Everything you could want to know about the brains behind this little operation.

Sorry for the ridiculous length of some of the lists here; my natural indecisiveness makes it hard for me to attach ranks to stuff and thereby narrow it down, so I usually end up putting on everything that comes to mind. If none of this interests you, no one's making you read it.

This section was last updated 12/3/2011.

check the reading list

• Name: Kevin

• Age: 28

• Religion: Agnostic in theory, atheist in practice (which is to say that I'm agnostic toward the Christian god in the same sense that I'm agnostic toward Zeus, Thor, and celestial teapots). I consider myself a Bright. It's not that I'm apathetic to religion; quite the opposite. In fact, the more I learn about various religions, the less of a basis I see for choosing one over another, and I still have yet for anyone to give me a decent reason for choosing their invisible man in the sky over all the other invisible men/women/etc. that have ever been believed in throughout history. I think that religions ultimately say more about the people following them than they do about any sort of objective truth. People, including fundamentalists, tend to just pick and choose what parts of their religion they want to adhere to (and what they expect others to adhere to), and toss out the parts that don't fit with their lifestyle. In addition, very few religious people live their lives in accordance with the idea that an omnipotent and omniscient deity is watching their every move and preparing to judge them. I say, why bother with the pretense?

  "Whether one focuses on a deity of exclusion, violence, rule-making/enforcement, and vengeance, or one of peace, healing, forgiveness, and inclusion depends entirely on the worldview one brings to the religion in the first place. Some types of personalities are drawn to rigid lawmaking, the Old Testament, and to Paul. Other types are drawn to the more thoughtful, peaceful teachings and aspects. And this can be seen not only in Christianity, but in all religions and the interpretations of them that evolve over centuries." -Debi Riggs Shaw

  "The problem with those who choose received Authority over fact and logic is how they choose which part of Authority to obey. The Bible famously contradicts itself at many points (I have never understood why any Christian would choose the Old Testament over the New), and the Koran can be read as a wonderfully compassionate and humanistic document. Which suggests that the problem of fundamentalism lies not with authority, but with ourselves." -Molly Ivins

  "All religions have flaws. They all can be argued to the point where logic forces the proponent to claim 'well, you just have to have faith'. Since Atheism never requires faith and cannot be disproven logically (despite countless tries), it has no flaws. Atheism is perfect." -Dave Silverman

  "The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one." -George Bernard Shaw

  "Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived." -Oscar Wilde

  "...it is a telling fact that, the world over, the vast majority of children follow the religion of their parents rather than any of the other available religions." -Richard Dawkins

  "A boss in Heaven is the best excuse for a boss on earth, therefore if God did exist, he would have to be abolished." -Mikhail Bakunin

• Political Affiliation: To avoid going into a dissertation, let's just say that I'm pretty left-wing. I'm probably closer to an anarchist than anything. Anarchism has traditionally been aligned with the left; "anarcho-capitalism" is a relatively new movement and some anarchists assert that it's a contradiction in terms. Generally, I'm pretty anti-authoritarian and populist in my views. I used to consider myself a progressive, but the Obama years have killed pretty much any lingering connection I felt with that movement. It's clear to me now that the number of progressives that actually hold more than nominal left-wing views, as opposed to the ones who just seem that way because of how much they hate Republicans and conservatives, is actually pretty small. I've joked before that I'm becoming more of an anarchist the longer Obama's in office, but it's pretty much true. It's becoming increasingly clear to me that the problems with our system aren't going to be fixed just by electing more Democrats/Greens/Progressives/etc., because our "democracy" is really just a facade designed to give us the illusion of control; even if we elect a radical party, they'll likely just end up getting co-opted, as has already happened numerous times in other countries. The system itself is designed to resist change, pretty much no matter who is in charge, so ultimately we need to tear the whole thing down and start over. I do still support progressive/radical candidates, but mainly as a stopgap, and my activism from here on out is probably going to shift in a less electoral direction. But at the same time, I hesitate to call myself an anarchist; I'm not sure it could ever work in practice, and view it more as a source of inspiration than an ideology to which I actually subscribe.
  And in case a few people still don't think I'm nuts, I'm also an animal rights advocate, a feminist, a Vermont secessionist (although I'm probably more of a sympathizer than an actual supporter), and a supporter of the Green Party (and other third-party/independent candidates).

