Bankruptcy- it’s a gas, complaining Bears, Bronco horseshit, unclassic Halloween, Xmas 2009, Pizza Wars, Global Cooling and the H1 N1 scare

CIT files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

Money

Lender CIT Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday Nov. 1, 2009, a potential blow to the thousands of small and mid-sized businesses that rely on the company for loans to keep their operations afloat.

The Chapter 11 filing is one of the biggest in U.S. corporate history, following Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, WorldCom and General Motors. CIT’s bankruptcy filing shows $71 billion in finance and leasing assets against total debt of $64.9 billion. A prepackaged bankruptcy, which has the support of major bondholders, speeds up the process of restructuring debt and could allow CIT  to exit court protection by the end of the year. In addition to reducing its debt, CIT said the plan cuts cash needs over the next three years, which should help it return to profitability more quickly.

Americans say Bullshit!

Instead of government protections in the form of Chapter  11 and government bailouts while the executives of these companies continue to receive huge bonuses- I say the Obama administration and the FBI need to arrest these “white-collar” crooks and throw their ass in jail to sit alongside with other CEO crooks like Bernard Maddoff, Koslowski, and Enron’s CFO Jeff Skilling.

Government (particularly he Obama administration) is in bed with these guys. Americans knew it the minute Obama appointed Geithner as Treasury-Secretary. Timothy Geithner was the one who bankrupted Lehman Brothers and Obama puts him in charge of the administration’s economic recovery?

Americans are tired of being lied to, tired of watching the majority of good paying jobs being shipped over to China. Sooner or later, Mr. President- AMERICANS WILL NOT SIT STILL FOR YOUR LIES, they will stop listening to your empty words and great speeches and they will revolt. When Americans are pushed to the wall- which they are now by watching their jobs going over-sea’s and their quality of life disappear, watching millions of illegal Mexicans move into American and living better lifestyles than Americans- the revolution will come in one form or other. either they will throw Obama’s ass out of office in 2012 or there will be riots in the streets as in the 1960’s.

Note to Obama- the revolution is coming! (one way or other)

Obama, smart politician he is- will most likely duck out the side-door before the proverbial shit hits the fan. Rather than be humiliated in a overwhelming defeat in 2012- Obama will announce he will not be running for re-election. It is clear to many of the Obama faithful that Obama was more interested in “winning” the presidency than actually “being” president. Obama is demonstrating  an,  abundancy of late,  to being the most “do nothing” president in modern history, even more so than “do nothing” Jimmy Carter.

Already well into a four-year term, Americans are at the breaking point. They hear that the economy is recovering but continue to see jobs disappear. Americans have always equated a healthy economy with lots of jobs everywhere, a plethora of jobs, particularly at Christmas.

Here in the Chicagoland area- Rockford, IL. has been rated one of the top-ten cities in America where there are no jobs. Rockford includes Chicago’s Far-West suburbs. Most of the business like Caribou Coffee, Starbucks,  and other’s  you may walk into around the Chicago suburbs- have only teenagers behind the counter. Where are the older workers? The retired workers? The housewives who used to work part time? Where are the alpha-males over age 50? All retired?

Most businesses in America hire young kids to work a register who have never worked a cash register before and they’re paid the federal minimum wage of $7.25 hour. And business wonders why customer service sucks?

Slashing CEO bonuses, Bankruptcy and government bailouts will not protect millions of Americans from massive job loss. Government is responsible for forcing big business to move to China through over=-regulation, (Osha, pollution controls, providing health insurance to all employees) and then after business pay all that- the government turns around and hits them with huge taxes. And Americans wonder why jobs are moving to CHina where there are no such controls, where there are not taxes and where China enjoys a 30-percent tariff on all goods the US sells to CHina while we hit CHina with a mere 3-percent tariff.

Bears fans never happy

Chicago sports-critics are particularly brutal on the hometeam. They always find fault with local teams. Bears beat Browns 30-6 and headlines claim, “ugly win,” or “not too memorable.” Not too memorable? They beat the Browns frickin 30-6. For the Bears that’s memorable. This finding fault with every little thing has become a Chicago habit. Chicagoans it seems are not happy unless they’re finding fault with something.

Bet the Bronco’s won’t be taking a week off again this year

The Denver Bronco’s had a week off. Young coach (Josh McDaniel’s) insisted they not practice. Special teams on the Ravens destroyed them 30-7. The Bronco’s have their work cut out now – they don’t appear to be built to put up points quickly on teams. Quarterback Kyle Orton is going to have to look downfield a lot more now…..16 pass attempts for 44 yards is pretty disgraceful.

I bet the Bronco’s won’t be taking another week off anytime soon.

Unclassic Halloween

Scared Stiff

For those of you older than 40- remember when TV used to schedule the classic Halloween movies on Halloween night? Bela Lagosi as Dracula, Lon Chaney as Wolfman,  and Boris Karloff as the Mummy. I even looked for Mel Brook’s classic, Young Frankenstein with Gene Wilder and could not find it. In my Chicago suburb, Comcast, the local cable provider with over 200 channels to choose from, did not have one decent Halloween movie on. What happened to all those Halloween comedy’s they used to show like Arsenic and Old Lace, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin in Scared Stiff or Abbot and Costello in Meet Frankenstein?  I did watch The Canterville Ghost but it was not the classic 1945 version with Charles Laughton  and Margaret O’Brien BUT the Alyssa Milano/Patrick Stewart version.

What has happened to the state of TV programming in America? Have TV stations just caved in to Blockbuster and the Internet? TV doesn;t seem to even try to schedule quality programing anymore. Only Rich Koz (Svengoolie) ay Chanel 26 “The U” here in CHicago had a first-rate Halloween movie on, Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Kudo’s to Rich Koz.

Eight weeks to Xmas

Clay Aiken – Merry Christmas

some years there are 10 weeks from Halloween to Xmas. This year. the way the dates fall on the calendar- there are only 8. We will be inundated now with 8 weeks of Xmas commercials. Here’s one way to screw with corporations who have taken a very blase approach to Xmas. Next time you’re in the WalMart- wish the cashier a “Merry Christmas.” They’re not allowed to wish you one- they;re only allowed to take you’re money but my feeling is that if you have just dropped a bundle of cash in a WalMart- you should be able to wish anyone a Merry Christmas. That;s the power of capitalism.

Pizza Parlour Explosion

Shaddap You Face – Joe Dolce

The last time I tried to find a pizza parlour in my area there were only one or two. Today, I noticed while driving the major highway a plethora of new pizza parlours. There’s White ____ Pizzeria, Nicks & Willy;s Pizza, Danny’s Pizza, Little Caesar’s, Pizza Hut, Jake’s PIzza, Domino’s, Papa John’s, etc etc. When did the “pizza-wars” heat up? Even visiting my local grocery chain there seems to be a pizza-war” going on in the frozen foods. Remember when DiGiorno’s was the only “self-rising” pizza? Looking in my frozen pizza section, there are now at least a dozen “self-rising” pizza’s. The pizza wars have intensified recently in the battle for the multi-billion dollar delivery and restaurant industry.

Pizza Wars

In the midst of an intense pizza war, Pizza Hut and Papa John’s are spending millions in marketing to outdo the other. The rivals are even mentioning each other by name – once against basic marketing rules – in an attempt to dominate the $25 billion pizza industry. “When you have lots of competition, as there is with pizza, you attack your opponent,” said James Lowry, a marketing professor. “The old rule of not naming your competition in advertising has fallen by the wayside. Now, you just attack.”

Dallas-based Pizza Hut bills itself as the world’s largest pizza restaurant company with more than 7,100 restaurants and delivery units in the U.S. and 3,000 international outlets in 86 countries.

Papa John’s chief executive officer is John Schnatter, a 1983 Ball State graduate. The Louisville-based firm has 466 company-owned outlets and 1,314 franchised stores in 45 states and the District of Columbia. Papa John’s plans to add 400 more restaurants in each of the next two years. “You can say you have the best tasting pizza or even have the lowest prices every day,” Schnatter says, “but it is the consumer who ultimately will make the decision of who is better.”

Corruption in the desert

Over the weekend it was announced that Hami Karzai’s political-opponent, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah,  had dropped out and that there would be no “presidential runoff“  in Afghanistan at the same time it was reported that Karzis brother was not only being propped up by the CIA but was being paid by the Taliban drug-lords as well. As President Obama tried to make the tough decision whether or not to send an additional 40,000 troops to Afghanistan, the revelation of corruption in the desert left many Americans asking the question, “Just what the hell are we doing in Afghanistan?”

Hamid Karzai was declared winner of the presidential vote in Afghanistan on Monday after his challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, withdrew from the runoff. But questions concerning the Karzai government’s legitimacy and corruption remain as unresolved as before.

The case of Ahmed Wali Karzai, President Karzai’s brother, shows how difficult it is to deal with the government now in place. The Times reported last week that Ahmed Karzai is paid by the C.I.A. to help recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the agency’s direction. He has been linked to Afghanistan’s narcotics trade and is the most powerful figure in the swath of southern Afghanistan where the Taliban’s insurgency is strongest. The report that the Central Intelligence Agency has been secretly paying Ahmed Wali Karzai — the brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and allegedly one of Afghanistan’s biggest drug barons — demonstrates the complexity of the war we are fighting there. Ahmed Wali Karzai is the face of corruption in Afghanistan, and given that President Hamid Karzai has lost much of his former legitimacy over his own reputed corruption, for the C.I.A. to be seen helping to support his far more corrupt brother seriously undermines the reputation of our entire military and diplomatic effort in Afghanistan.

President Bush committed the US and our troops to a prolonged mess with no “exit strategy.” Clearly now is the time to just bring the troops home and leave Iraq and Afghanistan to stand or fall on its own merit. America cannot hope to win being caught in the middle of a “drug war.” Just as we supplied the Taliban weapons to use against the Russians, the Russians who are now laughing at us, have been supplying the Taliban with weapons against us. It’s time to get the hell out of Afghanistan and Iraq.

What the heck is going on with our weather?

The Singing Weatherman

Last week as Denver received its second “snow=storm” in October, and up to three-feet of snow, and the ski resorts in the mountains received only an inch or two- many people are now asking the question, “What the heck is going on with our weather?” By now, the majority of Americans no longer believe in “Global Warming.” So, is the wierd weather just “cyclical?”

Global Warming? Chicago – 2009 Coolest July 8th in 118 Years

For the 12th time this meteorological summer (since June 1), daytime highs failed to reach 70 degrees Wednesday. Only one other year in the past half century has hosted so many sub-70-degree days up to this point in a summer season — 1969, when 14 such days occurred.  July closed with eye-catching temperature deficits over a wide swath of the northern U.S. overnight. Chicago’s 69.4-degree average July temperature at O’Hare International Airport was the coolest of the past 17 years. But at Midway Airport, the month’s 71.0-degree average temperature was the site’s coolest in 42 years. Estimates based on the month’s temperatures suggest the need for air conditioning was 30 percent below the long-term average.
Cool as it’s been in Chicago, in a number of Midwest cities July has never been cooler. Records were established in Rockford; Madison, Wis.; South Bend and Ft. Wayne, Ind.; and Benton Harbor, Saginaw and Flint, Mich. The month’s temperature in those cities finished 4.5 to more than 7 degrees below normal.

El Nino Is Back

The United Nations exaggerated warming 6-fold: the scare is over. SPPI’s authoritative Monthly CO2 Report for July 2009 announces the publication of a major paper by Professor Richard Lindzen of MIT, demonstrating by direct measurement that outgoing long-wave radiation is escaping to space far faster than the UN predicts, showing that the UN has exaggerated global warming 6-fold. Lindzen’s paper on outgoing long-wave radiation shows the “global warming” scare is over.

H1 N1 flu shots- making kids sick?

My brother, a retired paramedic of 30-years believes that our public schools are making thousands of kids sick by giving them the H1 N1 flu shot.

Months back, when a swine flu vaccine was still just a glimmer in scientists’ eyes, US health officials were driving home the message that children, and especially those with underlying health conditions like asthma, and pregnant women were at greater risk of dying from H1N1 influenza and should be first in line for inoculation. But after rolling out the vaccine early last month, the authorities ran into a problem: there was not enough to go around.

“The National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have done a very good job of emphasising the importance of getting vaccinated. But then there’s no vaccine,” said Steven Salzberg, director of the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at the University of Maryland.

So why are they being so heavily pushed onto the general public? Why is there so much enthusiasm for flu shots in general, and especially the new H1N1 flu shot or nasal spray, when there’s basically no proof whatsoever that getting it is any more effective than saying a prayer that you won’t get it?

Why did New York try to force unwilling health care workers to get the H1N1 vaccine, when it’s already known that flu vaccines are not very effective?

There has been an American Medical Association study that concluded that for every 100 people who get a flu shot, it will prevent 1 person from getting the flu. So, even in the most rosy, best case scenario possible, the flu shot still seems fairly ineffective. That you might be that lucky 1 in a 100 for whom the flu shot actually works, doesn’t seem worth the risk that you will be one of the many unlucky ones who develops unwanted side effects.

So, should you get the regular flu vaccine or the H1N1 flu shot this year? That’s your call. Why not if it makes you feel better, or if you think getting shots is pleasurable? But if you decide not to, then from a scientific perspective—no one who believes that scientific based evidence is worth something will blame you. For the last three winters my job has offered flu shots at work, for the special discount price of something like $18 to &20 (USA) I want to say. For the first two winters I got the flu shot I remember being congested and tired, all the way into spring. Every time anyone got sick around the office I seemed to pick it up and it would linger and not go away. Last winter I decided not to get the flu shot and I hardly got sick at all. I did get a pretty bad cold at the end of the winter but it did not lurk into springtime like when I had gotten the flu shot. Personally I’m choosing not to get one this year either.

KH

THE KING OF NOTHING, POTHEAD COUNTY, WELCOME TO COUGARTOWN, BRONCO FEVER AND OTHER MUSINGS

THE KING OF NOTHING

If I could rule, I’d dance my cares away, find romance everyday.
I wouldn’t have to listen to these poor fools say,
“I’m the King, I’m the King, I’m the King of Nothing.”

~Seals and Croft

Barack Obama is becoming the biggest “do nothing” president since Jimmy Carter and like Carter, when the approval ratings are down, Obama gives a great speech.  But it’s all talk – and no action. Or failed action. Once his biggest supporter during the presidential primary with Obama making several appearances on SNL, even Saturday Night Live has of late, begun lambasting Obama as a “do nothing” president with this clip from the show opener two weeks ago:

Obama – do nothing skit

In 2008, Obama was elected by overwhelming mandate to bring America change they could believe in. Many of the Obama faithful are angry and dis appointed that it has been a year and Obama has nothing to show for it. He has done nothing. The ring-wing “Nazi” talk show hosts like Glenn Beck, Rush  Limbaugh, Hannity and others have been quick to point out Obama’s dismal record and shortcomings. In fact, Obama’s lack of a “Mission Statement” is proving to be fodder for the talk-show Nazi’s and Obama’s political enemies. His first day in office, Obama promised to close Guantanamo Bay detention facilities. He has backpedaled. Instead of tackling jobs and the economy right away, Obama backed himself into an impossible corner like Hillary Clinton trying to “re-invent” health care. he will lo se. Already Obama has backpedaled on his own “Public Option” plan . Whatever health-care plan COngress comes up with is not going to be what Americans want or need. Have you seen how the federal government runs the food-stamp program, unemployment, Medicare or public transit in America? Miss an appointment and they cut you off for food stamps. Are Americans going to get a letter in the mail stating that due to a missed appointment, we are cutting off your health insurance? And anyone in America who has ridden government subsidized bus service like Pace, CTA, RTD, who build crappy plastic bus shelters, whose buses run every hour when they run at all and are never … on time, whose drivers are from some African nation, do not speak English and do not know where any landmarks are on their own bus route, government subsidized bus companies that now charge $3 per ride with no transfers and yet, who always beg for more government money- do we really want health insurance like the government-run food-stamps, unemployment or public transit? Do we really want government panels deciding who lives, who dies, who has pre-existing co nditions and are not eligible for health care. Do we really want government putting caps on medical procedures like they do with Medicare?

Underweight toddler denied health insurance

As President, Obama had a moral and ethical responsibility not to re-invent health-care but to regulate insurance companies who have been gouging for years and cherry-picking pre-existing conditions.

Here is Obama’s record  on the Obama-meter the first year in office and the overly ambitious campaign promises he has failed to deliver to the Obama faithful:

No. 24: End income tax for seniors making less than $50,000

“Will eliminate all income taxation of seniors making less than $50,000 per year. This will eliminate taxes for 7 million seniors — saving them an average of $1,400 a year– and will also mean that 27 million seniors will not need to file an income tax return at all.”

No. 234: Allow five days of public comment before signing bills

To reduce bills rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them, Obama “will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.”

No. 240: Tougher rules against revolving door for lobbyists and former officials

“No political appointees in an Obama-Biden administration will be permitted to work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years. And no political appointee will be able to lobby the executive branch after leaving government service during the remainder of the administration.”

No. 505: Create a $3,000 tax credit for companies that add jobs

“During 2009 and 2010, existing businesses will receive a $3,000 refundable tax credit for each additional full-time employee hired.”

No. 508: Allow penalty-free hardship withdrawals from retirement accounts in 2008 and 2009

“Obama and Biden are calling for legislation that would allow withdrawals of 15% up to $10,000 from retirement accounts without penalty (although subject to the normal taxes). This would apply to withdrawals in 2008 (including retroactively) and 2009.”

No. 511: Recognize the Armenian genocide

“Two years ago, I criticized the Secretary of State for the firing of U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, after he properly used the term ‘genocide’ to describe Turkey’s slaughter of thousands of Armenians starting in 1915. … as President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.”

No. 517: Negotiate health care reform in public sessions televised on C-SPAN

To achieve health care reform, “I’m going to have all the negotiations around a big table. We’ll have doctors and nurses and hospital administrators. Insurance companies, drug companies — they’ll get a seat at the table, they just won’t be able to buy every chair. But what we will do is, we’ll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents, and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies. And so, that approach, I think is what is going to allow people to stay involved in this process.”

No. 000: Here are other overly ambitious campaign pormises Obama has failed to keep.

Ending the Irag/Afgani war and bringing the troop’s home, closing Guantanamo Bay, providing those who could not afford health-insurance with a “public-option” plan.

As SNL lampooned, it took Obama four-months to choose a dog for the White House. To add insult to injury. the Nobel committee decided to hand out prizes this year for ambition – not performance by awarding Obama with a Nobel Peace Prize- for doing nothing. Many joked that the Nobel committee awarded the prize to Obama because he was not George Bush. (see previous blog: How to win a Nobel Peace Prize without really trying). Perhaps “doing nothing” is …. keeping the peace. Particularly when America has a long-established pattern of butting our noses into the affairs of other nations, having the CIA topple regimes considered “unfriendly” to us. If the Republican party hadn’t derailed itself by letting the wackos and nitwits  like Glenn Beck,  Rush Limbaugh  and Sarah Palin hijack the party, Michael Steele  would now be capitalizing on Obama’s failure to keep his promises to the millions who elected him. They would be strategizing to win back Congressional seats in 2010 and picking a strong candidate to soundly defeat Obama in 2012. A candidate Americans could get behind. But alas, the Republican Party is being seen as the party of “Nazi’s.” If Obama hopes to win re-election in 2012 he had better turn around his dismal administration and start becoming the mover and shaker he promised Americans he would be. Obama’s first move should be to scrap the health-care plan. Tell Congress that they can come back to it later in his presidency (if he has one) and in the meantime Obama should concentrate on jobs and the economy.

Obama is a “professional student,” he has no “street-smarts.” Perhaps it was naive of Obama to make so many overly ambitious campaign promises. Promises which he could never keep. But perhaps it was even more naive of millions of Americans to out an overly naive “professional student” in the White House to begin with. The wacko Republican Party with its nitwit candidates of John McCain and Sarah Palin did not leave many Americans much choice. Election time always seems to come down to the lesser of two evils these days. Obama promised to change the way politics is conducted in America:

POTHEAD COUNTY

Is it a good idea to decriminalize Marijuana in the ghetto? I think not. It’s not the Marijuana itself, it when they combine Marijuana with alcohol, harder drugs and other criminal activities pertaining to Marijuana.

The dispensary has a TV lounge, a pool table and snacks and acupuncture are free for customers who drop up to $130 an ounce for 16 varieties of Marijuana.  Welcome to Pothead County, Colorado (Summit County) the latest Colorado county where Medical Marijuana dispensaries are exploding. Despite the Deadhead and Grateful Dead Posters on the wall or the Mexican blanket tablecloths, business is booming as the number of dispensaries are exploding. This is not the “ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH” that John Denver had in mind. Medical Marijuana users can also look at dozens of websites on the complimentary Internet rating sites such as Yelp or Citysearch to find their Marijuana of choice. The dispensary has five I-phone applications to assist “weed fans” find the closest place to buy bud in 14 states that allow medical marijuana.

Here in Slumming County- former country sheriff is pitted against current country sheriff in the debate. Gary Lindstrom, retired country sheriff and pot-head is in favor of Nov 3, vote to decriminalize pot. Current pain-in-the-ass sheriff John Minor is busting pot-smokers for smoking a joint in their car in the parking lots of the local ski resorts because he knows there’s much money in “fines” to be had.

In my previous blog I wrote about the ghetto conditions of Summit County. (THE GHETTO MENTALITY)

Drugs and alcohol in this high mountain ghetto is about escapism, from low wages, exorbitant rents, conditions of abject poverty, incest, domestic violence. The Summit County Sheriff’s Office logs some 3,000 DUI arrests every month. Add to this the fact that local city-councils have curtailed the number of liquor stores but are allowing Marijuana dispensaries to pop up everywhere simply for the tax revenue,  and you have one big accident waiting to happen. Voters in other wealthy resort towns like Vail and Aspen recently voted down the idea of “Medical Marijuana” dispensaries in their resort towns with the voters clearly stating in exit polls, “ the children in Vail already struggle with identifying appropriate adult conduct because they see guests “acting out” while on vacation. Approving the sale of ‘legal’ marijuana in Vail may further cloud their view of suitable behavior as they approach adulthood.”

Councilman Andy Daly said the Vail community has always been family-oriented and medical marijuana dispensaries aren’t consistent with that. Gee, and here I thought that Summit County (Silverthorne, Dillon, Breckenridge) were family-oriented communities with family-oriented ski resorts like Keystone. Guess I was mistaken. The greed of local city councils in allowing Medical Marijuana Dispensaries to open and operate in a ghetto environment is just one more reason to prohibit them or at least prohibit them prohibit them until the state legislature votes to correct some of the flaws in Amendment 20, the statewide voter-passed amendment that legalized medical marijuana in 2000. But greed and poverty run rampant in Summit County, Colorado and no doubt Summit County will sink into further poverty with rising drug use, crime rates, domestic violence and incest and a lowering of local wages and morality.

