Sunday, August 26, 2012

Not understanding the hubbub here


So Isaac's a tropical storm, I get that.  And it's on its way into the Gulf, where it might grow into a hurricane. I get that also.  What I don't get is all this OMG hysteria that's going on.

People are freaking out about the convention, they're at Lowe's and Home Depot buying plywood and emergency supplies.  I get being prepared, but honestly, this isn't the first storm we've had here.  Calm the eff down folks.  We're not even sure how much is going to hit here:


Right now the weather folks are assuming a track towards Mississippi and Louisiana.  This thing could bolt towards Texas (you know how these storms love Corpus Christi) or over towards Mexico.  All we need is a little high pressure system from up north and this sucker could go anywhere but here.

It could also come right up Tampa Bay too.  I get that.  And we've been really lucky in that respect for a lot of years.  So I guess people are assuming that it's our turn or something.  Of course, nature doesn't really work like that, but our minds do . . .

I don't know, maybe it's because I've spent my entire life down here dealing with these storms and what they can do and the angst of preparing for the worst and having nothing happen.  My thinking is be prepared, but don't be going crazy until there's a good reason for it.


Saturday, August 25, 2012

Stormy weather


So here it comes, tropical storm Isaac.  Doesn't look like much now, but they're assuming once it gets into the warm waters of the Gulf, that it will blossom into a hurricane.  Who knows.  I'm getting a kick out of the lefties hoping it will force Tampa to cancel the Republican convention.

I'll be laughing harder at all those occupy losers that have come into the area hoping to stage some demonstration at the convention.  What a waste of time and effort by those clowns and their enablers in the press and media.  All those front page stories and features in the Tampa Bay Times (formerly St. Pete Times) about where and how to protest will have gone to waste.

Heh



In sports news, I see the Red Sox are planning on jettisoning two more clubhouse cancers as they are in the process of doing a blockbuster trade with the Dodgers that would include Adrian Gonzalez and Josh Beckett.  

Kind of a pity about A-Gon as he's finally hitting like they had hoped he would when he was picked up from the Padres last year.  And Beckett's an every other year pitcher, so he may suck this year, but he'll probably be Cy Young material next year and the comment trolls that are hating on him now will be bitching about the Sox dumping him next year.

But I had said in an earlier post that this is exactly what I would do if I was the GM of the Sox.  So let's hope this works out in the long run.



And on a lighter note, it's good to see the Duffster out and about again:

hilary duff post baby hotness

Hilary's totally rocking her adorable post-baby hotness.  Yum

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Funny how they recognize propaganda when they see it

Speaking at the International Seminar on Planetary Emergencies, organized by the World Federation of Scientists in Erice, Sicily on 20 August 2012, Czech President Vaclav Klaus pointed out how obvious it is for someone who was forced to digest state run media for decades to recognize the propaganda of global warming fanatics (emphasis mine):

As someone who personally experienced central planning and attempts to organize the whole of society from one place, I feel obliged to warn against the arguments and ambitions of the believers in the global warming doctrine. Their arguments and ambitions are very similar to those we used to live with decades ago under Communism. The arrogance with which the global-warming alarmists and their fellow-travellers in politics and the media present their views is appalling. They want to suppress the market, they want to control the whole of society, they want to dictate prices (directly or indirectly by means of various interventions, including taxes), they want to “use” the market. I agree with Ray Evans that we experience the “Orwellian use of the words ‘market’ and ‘price’ to persuade people to accept a control over their lives”. All the standard economic arguments against such attempts should be repeated. It is our duty to do it.

I'm reminded of when Michael Moore's shlockumentary Farenheit 9/11 was shown overseas in countries that had formerly been under communist rule.  They laughed at the blatant propagandizing of the film, a film that was hailed in this country as being a damning indictment of the Bush administration.  Over there, despite the general narrative of the populace blindly believing everything that came out of the Pravda-like media, the citizens actually recognized what they were reading was an attempt to indoctrinate them to the state's belief system.

