Review of SAW II

Boring, blah-blah-blah, blood, gore, blah-blah-blah, did I mention boring. I could have strapped a mini-cam on the top of my cats head, let him into the yard to explore, and come up with a more hart stopping, scary, and macabre film. This movie is all marketing and no movie. It gets a 1

Review of Speed Racer

Finally a movie with worse dialogue than Star Wars. Then again this remake is a remake of a cartoon with god-awful dialogue. The people who did the visuals for this film are clearly LSD addicts. It is a shame that the hippee's of 1969 didn't have this film to trip out to.
You will like this movie if you like a B-movie on speed. You will hate this movie if you are looking for a dramatic retelling of the grand saga of Speed Racer. If you sought the latter then you are clearly nuts since Speed Race, the cartoon pretty much sucked to begin with.
I now await the movie version of Limpy the Lion and Harty-har-har! Or perhaps the remake of my daughters ultra-sound video?
film gets a 5

James Dobbson has NO faith

James Dobbson, practically every time he opens his mouth, show how little he is willing to believe in God. How little he understands the almighty power he claims to worship. He says that he takes his scripture seriously. Well so do we who understand all too well that to sit in a church and sing songs is NOT what we are called to do. Christ NEVER even mentioned going to church. He said that if we loved him we were to feed the sheep. In other words serve each other. God does not need our service. God is GOD. Saint James is also clear that the whole point of the Christian mission is not to serve God but to help the poor, the widow, the orphan.

This is not serving God but pleasing to God. By claiming to be a servant of God a man sets himself as God's better. Since to serve is to help and God, the Alpha and the Omega, needs no help. If you ever asked for help it is because you cannot complete the task yourself. This is because as mortals were imperfect and limited. God is not limited and therefore in no need of help. Feed the hungry, cloth the naked, house the homeless, and let us serve each other.

St. James:
"If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong?"

Remember it was those conservative churchmen, in bed with the Roman government, who had Christ arrested and killed. And again, when Christianity seemed to triumph against Pegan Rome, the churchmen who were in power with the Emperor mercilessly hunted down and killed anyone who disagreed with them. Hence the Great Schism, and all the other little Schisms over the last 2000 years.

Yes we liberals take Scripture very seriously. In fact more seriously than the pretender Dobbson does. He can continue to worship his celestial cripple, while we please God by helping our fellow human beings to live better lives. And as Christians they will know us by our Love.

Obama's master stroke...so far

Yesterday Obama came closer to flattening the power structure in an Obama administration. By using only small donation funds he has insulated his Presidency from the anemia caused by reliance on supporting packs to populate cabinet offices. By keeping his finances his own he has instantly added a huge amount of personal power and freedom to Obama the President. Where as McCain will be more beholden than ever to interest groups and packs who control his funds, and hence his actions as a campaigner and potential President.

Obama continues to show his brilliance as a politician.

Media Observations

There is an obvious bias toward and at the same time against Obama. Every story I have read or heard is about what Obama needs to do to connect. There is never any story about what McCain needs to do. The media salivates over the Obama candidacy and also still labors under the misconception that Obama is something other than the best politician to come out of America in the last 40 years.

He is not perfect, but he is a leader, and inspiration, and some one who will fundamentally alter the worlds view of American power. No longer will the face of America be a rich, old, white guy. He has the potential of really opening up the next decade for American power in a way that was shut down by the current crop of political hacks. McCain is not only a continuation of something that has proved a disaster, he is a continuation of a vision of America that is broken, and whose glory has faded.

The media is always a bit behind the curve and this election is no exception. Obama is the best hope for regaining American supremacy in world affairs. There are all sorts of adult decisions that have to be made and he seems like the only candidate who is willing to make them.

McCain, who has a great life story too, has shown too much of the old school. He simply is far too willing to be the tool of somebody else. His organizational ability is weak, his team is weak, his plans are weak, and though he can crack me up, is not the leader America need.

The media, what do I mean by that term? Well for me it is not really TV. I do not watch much TV news. Mostly it is mainstream news sites on the web and the radio.
Radio is such beastly assortment of demagoguery, spin, over simplification, bold faced lies, and other such nonsense that I find it very difficult to listen to any "side" The conservatives have a large advantage on the radio, but the liberals are coming along too. Both sides, in my opinion, hurt more than they help. My advice would be to tune all of them out. They all do nothing good for the American citizen.

Obama and us or U.S.

"First black man as nominee" is oft said in the last several days. Well he is half white and half black. He's got as much white in him as he has black in him. Yet here he is that "articulate" black man. I think I have had an epiphany. As a lover of history I know that there have been many African Americans, who could and can out talk European Americans. And of course the reverse is true too.

