Right Thinking From The Left Coast
We didn't lose the game; we just ran out of time. - Vince Lombardi

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Matt Damon ‘s Babysitter Meets His Maker
by

If there is one historian who has epitomized the Marxist bent of the American university, and the humanities in particular, it’s Howard Zinn, who kicked the bucket today.

I’m certainly not going to weep over his passing.  As a historian, the man was terrible: his works are prime examples of fallacious logic, Marxist hypocrisy, and contradictory, self-centered agit-prop. 

Having read this and few of Zinn’s other works, it’s pretty clear that the only reason he became as huge as he did is because he rubbed all the sections of the id that make leftists swoon, primarily the “the United States, and white people in particular, are responsible for everything bad that’s ever happened in the history of the universe” nub.  That he’s being promoted as an intellectual rebel is particularly humorous, because there’s absolutely nothing being taught or studied in the field of history now, or over the past 40-50 years, that differentiates his work from any other--the Academic Holy Trinity of Class, Gender, and Ethnicity is so common that history as a discipline has pretty much stagnated.  There’s only so many types of subjects entitled “A ______ of Her Own” before redundancy begins to set in.  By contrast, Paul Johnson’s A History of the American People stands out precisely because it doesn’t follow this boilerplate, and as much as I like to rag on journalists, some of them are writing sharp popular histories, such as G. J. Meyer’s A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918.

Dennis the Peasant put it best:

Howard Zinn was fool and a hypocrite; yet another armchair communist preaching the evils of capitalism and democracy while living fat off of both.

Maybe someone can spray-paint that on his tombstone.

Posted by on 01/27/10 at 10:34 PM in Celebrity Idiots   Life & Culture  • (3) Comments • (0) TrackbacksPermalinkDiscuss this in the forums

Friday, January 08, 2010

Arenas Get Your Gun
by

The latest employment numbers have been discussed and analyzed ad nauseum today, so I’m not going to go beyond what is obvious--we are still deep in the shit, and aren’t coming out any time soon.  I may post a collection of links that explain this over the weekend.

Instead, I want to link to an article that Jason Whitlock wrote about the Gilbert Arenas situation.  Whitlock writes:

Do you think they would paint their bodies in tattoos if they comprehended they were joining a multi-billion-dollar industry tied to presenting a wholesome image of its players?

So there is little reason to marvel at Gilbert Arenas’ stupidity. He’s in crowded company, many of the NBA’s biggest names have as little self-awareness as Agent Zero IQ.

To them, the NBA is not a business. It’s the Senior AAU Tour with bi-weekly paychecks, private planes that double as floating casinos and a potential baby mama (or two) waiting in every city.

I don’t disagree with the last statement.  While many players in the NBA take their jobs very seriously, there’s also plenty of players who haven’t matured emotionally past that AAU stage in high school.  To be somewhat fair, the “baby mama” attitude goes back decades, snaring superstars such as Julius Erving, Karl Malone, and The Sperminator himself, Shawn Kemp.

I’m not sure where Whitlock gets the idea that the NBA is promoting itself as a family-oriented business, though.  Stern’s most brilliant business manuever was taking the Faustian bargain that encouraging the hip-hop “street ball” culture of the ghettos to come to the NBA would result in increased interest and fan devotion has paid off in spades.  And while it’s made a lot of people in the NBA fabulously wealthy, and provided us with some incredible displays of talent and athleticism, the other side of that is that when you allow an environment that gives a wink and a nod to gangster culture to develop, it’s hardly surprising that many players would continue to emulate the worst aspects of the street, especially if they came into riches so soon after high school.  Why bother cleaning up your act when you’ve been coddled as a superstar your whole life for showing your ass in public?

Whitlock goes on to suggest the following:

If I were Stern, I’d use this latest player-instigated embarrassment to implement an elevation of the league’s age limit to 21 and entice NCAA schools to offer elite athletes (and other students) majors in the study of professional sports. If a musician can study music, why can’t a basketball player study sports? Sports have played as significant a role in influencing American culture as music or art.

