If you click around the blogosphere a bit, you'll probably find just about all the information you could possibly want to know about Bush's new Supreme Court nominee, Samuel Alito. I don't feel like linking to everything I've read, but most of the blogs on the sidebar have some good stuff on them right now.
My thoughts: Bush seems to have realized that we conservatives actually want someone who is, you know, conservative to be on the Court. Strangely enough, nominating an inexperienced unknown who just happens to oppose abortion isn't good enough. What. A. Shock.
Alito looks like solid pick. There's lots of information here about some of his opinions (although you should never trust Wikipedia as an unbiased source of info, most of it seems accurate at the moment), and a lot of what I'm reading in the 'sphere strikes me as positive, particularly the hyperventilating and doomsaying on the left.
There's nothing like watching moonbats make fools of themselves.
A lot of the negative reaction seems to revolve around Alito's dissent in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in which he argued that a law requiring women to notify their husbands before having an abortion was constitutional.
I find the response to this hilarious for several reasons. First of all, a lot of the objections are based on the idea that Alito considers a woman's uterus to be the property of her husband, and that the law in question would be an unnecessary restriction on abortion "rights."
If the morons would actually research the damn case, they would see that the law did not, in fact, require the husband's consent in an abortion. It only required notification, which, getting to the first point, seems reasonable when you consider that the husband participated in the creation of the child who is about to be terminated.
Here's a fun lesson in categorical distinctions: A (hypothetical) law requiring a man to approve of his wife's hysterectomy gives him partial control of her uterus. A law requiring a man to know that his child is going to be killed does not.
Anyway, Patterico has plenty of info on this case that I won't try to summarize here, so go check that out if you're interested.
Misrepresentations aside, the issue at stake in this case, as mentioned before, was whether the law was constitutional, not whether it was good. Liberals seem to miss this point quite often when discussing judicial politics. Alito's opinion on the constitutionality of the law does not necessarily reflect his opinion on the law itself, and even if it does...IT'S NOT IMPORTANT.
This is one of the things that bothers me...a lot...about this whole Supreme Court nomination issue. An alarming number of people on the left (and some on the right) seem to think that judges are meant to rule in favor of laws they agree with and strike down laws they oppose, which is why we hear so much about "balance" on the Supreme Court.
But since the people in question are judges and not friggin' Jedi, "balance" should have nothing to do with it. We shouldn't even need to know if a nominee is conservative or liberal, but since one side now seems to believe that personal opinion is more important than the Constitution, that's the way it is.
I'm going to make this bold and capitalized so anyone who hasn't gotten the point can see it:
JUDGES DO NOT MAKE LAWS.
I'm sick of people arguing over whether a judge's philosophy would allow him to support certain laws. That. Should. Not. Matter. The only thing I'm concerned about is whether the nominee believes that the Constitution means what it says. All other beliefs, both personal and political, are irrelevant after that.
In addition, I find it odd that the debate always seems to revolve around Roe v. Wade and abortion in general. Since when did the judiciary become the Abortion Branch? The Constitution says nothing about abortion, so it really is amazing that it's more or less the number one issue coming up here.
What about First Amendment cases? What about Second Amendment cases? What about dealing with the abominable Kelo decision? Do all these issues pale in comparison to abortion? Does nobody care that judges make decisions about other things?
Look at the big picture, people.
I had a revelation of sorts this morning, and I thought I'd share it.
You see, the communications professors here at Syracuse have offices in Newhouse II. A few of them like to put anti-Bush material on their doors, and I pass it whenever I go to my screenwriting class.
Do you think that if I went to Nancy Cantor and told her that, as a Bush voter, this material makes me "feel excluded and unwelcome," she would disband the Newhouse school?
Probably not. That would be taking things too far, wouldn't it?
Is anyone else having trouble loading Gmail?
UPDATE
Upon further inspection, I realized that Gmail is, in fact, working in Firefox 0.8, but not Firefox 1.0.
That's...bizarre.
I miss my drumset. Playing snare just doesn't compare to having an entire rhythmic arsenal at your disposal.
Oh, well. Only a month until Thanksgiving...
Seriously, only one comment on the script? I'm going to stop posting my work if more people don't pay attention to it...
