The Victorious Opposition

A new movie is coming out about that roller coaster ride we have all been on, and expelled our lunch enduring, take a look:

Nothing new here and all sound bites we have heard before, but when the opposition gives you solid gold, it is your civic duty to keep mining it.

From the website:

Two versions of the American dream now stand in sharp contrast. One views the money you earned as yours and best allocated by you. It champions the traditional American dream, which has played out millions of times through generations of Americans, of improving one’s lot in life and the entrepreneurial spirit of daring to dream and to build big. The other believes that the federal government, using taxpayers’ money, should play a major role in leveling out the nation’s wealth to guarantee outcomes to all, regardless of effort. How America chooses between these two views of the role of government, at this crucial juncture, will have everything to do with the future we and our children and our children’s children will enjoy.

Coming out this fall, but imdb is only giving it 2 stars, you think if Michael Moore or Oliver Stone was behind it, they would of been a bit more generous?

Here’s my prediction, without knowing anything about its production or budget, this movie will gross more than “W” and whatever the latest pile Moore put out, combined. A low bar, granted, but it is a political movie. Here’s hoping for some salacious shots of Sarah in there, hey, it is Hollywood after all.

And anything with Thad McCotter in it is a must see for me.

I’ve debated dressing up like a jock and terrorizing anyone dressed as Naruto, Avatar (the last airbender), etc. in a fit of athletic rage. None of this I will follow through on, of course, our company has some pretty high profile events at this venue. My nametag will also prominently display my employer, which might as well have a line under it which reads, “How’s my conduct? If I didn’t kiss your ass appropriately please call 555-5555.” At any rate it should be a pretty fun event, and some of these chicks that dress up like Sailor Moon are actually not hard on the eyes. I’ve been surprised before at what I’ve seen.

Our event is on Thursday, so I’ll try and put up something that night, a little Manwhore-iffic documentary of sorts, through the prism which is my imagination. I expect there to be lots of obesity, the air thick with the smell of Taco meat and ripe nerds, geeks and plenty of TonTon cosplay.

A new Perrier commercial is going viral over the internet, take a look.

Jeez, is this the maid’s day off? What a dump. And she asks if I’m lucky, apparently not since the dice did not land on “Go make me a sandwich” or “Not now, the game is on”? She has a nice sultry voice but talk about lack of motor skills, how could she miss her mouth like that? so much for taking her out to eat in public..

If you go to her website (do, I highly recommend it) you drive up to the mansion, James Bond like,  then have to enter your birth date, no doubt this is a slam by the Euroweenies who think American’s are up tight, prudes and easily tricked into going some where we shouldn’t. OK, nice digs, but is this some subliminal message that we should all want to be like Europeans? Ha, this was probably shot in Bel Air, the lack of pit hair gave them away.

Doesn’t every wife dress up like that when the husband comes home from a hard day at the office? And why does she keep looking back at me going down the hall, she think I’ll get lost?

The third room is my favorite, but I get doused in the end for not following the rules, dumb luck.

There is no question that sex sells, but I am always amused that American companies have to tiptoe around the concept, and when they don’t (Paris Hilton eating a Car’s Jr. hamburger) they get hammered by the morals police. Where we have take the back ally, then give the secret knock and pass word, European companies, throw the front doors open. They make no bones about plying salaciousness to the bottom line, because it has proven effective in the past. Now I’m not saying this ad should be running in prime time (daddy, why is that woman rubbing her top, does she have an itch?) in fact, we will never see this ad on this side of the pond (who drinks that crap anyway?) but sometimes it is refreshing to to see all the pretenses dropped.

Will it make people buy Perrier? (not me, I get my bottled water at Costco), maybe, especially since Perrier has been known for racy ads, and I would rather drink their water then eat their stinky cheese.

Apologies in advance, but I couldn’t resist this little piece of social justice.

LOS ANGELES — Lindsay Lohan will be going to jail without one of her biggest advocates — her attorney.

The actress’ attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, resigned from the case shortly after releasing a statement Thursday calling a judge’s 90-day jail sentence for Lohan “harsh and unfair.”
No reason for her withdrawal from the high-profile case was given, and her replacement has not been announced.

A representative for the seasoned defense attorney, who fought to keep the “Mean Girls” star out of jail during a daylong hearing Tuesday, said her earlier remarks about Lohan’s sentence remained valid.

“Ms. Lohan and I are extremely disappointed in the sentence handed down by Judge (Marsha) Revel,” Holley’s statement had read. “We believe that the penalty is far harsher than what others would have received under similar circumstances.