• My Political Compass score:
  Economic Left/Right: -8.88
  Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -8.05

• Height: 5'7" [My wife Rebecca disputes this, as she claims to be 5'7" and she's clearly taller than me, so either I'm 5'6" or she's 5'8".]

• Place of Residence: South Royalton, VT
• Hometown: Peoria, IL

• Hobbies:
  • Video games, although I have neither the time nor money to really pursue it, and in any case I have a lot more fun with the NES and SNES emulators on my computer than I ever do with my PS2 or Wii. Call me old-fashioned, I guess.
  • formerly playing assorted collectible card games (especially Legend of the Five Rings, 7th Sea, and Doomtown... and Magic: The Gathering a long time ago), but I haven't actually played any of those in a long time and I have no plans to start up again anytime in the foreseeable future due primarily to the large monetary investment involved with building even a mediocre deck.
  • working on this site
  • RPG'ing, if I can find anyone to do it with. I was most recently in a Dungeons & Dragons group, but I've also played a lot of Legend of the Five Rings and Vampire: The Masquerade.
  • Playing the violin, though I haven't practiced since I got out of high school. I still have my violin, and keep telling my wife that we shouldn't get rid of it because I'm totally going to play it again some day.
  • reading, primarily non-fiction and periodicals
  • writing
  • collecting religious texts and/or propaganda (Especially Chick tracts! I think they're hilarious! I seriously doubt those have ever actually converted anyone.)

• Periodicals I read and/or recommend:
  • Seven Days (a Vermont indie newspaper)
  • AlterNet
  • Current History
  • The Progressive Populist
  • The Nation [Although I'm considering ending my subscription. It's sometimes too much of a Democratic Party propaganda sheet for my liking.]
  • Christian Science Monitor [I had to read this for one of my classes in undergrad and got hooked. I've seen it spoken highly of by both liberals and conservatives. I like it because it features both a greater quantity and quality of international news than most other mainstream US outlets.]
  • Harper's
  • International Socialist Review

• Employment:
  • student, Vermont Law School

• Groups I am and/or have been involved with:
  • Global Village [a fair trade gift shop in Peoria Heights, IL]
  • Peoria Area Peace Network
  • Green Party of the United States and Illinois Green Party [I'm not involved with the party in VT because I'm pretty sure the Vermont Green Party only exists on paper. I think there were some people in the Burlington area who ran as Greens in 2008, but it was totally ad hoc.]
  • Amnesty International
  • American Civil Liberties Union [They do good work, but I can't look past their unwillingness to get involved with fighting "Green Scare" legislation, like the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, that labels environmental and animal rights activists as "terrorists" and punishes them for 1st Amendment activity. For more info on the Green Scare and the AETA, check out Will Potter's blog at Green Is The New Red.]
  • Vegetarian Education Group [animal rights group at Northern Illinois University]
  • DeKalb Interfaith Network for Peace and Justice
  • Peoria Area Voices for Animals
  • Vermont Progressive Party
  • Student Animal Legal Defense Fund (Vermont Law School chapter)
  • National Lawyers Guild
  • Treasurer, Law Students for Justice in Palestine (VLS student group)

• College:
  • Student, Vermont Law School (Class of 2012)
    • Program: Juris Doctor
  • Alumnus, Northern Illinois University (BA, 2006) and Illinois Central College (Associate, 2004)
    • Major: political science (emphasis: international politics)
    • Minor: philosophy

