I got another one of those emails today...

It’s another Obama email, actually what it is is an Op-Ed piece by a classmate of Obama‘s who is now sometimes appears on FOX news and was on the Libertarian ticket in the VP slot. I’m going to run it too so you can see it (but like with the other one I’m going to make the print really, really small - which you can change easily enough in your browser settings) but after my comments.

Once again, we’re being regaled with this big revelation Obama is some kind of sleeper agent set out to destroy the system. I hate this fucking shit. I hated it when they the flip side pulled the same shit on Bush, this disingenuous positioning that forgets all about the system of checks and balances built into our government.

It’s the kind of thing that makes me want to get very drunk or just simply bang my head against the wall over people’s idiocy (but maybe the solution is to bang the heads of the people running around histrionically ala Chicken Little against a wall).

As I’ve observed before, I’m registered Republican so immediately that makes me some kind of ignoble villain in the minds of one segment of the population. I registered Republican a long time ago and I never felt the desire to change it because I simply don’t vote along the party line. I think the people who do vote blindly along party lines often do themselves a huge disservice and are lacking in even a modicum of intelligence.

These emails though, not to stray too far off topic, are pretty funny. And whether they rail against Bush, the Republicans, Sarah Palin, Obama, Nancy Pelosi they just fail to capture my thoughts on the matter.

See, I don’t think people go far enough.

I grew up with heroes like George Carlin and if there was one thing you could say about Carlin it was he didn’t fit into a box. All this bs, it just doesn’t begin to tap into what the real problem is and that’s isms.

I talked about one kind of ism the other day but in this case the isms I’m talking about are the ones as they relate to the structure of our societies. We’ve had Communism, Socialism, Capitalism and right now, at this point for many of the countries of the Western World we are seeing the first cracks in the dam that is Capitalism.

According to some historians, the modern capitalist system has its origin in the “crisis of the fourteenth century,” a conflict between the land-owning aristocracy and the agricultural producers, the serfs. Manorial arrangements inhibited the development of capitalism in a number of ways. Because serfs were forced to produce for lords, they had no interest in technological innovation; because serfs produced to sustain their own families, they had no interest in co-operating with one another. Because lords owned the land, they relied on force to guarantee that they were provided with sufficient food. Because lords were not producing to sell on the market, there was no competitive pressure for them to innovate. Finally, because lords expanded their power and wealth through military means, they spent their wealth on military equipment or on conspicuous consumption that helped foster alliances with other lords; they had no incentive to invest in developing new productive technologies.

Think of it as such: the United States as a market drives the world economy even though there are expanding markets in Asia. However, technology has led to an increasingly automated workplace decreasing the amount of jobs. Also, factor in  satellite and broadband technologies making the world a much smaller place placing downward pressure on wages. These conspire to diminish the spending power of the people in US market. With a smaller market there is a decreasing demand for goods and services. Sure there are emerging markets in China and elsewhere but those markets are built on a trade imbalance and a policy of consumption – what happens when ‘people’ push away from the table of capitalism?

What’s left?

Never mind that the deck is stacked against us in many ways focusing wealth and power in the hands of a select few. You often hear people talking about the good old days, well... I’m of a mind those good old days may be returning in the form of an oligarchy only in this sense instead of the alliance and membership being built around the color red (blood) it will be chosen on the basis of green (money). I just don’t see this system holding and I think the cracks in the dam are all around us.

So when I get an email about some hidden agenda (which reminds me of this great computer game from the early Mac days) I crack up because none of these plans goes remotely far enough to even begin to correct the situation.

Here’s the latest in from the world of the hysterical conservative:

Subject: OBAMA'S COLLEGE ROOMMATE SPEAKS OUT ... pass this on ......

MOHAMMED OBAMA’S COLLEGE ROOMMATE SPEAKS OUT
 
By Wayne Allyn Root, June 6th, 2010

Barack Obama is no fool. He is not incompetent. To the contrary, he is brilliant. He knows exactly what he's doing. He is purposely overwhelming the U.S. economy to create systemic failure, economic crisis and social chaos -- thereby destroying capitalism and our country from within.
Barack Obama is my college classmate (Columbia University , class of '83). As Glenn Beck correctly predicted from day one, Obama is following the plan of Cloward & Piven, two professors at Columbia University. They outlined a plan to socialize America by overwhelming the system with government spending and entitlement demands.

Add up the clues below. Taken individually they're alarming. Taken as a whole, it is a brilliant, Machiavellian game plan to turn the United States into a socialist/Marxist state with a permanent majority that desperately needs government for survival ... and can be counted on to always vote for bigger government. Why not? They have no responsibility to pay for it.

-- Universal health care. The health care bill had very little to do with health care. It had everything to do with unionizing millions of hospital and health care workers, as well as adding 15,000 to 20,000 new IRS agents(who will join government employee unions). Obama doesn't care that giving free health care to 30 million Americans will add trillions to the national debt. What he does care about is that it cements the dependence of those 30million voters to Democrats and big government. Who but a socialist revolutionary would pass this reckless spending bill in the middle of a depression?

-- Cap and trade. Like health care legislation having nothing to do with health care, cap and trade has nothing to do with global warming. It has everything to do with redistribution of income, government control of the economy and a criminal payoff to Obama's biggest contributors. Those powerful and wealthy unions and contributors (like GE, which owns NBC, MSNBC and CNBC) can then be counted on to support everything Obama wants. They will kick-back hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions to Obama and the Democratic Party to keep them in power. The bonus is that all the new taxes on Americans with bigger cars, bigger homes and businesses helps Obama"spread the wealth around."

-- Make Puerto Rico a state. Why? Who's asking for a 51st state? Who's asking for millions of new welfare recipients and government entitlement addicts in the middle of a depression? Certainly not American taxpayers. But this has been Obama's plan all along. His goal is to add two new Democrat senators, five Democrat congressman and a million loyal Democratic voters who are dependent on big government.

-- Legalize 12 million illegal immigrants. Just giving these 12 million potential new citizens free health care alone could overwhelm the system and bankrupt America. But it adds 12 million reliable new Democrat voters who can be counted on to support big government. Add another few trillion dollars in welfare, aid to dependent children, food stamps, free medical,education, tax credits for the poor, and eventually Social Security.

-- Stimulus and bailouts. Where did all that money go? It went to Democrat contributors, organizations (ACORN), and unions -- including billions of dollars to save or create jobs of government employees across the country. It went to save GM and Chrysler so that their employees could keep paying union dues. It went to AIG so that Goldman Sachs could be bailed out (after giving Obama almost $1 million in contributions). A staggering $125 billion went to teachers (thereby protecting their union dues). All those public employees will vote loyally Democrat to protect their bloated salaries and pensions that are bankrupting America . The country goes broke, future generations face a bleak future, but Obama, the Democrat Party, government, and the unions grow more powerful. The ends justify the means.

-- Raise taxes on small business owners, high-income earners, and job creators. Put the entire burden on only the top 20 percent of taxpayers, redistribute the income, punish success, and reward those who did nothing to deserve it (except vote for Obama). Reagan wanted to dramatically cut taxes in order to starve the government. Obama wants to dramatically raise taxes to starve his political opposition.
With the acts outlined above, Obama and his regime have created a vast and rapidly expanding constituency of voters dependent on big government; a vast privileged class of public employees who work for big government; and a government dedicated to destroying capitalism and installing themselves as socialist rulers by overwhelming the system.

