I think this is kind of an interesting post. About a week ago you posted an FAQ on reposting your work without permission. I, like anyone else who is involved in arts and creative endeavors, gave a little knowing nod at how Of Course You Can't.

But then there is this. The waters are somewhat muddied by the fact that it was posted to a site that encourages embedding. On there other hand, there is no way to know if the YouTube poster is the original author. This might have been swiped from a personal blog or Facebook.

Did you obtain permission from this budding critic before using his content on your review site? If not, why not? I'm just curious what your thoughts are on this.

Also, don't you think this is a little unnecessarily snide and meanspirited? I'm as depressed as anyone over the current state of movie-going culture but to hold up a 12 year old to ridicule? He IS 12...

I guess you could say you didnt intend to post it in a meanspirited context but it does sort of come across as such.

I didn't actually read the post as mean spirited. A little tongue-in-cheek perhaps. Considering it is a twelve year old I applaud the effort he is putting in and think it is great.

So that's what Cletus Spuckler looked like as a kid...

This is what Christian home schooling does to America's youth.

Um, where did you get the information that this boy was homeschooled and Christian? I looked and couldn't find it.

Laura F.,

The home school reference is obviously Joe's idea of a subtle joke.

I suppose I'd coin a similar quip were it not for:

1. The fact that most parents I know--including mine own--generally do some sort of home schooling before their kids start public school. (My father, for example, taught me how to read long before I started kindergarten.) They just choose not to call it home schooling.

2. The fact that parents who home school their children--even (gasp!) Christians--are hardly the worst social problem faced by American society. Of course I'm not crazy about the ones who choose not to teach their kids the theory of evolution. But having known cousins who were beat up in public school long before Columbine, I can't help but worry about more pressing issues.

Yes, my response was an equally subtle skewering, I suppose, since only I understood myself. Sorry.

I was homeschooled, and I'm a Christian, so I find those sort of broad generalizations (and the whiff of disgust and nose-looking-down that comes with them) personally offensive. That's just me, of course.

And it has very little to do with why I enjoy movies and why I come to this site.