• Recommended Reading:
  • The "Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R.R. Martin ["A Game of Thrones," "A Clash of Kings," "A Storm of Swords," "A Feast for Crows," and "A Dance with Dragons"] [My friend Patrick put it best on this series: "I'm probably a heathen for writing this, but I prefer the Thrones books to the (Lord of the Rings) ones. Much more action and dialog, not as much excruciating detail of the environs."]
  • "Watership Down" by Richard Adams [It didn't happen immediately, but this is probably the book that put me on the path to being an animal rights advocate.]
  • "A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn [This is the first political book I ever read, and was a major influence on my views.]
  • "Emiliano Zapata: Revolution and Betrayal in Mexico" by Samuel Brunk
  • Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
  • "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare
  • Anything by Noam Chomsky
  • "1984" and "Animal Farm" by George Orwell
  • anything by Emma Goldman (also check the Emma Goldman Papers)
  • "The New Nuclear Danger" by Helen Caldicott
  • "Hardball" by Chris Matthews (I hate his show, but the book's still interesting)
  • "The World's Religions" by Huston Smith
  • "Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush" by Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose [a good overview of Bush's record as governor of Texas]
  • "The Allegory of the Cave" by Plato [from The Republic]
  • "Euthyphro" by Plato
  • "Jennifer Government" by Max Barry
  • "Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America" by Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose
  • "World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability" by Amy Chua
  • "What's the Matter With Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America" by Thomas Frank [provides an excellent explanation of how right-wing populism works, although I disagree with his conclusion that the Left should abandon "culture war" issues. I agree that the Dems need to rediscover economic populism - I just don't view it as a zero-sum game like Frank seems to. Laura Flanders provides a pretty good criticism of Frank on this point.]
  • "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order" by Samuel P. Huntington [I disagree with many arguments in this book (I'd go as far as to describe some of them as fucking crazy and borderline racist), but it's still an interesting read, particularly when you consider that there are a lot of people in positions of power and influence in the world that do agree with this book's arguments.]
  • "Spanking the Donkey: Dispatches from the Dumb Season" by Matt Taibbi
  • "America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction" from The Daily Show
  • "The Anatomy of Fascism" by Robert Paxton
  • "The Handmaid's Tale" and "The Year of the Flood" by Margaret Atwood
  • "Which Side Are You On: Trying to Be for Labor When It's Flat on Its Back" by Thomas Geoghegan
  • "Animal Liberation" by Peter Singer
  • "Empty Cages: Facing the Challenge of Animal Rights" by Tom Regan [I highly recommend reading both this book and the previous one, because although both are supportive of animal "rights" (a term utilitarians like Singer never use), they approach the topic from two different philosophical perspectives.]
  • "The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer" by Dean Baker [follow the link for a free PDF version]
  • "How the Pro-choice Movement Saved America: Freedom, Politics and the War on Sex" by Cristina Page
  • "Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War" by Barbara Ehrenreich
  • "The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century" by Thomas Friedman [Like "Clash of Civilizations", I don't actually agree with this book but reading it can help one understand the arguments, values and assumptions of those who do. Even though Friedman wrote the book in defense of globalization and "free" trade, I actually find myself better able to explain my opposition to both after reading his book.] [P.S. I find it more than a little ironic that many of the leaders of the conservative movement in this country cite both this book and "Clash of Civilizations," considering that the latter is relatively anti-globalization (Huntington claims that the economic insecurity and alienation brought on by globalization is partially responsible for fueling upswings in nationalism and religious fundamentalism). I guess they agree with Huntington when it doesn't interfere with profit.]
  • "Thinking Points: Communicating Our Values and Vision" by George Lakoff and the Rockridge Institute
  • "Witness in Palestine: Journal of a Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories" by Anna Baltzer [This book humanizes Palestinians (who are usually presented in American discourse as a caricature) and shows how their day-to-day lives are affected by the Occupation. Told me a lot I didn't previously know and caused me to pay a lot more attention to the conflict.]
  • "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins
  • "Whose Freedom? The Battle Over America's Most Important Idea" by George Lakoff
  • "Conservatives Without Conscience" by John Dean
  • "Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq" by Stephen Kinzer
  • "No One Is Illegal: Fighting Violence and State Repression on the U.S.-Mexico Border" by Justin Akers Chacon and Mike Davis
  • the "His Dark Materials" trilogy by Phillip Pullman ["The Golden Compass," "The Subtle Knife," and "The Amber Spyglass"]
  • "The Bush Tragedy" by Jacob Weisberg [Contains a lot of biographical info about Dubya and the people around him that I hadn't heard before. One of the main things this book explores is how his actions in office were influenced by the love-hate relationship between him and his dad.]
  • "Addicted to Hate: The Fred Phelps Story" by Jon Michael Bell [Never actually published and only available online, for reasons explained through the link. Fred Phelps is the pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, KS.]
  • The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington" by David Sirota
  • "Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA" by Tim Weiner [The only major gripe I had with this book was that Weiner gave the Bush administration a lot of passes that I really don't think they deserved by placing their failures at the feet of the CIA. And I would've liked to have heard more about the cozy relationship between the CIA and big business, something Weiner mentioned briefly but didn't explore in any detail. Otherwise a great book showing the CIA as incompetent, out of control, and a threat to democracy both at home and abroad.]
  • "V For Vendetta" and "Watchmen" by Alan Moore, et al
  • "Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts" by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson
  • "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" by Naomi Klein
  • "The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court" by Jeffrey Toobin
  • "Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer [I don't agree with every conclusion in the book (mainly his advocacy for "humane" meat production), but it's still pretty interesting.]
  • "Speciesism" by Joan Dunayer
  • "On Their Own Terms: Bringing Animal Rights Philosophy Down to Earth" by Lee Hall

