http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome
From Senator Obama's website, the truth behind all the crap circling the drain of the Internet. Next time I get one of these stupid emails from Family/Friends (mostly Family) I will send them this link. Although over on the Professors blog some goof commented that even though there is a picture of Barack's birth certificate on his site it's "totally fake......". You know, honestly, give me a break here. It's jackasses like these that you can literally bring the actually document to the guy, put it in front of him, have him examine the water marks, etc and he'd still say it's fake. It's like the Creationists that believe Satan sprinkled fossils around to foll Mankind because if you go by the Bible the Earth is only 6,000 or so years old. By the way, did you catch Michelle Obama's speech last night? Wow. She did good. I think her and her husband need to do more of that kind of getting to know us stuff. I support the guy because I believe that the man means well and actually wants to do something with this Country other than widen the gap between the haves and the have nots and make the Corporations richer while shipping every single American job overseas. The John McCain of old I'd have voted for; the McCain of 2000 and earlier. This McCain, no chance in Hell. He's become the new mouthpiece for the Republicans. Politically he and Barack are Centrists. The problem is that when the Republican Nominee tries to go against the grain in the Party lines, he gets yanked back to the Right and told to straighten up. The Dems did that with Kerry, and they try with Barack but he won't let them.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
The More Hate they spew...the more afraid they are...
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/obama.asp#anthem
When I first started navigating the seas of these here interwebs I, believing that I was helping out my fellow man, forwarded warnings of the dreaded Budweiser Frog virus.....you know the one that says a screen saver of the frogs saying "Bud....Wei....ser" would ruin your computer. As was pointed out by several folks I should look at a particular website called Snopes.com http://www.snopes.com/ who is an impartial group of folks who take every single one of these email warnings at face value and investigate it. What they find 95% of the time is that these emails are complete bunk. Now from the above link you can see every single Obama email that has circulated. All but 2-3 of them are false. I looked at all the McCain ones...there's about 5 total. So I guess the fact that Obama is the first candidate in a long time that might actually help out the people of this Country and not the 5% that hold all the wealth has got that 5% so scared that they are pulling BS out of their collective asses and trying to flood the internet with it. My extended family is guilty of not listening to me and passing this crap along. My Aunt in Florida took about 6 tries before she started checking before she forwarded.....its worked in the effect that her forwards are of the joke variety...usually about our Italian heritage. My Cousin, we will call her M, and her husband, we will call him T love to forward these things. I have referred them to http://www.snopes.com/ (notice a pattern here folks....it's a site worth bookmarking.) on numerous occassions. They haven't listened. Myself and a slew of other folks I don't know but are on their mailing list (well okay...two of the names were my Cousin's Mom my Aunt S and my Mother) just got forwarded the most recent Obama lie...how he wants to raise Capital Gains taxes and how McCain wants to make them 0%. Now mind you, even if this was true, and it's not, most of the people I know aren't selling their houses nor are they going to be able to get 500,000 dollars for them; not in this market anyway. But my Cousin is so worried, then again she tells me she's an independent but she's married to a right wing Repulican (and they're Catholic.....something wrong with that as the Right Wingers don't consider Catholics to be Christian.....that whole King James Version vs New Bible version thing...) who thinks that Michael Savage is God and that if it doesn't come from Fox News it's not News. He's also racist. Not openly but he is. When discussing sports with him and sports atheletes in particular one time his reply to me was, "Ah I don't care about those guys, I tend to only care about the White Guys." He's made other comments along those lines but that's one of the most telling. Not only did I reply with the Snopes link to the actually snopes report on the falsehoods contained in her email, but one of the other folks on the list did too and that person proceeded to lecture them on the spreading of lies about her chosen candidate and that they should learn a bit more about both candidates before spreading lies. My Cousin replied back to me with "aren't opinions great!! Choose wisely!!". Obviously she didn't read the link I sent her as the reports of the email being false isn't opinion but well researched fact. Even a sermon I heard on TV the other Sunday...yes I know, let me explain. We watch the Sunday morning version of the Today Show then proceed to get ourselves ready for the day, by the time we come back across the TV Cornerstone