HAS TV GOTTEN TOO KINKY, TOO SATANIC? (WELCOME TO COUGARTOWN)

Reminiscent of Michelle Pfeffer’s sexy performance as a lounge singer in The Fabulous Baker Boys, the television trailer  for the new TV series Eastwick shows
a redhead wallowing  atop a grand-piano as she sings the song “Spooky” for the local powerful warlock sitting at the bar. Then the trailers pans to a couple caught by  a local policeman in an alley having just copulated. The trailer for Courtney Cox’s new TV series, Cougar show her throwing herself at a good-looking man walking down the street before she realizes she has already seduced him.  Since ABC-TV is now owned by “Disney” a family-oriented company, the question on many American TV viewers minds is this: HAS TV GOTTEN TOO KINKY, TOO SATANIC? (WELCOME TO EASTWICK AND COUGARTOWN)

Eastwick is an American television drama series created by Maggie Friedman. The series is a television adaptation of the John Updike novel, The Witches of Eastwick, and its 1987 film adaptation. The show currently airs on ABC and is currently being produced by ABC Studios. The show premiered on September 23, 2009 at 10:00 PM ET. The show follows the lives of three strangers, Roxanne, Joanna and Kat, who meet at a wishing fountain and soon become friends. A mysterious man named Darryl Van Horne has moved to Eastwick and has sinister plans for the women, but befriends them. Even more dangerous, he unleashes their supernatural powers. By igniting their hearts’ desires, he might just be opening Pandora’s box. Eastwick opened with initially mixed reviews. Metacritic has given the series 49 out of 100 based on the pilot episode, based upon 20 critical reviews, and a user score of 7.6 out of 10 based on 33 votes. Entertainment Weekly gave the pilot episode a B, stating the show “plays like Desperate Housewives if the Wisteria Lane ladies liked prestidigitation instead of poker.” Variety was also favorable by saying “the pilot represents a polished product that neatly introduces an array of characters and establishes Eastwick as a project with no small measure of potential.” Boston Globe gave the show a more positive review, even though he still compared it to Desperate Housewives, but said, “Desperate Housewives is frustrating because it can’t seem to decide what it is: murder mystery, silly farce, or realistic look at domestic woes. Eastwick is allegory and knows it, so it can be plausibly silly and over-the-top, and hint at real issues – women in the workplace, gender politics at home – without trying too hard … I’ll take witch hazel over wisteria any day.

Cougar Town is an American television sitcom, which premiered on ABC on September 23, 2009. The Urban Dictionary defines “Cougar” as a derogatory term for an older woman who frequents clubs in order to score with a much younger man. The cougar can be anyone from an overly surgically altered wind tunnel victim, to an absolute sad and bloated old horn-meister, to a real hottie or milf. Cougars are gaining in popularity — particularly the true hotties — as young men find not only a sexual high, but many times a chick with her shit together. “That cougar I met last night, showed me shit I didn’t know existed, I’m goin back for more.”

The series focuses on a recently divorced woman who re-enters a dating scene filled with younger men while living with her 17-year old son and embarks on a journey to self-discovery while surrounded by fellow divorcees.The pilot episode of the show was broadcast after Modern Family on September 23, 2009, with the broadcast of the pilot episode achieved 11.28 million viewers. Critical response was mixed, with Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times stating that the show’s “plot description alone could drive away male viewers”while the Los Angeles Times‘ Mary McNamara opined that it “is fun and exciting for women over forty. Where Sex and the Single portrayed women over 40 as being desperate and lonely, Cougar Town portrays 40 something women as unabashed sluts willing to do anything to get laid by a young hard body.

Critics are having their say today and they’re pretty mixed about the new ABC comedy “Cougar Town” The New York Times said the show is “funny even when its heroine is not.” The Times said “the dialogue, timing and jokes have the madcap pace and anarchic spirit of ‘Scrubs’ and it takes a while for Cox to recalibrate her Monica persona from ‘Friends.’ To her credit, Cox is game for anything, and the humor is raunchy and Seth Rogenish.”TV Guide critic Matt Roush writes, “The show’s a little frantic and more than a little crude, but the jokes keep coming and many of them score.” He added, “Watching Cox accentuate her body-image flaws may seem preposterous to most of us, but her goofy self-deprecation is quite endearing.”USA Today’s Robert Bianco says that Cox makes a “sparkling return to television” as Jules Cobb, and that she is “not only convincing but touching – and unfailingly funny.” The Los Angeles Times, while acknolwedging “some funny lines and good acting all around,” said it is a “crude show, built on jokes about oral sex and droopy breasts, a show in which words like “coochie” are used with regrettable abandon.”The Boston Globe rates the show as a C+, saying it “has the potential to be more than a one-joke affair, although Cox hitting on high schoolers is not exactly ha-ha funny. Let’s see how it develops.”

Fortunately for most TV viewers, Eastwick is sinking fast and soon to be cancelled while Cougar Town may or may not be re-newed for 2010-2011 season. Depends on how disgustingly perverted Courtney Cox is willing to get with her character and will parent company of ABC (Disney) let Cox get disgustingly perverted with high-school boys or is it easier for Disney to pull the plug and replace Cougar Town with a Teen show like Dadnapped?

BRONCO FEVER

WARNING!

Bronco Fever is a highly contagious non curable condition that creates severe dependencies in certain individuals. Loss of balance in life is known to occur. An elevated view of the role of college athletics can lead to chronic lack of concentration during more meaningful activities. The typical course of action for sufferers is to enter an “off season” recovery program beginning in the first week of January and continuing through Early August. Symptoms tend to flare up in March and April with the occurrence of spring football camp, but then subside until the beginning of August when unstable individuals can experience a complete recurrence of all symptoms and the condition can worsen. Total break down can occur in some cases after several years of repeated remission / recurrence cycles.

Much has now been said about Josh McDaniels, 33-year-old coach of the Bronco’s and the Bronco’s new Quarterback Kyle Orton, which the Bronco’s received on a trade deal with the Chicago Bears after unloading hissy-fit quarterback Jay Cutler. Poor Bears. Heading into a “bye” week, the 2009 Bronco’s are 6-0. As Bronco fever builds to all time high’s, I thought now would be a good time to present:

TOP TEN SYMPTOMS OF BRONCO FEVER

10. Your idea of Monday Night “Family Home Evening” is gathering the whole family together and curling up to listen to the weekly Chris Peterson interview streamed over the Internet into your living room.

9. When talking to your friends, you tend to ramble about Jeron Johnson’s latest bone-crunching hit. You know you’ve gone too far when you look up and notice their blank looks.

8. When fall rolls around and some one remarks about the beautiful “fall colors” your mind turns not to the reds, browns and yellows of autumn, but to the BLUE AND ORANGE!!

7. When discussing favorite superheroes, Kellen Moore’s name keeps coming to mind.

6. You actually know how to pronounce, Yriarte, Iannacchione, and Bozikovich.

5. You don’t make a single social arrangement from August to December  without first consulting the “Schedule.” (which of course everyone should know and understand to be the Bronco Football Schedule).

4. You truly believe that the BCS should be renamed “Bronco Championship Series” and BSU should be participating in the National Championship Game yearly.

3. While the rest of your family would like Bronco Game Days to be a social event involving friends and family, you discourage the practice to shield the innocents from your excessive game day “intensity.”

2. You secretly wonder if your local auto body shop actually has the “right” Bronco blue and orange for that special 1980’s auto you treasure and wonder if the new paint will clash with its red interior.

And the number one symptom you might have Bronco fever is…………

1. Three Words……..Bronco Toilet Seat!

If you have a symptom we haven’t covered here, please comment! It is vitally important that people become aware of this condition, before it takes them unknowingly. Already thousands have been affected! We’ll update this at a later time. Spread the word about Bronco Fever!

FLU VACCINE SHORTAGE (IS THIS YEAR’S “FLU SEASON” CONTRIVED?)

The novel H1N1 virus first appeared in April. According to the Center for Disease Control, a pandemic – global disease outbreak – of H1N1 flu is under way. Because H1N1 is a new influenza virus there is little public immunity, so the number of those infected is projected to be high. The prediction is that 40 percent of the U.S. population will be infected with the virus over the next two years. One of the biggest differences from seasonal flu is that adults older than 64 years do not seem to be at an increased risk of H1N1 complications. In seasonal flu about 90 percent of deaths are in the older population, with H1N1 the majority of deaths up to this point have occurred in individuals under the age of 50.

Mass TV, radio and newspaper ads are encouraging people to go to their local City Market, Safeway, etc for flu shots only when you arrive you see a piece of paper written in black or blue marker stating: OUT OF FLU VACCINE.

So is the 2009 flu season real or contrived?

Dr. Joel Lehman of the Union Hospital Emergency Department says, “Although there is the possibility of having complications from the H1N1 virus, serious illness from flu is not a new thing. Every year we see many patients in the ER with problems from seasonal flu. In fact last year there were 36,000 deaths in the United States from influenza. A lot of those could be avoided by getting vaccinated. I recommend that people take advantage of the vaccine,” said Lehman.  He continued sayin g that although the H1N1 vaccine is not yet available it is projected to be ready for disbursement by October.”

“People need to be aware that the seasonal flu vaccine is different from the H1N1 vaccine. You will need two separate vaccines in order t o be protected from both viruses.”

Pam Dummermuth from Community Health and Wellness at Union Hospital says that their mantra for flu prevention is hand washing. “I cannot stress enough the importance of good quality hand washing and common sense. Wash hands often and thoroughly,” she said. “Avoid contact with those who are sick. If you personally are sick, stay home.”

The flu is very serious.  Every year, more than 200,000 people are hospitalized because of flu complications.  About 36,000 people die annually from the flu.

Symptoms of the flu include:

• fever (usually high)
• headache
• extreme tiredness
• dry cough
• sore throat
• muscle aches
• runny or stuffy nose
• stomach symptoms (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea)

More serious complications of the flu are more common in certain groups of people.  These serious complications include:

• bacterial pneumonia
• ear infections
• sinus infections
• dehydration

Persons who are more likely to develop these serious complications include:

• children aged 6 months to 5 years
• people 50 years of age and older
• people with chronic medical conditions, such as
• heart disease
• lung disease (including asthma)
• diabetes
• weak immune systems

The single best way to fight the flu is to get a flu shot every year.  The flu shot is a vaccine that contains dead influenza viruses.  The flu shot cannot cause the flu because the flu viruses in the vaccine are dead.  Rather, the vaccine causes our immune systems to make antibodies against the flu virus. After receiving a flu shot, a person’s immune system is better prepared to fight off the virus, and thus reduce the chance of becoming ill.

October or November is usually the best time to get a flu shot.

For more information from the CDC visit www.cdc.gov

Medical professionals and the CDC recommend that in addition to getting a vaccine, individuals take the following everyday actions in order to prevent the spread of seasonal flu and the novel H1N1 virus.
• Cover your nose or mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Dispose of the tissue after use.
• Wash hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol based hand cleaners are also effective.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.
• Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
• If you are sick with flu-like symptoms, keep away from others. You can spread the virus up to seven days after being symptom free.
• Clean frequently touched surfaces. Studies show that the influenza virus can survive for 2 to 8 hours after being deposited on a surface such as a desk or a door- knob.

THE AMAZING APPLE KEEPS COMING UP WITH MORE MYSTIFYING PRODUCTS TO BLOW YOUR MIND. (Or how I learned to swallow the worm and love the Apple)

The amazing new I-Mac

Watching the new video from Apple on its new I-Mac by Jony Ive, Senior Vice-President of Design you quickly realize how much thought and care Apple puts into all its products. This is what makes Apple superior over all non-Apple or PC hardware like Toshiba, Sony, Dell and HP. What makes Apple a superior company to the Windows-based competition is Apple’s overall operating philosophy which seems to be that they work out all the bugs before …. they sell you an Apple product. Windows based computers sell you a product before working out all the bugs which they then have to give customers a “patch” down the road or a series of patches.

Another thing Apple has done in the past two-years to attract even more customers is:

1. lower prices

2. provide a variety of laptops/computers at a variety of prices instead of just two models like when I bought my Macbook Pro in 2006. It just came in white. A year later they added black and now have a one-piece aluminum shell for its Airbook.

Windows launched its new operating system last week, Windows 7- reviews are so/so. Most loyal Windows customers are still using XP Pro with the majority of Windows customers disgusted with the Vista operating system, a Windows 95 jazzed up to seem user-friendly but ended up causing more crashes and technical problems for Windows customers.

Apple, on the other hand, keeps getting better and better with its new operating systems. The new “Snow Leopard” is a “smart” computer which learns from the user which are the most visited sites, the most listened to I-Tunes songs, etc.

For the price I paid for my Macbook Pro in 2006- today I could buy Apple’s top-of-the-line 17-inch Macbook Pro with three-times the features.

Way to go Apple!

YOU’RE NOT GETTING OLDER YOU’RE DEFINITELY GETTING BETTER BABY

Back when I was a kid, I remember a TV commercial for hair color that told women, “You‘re not getting older. You‘re getting better.” Of course, as the ad suggested, women needed a little help in the form of hair color, plastic surgery, tummy tucks, or the truckload of excercise equipment sold on late night TV. Recent photo’s of some of Hollywood’s sex-kittens show that they didn’t need hair color, tummy tucks, plastic surgery or the ton of excercise equipment which finds its way to the annual garage sales. Andie McDowell, Courtney Cox and Cindy Crawford are back and they’re hotter than ever. All of them seem to balance children, husbands, sex lives and a fulfilling career which seems to say to women that you can have it all.

Cindy Crawford, famous for the trademark mole on her face, hails from Dekalb, Illinois and home of Northern Illinois University, recently launched a new line of furniture under the “Cindy Crawford Home Collection” name. This collection is manufactured by HM Richards Inc., and is sold through many retailers including Art Van Furniture and Rooms To Go. She assisted in the creation of the line by directing the designers to include certain features, colors, or styles that fit the needs of families or reflected her own tastes. She also has a furniture line with Raymour & Flanigan and will launch another home goods line with J. C. Penney in late 2009.

Courtney Cox best known for her role as Monica Geller on the sitcom, Friends. Courteney has also starred in Dirt and the Scream series, and has guest-starred in Scrubs. is currently starring in Cougar Town.

Andie McDowell achieved stardom due to the box office success of the 1993 comedy by Harold Ramis, Groundhog Day, and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), opposite Hugh Grant (who admitted afterwards to being intimidated by both MacDowell and her then-husband). Groundhog Day and FWAAF remain MacDowell’s biggest box office hits. MacDowell appears in print and television advertisements for the cosmetic and haircare company L’Oréal.

HALLOWEEN 2009

THE MONSTER MASH BY BOBBY “BORIS” PICKETT

In night when colors all to black are cast,
Distinction lost, or gone down with the light;
The eye a watch to inward senses placed,
Not seeing, yet still having powers of sight,
Gives vain alarums to the inward sense,
Where fear stirred up with witty tyranny,
Confounds all powers, and thorough self-offense,
Doth forge and raise impossibility:
Such as in thick depriving darknesses,
Proper reflections of the error be,
And images of self-confusednesses,
Which hurt imaginations only see;
And from this nothing seen, tells news of devils,
Which but expressions be of inward evils.

~Sonnet 100
Lord Brooke Fulke Greville (1633)

HottestCostumes.com has published the results of it’s survey of the top costumes for Halloween 2009. Each year the website contacts retailers of costumes to get a pulse of what are the hottest costumes for that year.

The 2009 results displayed a trend toward traditional costumes. While this was not totally unexpected due to the typically lower cost versus costumes that are licensed from recent movie blockbusters. There were still several movie character costumes that made the top ten. This was especially true in the mens and boys costume categories.

Kristen Grace, Affiliate Marketing Manager of BuyCostumes.com stated “Given the fact that Halloween falls on a Saturday this year means adult ‘party-going’ customers will likely buy one or even two costumes! We expect our adult customers to spend just as much on Halloween as last year.” when queried about expected sales due to the current down economy. “Responses similar to Kristens’ lead us to believe that even with consumers feeling a financial pinch, they are looking forward to the inexpensive escapism that Halloween provides” stated Steven Stackman owner of Specialty Marketing Service, the operator of www.HottestCostumes.com and www.BestCostumeContest.com a site for consumers to upload their favorite costume pictures and compete to win prizes.

The complete list of the 10 hottest costumes for girls, women, boys and men has been published at www.HottestCostumes.com along with prices and online retailer availability.

batgirl costume batman costume boy costumes clone trooper costume dorothy costume gi joe costume girl costumes hannah montana jack sparrow costume little mermaid costume Mens Costume nun costumepirate costume pirate wench costume pretty witch costume princess costume snake eyes costume snow white costume supergirl costume super mario costume witch costume wolverine costumeWomens Costume wonder woman costume

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

KH

How to win the Nobel Peace prize without really trying, the extortionist’s among us, the ghetto mentality and Frugalista’s

HOW TO WIN THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WITHOUT REALLY TRYING

The “do nothing” president incapable of making decisions has won the Nobel Peace Prize as announced today by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The committee said it honored Obama for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

“Saturday Night Live” formed in the crucible of the mid-1970s, when Watergate brought respect for politicians to all-time lows, had Fred Armisen portraying Barack Obama last weekend in a talked-about sketch Saturday night on “Saturday Night Live.” It was a powerful combination — after 34 years, “SNL” and politics can still strike sparks among political observers. Armisen, as President Obama, chided “those on the right” for saying that he was “turning this great country into something that resembles the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany. “Not true, said Armisen as Obama. “When you look at my record,” he said, “it’s very clear what I’ve done so far — and that is nothing.”

Obama Address

And now, it appears that the Nobel Peace Prize Committee awards the Nobel Peace prize for doing, “nothing,” nada! for almost a year. Perhaps doing nothing brings about “peace.” It took Obama 4-months to pick out a dog.

“His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population,” the committee said of Obama.

Obama’s diplomacy is founded in doing ‘nothing” except making a great speech. Let’s hope that doing “nothing” has not become the pre-requisite to winning the worlds most prestigious award.

THE EXTORTIONIST’S AMONG US

When I was in college, extortionist or blackmailers were arrested by the FBI and thrown in jail. This being the by- product of the Lindberg kidnapping. Today, extortionists are running around free trying to extort money out of everyone from late-night talk-show host David Letterman, John Travolta and others. A stolen “passionate embrace” between David Letterman and former assistant Stephanie Birkitt fueled a jealous rage within alleged extortionist Robert “Joe” Halderman, according to a friend and former co-worker. Halderman had attempted to extort Letterman for $2 million, saying they have tape recorded conversations to prove it.

For his part, Letterman has addressed the scandal with his typical brand of seriousness and self-deprecating wit. He has used his talk show to apologize to his wife and to his staffers and to poke fun at his situation.

“I would give anything to be hiking on the Appalachian Trail,” he joked, in a reference to South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, whose dramatic extramarital affair had been a previous prime target for Letterman.

Two well-known Bahamian citizens and a paramedic are being quizzed by the police in a 20-million-dollar extortion plot targeting John Travolta following the death of his 16-year-old son. Lightbourne was one of the paramedics who tried to revive Jett and is said to have taken a picture of the 16-year-old with his cell phone. The devastated father was said to have become a victim of the extortion attempt over the death of his son Jett, who died from a seizure during a family holiday in the Bahamas on January 2. The actor and his wife Kelly Preston had alleged that two blackmailers threatened to publish a photo of the teenager as he lay struggling for his life unless they were paid “millions of dollars.” John Travolta’s two blackmailers are said to have been caught on tape making an extortion deal with the star’s lawyer over documents connected to the death of his son Jett. According to new evidence obtained by People magazine, paramedic Tarino Lightbourn and his lawyer, Pleasant Bridgewater, who have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit extortion, could end up behind bars. Videotape recorded secretly by the Royal Bahamas Police show Lightbourn and Bridgewater attempting to secure a multi-million payment from Travolta for the return of a form the star signed just before his son was pronounced dead. A month after the alleged negotiation, Travolta met with Bahamas police officials to file a complaint that led to the current Nassau trial, which began earlier this week. John Travolta flew to the Bahamas yesterday as he prepared to be the first witness in an extortion case linked to the death of his 16-year-old son Jett. It is rumoured to be the star’s first visit to the island since his son’s death in January, and he is set to give evidence against a paramedic and his attorney, who tried to extort $25m from him for a document about the incident.

THE GHETTO MENTALITY

$300,000 Off!- Elk River Ranch

NOW GREATLY REDUCED!

the photo ad taped to the window of the downtown real-estate office announced. The last few years, realtors have been trying to seduce the “uber-rich” to buy property up here in Colorado’s ski country with little success.

The reason for their failure? Colorado’s ski-country has become a “ghetto” with city, county and resort managers all displaying a “ghetto mentality.” Summit County, located just due west of Loveland Pass,  on Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Divide, some 70 miles west of Denver includes the ski areas of Loveland Pass, A-Basin, Keystone, Breckenridge, and Copper Mountain. Summit County used to be a great place to live: with a phenomenal view,  quaint ski resorts, and outdoor opportunities galore. But there was a  downside. As more and more people were  drawn to Summit County for its amenities, housing prices skyrocketed, and jobs and wages failed to keep pace. The result is one of the largest gaps between income and housing costs in the mountain west. That means real poverty for some, and severe economic challenges for many others.

In the 1980’s, the “ski experience” was the area’s number #1 priority. In the 90’s as Canadian companies bought out Colorado’s ailing ski companies, “real-estate” and “development” became the number #1 priority with the “ski experience” becoming a dismal number #2. A ghetto mentality overtook all of the city, county and resort managers. The lazy city managers have been content to live off the fat “tax” revenue of the factory-outlet stores instead of creating something truly special here. There was so much potential here before the lazy, greedy, inept city councils decided to let strip-malls, fast foods and factory outlet stores who pay nearly slave wages take over the entire county. Three-years ago the town of Silverthorne announced they were creating a “downtown” with Town Hall etc. locals were so excited until the project was completed and it turned out to be all hype- the new downtown turned out to be just another strip mall with a mattress store. The newly built Silverthorne Rec Center with indoor water-park,  charges such high admission, the working poor cannot afford membership and at last printing, the Rec Center does not provide scholarships.

POVERTY WITH A VIEW

The property managers, too lazy to even check on their own properties, have been content to live off the fat “rent” dollars of the Mexicans who are living two families to a tw0-bedroom condo and allowing an entire subdivision to be taken over by Mexicans, Africans or poor whites and become a “ghetto.” When the property becomes too run down, the lazy property managers simply sell the property which becomes someone else problem but still a ghetto. One block away from the million-dollar Mc’Mansions which dot the Raven Gold Course, there lies a run-down trailer park. The “uber-rich” drive by the trailer park and say, “there’s no way in hell I am going to spend this kind of money with a ghetto just a block away. Last week, the inept Silverthorne City Council bought Smiths Ranch, adjacent to the Raven Golf Course for 3.5-million-dollars to be turned into “affordable housing.” I.e- ten years down the road, another ghetto. The uber-rich see the ghetto communities in Silverth0rne, Dillon Valley East, Wildernest,  Farmers Corner’s (which has a trailer park at the entrance to  the new Summit County High School) and French Creek in Breckenridge, they see the “free” bus system packed with Mexicans and realize that the entire county is just a ghetto. The uber-rich, those with money to bu into really nice areas would rather spend their money up north in Steamboat Springs, Vail, Aspen, Telluride. Ski resorts that do not have a “ghetto-metality.”