• Nicknames: Nibbles. It's the name by which a lot of people have called me over the years. It makes fun of the way I eat, although that hasn't been a justifiable basis for criticism for a long time. No one calls me that anymore, though, which isn't a bad thing, and if you call me that now you'll promptly get the middle finger. I was also occasionally called Seņor Neebles, or just Seņor for short. As well as Nibli.
  Back where I used to live before my parents got divorced, all the little kids called me Waggles. Also, during high school I was inexplicably called "Judge" by my P.E. class. Still don't know where THAT one came from.
  There was one guy at ICC (Lawrence) who called me "Philosophy Guy," because we met at a Student Philosophy Association meeting and I never had a chance to give him my name. However, ever since I gave him the AIM name I had at the time he called me Rowin, which was fine by me because it sounded totally badass.
  At one point, Justin had taken to calling me "Big K," and Robbie to calling me "K-Dawg." Haven't decided what I think of these. ;-P
  I got several new nicknames during my time at NIU. Actually, in addition to Justin, my roommate at one point called me "Big K." Also, the CA here called me "Smokemaster K," because although there were a lot of people there that smoked, I was probably the only one at the time with a pack-a-day habit. Which is sad, because they had all been smoking since they were 15, whereas I'd only been smoking for a bit over a year. In addition, when Dick Cheney was at NIU and I was at the protest, I had my Green Party t-shirt on, and multiple unconnected people kept calling me "Mr. Green Party."
  At NIU, I was talking to one of the guys down the hall from me, who had this to say:

  Me: I'm probably known around the hall as that weirdo that never talks to anyone.
  Brett: Yeah, they all call you Waldo, because you're never around.

  My roommate was talking to some girls that lived with us at Douglas Hall, and for some reason the subject turned to me. He found out that they'd been referring to me as "Little Napoleon" because of the way I walk with my arms behind my back.
  You don't even want to know all the weird nicknames Rebecca and I have for each other. We've made at least one person throw up in her mouth from how sickeningly sweet we are.

• Favorite Music: I was into punk and ska back in the day, but I inexplicably drifted away from it years ago. It could have to do with the fact that I was mainly into local bands (I don't think I could have named more than a small handful of major punk or ska bands at the time), and the local punk scene was quickly becoming the local emo scene, which was a problem because I fucking HATE emo. Recently, however, I've really started liking "classic" punk, especially '80s hardcore. I generally like classical music. I don't dislike metal or rap, but I wouldn't go out of my way to listen to either. I've been a longtime fan of alternative rock, and I find myself pulling out my old alternative stuff more and more these days (especially grunge), though I don't like most of the new stuff coming out. Thanks to my American music class back at ICC, I listen to a lot of jazz and blues now; I like most of what I hear but I don't know very many individual artists. Probably the only genres I out-and-out don't like (besides emo) are country and anything reminiscent of American Idol (What would one call that? Pop?). I like just about anything political (read: left-wing) no matter the style.
  My favorite groups, including but not limited to:
  • Live
  • Rage Against the Machine
  • Green Day
  • Stone Temple Pilots
  • Fiona Apple
  • System of a Down
  • Corporate Avenger
  • Jimi Hendrix
  • Charlie Parker
  • Miles Davis
  • Evanescence
  • John Coltrane
  • B.B. King
  • Skip James
  • Anti-Flag
  • Smashing Pumpkins
  • White Stripes
  • Foo Fighters
  • The Nightwatchman
  • Soundgarden
  • Nirvana
  • The Sex Pistols
  • David Rovics
  • Muddy Waters
  • Dead Kennedys
  • Black Flag
  • Minor Threat
  • Bad Religion
  • Rise Against
  • Minutemen
  • Street Sweeper Social Club
  • Against All Authority
  • MDC
  • D.O.A.
  • T.S.O.L.
  • Bad Brains
  • Crass
  • The (International) Noise Conspiracy
  • Fugazi

