to an extreme, just like anything in its extreme form, can be dangerous…

Strafing Run

Normally, I have either lengthy rants or lengthy discussions to post. Here is a collection of short points all laid down in rapid succession.

Take cover.

Don't worry, they're just words.

Enjoy...

I Know You Are, But What Am I?

It’s always fun to see Republicans get angry at things Democratic politicians do, but not angry at Republican politicians for doing the same exact thing. Especially when Republicans did it first.

It’s also always fun to listen to Republicans accuse Democrats of playing the “Blame Game” and insist it doesn’t matter how something happened – when Republicans are at fault. Then immediately blame Obama or Clinton or Carter for things that Bush and Reagan and Ford did.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty – and all the shady characters in between.

Enjoy…

Occupy Richard

 

You can’t stop Richard. But the United States Military can.

Here’s more right-wing extremist nonsense delivered against the Occupy Movement with all the self-righteous outrage he could muster. He even posted a right-wing extremist article full of invented “facts” to back him up. Apparently, George Soros is funding the world.

I don’t think for a second that the real information I supplied was the reason that Richard removed this thread from his Facebook page. I've been giving him real information for a couple years now, and he hasn't ever removed anything. I’m certain it had to do with the combat veteran friend of his that called him out on his psychotic bullshit.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty – and all the shady characters in between.

Enjoy…

99% Fantasy League

Ah, yes. My buddy, Richard is at it again. The Occupy movement is just a bunch of lazy, want-everything-for-free idiots that praise Obama, who is the most corrupt President we’ve ever had. And it’s up to big corporations to save us from his tyranny. Rich people are our saviors. Except for rich actors and sports stars, who are also part… of… the… problem…?

Yo no sé.

Talk about complete submission to an ideology and total lack of independent thought. Oh – did I forget to mention he’s a Republican?

And since I've been posting these debates in sort of a random order, this one will introduce Richard's brother. He's been in previous ones, but I'm kind of on an Occupy Wall Street kick, so here he is. It's OK. He uses that smooshy thing between his ears. Unlike a certain brother of his who shall remain anonymous.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty – and all the shady characters in between.

Enjoy…

Violent Dems

There are not always equal sides to every issue. The very nature of Conservatives and Liberals is a perfect example. The extreme versions are of violent, militant absolutism vs. wishy-washy peaceniks.

Which is why I find it amusing when Conservatives try to proclaim Liberals to be just as violent whenever defending against some act of right-wing violence. Somehow, I don’t view dousing yourself in patchouli oil and breaking into labs at night to free animals quite as violent as attempting to assassinate people.

My friend Mark posted this link on Facebook regarding the attempted assassination of Representative Kathy Giffords. A short thread of responses follow. I’m also going to include my two fairly short Facebook rants about the same subject in this blogpost because I don’t feel it necessary to spread this topic out any further.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty – and all the shady characters in between.

Enjoy…

Occupy Brainpan

In response to my previous post about Occupy Wall Street, I feel like giving you a taste of the uneducated lemming mentality. My buddy Richard posted this. His original post and the entire thread that followed was so unmitigatingly ignorant of reality (with a few exceptions toward the end), I couldn’t bring myself to post on it. If I did, there would only have been a string of curse words following “You.” I thought it best to abstain.

You’ll be able to distinguish between the ones blindly repeating the right-wing narrative and the ones at least using common sense. I'll be adding my little obnoxious zingers throughout the thread because it's fun.

If you get mad at the stupidity, remember – do not break your computer. It is not your computer’s fault.

Stick around until the end. I will post my response to this ignorance in the form of a few excellent videos.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty – and all the shady characters in between.

Enjoy…

The Whole World is Watching

Are you The 99 Percent?

On Saturday, the Occupy Wall Street protesters intended to march from Liberty Plaza (Zuccotti Park) over the Brooklyn Bridge to Brooklyn Bridge Park and gather there to eat. Since the police blocked the footpath over the bridge for no apparent reason but to force marchers onto the road, the protesters filed onto the road. 700 arrests were made. Well done, crime starters - I mean, stoppers.

Belligerent Obstinacy

I absolutely love this one.

In the past, I’ve listed these tactics Republicans (or any other liars) use during a debate to push their factless, biased, agendas: Ignore facts and switch to a different topic or deny facts and continue repeating things that were made up or ignore facts and never comment again. Some other debate tactics are to get personal and name-call, or proclaim that you are doing what they’re actually doing (like, after they lie and you point out the lie, they say ‘You’re lying!’), or say a whole bunch of things that have nothing to do with the topic in an attempt to obfuscate. All of these are the tactics of people who are not working from facts and instead rely on making things up. Eventually, when you run out of lies, you have to figure out how to evade or deflect.