“The reality is that Ms. Lohan, like most defendants, had to balance work commitments with court requirements. To be punished so severely for doing so, particularly in light of the fact that she substantially complied with each of her probationary conditions, is harsh and unfair,” it said.

On it’s face, I would agree that a 90 day jail sentence, followed by inpatient rehab seems pretty severe. A first DUI in California doesn’t exclude jail time but judges don’t usually dole it out here. A second DUI carries a mandatory minimum, but it’s something reasonable (like a week or so) as far as punishment fitting the crime. I believe a third will land real jail time, something major like 120 days or so. Here’s a link. I realize that she’s not being punished for the DUI anymore, it’s for violating the terms of her probation, but 3 months in the pokey seems pretty severe for missing her alcohol program classes.

I don’t take away any of the blame for what led the judge to this decision, and I do think that in a person by person basis, this little biatch learned the lesson that court is not a mall shopping spree where Bailiffs help you with your shopping bags, your attorney brings the Frappucino, and the DA and judge are “such a drag”. It’s court, the long arm of the law, and she got biatch slapped by it. Being a celebrity, in this instance, and flaunting the rules so blatantly only seeks to stoke the flames of anger.

I’ll admit that the case had me pretty angry from the beginning. In that little chart I linked to, it explains the penalties for each offense. In each there are also enhancements. After looking at the chart, and then looking at this I am baffled that she could get such a light sentence in the first place. In her first arrest she was in an accident that caused damage and then fled the scene. If that were any mere mortal in the state of California, he’d be calling home for soap on a rope for quite some time (I couldn’t really dig up some examples, but there are some examples of hit and run DUIs and they definitely throw the book at them with the enhancements).

That’s not where Lohan stopped, though. She then got another arrest during her probationary period two months after, a period of time I would presume where her license must have been suspended. I could never quite wrap my head around her not being in violation for her driving without her license, the cocaine, probation violation, and the chase. The cocaine alone is a class A drug worthy of getting in some real shiat. I’ve never been able to understand how she didn’t get some serious jail time for the DUIs alone, and with all of the enhancements (given the way California’s DUI laws are set up) I was sure she’d be in jail for quite some time.

That attorney that quit must have been amazing, because not only did she keep Lohan out of jail (albeit with the ankle monitor) but allowed her to escape any felony enhancements (hence, the travel), flaunt the courts, and here we are. She’s got to quit, and Lohan got the jail time for the offenses and more for her DUIs. She fought the law, and the law not only won, it whipped her with a strap, and the reason I say it’s social justice is not because I agree with extreme punishments. It’s because she’s been held to a different measure than the common California mortal, given privilege for crimes that would have most in the county blues for quite some time, and still she was allowed to whisk her ankle monitor to Cannes and back. Sneak a beer or two at the MTV Awards (I don’t think the judge even factored in the ankle monitor violation-just the classes), and pose for the cameras in all of LA’s hot spots. Well, with one little minor detail factored in:

Cracks me up every time. Ladies, serious damage is applied to your 1 to 10 number with an ankle monitor. Even a day in jail is enough to scare me, so I’m not concerned about her being able to get out early. And as much as she’s displayed that the law applied to her differently than someone without money or privilege (and the courts appeared to originally oblige) I do hope that this last volley will show her that “there’s not enough money in the world” to keep her ass out of prison.

Slow news day, Lebron did not schedule another hour long special (boxers or briefs, this is what I look for in a woman, or how I would fix the oil spill) but I found this and I thought it was worthy of discussion and I’ll pose the question ,“Is there anything an actor (singer, whatever) could say or do that would rate a total ban on anything that even remotely has his name attached to it”. First up, Mel Gibson.

A couple things right off the bat. First off, I believe that telephone conversations should be private and I find any leaking of said conversations to the media, for whatever reasons, totally despicable. I can only surmise that this woman taking the abuse did the leaking, possibly to garner a bigger settlement in any kind of custody dispute. I don’t think they are married but it sounds like they have a child together. Another thing to consider is that Mel has a tendency to not only drink himself silly but then shoot his mouth off at anyone down range. We all remember the anti Semitic and sexist comments he made to that LASO deputy as he was being arrested for drunk driving. Another probing question would be why any woman in her right mind would have anything to do with total A’holes like this, is money so tight that they need to humiliate themselves like this,just for a little security?

