Sympathy Should be Shown to the Families First

It is a cruel joke on our nation's character that we are now relieved when a mass shooting produces fewer than ten victims. America's heart should go out for the families of the victims and then for the UCSB community.

Ultimately Elliot Rodger's self-image did not match up to his reality. He was a 22-year-old community college student who never worked a steady job in his life. He had a totally unwarranted sense of entitlement and elitism, making him an obnoxious twerp as well as a murderer. The media is neglecting to note that his rantings were moments of lucidity; his life was not working out that way that he intended, which led to his explosion of horrible rage. And the fact that his killing spree largely occurred with the assistance of a BMW (a gift from a parent) has made him the posterchild for privilege.

To blame the actions of Rodger on Judd Apatow or any of the Hollywood elite is, however, asinine. It is picking a successful artist, then trying to link the behavior of a madman to their work is what countless idiots have tried with Catcher in the Rye. Now some idiots are pointing seemingly randomly at movies where the average guy gets the hot girl like Puritans who never learned to read. (This is a trope that deserves to die, but does not deserve to be killed by feminists or anyone else. Seth Rogen will be held accountable for his crimes someday. Don't you worry.)

Working thru his manifesto. It has excellent spelling and grammar, but is otherwise dull writing. You see his obsession with World of Warcraft and other role-playing games. (This community will now, always, get a bad wrap on account of so many of their members committing murderous rampages.) He recognizes that his life isn't going great, but he cannot connect his problems with his behavior. So far, there is no mention of him approaching the "beautiful girls" whom he wants to have sex with--he can only lash out in petty ways when they DON'T take the initiative to connect with him. He thinks himself a gentleman but in reality he is ill, and he probably had the idea that he was a gentleman implanted in him by a society that confused his quietness and smallness with politeness and decency. If you did not know how this story was going to turn out, you would feel pity for someone so deluded but otherwise non-violent.

It is intellectually lazy to classify him as a misogynist. (For sincere misogyny, please consult the Columbine killers' writings.) He liked women, and sincerely didn't understand why they didn't reciprocate because of a communication and logic gap. He had no history of sexual assault, which is what one would suspect of a murderous sex offender. Most of the people whom he apparently hated were men who were succeeding in relationships with women. When he did explode, the first people killed were his male roommates (who undeniably did mock his lack of game). Far from being a misogynist, there is no word to describe Elliot Rodger.

#YesAllWomen has gotten douchey, though. At the club, women will be hit on--I will ask her "how you doin'?" Because I would like to know how the chick is doing, and talking to her while being a black guy does not constitute a sex crime. (I'll accuse you of a hate crime for accusing me of a sex crime. I can be hysterical too.) It belittles the seriousness of rape to claim that a guy who says "let's get out of here and go some place quieter" is rape. Stop it. There are appropriate places to say and do sexual things, and a woman's say in the matter is 50%. Women cannot control every situation that they are in; you do not get to be comfortable wherever you go, ladies. I have not taken my junk out and placed it on her head while riding the subway (which I've also done). I will not apologize for being a man anymore than I expect ladies to apologize for the femaleness. There are clear gender differences or rules to be considered--not ignored--in our society. Rodger became a mass murderer because he couldn't understand the rules: 9s date 9s, maybe 8s. He had neither the talent nor the skills to pretend to be something higher.

Is Katherine Heigl's reputation really worth $6 million?

I've had a thing for Katherine Heigl since Roswell. She was several years older than me, and her breasts made her look like a genius of some kind--possibly a rocket scientist. Contradictory, when she made it big on Grey's Anatomy, I began to lose interest in her, my teen infatuation abated by both the passage of time and the new hype that surrounded her.

Recently the drugstore chain Duane Reade used Heigl's image in an ad without her consent, and Heigl in turn sued--understandably. This begs the question: Is Katherine Heigl's reputation still worth $6 million? If the drug store had done this above board, would Heigl have received $6 million for her endorsement? No, certainly not in 2013. This suit is to make herself look better, reminding us all of the charity set-up in memory of her late brother and that Katherine Heigl still exists.

She is allegedly terrible to work with. She chain smokes. She was allegedly one of the driving forces to get Isaiah Washington fired from Grey's. On the set of Roswell, she was frequently late, missing her call-time intentionally. Not because of some emergencies but because she respected the production so little that she didn't even care to be on time. (This anecdote is from the interview that she gave in a 2006 FHM interview.) She was actually the biggest star on that WB show, it should be noted--having worked with both Gerard Deperdieu and Steven Seagal in Under Siege 2 (no--that was big)--and so it is easy to imagine why she thought she was gracing the teen sci-fi show with her presence. Her mother has been described as terrible too.

Despite Heigl's pluses--her apparently good marriage, her decision to adopt children, her sobriety. She might be totally loyal to her friends like TR Knight and her family (like many Mormons), she still manages to be seen as a pill. She does not work with actors more than once. Her greatest movie--Knocked Up--was derided by her, and she hasn't worked with Judd Apatow since.

The people you meet climbing the ladder of Hollywood success are the people you see during your downfall, and Heigl has been freefalling. This can be summed-up by one damaging assessment: In a 2013 Forbes article, she was linked to both Adam Sandler and Reese Witherspoon as the most overpaid stars in Hollywood. Hollywood will allow any matter of bitchiness or perversion, as long as the talent is commercial or critically successful.

I think a career-revival is possible, though. Yes, her greatest work has since been voice-acting in the animated The Nut Job--although no one sees a talking squirrel movie for Katherine Heigl; they see it because squirrels are awesome. She'll probably be returning to TV in the fall, although returning to TV can be seen as acknowledging defeat--but the low-point was still probably the Nyquil commercial, so the only place from here is up. (Oddly enough, the world didn't need any more Katherine Heigl movies.) What remains of her career is to be seen.