Baptist Church in Nashville has started or is in the middle of their Sunday Service broadcast which I usually turn off.....from a very Conservative Baptist Pastor (so Conservative that when Tennessee had a proposition on it's ballot one year to define Marriage as between a Man and a Woman or Person and a Person he purchased a 2 hour block of TV time to tell everyone how EVIL the gays are) who was talking about the candidates. He made a statement I agree with; if you can't take the time to educated yourselves on the candidates and at least know basic things about them you shouldn't be allowed to vote. Wow, I actually agreed with a sentiment from a Baptist Minister. Amazing I know. He said that in his travels he decided to ask folks what they knew about the Candidates. He discoverd that alot of folks believed the crap. Obama is a Muslim, being a POW makes McCain a good Candidate for President (I take it this Pastor is pro-Obama because his statment on this was "I don't think it qualifies McCain for President, I actually am not sure what does because we know nothing about his stance on things") that Obama is mixed-race (some Moron actually answered "His race is Democrat right?"). At least my Oldest Step-Daughter is honest about it. She tells me that she doesn't vote because she really doesn't care about Politics and that it's all the same. I'd love to smack her for that, but at least she doesn't waste a vote. It may not seem like it matters, but it does. There are people in other Countries who would be killed if they voted. People have died for the right to vote in many parts of the World, but yet here we are in the US with folks like my former Father-in-Law who told me "I vote for every Democrat and No on all propositions." Wow, thanks for participating. Then there are those that blindly vote Party lines. I voted for Clinton the first time around because he was the better choice. I ceased being a Democrat years ago because I noticed that both parties were interchangeable and really a True Dem and a True Repub didn't exist anymore. The second time around I voted for Ross Perot because Clinton had done nothing for me and kept beating the dead horse of Gays in the military to death. Look if you are Gay and want to serve in the Military, fine by me. Don't expect special treatment though, but do expect to be treated like everyone else. Along came the next election and Lo and Behold we had the Moron and Al "I invented the internet and I'm going to save the country from itself" Gore. I voted for Nader which I was told was "a vote for Bush".....no it was a vote for Nader. I didn't vote for Bush, I voted for Ralph Nader. What part of that did you not understand? I found out these friends "would have" voted for Nader but didn't think he stood a chance (apparently this was the attitude of a lot of Democrats....hmmm wonder if these "would haves" would have actually voted for Nader if he would have won????). The last election I was guilty of throwing away a vote. I wished the ticket would have been Edwards/Kerry not Kerry/Edwards (and yes I really don't care who a person has affairs with, it doesn't make them a bad/good President. It actually has no bearing whatsoever.) as I thought John Kerry was a dead fish who had no clue. I remember Obama then and thought he should have ran. My vote was basically one of those "Anyone but Bush" votes. Hell I'd have voted for Mickey Mouse if it got Shrub out. I am a big advocate of the "none of the above" option. Seriously, if neither Candidate can get it done you vote None of the above. Enough of those, and we get two new Candidates who have to tell us exactly what they will do, right now, at this minute. Might make people actually think about pulling that lever and what it means. I like how out here in Tennessee you don't have to register for a Party when you vote, you actually pick the ballot you want at the polling place. In closing, I'd just like to impart to you this little pearl of wisdom; please inform yourself about the candidates before you go making a decsion that will affect every Man, Woman and Child in the United States. Obama=a change for the better. A Candidate that admits when a choice he's made is incorrect and after hearing all the facts will publicly change his mind. Unlike Bush who still thinks there are WMD's in Iraq and stands by his decision to invade said Country. McCain=4 more years of business as usual. McCain used to be a Centrist, he really was. I've notice though that everytime he tries to go to the Center he's yanked back to the Right by the GOP. Bob Dole started off like that when he was running and I actually considered him, then it was like he had a Republican brainwashing session with Emperor Rove the evil Sith GOP Dark Jedi and started spouting right wing BS. McCain is doing the same thing. Read their websites, see what they believe in. Read the interviews, try and cut through the BS. It boils down to this: Obama wants to help the Middle Class (most of the folks reading this) and wants the term "made in America" to appear on more products sold in this Country (about 95% now say Made in China) whereas McCain wants to keep us in Iraq forever and still cater to the Corporations. Who has your best interest in mind? Obtain some knowledge please before you vote or stay the Hell away from the polls.
