tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-183849862024-03-13T22:58:05.898-07:00onebeforebedtimeThe last thing to read before you turn out the lightsStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-26659988810851684242012-12-11T16:02:00.000-08:002012-12-11T16:06:30.152-08:00Sitting here at work and thinking about my days in the grip union. Local 80. We bitched and griped about the way it was run, that they didn't do enough, weren't there when we needed them, didn't find us work and didn't respond fast enough to problems. Add to that the smarmy guys from the National IATSE and it was quite a distasteful experience. And yet, I wouldn't want to get rid of that union for any reason. Because at the end of the day my pay was better, my workplace safer and my benefits, well, my benefits existed because of that union. IATSE Local 80. The place where washed up old grips went to try and remain relevant. And for the rest of us a pain in the ass.<br />
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So as I contemplate the decision of Michigan to go "right-to-work" I think about the way my life could have been without the union. We already worked 12 - 16 hour days, what would it be like if there was no time and a half or double time? What if there were no meal penalties for a late lunch or a missed second meal? What if we didn't have health insurance or a pension and were getting paid minimum wage? There would be a lot of beat up old men (and women) with nowhere to turn and a mountain of medical bills. I think back to the days of working for $100 for however many hours they wanted me to work with no protection and no recourse. Take it or leave it.<br />
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This isn't about economic growth, it's about increased profits for business owners. It's about being able to lower labor costs, the one commodity that can be squeezed until it's empty. The reason labor unions came into being was because, left to their own devices, the owners take and take and take and give nothing but a few bucks in return. People have to be able to hold their employers accountable. They have to be able to ask for, and get, better pay and better conditions. This idea that employers will hire more people now is silly. It's like saying that the bully will beat you up less if their are more nerds around. It's a pathetic way to live, saying "thanks" for the scraps others leave for you. Stand up and take what you need. It's what they did to get where they are!<br />
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There are so many layers to this situation, from money and jobs to politics and the 2014 and 2016 elections. Ultimately the people who will suffer from this are those kids who thought for a moment that a job in the factory would get them a nice comfortable life. Without collective bargaining wages go down, benefits disappear, and the quality of life goes into the toilet. All in the name of fairness? Doesn't seem quite fair at all. Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-73143018409958868012012-11-30T20:06:00.002-08:002012-11-30T20:06:24.667-08:00OK. What is going to take to get me to show up here every night and say something? Say something interesting or important or silly or stupid? Well let's see. This is the first step. Now what?<br />
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There's a real disconnect between the country and the hard-core wing of the Republican Party. It's the classic case of people being frozen with a fear of losing control. They better get it together or they are going to be lost forever.<br />
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Good night.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-55185696032705676472007-06-11T19:26:00.000-07:002007-06-11T19:32:22.644-07:00It's Us or ThemImmigration. You know, the illegal kind. Not like the legal kind all of our ancestors did when they lined up at Ellis Island and had their names reconstituted. Back then everyone and anyone could come into our country – and we took them all. Very few questions asked. Everyone was a human being with the potential to add something great to our society. They didn’t get treated well, but the got a chance. <br /><br />Now the children of those children of immigrants believe that this immigration thing is what’s bringing us down. It’s the cause of our budget deficits, it’s the cause of high medical costs, it’s the cause of the problem with public education, and it’s the number one cause of crime in the streets. It’s the issue that all color of conservative can agree on. Get rid of those damn Hispanic/African/Asian illegals! They’re killing us!<br /><br />Well if you ask me, and no one ever does, this is not the most serious problem facing the face of White America. Illegal’s account for only about twenty percent of all the uninsured people who go to the emergency rooms in this country. They only account for twenty percent of the people who don’t pay their taxes, and they do jobs that no one else wants to do, and for a wage that no one else will accept. Sure they are a billion or more dollar problem, but they are the great scapegoat of the minute. I guess as a Jew I should be thankful to them for that.<br /><br />Here’s what’s going on – the right-wing conspiracy is using the easy target of illegal immigration to divert attention from the fact that American industry has become a small group of multi-national conglomerates who are slowly shipping our middle class to India, China and parts unknown. They are creating a world where the chasm between rich and poor is growing wider; more of “us” are uninsured, underpaid, and further and further in debt. That’s our countries dirty little problem.<br /><br />We live in an atmosphere of unbridled greed where we are trying to squeeze more and more profit out of our businesses. Our corporate boards are now driven by the need to raise their dividends that aren’t paid to us. They pay the money to each other, to other huge corporate stock owners, pension plans, invenstment banks, and venture capitalists. Meanwhile it’s harder for the working man to afford the very things they are pushing us to buy. On top of it, getting rid of the illegal immigrants permanently would get rid of a major source of workers for small business, that would then make it impossible for them to compete with the bigger companies. That means higher prices for us – and more profit for them! <br /><br />In the end we are closer to the illegals than we are to the people who want us to believe that they’re a problem. I have an idea! Let’s solve both problems: let’s make the illegals citizens, make them pay taxes and make them work for a minimum wage. And let’s tell the corporations and they politicians in their pockets that we don’t want to live in a world of endless corporate profit. It’s the human thing to do.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-91428903072258303862007-05-14T21:27:00.000-07:002007-05-14T21:37:09.035-07:00And the truth is...I watched George Tenet on the Daily Show and you know what; the guy has some real balls. Not the lie to your face kind like our President, but like a man who sticks to his convictions to the bitter end. Granted he didn’t seem to want to take too much blame for what happened back in 2003 – he seems to like to pass most of that to Doug Feith in the Pentagon. But I like the guy. I always seem to like the underdog, and he surely is that these days. <br /><br />But it still brings up that nagging question that hits me every time I turn on the TV, the radio, read a paper or a magazine – what the fuck happened. It’s like I just slept through the car crash that killed my family. How did this happen? <br /><br />Wouldn’t it be great if just once someone in this administration stood up and said, you know what, we were wrong. This was the wrong thing to do and we did it the wrong way. Which makes me think; is David Frost dead? Cause it would be great to see him interview Bush like he did Nixon and have GWB admit he was wrong, like Nixon did. Yea right? Never happen. GWB will take it to his grave.