Oct 29 2012

On second thought…

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After all, who wouldn’t want to live in Raccoon City? A vote for Romney is a vote for Umbrella Corporation, and unrestrained biotechnological innovation.

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25 comments

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1

Audley Z. Darkheart (liar and scoundrel)

29 October 2012 at 7:43 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

You just gotta remind me that I never finished RE6, huh PZ?

Personally, I’m hoping for shamblers. It wouldn’t be much different thsn non-Z Apocalypse New York, anyway.
2

Shplane, Spess Alium

29 October 2012 at 7:53 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I would be literally completely unsurprised of Mitt Romney were overseeing incredibly unethical bioengineering experiments. Especially if they were done on poor people.
3

steve oberski

29 October 2012 at 8:32 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

@Shplane

But he is overseeing experiments on poor people.

Of the economic and sociological sort.
4

otrame

29 October 2012 at 8:35 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

You can tell Wedon is a liberal. He’s doing the dishes.

I’m not the military type, nor can I run fast. But I know how to set deadfall traps and have experience making and using an atl atl. That will be important when the ammo runs out.
5

Shplane, Spess Alium

29 October 2012 at 9:08 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

@Steve Oberski

Yes, exactly. Which is why I would be unsurprised if he were doing biological ones as well.

Also because it would be *much* easier to convince zombies of the divinity of Joseph Smith.
6

marcus

29 October 2012 at 10:00 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Mr Romney is a very nice man. My bowl of people-chow is always full. Sometimes I get to go outside!!11!1! I don’t know what all of these tubes hooked up to me are for but they make me feel really, really good!11!!! Please vote for Mitt Romney…Mitt Romney…Mitt Romney…Mitt Romney…Mitt Romney…
7

Tony–Queer Duck Overlord of The Bronze–

29 October 2012 at 10:56 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

My platonic crush (based on his writing, atheism and political views) on Joss Whedon continues…
8

Gregory Greenwood

29 October 2012 at 11:09 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I particularly like the bit where Whedon says that Romney is unafraid of a grasping horde of subhumans, because that is how he already views the poor. It neatly sums up Romney’s attitude toward 47% of his fellow citizens.

Then again, Romney might well be all in favour of a zombie apocalypse. It would create a horde of mindless monstrosities that are entirely incapable of any kind of forward planning or advanced thought – an electorate far more likely to vote Republican…
9

Lynna, OM

29 October 2012 at 11:32 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Mitt Romney has yet another way to rip off the poor via a rip off of a supposedly charitable institution. Now, it can be argued that the mormon church is not a charitable institution, but the IRS thinks it is, and Romney thinks it is. But he is still willing to use it as yet another tax dodge.

Mitt Romney has used the tax-exempt Mormon Church to defer his own taxes via a shelter known as the charitable remainder unitrust, Bloomberg reports.

These trusts grow tax-deferred and give the creator a steady stream of income; what’s left goes to charity upon his or her death.

In this instance, Romney used the tax-exempt status of a charity — the Mormon Church, according to a 2007 filing – to defer taxes for more than 15 years. [...] Romney’s CRUT, which is only a small part of the $250 million that Romney’s campaign cites as his net worth, has been paying him 8 percent of its assets each year. As the Romneys have received these payments, the money that will potentially be left for charity has declined from at least $750,000 in 2001 to $421,203 at the end of 2011.

In 1997, Congress imposed limits on how much these trusts could pay out and how much must be given to charity. But, Bloomberg reports, Romney was allowed to keep his trust because he created it in 1996.

Washington Post link.
10

coldthinker

29 October 2012 at 11:43 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I have to say I’m happily surprised to learn that a screenwriter like Joss Whedon is a liberal (which I take means leaning politically a bit to the left in the US).

It’s not because of my assumption that he must be wealthy thanks to a very capitalist corporation system. It’s mostly because he writes stuff like The Avengers, which to my squeamish European eye basically glorifies war and the military, advocates American supremacy and relies on Ayn Randish superhumans to save us little people. So I naturally expected that people who turn these sentiments into lucrative juvenile entertainment must be far right, politically.

But I suppose it’s a cultural thing, apparently in the US your art doesn’t necessarily reflect your personal views. And of course, what’s considered somewhat leftist in the US (like Obama and the Democrats and possibly mr. Whedon) would be considered very clearly right wing by most European standards.
11

Lynna, OM

29 October 2012 at 12:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

More on running the country Mitt style when it comes to disasters.

… President Obama has already signed disaster declarations for at least a dozen states, making available the resources and unique coordinating capabilities of the federal government — specifically, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA – to assist in the response and recovery.

It’s worth noting that Mitt Romney has said he’d get rid of FEMA and leave states to fend for themselves. …

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/29/mitts_disastrous_emergency_management_plan/

It’s worth noting that, as Governor, Romney asked for and received FEMA assistance several times.
12

Janine: Hallucinating Liar

29 October 2012 at 12:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Coldthinker, Joss Whedon been very outspoken about his feminism, atheism and other out of the US mainstream views.

Also, many right wingers see the likes of Whedon as being typical of the Hollywood left.
13

rorschach

29 October 2012 at 12:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Awesome.
14

Jebus Is My Dog

29 October 2012 at 12:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

otrame

I’m not the military type, nor can I run fast. But I know how to set deadfall traps and have experience making and using an atl atl. That will be important when the ammo runs out.

First I would like to say thanks for making me learn something. I spent some time looking up what an atl atl is.