When I first started navigating the seas of these here interwebs I, believing that I was helping out my fellow man, forwarded warnings of the dreaded Budweiser Frog virus.....you know the one that says a screen saver of the frogs saying "Bud....Wei....ser" would ruin your computer. As was pointed out by several folks I should look at a particular website called Snopes.com http://www.snopes.com/ who is an impartial group of folks who take every single one of these email warnings at face value and investigate it. What they find 95% of the time is that these emails are complete bunk. Now from the above link you can see every single Obama email that has circulated. All but 2-3 of them are false. I looked at all the McCain ones...there's about 5 total. So I guess the fact that Obama is the first candidate in a long time that might actually help out the people of this Country and not the 5% that hold all the wealth has got that 5% so scared that they are pulling BS out of their collective asses and trying to flood the internet with it. My extended family is guilty of not listening to me and passing this crap along. My Aunt in Florida took about 6 tries before she started checking before she forwarded.....its worked in the effect that her forwards are of the joke variety...usually about our Italian heritage. My Cousin, we will call her M, and her husband, we will call him T love to forward these things. I have referred them to http://www.snopes.com/ (notice a pattern here folks....it's a site worth bookmarking.) on numerous occassions. They haven't listened. Myself and a slew of other folks I don't know but are on their mailing list (well okay...two of the names were my Cousin's Mom my Aunt S and my Mother) just got forwarded the most recent Obama lie...how he wants to raise Capital Gains taxes and how McCain wants to make them 0%. Now mind you, even if this was true, and it's not, most of the people I know aren't selling their houses nor are they going to be able to get 500,000 dollars for them; not in this market anyway. But my Cousin is so worried, then again she tells me she's an independent but she's married to a right wing Repulican (and they're Catholic.....something wrong with that as the Right Wingers don't consider Catholics to be Christian.....that whole King James Version vs New Bible version thing...) who thinks that Michael Savage is God and that if it doesn't come from Fox News it's not News. He's also racist. Not openly but he is. When discussing sports with him and sports atheletes in particular one time his reply to me was, "Ah I don't care about those guys, I tend to only care about the White Guys." He's made other comments along those lines but that's one of the most telling. Not only did I reply with the Snopes link to the actually snopes report on the falsehoods contained in her email, but one of the other folks on the list did too and that person proceeded to lecture them on the spreading of lies about her chosen candidate and that they should learn a bit more about both candidates before spreading lies. My Cousin replied back to me with "aren't opinions great!! Choose wisely!!". Obviously she didn't read the link I sent her as the reports of the email being false isn't opinion but well researched fact. Even a sermon I heard on TV the other Sunday...yes I know, let me explain. We watch the Sunday morning version of the Today Show then proceed to get ourselves ready for the day, by the time we come back across the TV Cornerstone Baptist Church in Nashville has started or is in the middle of their Sunday Service broadcast which I usually turn off.....from a very Conservative Baptist Pastor (so Conservative that when Tennessee had a proposition on it's ballot one year to define Marriage as between a Man and a Woman or Person and a Person he purchased a 2 hour block of TV time to tell everyone how EVIL the gays are) who was talking about the candidates. He made a statement I agree with; if you can't take the time to educated yourselves on the candidates and at least know basic things about them you shouldn't be allowed to vote. Wow, I actually agreed with a sentiment from a Baptist Minister. Amazing I know. He said that in his travels he decided to ask folks what they knew about the Candidates. He discoverd that alot of folks believed the crap. Obama is a Muslim, being a POW makes McCain a good Candidate for President (I take it this Pastor is pro-Obama because his statment on this was "I don't think it qualifies McCain for President, I actually am not sure what does because we know nothing about his stance on things") that Obama is mixed-race (some Moron actually answered "His race is Democrat right?"). At least my Oldest Step-Daughter is honest about it. She tells me that she doesn't vote because she really doesn't care about Politics and that it's all the same. I'd love to smack her for that, but at least she doesn't waste a vote. It may not seem like it matters, but it does. There are people in other Countries who would be killed if they voted. People have died for the right to vote in many parts of the World, but yet here we are in the US with folks like my former Father-in-Law who told me "I vote for every Democrat and No on all propositions." Wow, thanks for participating. Then there are those that blindly vote Party lines. I voted for Clinton the first time around because he was the better choice. I ceased being a Democrat years ago because I noticed that both parties were interchangeable and really a True Dem and a True Repub didn't exist anymore. The second time around I voted for Ross Perot because Clinton had done nothing for me and kept beating the dead horse of Gays in the military to death. Look if you are Gay and want to serve in the Military, fine by me. Don't expect special treatment though, but do expect to be treated like everyone else. Along came the next election and Lo and Behold we had the Moron and Al "I invented the internet and I'm going to save the country from itself" Gore. I voted for Nader which I was told was "a vote for Bush".....no it was a vote for Nader. I didn't vote for Bush, I voted for Ralph Nader. What part of that did you not understand? I found out these friends "would have" voted for Nader but didn't think he stood