The lazy resort managers have become so content with hiring “rich Brazilians” who show up for six-weeks in January to work basically for free or a “free ski pass” started cutting wages 2 years ago. Since 2007, local ski resorts have cut hourly wages $2.50 an hour. Down from $11 hour to $8.50/$9.50 with little or no employee housing. Local area employees refuse to work for such low wages with or without housing when average rents for a one-bedroom is $1000 month and roommate situations start at $750 month. Last month, President Obama changed the law concerning issuance of H2 Visas basically saying that if resorts hire foreign workers, (from anywhere) they have to reimburse workers round-trip air transportation. Chinese workers here this summer, paid $2000 RT air from China. Vail Resorts, which is a cheap employer, is not going to pay this kind of money up front. 10 Chinese workers would cost them $20,000 up front. And the resorts, counting on being able to hire a number of locals willing to work cheap are going to be caught short this season, finding themselves unable to hire enough workers to open all their facilities, restaurants, bars, ski hills, etc. Resorts have cut their own throats. Intrawest, which owns Copper Mountain just sold the property to CNI Investments have been tight-lipped.about details of the transfer.

The past decade,city managers have allowed  downtown Dillon to become a ghetto. As businesses pulled out, they were replaced by thrift stores, run down second hand furniture stores. Recently city officials hired a top-notch architect who came up with beautifully detailed renderings of a new downtown with coffee shops, art galleries, outdoor patio seating etc. The problem is, the only way city officials are going to get rid of the Mexicans, the thrift store and the myriad of social-service agencies frequenting the downtown is by exercising “EMINENT DOMAIN” and an ugly and lengthy court battle.

So the uber-rich are rediscovering Telluride, Steamboat Springs, Crested Butte and other “Uber” ski areas that have not become a ghetto.

FRUGALISTA’S

Arbiters of good usage resigned to being called “word police are again being assaulted by Target’s over-use of a new word  in its TV ads aimed toward women.

Frugalista, defined as “a person who lives a frugal lifestyle but stays fashionable and healthy by swapping clothes, buying secondhand, growing own produce, etc.”

This could become the nom de guerre of the “recession warrior.”
The adjective frugal is rooted in the Latin for “fruits,” which in the 16th century some found relatively cheap. The word was at first applied to the careful apportionment of food, but Shakespeare in his 1598 “Merry Wives of Windsor” used it as a metaphor to mean “sparingly supplied; thrifty” of anything, as, “I was then Frugall of my mirth.”

The term “frugalista” is apparently quite popular, such that the word has even been defined by the Oxford English Dictionary. There are a bunch of bloggers who write about “frugal living” who refer to themselves as “frugalistas.”

According to Target’s new TV ad: “Frugalistas know how to out-dress, not out-spend.”

Too bad they don’t know how to speak or use the English language properly.

The “word-police” or wordinistas  beg all those who murder the English Language for cutsey corporate marketing purposes to please stop now!

KH

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Exposing the secret agenda behind today’s obsession with “Global Warming”

Obama: We can reverse climate change

Obama always gives a great speech but more and more, as with climate change and health-care-plan, his speeches are mostly lip service.

Science and technology have morphed at such an exponential rate for so long that it may be beyond our ability to regulate or control.

Climate change, according to which expert you listen to, which study, is either “irreversible” or the opposite, that we have had minimal impact on climate change over the last century even with all our gas guzzling automobiles, coal burning plants, etc. The dilemma comes down to the glass is half full/half empty syndrome. The scientific community itself is divided over whether the earth is in the midst of “global warming” or entering the cycle of a new “ice age.”

One thing is for sure, Al Gore belongs to the Liars Club along with Rush Limbaugh and other’s. He promoted a “fear agenda” in promoting “global warming” to line his pockets with millions of “green” dollars. In fact, I suspect this whole “green movement” is just a scam to line the pockets of those who own “green businesses” or promoting “green technologies.”

Now it’s common knowledge that the majority of American citizens have joined world citizens in having their ecological consciousness raised since the 1960’s. Most people in the world know what “recycling” is. Most Americans celebrate Earth Day and Plant A Tree Day. A great many separate their trash into paper or plastic. Government regulation have forced Americans to buy water-saving toilets and now the Obama administration has mandated that the fleet wide Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard will rise to 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016, accelerating the timetable for federal standards set in a 2007 energy law (PL 110-140), which would have required that standard to be met by 2020. The current standard is 27.5 miles per gallon. The regulations cover model years 2012 to 2016, meaning auto manufacturers will have to immediately reconfigure their product lines in order to comply with the federal requirements.

Many Americans are doing what they can to contribute to a “greener” America by recycling, planting trees, monitoring electric and water consumption but do we face a crisis as Obama claims? I think not. In an excerpt from Obama’s speech to the United nations Obama claims:

The threat from climate change is serious, it is urgent, and it is growing. Our generation’s response to this challenge will be judged by history, for if we fail to meet it — boldly, swiftly, and together — we risk consigning future generations to an irreversible catastrophe. No nation, however large or small, wealthy or poor, can escape the impact of climate change. Rising sea levels threaten every coastline. More powerful storms and floods threaten every continent. More frequent drought and crop failures breed hunger and conflict in places where hunger and conflict already thrive. On shrinking islands, families are already being forced to flee their homes as climate refugees. The security and stability of each nation and all peoples — our prosperity, our health, our safety — are in jeopardy. And the time we have to reverse this tide is running out.

Sounds like a great speech right? That;s what Obama does. He is a great orator. Probably the best since Bill Clinton or Abe Lincoln. But great orators can be full of shit. According to the majority of world experts on climate change, climate change is cyclical. Up to this point, climate change can be explained as natural phenomenon. Experts know that every 100-years, the climate patterns shift.

A major new scientific study concludes the impact of carbon dioxide emissions on worldwide temperatures is largely irrelevant, prompting one veteran meteorologist to quip, “You can go outside and spit and have the same effect as doubling carbon dioxide.”

Meteorologist Reid Bryson

That comment comes from Reid Bryson, founding chairman of the Department of Meteorology at the University of Wisconsin, who said the temperature of the earth is increasing, but that it’s got nothing to do with what man is doing.

“Of course it’s going up. It has gone up since the early 1800s, before the Industrial Revolution, because we’re coming out of the Little Ice Age, not because we’re putting more carbon dioxide into the air.”

The project, called “Heat Capacity, Time Constant, and Sensitivity of Earth’s Climate System,” was authored by Brookhaven National lab scientist Stephen Schwartz.

“Effectively, this (new study) means that the global economy will spend trillions of dollars trying to avoid a warming of (about) 1.0 K by 2100 A.D.,” Wilson wrote in a note to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Sunday. He was referring to the massive expenditures that would be required under such treaties as the Kyoto Protocol.

And who benefits by promoting world-wide fears about global warming or climate change? Lying phonies like Al Gore and owners, promoters of “Green technologies” who are beginning to not only stuff their pockets with billions of dollars but lobbying governments around the world to pass legislation designed to enrich lying phonies like Al Gore and owners of green technologies. Of course, we all want to live healthy, use products that do minimal damage to our planet earth. But di we want to be lied to, manipulated and forced into having to “live green” by lying pills like Al Gore? Do we really want the “green police” who will arrest people for not recycling, or using “green products?” Do we want to begin arresting people who choose to not mow their lawns? Do we want to pass laws telling us we can only drive or water our lawns on alternate days and be arrested or fined for violating these “Eco Laws?”

I am not a big supporter of past president George W. Bush but Bush refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol because he knew it was a “Big lie” and that America would end up spending millions/trillions  avoid a warming of (about) 1.0 K by 2100 A.D.”

Gore made – and stars in – a film about purported global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth,” that won an Oscar. It has become mandatory for students in many high schools and colleges.

However, the studies assembled by Inhofe’s team said that’s not necessarily so, according to the scientists. Al Gore not only told an “inconvenient lie” but forced his “lie” upon millions of high-school students and college students who now believe the lie. Inconveniently, Gore forgot to mention the millions he pocketed off his inconvenient lie. The inconvenient truth is this folks:

“If we were to stop manufacturing CO2 tomorrow, we wouldn’t see the effects of that for generations.”

Generations. Former Harvard physicist Lubos Motl added that those promoting the fear of man-made climate changes are “playing the children’s game to scare each other.” Joel Schwartz, of the American Enterprise Institute, said, “there’s hardly any additional warming ‘in the pipeline’ from previous greenhouse gas emissions.” The environmentalists’ climate hysteria, and the political pretext for the energy-restriction policies that have become so popular with the world’s environmental regulators, elected officials, and corporations is just a “BIG LIE!”

United Nations scientist, Jim Renwick, recently conceded that climate models,  “do not account for the variability in nature, and so are not reliable.” And Conklin noted the U.S. National Climate Data Center has compiled data that shouldn’t be used, because its reporting points are located on hot black asphalt, next to trash burn barrels and even attached to hot chimneys, a methodology that is “seriously flawed.”

Al Gore won the “best documentary” Oscar for his disaster film “An Inconvenient Truth.” The news media beat the drum of “climate catastrophe” daily, all but ignoring scientists who say the threat is overblown or nonexistent. And across America, school children are frightened to death with tales of rising oceans, monster tornadoes, droughts and millions dying – all because of man-made global warming. However, hidden just beneath the surface of the world’s latest environmental craze is a stunningly different reality, Al Gore is a liar who manipulated not only Americans but citizens worldwide to line his pockets with CASH.

U.S. Sen. James Inhofe has pointed out, that “for more than 100 years, journalists have quoted scientists predicting the destruction of civilization by, in alternation, either runaway heat or a new Ice Age.”

Today, to cover all their bases, much of the press is changing its terminology from “global warming” to “climate change” or “climate catastrophe.” That way they’re covered either way: If the world gets colder, global warming is still at fault.

IT’S A LIE!

Barring some meteorological catastrophe, more than likely the world will blow itself up long before the damaging effects of climate change are ever felt. With insane leaders in N. Korea, Iran and China developing nuclear weapons and shooting off missiles, Believe me, Obama needs to spend his energies focusing on “dismantlement” by either peaceful or non-peaceful means than he does making agreat speech to the UN. We all know Obama is a great speech maker and we all know Obama is full of “hot air” most of the time.

As “Deep Throat” famously told Washington Post “Watergate” reporter Bob Woodward, “Follow the money.”

Whistleblower shows how all the main players – from politicians and scientists to big corporations and the United Nations – benefit from instilling fear into billions of human beings over the unproven theory of man-made global warming. Indeed, just three weeks after the U.N. ratcheted up international fears over global warming, a panel of 18 scientists from 11 countries has now reported to the U.N. that the only thing that can stop catastrophic climate change is a global tax – on greenhouse gas emissions.

That’s right. Global problems, real or conjured up, require global governmental solutions. As Whistleblower explains, environmentalism is nothing less than the global elitists’ replacement ideology for communism/socialism and we all know that Obama has a “socialist” agenda, not only with “Climate Change” but health-care, and Wall Street.” Is Obama just turning out to be a grey-shade of Al Gore?

Global warming will be one of the most powerfully coercive weapons in the globalists’ arsenal for the foreseeable future,” said David Kupelian, WND managing editor and author of “The Marketing of Evil.” “It’s important that everyone understands the game being played.

KH

Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them)

Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them)

Remember that old childhood ditty that went:

“Liar, liar, pants on fire/ Hangin’ on a telephone wire!”

The health care debate has been hijacked by angry people who have health insurance, don’t want their apple-cart upset, and thusly have resorted to spreading out-and-out lies about the current attempt at reform. And the health-care debate has been hijacked by United Health Care of Minnesota and other insurance companies who have been “price=gouging” for years and posting 155-percent profits in the last second quarter.

But the debate is more than just a debate over necessary, often vital insurance benefits- the debate is about the debate and control- and the winners will define how such political debate is conducted in this country the next eight-years.

The class-less republicans have fired the first volley when bulbous loudmouthed windbag Rush Limbaugh announced publicly that he would do everything in his power to see that young whippersnapper candidate Obama would fail. Last night during the Presidents speech to Congress, and during a nationally televised event with millions of Americans watching, Rep. Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina, yelled “You lie!” when Obama said no illegal immigrants would receive benefits under his plan.

“These guys don’t care about you,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said of the town hall protesters. “They care about YouTube.”

“We can spot a ringer,” Durbin said.

Reid acknowledged that Democrats faced questions about their health care reform push, but he said the party was gradually working through and making progress in what he described as a difficult legislative process.

“People have concerns about it. Rightfully so. They should have concerns about it. We all have concerns about it,” he said. “But even if people have concerns about it, they shouldn’t stand in the way of a process that is one that is deliberative and trying to arrive at a product that we can all be proud of.”

The war of words or the war over the framework of future debate is on and both sides have taken the gloves off. It’s a bare knuckles, knock down drag out fight now with the winners controlling how public debate is conducted in America.

IN other words, if the liars win with their practice of fear-mogering- that’s how public debate will conducted the next 8 years and both sides will be doing it- fearmongering, scaring the bejeebers out of Sr, Citizens and average working Americans.

Name calling, finger pointing, fear mongering, outright lying  will not stop the same sorts of people who dreamt up “death panels” for insisting otherwise as they try to fire-bomb health-care reform, Nitwits like Alaskan;s former governor Sarah Palin whose daughter had a baby out-of-wedlock, whose husband was having adulterous affairs on her and who herself was involved in shady, questionable financial dealings involving state contracts before she resigned as Alaska’s nitwit talking, moose-shooting governor.

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right is a satirical book on American politics by comedian, political commentator and now Senator Al Franken, published in 2003 by Dutton. The book’s subtitle is a parody of Fox News’ tagline “Fair and Balanced.” Fox sued Franken over the use of the phrase in a short-lived lawsuit, Lies is one of several books published in 2003 written by American liberals challenging the viewpoints of conservatives such as Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter. These books by Franken and fellow authors such as Joe Conason, Michael Moore and Jim Hightower were described by columnist Molly Ivins as the “great liberal backlash of 2003.”

In Lies, Franken divides American media into two groups: the mainstream media, which attempts to be objective, and the right-wing media, which does not. “The mainstream media”, Franken wrote, “does not have a liberal bias, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, Newsweek, and the rest at least try to be fair.” Franken notes that, while the mainstream media do have biases toward sensationalism, the easy story, and soft news, the right wing media, including Fox News, The Washington Times, and the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, “are not interested in conveying the truth.” He argues that they exist to further the cause of American conservatism by advancing stories and themes that work to the benefit of conservatives and to the detriment of liberals.[3]

Franken seeks to debunk the claim that the mainstream American media are liberally biased. Franken believes that the claim of media “liberal bias” is a myth used by conservative politicians. Propagating this myth, Franken asserts, serves three functions. First, it creates reluctance among mainstream media outlets to cover issues that conservatives don’t want them to, for fear that they will be accused of having a liberal bias. Second, it allows conservatives to deny or dismiss reports in the mainstream media, regardless of whether they are true, because they have discredited the source already. Third, attacking the media can be effective at increasing conservative voter turnout.
Franken on book tour

The book criticizes several conservative authors and pundits by pointing out factual inaccuracies and deceptive statements he says they have made. Franken criticizes Ann Coulter on a number of points related to what Franken alleges as abuses or violations of journalistic ethics in her book Slander. In addition to accusing her of lying, Franken accuses Coulter of deliberately misusing citations in order to further a misleading political agenda. Franken also criticizes former CBS reporter Bernard Goldberg for what he claims is selective decontextualized quoting and other dishonest material in his book Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News. Franken recounts an incident on Phil Donahue’s talk show on MSNBC when he confronted Goldberg about a misleading quote attributed to NBC anchor and commentator John Chancellor.

The book also criticizes Bill O’Reilly, with whom Al Franken has a public feud. Franken accuses O’Reilly of being a serial and pathological liar, recounting multiple controversies relating to O’Reilly, including O’Reilly’s inaccurate statements regarding Peabody awards, his heated interview with Jeremy Glick, and his boycott of Pepsi for hiring rap artist Ludacris. Franken pokes fun at O’Reilly for moralizing about the sexually explicit and violent themes of Ludacris’ songs despite having himself written a book, Those Who Trespass, which contains violent and sexual imagery and profanity. Franken also recounts his heated confrontation with O’Reilly at BookExpo America 2003, seen on C-SPAN.

THE LIARS CLUB

So lets take a look at the lying liars and the lies they tell starting with Rep. Joe Wilson: “Rep. Wilson’s words were an insult to the president of the United States and an embarrassment to the U.S. House of Representatives,” McCollum said in a statement. “He crossed a line of protocol and decency that may be acceptable for angry ‘teabaggers’ at a rally, but is completely unacceptable for a member of Congress in the House chambers. Rep. Joe Wilson is a manipulative liar and one cannot nor should not believe his insincere apology to the president. Come on! Wilson knows that the prez’s speech to Congress is a nationally televised event. He knew his outburst would cause controversy. With the controversy Wilson hopes to control the flow of the debate on Health Care. His refusal to apologize to his fellow members of Congress, whom he severely embarrassed, goes to show his insincerity. Later, in a soundbite excusing his poor behavior, he said he believed he had “civility.” Another lie.  Rep. Joe Wilson is a manipulative liar who should be censured if not taken out back by the few remaining members of Congress who still believe in America and used as a punching bag. Arrogant  Liars like Wilson know there are no consequences for their lying, their traitorous speech,  or their rude, arrogant behavior. Years ago, when J. Edgar Hoover ruled America with an iron-fist- Wilson would have had a fatal accident. Today. liars like Wilson hide behind the 1st amendment and the law.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid launched his harshest attack on the Republican Party in months, claiming the GOP is “being run by a talk show host.” They’re taking their cues from talk show hosts, Internet rumor mongers, and insurance rackets.”

“I just think, as I’ve said before, it’s not often that you try to blow yourself up, but that’s obviously what they’re trying to do with all this vexatious stuff they’re doing with these meetings, the birthers. It’s a party being run by a talk show host,” Reid said.

Glenn Beck’s tough week

The commentator was mocked like a nerd, accused of frog cooking, and made fun of on “SNL.”

Angry Republican liars like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly Are Killing Republicans and the Republican Party.

Rush Limbaugh had this to say about the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy, one of the greatest politicians of our lifetime: Rush Limbaugh of WABC, who began by noting Kennedy’s reputation as “the lion of the Senate” and added, “We were his prey.”

Recovering alcoholic, staunch libertarian and—according to detractors—occasional wacko, Glenn Beck has become a bright star at Fox News since he launched his show two months ago and quickly doubled the ratings in the “Fair and Balanced” cable network’s sluggish 5 p.m. slot. Part raging populist, part “rodeo clown” (his own description), Beck regularly scorches President Barack Obama (whom he has accused of trying to remake America into a totalitarian state), has wondered if the government is plotting to use the Federal Emergency Management Agency to operate concentration camps for the politically incorrect, and is already the third most-watched cable-news personality, after Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity. This is a guy who one year ago was in a suicidal state with his out of control alcoholism and drug addiction and he has the audacity to berate the president of the United States? A fricking drug addict? Said Beck:

“I got to the point where you said that if someone had brought me a handgun into the hospital room, I would’ve blown my brains out. “

Rush Limbaugh is another drug addict. He was indicted by the Feds when his housekeeper, whom he has since fired, was apprehended trying to buy Oxy-contin for Rush without a prescription. A deal Limbaugh  struck with Tampa Bay authorities over a prescription drug charge allowed Limbaugh to walk away largely unscathed. Many claim this drug addicted lunatic is the unofficial head of the Republican Party. The party, that lying Rep. Joe Wilson belongs to. Is the Republican Party becoming the party of liars and drug addicts? It would seem so.

If the lying and the hatred doesn’t stop- people will take up guns again and assassinations of politicians and notables will start all over again in this country like in the 1960’s with the Kennedy brother’s. Martin Luther King, Malcom X and racial killings by the KKK in America’s deepest south.

Mr “Sensitivity, Sean Hannity’s weekly show on KCSB was canceled after less than a year by station managers upset with his remarks about gays and lesbians. This was after two shows featuring the book The AIDS Coverup: The Real and Alarming Facts about AIDS by Gene Antonio; among other remarks, Hannity told a lesbian caller:

“I feel sorry for your child.”

Most people first heard of Sean Hannity when he made frequent appearances as a guest host for Rush Limbaugh. More militant, more religious, and without any “baggage” that has dogged Limbaugh (like drug use, questions about military service, and multiple marriages). Hannity is one of the most militant war-mongerer in the public spotlight. Not only was he overwhelmingly in favor of the war in Afghanistan, not only is he supportive of the current war in Iraq, not only does he encourage an endless war against terrorism – he  espouses in a virtual declaration,  going to war against China, Iran, Syria, and North Korea. Hannity is a master apologist for the Republican Party. He continually rails against “left wing elites”"liberals”, “Democrats” , the “Democratic Party” , the “liberal elite” , the “liberal establishment” , the “left-wing establishment” , the “left” , “liberal opposition” , “liberal detractors”, and “liberal government leaders.”

Dave Heckel: I Came Out Of Rehad Because Sean Hannity’s A Big Fat Liar

There are many other members of the media “Liars Club,” but because of the number of liars and the power they wield, the power of the talk-show hosts, the blogs, in recent polls, Americans Distrust the Media. Several new polls reveal widening gap between what the media reports and what people actually believe. 86 percent of Americans agree (strongly or somewhat) that the news media attempts to influence public policies. Over half of all survey respondents, 59.8 percent, agreed (strongly or somewhat) that negative media coverage damages prospects for success in Iraq because it encourages terrorists, and about half, 49.1 percent, agreed (strongly or somewhat) that things are likely going better for the U.S. than the U.S. media portrays.” The same could be said of the economy from a year ago when the majority of Americans believed September 2008 that the “sky was falling.” In a poll conducted by Pew Research center: just 29 percent of Americans surveyed believe the media gets the facts right, and a scant 18 percent think news organizations are truly objective. A Pew Research Center study indicates that Americans’ trust of the media is the lowest it’s been since at least 1985. After years of conservatives and Republicans leading the press attack pack in terms of accuracy and bias, now the other side of the political aisle is joining that chorus. Pew results show 59 percent of Democrats now think that press reports are often inaccurate, and 67 percent say the media chooses sides on issues more often than not. Television remains the dominant source for national and international news for those surveyed, but the Internet now places second above newspapers and radio.