Add it up and you've got the perfect Marxist scheme -- all devised by my Columbia University college classmate Barack Obama using the Cloward and Piven Plan.

True per snopes! Check it!

AGAIN, THE VIEWS EXPRESSED ARE BY THE SENDER OF THE EMAIL I RECEIVED, DO NOT CONFUSE THEM WITH MY OWN.

STRANGE TALES FROM THE WORLD OF BASEBALL!

Bet you didn’t know this one! I was surprised myself but, it’s true!

During the 1994 baseball strike, which began on August 12, Winfield was traded to the Cleveland Indians  at the trade waiver deadline on August 31 for a “player to be named later.” The 1994 season had been halted two weeks earlier (it was eventually canceled a month later on September 14), so Winfield did not get to play for the Indians that year and no player was ever named in exchange. To settle the trade, Cleveland and Minnesota executives went to dinner, with the Indians picking up the tab. This makes Winfield the only player in major league history to be traded for a dinner.

Just because you can.

There has been a big debate over the plans to build a Mosque in lower Manhattan.

Honestly, what I was going to write today was basically that the people who are trying to build the mosque on this location while having every right to do so, if their intent is to foster ties to the non-Muslim community need to be mindful of the sensitivities of the people who are opposed to the mosque’s construction.

Originally, I had thought the ‘community center’ was being built on Church street or just below the site and it turns out this isn’t at all the case but, I did see where the building being used for this project was intimately involved in the events of September 11th in that is was struck by debris falling from the south tower.

Seeing the location though made me rethink my position, I found myself not as incensed as I had been originally and at the same time taking the kind of attitude of not really thinking it as big a deal as was being made out of it and in some ways it isn’t. Look, it is a free country and the people in question do have a right to build where they want but some interesting questions have come up in the whole process and they’re things that should factor into the discussion.

But when I read statements like this one by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, “The fact we are getting this kind of attention is a sign of success.” I swing back in the other direction.

So, the goal is to piss people off?

Here’s the thing, there are other situations with precedent where a group found the placement of a religious institution close to a spot that had historical significance bothersome and in that case, while it did take a bit of time, ultimately the edifice was relocated:

Carmelite nuns opened a convent near Auschwitz I in 1984. After some Jewish groups called for the removal of the convent, representatives of the Catholic Church agreed in 1987. One year later the Carmelites erected the large cross from the 1979 mass near their site, just outside Block 11, the notorious torture prison in Auschwitz I, visible from within the camp. The Catholic Church ordered the Carmelites to move by 1989, but they remained until 1993, leaving the large cross behind.

Again, there was a battle regarding sensitivity of one group to another and ultimately the issue had to be legislated. It may well be something along those lines would have to happen here. Unfortunately there are just far too many questions regarding the people behind the building of the Center itself not to question their motivation and what’s interesting is that there are true moderates of Islam in this country who realize just that:

We are sitting on a tinderbox. A serious attack on a mosque in which people die could trigger a revenge attack, which would in turn create further attacks against Muslims. Because everything happening in America is seen in the Muslim world, murder and mayhem would follow globally. I believe those who chose the site for the Islamic center (to be called Park51) should have been more culturally sensitive. But now that plans are developed, there are ways to calm the situation.

For a start, the imam in New York should ensure that the cultural center — which he has clarified is not simply a mosque — invites Christians and Jews to include a church and a synagogue so that the building is truly a symbol of interfaith worship. That is the American way. Also, the center must include a special memorial to those who died on 9/11, as proposed, so that people of different faiths can pray for their souls and thus begin to heal the wounds.

 Now, I like the thought expressed in the second paragraph because what it does is put the people who say they want to build the Center as a means of outreach right on the spot, making them put their money where their mouth is. Also, I like the idea of having three houses of worship under the same roof, certainly that is more in the spirit of building unity among people of all faiths.

I don’t think it’s going to happen and I have the feeling as more time goes on we’ll see that the argument as it is framed by the supporters is disingenuous at best.

But then again if we’re going to have this discussion about freedom and tolerance, let’s not forget this:

The statues were destroyed by dynamite over several weeks, starting on March 2, carried out in different stages. Initially, the statues were fired at for several days using anti-aircraft guns and artillery. This caused severe damage, but did not obliterate them. Later, the Taliban placed anti-tank mines at the bottom of the niches, so that when fragments of rock broke off from artillery fire, the statues would receive additional destruction from particles that set off the mines. In the end, the Taliban lowered men down the cliff face and placed explosives into holes in the Buddhas.

and this:

Several death threats and reward offers for killing those responsible for the cartoons were made, resulting in the cartoonists going into hiding. Four ministers have resigned amidst the controversy, among them Roberto Calderoli and Laila Freivalds. In India, Haji Yaqoob Qureishi, a minister in the Uttar Pradesh  state government, announced in February 2006 a cash reward of Rs 51 crore (roughly about US$11 million) for anyone who beheads "the Danish cartoonist" who caricatured Mohammad.

and this:

Dozens of militants, Fatah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Palestinian Security Forces  men fled into the church to fortify, along with forty monks and dozens of other Palestinians who arrived at the site for different reasons. In total, about 220 men were in the location. Among them were the governor of Bethlehem, Muhammad al-Madani, and Abdullah Daoud, the Palestinian intelligence chief in Bethlehem.

and this:

It was constructed over the site of the Second Jewish Temple which was destroyed during the Roman Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE. In 637 CE, Jerusalem was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate army during the Muslim conquest of Syria.

The Man from the Home office.

The final season of LOST came out on DVD this week and I’m a really big LOST fan but since it’s the last bit of LOST it’s bittersweet. Leave it to the creators of the show (Damon Lindleoff and Carlton Cuse) not to disappoint because hidden among the bonus features is one final piece of LOST we haven’t seen.

It features the Man from the Home Office:

Some unfinished business.

A trip somewhere.

And a visit to someone we haven’t seen in awhile.

If you’re a LOST fan you won’t want to miss it and I came away thinking to myself that if they wanted to, there still is a lot of story there and I know I for one would love to see it.

Where’s Heloise when you need her?

Actually, I came across a few articles I wanted to bookmark and it is just as easy to make a post with the links in them so here are three keepers:

46 smart uses for salt

40 fantastic uses for baking soda

Health Benefits of Epsom Salt Baths

All articles are written by Melissa Breyer so maybe she is taking Heloise’s place!

Something is wrong.

“All I want to do is work,” said Skidmore, of Finksburg, Md., who was an insurance claims adjuster for 37 years before his company downsized and closed his office last year. “And nobody will hire me.”

It is one of the most striking fallouts from the bad economy: Social Security is facing a rare shortfall this year as a wave of people like Skidmore opt to collect payments before their full retirement age. Adding to the strain on the trust are reduced tax collections sapped by the country’s historic unemployment — still at 9.5 percent.

I know several people who have filed for SSI benefits in the last two years. In each case it wasn’t a matter of their choice as they wanted to continue to work, rather it was the only option.

We talk about all kind of isms but the one ism we don’t talk too much about is ageism and as our society skews younger and younger people are forced to make tough decisions in an employment marketplace that is less than forgiving.

Here too the big problem is the government while well intentioned does not set up the proper framework for businesses to make it advantageous for them to hire older workers. I clearly remember the talk during the Reagan presidency of our economy shifting from a manufacturing economy to a service economy but the problem was this decision hadn’t anticipated factors like the internet which made the world a much, much smaller place so ultimately service jobs went overseas with the lure of cheaper workers.

