Much the same as with the Spiderman franchise, I admit I'm not the biggest fan of the Shrek movies. Sure, the first two had some pretty funny parts, but I never really found the Donkey character amusing as much as just plain annoying, and I've always had a real problem enjoying any movie featuring the "talents" of Antonio Banderas.
Still, I had high hope for the third of what will probably be an endless series of Shrek movies, Shrek the Third. The previews had some funny scenes, and I figured they'd continue, or even improve, on the cultural references that make the movies worthwhile for adults. They also brought Eric Idle on board, and I figured he'd probably be pretty funny.
I went to the 6 o'clock showing at my neighborhood cineplex; the theater was about 2/3 full. First, the good -- the computer-generated animation was incredible; I sometimes forgot I was watching CGI. Now, the bad. The movie is billed as a comedy, but at the end I realized that I hadn't laughed once. It turns out that essentially all the funny parts were in the trailers, so I didn't see anything that surprised me in a humorous way. The target audience (8 year old kids) seemed quite amused, but even my teenage sons didn't really see any real humor in the story. The new characters (Merlin and Arthur) were incredibly badly written, and actively detracted from any enjoyment I had watching the film.
This is a movie to watch in the theater if you're a really big Mike Myers or Eddie Murphy fan, or if you have pre-teen kids who like Shrek. Overall, the only thing that keeps me from giving this movie "the finger" is the incredible animation; because of that, it gets two unfunny ogres out of five.
Profiling?
Sex offenders have higher rate of mental illness
Well, duh!
There's something wrong with them.
Talk about a two-fer!
That's only "conventional wisdom" for bleeding heart "experts" who get a kick out of blaming society rather than admitting something is wrong with the perp.
And we find out not only are rapists identifiably sick in the head, but murderers are even moreso!
The sex offenders only looked relatively sane in comparison to the killers...way to go, Einstein...
They just gloss over that, with only a slight nod to political correctness:
An "important minority", perhaps?
At least?
Well, duh!
There's something wrong with them.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Men convicted of rape or other sexual offenses have a much higher-than-average rate of serious mental illness and history of psychiatric hospitalization, a new study suggests.Whoa!
The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, run counter to conventional wisdom. Experts have traditionally held the view that the mentally ill are not more likely to be sexual offenders.
However, part of this belief may stem from comparisons with people convicted of murder, who appear to have a higher rate of psychiatric disorders than sex offenders do.
Talk about a two-fer!
That's only "conventional wisdom" for bleeding heart "experts" who get a kick out of blaming society rather than admitting something is wrong with the perp.
And we find out not only are rapists identifiably sick in the head, but murderers are even moreso!
The sex offenders only looked relatively sane in comparison to the killers...way to go, Einstein...
The new study, in contrast, compared male sexual offenders with men in the general population. It found that offenders were six times more likely to have ever been hospitalized for a mental illness.Hey, sounds like profiling, doesn't it?
This raises the possibility that identifying and treating these disorders could lower the odds of offenders repeating their crimes, said lead study author Dr. Seena Fazel of Oxford University in the UK.
"The criminal justice system needs to be aware that people who shows signs of being unwell need to be assessed," he told Reuters Health.
They just gloss over that, with only a slight nod to political correctness:
The findings should not be used to stigmatize people with psychiatric disorders, according to Fazel. "Most people with a mental illness do not commit sexual offenses," he pointed out.The study appears rather solid:
However, he added, the study does suggest that "an important minority" of sexual offenders have serious psychiatric disorders.
Fazel and his colleagues based their findings on data from Sweden's system of population registers, which includes databases on criminal convictions and hospitalizations for psychiatric illness.Hmmm, how much more likely are terrorists to be muslim than some other religion?
The researchers compared 8,495 men convicted of sexual offenses between 1988 and 2000 with a sample of 19,935 men from the general population.
Sex offenders were five times more likely to have been hospitalized for schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders, and were three times more likely to have a history of bipolar disorder.
They also had a four-fold greater risk of alcohol or drug dependence, and were 30 times more likely to have been diagnosed with a personality disorder.
An "important minority", perhaps?
At least?
"Hey Everybody, We're All Gonna Get Lei'd"
Navy NewsStand has a picture from the commissioning ceremony of USS Hawaii (SSN 776). Not surprisingly, the whole crew is (are?) wearing leis:
If you download the high-res shot, you'll get a good look at the boat's photonics masts.
If you download the high-res shot, you'll get a good look at the boat's photonics masts.
In Modern Submarines, Duty Officers Do NOT Have A "Standby" Switch...
... even though they seem to in the 11th episode of the very popular "Hey, Shipwreck" video series, posted earlier today:
For more from the creator of the series, Patrick Hrabe, check out the interview he did with Wendy and Marie of SubmarineWife.com.
For more from the creator of the series, Patrick Hrabe, check out the interview he did with Wendy and Marie of SubmarineWife.com.
CO Of USS Helena Relieved For Cause
Navy Times reported last night that CDR William A. Schwalm was relieved as CO of USS Helena (SSN 725) for "loss of confidence". Excerpts from the article:
Update 2312 20 May: Navy Times reports that five Navy COs have been fired in the last five weeks. Looks like a bad trend.
(Commodore) Jaenichen made his decision based on “just a pattern of performance over time that was consistently not meeting the standards” expected of a commanding officer, Myrick said. The captain lost confidence “in his ability to maintain the Helena crew’s proficiency and level of readiness.”The official Navy press release is here. I knew Bill Schwalm as a fellow Shift Eng and later Materials Officer at NPTU Charleston. He was always very professional; I'm sorry to see him lose his command.
Schwalm had assumed command of Helena on June 9 and led the submarine on a two-month deployment to the U.S. Southern Command region. He has been temporarily reassigned to a position at Naval Mine and Anti-submarine Warfare Command in San Diego, Myrick said.
Jaenichen assigned Cmdr. Daryl L. Caudle, his deputy at the submarine squadron, as the temporary commander of Helena until a permanent skipper is named. Caudle most recently had command of the fast-attack boat, Jefferson City.
Schwalm, a native of Petersburg, Mich., who was commissioned into the Navy in 1987, has served on five submarines, including the fast-attack submarine Philadelphia, where he served as the executive officer, according to his official biography. His other submarine assignments include the Daniel Webster, Sea Devil and Alabama.
Update 2312 20 May: Navy Times reports that five Navy COs have been fired in the last five weeks. Looks like a bad trend.
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