Aliens, Zombies, and Straight White Guys [I read stuff]

Wherein I read things, laugh [or not], and pass them on to you…

Want, want, wanty, want, want! I seriously want one of these!

Alien Pez

via: boingboing, Steve Niles Tumblr

In keeping with all things Alien…

And a raven, for no reason at all…

• The zombie apocalypse is coming soon. AMC has commenced filming on the third season of the popular TV horror series “The Walking Dead.”

• Rumors Of New Additions To The Cast Of The Walking Dead Season 3 **SPOILERS!**:

For now, I’m going to treat this as a RUMOR even though previous casting rumors have been mostly correct.

Walking Dead Producers/Showrunners have said for a while now that a new character named Harold will be appearing in Season 3 to help fill the spot that Dale/Jeffrey DeMunn left in the cast. But more recently a casting notice let slip a possible new character named Manuel, a middle-aged, hispanic man. Now, TVLine’s Michael Ausiello is saying that the Manuel character will serve as comic relief for the show.

“AMC’s monster hit will be adding to its canvas a recurring character named Manuel, who I’m told is strong, smart, kinda blue-collar and potentially the comic relief that the show has never really had.”

Ausiello’s comment is kind of in line with a supposed “leaked” casting call put out by AMC.

[MANUEL] 30 to 40, Hispanic, a working class survivor, he is confident, physically skilled, a leader when necessary, capable and smart. Has a terrific sense of humor where you wouldn’t expect one. Recurring.”

It is also rumored that Manuel is a prisoner from the prison we will be seeing in Season 3. [The Walking Dead News/Dane/18 May 2012]

• A&E has pulled the plug on Breakout Kings after two low-rated seasons.

Thanks for this, Laura!

• Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is:

I’ve been thinking of a way to explain to straight white men how life works for them, without invoking the dreaded word “privilege,” to which they react like vampires being fed a garlic tart at high noon. It’s not that the word “privilege” is incorrect, it’s that it’s not their word. When confronted with “privilege,” they fiddle with the word itself, and haul out the dictionaries and find every possible way to talk about the word but not any of the things the word signifies. [whatever/John Scalzi/15 May 2012]

• “Lowest Difficulty Setting” Follow-Up:

It’s been a couple of days since I’ve posted the “Lowest Difficulty Setting” piece, and it’s been fun and interesting watching the Intarweebs basically explode over it, especially the subclass of Straight White Males who cannot abide the idea that their lives play out on a fundamentally lower difficulty setting than everyone else’s, and have spun themselves up in tight, angry circles because I dared to suggest that they do. Those dudes are cracking me up, and also making me a little sad. [whatever/John Scalzi/17 May 2012]

• [W]omen owning their sexual pleasure veers dangerously close to women wanting to own their bodies. And we can’t have that! The more sexual agency you possess, the less of an object you become. That’s threatening to a lot of people.

• Missouri House Passes A Bill Allowing Medical Professionals To Deny Women’s Access To Contraception

• Oklahoma Highschool Shows Students Shocking Anti-Choice Propaganda Film:

Oklahoma is a hotbed of anti-choice activism, with some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation, multiple attempts to define a person at the point in which an egg is fertilized by sperm, and abortion opposition so strong even the anti-choice politicians have had to demand that overly zealous anti-choicers just back off. So, obviously, it’s just a coincidence that a high school in Wagoner, Oklahoma, happened to “accidentally” show viewings of the new anti-choice documentary “180,” a film created to “change the mind of every pro-choice person who views it” by comparing abortion to Holcaust of World War II. And that free dvds happened to be passed out to students, both incidents occurring without parental permission. [RH Reality Check/Robin Marty/18 May 2012]

• Oklahoma Students Shown A Movie Comparing Abortion To The Holocaust:

The Christian ministry Living Waters produced the movie. When it was released in 2011, the Anti-Defamation League called the fillm “one of the most offensive and outrageous abuses of the memory of the Holocaust we have seen in years.” [thinkprogress/Amanda Peterson Beadle/18 May 2012]