While the idea is interesting, I think Whitlock is missing the forest for the trees here.  I have no problem if the NBA decided to set the age limit to 21--it’s a private organization, can set its own rules about hiring criteria as long as it doesn’t violate the equal protection measure clause, and players can always try to get a European or Latin American team to hire them if they want to play early professionally.  But I don’t think it’s going to solve the problem; it might help somewhat, but only a fundmental change in the sport’s culture will accomplish what Whitlock wants to see.

There’s anothe issue to consider as well.  Arenas may have shown the gun as a joke, but the other player involved, Javaris Crittenton, is now reported to have actually locked and loaded his own gun that he had brought to the arena.  Arenas was suspended indefinitely, and his guns weren’t loaded; if Crittenton actually loaded his gun, what sort of punishment should he get?

Posted by on 01/08/10 at 10:42 PM in 2nd Amendment   Celebrity Idiots   Decline of Western Civilization   Life & Culture   The Press Machine  • (1) Comments • (0) TrackbacksPermalinkDiscuss this in the forums

Friday, October 02, 2009

The Obligatory Polanski Post

I’ll admit that I was once sympathetic to Roman Polanski.  That sympathy lasted from the time that I heard something vague about a crime until I the time I read the details of what he had actually done.

I have to wonder if the shitwits signing a petition against his extradition are in the same zone of ignorance I was in during 0.35 seconds it took for Google to find the details.  As my favorite movie critic—James Berardinelli—notes:

The problem is that, no matter how many years have passed, no matter how many great things Polanski has done in the interim, and no matter how sorrowful he may be about what happened, the fact is that a crime was committed. And not just any crime. As part of a bargain, Polanski pled guilty to having sex with a minor (statutory rape). This is one of those typical Hollywood double-standard deals where stars get off lighter than “normal” people because they have high-priced lawyers and are famous. The actual charges were a lot grimmer: drugging a 13-year old girl then having non-consensual vaginal/oral/anal sex with her. That’s “real” rape, not just the statutory kind. No one seems to dispute that this is what happened. It’s in the police reports and the victim maintains her stance that she repeatedly said “no” and asked him to stop, but he didn’t.

The petition, which “demands” Polanski’s “immediate” release from custody, would be laughable if it wasn’t serious. It makes the following assertion: “His arrest follows an American arrest warrant dating from 1978 against the filmmaker, in a case of morals.” A case of morals? Do the drafters of this petition consider rape to be a case of morals? To me, this indicates those who wrote this are unaware of the facts of the case.

...

Some want to excuse Polanski because of his early life associations with the Holocaust and the murder of his wife at the hands of the Manson Family. In some ways, I find this to be the most repugnant of all defenses because it implies that tragedy excuses heinous behavior. It’s the ultimate in shifting blame.

Read the whole thing.

I have never seen anything as tone-deaf as the defense of Polanski.  Even feminists are sticking up for him.

Look.  You can think Polanski is a brilliant director.  That changes nothing.  You can argue the legal technicalities or ask “why now?” or point out that the victim doesn’t want him extradited.  I think those points are irrelevant but they are at least arguments.

But to sit here and defend his actions; to claim that it shouldn’t matter because he’s some kind of film genius (I’m sorry; did you guys see Bitter Moon?); to trivialize the drugging and rape of 13-year-old is to encapsulate everything every anti-Hollywood nutter has ever said.  It is to say that the law doesn’t apply to famous people.

To their credit, most on the Left are not buying this load of garbage (and his biggest defender is the normally brilliant Anne Applebaum, who needs her head pulled out of her ass at once).  Here’s a round-up from Ta-Nehisi, who also points out that there are far greater injustices to be fought right now, including the Willingham case.  Even Sean Penn and Tim Robbins have kept their distance.

When Spicoli won’t bite on your petition, you may have a problem.

Posted by Hal_10000 on 10/02/09 at 11:10 AM in Celebrity Idiots  • (0) TrackbacksPermalinkDiscuss this in the forums

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Lunatics running the asylum?

Check this out. You can’t make this shit up. Biden says:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israel has a sovereign right to decide what is in its best interest in dealing with Iran’s nuclear ambitions whether the United States agrees or not, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview on Sunday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signaled that he agrees with U.S. President Barack Obama’s end-of-the-year deadline for progress in efforts to engage Iran diplomatically to resolve dispute over its nuclear program.