The problem, or potentially the opportunity, faced by Obama is that most of white America has not really had to listen to an African American. "Those people" could easily be tuned out. The race problem was there problem. Their past was their problem. Their neighborhoods were their problem. And we white people could ignore them if we wished and we did wish.

They had "their leaders" the "leaders of the Black Community" and we could admire them or detest them from afar and continue living our white lives with the "real" leaders all white and rich. Now for the first time a man that looks black might be our leader, our representative, our voice. For me I am glad it is Obama since I think he has the smarts to make good choices.

I wish we would delve just a little deeper into our own psyche. After all there have always been black Americans of prominence from the very beginning of our nation. So it should really be no big deal right? Well it is a big deal. To me who will work for him and vote for him, and to those who still do not want "those people" making decisions.

We all need to get used to change. To the idea that a black man will speak for us, all of us. Maybe next time it will be a woman? Somebody has to start things off and this time it will be Obama. Some day in the future nobody will care if the nominee is a woman or a black man, or gay, or ten feet tall or a midget. We will hopefully pay more attention to what they want to do and how they want to do it.

RFK

It is ironic that the last time the Democratic Party had such a contentious primary season it was 1968, forty years ago. So very much has changes, and at the same time nothing has changed at all.

There is a Texan in the White House that is very unpopular, and can't win a war that he has been waging for four years. Both parties were offering candidates who were not keen on continuing the war. And the nation was facing great domestic challenges.

If RFK had lived the war in Vietnam would have ended much sooner. And with that boondoggle over and done with we might have been able to concentrate on the deteriorating situation in the middle east. But this did not happen.

What did happen was that an angry Palestinian, who was angry with the US sail of weapons to Isreal, appointed himself god, and killed Robert Kennedy. The ruinous situation in Palestine now should, in some part, be laid at the feet of Sirhan Sirhan. Just as the desolation of the South after the Civil War should also be attributed in no small part to Booth. Killing the men who offer the best hope for humanity to prosper is a piss poor thing to do.

Protest at the Republican Convention not the Democratic one...you morons!

I heard that some morons are going to go to Denver to protest and basically act like their grandparents back in '68 in Chicago. My advice to these retarded people is please, if you are going to protest don't waste it in Denver. Go to the Republican Convention and do it there. Do not screw up our convention by making us out to be a bunch of hippy-wanna-be's.

I am all in favor of protests. But I am also in favor of protesting the people that need it the most. And Obama is not the one who needs a talking to.

Scott McClellan and his book

I have yet to read Scott McClellan's book. I have heard him on several talk shows, most notably Fresh Air. Whenever I heard him at the WH press briefings he always came across as the man with the most thankless job in Washington. Reality was so plain to see yet McClellan had to steadfastly deflect reality based questions. He did so as well as any man could.

While his superiors could hide behind lawyers, rightwing talk show hosts, the aloofness of "executive privilage" McClellan had to be regularly fed to the dogs. Now, when he is free to exercise his right to speak his mind, they call him a traitor. The traitors calling McClellan a traitor? That is rich.

The reason the McClellan, like many other x-WH people, come out with stories and views diametrically opposed to the White House line, is only that people simply can't live in unreality forever. Once they escape they need to clear their heads from all the nonsense and spin. How else could we expect them to live with themselves? It wastes so much energy and is so exhausting keeping a lie alive. The truth, able to stand on its own, is far easier to deal with.

Good-on-ya Scotty!

What are peope doing today about rising gas prices?

France: Many returning to work after several weeks of action after government offers 100m euro aid package
Spain: Thousands taking part in Madrid protest
Italy: 5,000 expected to strike, emergency aid refused
Portugal: Indefinite strike from midnight (2300 GMT on Thursday)
Belgium: Dozens demonstrating in the capital Brussels

US: Nothing. We wouldn't want to make the poor oil companies cranky.

Fuel prices are now being speculated ever higher. The government needs to step in and stop that by making such speculation illegal. Also raising capital gains taxes on passed speculation should curb the current price freak. This will hurt some people but the majority will benefit. In a crisis the needs of the many out way the needs of the few.

Flip Flopping along

I like John McCain. I feel for the guy. But he is who he is and what he is. He is stuck in a party that he has to appease, a party that is far from realistic on all sorts of issues, a party of failure, a party who's "faithful" seem to think the world is about to end anyway so better make sure not to get god mad.