“Liars begin by imposing upon others, but end deceiving themselves.”

KH

THE PRICE IS “JACKED”

GROCERY STORE WARS

Remember your last trip to the grocery store?

There you were looking around and the price tags reading 4 for $5.00, buy 3 get 3 free, etc which left you so confused you thought you needed a calculator to figure out how much the price of an item was? The greedy grocery store corporations like KROGER, SAFEWAY, JEWEL and others don’t want you to know how much an item costs. They want you to be confused so you will spend more money in their stores than you intended to and so that you will be so confused you don;t realize that the greedy-green grocers are “price-gouging.”

They get away with price-gouging by a technigue I have come to call, “creative pricing.”

Last week Safeway had on special Cocal Cola 2-litre bottles. Buy three-get three free. Can’t they just say “Buy one- get one free?” If a grocery is listed as 5 for $10 can;t the price sticker just say the item is $2 each with your Safeway card? In the past 3 months I have seen just about every variation of the “buy one get one free:”

buy three-get three free

buy two get one free

you get the picture. Seems greedy grocers like KROGER and SAFEWAY have gone out and hired crafty bean counters to come up with slick, clever pricing to keep the average customer confused.

Here’s my question: Why do you need a Safeway card to get these discounts? If they’re going to put something on sale- why can;t they just put an item on sale? Why do you have to have the grocers card? It’s ridlous because every grocer accepts the competitors grocery card for the discount. My safeway card works at Kroger  (City Market, King Soopers) and my Kroger card works at Safeway. The grocery card to get the discount is a ridiciulous game the greedy grocer plays to make the consumer think he is getting a deal when in fact, the grocer like Kroger and Safeway have just jacked the price of an item up before putting it on sale, or the sale item is an error on the part of the grocery management. Somebody ordered too many hot dogs and not the store faces either putting them on a buy one get one free sale or throwing out the entire extra allotment.

sticker shock at the grocery store is going to be with us for some time. Food prices predicted to rise 4-5 percent this year

On a recent trip to the store I left with four small bags of basic groceries for nearly $100! One pack of Oscar Meyer hot dogs was $5 last winter at the Jewel in Arlington Heights, a suburb of Chicago. The same package of dogs here at my Colorado mountain grocer is around $279. How can some grocery chains justify selling hot dogs for $5 a pack when others sell them for half that price? It’s price gouging.

The Department of Agriculture is predicting a 4 to 5 percent rise in food prices this year. Now consumers are searching out bargains at the grocery store – certainly an about-face from the previous norm of relying on convenience foods. The search for a bargain may seem to force shoppers to look less at healthier choices and more at the bottom line in search of bargains.

Benefit your health and your pocketbook- start shopping for groceries at the “Super Walmarts.” The Super-Walmarts deal in quantity- they buy a shitload of product whcih is why they keep their prices to a bare minimum. If they buy a cargo ship of hiotdogs and don;t sell them for a dollar a package- they’re not going to make much money on the product and they;re going to be throwing out an awful lot ofmproduct. As it is- even with Walmart’s low grocery prices and continuous sales- Walkart still throws out a  ton of product. In addition to shopping at the Super Walmarts, think about joing a coop club like Sams Club and other’s. A recent trip to Sams Club- a stack of  ten tombstone pizzas sold for $10. That’s a dollar apiece folks. Beats having to order a pizze and paying Pizza Hut $17-27-dollars for a large pizza lus delivery.  Other low priced shopping chains nationwide are ALDI, and the various dollar stores like DEALS. DEALS has frozen pizzas like Tombstone, fresh gallon of milk at half the price of your local grocery store.

When faced with similar nasty pricing, New York State passed an anti-milk-price-gouging law in 1991.

Free market advocates have long opposed price gouging laws on the grounds that such laws interfere with market forces and ultimately lead to shortages.  But I’m now rethinking this position. It is getting increasingly difficult to ignore the facts: Prices have increased by almost 42.6% over the past year.  Most Americans have little choice but to pay the higher prices due to the lack of practical substitute products.  and the greedy grocers like KROGER (City Market, King Soopers) SAFEWAY, ALBERTSONS and tothers know that they have a captive audience.

From April 2006 to April 2009, grocery prices have risen 3.9%. Over the last 5 years, food prices have increased 12.2% nationwide. Among the items whose prices have risen the fastest are eggs, milk, bread and breakfast cereal. This morning, I went to my local grocery store with the intention of buying and trying new Chocolate Chex breakfast cereal. I stood in the cereal isle with my head hung in disgust. The price for a box was over $5.00. I left the store with nothing… nothing but sadness and a renewed vigor to fight this injustice. Every time I stand in my grocery store with a feeling of disgust, millions of mothers stand in similar stores with feelings of despair. Grocery prices outpaced the national inflation rate by 1.3% last year and there is no foreseeable end to this trend. When breakfast is in danger, America is in danger.

When I was a boy growing up on the North Side of Chicago (Andersonville),in the neighborhoods  there were still little stores where the family lived behind the store or above the store. My favorite little grocery store was where you could see the family eating lunch in the back….someone would come to the front to wait on you. They baked fresh jelly donuts every day and sold them to the schoolkids who had to pass by the store. Mmmmm! All the stores were individually owned and unique–if you wanted a chain store you’d go downtown Chicago, to State Street,  for the department stores like Marshall Fields, Woolworths, Sears etc. Today’s youth, with the explosion of “strip-malls,” don’t notice it now that they see Starbucks, Corner Bakery, BK, Taco Bell everywhere. Why is it that every new strip mall they build today has a Noodle Bowl, a dry cleaners, 7-11 and a Starbucks? I feel lucky to have grown up when all the store owners and my parents were on a first-name basis with the butcher or the baker and there was a good ‘fit’ between what the community wanted and what the stores sold.

Unlike today……..

Check this list of tips for ideas to benefit your health and your pocketbook in your trips down the grocery store aisles:

* Make a list and stick to it. With a list, you are less likely to buy on impulse. You’ll also save by avoiding extra gas-guzzling trips back to the store when you’ve forgotten something you need. I keep a running list of what I need. I go over the weekly grocery ads when they come out, and with my running list, it’s quick and easy to finalize what I need.

* Shop the specials. Canned goods have a long shelf life.

* Buy on sale and stock up. If you have room in your freezer to store extra food, over-wrap items to keep air out and extend the life and protect the quality of things you get at a deal.

* Buy seasonal vegetables and fruits. Buy only what you’ll use – fresh produce has a short shelf life. Be creative with your produce if it’s nearing the end of its shelf life. If the bananas get too ripe, for example, make banana bread. We lose money when we have to toss food because it was left too long and ends up in the garbage.

* Avoid shopping when you’re hungry. You’ll likely wind up putting “extras” in your grocery cart and eventually on your waist line if you get a snack attack. If you aren’t sure you spend much on snacks, try keeping a tally of all the snack foods you buy in one week. It may surprise you how much you are spending.

* Shop alone. Leave the kids and other family members at home. Too many “gotta haves” can drive up the total grocery bill in a hurry.* Use coupons for items you typically buy. You can find coupons in newspaper ads and on-line, too. I keep my list on the back of an envelope and tuck the coupons inside where they’re easy to retrieve at check out. If the grocery store you frequent has double or triple coupon days, take advantage of it.* If you don’t already have a store discount card, sign up.* Plan meals ahead and try planning your meals around sale items. Not only does this help with making the grocery list, but it also helps you plan leftovers for lunches, which saves money over going out to lunch. Leftovers also can be used for a quick dinner when your time is limited and you may want to grab fast food instead. Knowing in advance you can count on leftovers also keeps you from overbuying foods which have a limited shelf life. Remember to check expiration dates.* Choose less processed food and cook from scratch more often. Cooking from scratch is better from both your health and budget. Processed food is often high in sodium, fat and calories. A recent study showed that more than half of consumers are buying fewer prepared meals and cooking more often from scratch.

* Buy food in bulk when it’s cost effective. You can do some simple math to determine the unit pricing, and some stores list unit prices on the shelf tag along with the overall item price. It’s cheaper to buy larger quantities of some foods. If you want smaller packages of food for convenience, repackage them at home in smaller bags. But check your prices carefully; sometimes the bigger size isn’t a bargain and the cost of several smaller bags or boxes may actually be less.

* Consider store brands. Name brands are found at eye-level-prime real estate in the grocery aisle. Look high and low for store brands – on the lower and higher shelves – often for less money.

Otherwise, you’re at the mercy of the Darth Vadar’s  and Snidley Whiplash’s at the corporate grocery chains and their “creative pricing” or “price gouging.”

KH

Endings: the end of summer, the end of a political dynasty, the end of Obama-care, the end of analog TV/radio and finally, the end to a dismal summer movie season

THE END OF SUMMER

Another One Rides The Bus

One sure sign that summer is over here in the high Rockies is the day the kids start school. The kids started school this week to choruses from locals of, “Thank God!” The Summit County High School Principal is urging his teachers to ease into the homework after last years catastrophe. Faced with his first algebra test, Tim’s brain spontaneously combusted. The local high school has made great strides the past two years hiring outstanding teachers from around the country and can at laong last and proudly call themselves “Summit High” not “High Summit.” Kids used to go to school “high” than go to “high school.” We still have our share of “stoners” up here but now that we have an alternative school whose hours are 3-5 pm, the same hours that the “stoners used to get into trouble with the cops, there are less problems in this Rocky Mountain High.

Another sure sign of fall/winter is when the coyotes and black bears come down low and dumpster dive at the local fast foods (KFC, Taco Bell, Subway etc). Yesterday in Vail, Colorado a black bear broke into a brand new Subaru Forrester, ate the steering wheel, defecated on the passenger seat, deployed the air bags. Boy was he pissed when the Eagle County Sheriff’s showed up to let him out. Seems the black bears up here have learned how to open unlocked car doors and break into locked condos in Vail. Many a homeowner has come home recently to find Papa Bear has raided the refrigerator and has made himself at home on the sofa watching TV. Seems that’s another trick they have learned. The latest condo owner returning home engaged in a heavy cell-phone conversation was home 15-minutes before he noticed the intruder and ran out of the home screaming. I bet the bear had a big grin on his face.

These last few days, as the Seniors (Gapers) pour into the “High-Rockies,” to see the fall colors, the foliage has turned red and gold and the Aspens are just beginning to show their “true colors.” So, this month the “High Rockies” are hosting grumpy seniors all over the place. October- we host obnoxious hunters in camouflage all over the place. At least it’s quiet here now and todays weather was the most beautiful day we’ve had all summer, 72-degree’s, sunny with clear blue skies and a few puffy white clouds and a slight breeze.

Indian Summer is always my favorite time of year in the “High Rockies.” Soon the mountains will be alive with leaderhosen instead of spandex wearing bikers, German beer overflowing at the beer kegs and the sounds of Om-pa-pa music as every resort celebrates Octoberfest. Not in October (snows too much) but in September. Why not just change the name to Septemberfest? Go figure. At last years Copper Mountain Octoberfest- they sold 600-pounds of barbecued Ox-meat. The black bears roaming freely though the subdivisions should beware lest the resorts start serving up BBQ bear-meat on a stick.

THE END OF A POLITICAL DYNASTY

The Impossible Dream – from Man of La Mancha (Ted Kennedy’s favorite song)

No other political family in America has dealt with so many untimely deaths. President John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas in 1963, Robert F. Kennedy killed in LA five years later, the senator’s nephew, John Kennedy Jr., died in a 1999 plane crash – all before reaching the age of 50. These kinds of things would have crushed any ordinary person, Still burying Eunice Kennedy Shriver, (founder of the Special Olympics) Senator Edward Kennedy died late Tuesday of brain cancer. 15-months ago, Kennedy announced he had brain cancer. Last August, the nation was stunned when Edward Kennedy walked out onto the stage of the Democratic National Convention and gave the best speech of the convention.

TED KENNEDY: Historic Speech @ Denver Convention

Edward M. Kennedy was the third longest-serving member of the United States Senate in American history. Despite the many scandals that plagues Hhim throughout his life (his role in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick, allegations that he watched his nephew (William Kennedy Smith) rape a girl on the front lawn of the Kennedy family mansion) and his continued alcoholism, Ted Kennedy held his Senate seat for more than four decades. He authored or argued for legislation that ensured a variety of civil rights, increased the minimum wage in 1981, made access to health care easier for the indigent, and funded Meals on Wheels for fixed-income seniors. His other successes include reducing the voting age from 21 to 18, and Title IX, which gave women’s athletics much better funding. Widely held as the “standard-bearer for liberalism”, his legacy is that his era has been dominated by conservatives (Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush) and moderates (Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton).

With the death of the last Kennedy brother- it would seem that his death means the end of the Kennedy political dynasty. John Kennedy Jr is gone, most of the nephews have had numerous brushes with the law, convictions that prevent them from running for public office. The dream may not be dead,  the Kennedy family ancestors will always enjoy  a unique place in American public life, but the time for someone else to carry the flame has arrived. Someone who doesn’t have the name: KENNEDY.

“For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our        concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”~Edward M. Kennedy

THE END OF THE CASH FOR CLUNKERS PROGRAM

Click and Clack’s (The Tappett Brother’s) As The Wrench Turns

The dust stirred up by Cash for Clunkers has finally settled: the $3 billion government program closed up shop weeks, if not months, ahead of schedule due to its extraordinary popularity. In its wake, it spawned another rebate program, Obama called it a “success beyond anyone’s imagination” and it gave the auto companies their best sales months in recent memory. But there are still serious doubts about its merits. There’s still a big mess of auto parts to clean up, emissions have not been significantly lowered, and the economy may not have benefited much at all. ‘Clunkers’ was touted as being good for the economy, and good for the environment. But was it actually good for anything? Other than middle class consumers, of course–that’s the one group the program seemed to undoubtedly benefit. People who already owned cars, and were likely in the market for another certainly enjoyed the $3,500-4,500 rebate, and the incentive surely got people to buy cars sooner rather than later. But the success of just about every other aspect of the program remains up for debate.Some 500,000 new cars were sold, and 500,000 polluting ‘clunkers’ were taken off the streets. The environmental benefits, as has been noted , are dubious at best.

THE END OF OBAMA-CARE

Old and Fat People Song (Obama-care song)

Obama’s Health Care Plan is dead. The Congressional recess saw to that. When Congress re-convenes in the fall, and the health-care plan voted down, Obama is looking at being  a “Lame-Duck” / one-term president. Obama’s enemies (Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Hugh Downs and others) who from the start have wished nothing but failure for this president, are patting each other on the back and congratulating themselves on their loud-mouthed flatulence. For the past month, Obama has been back-pedaling away from “The Public Option.”

As I blogged on July 26, 2009 (The Health Care Stall):

Last week as Obama was trying to keep the “Blue-dogs” on task to get his health-care bill put together, United Health Care of Minnesota announced they had record profits of 155-percent in the second quarter alone while raising premiums on United customers. Can you say, “Greedy corporate pigs?” It’s price gouging. Instead of Obama and the blue-dogs wasting taxpayers time on a health-care bill that is never going to be passed, the Democrats would be better off going after insurance companies like United Health care and Aetna Insurance for price gouging and other fraud. United former CEO Bill McGuire is sitting atop stock options valued at $1.6 billion.

Cigna HealthCare, Aetna,  WellPoint  and United Health all posted obscene profits at a time when America’s economy is supposedly in free-fall, recession teetering on depression.

Conservative Media Making Up Details Of Health Reform Bill

Here’s the plain truth folks. Few politicians in Washington give a damn about America or Americans. What they care about are their high-powered job in Congress and the many perks it brings, invitations to dinner at the White House, their South American trollop, mistress and playing politics or ruining people for sport, who’s in- who’s out, Red state vs. Blue State, Liberals vs. Neo-Conservatives. Who’s got the power- who has not. It’s all a game to them. The interests the politicians truly represent are the high-priced lobbyists, insurance companies like United Health Care. Representing the wealthy special-interests who throw them a large bone, golfing junkets, mingling with the “Blue-blood” crowd and their many charity balls and other events.

This is why people run for Congress- not to represent the working poor who are losing their jobs, losing their health-care. The game plan is always the same. Harry Reid trots out to announce they cannot possibly meet Obama’s timetable that they need more time, until after the annual Congressional recess, by then they have had time to consult with their GOP party members to come up with the long list of excuses why they cannot possibly come up with a health-care bill. GOP and Dems argue back and forth for 6 months, we hear all the sound-bites and talking points on every talk-show in America and then the bill dies. No health-care. No relief for already desperate overwhelmed Americans. But the “Great-Game” continues. The lies continue for another 8-years.

The GOP who complain OBama is trying to rush this thing and that they need to take the time to do it right- fail to mention that government and every President since Nixon has been trying to come up with a health-care plan since the 1970’s. It’s been 39-years. Like how much time do they need?

NOTE TO OBAMA: Forget trying to force through a health care plan that in the end will die. Direct the FBI to arrest health-care CEO’s like McGuire and others who are “price gouging. Go after the health-care companies with the ferociousness that the FBI went after Kenneth Lay and Enron.

The FBI put so much pressure on Lay the man died of a heart attack before he could ever be brought to trial. And if the gov;t is going to come up with an alternative health-care. I notice the conservatives in Europe love their “socialized health-care. national health plan- model it on the one being used in Europe- the one of a single-payee. They take it out of your paycheck. If you lose your job- you don;t lose your insurance.

But as of right now- with the Congressional recess in August- the health-care bill is dead. Maybe just as well. There are those in the GOP who just cannot stand that America has a “Black” president. Jim DeMint for one is using the failure to come up with a health-care plan as Obama’s Waterloo. I say exile DeMint to Elba and provide him a South American trollop like Gov Sanford but don’t ever let him step foot in Congress again.

THE END OF ANALOG TV/RADIO

I Lost On Jeopardy- Wierd Al Yankovich

Let me tell you what you didn’t win: you don’t get to come back tomorrow , you don’t get a lousy copy of our home game, you made yourself look like a jerk in front of millions of people- you’re a complete “Loser.“

Lawmakers gave broadcasters until June 15, 2009, to end their traditional analog transmissions. The so-called “hard date” was included in a sweeping budget bill.The bill also would provide $3 billion to help millions of Americans buy digital-to-analog converter boxes for their older television sets — so those consumers will continue to receive a signal once the switch is made permanent. Somewhere around 70 million television sets now connected to rabbit ears or roof-top antennas will suddenly and forever go blank, unless their owners purchase a special converter box.

It all started back in the Eighties, when the Japanese shocked American consumer electronics companies with trade-show displays of high definition television sets that delivered razor-sharp images and stunning audio.  Everyone from Congress to the Wall Street Journal raised outcries: America’s favorite technology was being taken over by the then-fearsome Japan Inc.  As a result, a group of American companies formed the “Grand Alliance” that leapfrogged the Japanese technology by inventing digital HDTV. Thus, early on, HDTV invoked not just pretty pictures, but national pride and economic development. (Ironically, Zenith, the most all-American commercial participant in the Grand Alliance, is now South Korean-owned.) One drawback to the U.S. version of HDTV was that to make it work, all broadcast television (not just high-definition) would have to convert to digital, meaning that every American television set manufactured since 1946 would be rendered obsolete. To ease the transition, Congress generously gave all television broadcasters additional channel space so that they could keep broadcasting their analog signals while they installed and launched their digital channels. The deal was that they would give up their old channels when the transition was done. That part worked: Over 1400 broadcasters now transmit in digital as well as analog, reaching 99 percent of the U.S. television market.

The really big question: What will happen to all those old-fashioned television sets we’re still buying when the analog transmitters go off the air? To continue to receive free broadcast television via antenna, you’ll have to buy a digital converter box; cost estimates range from $100 or so in 2006 down to $50 by 2008. (Those converters won’t turn older sets into fancy high-definition sets; they will only restore conventional TV service, in digital format. The picture quality will be fairly comparable to today’s analog version, although there will be some improvements for people who use antennas — no “snow” or “ghosting.” On the other hand, when digital signals are weak, there is often no picture at all.)

In addition,  your local police force, fire-department, public safety workers  are lobbying for an early analog cut-off.  The reason is simple: when the cut-off happens, TV channels 52 – 69 will no longer be needed, freeing up broadcasting spectrum for other purposes.  Public safety workers have been promised four of these channels — a commitment even more pressing in the wake of the 9/11 Commission’s finding that the nation’s first responder communications systems need a major upgrade.

Now, that most new TV’s are not only  (HDTV) high-def as well as Internet ready which do not work with analog antenna’s, why would anyone want to keep their old analog sets anyway? Therein lies the rub. The poor cannot afford the price of these new $5000 digital TV sets nor can they afford to shell out the $100 bucks a month for Comcast Cable service. And where will the millions of old analog TV sets go? To the local dump? Seems to me the government- before they started promising rebates to help people buy the new converter boxes, should have set up a national recycle service for people wanting to dump their old TV sets. As Bullwinkle J, Moose always used to say: Eenie meenie chili beanie, the spirits are about to speak.

FINALLY, THE END TO A REALLY DISMAL SUMMER MOVIE SEASON (2009)

500 Days Of Summer

What the $&%# has happened to our blockbuster summer movie season? Can anybody explain to me why we no longer have the “big” movie over the 4th of July weekend? Really … is there any difference if Harry Potter is released July 19th or over 4th July weekend when we’re all looking for something to do with the kids who are driving us CRAZY!!!! Remember when Indepence Day (the movie) actually debuted over Independence day weekend? Most blockbuster movies are released way too early, middle of May and by 4th of July, there isn;t a blockbuster movie in the theaters. The movie distributors need to fix this. There needs to be a major blockbuster movie every 4th of July weekend.

Has anyone seen anything more idiotic than the plot of the new Time Traveler’s Wife movie? Do they sit around smoking crack at the screenplay writing sessions? I think the wriers of Time Traveler’s Wife had just watched Somewhere in Time while being stoned out of their minds. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkKue_MEnkk. Somewhere In Time was a medicore movie with a lame time-travel plot but it had a great cast (Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour) and an outstanding musical score by John Barry (Dances With Wolves). Here’s a few quick thoughts on the dismal summer movie season of 2009. Thank-god it’s over. Now, maybe; we can start looking forward to some Oscar-calibre movies again.

1. The Room
A movie so bad it’s good and quickly developing a cult following:

2. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (Ice Age 3)
Haven’t we exhausted the dinosaur theme by now? Enough dinosaurs already. Michael Crichton is dead and gone and no one can top Jurassic Park.

3.  Public Enemies
Another “walk-through” by Johnny Depp. If he could make Jack Sparrow larger than life- then why couldn’t he make larger than life Dillinger come to life? Think I’ll re-rent “From Hell.”

4. Up
The first 5 minutes of this movie are so depressing like why would I want to watch the rest of it and leave the theater wanting to blow my brains out? Up was really a “downer.”

5. Inglorious Bastards
So bad it should have been titled. Inglorious Ripoff. I have never seen a worse Brad Pitt/Quentin Taratino movie.

6. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
I agree with the film critics like Roger Ebert who called this movie, “Loud, obnoxious and loud.”

7. The Ugly Truth
Haven’t we seen this plot over and over and over and over and ……? Done to death. The ugly truth here is that there is Nnthing new here in the overuse of one-liners.

8. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Excellent adolescent tale of loss of innocence but I felt HP6 was 1/2 hour too short. Lots of book details left out which I feel will not be made up in HP7 (Deathly Hallows) Considering it was Dumbledore’s last adventure, the screenplay could have been more flushed out.

9. G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra
All these plots are starting to blur together. At one point I was confused with League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. And wasn’t GI Joe a one man ope

ration with little emphasis on “teamwork?” That was Joe’s machismo. Dismal at best. What a waste of Dennis Quaid’s talent.

10. The Time Traveler’s Wife
The whole Time Traveler thing has been exhausted and a love affair with a sic-year-old girl borders on child molestation, particulary with the Jaycee Lee Dugand kidnapping re-emerging in the press the last week. It creeped me out.

11. Star Trek

Though they beefed up the trailers from the very first one’s suggesting a “Gay Agenda” between Spock and Kirk- this movie continues to boldly go nowhere. From the first inter-racial kiss to another time-travel paradox- everything here has been copied from earlier Star Trek TV episodes. Nothing new here except for decent central casting of characters

When summer gathers up her robes of glory,
And, like a dream, glides away.

~ Sarah Helen Whitman

KH

NFL hypocrisy, health-care liars, journalism heaven admits two more members

NFL Shame Song

NFL HYPOCRISY

Roger Goodell, commissioner of the NFL condemned Cleveland Browns Donte Stallworth who struck and killed a man while he was driving under the influence but overlooking the fact that the Eagles have signed quarterback Michael Vick to a one-year deal with a one-year option. Vick spent 18 months in prison after being convicted for running a dogfighting operation in Newport News, Va. In a letter to Stallworth, Goodell wrote: “In my view, the essential facts are that you had alcohol in your system well above the legal limit, made a conscious decision to drive, and struck and killed a man. As you recognize, this conduct and the loss of life has caused serious damage to the NFL and NFL players generally. Legal arguments that focus on criminal liability under Florida law do not diminish that damage or your responsibility for your conduct.”

You see this is why I no longer watch nor follow professional sports. It’s not about the sportsmanship anymore, not about the love of the game, the purity of competition -  it’s all about the money. No different than the philosophy local crack dealers have operating shamelessly out in the open in your local neighborhoods. For the last 35-years, professional sports, (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL) have shamelessly been about nothing more than making money as barely competent players demand outrageous multi-million-dollar contracts despite their blatant use of steroids, drunk driving, drug-usage, dog fighting, wife-beating arrests and convictions. For the past 35-years, the gamblers have controlled professional sports with their use of new computer software that accurately computes not only the winner but the point-spread to the exact number. Those who frequent the sports books in Vegas and elsewhere can tell you it’s becoming almost impossible to beat the new computer software. Now with Stallworth and Vick- the NFL is choosing the lesser of two evils? Killing someone while driving drunk is just wrong but hey … a little dog-fighting conviction now and then ain’t so bad according to the Philadelphia Eagles who signed Vick to a one-year deal. The hypocrisy of those who oversee professional sports is not only shocking it is insulting. The huge gate admissions and concession prices are also blatantly insulting. Last time I attended a Rockies game at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado, a warm Coors “lite beer“  in a plastic cup was $6.

As long as millions of fans willing to be duped by professional sports, (the concessions who run them, the owners who overlook the major crimes and loose morality of their players for the sake of winning, )  and  continue to shell out  inflated prices for admission and concession and memorabilia, you are just continuing to support scumbags like Michael Vick, Mike Tyson, Pete Rose and other who have thoroughly disgraced the name of professional sports. Julio Castillo could have been sentenced to as long eight years in prison for threw a baseball that went into the stands and injured a fan during an on-field melee in Ohio got preferential treatment for being a  professional baseball player. Facing the prospect of spending at least 3 1/2 years behind bars, one-time Super Bowl star Plaxico Burress(notes) on Thursday accepted a plea bargain with a two-year prison sentence for accidentally shooting himself in the thigh at a Manhattan nightclub. The former New York Giants wide receiver pleaded guilty to one count of attempted criminal possession of a weapon, a lesser charge than he had faced. Again- preferential treatment for being a professional athlete. The ex-football star was indicted earlier this month on two counts of criminal possession of a weapon and one count of reckless endangerment. He faced a minimum sentence of 3 1/2 years.

Here’s another reason I refuse to participate, it’s become all so predictable. Every year we hear the hype about the Chicago Cubs, the Denver Bronco’s etc and every year they preform the same, the Cubs lose the first round in the playoffs, the Bronco’s end up going nowhere, the same teams win the Superbowl, World Series or NBA Championship, year after year after year. Talk about a steady paycheck for the owners.

Here’s a question for those of you who continue to be duped by professional sports. If Denver Bronco coach Mike Shanahan did what Bronco’s owner Pat Bowen hired him to do, (he won two Superbowl rings back to back with Bronco quarterback John Elway) and got to the playoffs almost every year consecutively- then why did Bronco’s owner Bowen fire Shanahan only to replace him with a young coach who has zippo experience? (Josh McDaniels). The 2008 NFL season was the third consecutive year in which Denver didn’t make the playoffs and the Broncos had spent most of the season well ahead of their division, only to lose the last three games (winning any of which would have guaranteed a playoff spot) and finishing with an 8-8 record.

So you fire the guy who gave you two Superbowl wins and back to back? There are some NFL teams who haven’t had a Superbowl win in the last twenty-years.

The hypocrisy. It’s all about the money. No Superbowl win- no million-dollar advertising deals for the team owner. Never mind that Invesco Field in Denver is jam-packed every fall with loyal Bronco fans.

Pat Tillman graduated summa cum laude from Arizona State University in 1998 and was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League. He became the team’s starting safety and, in his third year as a pro, broke the franchise record for tackles in a single season. One day after 9/11, Tillman told an interviewer, “At times like this, you stop and think about just how good we have it, what kind of system we live in and the freedoms we’re allowed. A lot of my family has gone and fought in wars, and I really haven’t done a damn thing.”

Then Tillman did something extraordinary. He turned down a $3,600,000 contract extension from the Cardinals, put his football career on hold, and enlisted for a three-year term in the U.S. Army. He served in Iraq and then in Afghanistan. On April 22, 2004, he was killed in action- by his own men. Friendly fire they called it. The military lied, covered up the investigation and to thsi day Tillman’s family still do not have a good explanation of how or why their son was killed.  Pat Tillman was the kind of hero and example the NFL needs. Do you think they played up Tillmans heropism after his death? No- the NFL downplayed his sacrifice while playing up scumbags like Michael Vick, while professional sports play up scumbags like Mike Tyson, Pete Rose, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz now join a list that also includes Sosa, Alex Rodriguez, Jason Grimsley, and David Segui.

If you’re an NFL, NBA, NHL or MLB team owner know this- your hypocrisy disgusts me and you will not get one dime of my money. Not that you care. But at least I have my dignity and will not bet good money on professional sporting events where the referee’s, umpires and players are all on the take. If a sucker is born every minute- find some other sucker willing to finance your hypocrisy, illegal gambling,  and lack of moral conscience. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and others the ones who played not for money, not for the long-term contracts, not on steroids but played for the love of the game, are rolling over in their graves.

HEALTH-CARE LIARS

The “death panel” allegation was first leveled by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Numerous fact-check organizations have labeled the terminology false and misleading. This from the same “twit” who ran for Vice-President and didn’t even know what George W.’s foreign policy strategy was.  On a conference call President Obama conducted with leaders and members of the progressive religious left, he said some Americans are “bearing false witness” in the debate over health care reform. Using the strongest words of his presidency, Obama labeled the allegation that Democrats were seeking to create so-called deaths panels “an extraordinary lie.”

Here’s the full quote.

“I don’t want government bureaucrats meddling in your health care but I don’t want insurance company bureaucrats meddling in your health care, either. And that’s what health insurance reform is all about. We are closer to achieving that reform than we have ever been and that’s why we’re seeing some of the divisive and deceptive attacks. You’ve heard some of them. Ludicrous ideas. Let me give you just one example, this notion that somehow we are setting up death panels that would decide whether elderly people would live or die. That is just an extraordinary lie. This is based on a provision in the House legislation that would allow Medicare to reimburse you if you wanted counseling on how to set up a living will or other end-of-life decisions. Entirely voluntary. It gives you an option that people who can afford fancy lawyers can already exercise.”

The “Fat-Cat” Republican Congressmen (men and women) represent the interests and lobby for the wealthy insurance companies like United Health care Of Minnesota who posted a 155-percent profit for the second-quarter of this year. The Republican Party is not the party iof the working people. They do not represent the working poor of America they represent the upper third of the country- the idle rich. Obama, a minority President from Chicago does represent the working poor of America as does the Democratic Party. But Obama “clouded”  the health-care issue.

NOTE TO OBAMA: America does not need a government-run health-care program known as the “PUBLIC OPTION,” America needs you to do your frickin job- regulate the insurance companies who have been gouging for years. Throw the detestable scumbags who would profit off the misfortunes of working poor American families in jail where they belong. To sit right besides Leo Dennis Kozlowski (born November 16, 1946, Newark, New Jersey) – former CEO of Tyco International, convicted in 2005 of crimes related to his receipt of $81 million in purportedly unauthorized bonuses, the purchase of art for $14.725 million and the payment by TYCO of a $20 million investment banking fee to Frank Walsh, a former TYCO director. He is currently serving 8.25 to 24 years at the Mid State Correctional Facility in Marcy, New York.

But Obama has clouded the issue and has given voice to the outright liars like Sarah Palin,  con-artists, crooks who founded the insurance business to begin with – by proposing a government-run health-care plan that has no chance in hell of ever being passed into law. Now that Obama is backing away from the PUBLIC OPTION, his subsidized insurance plan has little chance of passing. One thing Americans can be sure of is this- anything the working poor of America sees signed into law and calling itself an affordable health-care plan, will only benefit the “Fat Cat” insurance companies like United Health Of Minnesota, Aetna, and others.

Obama has backed himself into a corner on the healthcare issue, which will only benefit insurance companies further and turn Obama into a “Lame Duck” Presdient. When Obama’s health-care fails and it will- Obama will find it impossible to get Congress, expecially the rich Republican,  “Red State” party to approve anything he proposes. Based on the failure of his health-care plan- Obama is a one-term president. And political wacko’s like Sarah Palin will seem all the more attractive to Americans who naively believe that America still has a political system that works.

JOURNALIST HEAVEN WELCOMES TWO MORE MEMBERS

60 MINUTES THEME SONG

Television pioneer and longtime CBS executive Don Hewitt, the creator of “60 Minutes,” has died, the network said Wednesday. He was 86.  A Sunday evening fixture, “60 Minutes” was television’s top-rated show four times, most recently in 1992-93. While no longer a regular in the top 10 in Hewitt’s later years, it was still TV’s most popular news-magazine. Hewitt died of pancreatic cancer at his Bridgehampton home, CBS said. His death came a month after that of fellow CBS legend Walter Cronkite.

Robert David Sanders “Bob” Novak (February 26, 1931 – August 18, 2009) was a syndicated columnist, journalist and conservative political commentator^. Over his career, Novak became well-known as a columnist (writing Inside Report since 1963) and as a television personality (appearing on many shows for CNN, most notably on three former programs, The Capital Gang, Crossfire, and Evans, Novak, Hunt, & Shields). On August 4, 2008, Novak announced that he had been diagnosed with a brain tumor and that his prognosis was “dire”, and that he was retiring.

“I don’t watch my words very closely. I’m 76 years old, and I don’t have that much time on this earth. There’s very little people can do to hurt me, and so I say what I want to say.

Political columnist Robert Novak, a conservative, pugilistic debater and proud owner of the “Prince of Darkness” moniker, died Tuesday after a battle with brain cancer that was diagnosed in July 2008. He was 78.

KH

Realtors, really big black crows, the spandex explosion and the demise of the cowboy

MAMA DON’T LET YOUR BABIES GROW UP TO BE COWBOYS

There was a saying in Flagstaff, Arizona years ago that is becoming true in the high mountain communities of Colorado these days. “If you put a pebble in your hand, close your eyes and spin around three times and throw the pebble in any direction- chances are you’ll hit a Subaru Outback.”

Twenty-years-ago, visitors to the high mountains of Colorado were greeted by trailer-courts, gravel-roads, pickup trucks and dogs. Someone would leave the screen door of the restaurant open and a dog would walk in. “Whose dog is this?” the proprietor would ask. It didn’t matter- the dog would get fed before wandering out. The high mountain towns were littered with herds of red and white Herefords or horses grazing on BLM land as real “cowboys” wrangled the stock. The local restaurants were all log cabins with names like Claim Jumper, Prospector. Mt. Lion Cafe. I miss the trailer-courts- they gave the place character. A visitor knew he was in the mountains.

Visitors to Colorado’s high-country today are greeted by factory-outlet shopping malls, Subaru outbacks, bumper-to-bumper mountain-bikers wearing spandex that makes them look like an exploding geranium, condominiums everywhere and restaurants with Californicated names like Mi Zuppa, Baglia’s. Visitors today might confuse the former “cowboy” towns of Colorado’s high country with being another suburb of Denver.

Walk down Main Street Breckenridge or Frisco and every second business is a realty office. It’s all about the real-estate here and Summit County has more Realtors than the old west ever had Buffalo. Most are married soccer mom’s that might sell 1-3 houses a year. if you want to see a real “cowboy” these days you have to travel north to “cowboy” country like Craig, Colorado.

So what killed the old west and “cowboy” country from Whitefish, Montana down to Tucson, Arizona?

CALIFORNICATORS:

1. Brown-nosers from California who move to every other state but California,take away jobs from locals, inflate the real-estate market, drive trendy California cars like a Subaru Outback  and destroy everything in their path, including companies, the enviroment, and the lives of the inocent natives. An on going problem since 1989.

2.

1. Unwelcome guest in Arizona, Colorado, Montana and Washington
2. Non Driving inbacile who comes to above states but never goes back home
3. Retard who uses turn lanes for passing cars on the right
4. That guy who thinks he has a cool car and doesn’t realize normal people thinks he is a fucktard
5. Reckless driver that inspires you to get a bumper sticker that says “go back to California”

6. You can tell that car is being driven by a Californicator because all the Californicators drive the same model car, usually a Subaru Outback.

7. think they’re cool wearing layers of hot sweaty obnoxious looking spandex.

After 29-years of living in all the cool places of the west- if you’re from California- I do not like you. Period!

The thing that irks me is this. Most of the Californicators are not even from California. They weren’t born there nor did they grow up there. Most of the Californicators are “transplants” and usually from the East Coast. Places like New Jersey or New York. When Eastman Kodak moved their film studios from New York to California in the 1930’s, there was this mas migration of Easterner’s to California. They descended upon the little towns at that time with nothing more than Orange Groves and ocean views and proceeded over the next 70-years to turn California into the toilet it is today with its endless freeways, strip malls, crime, drugs, and loose morality. All this was before the illegals starting flooding into California after President Reagan’s amnesty in the 1980’s.  Even well into the 1970’s, a young couple could move to California, buy a small ranch house for under a $100-grand and raise a family. As the filth and crime started to degrade major parts of California, certain Californians who did not want to wake up one day to find their house located in a ghetto and market value worth zilch, started to inflate the price of properties so that their house, their community would be a upper income white-collar neighborhood as opposed to a filthy, crime ridden Mexican barrio neighborhood. When local governments started to see that the price of homes in their community were above the median, they decided to charge more property taxes to pay for expensive recreation centers, performing arts centers  etc.

The 1992 Big Bear earthquake was an earthquake that occurred on 28 June 1992 in Big Bear Lake, California, with a magnitude of 6.4. This earthquake occurred three hours after the 7.3 magnitude Landers earthquake, and the 1995 Ridgecrest Earthquake, the largest earthquake to hit southern California scared a lot of Californians.into a mass exodus from California as thousands of “CALIFORNICATORS” poured into neighboring westerns states, mountain communities like Flagstaff, Sedona and Prescott, Az were over-run within one year. Sante Fe, New Mexico, Tuscon, Az, Denver, Colorado would see its populations triple within the next 5-years. Colorado had a population of one-million in 1986. By 1996, Colorado’s population would jump to 7-million with the majority of Californians settling in what is called, THE FRONT RANGE, an area just east of the foothills that runs north to south from Ft. Collins to Colorado Springs. With them, these new Californicators brought inflated real-estate prices, strip malls, spandex bikers and all the crime, filth and degradation they left behind in California. Denver, Colorado, once a working-mans town, has now become just another Los Angeles, with crime, gangs, filth. cop- shootings on a daily basis. Ask a native Coloradoan, Denver used to be a great place to raise a family. Colorado used to be such a great place that late great songwriter John Denver made a million-dollars on his #1 hot, Rocky Mountain High in which he posed the question,

Why they try to tear the mountains down to bring in a couple more
More people, more scars upon the land

The impact of CALIFORNICATORS has also had a dramatic impact on Colorado’s environment. When John Denver sang about The Eagle and The Hawk, in the 1970’s, Colorado actually had a healthy population of these predator birds that kept the scavenger birds away. Today, populations of Eagle and Hawk are on the endangered-species list and tons of really, big fat, black crows are everywhere. One tourist remarked that one crow he had seen was as big as a turkey. Another impact of the millions of automobiles the Californicator’s brought with them had been an increase in temperatures in Colorado. At 9500 feet here in Summit County, 80-degree’s feels more like 90-100 degree’s. The ten-year drought, no doubt caused by millions of Californians moving into the state contributed to the rise of the Pine-Beetle which has now killed 90-percent of Colorado’s lodge-pole pines. The Pine Beetle hates two things, excessive rain and cold, both of which Colorado had until millions of Californians started pouring into our Rocky Mountain High. Now, Summit County is left with a dead forest, hundreds of these big, black, obnoxious crows, asshole Californicators in their layers of exploding spandex, traffic conjestion, the “brown cloud” is coming back, drugs and crime are on the rise in the mountain towns as I-70 has become a major drug pipeline like I-40 to the south. John Denver must be rolling-over in his grave.

Worse than the crime, drugs, conjestion, inflated real-estate market and thousands of sleazy realtors everywhere- the Californians have changed Colorado’s politics. As a college student at CSU in Boulder in the ate 1970’s. Boulder was a liberal college town, hippies, marijauna. Today it is a Republican, conservatve town with corporate America taking over the Peral Street Mall with Krochs and Bretano’s, Banana Republic, Barnes Nobles, Border’s. Denver’s 16th Street mall hosts nothing but California eateries like Wolfgang Pucks, Corner Bakery and Barnes Nobles. That which once made Colorado a unigue, “Western” state has been bastardized by these bastard Californians who aren’t really from anywhere and have no identity. We let these Californicators turn our beloved Mile High Stadium and the Denver Bronco’s into another version of the San Francisco  49′ers with Invesco Field. We let them- Coloradoans.

Recently, Vail Resorts, which owns the najority of ski areas in Colorado’s high country are pissing and moaning that the ski hills have been overbuilt with condo’s and that there is no place for the skiers to ski. A modest two-bedroom in Copper Mountain sells for a million plus. The Californicators have turned Colorado into another version of California which is scary because this summer as I vacationed in California, I saw dozens of moving trucks and vans pouring out of the “Big Orange” no doubt headed for Colorado.

Were John Denver alivve today- no doubt he would have titled his #1 masterpiece- Rocky Mountain Highjack!

KH

’80’s teen flick director John Hughes dies in NYC

Twisting and Shouting with director John Hughes

Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while,

you could miss it. ~ Ferris Bueller

Writer-director John Hughes, Hollywood’s youth impresario of the 1980s and ’90s who captured the teen and preteen market with such favorites as “The Breakfast Club,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “Home Alone, died Thursday of a heart-attack  a spokeswoman said. He was 59.

John Hughes gave us a philosophy for uptight, scared teenagers like Cameron Fry in Ferris Bueller whose Dad loved his car more than he loved Cameron. Cameron: [while kicking his father's car] Who do you love? Who do you love? You love a car! The movie; Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, considered to be Hughes best, is chock full of the Hughes philosophy:

Ferris Bueller: Not that I condone fascism, or any -ism for that matter. -Ism’s in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an -ism, he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon, “I don’t believe in Beatles, I just believe in me.” Good point there. After all, he was the walrus. I could be the walrus. I’d still have to bum rides off people.

John Hughes understood teenage “angst” as in this scene from The Breakfast Club:

Brian Johnson: Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you’re crazy to make an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us… In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain…
Andrew Clark: …and an athlete…
Allison Reynolds: …and a basket case…
Claire Standish: …a princess…
John Bender: …and a criminal…
Brian Johnson: Does that answer your question?… Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club.

Hughes died of a heart attack during a morning walk in Manhattan.  He was in New York to visit family. Hughes’ ensemble comedies helped make stars out of Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy, John Cusack (“Sixteen Candles”), Judd Nelson (“The Breakfast Club”), Steve Carell (“Curly Sue”) and Lili Taylor (“She’s Having a Baby”)  and many other young performers. He also scripted the phenomenally popular “Home Alone,” which made little-known Macaulay Culkin a sensation as the 8-year-old accidentally abandoned by his vacationing family, and wrote or directed such hits as “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” “Pretty in Pink,” “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” and “Uncle Buck.”

Buck Russell: I don’t think I want to know a six-year-old who isn’t a dreamer, or a sillyheart. And I sure don’t want to know one who takes their student career seriously. I don’t have a college degree. I don’t even have a job. But I know a good kid when I see one. Because they’re ALL good kids, until dried-out, brain-dead skags like you drag them down and convince them they’re no good. You so much as scowl at my niece, or any other kid in this school, and I hear about it, and I’m coming looking for you!

As you walk on by
Will you call my name?
Or will you walk away?

From the soundtrack of The Breakfast Club: (Simple Minds) we won’t forget about you John. Through your movies- you left the teenagers of tomorrow a guide or roadmap if you will to walk them through the “angst” and rebellious years dealing with parents, school, dried-up teachers who have let their dreams die, authority figures, peers and siblings.

KH

The women??? Oh, please ….!

If I see Meg Ryan in one more cutesy comedy about a woman who gets dumped by their husband/boyfriend, finds themself, wins back the affections of the spouse who dumped them, I think I’m gonna barf.

Now, I like Meg Ryan. She’s cute perky, fun to watch but the material they give her is the same lame stuff that Hollywood has been doing for years. Woman gets dumped by boyfriend or husband, woman finds herself by becoming a fashion designer and having a runway fashion show where she scores a big contract with Saks, woman gets back with boyfriend/husband who has a newfound respect for her now that she’s found herself, in the meantime, she bonds with her estranged daughter/son, and girlfriends.