<br /><br />But I think deep inside, in places he doesn’t talk about at cocktail parties (sorry Col. Jessup) he knows that he fucked up. He knows that he didn’t have a plan. He knows that he didn’t make the right decisions. He knows that Paul Bremer is an ass. But he will never admit it to anyone other than his wife or his dog. And certainly not to Dick Cheney.<br /><br />So it’s up to guys like George Tenet to get out there and give us a slice of the truth. We’ll certainly never get it from Richard Pearle or Paul Wolfowitz or Donald Rumsfelch. I don’t think Cheney and GWB even know what the truth is anymore. We’ll never know what the thinking and planning was, where the mistakes were made, and who made them. It’s probably better that way. What difference does it make?Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-63776750566746416402007-01-29T21:18:00.000-08:002007-01-29T21:22:03.957-08:00ParadiseAs in: another day in paradise. I so hate myself right now. My career is a fucking joke. There is nothing here. Tomorrow I go back to being a grip. I hate being a grip. I loathe it. Certainly I am grateful for the work and the money, but it's not what I'm supposed to be doing. It's not the job I'm supposed to have. It's not the job I want to be doing. There's nothing wrong with a little manual labor, when it's gardening and or helping a friend put in his kitchen. Fifteen hours on a movie set? No Thank You! <br /><br />But I've wasted about twenty of my prime earning years for this. I lived in the fear of risk and thus didn't try or accomplish anything. Now I just get to live with that feeling of panic that rips through you when you realize that this is as good as it gets and what the fuck are you going to do when you're sixty? Fuck, I'll be working until I'm eighty. And I thought I had the chops to be a millionaire. Only if I win the lottery. <br /><br />Thought for the day? Can I die now?Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-28770277224733588672007-01-28T22:11:00.000-08:002007-01-28T22:18:01.001-08:00Hotel California - Ozark StyleAh, incarceration. The twice-daily butt fucking and the thrice-daily beatings… what can be more fulfilling than to be in a room the size of a Tokyo hotel suite with one open-air toilet? “Smells like you loved that bar-b-que yesterday, Tex.” I would never be able to poop. <br /><br />The penal system here in California has become a major source of statewide pride. We have more inmates per capita, serving longer sentences, for the most ridiculous crimes, than anywhere else on the planet. Granted we’re not as bad as Iran or Singapore or Turkey, but then they don’t aspire to the level of civility that we do. Or do we…. Hmmmm. <br /><br />I feel like this about prisons: they are about two separate but related and important questions. One is should they exist; the other is what should they be like. What connects them together for me is this idea of a social contract. Mills spoke about the social contract and how if you treat others correctly you will get treated correctly in return. My idea of prisons is that they are the ultimate punishment for taking that social contract for granted. <br /><br />That’s why I am not on my usual team for this debate. While I believe that torture is unwarranted (unless it’s the Arab guy who was giving me the eye at Sunnin yesterday. He is so Al Qaeda), the idea that we are not giving our prisoner’s top notch medical care and their creature comforts is craziness. These dude and dudettes decided that the covenant that exists between us, the one that our society stands on, wasn’t important enough to them. They decided to break that contract and fuck someone over. That, to me, means that we don’t have to be so nice to them on the flipside. <br /><br />So if it’s a question of sending convicts to Tennessee to end overcrowding and make it safer for the guards then ship them out. What the hell do we care if they aren’t for it? Three hots and a cot, some books and an hour outside: that’s what you get when you break the social contract. It’s the fear of that deal that keeps a lot of people inside the law and outside of jail. <br /><br />And if you’re wondering: I think that the greatest break of the social contract is to take another life. You do that to someone and you forfeit all of your rights under out society. So yes I am for the death penalty for First Degree murder convictions. I think that if you want to make that choice and you get caught, then bing, boom, out the door you go.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-29998227250860795882007-01-26T17:01:00.000-08:002007-01-26T17:02:12.868-08:00My Kingdom for a Job!Another week of not working and I don’t know how much more of this I can take. It’s really wearing me down. All I fucking want is a chance. Just a fucking chance to show what I can do. But it isn’t happening and it breaking me up.<br /><br />What I take from this is that I’m a jerk. I’m a jerk at work that doesn’t do good work and isn’t fun to be around. Maybe it’s more of the former and less of the latter. I’m fun enough, but I don’t do good work. It’s because I’m afraid to commit to my job. That and the fact that I have trouble concentrating, so I wander a lot and don’t always remember to do things. And that I am a fucking loser. Let’s not forge that.<br /><br />I wish I knew what I was supposed to be doing. I found something like, but that got pulled out from under me because the company decided to keep it freelance instead of full-time. So I had to get laid off and can’t go back until May. Fuck me. What a sweet job and a great boss. Man my butt is stretched out.<br /><br />It’s the time I should be earning. Instead I’m suffering the errors of my arrogant, uncaring youth. I didn’t think I was going to get old. And never thought that I would have no career by the time I was forty. I mean: no fucking career. This is pathetic. Maybe it’s time to check out…Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-44127856644428419202007-01-25T16:19:00.000-08:002007-01-25T16:28:41.365-08:00Libertarian for a Day!Here’s how my crazy mind works. I’m reading this <a href="http://www.laweekly.com/general/features/the-end-of-murder/15461/">great story</a> about the murder problem and the fumbling, bumbling way that the mayor, council and police chief are dealing with it… I mean this town really has Big Apple Envy… and I start thinking like a libertarian.<br /><br />We live on a big round Petri dish. That Petri dish has a limited amount of resources that we all compete for every day. People are living longer. People are using more. How in the fuck is that supposed to work. Let me tell you where my head went: we are trying to eradicate death. We are curing disease. We are increasing the life span of people world-wide. How are people supposed to die?