But then Obama says:

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday strongly denied that the United States had given Israel an approval to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities. US President Barack Obama gestures during his speech at the New Economic School, in Moscow, Tuesday. Asked by CNN whether Washington had given Israel a green light for such an attack, Obama answered: “Absolutely not.”

What’s this kind of diplomacy called? Bush was labeled a cowboy for talking straight and though. I bet the usual leftists and the MSM will call this wishy-washy stuff “Ivy League” diplomacy. The hallmark of genius! A blessing and breath of fresh air compared to what we had before! It gets even funnier though.

Check this out! At 4:15 AM our time Obama said this:

“The future does not belong to those who gather armies on a field of battle or bury missiles in the ground.” - President BARACK OBAMA, calling on the U.S. and Russia to overcome Cold War mistrust and reduce nuclear arsenals, in his commencement speech before graduates of Moscow’s New Economic School

At 7:45 AM our time, just some 3 1/2 hours later, this happened:

ISLAMABAD – Suspected U.S. missiles and Pakistani fighter jets attacked followers of a notorious militant leader close to the Afghan border Tuesday, but the army complained the American strikes were hurting its campaign against the country’s public enemy No. 1. Between 12 and 14 militants were killed when two missiles hit a training camp run by Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan tribal region, intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. The missiles were believed fired by American drones.

Another contradiction. This seems the be SOP with these kids. Now I know that Obama is a true believer, and the article explains a lot of the terribly idiotic decisions being made and actions taken - damaging both to our economy, our security, and to our future – by the idiots in charge. Can you imagine how Bush, or any non democrat for that matter, would have been treated if they were pulling these kinds of stunts?

For Christ’s sake this lightweight, which keeps telling the Russians they want to “reset” relationships, f*cks up and calls Putin the Russian President - it’s Medvedev for those that are ill informed, and despite the general held belief that Putin is the puppet master – adding another blunder to the chain of idiotic and offensive mistakes made by this diplomatic genius core. Again: how would Bush have been treated had he or his people made such a terrible mistake? Have no doubt that the Russians think he is both weak and stupid. Any optimism is because they see their country gaining big at the expense of America.

And these gaffes like this are not the occasional exception either: they are the norm with these people. After Biden admits that they have no clue what they are doing we are now being told they want to pass another stimulus bill, throwing likely another $1 trillion into a bottomless pit. Wasn’t one patronage bill that funneled hundreds of billions of tax payer money to democrat lobbyists, operatives, organizations, and past and future donors enough? How greedy can these crooks be?

We are getting told that America finally has risen and now has experienced and smart leadership, but to me it looks like all we have are a bunch of immature, egocentric children that are unable to even realize they are way out of their element. Thank god so many are distracted, or they might get in trouble.

Cross posted at Wasting time with Alex


Thursday, April 30, 2009

Stewart Bombs Out

Generally, I like Jon Stewart and the Daily Show.  But last night, he said something so dumb, my jaw dropped.  It’s about five minutes into this clip.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c
Cliff May Unedited Interview Pt. 2
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Economic CrisisFirst 100 Days

He says that Harry Truman was a war criminal for dropping the A-bomb on Japan.  According to Stewart, we should have dropped one off the shore of Japan to demonstrate it.

Just to explain my bias: I am loathe to apply retroactive judgement to historical decisions.  I force myself to remember that hindsight is 20/20 and that people usually don’t make bad decisions because they’re evil or stupid.  They often don’t have complete information.  In this case, let’s punt for the moment on the wisdom of the A-bomb.  Truman had no way of knowing about long-term radiological effects.  The devastation did not seem particularly worse than what fire-bombing had inflicted on Tokyo.  We were in a brutal war that had dragged out for four years.  Truman knew an invading army would face thousands of kamikaze planes and millions of armed civilians.  It’s possible to argue that Truman did the wrong thing.  But it’s not possible to say it was an indefensible decision.  And war criminal?  Truman didn’t vaporize two cities because he hated Japanese people.  He did it because he thought it would end the war.  And, while there’s controversy aplenty, there are solid reasons to believe that the bombing did end the war.

