The link between President Obama and post-apocalyptic movies and TV shows

Art imitates life when it comes to Hollywood entertainment.
During the Red Scare after World War II, movies addressed fears about the rise of communism in the U.S. (See “The Red Scare: A Filmography” by the All Powers Project.)
When nuclear war was a constant concern after the Cuban missile crisis and before the fall of the Soviet Union, Hollywood depicted the public’s fear of an attack. (See “From Atoms to Apocalypse: Film and the Nuclear Issues” by Mick Broderick at NuclearFiles.org.)
Now, partway through the second term of President Barack Obama, we’re seeing an unprecedented number of movies, TV shows and video games that take place in a post-apocalyptic world.
These forms of entertainment reflect our nation’s psyche after the 9-11 terrorist attacks and the Great Recession.
The number of post-apocalyptic dramas has increased significantly under President Obama. Perhaps Americans feel like our country is now great wasteland ruined by U.S. government policies, which have put the nation deeply in debt and stuck with high unemployment.
With the NSA spying scandal, the disastrous rollout of ObamaCare (a.k.a. the Affordable Care Act) and a lame-duck president, Americans have become even more pessimistic about the future of the U.S.
Since Obama took office, five post-apocalyptic TV series have premiered. During the two terms of his predecessor, President George W. Bush, three premiered, including one from the U.K. Four post-apocalyptic TV dramas are currently airing. AMC has “The Walking Dead.” NBC has “Revolution.” TNT has “Falling Skies.” And SyFy has “Defiance.”
Two more post-apocalyptic TV shows are set to air next year. The CW has “The 100,” which takes place 97 years after nuclear Armageddon destroyed civilization on Earth. TNT has “The Last Ship,” which takes place after a global pandemic wipes out 80% of the world’s population.
Plus, there are at least seven more post-apocalyptic shows in development.
AMC is working on a spin-off of “The Walking Dead.” It will feature a new cast of characters dealing with the zombie apocalypse.
AMC also is making a series called “Galyntine,” a post-apocalyptic tale about a society that eschews all forms of technology following a global disaster.
HBO is developing “The Leftovers,” which concerns a small town dealing with the aftermath of a global Rapture-like event.
SyFy is hoping to do a TV series based on the movie “Waterworld,” which takes place after the polar ice caps melt and flood the Earth.
SyFy also has ordered a pilot for a TV series based on the movie “12 Monkeys.” The story “follows the journey of a time traveler from the post-apocalyptic future who appears in present day on a mission to locate and eradicate the source of a deadly plague that will eventually decimate the human race.”
Plus, SyFy has ordered a pilot for “Dominion,” a drama based on the 2010 movie “Legion.” The show is described as “as an epic supernatural action drama set 25 years in the future after a war between an army of angels and mankind has transformed the world.”
And “X-Files” creator Chris Carter is developing a post-apocalyptic drama series for Amazon.com called “The After.” I’m not sure television can survive so many end-of-the-world programs.
I’ll update post-apocalyptic movies soon.

Related articles: 

Post-apocalyptic TV dramas proliferating. Part of Obama’s legacy? (Aug. 14, 2012)

List of post-apocalyptic TV dramas (Aug. 16, 2012)

Another post-apocalyptic TV drama coming. (Oct. 15, 2012)

Post-apocalyptic TV series are spreading. (July 9, 2013)

Video game industry embraces the apocalypse. (July 12, 2013)

Photos: Promotional art and still from the upcoming CW series “The 100.”

Persecution of sexy women continues

Here we go again.
A couple more cases have cropped up of female teachers being fired after the discovery of sexy photos unrelated to their jobs. America needs to just chill out and be more tolerant of such things.
Last month, Cristy Nicole Deweese, 21, was fired from her job as a high school Spanish teacher in Dallas after administrators found out she had posed naked for Playboy while in college.
School administrators deemed her past inappropriate. One parent told the Dallas Morning News that the revelation would be a distraction for her 16- and 17-year-old male students who wouldn’t be able to look at her without picturing her nude.
News flash: Teenage boys would do that with or without photos, especially since she’s a beautiful young woman.
(See additional news coverage by the Daily Mail, Huffington Post, New York Daily News and Fox News.)
Also in October, Laraine Cook, a girls’ basketball coach in Pocatello, Idaho, was fired for racy photo posted to her Facebook account. In the photo, Cook is wearing a bikini and her fiance has his hand on her right breast. The school considered the photo immoral.
Meanwhile, her fiance, a football coach at the same high school, got off with a reprimand.
Sounds like a double standard to me.
(See news coverage by the Huffington Post, Business Insider and the New York Daily News.)

Photos: Cristy Nichole Deweese (top) and Laraine Cook and fiance (bottom).

Related stories:

Being a porn actress isn’t a crime, so women shouldn’t be harassed because of it (April 3, 2011)

Public treats porn performers, nude models like criminals (Jan. 17, 2013)

Absurd morality against sexy women who model extends to Europe (Jan. 18, 2013)

America continues to punish sexy women (June 5, 2013)

My pampered cat only likes drinking water from dripping faucets

My cat Sherpa is spoiled. He has given up drinking water from his pet fountain in the kitchen and now demands fresh water from a dripping faucet in the bathtub.
The recycled, filtered water in his cat fountain doesn’t suit his refined tastes. He wants his water fresh from the tap.
My cat, a 12-year-old Himalayan, might have some genetic memory of drinking glacier melt water. I don’t know. All I know is that he will pester me in the bathroom until I turn on the tub faucet. (See photos above and below.)
I like to write about cats when this blog hits milestones. This month, Tech-media-tainment reached two milestones. It reached its five-year anniversary and surpassed 1.5 million visitors. Thanks for all your support!

Sex slang: The latest juvenile gotcha

There’s a scene in “Wayne’s World” (1992) where the two protagonists trick a fuddy-duddy adult into answering to the name of a dirty body part.
“Ass sphincter says what?” Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers) asks.
“What?” a confused Noah Vanderhoff (Brian Doyle-Murray) replies.
“Exactly,” Wayne says.
Ha-ha. Gotcha.
Lately social media has been busting news anchors and other public figures for unknowingly saying sex slang. But at least one of the recent examples involves pretty obscure slang.
On Oct. 31, the Rev. Joel Osteen, best-selling author and pastor of megachurch Lakewood in Houston, made an embarrassing post on Twitter.
“A true friend walks in when everybody else walks out. A true friend doesn’t rub it in when you make a mistake. They rub it out,” he wrote.
That message sent social media atwitter and Osteen deleted the post. I guess I’m not up on my slang, because it turns out that “rub it out” is slang for masturbation.
Oh, gotcha.
And that expression has been used before. See the photo (and Internet meme) below of a sign outside Grace Baptist Church.
In another instance of accidental sex slang, a commentator on a Fox News broadcast said President Obama and his wife enjoy “fisting.” She meant to say “fist bumping.” Whoops. See the YouTube video here.
Or how about the news anchor in Canada who didn’t know the definition of “canoodle”? See that YouTube video here.
Frankly it’s getting pretty hard to keep up on all the slang. I’m always looking up unfamiliar slang words online, especially on Urban Dictionary. So have your giggles, people, and cut these folks some slack.