This is a big problem and I’m not saying it out of self interest because we have an aging population in this country and the truth of the matter is the government spends far too much money. There is a very real prospect of the standard of living in this country changing dramatically over the next decade and the problem here is that our leadership has failed us.

And the biggest way it has failed us is in not looking for ways to bring manufacturing jobs back to our country. We are not seeing job creation because the environment right now is anti business and while some quarters would say that’s good for the nation, I’m not talking about the Fortune 50 or Fortune 500 companies. I know far too many small business owners who find the current climate hostile due to high taxes. This is a delicate balancing act but the problem here is that on the local, state and federal level we are not dealing with visionaries but rather bureaucrats who are more interested in increasing the size of the bureaucracy and making their lives more secure.

Hey! Look! We want to rip off Frank Miller!

There’s a movie based on a Warren Ellis property coming out this fall and it’s going to be starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and others.

I’ve already done enough to annoy Warren Ellis – believe me when I say, this I know. But I always think of it as something akin to a gnat and an elephant with me cast in the role of the gnat. Ellis has a portfolio of work and it’s a pretty respectable portfolio at that but writer’s like baseball players don’t hit one out of the park every time they’re up at bat.

Red (the comic mini series) isn’t bad either, when I was casting about looking for material for this post I was forced to revisit the material. While I remember picking it up (all of it), and I remember enjoying it, I don’t think it was one of Ellis’ best pieces but, that’s my opinion. One thing I will say though is the strength of it is in the dialog and that much I could see and remember in just looking at the material. Ellis’ dialog for the lead is solid I only hope some of that leaks into the film.

That being said though, Ellis had been leaking the posters for the forthcoming film based on the mini via his blog. Now, he posted a bunch of teasers and truthfully the first thing that came to mind was Frank Miller. Whether that was intentional or not and looking back at the covers to the mini, the design doesn’t diverge greatly from what was done but, Miller has done a bunch of flicks with this very strong visual language that’s carried over to the marketing materials (I’m thinking of Sin City and 300) and unfortunately Red now appears as if it is trodding familiar ground. My first response to it was eeewwww.

Now, that’s the final poster above and I like it a lot more than the teasers. Since I’m not a big movie guy anymore (Netflix and broadband have changed that) I wouldn’t say my opinion counts for much and really I don’t think I’m the target audience for a film like this anyway (18-34 male demographic). It’s packed with stars although I would’ve probably liked to see Malkovich in the lead over Willis, even though Malkovich isn’t an actor who is a big box office pull, he has the chops in a way to be a badass that Willis’ simply doesn’t.

But hey, I’m the gnat anyway – this is probably one more instance where I’m doing my level best to piss someone off so let’s hope for Ellis’ sake it makes huge scads of cash and makes him a millionaire multiple times over. I’m wary but I will say this – if you ever get the chance to see the Global Frequency pilot that was quashed (and they are doing another shot at bringing Global Frequency to the small screen) Ellis’ stuff does translate well so I wouldn’t be at all surprised if I was wrong.

Movie Mondays!

Smart and funny, The Venture Brothers takes all the old cartoon and comic book clichés and turns them on their head with great results. It may be digestible for kids but adults are really the target audience for this great series airing as part of the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. It all begins here as viewers are introduced to Doctor “Rusty” Venture, his two sons Dean and Hank and their bodyguard Brock Samson. Facing off against arch enemy The Monarch who is aided by the gravely voiced Doctor Girlfriend, Team Venture careens from crisis to crisis. Imagine Johnny Quest grew up, got bald and had “daddy issues” and you begin to get a sense of Doc Venture, the two boys are amazingly näive (or stupid) and Brock is the ultimate macho killing machine. It all winds up being great fun and not-miss entertainment.


I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

STRANGE TALES FROM HISTORY!

This is a little old but I’m finally posting it:

New research suggests that Charles Darwin's family was a living human example of a theory that he developed about plants: that inbreeding could negatively affect the health and number of resulting offspring.

Darwin authored three botanical books showing that cross-fertilization was much more beneficial than self-fertilization for maintaining robust and plentiful plant species. He began to worry about the effects of Darwin-Wedgwood inbreeding on his own family after the death of his daughter, Annie, of tuberculosis at age 10 – the second of his children to die young.

Groucho Marx would be able to come up with a really good joke based on this but I can’t figure one for the life of me at the moment.

Another reason  to hate Facebook.

Because people are idiots who surrender the right of personal privacy under the guise of ‘social networking.’

But even if you block your friends from checking you in somewhere via Places, there’s nothing stopping them from blurting out, “Hey, guess who’s here at the movies with me!” in a regular status update, along with a (tagged) picture of you wearing 3-D glasses — and of course, they could do so whether you’re a Facebook user or not. So it goes in the age of Facebook.

Yes, this shows what complete idiots people are.

People who today are in such desperate need for attention, so preoccupied with building up their own personal cult of celebrity that they feel their every brainfart needs to be broadcast to the world now would enable the tracking of their movements and readily surrender the locations of people who might not share their stupidity and actually value their privacy.

Do you morons even begin to realize how Orwellian in scope this all is and the implications there are for tracking your movements?

The Tea Party Nazi.

Wow! Labor camps, last time I heard of something like this was pre World War II Europe:

Asked at the meeting how he would achieve those savings, Paladino laid out several plans that included converting underused state prisons into centers that would house welfare recipients. There, they would do work for the state — “military service, in some cases park service, in other cases public works service,” he said — while prison guards would be retrained to work as counselors.

“Instead of handing out the welfare checks, we’ll teach people how to earn their check. We’ll teach them personal hygiene... the personal things they don't get when they come from dysfunctional homes,” Paladino said.

This is the Tea Party line nominee for the Republican candidate in the New York gubernatorial election coming up this November, the line that comes to mind is, “If I wanted to hear from an asshole, I would have farted.”

Prediction – a very short political career for this bozo, followed by a host of back stepping from the Tea Baggers.

Made me laugh.

This is one of those things that should happen to every ass who lacks the common sense to use a cell phone sparingly, for every moron who subjects people to their stupidity whether it be on a train, in a movie theater, behind the wheel or some other place where they should be:

1. Paying attention to their surroundings and
   
2. Showing some courtesy for the people around them.

BASEBALL NEWS FLASH!

Now, instead of the Hall of Fame, baseball’s seven-time Cy Young winner could go to prison after being indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday for allegedly lying to Congress.

The case writes a new chapter in one of baseball’s worst scandals, the rampant use of performance-enhancing drugs in the 1990s and early 2000s, and leaves Clemens’ legacy in jeopardy.

The six-count indictment alleges that Clemens obstructed a congressional inquiry with 15 different statements made under oath, including denials that he had ever used steroids or human growth hormone.

I’ll never forget what happened between Roger Clemens and Mike Piazza during the 2000 season, I’ll never forget how Yankee fans went out of their way to justify the beaning, the dirty player Clemens was, the headhunter, even though they were just a few short years removed from Clemens beaning of Derek Jeter when he was pitching for Toronto on July 17th, 1998.

Now news comes out that Clemens could be facing jail time for lying before Congress and the only question is when Clemens goes to jail, will he be changing positions. Instead of being the pitcher he’s always been, maybe he’ll wind up being a catcher.

One can only hope.

More stupid government tricks.

Only 10 people can swim comfortably in a pool at a time.  Each 8-by-22 foot dumpster pool is surrounded by a wrap-around deck and has its own built-in water filtration system. Unfortunately, dumpster-diving is prohibited since the pools are only 3 to 4 ½ feet deep.