Moreover, Stewart is also specifically ignorant about the situation.  Jon, we only had two bombs.  Would Japan have surrendered after an offshore test? Are you willing to expend half your nuclear arsenal trying out that theory? There’s very good reason to doubt they would have surrendered even after Hiroshima.

People are praising Stewart for the interview in general, but I wasn’t terribly impressed—I’m usually not when he tries to play serious pundit.  He muddles the arguments against torture and can’t really respond to much of what Cliff May is saying.  I tuned out before I could hear if Stewart pointed out that MacArthur was insistent on humane treatment of Japanese prisoners—even after the horrors of Bataan.

Stewart is a funny guy and a good talk show host.  He’s good at satire and getting in the occasional good point.  But put him in a serious debate and he’s out of his element, Donnie.

Posted by Hal_10000 on 04/30/09 at 05:53 PM in Celebrity Idiots  • (0) TrackbacksPermalinkDiscuss this in the forums

Monday, April 13, 2009

The Spector Of Guilt

In case you missed it, Phil Spector is going away for a while.

Phil Spector is likely to die in prison after the legendary music producer was convicted of murder for shooting the actor Lana Clarkson in a drunken and “sadistic” bout of Russian roulette.

The Los Angeles jury spent nearly nine days deliberating over the case in which the prosecution portrayed Spector, 68, as a misogynist with a history of pulling guns and “playing Russian roulette with the lives of women” while drunk. Prosecutors said it was only by a miracle that Clarkson, star of the cult film Barbarian Queen, was the first to die.

Spector was taken to prison to await a sentence next month of at least 18 years following his conviction for second-degree murder at his mansion six years ago.

However long he remains in prison, the trial has destroyed the reputation of one of the most influential music producers of the 60s, who pioneered the “wall of sound” with groups such as the Ronettes and went on to work closely with some of the most renowned musicians of the next two decades, from the Beatles to the Ramones.

Spector’s wife, Rachelle, sobbed as the decision was announced.
....

“By the grace of God, five other women got the empty chamber and lived to tell,” said the prosecutor, Truc Do. “Lana just happened to be the sixth woman who got the bullet,”

Do told the court that Spector was used to tormenting women without suffering any consequences because he existed “in a world where money and fame buys you the VIP treatment.”

“Behind the VIP was a very dangerous man, a man who believed that all women ... deserve a bullet in their head. In every single one of these incidents, Mr Spector demonstrates conscious disregard for human life. Her death was a death waiting to happen in his world.”

Spector’s influence on rock and roll cannot be denied. It also cannot be denied that he is a seriously disturbed individual, with a pattern of behavior that goes back several decades. They say that the line between genius and madness is a thin one. Spector appears not only to have crossed it, but taken a swan dive to the other side.

Posted by West Virginia Rebel on 04/13/09 at 05:10 PM in Celebrity Idiots  • (0) TrackbacksPermalinkDiscuss this in the forums

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Axis Of Evildoers

Frazier offers his opinion on the stimulus:

“The only problem I see with the stimulus package is that, as a rule, it rewards the people that are evildoers—all of them—and that’s a problem for me, personally,” Grammer told CNSNews.com at the reopening of the Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C.

“It may not be a popular position to take,” said Grammer, “but I honestly believe that the bill is fraught with the idea that those who did the most damage to our country - from the bottom up and the top down - are the ones that are actually going to get the most rewards.”

You know, he seemed much more reasonable as Hank McCoy. I guess Sideshow Bob is hoping that people still yearn for a Republican who will rule them like a king.

Posted by West Virginia Rebel on 02/18/09 at 07:29 PM in Celebrity Idiots  • (0) TrackbacksPermalinkDiscuss this in the forums

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Who Killed Funny?

Now that he’s #44, has President Obama killed presidential comedy?

First, the comedian and actor Chris Rock, speaking with CNN yesterday, made it clear that, if you aren’t prone to verbal gaffes and you have a decent-looking first lady, you won’t be a target. “It’s like ‘Ooh, you’re young and virile and you’ve got a beautiful wife and kids. You’re the first African-American president.’ You know, what do you say?”