Here we have useful idiots like most in the movie and music industry, and pretty much everyone on the left, mindlessly swallowing and repeating every jot and tittle of the Al Gore inspired hoax of man-made global warming.  We grew up in a country where we thought that the media was telling the truth and serving as a counterpart to government, to hold it accountable.  But sadly, even though we now know that newsreaders from Cronkite to Couric have an agenda, and are willing to lie and distort the information they deliver on a daily basis to further that agenda, far too many ordinary citizens believe what they see on television or read in the paper as the unvarnished truth.

That ignorance can and will have catastrophic consequences.



And because we haven't seen much of her Aussie hotness in the last few years, here's the tall, lithe Nicole Kidman getting her saucy on in a recent issue of V Magazine:

nicole kidman v magazine

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

If I was head of the RNC, part 2

I'd send a group of fairly large, imposing gentlemen in suits and dark glasses to visit this dumbass Todd Akin  and ask him politely but forcefully to step out of the Missouri congressional race.

This knucklehead is going to cost the GOP quite possibly that Senate seat and could impact the Romney/Ryan ticket as well.  It's bad enough that the guy had a brain fart, but he's doubling down on it and talking about standing on principle, yadda yadda.

Dude is giving Republicans and conservatives a bad name, as well as talking absolute nonsense about women's reproductive systems and allowing liberals to get back to this nonsensical war on women meme they've been pushing for a year.

It's important to note that this guy doesn't have some sort of mandate here.  He won a plurality in the Republican primary, 36% to two other candidates tied at 30%, and that was only after the Democrats dumped millions of dollars into the campaign to insure that Akin won.  That should tell you something right there about the guy.  Clearly the Dems knew they had a disaster waiting to happen in Akin, and they were absolutely right.

Sarah Palin was on Greta tonight and she had some great comments about the Akin mess, saying that speaking from experience, the guy ought to not be inviting himself somewhere he isn't wanted.  She also spoke about taking one for the team, by backing off his hopes for a Senate seat to serve the greater good of the Republican party and the country itself.

Sarah also suggested that if Akin won't get out, then a third party run by her candidate of choice, Sarah Steelman, was an option worth looking into.  I agree.  And I also wonder when the party and the influence folks within the party are going to start paying a little more attention to Sarah's suggestions, since her success record of supporting candidates is somewhere in the 70+% range.

Update:
I should point out here that Sarah Palin repeatedly said someone like Steelman should run as a third party.  There's apparently some sort of sore loser law in Missouri that prevents primary losers from running as third party candidates.  Kind of impressed that Palin knew that already and even said in the interview that she would go ahead and coin Steelman's motto about no more status quo for whoever ran.



And in other news, not only can Michelle Rodriguez probably kick the average guys' ass, she'll look pretty hot doing so:

michelle rodriguez in-style russia

Monday, August 20, 2012

If I was running the RNC . . .

Republicans, conservative pundits, and the candidates themselves keep saying they welcome a debate on the economy, Medicare and the like.  I agree.  This is a conversation we should be having.  If I was running this election campaign, I'd be buying a half hour air time on a major network every week from now until the election.  I'd have Paul Ryan on there with whiteboards and slides and whatever else he needed to pound home the danger this country is in.

I'd be daring anyone --  pundit, candidate, or sitting Congressman to come on and debate him on the facts of  where this economy is heading.  Ryan could, and would, eat pretty much anyone's lunch on this topic and the voters of this country would be well served at the same time.

Some years back, Ross Perot did almost this exact thing, using his own money to buy airtime and show the economic danger the country faced.  It was a brilliant, though I think unappreciated, move on his part.  He garnered enough votes in the election to cost Bush Sr. the White House.  If this current election is as close as some think, those swing votes could put Romney/Ryan over the top.

Of course, the blatantly liberal leaning networks might fight him on this, so I suppose there are always online alternatives.  But this is still something they should be doing.  The facts are on conservative's side on these issues.  This seems like a good way to get them out there.  And they should get going on it.  Like now.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Red Sox season pretty much over

Years ago, I used to run a small men's softball league -- about 8 teams.  Ran for a couple of years then the usual attrition of players and teams began to shrink us down.  We were down to 4 teams when most of the guys on the team I played (but did not coach) on left.  Rather than leave us with an unbalanced number of teams, we/I decided to go outside the rules and get whoever I could to fill out my roster.  One of my players brought in his son and several of his son's other teenaged friends.