a chance (apparently this was the attitude of a lot of Democrats....hmmm wonder if these "would haves" would have actually voted for Nader if he would have won????). The last election I was guilty of throwing away a vote. I wished the ticket would have been Edwards/Kerry not Kerry/Edwards (and yes I really don't care who a person has affairs with, it doesn't make them a bad/good President. It actually has no bearing whatsoever.) as I thought John Kerry was a dead fish who had no clue. I remember Obama then and thought he should have ran. My vote was basically one of those "Anyone but Bush" votes. Hell I'd have voted for Mickey Mouse if it got Shrub out. I am a big advocate of the "none of the above" option. Seriously, if neither Candidate can get it done you vote None of the above. Enough of those, and we get two new Candidates who have to tell us exactly what they will do, right now, at this minute. Might make people actually think about pulling that lever and what it means. I like how out here in Tennessee you don't have to register for a Party when you vote, you actually pick the ballot you want at the polling place. In closing, I'd just like to impart to you this little pearl of wisdom; please inform yourself about the candidates before you go making a decsion that will affect every Man, Woman and Child in the United States. Obama=a change for the better. A Candidate that admits when a choice he's made is incorrect and after hearing all the facts will publicly change his mind. Unlike Bush who still thinks there are WMD's in Iraq and stands by his decision to invade said Country. McCain=4 more years of business as usual. McCain used to be a Centrist, he really was. I've notice though that everytime he tries to go to the Center he's yanked back to the Right by the GOP. Bob Dole started off like that when he was running and I actually considered him, then it was like he had a Republican brainwashing session with Emperor Rove the evil Sith GOP Dark Jedi and started spouting right wing BS. McCain is doing the same thing. Read their websites, see what they believe in. Read the interviews, try and cut through the BS. It boils down to this: Obama wants to help the Middle Class (most of the folks reading this) and wants the term "made in America" to appear on more products sold in this Country (about 95% now say Made in China) whereas McCain wants to keep us in Iraq forever and still cater to the Corporations. Who has your best interest in mind? Obtain some knowledge please before you vote or stay the Hell away from the polls.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
I guess it's working...
Have you noticed, gas prices are going down slightly. Isn't it funny how it takes 2 days to go up 1 dollar a gallon but 2 months to drop .19? The price of a barrel of oil is down now too. I guess the Repugs are right...all that drilling we've been doing is working......oh wait, we haven't done any additional drilling have we? Yeah I guess all that "those damn Liberals won't let us drill for our own oil so we can lower gas prices" morons are now, wait for it.....FREAKING WRONG!!!!! God I loved doing that!! I can't believe the thousands of folks who think that drilling is the answer. The experts all agree (you know Geologists, Market Analysists, etc) even if we were to drill right now off both coasts, the oil we pull out of the ground (if there's any down there) won't reach market or make a difference (if it does make a difference) until the year 2015. So how the Hell is that going to help us in the year 2008? Besides, its a well known fact that the Oil Companies have acres of land just sitting there that they have permission to drill on. Acres of the stuff that they are not touching. Hmmm....so we need to drill offshore again why? Why not make those Oil Jackasses drill where they've got land before we go spending more money and doing more damage to the seabed.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Movie Reviews and a Great Deal....
First the Great Deal.....Big Fish games http://www.bigfishgames.com/ makes interesting puzzle/seek and find/hidden clue types of games. Casual gaming at it's finest. I've downloaded their Demos a ton, but could never bring myself to pay 20 bucks for one of their games. Some people will like them enough to do so, but not me. Well they have one game called Azada that they are blowing out until August 15th for 0.99......a regularly 19.99 game for 19.00 off!!! I bought it and it's a great little game.....worth, in my opinion, 10 bucks but a steal a 0.99. Now for the movies....
The List....Don't bother....and something my Wife and I have vowed to do from now on read more than just the movie synopsis on the back of the box....... What could be so bad about this movie....it had Malcom McDowell (he who played Alex in Clockwork Orange and recently Linderman on Heroes...) who always plays a great villain. It had a Secret Society of Confederate Plantation Holders who combined their fortunes and swore a pact....it helped them survive the inevitable defeat of the Confederate Army.....it had a Young Heir to the fortune who was about to upset the balance.......Sounds good doesn't it? It was interesting to start of with, then everyone was praying and quoting scripture and fasting and studying the Bible and this is how the Dark Magic of the LIST was defeated........at this point I looked at the special features description on the back of the box....."DVD Bible study passages recommended by the Author, How the Power of Prayer can overcome everyday Evil".........<>......If I had read that I'd have skipped it.
The Bank Job.....Hey it's got Jason Statham (Snatch, The Transporter..) how can it be bad? It wasn't, it was actually good.
In Bruges.....such an odd little film but a good one. About as odd and bizarre as Run Lola Run.....Colin Farrel was actually good in this one, and he's not good in much he needs to do tough guy action roles and they need to stop making him this romantic, leading man guy....his acting chops aren't the best.
Sweeney Todd.....YAWN!!!! I guess I'm just not into musicals.....I like Burton's stuff, like Helena Bonham-Carter, like Depp but this movie was just....meh
10,000 BC......YAWN!!! Made it through 5 minutes of this plodder.....