In an interview with The New York Times, comedian and screenwriter Dan Gregor worried about the future of his profession: “It’s the death of comedy. We’ve entered the era of sincerity. That’s unfortunate because sincerity is pretty bland. But if it makes the world better, I’ll give up sarcasm.”

Will Ferrell’s writing partner Adam McKay, who directed the brilliantly funny film Anchorman, declared that one cannot make jokes at the expense of our 44th president because “Obama’s an actual adult who knows how to work.”

That didn’t stop SNL from riffing on Obama’s relationship with the Press when he was still Candidate Obama. The humor will now most likely be directed at Obama’s Republican opponents in Congress, or, if these comic geniuses are fair, to his Democratic colleagues (who continue to provide much mirth and amusement as they always do). The real question they seem to be asking themselves is, “Can we make fun of the man without being called racists?” If they’re willing to show some guts, yes they can!

Posted by West Virginia Rebel on 01/20/09 at 06:36 PM in Celebrity Idiots  • (0) TrackbacksPermalinkDiscuss this in the forums

Friday, January 16, 2009

I Was His Dick II

Boy George, who has now become Jailbait George, has joined the Cult of The One:

Oprah must be jealous. All of the has-beens are running to Obama now.

Posted by West Virginia Rebel on 01/16/09 at 02:09 PM in Celebrity Idiots  • (0) TrackbacksPermalinkDiscuss this in the forums

Friday, December 05, 2008

Do You Really Want To Jail Me

In case you missed it, there were a couple of guilty verdicts today. First, the Juice:

A broken O.J. Simpson was sentenced Friday to as much as 33 years in prison for a hotel armed robbery after a judge rejected his apology and said, “It was much more than stupidity.” The 61-year-old football Hall of Famer stood shackled and stone-faced when Judge Jackie Glass quickly rattled off his punishment soon after he made a rambling, five-minute plea for leniency, choking back tears as he told her: “I didn’t want to steal anything from anyone. ... I’m sorry, sorry.”

Simpson said he was simply trying to retrieve sports memorabilia and other mementos, including his first wife’s wedding ring, from two dealers when he stormed a Las Vegas hotel room on Sept. 13, 2007.

But the judge emphasized that it was a violent confrontation in which at least one gun was drawn, and she said someone could have been killed. She said the evidence was overwhelming, with the planning, the confrontation itself and the aftermath all recorded on audio or videotape.

Glass, a no-nonsense judge known for her tough sentences, imposed such a complex series of consecutive and concurrent sentences that even many attorneys watching the case were confused as to how much time Simpson got.

Simpson could serve up to 33 years but could be eligible for parole after nine years, according to Elana Roberto, the judge’s clerk.

I’m sure he’ll have plenty of time to look for the real robbers in the meantime. And then there’s Boy George.

Singer Boy George has been found guilty of falsely imprisoning a male escort at his flat in east London.

Audun Carlsen, 29, said the Culture Club frontman attacked him as he tried to escape the Shoreditch flat and handcuffed him to the wall.

The musician, whose real name is George O’Dowd, alleged Mr Carlsen stole photographs from a laptop. He denied one count of false imprisonment.

He will be sentenced on 16 January, but was told he was likely to face jail.

‘False expectations’

Judge David Radford said: “The fact that your bail is being continued does not imply that this will be dealt with by a non-custodial sentence.

“I don’t want any false expectations created.”

O’Dowd did not give evidence himself during the trial.

I’m guessing OJ will get protection. Boy George will get passed around for smokes inside of five minutes.

Posted by West Virginia Rebel on 12/05/08 at 04:02 PM in Celebrity Idiots  • (0) TrackbacksPermalinkDiscuss this in the forums

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Go Back To Music

The world’s biggest #2—Bono—has an open letter to Barack Obama that proves that his understanding of economics is slightly worse than his mastery of the english language.  I’ll start out by rewriting it into comprehensible prose, then fisk it in italics.