• Favorite Songs:
  • "Freaks" and "Lighting Crashes," from Live
  • Way too many songs from Rage Against the Machine. If I had to choose one song for my all-time favorite, it would probably be "Bulls on Parade."
  • Most of the music from Cowboy Bebop
  • The Shaft theme by Isaac Hayes
  • "Prison Song," "BYOB," and "Boom!" from System of a Down
  • Beethoven's 5th Symphony
  • "$20 Bill," "Fault the Police," and "Christians Murdered Indians" from Corporate Avenger
  • "Never Could Have Been Worse" and "Blue Funk" from the Trigun soundtrack
  • "Machine Gun" and "Purple Haze" from Jimi Hendrix
  • pretty much anything on the album "Kind of Blue" from Miles Davis
  • pretty much anything on the album "A Love Supreme" from John Coltrane
  • "Union Town" "One Man Revolution," "Whatever It Takes," "The Fabled City," and "The Road I Must Travel" from The Nightwatchman
  • "Masters of War" and "Maggie's Farm" from Bob Dylan
  • "The Thrill Is Gone" from B.B. King
  • "Which Side Are You On" from Florence Reece (old-school union song, you can probably find it online; my favorite rendition is from Natalie Merchant, and it's also featured prominently in the documentary Harlan County, USA; if rock's more your thing, the Dropkick Murphys have a version)
  • "Twenty" from Robert Cray
  • "The Big Payback" from James Brown
  • "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" from Skip James
  • "Strange Fruit" from Billie Holiday
  • "Working Class Hero" from John Lennon (as well as the cover by Green Day)
  • "Original Fire" from Audioslave
  • "United States" and "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" by Smashing Pumpkins
  • "War Pigs" from Black Sabbath
  • "Rusty Cage," "Blow Up The Outside World," and "Black Hole Sun" from Soundgarden
  • "Occupation," "Whoever Wins in November," "Black Flag Flying," and "Santiago", "Israeli Geography 101", "Four More Years", and many more from David Rovics
  • "Jock-o-Rama," "We've Got a Bigger Problem Now," "Bleed for Me," "Police Truck," "Holiday in Cambodia," "Too Drunk to Fuck," and many others from the Dead Kennedys
  • "Fight the Power" from Public Enemy
  • "Rise Above," "Nervous Breakdown," "My War," and "Slip It In" from Black Flag
  • "Fuck the Police" from NWA
  • "Business on Parade," "Dead Cops/America's So Straight," "John Wayne was a Nazi" and "I Remember" from MDC
  • "The Ghost of Tom Joad" by Bruce Springsteen (and the cover by Rage Against the Machine)
  • "God's Love," "The Voice of God is Government," "Sinister Rouge," and "Fuck Armageddon, This is Hell" from Bad Religion
  • "Fuck Authority" from Pennywise
  • "100 Little Curses" from Street Sweeper Social Club
  • "Die for the Government" and "No Borders, No Nations" from Anti-Flag
  • "Abolish Government/Silent Majority" and "Serious" from T.S.O.L. (and the cover of "Abolish Government / Superficial Love" from Slayer
  • "Baby, I'm an Anarchist!" and "I was a Teenage Anarchist" from Against Me!
  • "Dungeon Master Girls" from... I'm not actually sure who to attribute it to. It's an entertaining parody of a terrible Katy Perry song.
  • "Human(e) Meat (The Flensing of Sandor Katz)" from Propagandhi [Fittingly, I first heard this song while I was in the middle of working on a big project about "humane" meat production.]
  • "How Does It Feel?", "Bloody Revolutions", and "Big A, Little A" from Crass
  • "Zombie" from Fela Kuti
  • "Violent Pacification" from D.R.I. (and the cover by Slayer)