Second, you do not have to run fast. Just faster than the person next to you.
15

Lynna, OM

29 October 2012 at 12:37 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Journalist David Corn at Mother Jones, the same guy that brought the 47% video to national prominence, has posted more material from Romney’s fundraisers.

One thing stood out for me from this latest tape, the tendency of both Mitt an Ann Romney to characterize President Obama as not manly, as not grown up. They’ve done this a lot, but in this tape, Ann Romney, in her paradoxically childish way, hits the subject harder:

You know—the ship’s going over the waterfall, it’s almost there. And we look what’s happening in Greece, and we look what’s happening around the world, we look what’s happening internationally. This is a frightening world, and we need a grown-up, and we need someone that understands the economy. So I’m glad…Mitt is grown up to you all.

WTF? Obama is a 51-year-old-man who does not come off as childish or as not grown up — unless you watch too much Fox News where they harp on his playing basketball as childish.

In this tape, Mitt flips the story of Ann’s supposed reluctance for him to run on its head. The official campaign story up to now has been that Ann said, “Never again” regarding another presidential run, but that she slowly came around. That’s not how Mitt sees it in this March 27, 2012 fundraising speech:

David, you mentioned Ann, and the fact that she insisted that I get in this race. That is the truth. I wanted to talk it over with her. And every time I’d say, “Let’s talk about the pros and cons,” she’d say, “Talk to the hand, talk to the hand. We’re just doing this. We’ve got to do it.” And so she absolutely insisted that I get in this because she was convinced that I was the only one that had the capacity to beat President Obama.

Uh, somehow that’s worse than the official story. Another WTF moment.
16

peterhearn

29 October 2012 at 2:43 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

The Japanese guy playing resident evil always cracks me up. Pausing the game to hide every time something jumps out.
17

Janine: Hallucinating Liar

29 October 2012 at 2:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Do you have a point, peterhearn?
18

alexanderz

29 October 2012 at 2:50 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Lynna, OM,
To Ann Romney Obama will always be a Boy (pronounced with a deep southern accent)
19

Rodney Nelson

29 October 2012 at 3:08 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Janine #17

Do you have a point, peterhearn?

Seconded.
20

peterhearn

29 October 2012 at 3:48 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

My point is that Raccoon city is a dangerous place. And the Umbrella corporation is very evil. Any candidate who would support Albert Wesker, James Marcus, William Burkin, Sergei Vladimir, or any of the other fat cats working for the Umbrella corporation do not deserve your vote.
21

coldthinker

29 October 2012 at 4:01 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Coldthinker, Joss Whedon been very outspoken about his feminism, atheism and other out of the US mainstream views.

Also, many right wingers see the likes of Whedon as being typical of the Hollywood left.

Janine,
that’s interesting, didn’t know that. Although that’s kind of what I assumed based on this video. Obviously he’s a smart guy, one has to be in order to succeed like he has in such a competitive field.

But I find it amusing that right wingers can in any way associate Hollywood and leftist ideals. Hollywood is such an ultra-capitalist world. The power is concentrated in very few hands. No middle class nor safety nets, you’re either worth millions or nothing and there’s little sympathy for failure. And to me most of the Hollywood movies seem to present very right wing attitudes about life, even when some of the ”leftists” are involved in the project.

Then again, didn’t the US right wingers call Warren Buffett a socialist. Apparently any sign of sympathy for the less fortunate is socialism to them.
22

coyotenose

29 October 2012 at 4:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Coldthinker, it comes across that way because you’re unfamiliar with the genre, I think. Large parts of comics history and themes, including the stuff Whedon grew up reading, are the opposite of what you describe. Superheroes are anything but Randian, and are usually at odds with the war machine – which, you should have noticed, was a major theme of the movie. Even the actual loyal soldier on the team was angry at the prospect of upgraded weapons research.

The modern comics age began with the line, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Being superior to other people and using that superiority to help them does not make a character Randian. SUPERVILLAINS are usually Randian, to the point that the prime villain of the Spinnerette superhero webcomic actually cites Ayn Rand as his primary influence, and lives it.

By the way, did you happen to notice that SHIELD is not an agency solely accountable to the United States government in the film? The U.S. Air Force refused to let the filmmakers use their equipment for that very reason. That means they found the script too anti-American.

No, the only real problem with the Avengers script was the apparent implication that America and the world would be unable to handle the alien invasion without the Avengers, and in fact that wasn’t the implication. Loki’s plot was fatally flawed because of his tremendous contempt for and ignorance of Earth. Add to that the assumption by the Powers-That-be that this alien army wouldn’t attack unless they could win, and you have a recipe for panic and disaster. What the Avengers did was save the city, not the world, and they did it by being on the scene and able to judge it better than anyone else. Their superpowers were tools to buy them time to implement their reason in a crisis.

(The script also did Loki a great disservice by not having him layer his deceptions, but hey, they had a lot to fit in one film.)
23

Akira MacKenzie

29 October 2012 at 10:08 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

The sad thing is that this bit of reverse psychology might not work. I know far too many people who not only believe that a “zombie apocalypse” is possible, but would actually welcome such a disaster because the aftermath would be “soooooooo cool!”
24

laurentweppe

30 October 2012 at 2:57 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

To be fair, the Resident Evil series was much more scary when its protagonists where fighting against Umbrella: things really went downhill when the company collapsed after Veronica.

***

you do not have to run fast. Just faster than the person next to you.

Or you can just stab the person next to you in the back before she starts running.
Which is why Randologist may be the more well adapted to a zombie apocalypse.
25

fastlane

30 October 2012 at 12:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Don’t forget the rules.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ltbnzu3Blr1qlukpso1_1280.jpg