Anyway, I'm heading to Pittsburgh soon for another craptacular SU football game, but I thought that in addition to the aforementioned script, I'd respond to a meme that Army NCO Guy tagged me with a couple weeks ago. This should be interesting...
Seven things I want to do before I die:
1. Graduate from college (I know it seems like a given, but this semester is making me wonder...).
2. Get a full band together and put on some awesome rock concerts.
3. Learn to play guitar.
4. Make a movie so good that people call it "The Citizen Kane of the 21st Century."
5. Find true love...or at least get a friggin' girlfriend.
6. Start a revolution.
7. Figure out why people are so stupid.
Seven things I can do:
1. Drum like a mofo.
2. Write better than anyone I've ever known.
3. Quote a couple episodes of Aqua Teen Hunger Force verbatim from beginning to end.
4. Eat an entire stack of Saltines in one sitting.
5. Identify, understand, and appreciate satire.
6. Use Final Cut Pro.
7. Find at least one spelling/grammatical/typographical error in any work that contains them, no matter how obscure or insignificant.
Seven things I cannot do:
1. Go to sleep before 1:00 AM.
2. Complicated mental math.
3. Sing, apparently.
4. Maintain eye contact for more than a second.
5. Wear blue jeans, or anything else made of denim.
6. Grow a full beard.
7. Drink coffee (can't even stand the smell of the stuff).
Seven things I say a lot:
1. Crap.
2. Freakin'/Frickin'/Friggin'.
3. Cool.
4. Thanks.
5. Hey/What's up?
6. That's good to know.
7. Sweet.
...Yes, I am indeed a man of few spoken words.
Seven things I find attractive in a female:
Now we're delving into unexplored blog territory. This should be...well, either fun or disturbing. Or both.
I notice that the list doesn't specify whether the things should be physical or personality-related, so I'll divide between the two.
Physical:
1. Long, straight hair; Preferably brown, but any color is attractive if done right.
2. Shorter than 5'7".
3. I'm not sure how to put this...uh...physical proportion is very important to me. Note to women everywhere: Gigantic boobies on a petite frame are freakish, not attractive. Thank you.
4. Cute face. Much like obscenity in the eyes of the law, this is one of those "I'll know it when I see it" things, but it is a huge factor in what I find attractive. Huge.
Personality:
5. Shy, but not to the point of being totally antisocial (yeah, I'm a hypocrite. You wanna fight about it?).
6. INTELLIGENT (gee, do you think this is important?)
7. Honest, even if that means saying something offensive.
...And the above list, loyal minions, is the reason I'm going to die alone.
Anyway...
Seven celebrity crushes:
No. Just no. Honestly, a few months ago, I would've said Katie Holmes, but since Tom Cruise has tainted her forever...no.
Seven people I feel like bugging:
I could name lots of people I feel like bugging...but unfortunately, none of them have blogs, so that's the end of this meme.
And now, I'm off to stay in a hotel that's about 20 minutes from my house. Kinda ridiculous when you think about it...
I'm working on another post now, but I had to blog about something that is pissing me off a lot.
Remember HillTV, the student-run television station I used to work with?
As of today, it no longer exists.
The situation began on Tuesday when the Daily Orange ran this article:
Recently an episode of HillTV's comedy show "Over the Hill" was removed from the station's Web site due to concerns about offensive content.For the last year, the parody news show, modeled after "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," has been filming and broadcasting on the station's Web site and the Orange Television Network. While the original premise of the show was to satirize campus and national news, it has since deviated into segments about "smelly Indian kids," jokes about mentally retarded people and Chancellor Nancy Cantor's desire for "thick black sausage."
"Over the Hill" and all HillTV programming is funded through a significant portion of the Student Activity Fee.
In the removed episode, anchor Shawn Abraham, one of the co-creators and producers, jokes about September's Student Association-University Union conflict about the possibility of bringing Kanye West for a benefit concert. He says "Well, I guess this confirms what we already knew: President (Travis) Mason does not care about black people." [note from CD: Travis Mason is black. That's part of the joke.]
Former HillTV General Manager Chris Milkovich, whose term ended about one month ago, and his staff removed the show by choice because they felt the comment could be offensive, he said.
"There were no implications there, no harm," Abraham said.
There's more to that article detailing the other "offensive" content of the show, so follow the link to read the rest.