Fielding a team half comprised of teens in a men's league, well it was ugly.  We lost every game that season and lost them badly.  The 10-run rule every game.  And yet those kids played hard every inning of every game, knowing we didn't stand a snowball's chance of winning.

After one game, standing around having a beer with some of the other guys, one guy was trying to console me in his own ass-holish, arrogant way by talking about how scrappy and such my team was.  I lost it momentarily, tired of the condescention from these guys and told him and anyone within earshot that I'd rather lose every game with the kids on my team now rather than play with the arrogant prima donnas that had been on my team before.

I meant it then, and I've repeated that philosophy on this blog and in my life since.  Either play like you mean it or go home.

With that in mind, let me speak about the Red Sox:

Frankly, I wasn't expecting much this season anyway, so I'm not as bummed about the record as many fans. I am upset with the attitude surrounding the team though.  I point my finger first at the Boston sports media that has run with every unnammed source and grassy knoll crackpot theory about this team since last season's epic collapse.  These guys need a full cup of STFU!  Oh hey, just happen to have one here:

a steaming cup of stfu for boston sportswriters

Next the owners and GM.  Not sure about Lucchino, and Cherri hasn't made a trade yet that I think was worthwhile so the jury's out on him.  Youk had to be traded, he was clubhouse cancer, but to a team that the Sox were going to play only a couple of weeks later?  Pretty dumb.

As far as the players go, they get the lion's share of the blame.  For all the hate heaped on Bobby Valentine by comment trolls, he isn't on the field striking out, booting grounders, or walking in winning runs.  He's done as well as he can with the players handed to him.  And the team has been decimated with injuries.  But . . .

If I was running the show?  I'd call a team meeting and have a stack of signed, pre-notorized (yeah I know it's illegal, don't bother telling me) releases and I'd hand them out to every player who didn't come up through the Sox farm system with a couple of exceptions -- Doubront, Morales, Aceves, and a few others.

Then I'd tell these guys that if they want to go, there's the door, gtfo!  I'd pay the balance of their salaries and  throw them off the property.  Only guys that want to play in Boston could stay.  No more whining or bitching or tweeting your petty bs!  You're either 100% on board or you're out the effin' door!  And that goes for anyone I caught leaking stories to the press that were detrimental to team morale as well.  I'd let this team sit in the cellar like they did in the 80s for however many seasons it took to scrub the stink from these overpaid prima donnas off that team, then start over.

Just a thought



And 'cause it's my birthday and I'm officially an old man now . . .

Don't know much about this Rita Rusic chick except that she's 50ish, must be independently wealthy since she never seems to work, has a crazy bangin' body, a penchant for tiny bikinis, and a bit of a hoochie streak in her.

Not seein' a downside here folks:

Monday, August 13, 2012

Al Gore = still pathetic

Desperate to not go down in American history as the guy who lost the biggest gimme election of all time, Al Gore is still bleating about the candidates not addressing climate change in their speeches or platforms.

Sadly, one of my knocks on Mittens is how he's pandered to the faux science numerous times in the past.  Fortunately, his running mate Paul Ryan has openly expressed the logical concerns of most people about the shoddy science and fear mongering of climate hysterics like the Goreacle.

I've always searched for just the right way to describe the foolishness of climate hysteria, and I found it in an interview in the Pittsburgh Tribune the other day.

The article written by Eric Heyl is his interview with the guy who runs Climatedepot.com, Marc Morano.  In the interview, besides pointing out how claims of "record heat" are actually temperatures that are only hundreths of a degree higher than normal and how hysterics try to extrapolate a temp rise over only 2 percent of the planet's surface (and ignore the cooling going on in the other 98 percent) into proof of global warming, Morano gave the perfect description of climate hysteria:

Q: What did you think of Hansen’s [James Hansen director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies] latest study being rebuked by (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researcher) Martin Hoerling? He reiterated his long-standing contention that Hansen is exaggerating the connection between global warming and various weather extremes.