Oh please ….!

There are a million twists on this same basic plot but the story is all the same whether Meg Ryan is doing it, Susan Sarandon, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lopez or Bette Midler. Please Hollywood writer’s …. enough already!

The Women (2008) an updated version of George Cukor’s 1939 version with Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell was fresh for a 1939 sympathetic, women-centered narrative. (featuring only women in the movie- no men anywhere.) Today, Hollywood tried to “cutsey” it up and if we hadn’t seen the same plot a thousand times the last twenty-years, it might have been interesting. But the Diane English version with Meg Ryan and Annette Bening just made me want to barf! Nothing but Stereotypes. Is this how Hollywood really sees America?

Maybe if the writers put down the cocaine and actually went out into America like Jack Kerouac did 50-years-ago, (Jack Kerouac – Books – New York Times) they might discover the real America, the one you and I see everyday, the America we actually live in, work in, play in. Not the America where all the people on screen live in large, roomy houses where they all have a St. Bernard, a large backyard, and drive luxury SUV’s, where all the kids have cell-phones, I-Pods, dress like Hannah Montana. Real Girls don;t dress like that. Leastways not the real girls I see in the wealthy town I live in. They wear blue-jeans, KEDS, plastic bangles on their wrists because mom won’t let them wear expensive jewelry. And the real women whose boyfriend or husband dump them, “find themselves” by getting real jobs- a factory job, WalMart, Starbucks, bagging groceries at the supermarket, all the while having to sucking up to 20-something spoiled-brat managers. Real women who get dumped by their husbands have to move into a run-down apartment in a crime-ridden neighborhood because that’s all they can afford after their husband screws them in the alimony settlement. In Hollywod they move back in with mom and dad- (another overdone comedy idea). In real life, mom has lost dad to cancer and is struggling financially, or mom and dad are in a home with Alzheimer’s.

Real women rarely find themselves by becoming fashion designers, building small collections and being discovered By SAKS, or becoming a Mary-Kay Tycoon, (such Hollywood nonsense!) It may happen to one in a million women. Jennifer Lopez came close to portraying a “working mom” in Maid In Manhattan (2002) but then the Hollywood fantasies took over and she ends up with the rich guy after posing as a hotel guest, stealing a wealthy hotel guests’ outfit to wear. In real-life she would have been both fired and criminally prosecuted.

Why is it that Hollywood lives in a bubble? So much so that their vision of the world we live in is all the same in every comedy they make? From Hancock to The Women, every comedy portrays Hollywood’s version of America and Americans, wealthy, predominately well-to-do because that’s what they are in Hollywood. When Goldie Hawn lied, manipulated, and moved into a house that was not hers in Housesitter, (1992), funny movie but again in real-life, she would have been arrested for breaking and entering, trespassing, identity-theft and other criminal charges. I cant bear to watch anymore Hollywood comedies because their vision of America is not the America I live in. I guess no one would go to see a movie about a “real woman” bagging groceries or folding clothes at WalMart.

And when Hollywood does make movies about real people like The Promotion, it’s too depressing to watch.

KH

Hugh Hefner just a “dirty old-man”

When Hugh Hefner launched Playboy Magazine December, 1953, he took his biggest gamble by lending his furniture for $600, raising $8,000 from 45 investors — including $1,000 from his mother. The first issue, published in December, 1953, featured Marilyn Monroe on the cover, as well as in nude photographs inside. Hugh was hip, trendy, cool, happening and definitely cutting-edge. Playboy would become the template for dozens of copycat publications including Penthouse and Larry Flynt’s Hustler.

It was the sixtie’s baby and it was groovy ….

James Bond, fast women, fast cars, cutting-edge technology, Playboy Clubs and Playboy Magazine were part of the scene. Hugh lived the life that every red-blooded American boy fantasized about. We wanted to be James Bond and Hugh Hefner.

Today, at age 88, as Hugh Hefner prances around the California Playboy Mansion in his PJ’s with the Playboy girls ( why are they mostly blonde by the way?) featured in the TV-reality-show, The Girls Next Door- Hugh comes off as creepy, a perverted, dirty-old-man. Even in this photo of sexy Pamela Anderson presenting Hugh a piece of cake, Pam comes off as sexy, hip, trendy, happening while Hugh just looks like a dirty old pervert.

Hugh’s big mistake was not in grooming one of today’s hot males to take his place,  (the word is “Protege,”) but letting his only child, a daughter; run the Playboy empire. At age 56, even Christie Hefner, Chairman of Playboy Enterprises comes off as a little creepy. The majority of American women really do not get into porn- and to have a 56-year-old, grandma running a mens porn magazine is a little creepy don’t you think?

Hugh has lost the opportunity to groom one of America’s rising studs to take his place. Someone like Heath Ledger, Brad Pitt. Ben Affleck.

Now he’s just a pitiful, dirty-old-pervert prancing around in PJ’s when he can’t even get it up at his advanced age and the women only desire his money and what he can do for them career-wise.

Hugh … it’s time to gracefully retire from public life. You’re beginning to “creep-out” America.

Surprise her with the size of your intimacy

Like many of you, I receive a lot of SPAM mostly from people trying to sell me something I don’t want or need. Aluminum siding when I rent a condominium. Most of the SPAM is sexual in nature. Jeanie wants me to add her as a my-space friend (so I can check out her professional sex web-cam site). Most of the SPAM of late has been for penile enhancers. At first I used to chuckle at the ridiculousness of these claims. There were times when I would burst out laughing. Not because I’m uncomfortable, but because it is funny when a tele-market or spammer insinuates that you have a puddly and informs you that you can grow your puddly to enormous proportions. For a price, of course. And that only their product,  (no one else’s), can accomplish this miraculous feat.

That was years ago when I only received one or two of these fraudulent ads. Lately, even though my SPAM filters are in place, (and I highly recommend everyone set up their personal SPAM filters), Lately, my Junk-Mail box is full of at least a hundred of these ads. Setting up my SPAM filter allows me to delete all of them at the click of one button. Still, the voluminous amount of these penile enhancer junk-mails are beginning to annoy me.

SURPRISE HER WITH A BIGGER PENIS!

the ads all claim. You know this would be a real surprise. After months of taking their product, the first time we are in the mood to have sex, I whip it out and it’s three-feet long. That would really surprise her and I imagine her eyes would look very much like the ones in this photo.  The ads promise:  If your wife or your girlfriend thinks your penis is not big enough then you can surprise her with one inch bigger size in just a couple of months. For best results (up to 3 inches longer penis) you need to undergo the full course of taking the penis enlargement supplement (usually between six and nine months).

Feller’s, I got news for you, if your wife or your girlfriend thinks your penis is not big enough then you have a real problem. Maybe the problem is not the size of your equipment, maybe the problem is the size of your intimacy (your woman or your relationship). Maybe you need to either find another woman, one who appreciates you or you need to work at your relationship. If the problem is so severe that you need to seek professional help, you have to re-examine option A again, (find another woman) or determine if the woman you have is a keeper and then invest the time and money in professional counseling. But merely, increasing the size of your manhood is not going to solve the problem, if the problem could be solved that way. It can’t. It’s a scam! It’s fraud!

The average size of a man’s penis is 5 1/2 to 6 inches. That’s it fellers. If you are bigger than consider yourself well-endowed and fortunate. But for millions of men world-wide, 5 1/2 to 6 inches. That’s it.

I noticed in one ad (in the before and after photos) the penis was not larger, it was the same, the photo had been zoomed. Neat optical trick to sell products but an optical illusion is not going to save your relationship.

Women giggle about “size does not matter” secretly hoping for a lover who falls above the normal range (well-endowed) but inwardly all women know that it’s not the size- it’s how you use it. And not just how you use the equipment, how you use your other equipment, heart, mind and most importantly, your ears.

Any sex-therapist from Dr. Laura to Dr. Ruth will tell you that the key to great sex is great communication.

So feller’s, the next time your woman makes an issue of the size of your equipment, don’t fall for these marketing scams and the Pamela Andersen mentality in believing that it’s the size of your penis that  matters, pay attention to what she’s really telling you. She’s telling you that you have communication issues, that you don’t listen to her or talk to her enough. That’s what creates intimacy. Surprise her with the size of-your intimacy, caring, communication, not the size of your penis. If you are one of those few who suffer from a constant puddly- (you don’t have the equipment)- Hey! You can always get the equipment. There are sex toys you can buy to make up for your lack of girth. Become an expert at communicating with your woman first and use of one of these sex-toys second, and you will never hear her complain about the size of your equipment again.

I’m Dr. Hall and that’s all the time we have for today.

KH

Is the bar too high now even for “Superman” to leap in a single bound?

Hell Boy II theme song (Rammstein – Mein Herz Brennt) The Dark Knight sure raised the bar for super-hero action/special effects movies just as Harry Potter raised the bar for children’s fantasy books. Over the next few years the movie-going public will see a proliferation of super-hero movies, all trying to “cash-in” on the success of Dark Knight.  Just as we did following the success of Spiderman. (Which may or may not have been the incentive for making the new round of Batman movies  that had already been done by Tim Burton).

Jack Nicholson’s Joker or Heath Ledger? Both were superb! Just different.

Most of the new super-hero movies will be God-awful.

They will resurrect every super-hero from Hell-Boy, Spawn, to Green Lantern and a renewed interest in America’s number-one super-hero, Superman; along with every super villan from The Joker to Lex Luther and Solomon Grundy. (Green Lantern).

We will see more sophisticated plots,  even more spectacular special- effects and villians as the special-effects and villians that have already been tired out by Dark Knight and others,  simply won’t excite us anymore. We will also read newspaper accounts about stunt-men being injured or killed in bringing us these new never before seen spectacular stunts for these new super-hero movies. The pressure to “cash-in” by Hollywood producers will ramp up the competition as well as stress-levels in Hollywood to have that big blockbuster movie of the summer. We used to have one or two blockbuster movies every summer (Independence Day)  now we seem to have a half dozen. Usually one movie breaks out of the pack like Iron Man and Dark Knight. Timing and release dates will be critical in Hollywood as well for success. An ill-timed release date has sent many a shipwrecked movie onto the rocks. (Deep Impact, Mars Attacks!, Volcano, The Forbidden Dance, Red Planet, Wyatt Earp and Valmont).

Hollywood- I would like to see new super-hero’s that we have not seen before.

Green Lantern is a good start. Marvel Comics, the creator of Spiderman gave us a plethora of super-hero’s and super-villans in the 1960’s and ’70’s. I had never read the Hell-Boy comics growing up as I was into Spidey and Green Lantern so I did enjoy the last two Hell-Boy movies. Ron Pearlman is a hoot and a holler. Everyone needs to watch the recent Golden Army movie just for the scene where Hell-Boy (Pearlman) and Dr. Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) get roaring drunk and start commiserating about their prospective love-lives while singing the Barry Manilow tune, “Can’t Smile Without You.“  It’s is up-roaringly hilarious. This is the kind of sophisticated writing I wish to see in any future super-hero movie. I wonder if Barry liked it.

Hollywood- I want to see good writing/good acting and not so many special-effects. You’ll remember Johnny Depp’s performance in Pirates Caribbean 3 was underscored by too many special effects.

So Hollywood … get busy and continue to give us the superb writing and acting that we, the viewers witnessed in Dark Knight while trying to keep the sense of humor as in Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

KILBURN HALL

The path of least resistance?

It’s a well known axiom that people dig a comfortable rut for themselves which they follow day after day. Then one day, there’s a bear in the trail and it eats them. In politics, the voting public treads the path of least resistance because it’s safe, it’s comfortable, it’s familiar. The voting public fears change and the politicians that run for office every four-years know this, so they play on our fears. My opponent is to be feared, he’s black, a muslim, he’s a re-distributionist, he has terrorist ties. My opponent is 72 years old, has a heart condition, is senile, will give you eight-more years of George Bush’s failed policies. They play on our fears and so, every four-years, like clockwork, we vote for the lesser of two evils. or the lesser evil that we perceive.

The problem with voting this way is that the path of least resistance, is to step off a cliff.

On September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Towers, Pentagon and into a field in Pennsylvania. They created an atmosphere of absolute fear in America. The newly elected President, a falling down drunk in the secret-fraternity Skull and Bones, played up our fears, created a color-alert warning system, stepped up the occupation of Iraq and barely, barely, got himself reelected for another four-years. Americans voted the path of least resistance and we all stepped off that cliff together, holding hands.

I will be saying a prayer for America this November 4th. The choice we have this election is historic. It’s not about two shady politicians whom neither has convinced us as to their honesty or integrity, the choice we have this election is about closing our eyes and taking one large step forward into the future or remaining stuck in our comfortable rut waiting for the bear (China) to show up one day and eat us.

Obama may keep his promises of leading America into a more economically secure future, a more “green” future- then again he may get bogged down by his own party and may turn out to be just another mediocre President. John McCain would certainly keep us stuck in the past.

Elections are a lot like gambling. You rolls the dice- you takes your chances. That’s why they call it gambling. But every four-years when Americans are forced to roll the dice, elect the lesser of two evils and hope for the best, and are then delivered more lies, deceit, fabrications, the American voter becomes a little more disenfranchised until they don;t care anymore. When that happens to the public- as Europeans are quick to do, (throw in the towel) Europeans end up with Fascism, Communism, Socialism and other “ism’s” – that promise to do good but end up making a slave of the people.

This is America’s last chance to roll the dice, gamble, take a chance on stepping forward into the future. China is quickly becoming the world’s number-one superpower. Other countries like India, Iran, North Korea are all developing nuclear weapons. If America doesn’t get with the program, if America fails to lead, if we prefer to practice “isolationism” – then we will fall backward and wake up one day to find that the bear (China) has eaten us. America will, as most Japanese believe right now, be good for nothing other than sports and movies which they will continue to pirate from us.

So America this is it. On November 4th- Election Day – we all need to hold our breath, join hands, and step forward into an undetermined future for if we fail to do so, we might as all jump off that cliff for politics will never change in America but only provide us with one buffoon (like McCain)  after another until there won’t be much left of the country we once knew.

KH

Even Halloween and slasher films on TV don’t seem as scary to us these days as American politics

Super Obama

I was walking home last night in the dark to see political campaign-signs dotting the lawns up and down my street and I realized that it’s a con. Every four-years, the politicians put Americans through the meat-grinder, repeat the same lies every four years. Politicians whose names we have never heard of make the same lame promises that somehow they manage to forget once they’re in office. Lozar is running for this, Peterson is running for that.

Every four years politicians create a climate  of fear and division in this country that only a Super-Obama can save us from. The polarized environment in this country that underlies my concerns still exists however. The United States has been divided. The country has been split into “left vs. right,” “red state vs. blue state,” “Republicans vs. Democrats.” All of this is false division. And who created this division? Who created the red state, the blue state? The politicians.

Why? For the money and personal power. Politicians would tear this country apart, turn neighbor against neighbor all so they can see their name (Lozar) on a campaign poster in front-yards all over the suburbs, read the article about themselves or  see their picture in the paper. Being a politician must be one massive ego trip.
Four years later however, we are left with the same broken system, the unkept promises, and the meat-grinder starts up all over again. The 72-year-old politician with the false smile and the sincere sounding, “My friends.” The folksy but ditsy running mate (By Golly!) with the worst environmental record in the state of Alaska. But gee, they smile, they throw out their soundbites and cleverly zing their opponents with their biting innuendo’s. “He’s my best friend  and I love him to death but he’s out of his ever loving mind.”  “Truth express missing a wheel there.” “Trying to nail down his tax plan is like nailing jello to the wall.” Gee, aren’t they clever?

Face it! Our political system in America is broken. Time to scrap it as our founding fathers did some 200-years-ago. It doesn’t work. It’s broken. It’s time to come up with a new system a works. A vote of confidence like the Canadians have. Putting Americans through this political meat-grinder every four years, creating this climate of fear ever four years is turning this nation into one giant looney-bin with the inmates running the asylum. It’s time to fix the problem not the blame. It’s time to recreate the American dream. It’s time to retire the words, “Partisanship, Mavericks, My Friends, Joe Six-pack and Joe-the-plumber.”

Have you ever asked yourself, ” Why every four-years?” Why not elect a President every six-years or eight- years? Politicians give us some lame-story about Roosevelt dying in office and how they want to prevent that but it’s big pile of steaming horse-manure my friends. We go to the polls  every  four-years because the politicians want us to go to the polls every four-years. They’d like it to be every two-years if we would let them. So, the political weenies we have never hear of like Lozar, Foster, Canary, Campbell, Kinsey, Lohmiller,  Moore and other’s  (like who gives a rats ass?)  who want to make $100-grand a year, get all those free junkets from lobbyists and have all that prestige and personal power have a shot at achieving their dim-witted political goals every four years. And heaven forbid a politician stays in office for life- we’ll just create a little scandal like Senator Stevens of Alaska to boot him out of office. Not a terribly big scandal which would imprison him for the remainder of his life or ruin his wife and family- just a little one to get him to step down so we can move in.

The tragedy is that Nov, 4th people go to the polls, look at the names on the ballots of these pinheads they have never heard of, close their eyes and pick one. Most likely we punch a democrat or republican candidate we have never heard of because that’s the political party affiliation of our choice.
We are one people, and once Americans can forget their differences, we can all start to fix our broken political system and  focus on the issues that truly matter – like Halloween. (see next blog)

I don’t know about you but I’m worn out and I wasn’t even running for office. After the hell of this tough primary race, we all need a break and Halloween, (which brings out the little child in all of us), is just the ticket. Even Halloween and gory-slasher films on TV don’t seem as scary to us these days as American politics.
KH

Hey buddy, can you spare a cup of coffee?

Ron Howard Obama ad (Funny or die)

I went to my favorite coffee hide-a-way in the Chicago suburbs last week, (Biggby Coffee) to get a cup of my favorite blend, (Michigan Cherry)  when I noticed the city had plastered these obnoxious neon-green stickers all over the front door with very official/threatening sounding language. “Anyone caught selling on these premises subject to Class A Misdemeanor.”

Obviously the franchisee, had a licensing problem with the city or got behind in  city taxes.

John McCain would give tax-breaks to big business/corporate America to keep them here in the state’s. He’s said so. Obama favors hitting on big-business, and helping small businesses like the Biggby franchise, “stay in business” by spreading the wealth around. McCain calls him a redistributionist. I ask- so what’s wrong with spreading the wealth around?

Ronald Regan was a quack politician and a third-rate actor. His trickle-down economic policies were total horsehit, favoring only the wealthy by deregulating everything. Think of an hour-glass filled with sand. The trickle-down-effect cannot reach you if you’re at the bottom of the sand heap, you have to be in the upper 1/3 of the sand to feel any trickle-down effect. The working-class in the ghetto never feel the effect of trickle-down economics. It’s a load of crap to deceive the working-class while the rich, wealthy upper-class laugh all the way to the bank.

John McCain believes in Regan economics and deregulation. In short, McCain is a quack who would continue to favor big business and the wealthy. If McCain is elected Nov, 4th- Americans are going to have to get used to bending over, spreading our butt cheeks and liking it.

It’s a visicious “Catch-22;” helping corporate America stay in the state’s and provide jobs or helping small business owners. Personally, I’m rooting for the small business owner. The tragedy of the last 25-years is that we’ve seen corporate America like WalMart move in and take over America, peddling Chinese junk, thwarting unionization of its workers, working the employees to death,  while paying them meager wages.

Can you imagine the freedom and happiness we would have in this country if the majority of Americans who wanted to open/run their own small business like the Biggby franchise owner, could?

Competition is a good thing. The more small businesses we have, the more specialty stores and services, the better, not worse,  customer service becomes. Instead, we are stuck with giant, cold/impersonal, behemoth, corporate monstrosities like WalMart, Target,  Home Depot, Super Value (Jewel) who jack up the prices to $5.49 for a pack of Oscar Meyer hotdogs, while treating their employees like dirt and paying them minimum wage with no health benefits.

So, I hope come Nov. 4 that Obama wins and sticks it to corporate America. I hope the unions take over the WalMarts, the Home Depots, the Jewel (Super Value) Kroger,  and all the corporate-owned and run retail, grocery-chains and others.

If you haven’t seen the Ron Howard ad for Obama I have posted it here. Ron Howard,  Andy Griffin, and Henry Winkler who do not normally take an official stance in elections, felt strongly enough that America is heading in the wrong direction that they felt compelled to speak out … or die. Funny stuff.

Please vote for change America on November 4. Vote for “real change.”  So I can go back and have a cup of coffee at my favorite coffee place and not have to bend over and spread-em for the likes of corporate America like Starbucks.

KH

Sometimes the words just get in the way

The most powerful drug used by mankind is not crack, cocaine, valium, marijuana, heroin, or alcohol; it is the use and misuse of “words.”

“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”
~Rudyard Kipling

There is a hair-design place in the western suburbs of Chicago that really sucks. Suk’s Hair Design that is. I kid you not. Can you imagine  commenting to a friend when she asks where you got your new  “do”  and you reply, “At  Suk’s.”

“It Suck’s?”

“No.  At Suk’s.”

Sounds like an Abbott and Costello routine. (Who’s on first).

As a retired journalist, author of nine books, and an active blogger, the meaning of words has always been very important. My eighth-grade English teacher, Mrs. Royer unwittingly gave me my life’s philosophy  from a mnemonic-device designed to help us learn to spell.

“It’s no lie to believe!”

Two door’s down from Suks is a psychic adviser who chose for the name of  her business simply, “Psychic.” Short and very to the point.

WORD: the smallest amount of something spoken or written. But then a word can be a noun, (be as good as one’s word, break one’s word, have a word with you).  Verb, (he words his request in a particularly ironic way).  Adjective, (a strongly worded letter of protest. That Jay is one dangerous character. “Word.”)  Adverb. (keep one’s word, put words in my mouth, a man of few words).

Then there are oxymoron’s, (words which combine two contradictory things, “jumbo-shrimp,” “deafening silence,”) cliché’s, (cliche is a phrase, expression, or idea that has been overused) To coin a phrase, “words are a dime a dozen.”

Then there are the truly confusing use of words like  portmanteau  which is used broadly to mean a blend of two (or more) words into nonsensical words like Frankenword, (blending “Frankenstein” and “word”). Author Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland) was a great user of portmanteau. The usage of the word ‘portmanteau’ in this sense first appeared in Lewis Carroll’s book Through the Looking-Glass (1871) in which Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the coinage of the unusual words in Jabberwocky. Humpty Dumpty’s theory, of two meanings packed into one word like a portmanteau, seems to me the right explanation for all.

For instance, take the two words “fuming” and “furious.” Make up your mind that you will say both words … you will say “frumious.” ‘slithy’ means ‘lithe and slimy’… You see it’s like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word. “‘Mimsy’ is ‘flimsy and miserable’.

It can all get so confusing!