<br /><br />People need to die. We need to get rid of the old and welcome in the new. This article says they can’t figure out why murder rates go up? You’ve got more people competing for less and less stuff and you wonder why they kill each other. The best way to lower the murder rate is to let people start dying of tuberculosis. Stop trying to cure cancer. You can’t have your cake and live to two-hundred. The more people we shove into the phone booth we call Earth, the more agitated we are going to get. And that means we are going to start killing each other.<br /><br />Read yesterday that by the year 2020 China will have almost 30 million more men than women. (Check <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24761-2004Jul2.html">this</a> out from 2004) That’s with the one child law that they enacted a decade ago. Thirty million angry, lonely, horny guys with lots of free time on their hands is a real road map to disaster. After about twenty years of jerking off to Britney Spears photos they’ll be ready to roll and that could mean right across the Bering Strait.<br /><br />So the libertarian in me says to stop trying so hard to cure what ails us. People need to die and better they get Cancer than to say goodbye looking down the barrel of a pistol while you’re taking money out of the ATM. At the least stop pretending that we can’t figure out why there’s so much famine, war, and violent crime. I mean, we are just animals.<br /><br />Day 33 without work. I’m still not sure what stage of grief I’m in, but it sucks.<br />Article of the Day: <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/01/19/sex.ruse.ap/index.html">Stranger than fiction...</a>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-55714025592845832362007-01-24T12:51:00.000-08:002007-01-24T13:01:39.024-08:00Back Again, Naturally...Welcome back again, I say. And this time for good. What is it about this blog of mine that makes me hide and shiver in my boots? The thought of putting down my thoughts, where no one is even going to read what I say, scares the bepoopy out of me. What the fuck is up with that?<br /><br />I’m not working and that would seem to be the perfect time to take five minutes and write down my measly little thoughts. So start the timer… now.<br /><br />I joined Myspace a couple of weeks ago because some friends told me that we would be able to keep in touch that way. It’s opened up a world that I just don’t really understand. What is going on there? Are people really keeping alive friendships by leaving little comments for each other? I can’t even remember to check my site. It’s just not in my “Circle of Memory”.<br /><br />There’s always been a wide chasm between the under twenty-five crowd and those over. It’s a sad day when you cross that threshold and begin to think more about paychecks, retirement and your legacy than on your immediate gratification and new toys. I try to stay open to the world; I keep abreast of the trends that the kids love. But it’s just impossible for me to change the way I think. I still think in the old media way: read the newspapers, the magazines, watch television, talk on the phone. I don’t email as much as some, I don’t use my wireless PDA device to send text messages to the guy I just met at the bar who was looking for a producer. I don’t even have a wireless PDA device. I thought having a cell phone was enough. <br /><br />That’s probably why I’m out of work. I better get out my toolbox and see if I can’t rewire my brain pan.<br /><br />Today's article: <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6295731.stm">Making money, honey</a>.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-1159048126528265372006-09-23T14:43:00.000-07:002006-09-23T14:48:46.550-07:00Just woke upAnd there was nothing on this thing for four months. If one is going to be a blogger then you have to pay attention. One can't look at there blog and see it empty day after day and not do anything about it. Know matter how often I try it, procrastination doesn't work. Neither does avoidance.<br /><br />So I'm a terrorist. Am I now relieved that they won't be torturing me in the secret CIA prison I'm being carted to? Do these people really give a rats ass? And when did this put us on the moral spiral staircase? We're so far in the mud it's ridiculous. The entire world is against us and we don't seem to care. Or at least everyone right of Ariana Huffington. These are really sad and scary times to be an American. We are consistently repeating mistakes and not seeing it. What's the difference between the Roman Empire and ours? Not much.<br /><br />I'm going to take a dump. Because that's how I fight terrorism.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-1148103691259489932006-05-19T22:41:00.000-07:002006-05-19T22:41:31.270-07:00Phones for you...What are we going to do about our phone calls? What are we going to do about this idea that the government is making a huge list of every single phone number that we call on a given day? Are we supposed to worry about that? I don’t know about you but that makes me a little nervous to dial up my friend Ahmed and talk politics. Who knows what they think about a guy named Ahmed from Lebanon.<br />This is a problem on a great many levels. At the forefront is this idea that the Bush administration has done anything in the past five and half years to make us believe that they are trustworthy. If there has been a more spin intensive White House I can’t remember it. Not since Dick Nixon has a president so adamantly told us to just mind our own business and he’ll take care of everything. Don’t worry little country; now go back to bed and dream of killing terrorists and gay people.<br />I find it hard to believe that this group of people who are so living in such an elevated level of fear wouldn’t be listening to random phone calls. If they can track them, they can sure listen to them. And since they believe they are the moral police and since they believe that breaking a law or two in the name of “safety” is acceptable it wouldn’t surprise me in the least.<br />On top of all that is this idea that they think that the terrorists don’t know that the government is going to monitor phone calls. You think that any terrorist that really has a clue, not your Moussaui’s but your Mata’s, isn’t going to use a disposable telephone, send text messages or that old school coded email? It would be too easy to bounce messages from here to say a friendly nation; then place to place until it hits Iran or Syria. They might even send an overnight package, anything but a telephone.<br />I am waiting for the first raid of a Persian rug dealer in the Bronx because they were making too many phone calls to Pakistan. Let’s get real here. This is just another example of an administration so freaked out by their lack of respect for he terrorists in the first place and the fact that they missed so many obvious signals that they are running around like chickens with their heads blown off. They are just grasping at straws and telling us we are the safer for it. They may have a plan but like everything that the elephant does, it’s always a step behind the mouse.<br />So to the guys at the NSA, all those calls to 1 800-MAN-HUNK on my list were just wrong numbers. And to those of you afraid of what they are doing I think be very afraid. Not just about the lack of respect for civil liberties and the willingness to throw the baby out with the bathwater that exists on the right, but really about how lame this administration is in protecting us from another attack. I would trade the NSA program in a second for one that searches the cargo that comes into our ports every day. But that would cost money and that would mean raising taxes and … well protecting us from terrorists isn’t more important than the money stuffed in my mattress. Right?Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-1147414702675255092006-05-11T23:17:00.000-07:002006-05-11T23:19:24.396-07:00Scared is as scared doesI’m so tired of being surrounded by fear. Being afraid of spiders is one thing, sitting in our homes and fretting over the inevitable terrorist attack that our president keeps telling us is inevitable is crazy. Obviously we were sucker punched in 2001 and that was horrible. I wish we could bring all those people back. I wish our president and his people had listened to the warnings that were all around him when he took office. But their mistake doesn’t mean that we need to sit in a dark room and rock back and forth with fear.<br />What happened is that they screwed up. What makes it hard for me to stomach is that they can’t admit and let us forgive them. We would, you know, because that is what we do in this country. But they feel like they need to look strong and infallible in order to wage this war on terrorism. What they don’t realize is the thing we all learn as children: real strength comes in humility. Admitting our mistakes takes more character than doggedly holding onto our wrongs and trying desperately to make them right. Everyone hates that person, don’t they? Absolutely.<br />So I sit here and watch our administration dig themselves deeper and deeper into a hole that none of us are going to be able to get out of. They are hated overseas and now they are becoming hated over here. No one likes a liar; and an arrogant one at that. When Rummi was confronted last week in Atlanta he just looked like bitter old man who is desperate to look good and not admit that he lied in order to send us to a war that we didn’t need. As Madeline Albright said, “(The Arab world) learned that if they have atomic weapons they won’t be attacked” Thanks guys.<br />I had a conversation with a friend today and it all tied together for me. The end result is that our countries gut reaction to this attack and allowing ourselves to live in fear has given the terrorists exactly what they wanted. A certain part of our country is willing to throw away our basic civil liberties that we fought so hard to get in order to be protected from a terrorist attack. Doing that means that the terrorists win. They are getting exactly what they want.<br />We have to stand up and tell them we will not lower ourselves to their level. We will not give up our belief in justice, fairness, integrity and honesty. Holding people without trial is what they do in Iran and Syria and what they used to do in Iraq. Illegal wiretapping is that they do in totalitarian regimes where they need to do whatever it takes to maintain power. Hiding the truth; standing on a podium and calling people who want to look behind the curtain traitors, smells of Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, and North Korea. It’s not the way that a country that honestly believes in the supremacy of their way of life acts in the face of terror.<br />The more they hit at us the more we need to say that we will not give in to our basest fears. We will not allow them to pull them down to their level. This country needs to hold onto our principals even harder in order to show the world that we truly are the beacon of all this is good and right in the human condition. If we don’t then it’s just a matter of time until we are just the same as they are, only doing it in the name of Jesus Christ. And that will be the most terrifying thing of all.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-1147329484541497922006-05-10T23:37:00.000-07:002006-05-10T23:39:53.046-07:00I (heart) KobeI can’t think of a better person to take the last shot on my team than that Kobe Bryant guy. It just might be that I am one of the few Kobe lovers on the planet. Because, unlike my friend Jack, I can forgive Kobe his indiscretions. I am able to forgive the fact that he was the biggest punk, bitch, asshole this side of Danny Ainge.<br />That’s not really fair to Danny Ainge. Kobe is the biggest bitch since Sammy “The Bull” spilled it on Gotti. “The Ocho” told the investigators in Colorado that Shaq just paid off the women that he raped. There, I said it. He told police men that his teammate rapes women and pays them off. Maybe I’m paraphrasing, but man if that were my homie he would be capped or some kind of street justice.<br />See, Kobe, isn’t from the street and that has always been his fatal flaw. Kobe learned to be black in Italy. I’m sorry but they still call blacks Carthaginians in Italy. There is no angry black street population in Italy. Everyone is happy and living La Dolce Vita. On top of that his dad was basketball royalty. So there is no “mean streets of Florence” in Kobe. There isn’t any of the “my daddy left when I was six” anger. There’s none of the indigenous distrust of the white man.<br />Even when he came to the states he was living in Upper Merion which is like living in, well, Upper Merion. For God’s sake, his idol as a boy was Mike D’Antoni. That in itself is just sad.<br />So how do you expect this kid from Italy to come here and be able to relate to the American black experience? He can’t and he never will. This is a kid who didn’t get the same cultural indoctrination like an Allen Iverson or Tracy McGrady or Shaq. The only person who can come close is Grant Hill and look what happened to him.<br />There are a lot of people (Jack included) who will traipse out all these stats about Kobe and how his shooting percentage is not so good, how he shot us out of games early in his career and how he ran Shaq out of town. Listen, it takes two to tango and Shaq was as big a baby, if not worse since he was older, than Kobe. For me the bottom line was, Shaq ate his way out of L.A. He couldn’t stay in shape. If you look at Kobe’s stats versus MJ’s at this point in their careers and Kobe’s stacks up just fine.<br />So as a white guy I think it’s my duty to like Kobe. I mean, the white guys are the only ones he has left. Lord knows there isn’t a black man in the Western Hemisphere that will admit to liking Kobe.<br />I like his tenacity. I like his fearlessness. I like that he tried to buy his wife’s trust back with a diamond ring. He’s my kind of cheater. And he’s going to bring my Lakers back. Right? I’ll give him two more years and then I’m going to have to pull the plug. I mean, did I tell you what he said about Shaq?Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-1146265043228339982006-04-28T15:55:00.000-07:002006-04-28T15:58:40.603-07:00Draft Day DelightOh boy it’s the NFL draft tomorrow. Do I watch? Do I sit on the couch and watch all the young, entitled kids get millions of dollars to play football while my wife works with spoiled brats for a pittance? I probably will. I’m a sucker like that.Who are my beloved Cowboys going to draft? Well, I am hoping that they get either Santonio Holmes or Jim Williams. Those two guys would really fill a serious need that we have and are the only guys who really feel like first round talent to me. And I watched all four hours of the college combine on the NFL Network.