This fucking twit is the mother lode. He becomes unhinged pretty quickly.

This doesn’t really need a setup. It’s pretty self-explanatory.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty – and all the shady characters in between. Normally, I would correct the spelling, but in this case it lends to the authenticity and production quality of this episode.

Enjoy…

The Joy of Debating

This was the first time I posted a “conversation” as one of my rants. I’ll let the original intro speak for itself. Just ignore the allusion that it’s the first time I’ve done this. Y’ know, since I’ve done it several times on this blog already. And I think I only corrected spelling when it was so bad that it distracted from the narrative.

*                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

Usually when I post something here, you have to just take my opinion. All you can do is read what I ramble on furiously and incoherently about. Not this time. This time I have posted a transcript of one of the many political philosophy debates in which I seem to involve myself on ‘the Facebook.’ An actual two-sided debate with a choice of contestants you can root for. Debate that tackles tough questions such as: Do tax cuts for the rich create jobs? Am I a racist? Do facts count as facts if the information is filtered through a predetermined viewpoint with an intended outcome? If a kitchen sponge really wore pants, would it stay square or would it kind of pinch in a bit, rounding off the corners?

Well, it tackles most tough questions…

Cognitive Dissonance…

 …means holding conflicting ideas simultaneously; disagreeing with what you know. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance (lack of agreement). They do this by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and actions. Dissonance is also reduced by justifying, blaming, and denying.

I’m trying to find alternatives to titling most of my posts about Republicans, “Fucking Hypocrites.” ‘Why,’ you may ask? Because to Republicans, when a Republican does something, it’s a glorious, patriotic, freedom-loving act, but if a Democrat (or anyone else, for that matter) does the exact same thing, then 9.9999 times out of 10, it’s a satan-worshipping, communist-loving, freedom-hating act. Now, I’m probably going to want to title all my posts ‘Cognitive Dissonance.’

My friend, Mark, posted a link to a FOX “News” video about a rock band, Clutch. He lightly expressed his bemusement that the conservative site would do a story about this type of music. Following his lead, I made a wisecrack about a BP commercial before the clip. That was it. No politics.

Then Kathy entered the thread.

She’s another one you’ll get to know on this blog, like the aforementioned Richard on previous posts.

Ah, conservatives. Ya gotta love their cognitive dissonance.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty – and all the shady characters in between.

Enjoy…

Disputing Death-Desirous 'Baggers

Explaining something plainly. Laying out the facts. Having video proof to back it up.

Only a Republican can, with complete confidence, say it’s not true. And fight over it.

And my buddy Richard is a fucking Republican ninja master at blatant truth denying.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty – and all the shady characters in between.

Enjoy…

The Greatest Speech Ever Made

This was always one of my favorite movie moments by one of the greatest comedians ever. Ironic that it's not a funny clip.  Someone added a video compilation to it. It's quite effective. Please take a look.

The Greatest Speech Ever Made

The Rick Perry Chronicles

I don’t know if I have a special place in my bowels for Texas’ Republican Governor, Rick Perry or not. I seem to hate him quite a bit, though. I think it’s because he is a master of hypocrisy and lies. And as you should know by now, hypocrisy and lies really, really fucking piss me off.

Also, he seems to be stupid.

He’s a lying, hypocritical idiot. The Republican trifecta of qualifications to run for office.

Oop. I forgot “Super Christian.” Would that make it a quadfecta?

Here is a list of random statements I’ve made about Perry and the subsequent comments.

Before compiling this list, I honestly hadn’t realized how many times I made comments about this knob.

I will most likely write more about him, so this list is certain to be premature, but if I don’t post it now… when?

The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty – and all the shady characters in between.

Enjoy…

Three Rants for the Price of One!

I wrote three mini-rants and felt they were too small on their own, so I stuck them all together and posted them as a triple-rant.

The first is about the small-minded FOX "News" misinformation-fueled Christian assholes hypocritically protesting the Islamic community center proposed for construction in lower Manhattan.

The second is about “Fair and Balanced” Rupert Murdoch.

The third is about tax cuts for the rich and the lie that wealth trickles down.

Enjoy…

Twin Tower Cameos from Dan Meth on Vimeo.