Mr. President, Barack,

Mr. President:

Every room I have ever been in with you was a much easier room for your presence.

It’s rare to meet a person like you, where intellect and intuition make such a perfect rhyme.

Your very presence lightens the mood in a room.  It is rare to meet a person who is such a perfect match of intellect and intution.

[Just a second, have to vomit.]

Your intuition tells you that the well-being of the American people, spiritually as well as physically, is connected with America’s role in the world.  I know you know that the prosperity of your fellow Americans, though hard fought, is less fulfilling knowing there is so much more that can be done to alleviate poverty and suffering in the developing world.  You know that less than 1 percent of government income as a contribution from the world’s richest economy to the world’s poorest is not a fair tithe — even in times like these — which is why you have promised to double foreign assistance.  As with our own personal sojourn, so it is with country and community -– we discover who we are in service to others.

Surely you know that America’s well-being is related to her role in the world—that Americans’ prosperity means all the more to them when it can ameliorate poverty and suffering.  American contributes less than 1% of its GDP to the rest of the world, an amount you know must increase.

[Of course, government doesn’t have income—it takes income from others.  And Americans give vastly more to private charity than anyone else in the world.  By far.  And it’s not even close.  But, to Bono, if it’s not government, it’s crap!]

I know your intellect — fashioned in the halls of Harvard and on the floor of the United States Senate — has weighed up the evidence on how effective American tax dollars are, when converted into smart, targeted, focused aid.  Putting children into school where they can think freely of freedom.  Giving farmers on the parched land seed varieties that double the size of their crop yields.  Giving mothers 20 cent immunizations to protect their newborns from the deadly viruses that they pass on through childbirth.  I know your intellect has taken in the data and seen the analysis on the transformative power of effective aid in places where the United States flag is currently not one smiled at.  I know you know how much cheaper it is to make friends of potential enemies than to defend yourself at a later date.  I know you know all this stuff.

As an educated man, you know how effective American foreign aid can be.  It can educate children, help farmers increase their yields and vaccinate mothers from passing diseases to their children.  American aide could improve the nation’s image in all parts of the world.  In the long run, this would make friends instead of enemies and prevent expensive wars.

[Yes.  Giving lots of money to corrupt governments has done so much good.  And maybe, Bono, you could start campaigning to allow the GM crops that would insulate farmers from drought and increase yields.  Or maybe you could fight against price controls on prescription drugs that will stifle innovation and prevent cheap medicine that can cure disease.  Or maybe you can start lining up every Marxist, racist and Islamist you can and put a bullet in their head.]

My prayer for you is that your instinct and intellect stay in harmony in the difficult months and triumphant years ahead.

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

----

Seriously, how can this bozo be taken seriously?

(PS - I realize, of course, that this could be a fake.  So be it.  It’s so stupid it might as well have been written by Bono.)

Posted by Hal_10000 on 11/15/08 at 01:24 PM in Celebrity Idiots  • (0) TrackbacksPermalinkDiscuss this in the forums

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Free For All

Uncle Ted speaks:

If it wasn’t for Sarah Palin, I’d move to fuckin’ Sweden. It’s pretty pathetic. I don’t think you can be “pretty pathetic.” It’s mighty pathetic. Barack Obama, I guess if you want to be Mao Tse Tung I suppose you can be. I just don’t think you should be the president of America. Call me weird. If you really study the Communist Party of America, if you go to their website and check out their bullet points, it is the Democrat Party bullet points. It is Barack Obama....

Barack, fuck you. Joe, fuck you. John McCain, God bless you for discovering a Republican with massive amounts of balls. The good governor, Sarah Palin, is the bureaucrat-crushing, status quo-punching conservative that I’ve been looking for. I knew of her before John did, I had worked with Gov. Palin on numerous issues up in Alaska, where she proved she was a “we the people” person and not a bureaucrat monger. We are voting Republican this year, not because of John McCain as much as for Sarah Palin.
....

We are voting Republican, because we see that Barack Obama’s voting record, not what he has been so cleverly scripted to say, but his voting record. If the guy likes France so much, why won’t he just go there? Why would you want to turn America into France? There’s already a France. That’s the way I see it. It’s a clusterfuck, and it’s heartbreaking, really.