Anyway, HillTV first dealt with complaints by, as the article says, taking the offensive episode off the website. However, that apparently wasn't enough for the PC Police, and after a series of meetings about the rampant racism on campus and the need for tolerance and diversity, "Over the Hill" was eliminated entirely. As much as that sucks, you'd think it would be the end of the problem, right?
Not on Nancy Cantor's watch.
People were still complaining about being offended, and "students of color" claimed to feel "unsafe" on a campus that allowed that kind of content. So what happened next? This:
HillTV disbanded: Chancellor revokes student group status, vows to create new TV stationSyracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor disbanded the student-run television station HillTV on Thursday.
Cantor spoke to former HillTV General Manager Rich Levy, the department heads and the former sports director at 4:30 p.m. to tell them of her decision to disable the station. Cantor also told the HillTV representatives of the administration's decision to create a new student-run television network on campus.
The HillTV Web site, HillTV.com, was removed Thursday evening.
Cantor did not allow the former HillTV members to speak in defense of the station.
"The meeting was organized so she could tell us her decision, so no, there was no room for discussion," said Emily Wasco, former HillTV entertainment director.
Cantor delivered the same news to the campus community at "Speak Out," the open meeting designed to address the recent HillTV content issues in Hendricks Chapel at 7 p.m. Thursday.
Cantor began her speech by saying she felt personally wounded as one of the many victims of the "Over the Hill" entertainment show.
"Others who were disparaged live on this campus," Cantor said. "They've been made to feel excluded and unwelcome ... This is unacceptable."
She explained how the Office of Greek Life and Experiential Learning asked "Over the Hill" to desist, but it did not comply.
Students on other HillTV shows do not hold the same mentality as "Over the Hill" and have been doing good work, Cantor said. She said she does not want to take the experience of working at a television station away from those students, so she is forming a committee to create a new student-run network.
"She is very adamant about us being part of the committee," Wasco said. "We all appreciate that."
In addition to the new network, Cantor said the former HillTV studio, located in Watson Hall, will still be open for student production use. With the supervision of Orange Television Network General Manager Andy Robinson, students will still be allowed to use the equipment and studio located in the Robert B. Menschel Media Center.
"I do (think the disabling of the station was too harsh) to some extent, but I can understand where the chancellor and the community is coming from," Wasco said.
Cantor said she encourages all students to get involved with the new station. She said she wants to build television shows that represent everyone on the SU campus and wants to take the opportunity to "build a better community."
So, there you have it. One show produces content that a few oversensitive assholes find offensive, and the chancellor disbands the fucking TV station.
This is what happens when you bend over and take whatever the Thought Police demand of you. The station complied with every request to alter their content, and nothing was good enough except punishing over 200 people for something that only a dozen or so had anything to do with. Sure, they're forming a new organization, but after this, I doubt that any "offensive" (read "entertaining") content will be allowed.
Hey, Nancy Cantor, guess what? Since this blog isn't connected to the university, I actually have the right to say things here that some would consider offensive. With that in mind...
FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!
...In any case, this debacle proves my new theory that liberals are not capable of being "anti-establishment" anymore, because they are the establishment.
Unbelievable.
Okay, here's the deal: I have a philosophy exam tomorrow morning, followed by a huge (50% of my grade) TRF exam on Thursday afternoon, so I'll be studying a lot in the next couple days. Then, on Friday afternoon, I'm going to Pittsburgh with the marching band, and I won't be back until Saturday night or early Sunday morning.
Needless to say, I won't be blogging much.
However, I thought I'd leave you with something to read. As you may know, I'm writing a full-length screenplay for one of my TRF classes, and at this point, I've got 15 pages completed. My professor and classmates have given me overwhelmingly positive reviews so far, but there's no such thing as too much feedback, so I'm putting the pages here for you to read.
A couple quick notes:
1) This is a first draft.
2) Obviously, it's not done yet, but when it is, I'll make that available as well.
3) This is very, very, very different from the Bob and Joe scripts. It's dark satire rather than light comedy, and it's written in the standard Hollywood style rather than the narrative, made-to-read format I used for B&J. In other words, a lot more is left to the imagination.
Anyway, check it out and let me know what you think:
Have I mentioned lately that film theory is a load of pretentious, pseudo-intellectual bullshit?
No?
Well, it is.