A: Yes, Hoerling said (Hansen’s findings) were perception, not science. Another scientist, Roger Pielke Jr., has said (such perceptions) are akin to the predictions of Nostradamus and the Mayan calendar, where they are trying to attribute every single event to global warming. It’s unscientific. It’s what I like to call climate astrology — it’s like a horoscope. No matter what happens, it fits the narrative. They are advancing an agenda and creating a grand narrative of man-made global warming and they are trying to sell it. So now beyond just hot temperatures, they are trying to say that every time there’s a flood or hurricane, a drought, a tornado, you name it, that it’s proof of the theory.

Exactly!



And to paraphrase the old Rocky & Bullwinkle show, here's some news you can really use! 

katy perry bare booty

Yep, Katy Perry went to a water park in San Diego the other day and her swim suit fell off.  Now don't ask why she kept climbing up that ladder with her entire ass hanging out like that.  I mean she had to know what was going on there.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Yeah but, when it was on the rack . . .

Former Rule 5 beauty Joanna Krupa was out in Santa Monica the other day for what I'm sure was a photo shoot of some kind.

Looking fabulous in a pink bikini with metallic accenting, Joanna found out what should have been obvious to a seasoned model:

joanna krupa pink bikini

Yep, wet swimsuit material and heavy metal chains = that thing ain't stayin' in place.

Along those same sartorial lines, my favorite Hollywood hot mess Mischa Barton is opening a clothing store in London this week. So she's been popping up all over the place after being mostly invisible the entire summer.

She showed up in an adorable little sundress recently. The operative word here being "little" --

mischa barton sundress now with more booty

I would think someone so fashion forward as Mischa would be a bit more aware of the limitations of that outfit. I mean, unless she likes hanging her booty out there for the world to see.

You think . . . nah, couldn't be that.

A Dance with Dragons - a ponderation

a dance with dragons

Plus my thoughts on the entire Song of Fire and Ice set of books and the HBO series Game of Thrones.

I was aware of George R.R. Martin's work, though I had never read any of it.  I was captivated, like a lot of people, by HBO's adaptation of the quadrilogy and decided to read up and get ahead so I could enjoy and kibbutz about their production.

I don't get a lot of time to read, unfortunately, but I do enjoy it.  And I'm one of those types who starts a book, then stops everything else in their life while they read it -- up to 2:00 in the morning night after night, dishes don't get washed, laundry doesn't get done, just come home from work and read into the wee hours.

For sci-fi stuff, I'm a Harlan Ellison kind of guy.  Plus I've naturally gone through the Dune trilogy, plus the after books, and the prequels written by Herbert's son and Kevin J. Anderson.

And for horror -- only Clive Barker will do.  Read The Great and Secret Show first, got caught up in a book that started in the dead letter office of the PO in Omaha, and it was love.  Imajica, Weaveworld, Everville, the Books of Blood . . . what amazing imagery!  And fantastic characters too!

I mention these to point out that I've been through more than a couple dedicated reads in my day.  But nothing like Martin's opus here.  The SoFI is so dense, so heavily leaden with detail and narrative that it can be overwhelming.  I saw some reviews that refered to the books as 700 page doorstops.  More like 1000 page doorstops to be honest!  But that's not a complaint.  They do at times read like a college kid filling out a word count on a term paper -- do we really need to know every ingredient of every dish at every feast?  But I appreciate Martin creating a total environment for the story.  You do get immersed into the story with all that dense narrative.

My sister, who is a book reading machine, could not get into the books, which is a shame as I had hoped to have someone to chat with about them.  But I wear my completion of the books so far as a badge of honor.

That all said -- I'm mildly disappointed at where we've left off after five novels.  I had hoped for some sort of resolution after 5000+ pages of narration, but we're essentially at the same point we were after the Iron Throne was emptied by Robert Baratheon's death.

I'm not going to do a bunch of spoilers here, but I warned my sister when she started the books, not to get too attached to any of the characters, because Martin shows an almost perverse glee in killing characters off or taking sympathetic characters and putting them in one lost cause after another.

When reading the third book -- A Storm of Swords, I reached a point halfway through and thought "That's it, I'm done." I wasn't going to finish the series because I was so disappointed in what Martin had done to several of the characters I felt were worth rooting for.  He rebounded with a fury towards the end of the book with some satisfying episodes and I thought "Okay, he's got me for the next book."

