The Face of GamerGate

These are the brave warriors fighting a battle for ethics in journalism by...viciously slandering and attacking women.

“I have been terrified of inviting a deluge of abusive and condescending tweets into my timeline. I did one simple @ reply to one of the main victims several weeks back, and got a flood of things I simply couldn’t stand to read directed at me. I had to log offline for a few days until it went away. I have tried to re-tweet a few of the articles I’ve seen dissecting the issue in support, but personally I am terrified to be doxxed (having personal information such as an address, email or real name released online) for even typing the words ‘Gamer Gate.’”

As has been noted, the targets of this vile insanity are almost exclusively women. Men talking against GamerGate and it's mouth-breather adherents don't get nearly the same kind of response. I'll let you discern why that may be.

But to make this all really simple...

Fuck GamerGate, GG, #GamerGate or whatever the Hell they want to call it. Fuck every little WATB who thinks that slagging and attacking women is somehow acceptable.

Sorry women scare you so much, brohams. But it's the 21st Century. Get the fuck over yourself.

Even the Power of Jesus Won't Get You 10 Points With This Guy

I am not a fan of Tim Tebow. Not at all. For a variety of reasons. Chief among them is that he inspires an insane level of slavish devotion coverage from the media for reasons I cannot quite comprehend. It can't be because he is a good quarterback because, brother, he flat out sucks at slinging the ball.

Nevertheless, the Legend of the Mediocre Messiah persists. To the point that, even though Tebow hasn't played a competitive game in almost two years, people are still putting him on their fantasy football teams.

According to NFL on ESPN, Tim Tebow was owned by 1.3 percent of teams in ESPN’s fantasy leagues as of Tuesday, despite the fact he hasn’t played an NFL game since Dec. 30, 2012.

Surprisingly, he actually beat out an NFL Week 1 starter: Jaguars quarterback Chad Henne, who appears on just 0.8 percent of teams in ESPN leagues.

That. Is. Insane. Granted, Henne isn't a great QB either. But the guy is starting a game while Tebow is working for the SEC Network. You may as well put Steve Young or Y.A. Tittle on your squad while you're at it.

Seriously, people. Tebow sucks at QB. Just let it go.

Review: Aliens (1986)

“They're coming outta the walls. They're coming outta the goddamn walls!” – Private Hudson (Bill Paxton)

Director: James Cameron

Writers: Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett (Characters), David Giler and Walter Hill (Story), James Cameron (Story and Screenplay)

Producer: Gale Ann Hurd

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Major Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser, Bill Paxton

James Cameron can make overblown crap like Titanic and come off like an arrogant jerk, but I’ll always love the guy because he gave us Aliens. It’s one of those films that makes you forgive the foibles and flaws of anything else that director does.

Do I have to go into detail about just why this is one of the best movies ever made, let alone sci-fi movies? Aliens is a perfect blend of suspense, action and horror that locks you in from the start and never gives your attention a chance to wane or your eyes to wander.

For the 14 people who haven’t seen it, Aliens picks up where the original left off, with Ripley (Weaver) floating through space in her lifeboat after destroying the Nostromo and the Alien that had come on board. She is picked up and brought to Gateway Station, orbiting Earth. There she finds out 57 years have passed and her employers (Weyland-Yutani) have lost contact with a colony on the planet LV-426. That is the planet Ripley’s original ship visited 57 years ago and where it picked up the Alien.

From there the film becomes a rescue mission; Ripley is assigned as an adviser to a squad of Marines being sent to LV-426 to find the colonist. Going with them is a Weyland-Yutani rep named Burke (Reiser). They reach the planet and quickly discover everything has gone horribly, horribly wrong. Then things go horribly, horribly wrong for them and the film shifts to a survival story; the rescue group has to get off-planet before the power system for the colony goes critical and kills them all in an explosion.

That’s part of what makes Aliens great; it changes mid-stream into a different story and re-captures your interest. It is just a really satisfying movie. The actions scenes are great. The atmosphere is creepy. The actors do a great job with the story. And it is well-written; with an antagonist like the Alien, it is easy to make them too powerful or to over-compensate and make the heroes too powerful. Cameron did a nice job recognizing that Ripley and the Marines could beat the Aliens, but they’d have to be very resourceful and lucky to do so. It makes the payoff at the end that much more satisfying.

And the tension…One of the smartest things they did in Aliens was use those hand-held movement trackers. There is one scene where they barricade themselves in a room and Private Hudson (Paxton) is tracking the Aliens coming towards their position. He calls the distance as they get closer, but they don’t see or hear the Aliens. Hudson is finally calling a distance that would mean they’re in the room. The tension is absolute at this point; my back still gets tense and I’ve see this film more times than I can count. Everyone looks up at the air vents. Corporal Hicks (Biehn) pokes his head up there to take a peek and...chaos.

Let's Talk About Whisky: The Macallan 12

I didn't really start drinking whiskey of any sort until my mid-20s. Until that point it was beer, vodka and rum ... your usual college-age triumvirate of memory-impairing liquids. But after graduation and moving to Boston (and getting a job with some actual disposable income), I started drinking Jameson.

Jameson* is still a favorite of mine. It's a perfectly drinkable Irish whiskey. Well-done year after year, it is a great "gateway" to the more intense Irish whiskeys like the Redbreast 15 or the Bushmills 16.

In my 30s I finally moved into Scotch single malts. And one of the first I had was the Macallan 12. It was also the last time I had it until I bought a bottle a few weeks ago. Ideally, the Macallan 12 should perform the same job as Jameson. They're only about five feet away from one another on a supermarket shelf. They occupy a similar price point. The Macallan 12 should be the Scotch that brings new people into trying single malts.

And yet a decade went between me trying the Macallan 12 the first time and now. The whisky that finally brought me in was, of all things, the Talisker 10. A great single malt, but not one you would give to a first-time whisky drinker. But that is neither here nor there.

The Macallan 12 is not a bad single malt. But for me, it's not exactly good either. I'm not one to talk about "noses" and "palates" and all that. But I just felt the sherry taste really overwhelmed the entire experience. And the finish was very, very, harsh. I don't know if I would go as far as to say it is bitter, but it's not enjoyable.

And this is a problem because to non-whisky drinkers one of the few names that may be known to them is Macallan. Because they see it on the top supermarket shelf along with Laphroaig and Glenmorangie. And odds are that when someone wants to try a Scotch single malt for the first time, a Macallan 12 will be selected quite a few times.

And if my first taste of whisky is harsh on my tongue and makes me think I should have just bought a bottle of Sandeman Armada Oloroso instead ... that's not going to make me seek out other single malts.

My Five Favorite Films From...1994

Honorable Mention – Natural Born Killers: I have a story to tell about this film but I will save it for another time. Very intense, bloody and off-the-charts nuts, but it’s well-made and definitely worth seeing.

5. Hoop Dreams: Even now I think this stands as one of the better documentaries of the past 20 years or so. It was a sin against common sense and general decency that it wasn’t nominated for an Academy Award that year.

4. Clerks: To many this is still Kevin Smith’s best movie*. I think it holds up as one of the better comedies of my generation. The sequel…not so much.

3. The Shawshank Redemption: If this was a list about quality, this would be first in a cakewalk. The best adaptation of a Stephen King story ever**. Still amazes me whenever I watch it.

2. Léon (The Professional): A huge sleeper film that caught everyone by surprise and is now recognized by many as one of the better movies ever made***. Not a down moment the entire movie. And it still amazes me that this was Natalie Portman’s first film. Who acts like that their first time out?