Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Some Thoughts For Tuesday


A guy in the US has began a class action lawsuit against the high price of movie snacks. The movie people argue that high concession costs are what keep ticket prices low. Is over 10 dollars a ticket (more for the privilege of 3-D) really a LOW price? I only got to the discount last run movie theatre. Those places only charge 3 dollars a ticket for a movie only a couple of weeks old. I can handle that.

This whole story reminds me of the death of the video stores who refused to grow with the times. The music industry is on the verge of a monumental shift in their business model as is the movie industry - accept change or die.

Once 3-D comes to the home, all bets are off. What we want these days are choices, choices to reward movies we like and punish the garbage that we don't by taking our dollars elsewhere. I still don't understand why first run movies can't be ordered up on the television on the very weekend they premiere. Do we really need traditional movie theatres anymore in these days of multiple media delivery systems.

Then 'The Lorax' has a $70 million opening weekend and everything I would like to see changed about the movies falls to shit.

Pat Robinson blames people for building their double-wides where tornadoes happen. Also people aren't praying enough to cause God to intervene and save those people who stupidly but accurately placed their dwelling exactly where the random storm was going to go. I really can't argue with this kind of logic. You hillbillies AREN'T praying enough for Pat Robinson. Maybe if you send that prick more of your donations, he will let you storm victims off the hook.

It doesn't surprise me one bit that all the republicans are rallying around Rush Limbaugh for his hateful comments in the past week. Instead of making this human anal sore apologize like a man, they choose to use the tired excuse "well the other side does it too" like there is some kind of moral equivalency between the right/left rhetoric. There is not.

Did anyone really expect Rush to NOT use this moment as another excuse to attack the other side and distract everyone from the clown show that is the Republican primary. If he was really a hero for the right he would do more to build people on his side up rather than trying to pull his enemies down. That strategy is doomed to fail. I am happy to see some kind of sponsor backlash but this incident will in no way cost Rush his job. I don't want to see him fired. He is the best recruitment the progressive movement has ever had.

Now lets look at how the President has reacted to this story. This is an adult response that shows compassion - something Limbaugh will never have.

President Obama, meanwhile, took time today to address the Limbaugh hullabaloo, saying his remarks “don’t have any place in the public discourse.” He explained that he phoned Sandra Fluke because he was reminded of his daughters, “and one of the things I want them to do as they get older is to engage in issues they care about, even ones I may not agree with them on.”

“I do not want them attacked or called horrible names because they are being good citizens, and I wanted Sandra to know that I thought her parents should be proud of her,” he continued. “And that we want to send a message to all of our young people that being part of a democracy involves argument and disagreements and debate, and we want you to be engaged, and there’s a way to do it that doesn’t involve you being demeaned and insulted, particularly when you are a private citizen.”


I have been rewriting my feelings on this whole Limbaugh distraction for days now but can't seem to come up with anything but bitter outrage towards him and all the other cowards in the Republican Party who have chosen to blame the other side without first even recognizing that what was said to Sandra Fluke was so totally over the line.

This is what is wrong the America - it's not the people like the President who is trying to improve the lives of others - it's the amoral bomb throwers and their idiot supporters that bring the level of discussion to the point that if you can't win your argument with facts and logic, personal attacks on the POWERLESS is all you have left.

There is no room for compromise, nor has their been for nearly four years now. I just wish people would stand up and demand better. I fear that President Obama's reelection will only make things worse as those on the Right really become fearful of their lost 'America'. Will those on the Right be there to re-assure their base or will they only further exploit their fears for political gains? It doesn't take an expert to answer that question.

7 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

I think you're unjustly insulting anal sores. Apologize!

M. D. Jackson said...

I'm a fairly conservative guy (a Canadian Conservative, which effectively makes me a bleeding heart liberal in the eyes of most Americans) but honestly I must shake my head (again) over why Rush Limbaugh is still given a podium on which to speak. I've been scratching my head over it since the eighties when he was on TV. I just don't understand.

What I do understand, though, is the economics of movie snacks. See. a long time ago the movie studios owned the movie theaters which meant that they controlled both the production and the distribution of the product. That constituted a monopoly and the big movie studios had to divest themselves of the movie houses.

Long story short: Movie theaters pay a crapload of money to get those first run films. Even at $10 a ticket with $3 on top for 3D glasses they barely break even. Holleywood doesn't care. They take their cut of the ticket takings and it is a substantial cut.

The movie houses make money by selling snacks. They charge an exorbitant amount for snacks, they make enough money to stay in business, then they can keep the ticket prices relatively low so that more people can come and watch the movie. The theaters want the tickets to be a cheap as they can possibly make them so that more people will come to the theater to buy their popcorn so that they can stay in business.

The big budget movie is almost a lost leader for the theaters.

So when you go to the movies and you don't buy popcorn, you're not hurting the movie studios at all. The person who suffers from low popcorn sales is the high school girl behind the counter who will get laid off if the theater doesn't make enough money.

The end.

(Sorry for rambling but it is a complicated subject)

M. D. Jackson said...

Sorry, that should have been "loss leader".

Belle said...

I just read he was the Most Listened to Radio talk show in America! Why would so many people listen to his hatred? I never have understood it.

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

MD, you are totally right of course. I get more snacks when the ticket prices are lower so that makes your point and mine.

Rush is on 600 stations in every market in the US so he attracts every angry white male and plays into their fear of change. Like his listeners they can never admit they are wrong about anything or their entire belief structure will come crashing to the ground. It's almost fascinating to watch and listen to people who support what Rush and the Right say 100%. What is so right with me that I can see through every tiny piece of their bullshit. I don't say that progressives don't have their sins but our outbursts are never as hateful as those coming from the right.

Anonymous said...

You all fall into the trap...this is all a smoke screen....vile comments are made everyday by both sides...but not reported as the press/media is controled to point out only conservative errors..Rush is a vile individual and this was over the top but it was to push a point....hate speech comes in many forms so do not swallow the kool aid and look at the real issues...economy, gas, congress spending....dan

Sarah said...

Heh heh human anal sore...priceless! Although I'm not sure I would give Rush even the common courtesy of being called human, even a human anal sore.