• Favorite Movies:
  • The Whole Nine Yards
  • Dogma
  • The Shawshank Redemption
  • Full Metal Jacket
  • Fight Club
  • Enemy at the Gates
  • Tora! Tora! Tora!
  • Ocean's Eleven (the remake; haven't seen the original)
  • The Boondock Saints
  • The Green Mile
  • SLC Punk
  • Goodfellas
  • JFK
  • Brotherhood of the Wolf
  • anything Michael Moore (especially Sicko) [I liked Capitalism: A Love Story, but I was really annoyed with how pro-Obama it was. Moore criticized Obama's economic team (i.e Larry Summers, Bob Rubin and Tim Geithner) pretty harshly, but didn't tie any of their actions to their boss, almost like he thought Obama didn't play a part in their decisions. And not once did he mention Obama's support for the bailout (Obama didn't just vote for it, he made calls and twisted arms to get it passed).]
  • Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
  • Thirteen Days
  • The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
  • Dr. Strangelove (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)
  • For a Few Dollars More
  • The Seven Samurai
  • May
  • Kill Bill
  • The Quiet American
  • Pulp Fiction
  • The Matrix (the first one; I choose to pretend the other two don't exist)
  • And Starring Pancho Villa As Himself
  • Rashomon
  • Three Kings
  • Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism
  • Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election
  • Jenin Jenin
  • The Fog of War
  • The Trials of Henry Kissinger
  • Super Size Me
  • The Hunting of the President
  • The Manchurian Candidate (the original)
  • The Corporation
  • Kinsey
  • Snatch
  • Harlan County, USA
  • Lord of War
  • Peaceable Kingdom
  • Earthlings
  • V For Vendetta (although the comic is much better; I was pretty pissed that they removed all the references to anarchism, thus giving no real idea of what V actually stood for; but even so this would still probably be in my all-time top 3.)
  • City of God
  • Aristide and the Endless Revolution
  • Peace, Propoganda & the Promised Land
  • The God Who Wasn't There
  • Children of Men
  • 9/11 Press For Truth (does a pretty good job of showing how full of crap the official story on 9/11 is without getting bogged down in "inside job" stuff)
  • Pan's Labyrinth
  • The U.S. vs. John Lennon [Mainly because it features an interview with my friend Jack Ryan, a former FBI agent and current president of the Peoria Area Peace Network. Only around ten seconds of it was actually used in the movie, but of course when Peoria peaceniks discuss it we universally refer to it as "Jack's movie." (The rest of the movie's great too, BTW.)]
  • Malcolm X
  • Iron Jawed Angels
  • The Take
  • Recount
  • Reds
  • Sir! No Sir! - The Suppressed Story of the GI Movement to End the War in Vietnam
  • Ralph Nader: An Unreasonable Man
  • American Hardcore
  • W. [I like that it portrays Dubya as a human with human motivations rather than a cartoonish supervillain - which isn't to say it goes easy on him. This movie does a good job of showing the love/hate relationship he has with his dad, a significant influence on his actions once in office. Granted, Cheney and Rumsfeld pretty much get presented as cartoonish supervillains, but that's what they are, so it works.]
  • Battle in Seattle
  • Watchmen
  • I Am Legend [But I'll only watch the original version, which can be found on two-disc special edition. The creators made a last-minute change to the ending for the theatrical version which I thought completely ruined it. For more info, see this article.]
  • The Gamers: Dorkness Rising [a great comedy about a group of Dungeons & Dragons players]
  • Scott Pilgrim vs. The World [I've heard that this movie is becoming a cult classic, and I'm pretty much a cultist. I didn't see it in the theater, but I don't even want to know how many times I've watched this since it came out on DVD. I thought Michael Cera was great as the lead, but I also suspect that his role in the movie was one of the reasons it flopped. A lot of people saw he was in it, and said "Eww, I'm not watching a Michael Cera movie!" That was certainly the case with my wife, who I made watch it. I'm pretty sure she would've loved the movie as much as me if literally anyone other than Cera had starred in it. I think this is the only movie of his I've actually seen, so although I know I'm supposed to hate him I don't quite know why.]
  • Bold Native: A Film About Animal Liberation [A great drama about the Animal Liberation Front. Makes me want to get a set of boltcutters.]
  • In the Name of the Father