I don’t know of any person alive who has not at some time in their lives said or did something that they regretted at a later date and we are naturally more apt to fly off the handle if there is only one person witnessing our stupidity, this is why I don’t think too much should be read into one on one phone conversations.I believe it was Alec Baldwin that got into trouble last year for going nuts over the phone, calling his daughter a pig. I bet he immediately regretted how things went down and probably made his mea culpas, but then it got leaked and the whole world came down on him for it, condemning him for dialogue that was not meant for any one else’s ears but his daughters.

But some speech is just so heinous and over the top (like this little rant) that the usual considerations seem unwarranted, especially coming from some one who has a history of inserting foot into mouth.

In this short two minute missive, we get verbal abuse, obscenity ,sexism, racism, and words used that should make any woman run for the hills.

Another factor in all this is that Mel happens to be a titan in Hollywood. I was trying to think of someone comparable, and the only guy that comes to mind is maybe Clint Eastwood (director, producer, actor) but even he does not measure up,maybe Tom Hanks would be closer. And there have been several movies over the years that Mel has been in that I thought was really terrific, first starting off with this.

Having spent a fair amount of time around drunks over the years, I’ve seen first hand how alcohol can change people, but it does not make somebody into somebody else, it does lessen inhibitions, allowing behavior to surface that would be controlled under normal circumstances, and because of this and Mel’s behavior while drunk in the past, I just assumed that he was a dick only after a couple of pops. But now I think that this tape might just cut his throat.

Some people are already distancing themselves from Mad Max, but how toxic is he? Will the public rebel against him? Will you guys consider him persona non grata and is there anyone else out there that you think is just too smarmy, stupid, or too political that you would not waste 2 hours of your time watching?

For my own sensibilities, I won’t watch George Clooney or Sean Penn, and I’m real close to 86’ing Matt Damon even though I love the Jason Borne movies. I think Anne Hathaway and Cameron Diaz are vacuous and silly, but other than that, nobody else is on my shit list, except for now Mel.

So, is there any actor or performer out there you think is just too stucking fupid to tolerate and will this little glimpse into Mel Gibson’s soul hurt him financially?

I’ve stayed out of the NBA threads of late, mostly because I am not enamored of King James as much as some here, and although the extra ordinary large number of marquee players looking for homes this year is interesting, speculating where each will end up is like predicting a jury verdict when you did not hear any of the evidence. 

I figured each drama would play out and I would find out soon enough. Then I hear about this.

ESPN is reporting that LeBron James will announce his NBA plans on its network Thursday night at 9 p.m. in an hourlong special.

Oh, boy, his highness is going to grace the world with 60 minutes of his magnificent awesomeness and revealing which city will be graced with hanging his jock strap in their arena, not too full of himself is he? I use to think that Lebron was just an uglier version of Tracy Mcgrady, OK., to be a bit more generous, Charles Barkley. A great player, sure, but worthy of this kind of adulation and sainthood?hardly. “But, but, he is an MVP winner”, I got that, him, Steve Nash, Carl Malone, and many others that, although stellar players, got no rings, and afterall, isn’t that the yardstick by which greatness is measured?

Each time he does something stupid (pout after a loss and not shake hands and congratulate the other team) I chalk   it up to youthful exuberance and immaturity, and at times he does appear to grasp the importance of the mantel he is occupying with regards to paying homage to the past greats of the game, but for every two steps forward, there is one step back like this grand hour long spectacle we will witness tonight (not me, of course, I got a sock drawer to organize) all to tell us where he will be playing.

Me personally, I hope he stays in Cleveland, they have gotten use to his theatrics and can more easily stomach all the hoopla, that, and with Wade and Bosch signing with the Heat,they are only one role model player away from keeping King James (ha) from sniffing the finals for a long time.

I look at the class and decorum of Kevin Durant, a great player in his own right, who unceremoniously and with no fireworks, quietly sings an extension to play for the city that gave him his first break and loves him, he understands loyalty and his willing to commit, and do it with no fan fare or drama. He is the kind of player that the NBA needs, he understands this, and is willing to comport himself accordingly.

I hope somebody here is willing to waste an hour of their time watching this spectacle tonight, I’m curious to know if he is going to do a song and dance number, maybe juggle some bowling pins or at least do comedy stand up, 60 minutes of him telling everyone why he picked this city of the others would be absolutely excruciating.

A new TV show called “Huge” is ready to make its debut next week:

Umm, not sure what to make of this. First of all, I guess fat women can be bitchy catty just like the skino’s, but they will be missing a huge opportunity if they take this in the wrong direction.