It's Politically Correct, Assface

I love the Republican mindset. Every situation is always some sort of extreme. Always. Like allowing gays to marry will without a doubt lead to people marrying goats. Unemployment insurance without a doubt makes people stop working and just live off the system. Limiting magazine capacity to ten bullets will without a doubt lead to the government taking away our guns and controlling our lives.

But more on that absurd way of thinking in later posts.

My buddy, Richard, posted this on Facebook. You will get to know Richard for the close-minded, Rush Limbaugh mis-information regurgitating, public gun-toting, right-wing lemming that he is as my posts go on. But for now I’d like to share this post of his with you. I had written out a response, but before I entered it into the thread, I deleted it. I just didn’t feel like getting into it. Why bother? It would just have been considered left-wing, liberal, tree-hugging hippie, communist, atheist, homo-talk.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty – and all the shady characters in between.

Enjoy…

The Conservative Hypocritic Oath

I fucking hate hypocrisy. And Republicans are king. There will be a whole bunch of calling out Republicans on their hypocrisy on this blog.

Did I mention I fucking hate hypocrisy?

This is a typical right-wing bullshit half-truth smear tactic.

I will entertain that this may not be a deliberate smear tactic. That it’s an honest belief by the right-wing that when Republicans do something, it’s always OK and when Democrats do that very same thing, it’s never OK.

But it’s probably a typical right-wing bullshit half-truth smear tactic.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty – and all the shady characters in between.

Non Sequitur Maher

This thread was originally posted on Facebook on May 29, 2010 and seems a little quaint compared to what’s going on in politics now, but it still makes sense. The clip from Bill Maher that started it all is irrelevant to the subsequent discussion, but it is relevant in and of itself. I suggest you watch it.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty – and all the shady characters in between. Normally, I would correct the spelling, but in this case it lends to the authenticity and production quality of this episode.

Enjoy…

A Conversation With The Decider

Originally posted on Facebook 6/9/10…

I was simply going to display my disgust and revulsion toward our last president’s recent nonchalant admission of committing the international crime of torture by waterboarding (previously prosecuted by the United States in the War of 1812, WWII, Vietnam, etc, etc) and then happily express he’d do it again (seeing as how he’s a complete fucking idiot), but my brain synapses kept firing. This scripted dialogue is the result. Yes, it’s full of facts. Yes, it’s a bit lengthy. That’s how I roll. Deal.

Tea For Who?

This was something I wrote on April 21, 2010. I think I was very kind in my description of the Teabaggers. Who knew what the enormous clusterfuck America would become as a direct result of their takeover of the Republican Party (But let’s face it, they’re really just the uneducated extreme right-wing of the Republican Party, not anything new. One more step to the right and they’ll actually be in a militia group.). Had I written this today - well, let’s just say I think I was very kind in my description…

The Definition of Marriage - in 1828

The following is a lengthy FaceBook thread from November 4, 2009 (there will be lengthier). They had just voted against allowing gay marriage in Maine and a friend posted her anger toward the decision. It’s edited to keep it more or less on topic. Sometimes these things go off on crazy tangents. Oddly, or not so oddly, cock-sucking became a side topic on this one – not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Also, I didn’t originally enter the fray for a while, but I will add a few interjections now. I wouldn’t have involved myself at all because things were going well, but people who base their lives on the close-minded, infinitely looping, re-translated and re-interpreted, double, triple, quadruple speak of millennia-old religious books really piss me off.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty – and all the shady characters in between. I have also corrected spelling – because that drives me nuts.

Enjoy!...

Health Uncare

As I explained in the "About Me" section, I started these posts on FaceBook. I will re-post them here in the order they were originally posted to keep you up to speed as to where I've been and where I'm going. As new ideas form, I will post them here also.

Some of the information may be out of date and you may not understand some of the references because this is a year and a half old.

Originally posted on March 24, 2010...

Freethought Rantifesto

As I explained in the "About Me" section, I started these posts on FaceBook. I will re-post them here in the order they were originally posted to keep you up to speed as to where I've been and where I'm going. As new ideas form, I will post them here also.

This is the rant that started it all. I didn't know what I wanted to say, specifically, but I knew I had things to say. And it all came out in one, long blob. This is not the way my rants will play out in later posts. This one is unique. More of a potpourri of topics all mixed in one bowl. Later ones are more singularly focused. 

Some of the information may be out of date and you may not understand some of the references because this is a year and a half old.

I hope you enjoy it anyway...