This cracks me up, what a waste. If living in the city is so great, the question is why does Mayor Bloomberg keep coming up with amazing ways to make it like the suburbs?

Aside from the irony of putting dumpster pools along Park Avenue — I mean do you really believe someone who can afford to live on Park Avenue is going to indulge in these things? — What does it say about the city? What’s next, garbage can bathtubs? You can dress it up anyway you want but the thought of putting people in a dumpster on Park Avenue in a piss poor attempt to make it a pool is the really laughable.

Yet it comes on the heels of Michael Bloomberg’s constant attempts to placate the populace. There are plenty of poor neighborhoods in the city, neighborhoods where programs and dollars can be spent much more effectively yet Bloomberg keeps trying to remake Manhattan into Xanadu. It’s part of a pattern by Bloomberg to cater to a liberal elite at the expense of the working poor.

Much in the same way Bloomberg tried to put tolls on the East River Bridges or charge premiums on cars entering Manhattan below 96th Street. At the same time the Mayor continues to ignore issues that plague other parts of the city because of his Manhattan centric focus.

Like the Times Square pedestrian malls:

According to the city’s own assessment—not shared with the public until after the announcement—the project had only a “mixed” impact on traffic flow. In fact, traffic jams persisted on many cross-town streets, and speeds actually slowed along Eighth and Ninth Avenues. And, the projected improvements in speed on Sixth and Seventh Avenues missed the mark by wide margins.

I don’t like Bloomberg, he gets a pass on a lot of things he should be called on. Case in point, Guiliani was labeled some kind of racist because of the police shootings that happened during his term as mayor but oddly enough Bloomberg skates. Think I’m full of it?

Here are just a few of the incidents during Bloomberg‘s watch:

An emotionally disturbed Iman Morales was standing ten feet off the ground on top of a building ledge, naked, and swinging a long fluorescent tube bulb at NYPD  officers. NYPD ESU commander Lt. Michael Pigott ordered ESU Officer Nicholas Marchesona to taser Morales. The immobilized Morales then fell head-first to the pavement below. Morales received major head trauma and died hours later.

***

Timothy Stansbury, Jr. (November 16, 1984 - January 24, 2004) was an unarmed 19-year-old New York City man shot and killed by New York Police Department Officer Richard S. Neri Jr. on January 24, 2004. Officer Neri and a partner were patrolling the rooftop of a housing project in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn  at about 1 a.m. Officer Neri, with his gun drawn, approached a rooftop door to check the stairway inside. Neri testified to a Brooklyn grand jury that he fired his standard Glock 17 pistol unintentionally when he was startled as Stansbury pushed open the rooftop door. Stansbury, a resident of an adjoining building, died from one shot in the chest.

***

Police had targeted the Manhattan storage facility while investigating a CD and DVD pirating operation. Zongo repaired art and musical instruments at the same location but was never linked to the pirating scheme. The shooter, officer Bryan Conroy, was disguised as a postal worker. He was guarding a bin of CDs when Zongo appeared to turn on a light. For some reason a chase ensued that ended when Zongo ran into a dead end. Conroy shot Zongo four times, twice in the back.

***

The Sean Bell shooting incident took place in the New York City borough of Queens on November 25, 2006, in which 3 men were shot a total of fifty times by a team of both plainclothes and undercover NYPD officers, killing one of the men, Sean Bell, on the morning after his bachelor party, and severely wounding two of his friends.

***

On October 15, 2008, Michael Mineo was allegedly smoking a marijuana joint outside the Prospect Park train station located in the Lefferts Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. When approached by police officers, Mineo ran into the train station, jumped the turnstile, but was caught and handcuffed near the token booth. According to the officers, they found no drugs on him, issued him a summons for disorderly conduct, and let him go. According to Mineo, after he was handcuffed and pinned down, Richard Kern pulled down his pants and shoved a police radio antenna into his anus.

How about this? THE GUY CHANGED THE TERM LIMITS LAW WITHOUT VOTER APPROVAL EVEN THOUGH THE MAJORITY OF NEW YORKERS WERE AGAINST IT!

After a spirited, emotional and at times raucous debate, the New York City Council voted, 29 to 22, on Thursday afternoon to extend term limits, allowing Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to seek re-election next year and undoing the result of two voter referendums that had imposed a limit of two four-year terms.

And to think after September 11th, Guiliani was painted as a dictator in a mad power grab for but imperial Bloomberg? Nothing.

Over the course of my lifetime, I have seen the disparity between Manhattan and the other boroughs widen with Manhattan becoming a place where only the rich can afford to live and the middle class or poor living there unable to move because they know to do so would mean abandoning neighborhoods they have lived in for years.

And the standard bearer of this change?

Michael Bloomberg, a man who wants to micromanage people’s lives down to the point where he legislates what people can and cannot eat:

First New York City required restaurants to cut out trans fat. Then it made restaurant chains post calorie counts on their menus. Now it wants to protect people from another health scourge: salt.

You know, these are the kinds of leaders that should instill fear in people, the kind who believe they know better than everyone else. These are the dictators of the future who bring an Orwellian society to your doorstep and if you would ascribe only the noblest of intentions to this man, bear in mind he has shown already to be a tyrant:

The billionaire politician is near the height of his popularity. And yet, on the eve of his run for a third term in New York’s top job, the company that bears his name is facing a class-action suit charging it with discrimination against pregnant workers—a disturbing pattern that dates back to when Bloomberg himself was still in charge.

More Middle East dichotomy!

On the very same day this news was released:

Robot researchers at Iran’s Tehran University unveiled a life-size robot named Surena 2 during the country’s celebration of “Industry and Mine Day” in July. New details and videos released Monday of the robot reveal more details about its capabilities — which appear to include dancing.



This news was also released:

Iran told Western nations on Tuesday to stay out of the case of a woman who faces death by stoning, warning it will not tolerate any interference in the matter still under examination. “Independent nations do not allow other countries to interfere in their judicial affairs,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told a news conference. The official was responding to questions from reporters about the status of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two sentenced to death by stoning by an Iranian court.

Maybe they can get the robot to do the stoning?

Oh, folks! There is a God and he is laaauuugggghhhhiiiinnnngggg.

Stupid government tricks.

Sometimes people in government get it right and then other times they just really screw up. You would think the people running Beacon would have better things to do:

Remember Pinball? Well, it’s illegal in Beacon and that is causing problems (video) for Fred Bobrow, operator of the “Retro Arcade Museum” which sits on Main Street and features pinball games from as early as 1954 up until 1980. For as little as $10 you can play any machine in the place for an hour and for $25 you can play all day. You can even hold private parties at the museum for up to 40 people.

I’m really disappointed by this because this is the kind of thing worth making a trip for and you have to wonder what the people running the city are thinking in a region that has been depressed economically since manufacturing went away and IBM pulled a ton of jobs from the region.

Check out the collection of the Retro Arcade features here.

Read this great blog post about one person’s visit to the Museum with pics of the games themselves.

Here’s another article on the Museum from Hudson Valley magazine:
“There are plenty of places where you can see vintage electromechanical games, but there are only about three spots in the country with such a large collection you can actually play,” says the East Fishkill resident, who opened the museum in May. Drawn by online buzz, guests have come from across the country, and from as far as New Zealand and Japan, to experience these rarities. “We have a guest coming in from Reno this week just to play our collection,” says Bobrow.

