Homer Homage, now with extra ranting

Here's a cute video homage to The Simpsons that is quite cleverly done, even if the steering wheel is on the wrong side of Marge's car. :)

While on the eternal topic of television, did anyone catch the Dinner For Five episode with Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane? He talked about censorship of Family Guy episodes, with the most revealing fact being that they have been 're-censored'. Episodes passed for network airing only two years ago were re-examined due to some change in the show's status (syndication?) or FCC rules, and this time around they were censored! Funniest part is that McFarlane notes that most of the censorship was to remove poop jokes and pixelate Peter's arse. THEY ARE CARTOON ARSES PEOPLE! It's a mass of beige/yellow with a curvey black line down the middle! It's not like you run the risk of accidentally seeing something unmentionable! But, as we have recently seen via the unfortunate Danes, it seems cartoons may be the greatest threat to world peace since the A-Bomb.

McFarlane laid the blame squarely at conservative reactionaries who were given voice in the post Janet Jackson Superbowl TV climate. For me, one more reason to dislike another Jackson. A pollie will do anything to capture the "family vote".

So if we can't trust the goverment bodies to remain unswayed by political pressure, who do we turn to? Fear not! As you can see here, at least you can trust the corporations to set a standard and maintain it. And for the good lawayers involved with the TV, movie and recording industries, the 'standard' is fear-mongering by sueing 13 year olds for piracy, while two-thirds of Asia gets away with it on a slightly larger scale — but they have 'favoured trading status' to protect them. Apparently lawsuits are now being aimed at Ebayers who do not clear their iPods before selling them, as well as all manner of lobbying being performed to try and sway the courts into re-examining whether copying your purchased CD to any digitla media is really "fair-use".

Lawyers and corporations, what a perfect match - like devils and hell. As it was so succinctly put in this article about Apple's push to video distibution via iTunes, why should the networks and cable companies try to innovate and compete, when they can just "flounder first, sue later."

This psuedo-political rant brought to you by caffeine, one of Brookie's Cookies, and a Sunday afternoon bad attitude.