Then he has to switch gears and lay out progressive ideas of nuclear non-proliferation, reduction in warheads, etc. Then he has to go into closed door meetings with Bush-Co and probably tell them that he is only trying to get elected so they shouldn't take what he is saying too seriously. He seems to be a man spinning from dunderheaded conservatism to populism, to liberalism, all the while looking like a guy who will pretty much tell any audience what they want to hear to get a vote.

Obama on the other hand has been pretty clear, non flip-floppish, and consistently enlightened about the world and seems to be anything but a lightweight. The lightweight can't figure out where to stand on any issue.

I love Gasoline!

The current price of a barrel of oil is $135. Wow that is a lot of money. People have been talking about this eventuality for years. But nobody wants to think about ones own death until forced to do so by fate and the facts of life.

Our world runs on oil and so to have our BLOOD supply so expensive really screws things up for the whole system. We become sick, like a patient with a blood disease where the ability of the body to produce blood is dysfunctional. So the whole body begins to weaken.

In the future location is going to be even more important. Location of work to home, location of food to home, location of manufacturer to consumer, location of supplies to demand. Making a car on one side of the planet and selling it on the other side of the planet may to really work anymore. Same with growing food and shipping it thousands of miles.

We have built a world economy based on some really bad sand. The sand of cheap crude oil. If things continue the entire world economy will shift into a radically new direction. I hope it will be a smarter direction.

Then again we tend to make decisions based on momentary satisfaction. For instance ethanol from corn is causing food prices world wide to soar. It is also the spreading of a crop that is very costly to produce. In fact it is more costly than pumping oil out of the ground. We are doing this since it is a quick fix.

In the long run it is only conservation of energy resources that is going to work. We are not going to replace petroleum with ethanol or bio-diesel. We have to make our life more efficient. Only efficiency in energy usage is going to allow for the continued expansion of human civilization. The equation we are in is very complex and hard for the average human to solve. An example of this is recycling. How much energy does it take to recycle? Somethings are better to recycle than others. Somethings it may be better to simply bury.

What is clear is that the idea of buying, using, and tossings, is about over. Also the idea of vast arrays of cheap consumables may also be coming to and end. Look inside a Walmart and ask yourself "how much energy did it take to fill this store? How much to produce the products lining the shelves?"

Efficiency, at some point, is going to rub up against the consumer economy. Simply put we are not going to be able to live in an efficient world, safe from environmental destruction, and with an expanding civilization based on available energy, and have a Walmart society. They will probably be mutually exclusive.

I hate people who claim to be able to predict stuff, but I will do it now anyway. I would predict that, ceterus paribus, manufacturing will be done close to the consumer, and that the manufacturing process will be based on instantly available data on need not desire. This pattern will be managed through a order of magnitude shift in cost from Needed items to Desired items. This does not bode well for an society of equality. Especially if you define equality as being able to acquire the same stuff as your neighbor.

75,000 people in Obama rally in Portland

What is it about Obama that can get so many people out? I have heard him speak and he is good. But 75,000 people? That is rockstar status. He is drawing crowds larger than almost any candidate in history.

As I see it the Democrats are either headed into the White House with Obama or into a train wreck. The establishment does not know what to do with this guy. McCain is trying to paint Obama as a lightweight, like Clinton. However judging by the campaign organization, the fire, the crowds, and message crafting, McCain and Clinton are the lightweights. True they both have been around a lot longer. But that is exactly the point. Obama has charged ahead faster and stronger than either of the other two. Where was Mrs Clinton at Obama's age? Suffering as the wife of a Governor who slept around. And McCain? He was dealing with bribes and the coming S&L disaster.

Obama is so clearly the man who should be President. The other two, not bad at all, are simply not in the same class as Obama.

McCain last week said that we should win Iraq by 2013. Do you know what that means? Why 2013? Because that is the year AFTER the end of the next Presidential Administration. So McCain is basically punting the stinking turd down the lawn again admitting that there will be war in the first four years of his administration. Sounds brilliant doesn't it? Sounds like a loser to me.

Hot Hot Hot!

I do not like it hot. I do not like it cold. I am getting old, set in my ways, and beginning not to like things that are too hot and too cold. When I was a kid I could jump in the northern Pacific and the only thing that would annoy me was the time it took for my body to go numb so I could enjoy frolicking in the 50 degree water. And heat? Heat was to be much anticipated. 100 degree days were a reason to play with the hose, waste precious ground water, and jump in the neighbors green swimming pool. In January I could go up to the mountain and try to climb it. Cold and windy? Hey all the more adventurous!

Now I find myself cursing the wind, the cold, the heat. Not in a easy going manner either. But in an earnest way one might curse a villain like Hitler, of Bush. It is a curmudgeonly dislike for the discomfort of extremes. A lack of desire to accommodate such changes. Oh I could be gracious and accommodating. But in an angry spiteful, and quite useless, way I toss up my nose at any such niceties.