And finally, reviews by some visitors to the Museum here.

Movie Mondays!

Though I enjoyed First Blood, I never had much interest in the subsequent films because they seemed a little too cartoony or over-the-top. Consequently, I wasn’t figuring on liking this movie much but it’s a very entertaining film. Rambo returns in a relevant story full of drama. Quite a bit of blood and gore makes it a no-go for younger audiences and the squeamish. However, overall it’s an enjoyable watch as Sty Stallone crafts a fitting close to the Rambo series.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

Matt Stone, Trey Parker and fortune telling.

Mel Gibson has been in the news so much lately because of an ugly, ugly divorce and a bunch of phone calls being leaked to the press. It’s no great surprise, a little sad maybe but, it’s a reminder once again that people’s public and private personas are usually very different things indeed.

But Matt and Trey saw something, they saw something a long time ago before a lot of this stuff happened and wouldn’t you know it if they didn’t seem to nail it right on the head in a way that the episode below looked a little like prognostication in terms of Gibson’s behavior:

South Park Season 8: The Passion of the Jew. Click on the image above to watch and round about 11:30 into the episode it Mel makes his appearance.

Because...

Sometimes I just don’t give a fuck and if you travel this way you should still be entertained! Shake your ass!

It’s the things we don’t talk about.

Just saw this documentary and it’s really worth a watch:

In every corner of the globe, we are polluting, diverting, pumping, and wasting our limited supply of fresh water at an expediential level as population and technology grows. The rampant overdevelopment of agriculture, housing and industry increase the demands for fresh water well beyond the finite supply, resulting in the desertification of the earth.

There are things we don’t talk about usually, we don’t think about, they don’t even register on our radar but the time is coming when this is an issue that will be all too important to us. Also, did you know New York’s water supply has been privatized?

Water privatization is a short-hand for private sector participation in the provision of water services and sanitation, although more rarely it refers to privatization of water resources themselves. Because water services are seen as such a key public service, proposals for private sector participation often evoke strong opposition. Globally, more than 90% of water and sanitation systems are publicly owned and operated.

Water privatization is a highly controversial topic and touches on the much broader arguments for and against the private control of formerly public services.

This is hilarious!

The comic strip—which was published under various writers until 2005—has been so popular that in the singles scene in Japan, “Charisma Man” became a catch phrase.

“I think the character personifies the phenomenon of geeky Western nerds with beautiful Japanese girls,” Rodney said. “Charisma Man puts a face on that trend. It is a social satire of a situation which still continues in Japan.”

And given the few examples I’ve seen of it, it is quite funny and reminds me somewhat of an underground  strip from the late sixties early seventies, take a look and decide for yourself!

“Charisma Man” manipulates the superhero  genre to ridicule the often unjustified self–confidence of some foreign men in Japan. Although something of a loser in his home country Canada—the home of Charisma Man's creator—when around Japanese people the central character transforms from a skinny nerd into a muscle-bound hunk, attractive to Japanese women and admired by Japanese men.Like other superheroes, however, Charisma Man has one major weakness: “Western Woman.” Whenever in the presence of non-Japanese females his powers disappear and he becomes an unattractive, skinny wimp once more.

You can’t fix stupid.

On the dating site, I came across the passage below in one of the journals there. The journal feature happens to be one of those unique places where people’s stupidity is displayed on a regular basis. I say this because like many websites, people confuse ‘boards’ as a substitute for real life. It’s so bad on the dating website that there are people who have actually met someone (meaning they’ve fulfilled the purpose of joining the site) but who continue to have membership and post on the boards (journals) there.

Think about that for a second...

It‘s not about friendship either because when you sit down and work it out, there’s nothing stopping these people from exchanging phone numbers, addresses and maybe even visiting one and other if they’re really friends. No, what’s necessary here is to have this little public dialog in a very safe forum. It’s just really fucking strange when you think about it and speaks so perfectly to the dysfunction of this society where people can build relationships with others across the country but don’t know their neighbor.

Anyway, aside from the usual crappy high school mash note that’s supposed to pass for someone’s stab at becoming the next great poet, I came across the entry by this nimrod:

Robert Moses State Park

A few weeks ago, I took my aged little car out to the beach, out to the tip of Fire Island, where is located Robert Moses State Park. One can drive to Robert Moses, but then one can't drive to the rest of Fire Island from there. Where Robert Moses ends, but before the towns of Fire Island begin, is a wonderful black and white lighthouse, and a bird sanctuary. It is a wonderfully open place, uncrowded even on weekends in July.

I drove out, and took my beach chair to the beach in front of the bird sanctuary, found a spot, unfolded my chair, settled in, and noticed: that everyone was naked.

Lovely! People of all sorts and shapes strolling, lounging in the sun, playing those beach games. Even a couple engaged in some intimacy they could probably get scolded for.

I took off my bathing suit and dove into the ocean. Delicious! On that hot day the water was clear and cold.

The images of people who are naked and near naked in the media fall into such a narrow range of shapes. It is easy to forget the variety of forms that people come in, how their bodies change in different ways as they age, how some might be firm in some areas and jiggly in other areas.

There were quite a few gay men there, all buff and showing off for each other. And quite a few aging hippies, who honestly didn't care what anyone thought.And lots in between.

I gleefully thought about how Robert Moses would disapprove of this use of his state park. Hah! You old jerk who destroyed the South Bronx and wanted to do the same to the West Village! I wave my jiggly bits at your disapproving ghost!

I sat in my shaded beach chair, read my book and thought about what a lovely afternoon it was.

And took another swim.

Now, I read this drivel and it really incensed me. It did so because this is the kind of crap that springs forth from the pseudo intellectual, bourgeois nitwit that takes up residence in small closets in some fringe neighborhood of the city. I’ve run across this type before and so I wrote a response but it didn’t make the cut because this particular diarist (and I use the term loosely here) has set up her journal so comments have to pass her muster. I do that here to prevent Chinese spambots and the like from flooding the comments section but on the dating website there aren’t such worries, more likely it’s more a matter of not being able to deal with anyone who has an opposing viewpoint. So shortly afterward this was posted:

A very rude commenter noted that the nude beach is actually a part of Fire Island National Seashore. While I dislike rude behavior, he is right about the jurisdiction of the area.
xxxxxxxxxxxx

Rude? Here’s the rude comment - judge for yourself but remember our writer spoke about DRIVING her car out to the Fire Island National Seashore and seeing as how Robert Moses was not only responsible for the construction of Jones Beach but many of the city’s bridges as well as the highways in Long Island it’s kind of funny how he becomes a target for this dimwit:

Wow!

What an amazing post – amazing if only because your ignorance shines is on such vivid display.

First in your summation of Moses’ career solely as champion of the automobile meaning you fail to take the man’s impact on the region to heart (and the many parks and playgrounds he was responsible in building).

The irony is you speak of driving your car out to the park – most likely on roads Moses had the foresight to build exactly for the purpose of affording city dwellers an avenue to escape their urban environment and enjoy natural surroundings.

And the bird sanctuary? That would be the Fire Island National Seashore – a federal park outside the jurisdiction of the state and long known as a nudist beach (over 30 years now and counting). Big news flash there. 

That beach? That nude beach? I’ve been there, more than once and it’s been a nude beach since the late seventies so hearing someone talk about it as if it were some kind of radical event smacks of false bravado. You can’t go out there and not know it’s a nude beach, if you were just going out there you’d be more likely just to stay to the Robert Moses State Park beaches.