I am Legend......Good movie, different from the original Omega Man. I liked that the "mutants" in the original were just disfigured humans who the virus made insane instead of mindless zombies like in the new one. Still, Will Smith does a great job.
Dragon Wars....Okay I expected it to be bad and cheesy....it's a Monster Movie the way a Monster Movie should be (not like that Cloverfield Crap) where the focus is on the Monster destroying the town not on how scared the people are (who cares about the people in a Monster movie.....I want to see monster crushing, crumbling and chomping I don't want to know or care if Suzy and Johnny escape in time.....)....but this one was really bad.....it was kind of lame actually although when the Chinese Dragon pops up at the end to kick some Butt...yeah it was good.
The Big Lebowski....Yes I know, a classic, but I've never seen it. I'm glad I did, it was surrealistic and funny in that old school funny (ala Fletch and After Hours and Into the Night).
Now, I've mentioned two films you may have never seen or heard of...actually 3...
Run Lola Run. It's a German film that was inspired by the filmmaker watchin a Woman running on a track one day. Just the motion of the Human body running, the rythmn the trance that runner's get into because of the concentration on the task at hand. The movie starts off with a frantic phone call from Lola's boyfriend Manni.....he works for a Mob boss of some kind and has lost his boss' 100,000 Marcs and needs help now because if Lola doesn't get to him in a hour or two he's going to be killed. Thus the tale begins as Lola busts out of her house running at full speed through the streets of a German City (probably Berlin but the City name is never really revealed). As Lola passes certain people a flash "forward" sequence happens as we see that person's future.......the strangeness (and coolness) of the film is that it is a series of Codas.....Lola gets to her goal, something happens, someone shouts "no!" then the movie goes back to the beginning but there are subtle differences.....the people she passed before are in different clothes or miss crossing her path by a second or two or the car that almost hits her stops before she gets to it and lets her pass......then she gets to her goal again, someone shouts "no!" and it's back to the beginning with different sets of circumstances for the people she passes, etc and ends with a great twist ending. The Techno/Trance music soundtrack helps the mood and atmosphere of the whole film. Give it a try (you will find it in the Foreign film section of most stores) it's really worth it.
After Hours. With Griffin Dunne and Linda Firoentino (she of MIB fame). A mediocre guy goes into New York's SoHo district well out of his comfort zone (he's a cube jockey) and ends up experiencing the most bizarre night of his life....it's like everything that could go wrong goes wrong. I think he ends up having half of SoHo wanting his head.
Into the Night. Like After Hours one of those bizarre 80's comedies. Stars Jeff Goldblum and a very young Michelle Pfeifer. Jeff can't sleep, he's got insomnia and his best friend at work Dan Akroyd tells him to take the red-eye flight to Vegas (from LA it's a half hour flight at most) and take in a show, gamble, get a hooker whatever. He goes home at lunch and finds his wife in bed with her business partner. He wakes up in the middle of the night (actually he never went to sleep, just lay in bed) and takes his friends advice. He gets to the airport parking lot, pauses, then decides he just can't go through with it. At that point he hears a scream and Michelle Pfeifer lands on his car screaming "they're going to kill me we've got to get out of here!"......thus begins a few days of surrealistic craziness all filmed by John Landis in the same tone as what Jeff Goldblum is feeling.....in other words you feel like an insomiac sleep walker. It's darkly funny with a bizarre cast of characters (Michelle Pfeifers brother is playec by Bruce McGill and he's a Gay Elvis Impersonator....need I say more). The Iranian death squad that is chasing them are deadly as well as bungling and add to the dark comedy of the movie (John Landis plays one of the hitmen). The cameos in the movie are great: Jim Henson and David Bowie are two of them. It's a very 80's movie but it's a great film althogether. A definite one to check out....
Bonus Movie I just thought of: Boondock Saints. I saw parts of this at the Discoursers house and he said it was brillant so I rented it and loved it to the point I bought it. It never hit theaters (really not sure why) and it's a cult classic (much like Donnie Darko....a movie I'm still trying to figure out....need to watch it again). It's about two Irish Brothers in Boston (gee ya think...) who decide to become Angels of Death by killing only "Evil Men" and reciting bible passages while doing it. They are being tracked by Wilem Dafoe (as weird as usual) who is a great FBI profiler. Lots of action and crazy little bits of comedy.
Oh I forgot to add one.....Jumper. Great premise, but not even Samuel L. Jackson saved this one from Hayden "I'm the greatest Jedi evar!!!" Christensen's horrible performance....oh wait that's normal for him.........I did like the British Jumper better and felt they should do a movie about him not Darth Whiner......
