At least we know where he comes from

I found out on Sunday about George Tiller's murder, and I really just deflated. ( There is no way God forgives this. )

It's not your job

Let's start with a simple premise: it is not okay, regardless of one's particular skill/knowledge set, to humiliate a non-beligerant stranger in public. If someone is not doing anything that hurts you or incites others to hurt you, you cannot, morally or legally, start harrassing that person so that they should be made to feel ashamed for whatever behavior they are doing that might otherwise bother you.

For example, I hate smokers. I am free to make snide comments about them to my friends, to cough dramatically when they get their cancer smoke in my face (in fact, I often can't control that reflex--I am very sensitive to the smoke), and to generally shoot them death glares. I am not allowed to pull up a soap box and a megaphone and start informing the entire block about how awful this person is for enjoying their addiction in my general vicinity and implying that they are awful people who cannot control themselves and are weak and stupid because they don't know how bad cigarettes are for them. That is generally considered rude.

With that in mind, it is doubly not okay to take someone to task for their non-harmful activity in an environment where they are an established inferior but not a direct professional subordinate. It is okay for a boss to set rules about how an employee dresses. It is not okay for a goddamned flight attendent to deliver a lecture on the evils of soda to a passenger.

To put it bluntly: it's not your job, lady. You are not a doctor. You are not a nutritionist. You aren't even a representative from Pepsi (or Chewlies Gum) with a deceitful agenda. You're just an asshole who felt personally obligated to inform a complete stranger, in front of a captive audience of strangers to both you and your victim, that you do not approve of her beverage of choice.

It's extremely obnoxious that this obvious breach of ettiquette (i.e. "save being an asshole for those who truly deserve it") devolves into a "Well, she was probably a fatty" in the comments on that article. As if one's physical appearance justifies this humiliation. Fuck that noise.

Okay, no more io9

Yeah, that rumor that was both dated and premised on, like, a fake Twitter account about the BioShock movie was--shock!--fake. I'm not surprised. This Kotaku update is really just confirming what I'd already heard--that expense was prohibiting the movie from going forward. Understandable, if lamentable. As is, feiran found out when BioShock 2 was coming out and I'm dying 'cause it's not until the end of this year. This bothers me less, I suppose, because I'm less sure of a movie version's quality than I am of the sequel's, judging from what I've seen of the latter.

But! Good news, everyone! LEGO HARRY POTTER! I have seriously been waiting since LEGO Star Wars for this announcement. Not that I haven't enjoyed LEGO Indiana Jones (and I'm still looking forward to playing LEGO Batman), just, well, there were Harry Potter LEGOs first, and damn if the two-part seventh book-to-movie doesn't set up the HP franchise as perfect for a two-game release (a la LEGO Star Wars). It made so much sense, I can't believe it's taken them so long. I've been saying they needed to do this for years.

(Side note: darkling1 informed me that they're doing a sequel to LEGO Indiana Jones. The first one left only Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls un-bricked, so what, besides that, they could put into a sequel is beyond me. The TV series, maybe?)

Also: more Monkey Island! Way to revisit this franchise, LucasArts! Finally! The former roommate, L, who got me into this series, will be so pleased! I need to finish MI3 already...