And truthfully if I wanted to be rude, I could have just commented on how the person should have been cited for indecent exposure because believe me when I say this is a person who without clothing was punishing those around her.

Illegal Immigration.

You can’t be against illegal immigration in this country without someone eventually accusing you of racism or some other bullshit. What is laughable is that we are even having this discussion as a nation. Immigration is undeniably one of our nation’s great strengths but the proponents on this issue want to color their opponents with a very broad brush (hence the racism claim).

The key word in this discussion, debate, what have you, underlies exactly what the discussion is about ILLEGAL immigration.

Want to break the laws of this land? Pay a price.

Jump the line, get kicked back to where you started.

And this is only fair to all the people who do immigrate to this country and do so legally going through the long and tedious process involved. Anchor babies shouldn’t be justification for someone to remain in this country if they came here illegally, it’s a loophole that needs to be closed and frankly, let’s just stop kidding ourselves that the people coming here illegally, having children aren’t fully aware of the enormous loophole in the law that this is.

Finally, here is one of the best arguments against illegal immigration I’ve heard and the rub is?

It’s written by an immigrant:

I’m not here to argue what the best solution is for immigration laws in this country. My family and I are certainly beneficiaries of having the opportunity to come to this country and embrace the American dream. However, I do know that whatever immigration policy this administration decides to implement, a non-compromising point must be that the health of the American people be protected, because if we do not protect the health of our citizens, the long-term effects could be dangerous.

Movie Mondays!

While it’s billed as the final installment, another film has been planned and it’s easy to see why. The third chapter of the Pirates of the Caribbean series harkens back to classics like Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood. A period piece with enough fun, adventure and thrills to appeal to all ages, these films only seem to get better with each new entry into the series. On the run from the Dutch East India Company, the Pirates must band together or risk being driven from the seas forever. The challenge can’t be faced though without Captain Jack Sparrow first being rescued from Davy Jones’ Locker, a quest in itself! Lots of fun for all ages!


I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

You better buy your burka holy crap!!!!!!!!

I got an email the other day containing the line above. I thought I would share it. From now on, whenever I get one of these over the top emails, I’m going to post it here. It’s really important to show the kind of fear mongering that goes on nowadays.

I’m not raising myself above the fray or saying I’m not susceptible to the petty prejudices others succumb to from time to time. If anything, I’m an equal opportunity offender in the sense I often find myself at odds with the people who identify themselves as being on the right or on the left. As such, more often than not I’m putting people into a snit because I am not agreeing with their nonsense.

Of course, I again readily admit I do not have the market cornered on rational discourse, political or otherwise.

Anyway, this is what passes for dialog nowadays and it’s not that I don’t believe people have a right to oppose someone’s nomination because they have views that differ from the nominee – people have every right to do so and voice their opinion. People have every right to contact their representatives to voice their views. It’s not a matter of the message but the tone of the message that bothers me. There may be some points I might even agree with but it has such a disagreeable tone and frames the argument in such a vile way I can’t in good conscious give it the slightest bit of credence because it comes across as the ravings of the lunatic fringe:

Subject: ACTION ALERT - Oppose Kagan to Supreme Court - she is pro Shariah law  Islamic law, comes to the Supreme Court

Shariah comes to the Supreme Court
BREAKING: Just as the Senate moves to a final vote on the nomination of Elena Kagan to the US Supreme Court, the Center for Security Policy's Christine Brim makes the definitive case against her at Big Peace.
you better buy your burka holy crap!!!!!!!!

The Senate should not confirm Elena Kagan, because her views render her the first Supreme Court Justice who actively favors the introduction of Shariah law into national Constitutions and legal systems. To excuse themselves for voting for her confirmation, Senators of both parties have told themselves this vote for Kagan’s confirmation will result in a harmless swap: the substitution of one liberal justice for another.

The reality is far more threatening and unprecedented in American history. A vote to confirm Elena Kagan’s nomination will bring a liberal, pro-Shariah justice to our highest Court. And if she is confirmed, her behavior as Obama’s Solicitor General indicates she will refuse to recuse herself on any Shariah-related decision but instead will lead the charge to legitimate Shariah law in America.

Senators have told themselves they have little evidence on which to evaluate Kagan, because other than her work as Obama’s Solicitor General, she has no judicial experience.

But Kagan has made repeated and very public decisions about a judicial system – Shariah – and Senators should be obligated to take into account those decisions when they vote for her. Her 2003-2009 career as Dean of Harvard Law School is a history of those decisions, and every one of them shows her “deep appreciation” of Shariah law.

Every vote for Kagan is a vote to bring a pro-Shariah view to the Supreme Court. Here are five reasons to vote against Kagan’s nomination:

1. PRO-SHARIAH MISSION: With Kagan’s direction, Harvard’s Islamic Legal Studies Program developed a mission statement (here on 9/2008, also 6/2009) dedicated “to promote a deep appreciation of Islamic law as one of the world’s major legal systems.” That mission statement guided her actions and those whom she directed as Dean.

Under Kagan’s direction, her chief staff at the Islamic Legal Studies Program aggressively expanded non-critical studies of Shariah law – fulfilling her mission “to promote a deep appreciation of Islamic law.” In 2003, the year Kagan became Harvard Law School Dean, Islamic Legal Studies Program Founding Director Frank Vogel and Associate Director Peri Bearman founded the Massachusetts-based International Society for Islamic Legal Studies. In 2007, Bearman and Vogel founded the Islamic Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools (inaugural panel audio here).

2. PRO-SHARIAH MONEY: When Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal offered $10 million to New York City’s Rudy Guiliani on October 11, 2001, Guiliani refused to accept it, because the prince insisted that U.S. policies in the middle east were responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attack. Guiliani stated flatly, “There is no moral equivalent for this act.” But – when Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal offered $20 million to the Islamic Legal Studies Program in December 2005 – Kagan accepted it; after all, the Saudi royal family had funded the program since its inception, to establish the moral and legal equivalency between Shariah law and U.S. Constitutional law. As Newt Gingrich has noted, Harvard Law School currently has three chairs endowed by Saudi Arabia, including one dedicated to the study of Islamic sharia law.
In 2001 Guiliani made a decision not to accept Talal’s blood money; In 2005, Kagan made a decision not just to accept it, but to implement Talal’s policies at Harvard.

And not just at Harvard. As reported earlier this year, “Kagan is the main reason why the Supreme Court ruled against the 9/11 families” in a suit filed by thousands of 9/11 family members that traced funding for the 19 hijackers to certain Saudi royals, along with banks, corporations and Islamic charities. Kagan, as Obama’s Solicitor General, said in her brief “that the princes are immune from petitioners’ claims” and that the families’ claims that the Saudis helped to finance the plots fell “outside the scope” of the legal parameters for suing foreign governments or leaders.

Let’s review Kagan’s decisions so far: she actively solicits Saudi financing to promote Shariah law in the U.S.; she actively protects Saudi financial backers for terrorism against the U.S., as being immune from claims by 9/11 families.

3.  PROMOTING THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AND SHARIAH CONSTITUTIONS: In December, 2006, Kagan hired Noah Feldman, architect of Iraq’s Constitution requiring Shariah, as a star faculty member at Harvard Law School.  On March 16, 2008, Feldman published his controversial article “Why Shariah” in the New York Times Magazine, which promoted “Islamists” -  the Muslim Brotherhood – as a progressive democratic party, and promoted Shariah as a model not just for Muslim-majority countries but for all: “In fact, for most of its history, Islamic law offered the most liberal and humane legal principles available anywhere in the world…”  The article was adapted from his book The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, which was published in late March, 2008.