The List....Don't bother....and something my Wife and I have vowed to do from now on read more than just the movie synopsis on the back of the box....... What could be so bad about this movie....it had Malcom McDowell (he who played Alex in Clockwork Orange and recently Linderman on Heroes...) who always plays a great villain. It had a Secret Society of Confederate Plantation Holders who combined their fortunes and swore a pact....it helped them survive the inevitable defeat of the Confederate Army.....it had a Young Heir to the fortune who was about to upset the balance.......Sounds good doesn't it? It was interesting to start of with, then everyone was praying and quoting scripture and fasting and studying the Bible and this is how the Dark Magic of the LIST was defeated........at this point I looked at the special features description on the back of the box....."DVD Bible study passages recommended by the Author, How the Power of Prayer can overcome everyday Evil".........<
The Bank Job.....Hey it's got Jason Statham (Snatch, The Transporter..) how can it be bad? It wasn't, it was actually good.
In Bruges.....such an odd little film but a good one. About as odd and bizarre as Run Lola Run.....Colin Farrel was actually good in this one, and he's not good in much he needs to do tough guy action roles and they need to stop making him this romantic, leading man guy....his acting chops aren't the best.
Sweeney Todd.....YAWN!!!! I guess I'm just not into musicals.....I like Burton's stuff, like Helena Bonham-Carter, like Depp but this movie was just....meh
10,000 BC......YAWN!!! Made it through 5 minutes of this plodder.....
I am Legend......Good movie, different from the original Omega Man. I liked that the "mutants" in the original were just disfigured humans who the virus made insane instead of mindless zombies like in the new one. Still, Will Smith does a great job.
Dragon Wars....Okay I expected it to be bad and cheesy....it's a Monster Movie the way a Monster Movie should be (not like that Cloverfield Crap) where the focus is on the Monster destroying the town not on how scared the people are (who cares about the people in a Monster movie.....I want to see monster crushing, crumbling and chomping I don't want to know or care if Suzy and Johnny escape in time.....)....but this one was really bad.....it was kind of lame actually although when the Chinese Dragon pops up at the end to kick some Butt...yeah it was good.
The Big Lebowski....Yes I know, a classic, but I've never seen it. I'm glad I did, it was surrealistic and funny in that old school funny (ala Fletch and After Hours and Into the Night).
Now, I've mentioned two films you may have never seen or heard of...actually 3...
Run Lola Run. It's a German film that was inspired by the filmmaker watchin a Woman running on a track one day. Just the motion of the Human body running, the rythmn the trance that runner's get into because of the concentration on the task at hand. The movie starts off with a frantic phone call from Lola's boyfriend Manni.....he works for a Mob boss of some kind and has lost his boss' 100,000 Marcs and needs help now because if Lola doesn't get to him in a hour or two he's going to be killed. Thus the tale begins as Lola busts out of her house running at full speed through the streets of a German City (probably Berlin but the City name is never really revealed). As Lola passes certain people a flash "forward" sequence happens as we see that person's future.......the strangeness (and coolness) of the film is that it is a series of Codas.....Lola gets to her goal, something happens, someone shouts "no!" then the movie goes back to the beginning but there are subtle differences.....the people she passed before are in different clothes or miss crossing her path by a second or two or the car that almost hits her stops before she gets to it and lets her pass......then she gets to her goal again, someone shouts "no!" and it's back to the beginning with different sets of circumstances for the people she passes, etc and ends with a great twist ending. The Techno/Trance music soundtrack helps the mood and atmosphere of the whole film. Give it a try (you will find it in the Foreign film section of most stores) it's really worth it.
After Hours. With Griffin Dunne and Linda Firoentino (she of MIB fame). A mediocre guy goes into New York's SoHo district well out of his comfort zone (he's a cube jockey) and ends up experiencing the most bizarre night of his life....it's like everything that could go wrong goes wrong. I think he ends up having half of SoHo wanting his head.
Into the Night. Like After Hours one of those bizarre 80's comedies. Stars Jeff Goldblum and a very young Michelle Pfeifer. Jeff can't sleep, he's got insomnia and his best friend at work Dan Akroyd tells him to take the red-eye flight to Vegas (from LA it's a half hour flight at most) and take in a show, gamble, get a hooker whatever. He goes home at lunch and finds his wife in bed with her business partner. He wakes up in the middle of the night (actually he never went to sleep, just lay in bed) and takes his friends advice. He gets to the airport parking lot, pauses, then decides he just can't go through with it. At that point he hears a scream and Michelle Pfeifer lands on his car screaming "they're going to kill me we've got to get out of here!"......thus begins a few days of surrealistic craziness all filmed by John Landis in the same tone as what Jeff Goldblum is feeling.....in other words you feel like an insomiac sleep walker. It's darkly funny with a bizarre cast of characters (Michelle Pfeifers brother is playec by Bruce McGill and he's a Gay Elvis Impersonator....need I say more). The Iranian death squad that is chasing them are deadly as well as bungling and add to the dark comedy of the movie (John Landis plays one of the hitmen). The cameos in the movie are great: Jim Henson and David Bowie are two of them. It's a very 80's movie but it's a great film althogether. A definite one to check out....