There have been a number of show’s lately about fat people wanting to lose weight but it appears that this drama focuses on women (men should also take note) being comfortable with how they look, accepting how they look, and chucking the neurosis for a more positive attitude, and I’m all for that. The world is getting fatter (at least in the industrialized nations) and without going into the health implications of this trend, a more tolerant (oh, how loathe that word) attitude, both from the individual porker and society as a whole would go a long way towards combating caustic esteems. Heftiness really is probably the last minority to get fair and equal treatment on TV so maybe it is time to accept who we are and what we look like.

Being happy and content with what we look like is a noble goal, but I sure hope that they don’t propagate the lie that these women are fat because they want to be fat and if they were granted 3 wishes from a genie in a bottle, none of them would even mention a slimmer figure, because that would be nonsense. For every 10 fat women (men too) that say they like themselves the way they are and would not want to change, 9 or them are lying. Sure, it is no reason to go psychotic because you look the way you do and a more forgiving attitude is healthier, the goal for perfection should be discouraged.

Hollywood is not (nor have they ever been) a friend to anyone over weight, and that is a shame too, because most men prefer women with both meat on them and curves. It is a myth, propagated by many women, that most men prefer the model style physique and can not get past love handles and if this show goes in that direction, lets these girls have fun, have boyfriends, and emphasizes that they can be sexy and secure, then good on them.

Glamor magazine ran this ad a while back:

in an attempt to show that curvy women can be appealing…..........works for me.

Yahoo posted the trailer for the new movie, “The Tillman Story”:

If this trailer is any indication, they are making no bones about going after the military with regards to the misinformation that was originally spread about Pat Tillmans death.  Usually, I think that documentaries whose sole purpose is to besmirch the armed forces aren’t worth the celluloid they were filmed on.  However, this was a *national* story—“Heroic Soldier Falls In Line Of Duty After Abandoning NFL Career”.  There are many layers of questions to this issue, as a result:

- Was the military intentionally spreading misinformation in order to keep the “feel good” nature of the story?
- Did the truth regarding the circumstances sully the PR potential needlessly? 
- At the end of the day, do we prefer truth to inspiration?
- Is it ever justified to mislead the public for the sake of morale?

I’m curious to know:
1) What you think
2) If you are planning on seeing this movie

I could have made this a discourse, but I feel that we may have some vocal opinions on this that could generate some good debate.

A frequent topic of ridicule around these parts is “star power” showing up at emergencies to bloviate and get a cool photo-op, and we often ask why they’re there and not doing something useful.

Looks like Kevin Costner has been trying to do something about oil spills for a while, and now people are finally listening:

I have no more insights into this story; I simply came across this clip and thought “well, that’s nice to see for once”. One of my Facebook friends was asking recently why no one made a giant version of those fat separators you use in cooking. Kinda looks like this is exactly that. I’m guessing this is too little, too late in this context, but if it gets some traction for the next time, that’s pretty cool.

Yesterday was a bit crazy so I missed posting anything in tribute to our fallen heroes, but I saw this today, I guess the author was making his own tribute in honor of Memorial Day, but I thought he really dropped the ball in coming up with this bogus list of anything that could be considered “best”. Sure, some on this list are deserving, but is this guy 20 years old? He does realize doesn’t he that some movies (some pretty good ones too) were actually made before he was wearing Nike’s, had any device made by Apple in his pocket, and before the advent of DVD’s or mp3’s?

I understand that all this stuff is subjective, but come on.

First of all, 3 Vietnam movies? What, Forrest Gump was too dour for him? Sure LOA was a great film, but as a war movie? and IB should not be on any Best list unless it is Best piece of crap

Some glaring omissions to this list:

The Longest Day-was there ever a better war movie made?

In Harm’s Way-not only is The Duke absolutely stellar but a realistic portrayal of naval warfare.

Paths Of Glory-how the actual fighting can be subservient to prevailing politics.

All Quiet On The Western Front-the horrors of trench warfare smacking you upside the head.

Some honorable mentions:

Downfall
Gettysburg
Black Hawk down
Midway
Love and Death- “Is this the young coward we have been reading so much about?”, “I’m not that young, I’m 36”

And the best depiction of warfare ever placed on celluloid, Band of Brothers.

Sometimes Hollywood (or those speaking for it) really do have their heads up their ass.

So which one’s did I miss? Add some of your favorites here, but make sure they fit the category of best war movies ever.