<br />That was a great afternoon, watching guys run and jump and do the shuttle run. That is the best part, actually. Big guys, three hundred pounders, doing the shuttle run around cones set ten yards apart, is amazing. It’s amazing that guys that big are that fast and that agile. It’s scary. I remember when my friend Jim, who is 6’4” and about three hundred pounds himself, got a try out with the Eagles and told me about the guys he was going against. He said these guys were freaks, fast and strong and mean. And I thought how scary that would be to get run down by someone like that.<br />I think my favorite draft was in 1976 when the Cowboys somehow made the trade that got them the first pick and they took Tony Dorsett. That was the steal of the century. The only one better was the year that the Lakers won the coin toss for Magic Johnson. Tony Dorsett came in and ran like the great back he was in college. He was tough, fast and consistent. That was great.<br />So here we go again. Hope springs eternal, right. There will be some great picks and some of the guys from Alcorn State and W. Kentucky Tech will be the big surprise. My favorite will be the guys like Ryan Leaf and Tony Mandarich, guys with huge reps and big egos who fall flat and never make it. You know, how we hate when our friends become successful? I just like it when the guys like Mel Kiper get it wrong; except when they play for the Cowboys. Those guys all better be amazing or I’m going to be pissed.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-1146031654675825702006-04-25T23:05:00.000-07:002006-04-25T23:07:34.686-07:00Going, going, gone...My therapist tells me that I moved twenty-five hundred miles from home to get away from my parents. That may be but unintentionally I also moved a continent away from beloved Pittsburgh Pirates and I think that may be the reason why they have sucked for over a decade.<br />The relationship with my folks has flourished these past fifteen years. We talk all the time now, get along great and I am actually helping them find a place close to me for next winter. Alas, my relationship with the Buccos has not faired so well.<br />Things got better with my folks with open conversation and trust. We developed faith by saying what we meant and meaning what we say. Our relationship is built on love, understanding and faith. For the Bucs and me? Well that is an entirely different story. There is faith on my end, but no longer trust. And I have no idea where they’re coming form these days.<br />In the 1970’s you could always count on the Pirates to field a team that challenged right down to the wire and often times came out champions. They even had two players, Roberto and Willie, who were good enough to be mentioned by only their first names. The rest of the cast: Bob Robertson, Bob Veale, Steve Blass, Manny Sanguillen, Ed Ott, Frank Taveras, John Candelaria, Phil Garner, and Jim Rooker: you could go on and on with the supporting cast of guys that helped the black and gold to two World Series titles in the decade.<br />Even when Dale Berra was turning Three Rivers Stadium into a stop on the Columbian coke train you believed that this organization was committed to winning and sure enough they brought us Barry Bonds, Andy Van Slyke, Bobby Bonilla and three years in the early nineties.<br />But then it just fell apart. And I just can’t help but blame myself. This was no Jason Thompson, Joe Orsulak, Johnny Ray transition. This has been a complete and utter failure on all levels. The management, the coaches and the players have all conspired to lose 1135 games since 1994. That’s an average record of 76 – 86 for the past thirteen years. That is pathetic. That is expansion numbers.<br />And I just have to blame myself. I went away and took my trust and faith across the country. I really thought that this would be the year. They signed Jeremy Burnitz, stealing him from Baltimore, the got Joe Randa, they had some young players that could hit, like Jack Wilson and Jason Bay, and Zach Duke was the hottest pitcher in the league the end of last year.<br />But alas, the faith and trust, they do not work. They do not keep this team from finding itself and 5 and 17, the worst record at this point since 1957. They are batting .225 with runners on base and giving up runs in the first inning in 14 of 22 games. 24 first inning runs to the other guy. But it’s the bonehead plays: the missed cut-offs and bad base-running that hurt the most.<br />Last night Jeremy Burnitz, with two outs and a man on first, went against one hundred years of baseball wisdom and instead of keeping the ball in front of him on a single, dove for the catch and it squirted away and went for a triple that drove in a run. Instead of two outs and two on and a force at every bag, it’s another run and a man on third. That’s what I’m talking about.<br />So the faith of the man who wanted to believe is slowly dying. I think of the games I’ve gone to in my life and remember the thought that my team would win like I remember when it felt like the world like Americans. My beloved Bucs are striking out and I am too far away to make a difference. I guess it’s only a matter of time until football.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-1145377365446721662006-04-18T09:18:00.000-07:002006-04-18T09:22:45.506-07:00Down in the DumpsJust down in the dumps today. Feeling really crappy about me and my posibilites. Don't know what to do and where to go. All of this shit around me. And then oil is 70 dollars a barrel and my gas cost me three bucks and what the fuck is going on? How are we supposed to live in this country? The rich keep getting more and more breaks. The Middle Class is moving to India and China and those that are left think they're rich and want to give rich people a break like they are somehow worthy. And the poor just get angrier and angrier. Who's the first to the guillotine? I guess that we have to just sit here and let the corporations run away with our money and our future and out lives. See, that's why I am feeling so crappy today...Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-1143528367115874342006-03-27T22:28:00.000-08:002006-03-27T22:46:07.126-08:00Ecoterrists In Our Nations CapitalI just finished reading the Time Magazine article on <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1176980,00.html">Global Warming </a>and it chilled me to the bone. What’s happening to our planet is really scary. And it made me think of the glory days of the environmental movement and the ecoterrorists. <a href="http://www.earthliberationfront.com/">Remember ecoterrorism</a>? I do. Folks blowing up logging sites, putting nails in trees to screw with the saws, blowing up congressman’s offices and <a href="http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/429/429lect16.htm">all kind of fun stuff</a>.<br />There seems to be a new form of ecoterrorist in our midst and they are the very people who have put terror right in the front of our consciousness. Of that I am speaking of George Bush, Dick Cheney and our beloved <a href="http://www.cnsnews.com/news/viewstory.asp?Page=\Nation\archive\200506\NAT20050623a.html">Senate</a>. Isn’t it amazing how these people so concerned with saving our freedom are also more than happy to kill our planet? What’s freedom going to look like in a world with no drinking water, no energy, flooded cities and rampant famine? Maybe Halliburton can get a contract to take care of us all.<br />It’s been pretty obvious that <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/06/03/tech/main510920.shtml">Mr. Bush </a>isn’t interested in dealing with the world’s climate issues. It’s his contention that profit is more important that melting ice caps. And it’s his contention that the data that has been compiled has been taken out of context. He believes that there are conflicting ways of looking at the results of the research and that in his mind the conclusions are muddled. Sounds like his response was written for him by one of his old employees in the oil business. What a tool.