Bonus Movie I just thought of: Boondock Saints. I saw parts of this at the Discoursers house and he said it was brillant so I rented it and loved it to the point I bought it. It never hit theaters (really not sure why) and it's a cult classic (much like Donnie Darko....a movie I'm still trying to figure out....need to watch it again). It's about two Irish Brothers in Boston (gee ya think...) who decide to become Angels of Death by killing only "Evil Men" and reciting bible passages while doing it. They are being tracked by Wilem Dafoe (as weird as usual) who is a great FBI profiler. Lots of action and crazy little bits of comedy.
Oh I forgot to add one.....Jumper. Great premise, but not even Samuel L. Jackson saved this one from Hayden "I'm the greatest Jedi evar!!!" Christensen's horrible performance....oh wait that's normal for him.........I did like the British Jumper better and felt they should do a movie about him not Darth Whiner......
Monday, August 04, 2008
PharmCo's. Fear Mongering since 2001
Back in 2001 the FDA relaxed the protocols for advertising Pharmaceuticals direct to the consumer resulting in the PharmCo's coming up with the most annoying and obnoxious and prolific TV ads around. Nothing like sitting down top dinner and watching the tube and hearing things like "lower all kinds of cholesterol...." or "an erection lasting more than 4 hours (this is a problem????)"......or seeing a bunch of middle age guys sing out joyously "Viva Viagra!!!!!". We've become a scared and sterilized society now. NeoSporin has an antiseptic spray that Soccer Mom's can carry in their purse in case little Johnny or Tiffany fall down running during their "playdate" in the park.....(let me go off topic here for a moment. Is that term not the stupidest term you have ever heard???? Playdate??? WTF???? Yeah let's set them up for rejection right off the bat...."Mom....Johnny won't go on a play date with me...." What happened to taking your kids to the park so they could interact with other kids.....you have to set it up and screen their friends now????? This whole idea is utter BS....seriously. Now back to your regularly scheduled rant)...because God Forbid that little scraped knee is going to turn gangrenous and you will have to amputate Johnny's leg. What happened to Mom's spitting in a hanky or tissue and wiping it all off.....or good old Bactine. Hurt like Hell but fixed it right up. Oh wait.....we don't want the experience to be unpleasant....I forgot. Let's see, kids medicine tastes so good now that kids might think it's candy and drink it up. My Grandson did this. He got into the medicine chest and managed to get through the child safety cap...he's too smart for his own good.....he ended up in the ER with my oldest Step-Daughter freaking out. Why did he drink it....because it tasted like grape Kool Aid.....wonderful. Remember how medicine used to taste awful? It made you not want to get sick, and you definitely weren't going to go drink some because it tasted so bad.
Back to big PharmCos.....they have been pitching their snake oil on TV since 2001, and have been using the best trick in the book; Fear. Yep, those aches and pains you have....we have a name for it now and a pill to go with it!! Just tell your Doctor that's what's wrong with you and that you need a prescription for our Pill... And that's the problem; folks are being brainwashed into thinking they have a certain ailment and are bound and determined to tell their doctor they need this Pill. Even though their doctor is well aware of all the new medicines out there....trust me they get so many damn samples in the mail it's not funny. I'd say the professional physician....you know the Doctor that spent almost 20 years in school.....knows what the Hell he's talking about. If he says you just have sore muscles then you have sore muscles....you don't have Fibromyalgia and you don't need Lyrica. The one's that get me are the new vaccines that are coming out for crap that isn't all that widespread. The newest one is for Meningitis...Meningococcal (sp???) Meningitis to be exact. Get your Teen vaccinated from Meningitis because, as you know, all Teens are walking crocks of disease that can infect your child. Yes, tell your Teen not to touch anyone, talk to anyone because they will get infected with horrible diseases!!!! Cooties, apparently are real now and they have a vaccine. Then there's the Guardasil commercials which is a vaccine for HPPV....essentially a Sexually Transmitted disease. This confused me as to why they were advertising this to Mom's to get their daughter's vaccinated, and showing Pre-Teen girls in the commercial!?!!? Apparently it needs to be done prior to becoming sexually active. I can hear this conversation.....