It is hot now. 9:30pm at night and it is hot. It should not be hot. I should be relaxing but no. The heat has decided that it will stay the night. Like a drunken house guest that you cannot reason with. It sulks, ruining the night. If I go to the bathroom it is there waiting for me. In bed it will not move over, it hogs the whole thing. I open the window to let in some cool night air only to find my ugly house guest has invited more uncivilized friends over to have a party.

I spend $21.00 to get me and my kid into see a movie, not because I am wealthy really want to watch a movie, just to get a big cold drink (a $5.00 drink!!!) and sit in a cold room for two hours. Last night we wandered around shopping mall until it closed. In the morning I longed for Sheri's, yes Sheris resturant, only for its overly active airconditioning system.

So here I sit at 9:30 pm with my loathsome sticky house guest and all I can do is write this blog that few people, if any, will ever read.

Getting near the end...sort of

All the crap shoveled at Obama didn't really stick. Yesterday was the opposite of what the media was advertising. Before yesterday the headlines were "Clinton hopes to narrow Obama victory in NC" and "Clinton hopes to widen victory in Indiana" Both proved incorrect. Both hopes failed. Obama and Clinton nearly tied in Indiana and Obama held on to a double digit lead in NC.

Furthermore Obama has picked up a series of super delegates. While Clinton is having trouble convincing them that she can still win this without a bunch of last minute back-room dealing.

Either candidate would be a gigantic improvement over the current occupant in the White House. H. Dean is right when he says that the loser of the nomination is going to have more to do with winning in November. A back-room deal fest is going to release a stink that is going to really set the Democrats back. I would make the case that before the end of this month somebody had better get out. As of today I see no "open" way for Clinton to wind this. The only way she can do it is via rule changes, and strong arming super delegates, most of whom will have to answer to their own electorates. So as of today Clinton, in all seriousness, needs to bow out. I do not know if Obama can win, but as the presumptive nominee we need to get behind him and charge on.

Election reminders

Before we all get happy or sad, understand that this country is still filled with idiots who voted Bush into the office twice. There are still lots of people who want to vote for a bar-stool warmer. I would love it if this were not the case. However that would be very wishful thinking. Just because you make a good argument doesn't mean that the lowbrows will buy it. I know this sounds kind of insulting to the average voter but I think the shoe seems to be fitting pretty well.

Obama is the only candidate worth your vote. Not that you will vote for him. But he is the only one who is worth the effort. The other two are lame and will accomplish little that is good. They will take your money and give it to their friends, their rich friends.

Review of Vatel

M. Vatel was the cook for M. la Prince D'Conde. He produced spectacular festivities for a visit to Conde's estate, by king Louis XIV and 2000 other guests. After the event he committed suicide with a sword. He was the inventor of Chantilly Creme.

Passion, Seduction, Betrayal? No not really. Little passion, no real suduction, and the only betrayal was Conde who bet his cook in a card game with the king.

The movie is about that last gigantic feast. It is a visual feast and the acting is also well done too. However the story, as it is portrayed is quite thin. The characters, though splendidly portrayed, are not introduced well and if you are not a connoisseur of history a lot is going to be lost on the average viewer. I read a review that said the story is hard to follow. Well it is rather easy to follow if you know the history, but if you do not know Conde and his relationship to the king, or the nature of the king himself, it is kind of hard to understand.

Tim Roth is typically caustic in his role, Uma Thurman would definitely have turned Louis' head. And Depardieu is superb as Vatel himself. The supporting cast is also spot on.

The music sucked. Of all the courts of Europe that you could make a movie about, Louis' court provides an immense reportior. Particularly music for grand festivities. The music dudes for this film, I guess were too ignorant and used Rameau, who wasn't born yet, and Handel who was not born yet either. If Lully saw this film he'd be pissed.

Other than the music the movie a lot of 17th century fun.

Movie gets a 6 out of 10

The Nuclear City

And no I am not talking about nuking a city. We are on the verge of being forced once again into a city centered, high density, community. The days of far flung subdivisions where people could live twenty miles or more from their job are coming to an end. Tree huggers have been talking this way for a while now so nobody, until fairly recently was inclined to worry too much.

Now gas prices are hovering at or above $3.60 a gallon. That means if you own a little car that gets 40 miles per gallon, something that most people do not own, and you travel 12,000 miles in a year in your car, something that most people do, it will cost you $1,080 a year to drive you little eco-car. Of course the average American has a car that gets about 24 miles per gallon, so they get to pay almost $2,000 a year for gas.

