Books, movies, politics, and whatever I want

Archive for June, 2012

Heed the words of Bandit Six

Saturday, June 30th, 2012

So every four years we elect a king. Since people like consistency, we tend to elect the same king as many times as we can get away with. (See previous paragraph.) And the king, especially in any sort of emergency, has a lot of power. They don’t always, or even most of the time, have enough to fix things right away. But they’ve got a lot of power.
Including the power to totally screw things up.

For the kids reading this, this is a very important point. When you choose your king, forget most of the reasons you think you should vote for the king. Mostly, the king can’t do much about the economy but ruin it. They can’t make you richer or smarter (although they can manage the reverse). If you want one suggestion, think about all the contingencies under which that king (or queen in this case) may hold your lives in his or her hands. And choose wisely.

Bandit Six

Friday B-Movie Pick: Total Recall

Friday, June 29th, 2012

Total Recall

Let us set the WayBack Machine to 1990, when Arnold Schwarzenegger ruled the action movie kingdom. Total Recall draws its SciFi roots from the Phillip K. Dick short story, “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale.” From there, it jams the action meter up to 11. The special effects were ground breaking and Oscar winning for the time. With the remake coming out this summer, take the time to check out the original film. Oh, and take the time to read some Phillip K. Dick as well.

Friday B-Movie Pick Archives

Round Up Post

Thursday, June 28th, 2012

If you have been following the massive wildfires in Colorado, you probably didn’t hear about this on CNN/MSNBC/ABC/PBS/CBS “News”:

Washington-based Human Events magazine reported in September of 2011 that nearly half of the federal government’s air tankers sat idle at a California airport, as wildfires ripped through national forests throughout California, Texas, New Mexico, and other states. It turns out the Obama administration ended a long-standing contract, leaving the Forest Service with only 11 tankers to battle 50 wildfires that were burning nationwide. A decade ago, the Forest Service had 40 firefighting tankers.

Three hours after the Supreme Court ruled on Arizona’s immigration laws, the Obama regime revoked Arizona’s 287 G “privileges.’  This means that Arizona has been denied the use of the Federal database set up specifically for state governments to identify illegal aliens.

There is bi-partisan support for contempt vote against Obama AG Holder.

Federal Judge Refuses To Halt Florida’s Clean Up Of Voter Rolls.

Drew over at AoSHQ nails it shut:

Illegal voters, Democrats and Eric Holder hit hardest.

While everyone was focused on Arizona, the EPA is getting set to cause the economy to nose dive.

In Which We Learn that ABC News is Literally In Bed With the Obama Campaign…

Team Obama Prepping Thousands of Lawyers for November Election

They want to make sure their traditional voter base, the dead, have their vote counted.

MSNBC 9/11 Troofer host smacked down by College Republican

Obama doesn’t know the difference between outsourcing and offshoring.

Mia Love of Utah Hopes to Become the First Black Republican Woman in Congress

Quote of the Day

Thursday, June 28th, 2012

“Aaron Sorkin’s Newsroom. I watched it. I freaking love it but for the reasons you wouldn’t understand. It proves liberals are giving up and retreating back into Aaron’s world of make believe. It’s a left wing wet dream of a show. And everytime Aaron opens up his piehole and bloviates the democrats tend to lose elected office. Go for it Aaron, I hope CNN takes your advice to heart and becomes MSNBC Lite. So they can lose even more viewers.”

BlondeHouseWife

Quote of the Day

Wednesday, June 27th, 2012

Remember, if you point out that Nazis were Socialist, you’ll be told, “right wingers don’t know what socialism is.”

The same “liberal” will then argue that “interstate highways are socialist, so if you drive on a highway you support socialism” and consider it a logical argument.

Note: The freeway concept was pioneered by Adolf Hitler

Michael Z. Williamson

Too be fair, history and rational thought were never the left’s strong points.

A Leftist sees through the hype and understands Obama

Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

Matt Stoller is yet another leftist democrat who has buyer’s remorse over our Dear Leader. Here are the money quotes

 …[Obama’s] career in the Illinois state Senate was based on working for billionaire developers to destroy poor neighborhoods. Few really gets who he is, at his core, and almost no one is willing to publicly point it out. There are some who went to law school with him, who saw his enormous grasping social climbing tendencies, his eager corporate good old boy persona, his narcissistic calculations.

and

The truth is that he’s a narcissistic sociopath dressed up as a cool corporate brand. The real Obama parody is an Obama who wears an Air Force One fleece over an Obama t-shirt, who says to a reporter “Now hang on, let me finish, speaking slowly and avoiding your question, which is, by the way excellent.” He’s President, and if you’re upset with him, don’t worry, look at that beautiful photo of Obama smiling and pointing.

Bottom line, America elected an empty suit who doesn’t have the experience or temperament for the job.

He is loosing support in his base, for failing to deliver fast enough on wealth distribution.  He is also losing support from the independents who voted for him in 2004.

As more people find out more about our Dear Leader, the less popular he becomes.  Hyper-partisan leftists are responding to the results of Reality meeting Obama with desperate fear mongering attacks against anybody who dares to oppose their leader.  What else can they do? They certainly can’t defend Obama’s record as President.

HT to Jim Geraghty of the National Review for the link to Matt Stoller’s article.

Update: One of the trends we’re seeing more of is democrats running for reelection who are distancing themselves from our Dear Leader.   Add to the list, Missouri democrat Claire McCaskill.  She will not be attending the national democrat party convention this year.

Monday Book Pick: Anno Dracula

Monday, June 25th, 2012

Anno Dracula by Kim Newman

Mr. Newman starts with the premise that the so-called “heros” of Bram Stoker’s Dracula screwed the pooch and were slaughtered like the incompetent buffoons they appeared to be. With them out of the way, Dracula pretty much has his bloody way with England. This includes having his bloody way with Queen Victoria. Yup, Prince Consort Dracula. Being a vampire becomes fashionable in Jolly Old England. Causes a bit of an upheaval to the social order. Yup, the Vampires are out of the closet for good. I really enjoyed this book and even better, it is the first in series.

Monday Book Pick Archive

Quote of the Day

Monday, June 25th, 2012

“…if you think Bush using his Constitutional authority to replace U.S. Attorneys is a giant scandal, but shrug your shoulders at the federal government sending guns to Mexico, where drug cartels use them to kill a U.S. Border Patrol agent, then you are a hopeless partisan hack who is literally willing to overlook murder to advance your political agenda.”

— Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt, June 25, 2012

Friday B-Movie Pick: Haywire

Friday, June 22nd, 2012

Haywire

Steven Soderbergh directed this film built around Muy Thai and MMA fighter Gina Carano. So ya, the fight scenes kick ass. Otherwise this a pretty boiler plate spy thriller will some suprising A List actors. Michael Fassbender, Ewan MacGregor, Antonio Banderas and Michael Douglas. Ya, that is a lot of star power, but it’s Carano kicking ass and not bothering to take names that really make this film.

Friday B-Movie Archive

Cover Songs: Train in Vain

Wednesday, June 20th, 2012

My music taste runs pretty wide.  That’s probably a reason why I enjoy a good cover tune as much as I do.

Today, let’s take a look at the song, Train in Vain, made famous by the Clash.

There are a couple of good covers of this song.

Those are the ones by Annie Lennox & Dwight Yoakam.

Both are from dedicated cover song albums, Medusa and Under The Covers respectively.

In both cases, the artists are covering songs that influenced them and are not trying to replicate the sound of the original.

They are putting their own unique style on the song, and it is a better song for it.