As part of the network’s upfront presentation to advertisers (full slate here), the network is set to announce “JC,” a half-hour show about Christ wanting to escape the shadow of his “powerful but apathetic father” and live a regular life in New York City.

I might have actually been interested in watching this show.  Placed in context with the grief that was given to Stone and Parker for exposing the limits that Comedy Central is willing to go with “edginess” and its downright chickenshit treatment of the Prophet ######## depiction that they tried to do; not a fucking chance.

It’s not because Comedy Central is insulting my religious faith, but because they have offended my notions of free speech, intellectual honesty, and basic courage.  I really don’t see how they will ever be able to satirize religion ever again without being reminded of how nutless they’ve been proven to be.

Hyperbole is often very effective in honing the message of your PSA, but in this instance what you are seeing here is not far from the truth. You would think that $8594 would be enough to get the job done.

According to the California Department of Education (source 2)  the average per pupil expense for the 07-08 school year was $8,594. This puts California just below the national average of around $9,000 per student, and well below states like New York and New Jersey who average around $12,000 per student.

As for other countries who are rated higher educationally than the United States:

  * Korea (ranked 1st in scientific literacy and 2nd in mathematic literacy): spends around $4500 per student for primary education and $6500 per student for secondary education.

  * Japan (1st in mathematical literacy and 2nd in scientific literacy): spends around $6700 per student for primary education and around $8000 per student for secondary education.

  * Finland (1st in reading literacy and 3rd in scientific literacy): around $5500 per student for primary education and around $7000 per student for secondary education.

  * New Zealand (3rd in reading literacy and 3rd in mathematical literacy) around $5000 per student for primary education and around $6000 per student for secondary education.

But chaos is rampant in our public school system, I know, I have a kid there.

Interestingly, Megan and her scholar of a boyfriend never mentions the bloated bureaucracy of your average unified school district, the salaries the superintendents and the higher ups knock down, the teacher unions that are so intransigent that working with them is an exercise in futility, and the democrat run legislature that robbed the coffers that would normally fund our schools. Focusing anger is far easier if you have one target, someone with a face, so The Terminator gets tagged as the bad guy.

And Megan Fox knowing what a library is, this really was made in Hollywood (of course, she even got that wrong).

Canoodling beautiful women while plying your craft may seem like a nice fringe benefit for being an actor, but for Neal McDonough, its that line by which his faith will not allow him to cross:

Neal McDonough, a former star on “Desperate Housewives” has been fired from a staring role that would have paid him $1 million because he refused to participate in sex scenes. McDonough was fired three days into the shooting of a series called “Scoundrel” after he refused to engage in passionate love scenes with co-star Virginia Madsen.

McDonough’s refusal was based his belief that such scenes would clash with his Catholicism and his reputation as a family man. McDonough is married with three young children and is known to have refused to film any sex scenes on “Desperate Housewives.”

And who you ask is Virginia Madsen?

Which makes his principled stance on this issue even more remarkable.

As you can see by his IMDB page, he has been around. He played Lt. Buck Compton on Band Of Brothers. His character resonated with me. Buck was an affable competent officer who put his men first. and who through no fault of his own found himself a broken man, who had reached his limit and succumbed to combat fatigue, essentially removed from the war. The human element of a stellar officer that got a belly full and could not right himself was one of the more emotional journeys in this series.

McDonough is known for having stuck to such principles in the past even though it has cost him lucrative acting jobs and promising opportunities.

Which indicates that he would of been even more accomplished without adhering to this troublesome limitation.

A rainbow colored T shirt, a toy poodle lodged under an arm, even wearing Gucci shoes, all of these would help out us folks that really don’t like all this sneaking around and want to remove the complication from our lives. Now days, how do you know? I mean, is that nice gentleman I just met on the bus that complimented my abs, is he just making small talk or is he undressing me with his eyes. Or those two young girls over there kissing on the park bench, is this a “college thing” or is the familial unit really at risk? (and could there be a worse time for my digital camera batteries to run down?).

Jane Lynch is one funny broad. Showtime use to carry a series called Party Down, about a catering company in Hollywood, staffed with out of work actors, that would do different gigs. The story line was somewhat limited so the series is no longer running, the episodes with them catering an X rated awards dinner, an old folks party cruise, and a high school reunion….....solid gold. But Jane was great in it.

I don’t watch the show but I bet she is pretty good in Glee as well.

Jane is “of that persuasion” so can be sardonic as she mocks us, but what was that hand gesture at the end of the video? Is she surreptitiously indicating that she really does like the , ah, pepperoni ? See, there they go again.