• Favorite TV Shows: I hardly ever watch TV anymore. Bill Hicks sums up my thoughts on TV pretty well: "I can't watch TV longer than five minutes without praying for nuclear holocaust." Not to mention I don't really have TV these days; we haven't shelled out for cable, we only get one broadcast station (badly) due to living in the mountains, and I haven't really gotten into watching it online. Pretty much the only shows I watch when I get the chance are:
  • The Simpsons [My wife and I are pretty much obsessed with this show. It's one of the few shows we can agree on and makes convenient lunchtime/breaktime viewing, so we've been systematically going through the series via Netflix. Because of this, we quote the show constantly and confuse the hell out of our friends.]
  • Futurama
  • Aqua Teen Hunger Force
  • The Daily Show
  • The Colbert Report [Although it can be a bit too explicitly pro-Obama/Dem for my tastes. One of my favorite things about The Daily Show is that while it's certainly left-leaning, it's fairly nonpartisan and is willing to harshly criticize Democrats. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Colbert.]
  • The Awful Truth (late 90's Michael Moore TV show which can still be found on DVD)
  • The Family Guy (Although lately I noticed I don't like it as much as I used to. Probably because we've been watching a lot of golden-age Simpsons lately, and Family Guy doesn't compare very favorably. And I tend to frown on shows that think they're being "edgy" by making fun of disempowered groups like fat people and the mentally retarded.)
  • Mythbusters
  • Dragonball Z
  • Trigun
  • Cowboy Bebop
  • Samurai Champloo
  • Countdown with Keith Olbermann [Although I was pretty disappointed with his blatant pro-Obama bias during the 2008 campaign, particularly in regard to his coverage of the FISA bill. First he said telecom immunity was "textbook fascism," then Obama supported it and the bill was suddenly not that bad in Olbermann's book. The show lost a lot of credibility with me that day.]
  • The X-Files [Another of the few shows my wife an I can agree on, although she prefers the monster-of-the-week episodes while I prefer the big-picture episodes.]
  • Robin Hood (BBC America)
  • Real Time w/ Bill Maher
  • The Rachel Maddow Show [Granted, I've only actually seen one whole episode (and assorted clips online) because we lost TV before it went on the air, but I'm pretty sure I'd like it from what I have seen. I have some gripes with her (like her strident opposition to third-party/independent movements), but overall it seems like a good show.]
  • Firefly
  • The Venture Bros.
  • The Walking Dead

• Favorite Video Games:
  • most things Final Fantasy
  • the Grand Theft Auto series
  • Super Smash Brothers (alas, the N64 version is the only one I've ever played)
  • Vandal Hearts
  • Starcraft
  • Age of Empires 2
  • the Fallout series
  • TIE Fighter
  • X-Wing Alliance
  • Killer Instinct
  • Chrono Trigger
  • Crazy Taxi 2
  • Mario 1, 2, 3, World, 64, Sunshine, Kart, RPG, and Superstar Saga
  • Donkey Kong Country 2
  • Yoshi's Island
  • Donkey Kong (Game Boy version) and Mario vs. Donkey Kong
  • State of Emergency [The story mode blows, but if you like just running around killing random people then this is a game you'll like. I think the reason it was so poorly received when it came out was because the same company had released Grand Theft Auto 3 not long before, and people were expecting GTA 4 out of this game. It's not a deep game, but it's fun if you don't expect too much out of it.]
  • Warcraft 3
  • the Dynasty Warriors series
  • Starscape
  • Earthbound
  • the Fire Emblem series
  • Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic [the first one; I'm sure the second one is good too but alas, it won't run on my computer]
  • Bionic Commando
  • Blades of Steel [oldschool NES hockey game, and one of the few sports games I enjoy]
  • Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2 and Most Wanted
  • the Ratchet and Clank series
  • Timesplitters 2
  • Midnight Club 3
  • Cortex Command
  • StarFox 64
  • Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
  • Super Metroid
  • Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
  • the Mega Man series
  • the Sonic the Hedgehog series
  • Advance Wars 2