- He may not be convincing when he attempts to pull off badass characters on the big screen, but apparently Jake Gyllenhaal can play the part in real life. Then again, anyone who found themselves in the position the actor ended up facing while in Austin, Tex. at the SXSW Film Festival where he was promoting his new film Source Code, would probably channel their inner Jason Bourne and look to unleash hell on the person responsible. Seems that Gyllenhaal, in proving that celebrities have to empty their bladders just like the rest of us, was in a public restroom when some ass hat attempted to photograph him at the urinal. That’s right, whoever this joker was, he blew right by the usual dude’s code of not talking to anyone you don’t know in a public restroom and keeping your eyes straight ahead when using the facilities and he broke out his phone to take a picture of a famous person urinating. The details of what happened next are up for debate and as usual, the truth likely falls somewhere in the middle, but let’s hear the competing versions of the story and agree to go with the most sensational one, k? First, there is the rumor of a heated scuffle in the theater bathroom last night as a fan tried to take the picture in question. When asked about it, Gyllenhaal laughingly replied, "That's true. I think it's an appropriate space to keep privacy. I hope that people wouldn't disagree with me on that." Various Twitter feeds of media members at the festival quickly hyped the story up to the point where Gyllenhaal grabbed the fan mid-photo, threw him against the wall and asked, 'Are we really gonna do this right now?'" Obviously, the is the most interesting take on what actually happened and as such, I wish everyone would just agree to stick with this version of the story. But of course, Gyllenhaal’s publicist had to weigh in with a toned-down take and explained, "There was no scuffle, it was an excited fan who tried to take his picture in the restroom. He asked the guy to please delete it and he did! No drama." No drama…..and totally boring. That take on the tale is nothing more than a little pervy and disgusting, but certainly not interesting. I’ll stick with Option A…………
- If you’re a WNBA player, what are you doing with a Twitter account? That’s the first question New York Liberty guard Cappie Pondexter should be asking herself, even before she asks what the hell she was thinking firing off tweets implying that the tragic earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan over the weekend were somehow God punishing Japan for their attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 or other, more recent misdeeds. On Saturday, Pondexter tweeted: "What if God was tired of the way they treated their own people in there own country! Idk guys he makes no mistakes." That would have been more than enough to spark an Internet uproar on account of being an insensitive tool to victims of the earthquake and tsunami, but Pondexter was a long way from done. She later tweeted: "u just never knw! They did pearl harbor so u can't expect anything less." But wait……there’s more. When someone was so thin-skinned as to object to her words, Pondexter also used the derogatory term "jap," in addressing the complaint. For some odd reason, that one Twitter user wasn’t the only one to object. The Anti-Defamation League in New York issued a statement on Pondexter's remarks. "Cappie Pondexter's words show the endurance of long-held bigoted and prejudiced attitudes toward the Japanese, even from young Americans in today's society whose only knowledge of the Second World War comes from history books and popular culture," Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham H. Foxman said. Again, I feel the need to ask: What is a WNBA player doing with a Twitter account? Does Pondexter know that she’s a WNBA player and not an athlete in a real, legitimate league? No one cares what WNBA players think on any subject, just like no one cares if or when the league ever plays another game, when its season takes place (Fall? Winter?) or who any of the players are. But technically Pondexter is an athlete and as such, she needs to realize that Twitter is a loaded gun for those not smart enough to know how to use it properly. At present, there is no idiot or bigot filter on Twitter, meaning users must filter out outdated, hateful stereotypes from their own speech. Instead, Pondexter posted an apology to her Twitter account Monday morning. "I wanna apologize to anyone I may hurt or offended during this tragic time," the tweet said. "I didn't realize that my words could be interpreted in the manner which they were. People that knw me would tell u 1st hand I'm a very spiritual person and believe that everything, even disasters happen 4 a reason and that God will shouldn't be questioned but this is a very sensitive subject at a very tragic time and I shouldn't even have given a reason for the choice of words I used. The least thing I wanted was to hurt or offend anyone so again I truly apologize. If you've lost respect for me that's totally fine but please don't let me or my words lose the respect of u the WNBA and what it stands for.” So, so many things wrong with that apology. First, you didn’t realize people would interpret your remarks as hate speech against Japanese people? Why, because implying that God is harboring a 70-year grudge for Pearl Harbor and that a natural disaster killing thousands of innocent people is punishment for that and other misdeeds isn't offensive? Also, no one is going to lose respect for the WNBA over your words because no one has any respect for the WNBA in the first place. Given ten guesses on which WNBA team you play for, the average sports fan probably still would not guess correctly. For the record, Pondexter averaged a career-best 21.4 points per game for the Liberty last season and that could not matter less in any context……….