Down the street from the strip-mall is a ghetto-like apartment complex called Park Place. Which looks nothing like Park Place. In the 1940’s, they used to used the slang expression, “That’s very Park Place,” meaning; upscale, fashionable, trendy, exclusive. Today, most Americans only know the meaning of the phrase “Park Place” from the  Monopoly game.

In America, we have countless subdivisions named after trees where no such trees exist or were planted after the fact,  (Aspen Meadows, Pine Grove, Oak Hill)  or after bodies of water that don’t exist, (Mill Creek, Mill Pond).

You can bet a subdivision named “Tall Firs” won’t have many, if any, tall fir trees left or a sub-divison named after a body of water won’t have that body of water. So why do the developers misname them?  They give them a cutesy name simply to attract buyers but the name means nothing.

Today, words are thrown at us for marketing purpose’s, to manipulate us. Words are casually used and misused, but the words themselves have lost all meaning, except to humorists who catch the double-entendre, (a spoken phrase which can be understood in either of two ways, a play on words).

“A man walks into a bar and asks the barmaid for an entendre. She says, ‘Certainly sir, single or double?’ He says double and she replies, ‘OK then sir, yours is a large one.’”

(Entendre also being an alcoholic drink containing Champagne, Grenadine, Pineapple Juice, and Vodka).

Many commercials for Overstock.com feature double entendres, as an attractive woman talks about the “O” and “Big O”, which could refer to the website itself, but clearly call to mind the word “orgasm”, which is often called the  “Big O.”

When the words mean nothing, Americans stop paying attention.

One only need look at the phony political process every four years making the same repeated, phony promises. Americans tune out the “words.”

The power of words  create emotional appeals, fallacies, manipulations, disinformation, misdirection, propaganda, and Political Correctness, that defeat our common sense, twist our thinking and control our behavior.

In the days of the old-west, snake-oil salesman were armed only with the power of words to sell their phony products.  Oils from the Chinese water snake contained none, and were instead mixtures of camphor, some form of fat (often beef), and alcohol. The unsavory reputation of people selling snake oil began to gather steam as most people who bought the stuff found no benefit from using it.

Salesmen, politicians, journalists, those in the media always get their own way, get you to agree with their point of view, give them what they want, do what they ask and buy what they are selling through their trickery of words. They use the power of words in a dishonest way. These are enormous powers, largely because they are invisible. You’ve been persuaded, manipulated, and controlled without your knowing anything about it. And written words are even more powerful since they are often accepted, uncritically, as being true.

Ever wonder why lawyers and the justice system still use “latin” for legal terms? The traps set by the legal word-mongering often leave the normally intelligent citizen dumbfounded: They don;t want the average lay person to really know what they’re talking about.

Every field has their unique “speak” or “jargon” which only those in that particular field know what the words mean. Writing that contains technical terms not commonly intelligible or talk that is considered clumsy or circumlocutory is termed “jargon”. The term is applied to the cant of a class or to the peculiar vocabulary of a particular art or science, trade or profession.

{agonal, scoop-and-run, obiter dictum, Pro bono, corpus dilecti, Code Seven, (out for lunch) phonemic awareness,Points. CMO, CLTV Ratio,  CMBS, CRA, pull quote, concretable, plyboo, granny-flat. gerry-mandering, Blaxploitation}

I examined the tissue under the microscope and detected squamous epithelium with normal margins”, the doctor deposed. “The centre portion was markedly thickened and keratinization had increased. These papillary-like projections in some regions showed distinct calcification. The underlying fibrous connective-tissue stroma revealed no pathogenicity”
The Judge interjected: “In simple everyday language, Doctor, what did the plaintiff have?”
The doctor looked sheepishly at the judge and answered: “A wart”.

Journalists back in the day, of Samuel Clemens, Nelson Algren, Colonel McCormack,  used to use the power of words for truth. Words create impressions, images and expectations. They build psychological connections. They influence how we think. Since thoughts determine actions, there’s a powerful connection between the words we use and the results we get.

Some of the funniest comedians, Abbott and Costello, (Who’s On First) Lucille Ball, George Carlin (Seven Dirty Words” comedy routine was central to the 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, in which a narrow 5–4 decision by the justices affirmed the government’s power to regulate indecent material on the public airwaves.)  Monty Python, (Wink, wink, nudge, nudge) Eddie Murphy (F**k), SNL’s John Belushi/Dan Ackroyd, Johnny Carson/Jay Leno, Cheech and Chong  all use the power of words” in  comedy sketches to hilarious effect as do hundreds of political-cartoonists the last-century like Charles Addams (Addams family creator). “It’s so nice to have a “thing” around the house. (Thing was a hand with no body attached). Macabre, dark sense of humor.

One of my favorite song’s done by  John Prine and other’s is called, Let’s Talk Dirty in Hawaiian.

Lets talk dirty in hawaiian
Whisper in my ear
Kicka pooka mok a wa wahini
Are the words I long to hear
Lay your coconut on my tiki
What the hecka mooka mooka dear
Lets talk dirty in hawaiian
Say the words I long to hear

All of the great songwriter’s, Harry Chapin, Jim Croce, )Working at the Car-Wash Blues) Seals and Crofts, John Denver, Gordon Lightfoot, (Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald)  Dan Fogelberg, John Prine, Steve Goodman (Lincoln Park Pirates) used words to tell a story. Some refer to them as “Balladeer’s.”

“Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.” ~Buddha

So  …….

“Gimme gimme oka doka make a wish and wanta polka
Words I understand hey!

Aloha,
Kilburn Hall

AC/DC Rock-N-Roll train rolls on

“I remember when rock was young
me and Susie had so much fun.”
~Elton John

For those about to rock, the AC/DC rock-n-roll train rolls on.  Unless, that is, you want to buy the Australian heavy metal group’s newest album, “Black Ice,” on iTunes, or anywhere but Wal-Mart when it drops in record stores on October 20th, 2008.

Call them old (they are– but the rock group known as AC/DC, alias the young brothers, Angus and Malcolm, are 53 and 55, while vocalist Brian Johnson is 61)  still won’t give up that schoolboy uniform.

Despite distasteful business practices and  crass-commercialism at its worst (AC/DC selling its new album “Black Ice” at only one retail chain- Wal-Mart) another reminder of just what is very, very, wrong in America, the blatant crass-commercialism, and Wal-Mart as usual, is stuck right in the very middle of it.

but hey kid, rock and roll, rock on …..  ooh my soul

As a child of the ’60’s, many of today’s bloggers and blog-readers are too young to remember that in the 1960’s and 1970’s- most rock songs were protests songs, in fact;  much of the rock-n-roll movement was a protest movement, (anti-government, make love – not war, burn your brassiere’s) people bought rock albums as a political statement not because slick marketing executives at Wal-Mart made a big media event out of it. In the 1960’s, if a crass commercial entity like Wal-Mart tried to sell a Door’s or Jimi Hendrix album- there would have been riots, protests, and marches, outside the front door of Wal-Mart not to mention this thing called Pot and LSD.

Today’s kids, or rather, consumer’s, have been brain-washed.

None of that matter to the folks at Wal-Mart cause the kids in black are back.

Wednesday, “Black Ice”  AC/DC’s first album in a dozen-years, debuted at No. #1 on the billboard albums chart, selling more than 780,000 copies in its first week , on Thursday. Wow! Not made for old men such as myself in their fifties. We still now how to rock Generation X-er’s.

Still looking for that blue jean, baby queen during the second night of its U.S. tour and the first of two sold-out shows here in Chicago, the quintet rocked as righteously and as mightily as any rock group ever could.

But hey kid,  rock n roll,   rock on …  ooh my soul

Some things just never get old or seem tired, and high atop this list of the best things in life is that simple, monolithic, four-on-the-floor AC/DC beat (bassist Cliff Williams and drummer Phil Rudd remain one of the most underrated rhythm sections in rock history)

I never knew me a better time and I guess I never will
Oh lawdy mama those Friday nights
When Suzie wore her dresses tight
And the crocodile rocking was out of sight

The AC/DC rock-n-roll train rolls right along despite a 12-year hiatus and having listened to the album or rather CD as they call “albums”  these days, all train wrecks-should be this much fun. I suppose Black Ice is as much a testament to AC/DC’s endurance as it is to the crass-commercialism and clever marketing by the folks at Wal-Mart who will soon make us all learn to speak Chinese. To make things happen in China, you have to know people. “Knowing” is what the Chinese mean by “guan xi” or “connections.” When you cultivate “guan xi” with people, you might get them to bend over backwards for you, let alone buy into your demands and style and no one has perfected the art of bullshit, er …      “guan xi” like the folks at Wal-Mart. But just as the folks at Wally-World made $7 million-dollars on Black Ice- you think Wal-Mart would let AC/DC perform in one of their stores? I’m guessing not.

but they’ll never kill the thrills we got
burning up to the crocodile rock
we really thought the crocodile rock would last

So hey kids, rock and roll, rock on … but remember not to become too brain-washed by Wal-Mart who will use AC/DC, Brittany Spears, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Lindsay Lohan or any other troubled teen, personality, or commercial entity, they can take advantage of to line the coffin of old Sam Walton who is probably lying there with a huge smile on his face.

KH

After today, (Nov. 4th) consider me gone

There is a song by Sting that says,

“After today … consider me gone.”

That’s what one the candidates will be saying Tuesday, Nov. 4th as America heads to the polls.  As John McCain and Barack Obama plunge through the final weekend in their final sprint for the White House, it’s a numbers game at this point. Only 100-hours more to go. Thank God!

I wasn’t even running for political office and I got to tell you- I’m worn out after this very intense, political year. The primary between Hillary and Obama was intense, unlike anything American voters have seen in the past. Between now and Tuesday you’ll see headlines such as these as the bean-counters, pollsters, and media armchair generals try to spin the numbers.

• AP poll shows Obama backers gleeful, McCain’s glum AP
• Stump to the Finish ABC News
• A campaign for the ages, tilting toward Democrats AP
• Obama-McCain Duel Spurs Charges of Voter Fraud, Suppression Bloomberg

Here in Chicago, authorities are bracing for as many as a million people in downtown Grant Park Tuesday night to cheer on Barack Obama as election returns come in, a potential celebration and security headache.

Can The Republicans win? Depends on what news-source you listen to. Just as there are “red” and “blue” states there are also “red” and “blue” media sources. Here in Chicago at my former employer, The Chicago Sun-Times, black columnist Mary Mitchell is a “blue” news source, her counterpart columnist Michael Sneed is a “red” source. Both are the very best columnists in the business today, they just work opposite sides of the aisle. They’re probably the best of friends as well personally. Professionally they spar. It’s all part of the game. In politics, you can’t take anything personally as Hillary supporters found out the hard way at the DNC convention last August in Denver.

Gallup Daily: Obama 52%, McCain 42% Among Likely Voters

The hard work is done. Now, it’s just a numbers game. Both campaigns will kick back in their prospective campaign headquarters as the bean-counters crunch the numbers and confirm what most Americans already know. They just can’t make it official until the evening of Nov. 4th when the candidate with the least numbers steps up to the podium to make his concession speech.

Americans learned during the first Bush W. election that popular election results are nice, but they don’t win you elections. Just ask Al Gore who is still crying in his beer. Elections are won by electoral votes.

So, McCain can brag that he’s won Montana, North Dakota, even Sarah Palin can brag that she carried her home state of Alaska. Big deal. Each state has only 3 electoral votes. The big states needed to win are California with 55 electoral votes, Illinois with 21, New York with 31, and so forth. If you clink on the above link you’ll see that most of these states, (the one’s with the largest number of electoral votes) are all “blue” states. Obama mama’s.

That smiling guy walking down the street? Odds are he’s a Barack Obama backer. The grouchy looking one? He voted for McCain.

So, don’t listen to all the numbers crunchers, the bean-counters, media-pollsters, media arm chair quarter-backs or you’ll drive yourself crazy. Instead, kick back, hold up your glass and toast the obvious winner as America holds it’s breath and takes one giant and courageous step into our future together as Americans. And oh yeah,

DON’T FORGET TO VOTE!!!

You’ll see all kinds of wild poll results between now and Nov. 4th, but after Nov. 4th- one of the candidates will be singing that Sting song,

“history reeks of the wrongs we have done
After today, consider me gone.”

KH

The $5-dollar slop sandwhich

I got this flyer in my daily paper from Subway.
A full-page photo ad for  Subway’s  new $5 Chicken Pizziola. I admit the photo with the melted Mozzarella cheese, chicken, pepperoni and tomato’s on a toasted  foot-long Italian Bread looked so good I had to try one. And the $5 price for a foot-long seemed reasonable. Here’s what I got for my $5 bucks- a slop sandwich. The Mexican behind the counter barely spoke English- the Mexican girl mopping the floor- spoke no English at all. The sandwich maker slopped Mostacholi sauce on it, barely put any chicken or pepperoni on it, sprinkled Parmesan cheese on it and forgot to add the Pepper-Jack or Mozzarella cheese or whatever it was supposed to get. It was the worst piece of slop I have ever been served. When I showed it to him and requested that he remake the sandwich., he became rude and insulting. I demanded my money back. It was either that or  climb over the counter and beat him to death with the sandwich.

Which brings quickly me to the point of this blog. The corporate fast-food empire in America is evil. They have had Americans bending over so long, spreading our butt-cheeks and liking it, that they think they can get away with whatever they want, whenever they want , and treat the customers however they want. McDonalds makes billions-of dollars every year. Last year McDonalds revenues reached a record high of $22.8 billion on global comparable sales of 6.8% and returned $5.7 billion to shareholders through shares repurchased and dividends paid. Yet. last week, McDonalds announced that they are no longer going to offer its customers free water. Other cutbacks include charging for extra dipping sauces for McNuggets  and mustard/ketchup packets, Now this is a company that made $22 billion dollars folks and they’re too cheap to offer  the customer a free glass of water? I am not going to spend $4 bucks for the four-piece frozen McNuggets and have to pay extra for an extra dipping-sauce. Now, they’re eliminating cheese from the double-cheeeseburger on the dollar menu. That imitation-cheese-slice will cost extra.

Cheap bastards.
Other fast-food chains are also doing the same.

Last time I went to McDonalds, I ordered a hamburger off the dollar menu. Here’ s what I got for my dollar. I had to lift the bun to find the meat patty, they slopped on a tablespoon of ketchup. there was one pickle slice and three small dices of onion. In-other-words, I got a slop sandwich for a dollar.
Fast food companies, rake in billions every year while hiring illegal aliens ,who they work like dogs, pay them practically nothing, the restaurants are dirty, bathrooms are filthy, the quality of the food product is deplorable and they treat their customers like crap. Most fast-food workers are rude and insulting, particularly if you ask them to remake a sandwich. or correct a mistake they made in the ordering or delivery of your product. They then add insult to injury, after you’ve paid $10 for a dollar-grease burger with cheese, fries and a coke by asking if you want to spend even more money by super-sizing that grease-burger, low-trans-fat fries that taste like pencil-lead and watered down Coke.

Forty-five-years ago a man by the name of Ray Kroc visited a San Bernardino burger joint. The quality of the food was awesome, the service fast and courteous, Kroc knew he would make a fortune spreading the idea of fast, courteous service nationwide. Kroc bought out the McDonnell brothers for $2.7 million, The rest was history.

Today, McDonalds (having served over 99-billion) is not the same courteous, fast service that Kroc found in San Bernardino. They have become a faceless corporate monster whose lawyers swoop down on anyone who tries to name their new restaurant anything that sounds like McDonalds,  impugn the character of McDonalds (while the quality of their product has gone to the dogs), try to unionize its workers all the while treating its employees and customers with contempt. Taco Bell, Burger KIng, Wendy’s have all followed suit.

Why have these faceless corporate “evil empires flourished the last 25-years? They’ve been getting away with whatever they want and treating the customer however they want because we let them. Americans are too polite to “speak-up.” Americans have looked the other way for so long that the corporate food  pirates have gotten used to getting their own way. Plus, the fact that these corporations are so big that they can squash the little guy. Anyone who tries to open their own burger (Good Times, Checkers) Pizza (Pizza Hut) Taco (Taco Bell) or chicken (KFC) chain.

I don’ t do fast foods.

I don’t patronize them  for the reason that the last few times I have visited fast-foods my experience was atrocious both in the food quality and rudeness I received. The attitude of these fast food czars has become, “If you don’t like it go somewhere else.” Hey, they made $22-billion last year alone- they don’t need your business.  One less customer more or less is not going to put much of a dent in a $22-billion-dollar a year operation. And that attitude is horrible customer service. It shows just what contempt these corporate food stuffs really have for us, the consumer. 45-years ago, they actually wanted your business. You got a burger, fries and coke and change back from your dollar.

I am not going to spend $5 on a quarter-pounder, or Double Whopper, a greasy, heart-attach causing shit sandwich. For about the same price that these grease-pits charge for their “shit”sandwich, I I can go to a real bar, order a real burger on a real bun, (not like the bun at McDonalds and BK which falls apart when you pick it up in your hands). The bar also gives me a side of coleslaw and a cold dill pickle, I also get a smile from the bartender as he hands me my cold draft beer to wash it all down.
I am a great believer in small business not these evil corporate empires who don’t give a crap about the quality of-their product or your experience just about the amount of dividends they can return to their shareholders.
When Taco Bell first opened 20-some years ago in my suburb in 1977,  (the small store with the slanted terra-cotta roof), the quality of the food was great and you couldn ‘t beat the price. That’s why all the Mexicans ate there. This summer, I had the misfortune  to visit a Taco Smell. The refried beans were raw, the spanish-rice all dried out, the dollar beef-burrito was so runny it looked like diarrhea.   Even dogs eat better than this in America. I am just tired of paying $4 for a Gordita that is going to give me the shits an hour later.
Aren’t you?

Big Business, Corporate America,  think they’ re immune. They, like McDonalds, BK, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, KFC and all the other giant corporate fast-food chains think their brand-name is worldwide and that the company is so huge that they can coast on their past success. Which is why they do whatever they like, when they like, and treat their customer however rudely they like.  Americans are so used to putting up with it that we’ll keep paying for it and liking it. Or so they think.

But here’s the thing that a lot of corporate businesses are beginning to find out, competition is a good thing. Just bad for them. Competition forces these giant businesses to keep their prices low, keep the quality of their product high and maintain fast, courteous service or the consumers will take their business elsewhere. To the corner bar perhaps where I go for a beer and a burger.

Twenty-five-years ago ,Pizza Hut had the Pizza business locked up, today;  they have lots of competition with Domino’s, Uno’s, Papa Johns, California Pizza Kitchen, Wolfgang Puck’s, and other’s.
McDonalds competes with #2 BK, Checker’s, Good Times, and new burger chains start up every week. Subway goes head to head with Quizno’s and other deli chains, KFC dances with Pop-eye’s and other chicken chains. Taco Bell competes with Taco Johns and Del Taco who is quickly catching up.
So folks, as a consumer, you no longer have to bend over and take it from these faceless corporate fast-foods who care nothing about you but just want to separate you from your money.

The next time some insulting illegal alien serves you a $5-slop-sandwich while working for a corporation like Subway or McDonalds that makes billions of dollars a year, you don’t have to take it. You can speak up, demand your money back,  jump over the counter and beat the SOB to death with his own sandwich or- you can walk next door to the small business owner who has just started up a burger, deli, chicken, or taco stand and give them your business. Not only will you get your $5 worth with probably the best burger, taco, chicken, you have had in awhile but the courteous, fast service you receive will make you want to come back time and time again. That’s how the McDonnell brothers in San Bernardino did it to make almost $3 million-dollars. Too bad, the faceless bureaucrats at McDonalds have forgotten just how they go to 99-billion served.

So bend over Subway and McDonalds. It’s time you spread your butt cheeks and liked it.

KH

The Rule Of Three

Jurassic Park Theme

From the time I was a small boy, I would hear the public respond  to the death of a celebrity by saying, “It always happens in three’s.” Over the years, the theory for the most part seems to have held up. I have come to call it, “The Rule Of Three.”

As an author, I know that The “Rule Of Three” is not some new Dan Brown novel but a principle in English writing that suggests that things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things. The Rule of Three (also Three-fold Law or Law of Return) is a religious tenet held by some Wiccans. It states that whatever energy a person puts out into the world, be it positive or negative, will be returned to that person three times. If that is the case, then the three friends and mentor’s I lost this past week were giants among men and as such, their loss creates a gigantic void that will not soon be filled.

Over the years, as I became increasingly aware of this “death in three’s,” it seemed to me each time a celebrity died that all three deceased were employed in the same career field. Recently, Michael Crichton, Tony Hillerman, and Studs Terkel were all authors. When Katherine Hepburn died, it seemed to me that all three deceased were in the acting profession. When Mel Torme died in 1999, it seemed to me that all three deceased were employed as musicians.

Maybe God, up there in his heaven, feels a void from time to time or has need of three great talents in the same career field to entertain him so he takes them all at once. Maybe it’s just the Wiccan Rule of Three- whatever energy a person puts out into the world, be it positive or negative, will be returned to that person three times or conversely, when that  energy is taken out of this world- it is taken from us three times.

About his friend, Director Stephen Spielberg said this: Michael’s talent out-scaled even his own dinosaurs of ‘Jurassic Park.”  Spielberg,  directed the blockbuster movie version of Jurassic Park and its sequel, “The Lost World.”

Michael  Crichton (Jurassic Park), creator of ER and other TV series, died unexpectedly in Los Angeles, (November 4, 2008) after a courageous and private battle against cancer. He was 66. Crichton, a medical doctor turned novelist and filmmaker whose books have sold more than 150 million copies worldwide.

Tony Hillerman (Thief of Time) died of heart-related problems at age 83. (listen to Catfish Muse)

Chicago legendary journalist Studs Terkel, died peacefully in his sleep of old age at age 96.

Studs Terkel, who died on October 31, 2008 at the age of 96, was a born story teller and a radio pro, even though, he said: “I don’t know how a tape recorder works!”

About writing and being an author, Michael Crichton once said:

“Books aren’t written – they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn’t quite done it.”

All three were giants on this earth. They were my friends,

and my mentors and I will sorely miss them.

Thanks for all the Dinosaur’s and Kokopelli’s.

Kilburn Hall

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me
~Aretha Franklin

I admire Barack Obama. Let me tell you why. When you think of what the man has accomplished, not only is it historic, (since everyone is using that word lately) it’s just down right phenomenal. How many of us could achieve what Barack Obama has achieved the last two years? With all the challenges he has had to face? A black-man running for the highest office on the land, with the threat of white-supremacy, the thought of assasination hanging over his head. You know, it was a mere 38-years ago that then Governor of Alabama, George Wallace, was denying blacks entrance to an all-white school. The National Guard was called in. White Supremist wack-jobs (KKK) were killing black leaders all through the deep-South.  I needn’t remind Americans of the horrors of the civil-rights movement and the assassination of black leaders like Malcom X and Martin-Luther King. What a very long way we’ve come in such a short time. What Americans did at the polls Nov. 4th went beyond historic. Miracle is a word that comes to mind. A miracle on so many levels. A miracle that Americans could move beyond their prejudices to “do the right thing.”