On September 16, 2008, Kagan whole-heartedly endorsed Feldman’s promotion of the Muslim Brotherhood and Shariah by honoring him with the endowed Bemis Chair in International Law.  Feldman’s speech on receiving the award was revealing: he advocated for an international, “outward interpretation” of the Constitution that could “require the U.S. to confer rights on citizens of other nations,” and allow for an “experimental Constitution.”

As to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist worldwide political organization that Feldman and Kagan support? Their motto is as revealing as Feldman’s speech:

“Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”

Given that slogan, you could well ask if Feldman really meant the Muslim Brotherhood when he wrote about “Islamists” in the book Kagan so admired that she gave him an endowed chair.  And he anticipated that question; in the second footnote in his book he states, “Throughout this book, when I refer to Islamists or Islamism, I have in mind mainstream Sunni Muslim activists loosely aligned with the ideology of the transnational Muslim Brotherhood (MB)…the Brotherhood broadly embraces electoral politics, but without eschewing the use of violence in some circumstances, notably against those whom it defines as invaders in Iraq and Palestine.”

So let’s review.  Kagan made the decision to honor Feldman, author of “big-lie” forms of pro-Shariah propaganda, supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood,  with an endowed chair.  Feldman states flatly that the Muslim Brotherhood, whom he admires, does not “eschew the use of violence….against those whom it defines as invaders in Iraq and Palestine.”  Kagan’s financial backer, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, insisted that the U.S. policies in the Middle East, specifically in Israel and Palestine were a cause of the 9/11 attacks .  Like the Muslim Brotherhood, the Prince did not “eschew the use of violence” against the U.S.   And when 9/11 families sued the Saudi royals who funded the September 11, 2001 “use of violence” against the U.S., Kagan used her power as Solicitor General to protect the group that had been her financial backers at Harvard.

But wait.  There’s more.

4. PROMOTING SHARIAH IN CONSTITUTIONS WORLDWIDE: On May 1, 2007, Kagan initiated a lecture series on Shariah Law, named for Abd al-Razzaq al-Sanhuri, a legal scholar who had drafted constitutions throughout the Middle East between the 1930s and 1960s.  There are literally dozens of legal reformers throughout the Muslim world that she could have chosen; but she chose al-Sanhuri.

Sanhuri’s entire career was dedicated to making sure that the civil and criminal legal codes throughout the Middle East were Shariah-compliant.  He drafted the laws that ensured Shariah law took precedence over secular laws.  As much as any single individual, he was responsible for the legal drafting for the “Constitutionalization” of Shariah in previously secular Muslim-majority nations in the 20th century, in concert with the political pressure for Shariah by the Muslim Brotherhood, and the financial pressure for Shariah by the Saudi Royal Family.

As legal scholar Enid Hill wrote in her biography of al-Sanhuri, “The outlines of the future dialectic are thus able to be detected if al-Sanhuri’s specifications are followed: Islamic legal theory versus Western legal rules, and when the Western rules reflect a different underlying theory they are to be eliminated and new rules put in their place, rules that are reflective of Islamic legal theory.”  (h/t Andy Bostom)  Or as al-Sanhuri states himself in his book The Arab Civil Code, “The goal towards which I am striving is that there will be an Arab civil code derived primarily from the Islamic Shari’a.”

Kagan presided over four of the al-Sanhuri lectures before her departure to become Obama’s Solicitor General

5.  PROMOTING SHARIAH IN THE JUDICIAL COUP IN PAKISTAN

Kagan consistently used her position at Harvard to promote and legitimate the introduction of Shariah provisions into national constitutions, and indeed into Supreme Courts of other nations.  In Pakistan, her influence is having dire consequences.

On November 19, 2008, Elena Kagan presented the Harvard Law School Medal of Freedom to  Iftikhar Chaudhry, the controversial Chief Justice of Pakistan. Chaudry had been deposed from his post in 2007 by President General Pervez Musharraf in a complex dispute that included the issue of independence of the judiciary.  Musharraf later resigned, and on March 16, 2009, the Prime Minister Gilani  re-appointed Chaudhry as Chief Justice.

As noted by Department of Defense attorneys from the Clinton and Reagan eras, Kagan’s honoree has mounted a Shariah judicial coup:

“Contrary to the constitution of Pakistan, Chaudhry usurped the right of appointment of vacancies in the court from the elected prime minister and president…In a previous ruling, Chaudhry reaffirmed the right of the court to disqualify members of Parliament, the president and all ministers of the cabinet from serving if they violate “Islamic injunctions,” or do not engage in ‘teaching and practices, obligatory duties prescribed by Islam. “

The U.S. Senate has the evidence it needs to vote NOT to confirm Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.  A vote for Kagan is a vote to bring Shariah to the highest court of the land.

Elena Kagan is fifty years old.  She could easily serve to the age of eighty or longer.  Her confirmation to the Supreme Court will begin a thirty-years legal war to protect the Constitution against Shariah.

Please vote no on her nomination to keep Shariah out of the Supreme Court, and to vote against confirming Kagan.

If you like your freedoms take 5 seconds to fill out this petition.Click here or below at the bottom of this email
go to actforamerica.com

http://actforamerica.org/index.php/contact-congress

http://bigpeace.com/cbrim/2010/08/04/shariah-comes-to-the-supreme-court-elena-kagans-decisions/

Coronal mass ejection!

Sounds like something you’d see in a porno movie? Sounds like it might be the money shot? Whatever, even though it has delightfully raunchy implications, it’s nothing of the sort:

You’ve heard of the northern lights? The next few days you may be able to see lights even if you aren’t that far north.The sun erupted on Sunday, spewing plasma, “a highly ionized gas containing an approximately equal number of positive ions and electrons” right in our direction. There’s no reason to freak out; solar storms are relatively common, and the most significant impact they have on our big blue marble is to possibly disrupt electronics and satellite communications.

They’re also... extremely firm.

What!?!?

Well that’s The Master talking about his Dalek bumps – they’re not breasts!

Here is part 2 of The Curse of The Fatal Death!

Prepare for 500 miles of fear and feces!

Doctor Who lovers know the show was recently handed off by the man who revived the franchise, Russell T Davies to Steven Moffat’s capable hands. Moffat had written several great episodes of the latest series himself but a lot of fans may not have seen or remember Moffat’s first stab at the Doctor.

Picture if you will Rowan Atkinson (known better as Mr. Bean)  as The Doctor and Jonathan Pryce as his nemesis The Master.

Sounds like something I’ve made up. no?

Well I haven’t!

I give you The Curse of The Fatal Death!

News about the economy.

Each piece of news that issues forth from the White House about the economy sounds very familiar, as if I’ve heard it before and then I realized the memory it was triggering:

Bet you didn’t know!

I was doing some looking around the other day looking for the relationship between the spread of cane sugar as part of the diet of Western cultures and the expansion of the practice of Dentistry when I came across this previously unknown (by me) piece of info:

The origin of the red and white barber pole is associated with the service of bloodletting and was historically a representation of bloody bandages wrapped around a pole. During medieval times, barbers performed surgery on customers, as well as tooth extractions. The original pole had a brass basin at the top (representing the vessel in which leeches were kept) and bottom (representing the basin that received the blood). The pole itself represents the staff that the patient gripped during the procedure to encourage blood flow.

Movie Mondays!