- Stoners, California may not be your primary safe haven if state lawmakers in Connecticut have their way. A public hearing took place today at 10 a.m. at the legislative office building in Hartford to discuss several bills that would push to legalize marijuana in Connecticut. There are several ideas on the table, but the bill that seems to have the best chance of gaining wider support is one that would allow doctors to prescribe the drug for people suffering from certain medical conditions. An unusual voice of support for the bills has come from John Lorenzo, a former chief of marine police with the Lake Lillinonah Authority, who testified at the hearing. "The current law forces police officers in Connecticut to waste hour after hour chasing marijuana users, arresting them and processing their cases," he said. "If we decriminalized marijuana in this state, police could solve more burglaries, rapes and murders, and it would free up jail space and save the dollars wasted on keeping otherwise ordinary citizens incarcerated. Marijuana prohibition does nothing to protect public safety. It only threatens it." Well said, good sir. While that argument isn't any different than the ones stoners and their supporters have been using across the country for decades, it is no less true today than it was those many years ago. Stoners make this world a better place, not a worse one. They aren’t out committing crimes and hassling society’s more productive members; they are firmly planted on their couch or beanbag chair, taking another bong rip and watching South Park or the new Planet Earth DVD they just got while alternating between handfuls of Funjuns and Cheetos with the occasional Pop Tart mixed in for variety. How is that hurting anyone? Lorenzo and the organization he now represents, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, an international group of police officers, judges, corrections officials, border agents and other criminal justice professionals supporting the legalization of the chronic, are on the right track. With bills decriminalizing possession of marijuana and others legalizing the medical use of marijuana for people whose doctors said it could help them, there has never been a better chance for potheads who cannot tolerate California’s warmer climate to find an ideal place to live that suits their needs. Fifteen other states and Washington D.C. have already legalized the use of medicinal marijuana and Connecticut would do well to join them. A poll conducted last week by Quinnipiac University showed Connecticut voters supported decriminalizing marijuana by a 65-32 margin and allowing medicinal marijuana by a 79-17 margin. The poll showed that support to be consistent across political parties and among all age groups, perhaps because citizens believe that the $130 million Connecticut currently spends enforcing marijuana prohibition laws every year would be better used elsewhere…………
- What’s the rush, India? Why are you so eager to stock up on weapons? Last I checked, it was North Korea and Iran that were the clubhouse leaders for nation most likely to start World War III. But according to the latest report from Swedish arms control watchdog SIPRI on trends in international arms transfers, India has been on a massive arms-buying spree over the last five years. According to SIPRI, India received 9 percent of the volume of international arms transfers during 2006–10, with Russian deliveries accounting for 82 percent of Indian arms imports. “Indian imports of major conventional weapons are driven by a range of factors. The most often cited relate to rivalries with Pakistan and China as well as internal security challenges,” said Siemon Wezeman of the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme. “As an importer, India is demanding offsets and transfers of technology to boost its own arms industry, and, in order to secure orders, major suppliers are agreeing to such demands.” The issuing and fulfilling of those demands has vaulted India past traditional arms-acquiring powers like China, South Korea and Pakistan, which occupy the next three spots on the list, and fellow up-and-comer Greece, which landed in fifth place. Other high finishers of note during the time period from 2006–10 were the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Egypt and Algeria. The report also does a bit of forecasting for the neat future and predicts that based on existing orders and known procurement plans, Saudi Arabian and Moroccan arms imports will rise significantly in the coming years. The one glaring omission from the top weapons importers is Libya, site of arguably the most heated battle for power currently raging anywhere around the globe. Leave it to Pieter Wezeman of the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme to explain that: “Although Libya placed only limited orders for major conventional weapons following the lifting of the UN arms embargo in 2003, in recent years it has served as an excellent illustration of the competition between major suppliers France, Italy, Russia and the UK for orders.” With so many weapons shipment moving all around the world, the obvious question is where these arms are coming from. Duh……the United States, helping the world blow itself up since……pretty much as long as we’ve existed. And rumors of America’s demise notwithstanding, the U.S. is still an unchallenged No. 1 in arms exports with 30 percent of the market compared to No. 2 Russia's 23 percent. Say it with me, everyone: U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A…………
- Daylight Savings Time is probably not a favorite occurrence of iPhone users at the moment. As all of America turned its clocks ahead one hour before going to bed Saturday night so as to not show up one hour late for whatever they were doing first Sunday, anyone relying on their iPhone to wake them up received an unpleasant surprise and an unpleasant surprise two hours late, at that. Apple was flooded with complaints Sunday from iPhone users claiming their phone's clock did not correctly adjust to the daylight saving time change. Some said their phone’s clock moved back one hour instead of moving forward and others saying their clock jumped forward and then jumped back. Those users had probably set the date and time preferences on their iPhone can be set to automatic, which is supposed to calibrate the time to that of the operator that provides service to the phone. With software programmed to account for daylight saving time depending on what region a user has selected as their approximate location, it seems highly unlikely that anyone went to bed with their iPhone alarm set and worried about the alarm sounding at the right time……at least no one who doesn’t keep up on international technology news. Those who do would know that last November, a bug in the iPhone's operating system resulted in alarms going off an hour late as Europe set the clocks back one hour for daylight saving time and some iPhones in New Zealand and Australia failed to correctly process the same time change one month earlier and caused alarms to go off an hour early. One solution for future time changes would be to adjust the iPhone’s time settings manually, but that would involve actual effort on the user’s part and for most, that’s asking too much. Some customers who took to various message boards suggested that rebooting the phone fixed the issue. A fortunate few users of both Verizon and A&T iPhones saw their times reset correctly, but Apple, Verizon and AT&T should probably put their heads together and come up with a solution before European countries set the clocks ahead at 1 a.m. on Sunday, March 27 in order to avoid a continuation of this disturbing trend…………
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