Mom: Suzy I'm taking you to the Dr. to get this shot..
Suzy: Will it hurt (Suzy's 9 by the way)?
Mom: Probably....
Suzy: Do I need it?
Mom: Not yet....it's to prevent you from getting a sexually transmitted disease later on in life....
Suzy: Um....ewww....sex??? Mom that's disgusting......so I can get diseases from sex??? Well I'm not having sex ever then!!
Mom: Um....wow this is awkward.....well I just want you to be One Less like the commercial says.....
Suzy: Isn't there another way to protect against this? In school they were talking about Birth Control...
Mom: What's your school teaching you!!!!
Yeah I can just hear it now. Helpful hint from the pros....Girls, make your partner wear a condom and you won't get HPPV.......or Aids or anything else. Hey a box only costs like 6-10 dollars and you can buy them when you are ready to make that decision.....not at 9 Freaking years old!!!!!
What gets me too is that they can release this crap on the market with only the most basic of research. Sidenote: Guardisil is being recalled as I write this because of some really nasty side effects.....
Speaking of side effects, ever notice the laundry list of side effects that can happen from taking some of these drugs? You know, infection, slow breathing, heart failure, blindness, loss of hearing, bleeding, infection of the injection site (I love that one...) or irritation of the injection site (ya think???), and even death (oh I really like that one.....hey take out pill, it will fix what ails you by killing you!!!). Makes you want to say..."you know what? I think I will just pop a couple of Tylenol/Advil/Motrin/Bayer and that will deal with the pain...Hell if I take an Aleve in the morning it will last until noon!!!" You don't need a prescription, there's no risk of death (well unless you down the whole bottle of 500 pills in one sitting.....then you will probably die....horribly too most likely) and hey you can get generic versions real cheap that do the SAME DAMN THING!!! Seriously folks, Ibuprofen is Ibuprofen....whether it says Tylenol, Safeway, Kroger, Target, etc on the label. The only difference, besides Tylenol making there's with holes or fancy colors or tasting like grape KoolAid, is the price.
It's this increase in Fear Mongering that is driving the cost of Health Care through the roof. Insurance Companies are having to pay out more for treating ailments that really didn't need treating with expensive medicine before. Doctor's Malpractice insurance rates are going up because more brainwashed people insist they need Pill A even though their Doctor says No.
What do we do Mr. Ranter you may ask? I'll tell you. Stop giving in to advertising. Meningitis is a real nasty disease, but when was the last time you heard of kids at your Child's school getting it????? Probably never, so do you think it's necessary to pay for an office visit plus the expense of a shot (that's probably not covered under you insurance) for your Child? If you thought about it you would say Hell No!! Isn't it easier to tell your Teens about birth control and not have to explain to your 9 year old daughter why she's getting a shot to protect her from "Evil Sexually Transmitted Diseases"........Do we really need to add that stress on top of every other stressor that has been placed on our Teens?? Break that cycle, teach your daughter's that sex is sex.....you hear of so many Teens who think that they aren't having sex because they just "did oral"....got news for you ...that's sex. Or anal sex isn't sex.....uh huh....just ask any Gay Man.....he will tell you different I'm sure. Stop making these PharmCo's wealthier than they already are. Instead of coming up with Vaccine's for stuff that's avoidable, why not cure diabetes or cancer? Work on those.....stop trying to invent the miracle cure for everything........you don't need Flu shots...you have a healthy immune system and some Nyquil...works every single time!! The more we try to vaccinate minor viruses, they smarter they get and then we will have the Penicillin problem where there are viruses now that are immune to it. How did this happen? Several Countries used Penicillin as a miracle drug and gave it to everyone for everything. Put some faith in your Doctor...after all he/she is a professional.......
Friday, August 01, 2008
As if WalMart wasn't Evil enough....
Click the blog entry title for the article. So apparently WalMart is trying to defeat Barack Obama because they claim that a Democratic President will make it easier for employees to Unionize.......there's a problem with this how????? They are scaring their employees saying they'd have to pay big Union Dues without any benefits....HUH???????? No, there's plenty of benefits that go with those Dues....affordable health benefits and something other than slave wages. WalMart makes a huge profit margin because everything they sell comes from China or Mexico (where as we know labor is cheap). Why do you think they can sell their crap at such a low price..........They can pay their employees more and still make a profit but they won't. More of a reason to defeat the Repugs in this upcoming election.....the Corporations have gotten away with murder for 8 years and now they are threatened by one Man to the point where they are trying to outwardly exert their control on who runs our Country. Wonderful.......
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