From Mr. Mertz, the SU band director (slightly paraphrased):
"If you take any extra steps on that move, you'll need a proctologist to retrieve your instrument!"
This was extra funny because:
1) He said it over a loudspeaker
2) His mother was right next to him (seriously)
I love marching band. Especially since I have to get up at 6:30 tomorrow morning for rehearsal.
...
Yeah.
Hi! I'm CD's work ethic! I'm a little lost right now. Can anybody help me find my way home?
...
No?
Crap. Okay, see ya.
...
I just got this in my school e-mail:
The Onondaga County Health Department has issued a boil water order until further notice for the southeastern portion of the City of Syracuse, which includes both Syracuse University's North Campus and South Campus. The order has been issued due to test results received today identifying the presence of E-coli bacteria in water samples.Water should be boiled at a full boil for a minimum of one minute
before drinking, making ice, brushing teeth, washing dishes or being
used in food preparation; boiling kills most bacteria and other
organisms in the water.Bathing is permitted, but incidental ingestion during bathing
activities should be avoided.During the duration of the boil water order, only bottled beverages
will be served in campus dining halls, and appropriate procedures are
being followed in food preparation.Water bottles are being distributed to North Campus residence halls.
Two bottles per day will be available for each student in a residence
hall.Bottled water for South Campus apartment residents and Skyhall
residents is available from 7:30 a.m. to midnight at the Goldstein
Student Center and from midnight to 4 a.m. at the South Campus Welcome
Center on Skytop Road.Bottled water will be available for users of campus gymnasiums and
other Recreation Services facilities.Bottled water is available to academic/administrative departments on an
as-needed basis through the University Commissary at 443-3803.The Onondaga County Health Department is working cooperatively with the
City of Syracuse to identify and correct the problem. E-coli bacteria
indicate that the water may be contaminated with human or animal waste.
Those most at risk for health issues from E-coli ingestion include
infants, young children, elderly individuals and people with severely
compromised immune systems.When ingested, this bacteria may cause diarrhea, cramps, nausea,
headaches or other symptoms. It is advised that if you are experiencing
any of these symptoms, contact your health care provider immediately.
Students with concerns or questions may contact Health Services at
443-4132.
No comment.
I won't go into detail about how I found this, but...I think I've located Larry's long-lost brother.
Be sure to check out the rest of that site, too. Hi-larious.
If you search Google for I'm in collage, you get 10,700 results.
...
I really think that if you can't spell "college," you shouldn't be in college.
As promised, here's a post about Friday's rather eventful band trip. This is going to be another one of those very long posts that acts as filler until I get time to write again. I'll be busy this week.
Like I explained a few days ago, the Powers that Be decided that the SU marching band needs to travel now, and one of the games they picked took place on October 7 at the University of Connecticut. As a result, rather than sitting around reading blogs and randomly falling asleep like I usually do on Friday afternoons, I was forced to load my drum onto a bus at 12:30 and prepare for a 5 hour ride. Joy.
...That was my mindset at the time, at least. The trip ended up being a lot more interesting and entertaining than I expected. Read on...
Anyway, I got to the Carrier Dome around 12:30 PM, and we started loading up the equipment. When we take short trips, we have to use school buses, and we put the drums in any available seats. This means that it's extremely cramped, and a few people usually end up standing.
This time, however, they were smart enough to get us a few charter buses, so we were able to put everything in the storage area (which, as you know if you've ever taken a school trip, is usually reserved for suitcases). In addition, the bus I was on was reserved for the drumline and leaders, which meant that there weren't as many people as usual, and I was able to get my own seat. Sweet.
We were supposed to leave at 1:00. But of course, like every school-related trip in the history of humanity, that didn't happen. We got going a little after 1:30, which wasn't too much of a difference, but still...
If you've been on a charter bus, you know that they have TVs and VCRs. This one was no exception, and it also had a DVD player, which we took full advantage of. We started off by watching and critiquing the videos from our first couple performances this year, thus demonstrating that we are all gigantic band geeks. Pretty soon, we wanted to watch an actual movie, and the real fun started. What movie was it, you ask?
Team America: World Police. Specifically, the unrated version.
Whatever you think about that, I assure you that I was probably thinking the same thing...
