Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher in a RomCom directed by Ivan Reitman.

Watch the last 20 minutes, get the entire plot and all the RomCom feel good while saving an hour and a half of your life for better things.

My – ahem, cough – liberal/progressive friends acost me and say “We have to end war now!”, and make other similar demands for the global reformation of humanity. Wishful thinking will get you nowhere.

“Where does this end?” 
It doesn’t. 

We cannot end war, crime, greed, cruelty, etc.
To believe otherwise is to ignore either evolution or our creation.

If you believe in God, you have to believe the religious histories that tells us acts of human evil have been committed since Adam’s first lie to God about the fruit. Murder has been with us since at least Cain, if not earlier.

If you do not believe in God, the anthropological records show human crimes against their brethren going back millennia.
Biologically the instinct for survival and drive to commit aggressive or violent acts is seated in the very earliest – evolutionarily speaking – part of our brains.

To be blunt – humans are programmed to commit atrocities in the name of self-preservation. Humanity is basically evil when described from the aspirational mindset of peace, love and harmony. Admittedly, many acts are perpetrated out of motives not directly connected to survival, but the fact remains – the capacity is a biological default not an aberration.

The more developed parts of our brain allow us to control (usually) acting on these baser impulses, but the impulses are still there, and not going away.

I will admit that there are individuals who are capable of denying these basic impulses even if it leads to their death. I’m not one of them, and – if you’re honest with yourself – you probably aren’t either. I would kill an attacker to survive. I would kill an attacker to protect those I love.

Issuing a blanket edict to end war, crime, or other entrenched behaviors is no less non-sensical than telling people we shouldn’t defecate because we’re polluting the environment. It runs counter to both biologically programmed behaviors and environmentally learned behaviors.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t act to minimize these harmful activities, I’m saying trying solve a problem by expecting an irrational outcome will get you nowhere.

• Tickets – Pricing was $10 for general admission and $100 for the VIP tent which promised additional amenities such as tickets to the Whiskey Row for sampling. Not an unreasonable sum, except – a few days before the event they offered a Groupon for the same tickets at 50% off. So instead of rewarding the people who were committed to attending, they undercut the value of our tickets pandering to last minute purchasers who were thinking “Oh, it’s cheaper than a movie, let’s go.”
• Crowds –  Either the organizers failed to plan for the crowds or purposely oversold the event. (Given the Groupon, I’m inclined to believe the latter.) The massive crowding led to two other problems:
  • Parking – Simply a nightmare. If you were fortunate you found parking near a trolley stop. If not, you were walking. It was a nice day, so walking isn’t so bad – unless you’ve got a disability which interferes with walking. In that case you were SOL.
  • Food – The food was good – or so I’m told. By 2:15p there were only three or so booths in operation. Everyone else had run out of food. Why would you plan an event for 10,000+ people from 10AM to 5PM and run out of food around 2p?(See crowds above)
• Insult to Injury – the “VIP” tent didn’t seem to offer any respite. Teeny servings in condiment sized plastic cups. Apparently no free beverages as promoted and no tickets to Whisky Row as promoted.

So what did I pay $100 for?
Sorry, what did I overpay by $50 for?

No parking, no food (outside), small food (inside), no beverages, and no Whisky.