Is it just me, or are more and more people on the right sounding like they’ve forgotten to take their medication?

Posted by West Virginia Rebel on 10/21/08 at 02:54 PM in Celebrity Idiots  • (0) TrackbacksPermalinkDiscuss this in the forums

W Review

One of the best reviews of Ollie Stone’s latest box office flop is that of Marc Ambinder, who is usually very objective:

Stone compactifies the tragedies of the Bush administration into a series of meetings.  In each, like at table readings for, say, the Simpsons, each character - Rummy, Vice, Condi, Karl, Colin - gets in character, and gets to utter some of their signature lines, lines that reflect a decided disinterest in developing the characters beyond the first dimension.  There’s Powell, in a meeting at Bush’s ranch, warning Bush that if he “breaks” Iraq, he’ll have to buy it.  There’s Rumsfeld, saying, at no point in particular, “There are the known unknowns....” There’s Condi, saying, at every available opportunity, saying, “Yes, Mr. President.” And then there’s the president himself, constructed here as an insecure spouter of aphorisms that now, thanks to Bob Woodward, David Corn, Mike Isikoff and the rest, are punch lines.  “I’m the decider.” “I’m not going to negotiate with myself.” People “misunderestimate me.” “Fool me once...” The lines are almost always out of context, and the history, with a few exceptions, is atrocious.  The “X"-like scene of this movie occurs in the situation room, early 2003, where Dick Cheney makes the case for war based on oil, energy and empire.  Powell asks: “What is our exit strategy, Dick?” Cheney: “There is no exit. We stay.” The camera zooms on his reedy grin.  Stone is within his métier to turn three meetings into one, but not to add a character in order to retrofit the history. Karl Rove rarely sat in on war council meetings. He had no say whatsoever on the major decisions that Bush made; he wasn’t there, sitting in a corner, for W to flash the thumbs up sign at.  The geopolitics of oil is, at least, a vaguely plausible platform from which to cast aspersions at George W. Bush’s Iraq policies, but Karl Rove, whatever his role in other events of the Bush presidency, just wasn’t there.

Man, next he’ll be telling me that JFK wasn’t really murdered by his own military.

Posted by Hal_10000 on 10/21/08 at 07:28 AM in Celebrity Idiots  • (0) TrackbacksPermalinkDiscuss this in the forums

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

It Don’t Come Easy

Do not bother the Ringo. Leave the Ringo alone.

In a 40-second rant posted on his website, the drummer says he will bin all fan mail addressed to him after October 20 because he no longer has time to cope with it.

Dressed in black clothes and dark glasses, Starr, 68, said: “This is a serious message to everybody watching my update. Peace and love. Peace and love.

“I want to tell you after the 20th of October please do not send fan mail to any address you have. Nothing will be signed after the 20th of October. If that is the date on the envelope, it’s gonna be tossed.

“I’m warning you with peace and love I have too much to do. So no more fan mail. Thank you, thank you. And no objects to be signed. Nothing.

“Anyway, peace and love, peace and love.”

Marge would be disappointed. Also-Ringo gets mail?

Posted by West Virginia Rebel on 10/15/08 at 03:43 PM in Celebrity Idiots  • (0) TrackbacksPermalinkDiscuss this in the forums

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Dumb Blonde

I guess this will put Sarah over the top, then:

Dolly Parton, our favorite Sevier County songbird, tells entertainment news program “Extra” that she can identify with GOP vice presidental candidate Tina Fey Sarah Palin! “I always say we’re very much alike,” says the normally bipartisan Parton.

Parton goes on to tell “Extra”: “(We’re) both small town girls, both a Pentecostalism and we both carry an AK-47.”

Look at it this way: You get three boobs for the price of one.

Let’s see-we’ve had Chuck Norris and Rick Flair both come out for the Republicans this year. Are there any more has-beens who haven’t made up their minds yet?

Posted by West Virginia Rebel on 10/04/08 at 03:33 PM in Celebrity Idiots  • (0) TrackbacksPermalinkDiscuss this in the forums
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