I had actually never seen this movie, so I was kind of interested. I don't want to turn this post into a review, but let me just say that it was one of the funniest things I've seen in months. Seriously, if you haven't watched Team America yet, and you're not offended by a lot of coarse language...and explicit puppet sex...then I highly recommend it.
The thing that really made this awesome, however, was the fact that the band director and the drumline instructor were sitting a couple seats in front of me, so I got to see their reactions. Bwahaha. It's hard to describe this part of the experience to someone who wasn't there and doesn't know these guys, but believe me when I say that they were almost as funny to watch as the movie itself. There's nothing like hearing "America, fuck yeah! So lick my butt and suck on my balls!" and looking down to see perceived authority figures laughing their asses off. And now, every time someone says "derka derka," the drumline guy cracks up. Heh heh.
After that movie, they put in Dumb and Dumber, and since I've seen it quite a few times, I kinda tuned it out and listened to some music. Eventually, we left New York and drove through Massachusetts, making it officially the first time I'd been in New England. My thoughts: Massachusetts has trees. Lots and lots of trees. And also...trees. Man, there were a lot of trees in that state. At least the part we were in.
We pulled into a rest stop around 4:45, and I got to see what happens when 200 people all try to order food from the same three places. I think some people waiting in line for McDonald's had to stand outside for a few minutes. Luckily, I don't eat that crap, so I only had to wait about ten minutes for some pizza at one of the other places. After spending about 40 minutes there, we hit the road again and headed for Rentschler Field.
I don't know exactly what time it was when we entered Connecticut, but I do know that we didn't get to the field until about 6:45, which was over an hour later than we were supposed to be there. We unpacked everything, stood around in complete confusion for a while, briefly warmed up, and ignored random comments from fans in the parking lot. Eventually, we marched over to the field, and I almost had a heart attack because we were taking huge steps. There's nothing like sitting on a bus for hours and then marching while wearing a snare drum with little time to get loosened up.
The game started at 8:00, and by this time, it was already raining. I mentioned this, right? No? Well...it rained on Friday. A lot. This was one of the highlights of the night. More on that later...
Anyway, since our football team sucks, we got to watch them get annihilated for a couple quarters while trying our best to have fun playing in the stands and ignore the rain. And when the scoreboard played some weird recruitment ad about UConn being a top-rated public university, a few people started chanting "staaaaaaate school! Staaaaaaate school!" Bwahaha. Oh, the joys of going to a private university...
After a pretty crappy first half, we headed down to the field to do our halftime show, and we got to hear more inane bullshit from fans who were probably too dumb and inebriated to remember where they were. Apparently, the evil twin of our "UConn, USuck!" cheer is "SU, sucks to be you!" Fascinating.
Despite the rain and resulting wet field, we put on a decent, albeit brief performance. Then we got to watch UConn's band...and they were good. Really good. They came to SU last year, and I really don't remember them being that impressive. Especially the drumline. I think this was the first time that another school's band put on a better show than us. And since we're not a bunch of overly competitive assholes, we had no problem clapping for them.
When we got back to the stands, there were still a few minutes left before the second half, and most of us hadn't had a bathroom break since the rest stop in Massachusetts, so a bunch of people, myself included, headed up to use the facilities. This is where the real fun started.
I knew to expect some stupid crap from Katherine's "enjoy the UConn drunkards" comment, but...wow. I've been to hockey games and rock concerts, and I've been living in dorms for a couple years, and I still wasn't prepared to be surrounded by this much intoxication. And nothing draws the atttention of drunk football fans like wearing the colors of the opposing team. A few comments I can remember:
- "Syracuse sucks!"
- "You band guys must be drinkin' a lotta beer, ya gotta pee so much!"
- "Hey, [random slurred speech] play up at Notre Dame when [more random slurred speech]? 'Cause they got [even more random slurred speech] up there!"
As I told a couple people afterwards, one of the reasons I don't go to parties is that they're full of idiots like that.
After we got back to the stands, it started raining a little harder...then a lot harder. By the fourth quarter, it was a steady downpour. We had ponchos, but they really didn't help that much. On the plus side, playing drums in the rain is fun. You know how Blue Man Group puts paint on top of their drums and hits 'em really hard to make colorful splashes? The physics are the same with a marching snare. I'll let you figure out the rest.