<br />The reality is that we are killing our planet and our president and our senate and our hard-core conservative base <a href="http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/2000/01-31-2000/vo16no03_environment.htm">doesn’t want to do anything about it</a>. I’ll tell you what’s happening here: somehow it became the will of the right to not give a crap about anything or anyone that veers away from their ideas. Anything that stops us from being the richest most powerful nation on earth is seen as worthless and lacking in “The God Factor”.<br />Maybe that can change. Maybe GWB will finally listen to his most <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2006-03-22-religion-warming_x.htm?csp=34">powerful of constituencies </a>that there is something that needs to be done about this global warming thing. The Evangelicals are finally starting to realize that you can’t have your Jesus and an Escalade too. If a hard-nosed conservative like <a href="http://www.pewclimate.org/global-warming-in-depth/international/reports/lugar_praises.cfm">Richard Lugar </a>can get it then maybe there is hope for Bushman, especially if money is involved.<br />How did the religious right ever reconcile their greed with the works of Jesus? How did getting’ rich become a bible teaching. How did the destruction of our planet fall into the teachings of the Christian Right? it's like they just don't want to admit anyone is <a href="http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/news/050921h.asp">right about anything</a>.<br />I love it here, on Earth. I love the way the sky looks and the way the grass smells. It’s probably a good idea to not destroy it. Learning to accept that we have screwed things will help us. Trying to blame the problem on everything but the truth is going to turn this into a tragedy. There are a number of conservatives who see the global warming issue as so much left-wing mambo. They go so far as to call it "<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,159835,00.html">junk science</a>". How do you like that?<br />The dealdy sin of greed is the one that is going to do us in. Making money is priority number one in this country for seculars and theocrats alike. And it is that greed that makes us look at the melthing ice caps and dying polar bears and say, "it's not me". How the Christian Right was able to work the ideas of get rich, take the west, clear the countyside into Jesus' teachings is beyond me. Maybe that can change. I hope so, for the sake of their immortal souls and our children having a place to live would be<a href="http://ucsaction.org/ucsaction/home.html"> nice also</a>.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-1143017784966631682006-03-22T00:44:00.000-08:002006-03-22T00:56:24.980-08:00Barry BondsSucks. There, I said it a mere thirteen years after he left my beloved Pirates for his beloved San Francisco Giants. That was one of the lowest days I had back then, and there were some real heartbreak days. But now I think I can forgive him.<br />There's been some talk about the guy amongst my friends and it's been pretty nasty. The talk about Bonds and steroids is a sports maniacs dream. It's got moral and ethical questions, involves the history of the game and a man's legacy measured against Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and scores of other legendary figures. And man does it bring up a lot for me.<br />What I've come to realize after reading the SI article taken from the book, is the that Barry Bonds is an asshole. Watching him on telelvision he has always come across as aloof and arrogant, but he also was being poked and prodded more than most. Listen, I don't think that as a public figure you owe me a certain number of smiles per day and an insight into your deepest darkest mortal soul. Just win the games I need you to win by the points I've designated and all is good.<br />But Barry Bonds has crossed a line with me. He is not just arrogant, he's a mean-spirited misongynist who cares about one person and that is BB. He manipulates everyone around him, he lies and cheats and he threatens the life of women. He really gives being a man a bad name.<br />Did he use steroids and increase his muscle mass? Probably. To me, that's not the worst thing in the world. His sport didn't seem to care until last year. A lot of guys were doing it, and, to me, the ability to hit a big league breaking ball or off-speed pitch is something you get from God. And with or without steroids that boy can hit.<br />I just think he's a scum bag in the way that Ty Cobb was a scumbag. And to me he is the worst kind of athlete, one who thinks that eveyrone else owes him something because he can hit a baseball. As far as I'm concerned he should be banned from the sport because he's a jackass not because he's a dumbass.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-1142295414809840392006-03-13T16:14:00.000-08:002006-03-13T16:16:54.836-08:00I Will Follow...This whole censoring the president thing has me all in a tizzy. Senator Feingold <a href="http://feingold.senate.gov/~feingold/statements/06/03/2006313.html">you are one wacky cat</a>. It’s really amazing that we are so willing to get away from the truth. What ever happened to the truth? When did we get so <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-news13mar13,1,5953773.story?coll=la-headlines-nation">scared of the truth </a>that we feel better getting everything as spin from a special interest group?<br /><br />I remember when we would turn to the press to tell us exactly what was going on and why. Even the smallest newspaper in my very rural hometown had the responsibility to tell the truth. Here’s what’s going on out in those cornfields and cow pastures and now go and do something about it.<br /><br />Now I feel like I’m being sold a bill of goods by everyone. No one can just tell me the truth, just the facts. They have to spin it for me, explain it to me, show me why believing it the way they do will save me from a horrible fate of having to make up my own mind. I think what bums me out the most is that I’m being treated like I just don’t get the world at all. Jesus, guy, don’t you see how dangerous it is to question the President in any way?!<br /><br />Oh well. I guess the reality is that I need more time to download music, watch American Idol, and figure out just how in the hell am I going to make enough money to donate to the politician that everyone says is the best for me. At least that’s what they told me on Fox News.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-1142014400888836092006-03-10T10:06:00.000-08:002006-03-10T10:13:20.913-08:00Bush UnpluggedNow so many years removed from his most defining moment our president stands stripped bare of his trappings of power. He stands before as he probably always was, a self-serving, uninspired, diletant that we can now say that we really <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9622843">don’t like very much</a>. He’s an arrogant little crap with an unyielding sense that we all just don’t get it like he does.