While reading A Feast for Crows, the fourth book, I began thinking I had finally broken through the dense storytelling and was more easily following Martin's narrative.  Turns out that while writing the book, he realized it was way too large to put in one novel, so he broke the story into two parts.  His choice was either covering all the characters with half their stories, or covering half the characters with all their story.  He chose the latter, which is why the book is so much easier to read than the ones published before it.

The fifth book, A Dance with Dragons, covers the remaining characters for about half the book, then melds into a sort of real-time story.  The title gives some clue as to a bit of the story, and I won't spoil it here for anyone, but like I said, 959 pages later (hardcover) and I'm just throwing my hands up.

Almost nothing is resolved.  No one seems to have made any progress, and what little progress has been made, seems to have regressed.  I can appreciate the fact that Martin isn't tipping his pitches here, not making the easy path to resolution obvious to the reader.  But come on, man!  The characters that got wiped out (at least it appears they've been killed, no telling for sure), the ones that are left, and a bunch of new players brought into the story in the final pages, a few brutal sequences with female characters . . .

Just terribly frustrating to this reader.  I'll buy the next one, to be sure, because I'm going to see this story through if it kills me.  But throw a reader a bone here George.  Please?

I'm wondering how many more books Martin is planning for this tale.  I read somewhere that it was looking like seven novels, which makes sense to me.  Because there's no way he can reconcile these storylines in one more novel, no matter how dense he makes it.

As to HBO's adaptation of the series -- I'm wondering how long they'll keep with it.  What's the lifespan for the cable series? I'm thinking five years, max.  And that's only if they can keep everyone interested.  Plus you never know with HBO.  Their blatant liberal political leanings have infested even this production as witnessed by the infantile gesture of using a mannequin head of George Bush on a spike in one of the episodes, then bragging about it like prebubescent schoolchildren in the dvd extras.  They'll be running their factually challenged movies like Game Change, Fair Game, and Recount in heavy rotation for the next eight years along with the laughable Newsroom and mean-sprited Veep as in-kind political donations.  But they may not want to clog their airtime with a long running series.

And there's the actor's aging problem as well.  Many of the characters in the book are very young.  And HBO has had to cast older actors in the roles to make it more palatable for the tv viewer -- who would be able to watch an 8 year old Arya stab that fat kid to death, or watch as a 13 year old Sansa be beaten by the Kingsguard on Joffrey's orders?  With the actress, Maisie Williams, cast as Arya already 15, it's going to be a stretch to have her stay true to the books when she's so much older than her character -- just can't picture Cat o' the canals as a 20 year old. Same with Bran.  The actor playing Hodor, is going to have a tough time toting around a full-grown teenager on his back.

On the other end of the spectrum -- Iain Glen who portrays Jorah Mormont is a little long in the tooth already, and it's going to be tough to have him appear to be a hulking, deadly swordsman 5+ years from now when he's pushing 60.

maisie williams & iain glen

It's going to take Martin a few years to finish off this story.  I just don't see HBO seeing it through to the end.  The critically acclaimed Deadwood only lasted two seasons.  The follow up movie never came to pass.  Rome, another of my favorite series, also only lasted two seasons.  And no dearth of history to stop production on that one.

So I think that those of us who are enjoying the cable adaptation of these books are going to be left hanging.  HBO hasn't hesitated to butcher Martin's story where they thought necessary -- Dany in Qarth, the attack on King's Landing, Jon's ranging beyond the wall, etc., so they may not hesitate to either rush this to some sort of conclusion in another season or two without waiting for Martin to actually write the story out or cut it abruptly off.  More's the pity.

That's what I think, anyway.

Ryan wins Veepstakes

So it appears Paul Ryan is Mittins choice for VP.

I, personally, like Ryan and his budget ideas.  But wouldn't a cabinet position have been a better place for him to work on our fiscal problems?  He'll be good in debates and have a better platform to push his budget reform, but what about all that talk, on both sides, about being ready to lead?  Wasn't that everyone's knock on Sarah Palin?  Even former VP Dick Cheney was giving a left-handed slam at Sarah for not being Oval Office material due to her lack of executive experience.

Oh well.

At least there's a team in place now.

btw, here's a vid of Ryan showing just what a bunch of lying liars Dems like the execrable Debbie Wasserman-Schultz are when talking about the budget:


Game on!