After the slaughter ended (Syracuse lost 26-7), we went back down to the field to march again. You see, UConn has this thing where they don't let the bands out of the stadium until everyone else has left, so they have a postgame show to pass the time, and they invited us to do another performance in front of the 30 or so people who stuck around to watch. And so, in the pouring rain, we performed the opener of our second show ("The Glory Days" from The Incredibles).
UConn's band came on after us and did a really, really cool West Side Story show. These guys are frickin' good, and they got plenty of applause from us. After it was all over, we lined up and marched out of the stadium. It was raining even harder by this time, if you can believe that, and we had left our ponchos in the stands, so we were all soaking wet. And it was about a five minute walk back to the buses...plus the time it took to load up our drums again.
Once everyone was on the bus, we got to experience the magic of a couple dozen soaking wet people trying to change clothes in close quarters. Did I mention how lucky I was to get my own seat? I'm not going to try and describe the smell, but you can probably imagine that it wasn't pleasant. We finally started to head back around 12:15 AM.
The ride home wasn't quite as hilarious, but the people around me passed a couple hours with mind games (lateral thinking puzzles, etc.). One guy taught us a game that is quite possibly the best method of psychological torture ever conceived. It involves hand motions, so I can't really recreate it here, but if you ever hear the phrase "zoom zoom zoom zoom, whoopee, zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom," be prepared to rip your own brain out. That's about all I can say without giving it away.
We got back to the Carrier Dome at about 5:15 AM (yes, you read that right). As soon as we got off the bus, we noticed that it was about 25 degrees colder outside than it had been in Connecticut. Good ol' lake effect. After spending a few minutes bringing everything back in and drying off the drum heads, we were able to leave. I got back to my room around 6:15 and wrote the post below this one, so I guess that's the end of the journey.
I really expected this trip to suck, and in some ways, it did. However, there were a lot of memorable moments, and it was one of those times when your situation in life is so absurd that you have to laugh, which was what I spent much of the trip doing. If you knew me in real life, you'd know that it takes a lot for me to even crack a smile, so I guess I can say that I had a good time. I'm not sure if I would do it again, but I definitely had a good time...if that makes any sense. Also, I made some money out of it. They gave everyone $30 for food, and I only spent about $7.50. Heh.
And now, I'm getting tired again. Later.
Wow...it's 6:15 AM, and I just got back from UConn about an hour ago (I'm just writing this now because I had to unpack and dry my drum, then walk 15 minutes back to my dorm). This game was one of the most blogworthy events in recent memory, and I'll definitely be writing about it...in a few hours.
Right now, I need. to. SLEEP.
Stay tuned, minions...
There's not that much to blog about right now (other than Bush's frighteningly inexperienced Supreme Court nominee...is he trying to piss off real conservatives?), but here's a couple things I think are blogworthy:
1. I really have no idea who reads this blog these days, but if you're in or near Connecticut and are planning to go to the Syracuse vs. UConn football game on Friday night, be sure to stick around for halftime and postgame. Why? Because the athletic department, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that the Syracuse University Marching Band needs to perform at a couple of away games, and this happens to be one of them (the other is in Pittsburgh at the end of the month, which means I'll be within 20 miles of my house without actually seeing it...kinda ironic). We're doing an Earth, Wind and Fire show, complete with a drum feature that we stole from this movie
2. Speaking of music, it's now been almost two months since I posted the Suspended Agitation demo, and I've hardly gotten any feedback. Seriously, people. The entire thing is only half an hour long, and Ryan's been asking me if anyone listened to it yet. Just take a few minutes and let me know what you think.
...I guess that's it for now. I'll end with a quick public service announcement: If you have class at 8 AM, and you stay up until 4 AM writing a paper for your Constitutional Law class at 9:30, you will be incredibly tired.
Thank you.
Wouldn't it be great if there was an Indian tribe called the Udamanowdawg?
I'm not going to try and explain the ADD-induced tangent that led me to this, but I found a great way to observe groupthink with Google. It's very simple:
Step 1: Click this link.
Step 2: Read the first result.
Step 3: Profit! Read a few of the other results.
Step 4: Laugh...on into the night.
And speaking of night...I should be going to sleep now.
(Extra credit: There are two quotes from two separate TV shows in this post. Try to find both and name the shows. Hint: They're both cartoons.)