Now the for the "fun" future. Americans will eventually be paying about $7 per gallon. This is still about $2 per gallon less than everyone else in the world pays right now.

At $7 per gallon that little eco car will cost you $2160 a year in gas. Remember too that this equation I am using is for a person that has puts 1000 miles a month on their car. How many of you really do that?

For suburbanites some people are putting 100 mile round trips on their cars. At that level, at $7gal., they will be paying out a wopping $7600 bucks for gas a year just to drive to work and back.

So the era of long commutes from the country to jobs in the city is almost over. If you want to live in the country, fine, just make sure you have a job in the country. Another telltale sign of the times is that housing prices are falling, pretty much, only in the outlying areas. City housing has not really been touched by the so called housing slump.

Adam Smiths invisible economic hand will push people back to the city, kicking a screaming at times, but will drag them back all the same.

Stupid things to say!

"If Iran attacked Isreal with a nuke we would obliterate Iran." That is what H. Clinton said yesterday. As a student of history, politics and common sense, I find that another nail in her coffin.

Not that defending a friend is a bad thing. But in politics it is always better to keep your enemies guessing. What she said sounds like something that could be coming out of Bush's mouth. One of the numerous problems Bush has had is that he swaggers around showing people his hand all the time. Clinton seems to want to be Mrs. Bush.

The last thing I want is a President so mindlessly stupid as to think that talking tough is the same as being tough. "Speak softly and carry a big stick" Remember that? Not a bad idea. But lately our Presidents and wannabe-Presidents have forgotten, or perhaps are not educated enough, to understand the basics of foreign policy.

Many wars have been averted by Presidents NOT talking tough. So far there has been no war with China over Taiwan precisely because of the language NOT used by either side. By tipping your hand and telling your enemy what would make you do X you show them the way forward for their own agenda. This leads to America being on the defensive again.

Just because the idiot in Iran says stuff like that all the time about Isreal is NO reason for the President, or person who seeks that office, to act in such a stupid way. If the President of Iran jumped off a bridge would Clinton and Bush do the same?

Religion and War

It is a regular conservative talking point that the Koran states that Islam should be spread by the sword. Hmmm. What does the Bible say?:

Firstly the image above is taken from the Bible given to Louis the XI back in the 13th century. What a peaceful bucolic scene.

expert from Psalm 149

Let the godly ones exult in glory;
Let them sing for joy on their beds.
Let the high praises of God be in their mouth,
And a two-edged sword in their hand,
To execute vengeance on the nations
And punishment on the peoples,
To bind their kings with chains
And their nobles with fetters of iron,
To execute on them the judgment written;
This is an honor for all His godly ones.
Praise the LORD!

Jashua 6 20-21:

"When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city. 21 They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys."

Ah the peaceful Bible...

My point is that both the Koran and the Bible are filled with sword play, war, and lots of bloodletting. So for a Christian or a Muslim to try and tell the other that "their" religion is one of violence is a joke. Both religions have been spread with violence and both spread with peace.

I am tired of having the ignorant Christian voice the only one that is ever heard. Many, and I mean many - the majority, of Christian scholars understand very well the history of both faiths. Only an ignorant person could claim that Christianity spread via only peace and Islam via violence.

The sad truth is that Islam is at a violent crossroads. Christianity has really only been at peace for the last 300 years. Prior to that very few people would have considered Christianity and peace one in the same. And even during that brief three centuries there have been outbreaks of Christian terrorism. Particularly in Northern Ireland. Few Londoners would argue that those who planted bombs in stores and train stations were not inflicting terror upon the population. And likewise few Catholics would view the assassinations carried out by the ultra unionists as civil.

It is advisable to remember the nature of the last great Christian blood letting. In the 1680's the Protestant population of France was viciously, and at sword point, either converted, enslaved, or massacred outright. Children were taken from the parents to be raised by Catholic parents, and protestant towns burned to the ground. Hundreds of thousands of refugees streamed into England fleeing the genocide.

That was only the most recent mass Christian genocide. What made the genocide possible and popular among Catholics was that it was standard operating procedure and had been for a thousand years. Yet it would be a great mistake to assert, because of the genocide of the Huguenots, that Catholic Christians were more violent than Protestants. The violence was policy carried out for various political and personal reasons, by the King, and the evil nature was due to the king's ambitious secretary of war. Even the King was horrified when he learned how the "conversions" had been carried out.

Today there are fringe elements of most all faiths that see violence as required to serve God. What makes the fringe dangerous is when circumstances become such that their way, the way of Satan, is seen as Godly. Poverty, war, uncertainty, all can lead to that.