Hard to watch at times, it’s not a movie for the squeamish. People into body mods are no doubt going to find it fascinating as Modify covers a wide spectrum of the subject of body modification not only elaborating on piercing and tattooing but also on things like weight-lifting and plastic surgery. It’s not a bad film rather it’s something you have to already have an interest in to truly enjoy.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

Funny how things work.

Heading into SDCC this year there was a lot of press given to the prospect of scantily clad women in skin tight costumes appearing at the convention. Generally, I could give a rat’s ass about this. Comics is a very insular world and the rabid and vocal fandom usually display the same behavior any fringe group does. In the scheme of things I just don’t find it all that important.

What is funny though is how the prospect of nearly naked women becomes an excuse for male bashing and by this I am talking about the people who take the opportunity to paint my gender with a very broad brush and to single out the imbeciles with poor impulse control or a lack of manners using them as emblematic of the behavior of men everywhere.

That’s not to say I don’t like looking at nude women, I find my appreciation for a nubile body that is well taken care of has not diminished with age, if anything it has increased – more than likely propelling me towards lecherous old guy status but then I’ve never been big on meeting other’s expectations of how I should or shouldn’t behave.

I just really am getting tired of this disingenuous rant under the guise of feminism about sexuality, gender relations and the odd dance between men and women that grows ever more complicated it seems.

We are men and yes we are looking at your tits.

In some instances looking at your tits can be better than looking at your face especially if you’ve got some kind of an ungodly mug that would crack marble at fifty paces. And I say this secure in the knowledge I am no women’s adonis nor do I pretend to be but I do have an understanding that there is a difference in how people are treated and how the world approaches them if they are becoming to the eye.

In the word of one of the ladies I spent a considerable amount of my life with, “Suck it up.”

Now, that’s not to say if some idiot invades a person’s personal space it’s okay and that’s not something I’m condoning but if a person chooses to look at someone, to ogle them or to stare an uncomfortably long time you’ll just have to get over it. Of course you could start a fight about it if you want and it seems in some instances that is exactly what happens but it happens (the fight) not because that there is staring going on but because the guy (or guys) in question doing the staring are deemed unworthy by the object of their visual celebration.

Herein lies the basic flaw in the argument – people are dressing a certain way to garner attention. If it’s Brad Pitt doing the staring chances are the complaints will be few but if it’s the embodiment of the comic shop guy from the Simpsons more than likely you’re going to be hearing a lot of griping.

Again, I’m not talking about touching, I’m not talking about following someone around all day, I’m not talking about treating someone to a verbal barrage of inane pickup lines which when they garner a negative or no response become insults – I’m not talking about any of the things that would constitute threatening or abusive behavior – these are obviously the things which could and should get your ass kicked by a male relative of the female who is on the receiving end of your crap.

But looking?

Get over yourself.

And let’s go a step beyond that... sex sells. If that’s something you personally find frustrating, while I can understand it, it’s one of those biological hard wired things nature does to make sure the species perpetuates. As much as people like to dress up things, we are after all still animals, not soulless, sexless creatures and I would argue that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

I’ve just seen too much bullshit in the last few years about what is and isn’t proper behavior for men in this country and it is really quite sickening. Ladies the simple solution is to just cut the balls off of every man round about the age of fifteen and a lot of this goes away but I have to tell you it’s not going to happen without a fight because we are men and those balls... well they hold a bit of a special place in our hearts.

Movie Mondays!

Daniel Day Lewis does his best John Huston impersonation in this Paul Thomas Anderson film that bears little in common with the director’s earlier works. Beautiful to look at with an astounding score, the film may be a bit obtuse for the average viewer. Mainly a study of a misanthropic oilman, Day-Lewis’ performance is what makes the film. As a character piece though, the pacing is somewhat slow and ponderous. This film reminded me of Stanley Kubrick’s work and while Kubrick is widely acknowledged as one of cinema’s great directors, here too is a piece not readily accessible to a wide audience. Don’t be lured in by the title, as malevolent as Day Lewis looks in the previews there are only a few moments of real action in the movie. Unless you are a lover of film as an art form, you will most likely come away disappointed.

I’m repurposing content by taking my NetFlix reviews and posting them here on the blog. If I could figure out a way to do it, I’d post some kind of link for people to connect and make me their friend on the service. Unfortunately, it isn’t altogether clear how one would do that - so if you know a way, pass it along. In the meantime, I’ve got steady content for at least a year.

 BE AFRAID!



Be very afraid!

The ride I took.

You know, when you look at this photo you might think I was looking up at the sky but then again, I could be far up looking down at the Earth below.

Fuck George Steinbrenner.

Over the last week,  you would think someone deserving of sainthood had passed away instead of a petty, despotic, megalomaniac but that seems to be what has happened in the case of the late Yankee owner. If there was one man who did his level best to destroy the game of baseball it was George Steinbrenner and what is hilariously funny is watching the media bend over backwards to rewrite history in regard to George.

Over the weekend, I was out at a friend’s and they asked me what I thought about George...

I stopped being a Yankee fan because of George Steinbrenner and if you don’t believe me, I can point you in the direction of several people of long acquaintance who will verify it.

George was everything bad about baseball and it took a second banishment from the game for the Yankees to return to greatness because knowledgeable people finally got a chance to run the Yankees as a baseball team instead of the circus it had become.

Steinbrenner was like the bratty, overweight, silver spoon kid from one of those old Little Rascals shorts. A man born into privilege he would’ve liked you to believe he was a self made man who rose up to his lofty station through his own efforts but the facts show that was not at all the case. As much as they try to clean up things to make it look otherwise, here’s the truth: “The elder (George’s father) Steinbrenner later became a wealthy shipping  magnate who ran the family firm operating freight ships hauling ore and grain on the Great Lakes.” and “George was an average student who led an active extracurricular life.”

George talked about playing by the rules but the rules never applied to him as evidences by his two suspensions from the game - it took a PRESIDENTIAL PARDON and a pal GETTING INSTALLED AS THE COMMISSIONER OF BASEBALL to clean up George’s name. Does that sound like the champion of fair play?

But aside from Phil Mushnick, who seems to get a lot of things right:

Steinbrenner paid Spira $40,000 in exchange for all the dirt he could dig on Dave Winfield. Then, after Steinbrenner was caught, he relied on his milk-fed friendly forces in media and law enforcement (need tickets?) to get the word out that he, George Steinbrenner, had been the victim of a shake-down artist.

To this day, history identifies Spira as a “a gambler,” as if he was a hood, a sharp, tough street guy. An online archived Sports Illustrated story from October 1990 identifies Spira as “a gambler with mob connections.”

If he’d been connected to “the mob,” there would be no mob — a school crossing guard would have busted it up. He was a profoundly delusional and childlike misfit with folders of clinical diagnoses to prove it. Spira was no more a criminal threat to Steinbrenner than he was to steal home.

The best thing I read about Steinbrenner was by a writer from outside of the country who covered the Yankees as a wire service reporter back in the eighties:

George Steinbrenner was a loser. While insisting that nothing less than wining was acceptable, Steinbrenner owned the New York Yankees during the team’s longest World Series drought since its first appearance in 1921, a dry spell directly attributable to Steinbrenner’s insistent mismanagement.

Believe me, if Dante had written The Inferno today – George Steinbrenner would’ve had a starring role. The only question is which circle he would’ve landed in: the third, the fourth, the fifth, the eighth or the ninth. It wouldn’t have been surprising to see him in all of them.