<br /><br />September 11, 2001 has been his Teflon shield for five years now. The defining moment of a presidency that was on the shakiest of moral ground to begin with. Not since FDR had the Gods of War stepped in to help a presidency ascend to greater heights. Overshadowing his weak ideas on the economy, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21929-2004Aug21.html">health-care</a>, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-01-26-federaldeficit_x.htm?csp=34">deficit reduction </a>and all things international was his perceived strength in the face of the evil doers.<br /><br />That one tragic act allowed him to redefine a presidency that in it’s beginning was floundering. He and his people were able to grab the right elements of the event and start building a shield between themselves and reality. Mr. Bush took the flag and wrapped himself in it. Forget all the rest of the stuff he told us, I will keep you safe. I will keep these turbaned wild men out of your shopping malls, office buildings, schools and bedrooms. And while I’m at it I’ll get rid of these liberals and gays and anyone else that can upset your apple cart.<br /><br />But what we weren’t looking at was that smug face that sat there lecturing us. Don’t you get it, he would say? We would watch these self-satisfied dogmatists like Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice, Wolfowitz, and Pearl telling us that we just needed to shut and listen, they would do the heavy lifting and put “freedom” first and “safety” would be the natural progression.<br /><br />But it was a house of cards seen through a rose-colored window. We weren’t being made safer, we were being lied to about what was going on. This administration was actually taking us back to a time when Richard Nixon used his presidential power like a ball-peen hammer to smack away at the rights and liberties of anyone who seemed out of line.<br /><br />Ego, turned to disdain, gave the President the willingness to lie to us. And that is the greatest crime anyone of his stature can commit. The worst part is that his lies have cost so many lives. The dead men and women in Afghanistan, Iraq and even in the streets of New Orleans came from his ability to lie right to our faces. His contempt for our government allows him appoint incompetence into every office of his administration. And his lack of true compassion, I feel his greatest lie of all, have led to an atmosphere in this country totally counter to what we should be about: understanding and co-operation.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-01-26-federaldeficit_x.htm?csp=34">Arrogance</a> is the one character flaw that Americans have never, ever tolerated in politics. It’s what dogged Bill Clinton, it killed Al Gore, and it is now destroying George Bush. His lack of leadership during Katrina; his secret deal with Dubai, knowing that America would never go for it; his stewardship of these false wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, his willingness to gamble our futures both financially and environmentally, show that this is a man who really doesn’t care about anything more than making he and his friends rich.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-1139385216270458342006-02-07T23:43:00.000-08:002006-02-07T23:53:36.283-08:00I'm embarrassedI'm embarrassed by the society we've created. The top stories on CBS Action News in Los Angeles tonight were:<br /> 1. Brittany Spears driving with her child in the seat with her<br /> 2. A Channel 2 exclusive: the girl who had her gold chain ripped off of her neck yesterday in front of the grocery store.<br /><br /> And that's when I turned it off. I can't take it anymore. We sit here in our million dollar two bedroom homes in Beverly Hills adjacent with our heads in the sand. We fiddle while Rome burns. We float placidly down de-nile. Whatever you want to call it we are missing the issues that are right under out noses.<br /> It's amazing to me that we are so afraid of the big bad world that we are really more interested in how shaving our legs can kill us than the fact that people are dying in Iraq. We are willing to sell out all the things we've created here to make everyone's life better to ensure that we don't have gay marriage. Who someone fucks is more important to the majority of us than stealing, robbing, and international arrogance.<br /> Remember the depression? Remember what happened to the world? Probably not, cause most Americans don't give a rat's ass about history; but it wasn't fun for about 90 percent of the population. That was the last time we had an ownership society. Is that what we want today?<br /> I pray that we tune in to what's really going on in Washington before it's too late and all the aspirin in the world won't save us.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-1136444181864539722006-01-04T22:56:00.000-08:002006-01-05T09:15:13.316-08:00Another One GoneSince it looks like I’ve got some time off, I guess there’s no excuse for me to not be writing. And since I’m not working there’s no reason why I can’t be reading the news and finding interesting things to write about.<br />Why is it whenever someone in Israel makes a bold move and tries to create a middle of the road government that is willing to reach out for compromise they die? First it was <a href="http://www.rabincenter.org.il/site/en/homepage.asp">Yitzak Rabin</a> being gunned down for trying to make peace; and now Sharon has a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/05/international/middleeast/05sharon.html?hp&ex=1136523600&amp;en=f10e5f614cf49fe8&ei=5094&partner=homepage">brain hemorrhage</a> right before he’s about to campaign for his new centrist party. Is Dick Cheney behind this? Is Syriana really true?<br />I am a firm believer that if we want peace in the world, we need to start in the Middle East. If those guys can find a way to lay down the guns, then everyone should be willing to lay ‘em down.<br />But what is the reality of the Middle East, or mankind for that matter? We need war, it’s one of the ways we die and keep the cycles of life going. There’s disease, there’s murder, there’s accidents, there’s natural causes, and there’s war. It’s a natural part of our lives and it’s something I’m afraid is here to stay.<br />But you have to admit that there’s something so symbolic about the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/globalconnections/mideast/themes/culture/">Middle East</a>, right? The birthplace of three of our major religions. The home to Abraham, Jesus, and Allah. I believe that the concept of I am my brother’s keeper and swords into plowshares was born in this neck of the woods.<br />And for three thousand years it’s been the site of most of man’s most vicious wars. Gotta love those crazy Semites, they love to war it up. And now the land of love has taught us all about terrorism.<br />So what’s the point? I think that the movie <a href="http://syrianamovie.warnerbros.com/">Syriana</a> has it right. I think the U.S. and its oil baron clients like turmoil in the Middle East. It’s why GWB refuses to really try and make a dent in what’s going on over there. And it’s why no American president has ever truly finished what they started. Did you hear me Jimmy Carter?<br />Another on bites the dust. Ariel Sharon you will be missed. It was nice to see a real hawk find a way to move to the middle and want to make a difference in the world, not just to help a certain group of people get rich. Are listening Mr. Bush?Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-1136354824703628522006-01-03T22:04:00.000-08:002006-01-03T22:11:01.153-08:00I Feel So CheapWow, this blog thing has really been hard. How do people do it, every day, day in and day out? It’s amazing to me. And they find time to read the internet and other people’s blogs and link articles and fun facts to their writing. It’s really amazing.<br />So I thought I would take the time and write something with a bit of research behind it. I mean, why not, if I’m going to be a professional blogger, or at least a good amateur. In my reading this evening I found something that really disturbed me. There is a new <a href="http://www.theothernews.com/article.asp?dept=1&category=137&article=977">tax cut</a> coming down the pipe this year and I don’t get to have any. And it looks like most of you won’t get to have it either.<br />Now I know that people who make more than a million dollars are more important than we are and they work hard for all they get. How do I know this, it must be true because our president loves them so and they seem to really love <a href="http://www.tylwythteg.com/enemies/Bush/bush17.html">him back</a>. But to give them all those tax breaks and to make the rest of us foot the bill. Well that is just downright un-neighborly.<br />I’m not going to go on and on about this. What’s done is done. We will cut the programs to help the poor. We can make it tougher for public schools to get funding and easier for private religious schools. Heck, we can make it a crime to be homeless. But can’t we please just get this idiot out of the <a href="http://www.walken2008.com/">White House</a> and give the congress back to people who really care?<br />There's one more thing that I read today that really bummed me out. I got my latest Time magazine and they have a quote from John McCain from an interview from an appearance on MTV where he actually came out in defense of intelligent design! Basically he said that the students should decide what they learn. If that’s not the biggest piece of hypocrisy ever then I’m not a slow white guy. I used to really like John McCain; I thought he was one of the real down to earth level headed guys. I guess I am wrong.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-1134973534908326382005-12-18T22:25:00.000-08:002005-12-18T22:25:34.920-08:00Dear Santa O'ReillyWhat the hell is wrong with you? Have you lost your mind? Wait a minute, that sounds like I’m dropping to your level and that is not who I am or want to be. What I am pissed off about tonight is this so called war against Christmas that you’ve been ranting about on your half-assed talk show for the past month.<br /><br />Can you be honest for just once in your pathetic life? You are nothing more than a twisted demagogue who is more concerned with his own ratings than actually telling the truth. A war on Christmas? Get serious. I would think that a capitalist like you would see that’s it’s just a way to bring more people into the store. In a miracle of marketing, saying “Happy Holidays” means that every Christian, Jew, Muslim, or African can feel welcome. And the reality is that there are three holidays this time of year and we are celebrating them all. Right?<br /><br />But I guess for you there is really only one religion and one holiday: Christianity and Christmas. Of course, I forgot, this country was built by strong willed Christian soldiers yearning to build a strong Christ loving nation built on nothing but Christian values. I mean they are the best and the righest. Or is that righteous, as in “self”.?<br /><br />Mr. O’Reilly, this country was built on the embracing of all religions and their beliefs, traditions, and holidays. I know that it doesn’t serve your needs right now but it’s really true. Not singling out one of them for special consideration isn’t un-American or anti-Christian, it’s just good old American business sense.<br /><br />But this ultimately goes to a so called “War on Christianity” that you and all the other demagogues (aka: pundits) on the right love to spew forth like so much vomit. Let me see, war on Christianity… hmmm.<br /><br />Well, all of our presidents have been Christian. Four out every five of our elected representatives is Christian. There’s a church on just about every corner of every town in this country. There are even a dozen Christian broadcasting networks on the air as we speak. Does this seem like a war that you guys are losing?<br /><br />The bottom line is that there is no war on your religion or any religion in this country. The founders of this country created a secular state, one that isn’t based on any one faith. Whether there are more Christians or Jews or Muslims is not relevant to the governing of our land.<br /><br />The founders saw what happens when you establish a state religion. They weren’t too far removed from religious persecution, pogroms, inquisitions, and forced conversions. They saw what happened when you mixed the church and the state. They saw how much power the church took and they saw that it didn’t work so they built a wall between the two. Bring your values they said, but leave your religion behind.<br /><br />But I guess we are too far removed to have any reference to that time in history. But the facts of the past seem to mean nothing to you and your kind. You are an evil opportunist with only one thing on your mind: promoting your brand and making more money. And if that means pandering to the deepest fears of people, then that’s just what you’ll do.<br /><br />There are always people like you in any society. Nazi Germany had Joseph Goebbels, and we have Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly. You are the worst kind of free-speech advocate, one who makes things up and uses brute force and a loud voice to shove it down people’s throats. You use the freedoms that we have here to further the causes of anger and hatred. You will pick up any prejudice and use it as fact. The reality is that there is no truth in your zone, Mr. O’Reilly, and that’s a fact..Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18384986.post-1134716097503960442005-12-15T22:47:00.000-08:002005-12-15T22:54:57.513-08:00KongI'm not one to blow up a major motion picture event, but my friends and I went to see Kong last night and it was, well, amazing. That was one of the best high concept, special effects movies since the last LOTR. Seriously, it kicked ass.<br /><br />First of all, Jack Black rules. Second the ape was spectacular. It looked so real. The artists who made that animal did a meticulous job, even down to the nose hair. Obviously they studied footage of real apes in the wild and gave this one intimately real charcteristics. Even the way it ate and slept was very authentic. Amazing.<br /><br />Finally, the scene where Kong battles the T. Rex(s) is worth the price of admission itself. I looked around the theatre and eveyrone was wide-eyed and cheering the extreme action. We definitely got our money's worth.<br /><br />I'm not a huge Adrien Brody as action hero fan. Though we did get a chuckle out of new "six pack abs" as seen on the cover of "Men's Health" magazine. And Naomi Watts was a little too weepy. The story did require a few moments of faith, but once they hit Skull Island it was on! And the natives were really awesome. I just loved the damn movie and hope that someone reads this blog and goes to see it, 'cause it's worth it.<br /><br />I really love the way Peter Jackson puts together the effects. He is incredibly talented. Now I just have to talk my wife into seeing it so I can go again.<br /><br />Peace.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12591496398052122681noreply@blogger.com0