As President-elect Obama said in his acceptance speech from Grant Park:

“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”

As Obama fielded phone-calls from  world leaders today, these world-leaders all saw the same thing that I did, that I hope, you all did, that America not only got a historic president, America got a courageous president.

Most people in America are giving the new president-elect the R-E-S-P-E-C-T he deserves.  Obama, “a good sport” kept quiet the day after his landslide victory to allow McCain and Palin time to make a graceful exit. That’s our president showing his opponents the R-E-S-P-E-C-T they deserve. It’s too bad McCain’s own campaign staff couldn’t show Sarah Palin, McCain’s running mate the R-E-S-P-E-C-T she deserves. Telling tales out of school that Palin didn’t know (Africa)  a continent from a country, about the $150,000 the RNC spent on clothes for her and her family because she was so “ill-prepared” when she got the call, is inappropriate, back-biting, and does all Americans a dis-service. We should be bigger than this.

Ok, so you disagree with her politics or lack of.  So you think she’s a moose-shooting lunatic. The fact is- the woman is Governor of Alaska, a former candidate for Vice-President, (the 2nd highest office in the land), and she lost …  as such she’s still deserving of that Aretha Franklin R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

As my childhood friend Snagglepuss always used to say;

“Exit …   Stage Left.”

Both McCain and Palin showed real self-R-E-S-P-E-C-T by making a quiet exit.

Palin’s handler’s were flooded with a ton of interview requests from the likes of a Barbara Walter’s (“Babs”) and others who would’ve pinned the blame for the demise of the Republican party on her. Wisely, she declined those interviews to return home and sleep in her own bed after nine months. Palin/McCain showed their new PREZ the respect he’s due by not engaging in unsportsmanlike conduct and finger pointing. They lost- they lost big- and it was all fair-and-square. No charges of voter fraud, no demand for a re-count like Al Gore who still can’t believe he lost eight-years later.

Note to AL: “AL- you lost pal!

Get over it.”

John McCain drove himself home, Palin and family flew into Alaska to be greeted by a storm of controversy- un-sportsman-like conduct by McCain’s people who helped prep her for her Vice-Presidential debate against Joe Biden. (Our new Vice-President). Naturally, Sarah is fighting back today and I say good for her and good for the Republican party. If anyone can help save the Republican party these days it is Sarah Palin. The Moose-shooting, hockey-mom, and friend of  Joe-sick-pack. This is the Republican base, (You know), Rush Limbaugh windbags-who think their slicker-than-snot but walk around in flannel shirts, burping and farting, getting America involved in an eight-year occupation of a country filled with nothing but sand solely on the basis of one “Axis-of-Evil” speech. (I refer to the movie W- 2008).

So Re-pubs, if you ever, ever, want another chance at controlling 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue again, you’d do well to brush up on your Aretha Franklin and start humming a few bars of:

“R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me and treat me right when I get home.”

I’m Kilburn Hall.

Obama’s nation has begun

Obama’s nation
has begun.

Join the
(Patriotic, Resilient, Conservative)
Resistance

The website ad blares.

Welcome to Obama’s nation…
The “transformational” figure who will “change the world” is now in charge, and he’s on a mission. Emboldened by an overwhelming electoral victory and a near-super-majority in Congress, President-elect. Obama and his allies are preparing to implement his liberal, “post-American” agenda. Simply put, what President-elect Obama and the Pelosi-Reid Congress have in store has the potential to rapidly move America to the socialist Left.

The man just won the election not one week ago, will not take office until Jan. 20, 2009 and already the Neo-Cons and Neo-conservative grassroots organizations like Grassfire.org and others are already on the attack. They claim Obama wants to move America to the socialist left. I say- what’s wrong with that?

We tried it their way, the Neo-Conservative way, for eight years and it did not work. In fact, not only did it not work, it caused a meltdown in this country which will take an Obama administration eight-years to undo. Under the Neo-Cons and Grassfire,org-like groups, greedy bankers/lenders caused a banking meltdown with many major banks going out of business, a housing/lending crisis with credit being frozen in America, millions of Americans losing their homes to foreclosure, we’ve seen the meltdown of our Stock-Market not to mention markets around the world in-Japan,  and Europe. America has been bogged down not in a war- (we won the war in Irag in two-weeks time), America has been bogged down in an eight-year occupation, spending billions of needed dollars at home, needless loss of life of thousands of American GI’s in a country that has nothing but sand, sand …..

Not oil, not technology, not crops but filthy dirty rag-wearing terrorists that live in caves and subsist on a steady diet of rodents. It’s called Empire Building. The British tried it for a 100-years and it did not work, they were driven out of India, Africa, and every other country/continent they tried to occupy.

1 million citizens resisting… the ad claims.
I find it unlikely they have 1 million citizens with the election barely a week over. But if they do- who are these people? What are their names? Publish their names on the web or in newspapers so we can verify that these are legitimate citizens and not a figment of Grassfire,org’s imagaination.

Secondly- who is funding this 1-million person resistance? Publish the names of your donors again so we can verify that these are legitimate donors and not a figment of Grassfire,org’s vivid imagination.

But you know Grassfire.org will not publish the names of the 1-million so called resistance, because there are not 1 million people who resist an Obama administration (likely one hundred sore Neo_con losers who bungled McCains campaign and are now crying in their beer). Grassfire.org will not publish the names of the donors who are funding this “tripe” they call resistance because the names would be people like Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, John/Cindy McCain,  Limbaugh, Cheney, Rummy, and other’s who have lost their power and now have to sit idly by on the sidelines the next eight-years planning and scheming their comeback like the little spiders they are.

Specifically, The faceless, scheming beaurocrats behind Grassfire,org state that they specifically resist:

1.Socialistic wealth redistribution including any and all tax increases and big-government welfare programs. Silencing conservatives through the Fairness Doctrine and other efforts that restrict free speech.

Did they not listen to Obama’s plan? If you make under $120,000 a year – you don;t got to worry about any tax increase folks. The people that are worried about any redistribution are the scheming little spiders sitting on top of the heap of gold, corporate America, and others who pay relatively little taxes due to a collection of legal loopholes, tax deductions, and who have moved their corporations to China who have no controls whatsoever. The super rich. These are the people who are worried and rightly so. Deregulation did not work. Trickle down economics is a scam! It can’t trickle down to you  if you’re at the bottom of the sand-pile. You have to be in the upper-third of the sandpit for  trickle-down economics to affect you. The Super rich do not want their wealth to “trickle-down” especially to me and you.

So, I say tax the rich. Tax the hell out of-them! Make them pay for the damage they have caused this country by lining their pockets the last eight-years, ignoring the little guy, ignoring the American worker. Go after Wal-Mart and squeeze them like they have squeezed Americans with their hiring of ex-CIA agents to spy on Wal-Mart employees, thwarting unionization of its workers, paying their workers as little as they have to, working them like a dog, intimidating their workers in meetings that strongly suggest you vote for McCain or you no longer have a job at Wal-Mart These bastards need to go,  (which is highly unlikely),  so lets regulate the hell out of them. And who are these conservatives who would be silenced by an Obama administration? Name names! But  (Grassfire.org)  won’t tell you the names of the scheming little spiders who stand to lose under eight years of a Democrat-party controlled Washington the way our founding fathers intended democracy should work.

2.Open border anarchy including amnesty for illegal aliens and promotion of multi-nation “unions”.

There is an old Mexican saying, “Space does not separate people so much as culture.”

I have a Mexican friend who came here in the 1970’s from Mexico legally. He and his wife learned to speak English, they took the test for citizenship and passed and became U.S. citizens legally. They played by the rules and they have been rewarded for their hard work and are now buying their second home. My friend has nothing but contempt for these illegal Mexican who come here illegally and spit in our face. By being here illegally and working under the table- they rob both countries, (America and Mexico) by not paying taxes in either country. Most illegals, after two-three years, take their earnings and move back to Mexico. I say these people are criminals not illegals and as criminals we should not deport them (so they can hop-the first Greyhound bus back to the states and begin working illegally all over again), we should treat them like criminals- put them in jail, make them work off the cost of their incarceration. Instead, these Neo-Cons under George W. built a “Berlin-Wall” like fence along our southern border. If the Berlin Wall did not stop Eastern-block-citizens from escaping to freedom- you think the Bush-Wall will really deter illegals from Mexico who wish to escape poverty-stricken conditions by escaping to America for the chance at a new life?
I say give them a work permit and let them work and live here legally for any company like McDonalds willing to hire them and pay them minimum wage and make them pay taxes on their income like all U.S. citizens do. Like you and I do. Let them find out how expensive it is to live in America- maybe they’ll be running back over the border once they start paying Cook County, Illinois taxes of 10.5-percent or higher.

3. Government-run health care that weakens our system and imposes more tax burdens on citizens.

Please! Obama is not going to give us government run health care or have his administration hand out condoms to grade-school children.  But Obama made a valid point in his last Presidential debate- every child in America should be insured. If you starve your child, beat your child, neglect your child, have sex with a child, these are all crimes. So, why is it not a crime to “not”  provide adequate medical care for all children? I say, prosecute those fringe-religious groups like Christian Scientists and others who deny children basic medical care and those irresponsible parents who will not make an attempt to insure their child to pay for basic medical costs. We live in the greatest country on earth. Living in America is a privilege- not a right. Basic medical care for small children should be a right not a privilege.

4. Weakening of our military through rapid pullback from Iraq, defending our troops and overall disarmament.

An Obama administration is not going to give us a Bill Murray (Stripes)  military. Don’t listen to the “fear-mongerers.” In fact, our military will become a leaner, smarter, fighting machine. Ground occupations, (the kind we fought in WWII and Korea) are obsolete. President Clinton was on the right track with his “fly-swatter” approach to terrorist-sponsored nations and I think an Obama administration would be wise to follow suit. America does not have the manpower nor the resources to become the world’s policeman. This is why we have the United Nations. Under George W, the U.N. became an irrelevant debating society. A smart President Obama would put sanctions on the United Nations, forcing them to do the job they should have been doing all along or kick their butts out of the U.S. Make them find another country for their headquarters’. Another country the U.N. can sponge off of while at the same time denouncing them as they have us.

5. Social liberalism including radical pro-abortion agenda, the end of marriage and the homosexual agenda. Liberal court activism that undermines faith, family and liberties while expanding government control.
Total rubbish. A marriage is a union between two people -period!. Marriage guarantees certain rights, the right to visit your partner in the hospital, extend medical/insurance coverage, shared living arrangements and other joint legal arrangements entered into. Do gays love their partner less than hetero’s? The Neo-Cons and Grassfire.org would have you believe so. I say, extend the same rights to gay couples that straight couples have. For to not do so is discrimination, and harassment. The religious right, under King James Dobson,  creates a climate of fear, having straights bekieve that if we allow gay marriage the gays will run around buggering our small boys in the schoolyard. Total rubbish. Gay marriage simply would put an end to the power and control the scheming religious spiders like James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Bennie Hinn,  now enjoy not to mention a dent in their pocketbooks. I say that no one should be discriminated against, harassed, beaten, or killed because of their sexual orientation nor denied the same inalienable rights as that of hetero’s.

6. Post-American globalism that diminishes our global role and threatens our national sovereignty.
Environmental extremism,  the CO2 tax, undermining coal and nuclear, and bans on
exploration.

Oh, like the globalism that has gone on the last eight years under the Bush administration and whack-jobs like Grassfire.org? Obama has promised the first true “green” administration in history demanding that Detroit turn-out 150,000 alternative-fueled automobiles a month. An Obama administration would sign the Kyoto accords, crackdown on illegal Japanese whaling, start drilling again so our Arab neighbors can’t take advantage of Americans anymore while sending their terrorists to fly planes into our Trade Towers. The 911 terrorists, Osama Bin Laden, were not Iraqi nor Afghani, Iranian, nor Syrian folks, they were Arab, Arab terrorists. The same Arabs who last summer charged every American $5 a gallon of gas, the crude drilled in Arab countries, shipped from Arab countries, and refined in America utilizing Arab workers. All funded and protected by the American CIA.

Under an Obama nation, Grassfire.org and their cronies at Enron who profited under a Bush administration are going to take a very palpable hit and that’s what this so called Grassfire.org Obama-resistance movement is really al about. It has nothing to do with politics folks- it’s just the old-fashioned shell-game. Make you so busy watching the right hand you don’t see what the left hand is doing.

The Grassfire.org Obama resistance (the Neo-Cons),  is about G-R-E-E-D. plain and simple. They’re the folks who are going to have to sit idly by on the sidelines watching as Democrats line their pockets for a change. Well, for the next eight-years anyway.

Change is a good thing as is redistribution of  wealth and political power from time to time. It’s called Yin and Yang. Through the shift from Neo-Conservatism to far-leftism, (Yin and Yang) balance is achieve.

It’s time to resist any Obama resistance and damn well time to start fighting back against Grassfire.org, Neo-Cons, Rush Limbaugh and other far-right conservative nut-jobs who would create a climate off fear in this country and get Americans to resist change, to resist what we know is the best path for us.

So join the (Patriotic, Resilient, Democrat) Resistance  The Obama Nation has begin.

Join with Obama, lets create a new America while resisting the same old tired, business-as-usual politics and climate of fear of Grassfire.org and the Neo-conservatives.

KH

Creating tomorrow’s dirty-laundry today

“What’s the difference between a Journalism and a catfish? One’s a bottom-dwelling scumsucker, the other’s a fish.”

When I was growing up as a kid, the most deplorable of professions was that of an ambulance chasing lawyer. After Watergate, it was the politicians. Today, at the bottom of the food-chain it is “Journalists.” Are you old enough to remember when journalists actually reported the news without creating the news? In the James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies, Elliott Carver makes a wonderful antagonist, the head of a billion-dollar media-empire he creates tomorrow’s news today. The tool of his trade? Creating and promoting an atmosphere of fear. No one can suck the fun out of a room faster than CNN.

Almost thirty years ago to the day, (November 18, 1978) the tragedy of the Jonestown Massacre in Guyana still shocks the public, and Jim Jones continues to loom as America’s worst cult leader. Jones was the role model for whack-jobs to follow like Rev. Moon, David Khoresh and the Branch Divideans, (in which 76 Branch Davidians, 21 of whom were children, were killed in the ensuing blaze. Autopsies confirmed that many of the victims, (including David Khoresh),  died of single gunshot wounds to their heads, (murder-suicide pacts), Applewhite and his Heaven’s Gate Cult mass suicide in which 39 people died by mixing phenobarbitol with applesauce or pudding. Each of the cult members wearing black Nike sneakers, and eight of the male members of the cult had been castrated. All this because they thought the earth was being invaded by UFO’s. Wacko’s, nut-jobs, give us dirty laundry.

So why, after 30-years, when American government failed to learn their lesson at Jonestown is CNN regurgitating the horrible tragedy?

WE NEED DIRTY LAUNDRY!

“We got the bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who
Comes on at five
She can tell you bout the plane crash with a gleam
In her eye
Its interesting when people die.”

Give us dirty laundry.”

What’s the point of regurgitating senseless tragedy merely because it is the 30th anniversary of something?  Does it make us better journalists, better citizens, does our government learn from the horrible tragedies of our past to prevent them in the present? Obviously not because America still continue’s to turn out David Khoresh’s,  Applewhite’s, Fundamentalist LDS leaders who still rape underage girls.

The parents of the victims at Guyana, many of whom are old or deceased have come to closure with the tragedy there and made peace with it. Why pull the scab off an old wound?  I say that we should allow the parents of the victims to have some peace about the tragedy. But, CNN has to have its ratings.  WE NEED DIRTY LAUNDRY!

Many, of the children from 1978,  (brothers and sisters of the victims, sons/daughters of the parents_ who died at Jonestown now have children and families of their own. They are hopefully older and a lot wiser and politically astute than America was back in its naivete of 1978. Do we really need to revisit the carnage with the video footage of stacked bodies on all the major networks?

CNN and the networks do not care about your pain!

Nor do network executives care about their own reporters many of whom, would rather not have to regurgitate the tragedy of Jonestown and turn it into a some sort of American Idol or Dancing With the Stars. This is the state of journalism as we find it in 2008, the Elliott Carvers of the “new media” who make Rupert Murdock look tame in comparison.

As a young journalist I learned quickly that, “If it bleeds- it leads.”

We exercised restraint in what we reported and more importantly how we reported it. Today’s young infotainment twenty-something journalists (under pressure for ratings and looking to build careers) do not labor under such restraints or compassion. What made Dan Rather great was that he reported “live” from the rice-paddies of Vietnam about the blood, death, and carnage, all around him but he did it with such compassion that it brought tears to your eyes. How did our industry repay this great journalist, who is right up there with Edward R. Murrow, and Walter Cronkite?  His own network (CBS) set him up to fail, the young-twenty-somethings who control entire networks these days set him up to report a false story about George W. Bush’s military record with bogus documents for a “60 Minutes” report charging that President Bush received favorable treatment in the National Guard. Welcome to the dog-eat-dog world of journalism where ratings and getting ahead are the only thing that matter and to the victor go the spoils. I looked up the definition of journalists in the dictionary recently. This is what it said: “Bottom-dwelling scumsuckers.”

GIVE US DIRTY LAUNDRY!

In the 1970s, Jones, the ever charming and charismatic Reverend gained attention and cultivated swift popularity amongst influential political leaders within his San Francisco community. That was his public face. In private, he was a gun-toting, drug-using tyrant who suffered from paranoia and a persecution-complex and who seduced most of the married women and young girls in his church. The 1970’s were a time when most Americans were not familiar with what a “cult” was or what constituted a “religious cult.” The overall positive but fake message Jones preached drew large numbers of congregants to his sermons. Even as he requested money in exchange for miracle healings and preached the need for a complete separation from society for anyone not a member of the Peoples Temple,  Jim Jones also did something almost unprecedented for a white religious leader. He advocated integration of his Church, and his black and white followers worshiped side-by-side at a time when racial tensions were still extremely high across the country. Tragically, they also died side-by-side in true black/white integration.

When authorities began looking into allegations that Jones  was engaged in a wide-ranging criminal enterprise which included welfare fraud, election fraud, child abuse, and extortion, instead of the FBI detaining him,  the government hiccuped allowing Jones to flee to French Guyana, a Banana-Republic that had no extradition with the U.S. at the time. Once there, under the protection of the Guyanese military, Jones and The People’s Temple purchased 3,800 acres of land to occupy in Guyana and  through long-distance phone calls and letters, convinced nearly one thousand  fanatical followers to up-root their lives and family and follow him down to the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project,  under the leadership or dictatorship of Jim Jones. On November 17, 1978, Congressman Leo Ryan traveled to Guyana to investigate the concerns of constituents, (parents and relatives of the cult-members), many of whom were believed to be held against their will and not allowed to leave. Ryan offered space on his DC-8 to any cult member wishing to leave. Jone’s security force along with the Guyanese military gunned down Ryan and everyone at the landing strip. Convinced the CIA would come after him (that paranoia-persecution complex again) on November 18, 1978,  Jim Jones and 908 Jonestown residents died on the compound. Most were coerced into drinking cyanide-laced kool-aid, an idea concocted by Jones. Others were shot while attempting to flee, and at least one resident, Jim Jones himself, committed suicide before the CIA was able to secure the compound.

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

In 1993, a religious cult, named the Branch Divideans had David Khoresh as their leader. They had a “compound” on the outskirts of town. Authorites received complaints about child abuse, the stockpiling of automatic-weapons, child rape, forced marriages, etc. The Davidians were recieving lots of government aid, food stamps, etc. So, the ATF (a new organization wanting to flex its might)  goes out there like an army to force this and that. The armed Davidians denied them entrance. It became a standoff.

After the disastrous events at Ruby Ridge, The FBI  wanted to wait it out. But attorney-general Janet Reno, (on the ropes after the Elian Gonzalez fiasco), decided to prove her might.  The ATF  decides to invade using a riot tank.  There has been a lot of controversy about how it went down, some say the government started the fire in the huge main house to smoke them out, others say the Davidians themselves started the fire to commit suicide. Most didn’t come out, they died in the fire or committed suicide in there. All 903 of them, men women, small children.

Jim Jones, People’s Temple, the mass-suicide at the  Peoples Temple Agricultural Project,  The Branch Davidians at Waco Tx, Applewhite and Heaven’s Gate Cult, Rev. Moon  remain fascinating case-studies for social scientists and psychologists for years to come as they seek to answer the all consuming question on everyone’s mind,

How could society have let this happen?

Could it happen again? Is it happening again?

The events at Waco, TX. with the Branch Davidians, Applewhite and Heaven’s Gate Cult, Elian Gonzalez, Ruby Ridge, the recent government mistep in Texas with the kidnapping and detaining of Fundamentalist LDS Church kids. (The Texas Supreme Court ruled there was no constitutional grounds for the raid based on the basis of an anonymous phone call. They’re in the process of returning the children to their mothers).

Don Henley is rock-critically correct with his song Dirty Laundry as is Harp, Vibe, Spin, and Rolling Stone magazines. The American media has become incapable of policing itself.

The country is really standing on a cliff when it comes to media concentration. When you go over that cliff you are going to be fundamentally changing what this country is about, and not for the better.”
– Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR

Folks, American journalists went over that cliff along time ago. Those remaining journalists like Anderson Cooper who think they matter or that they’re really making a difference are mere walking-zombies. The real journalism being done today is by bloggers like Matt Drudge (The Drudge Report) Arianna Huffington, myself and other’s. Don’t get sucked in by network journalism and FOX NEWS, who “kick em when they’re up- kick em when they’re down.” Take the time to become a blogger, read blogs. With more than 14 million blogs in existence this year and another 80,000 being created each day, there is limitless information available to the average reader to help you make a more informed decision.

Personally, I’m sick to death of watching cute news couples like “Randy and Nancy”  or Nerissa and Drew Sugars, or some other cutesy husband/wife news team or the obligatory bubble-headed bleach-blonde anchor with her perfect hair and designer jewelry reporting on the senseless tragedies as if it was some sort of cutesy entertainment story.

We can do the innuendo
We can dance and sing
When its said and done we havent told you a thing
We all know that crap is king

I don’t really need to find out whats going on, I don’t really want to know just how far its gone.  Just leave well enough alone, and leave the families of the victims of whatever horrendous tragedy alone.
Eat your dirty laundry!

Kilburn Hall

Secretary Of State? Oh no … Mrs. Bill

One of the names in consideration this week to fill the secretary of-state position in the new Obama administration is Hillary Clinton. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Knowing Hillary, as we know her, she would make Madeline Albright look like that girl scout in The Addams Family movie who tried to sell Wednesday Addams some girl-scout cookies. Hillary Clinton as Secretary Of State is a great choice- for America- just not for Hillary’s political ambitions. As Secretary Of State- Hillary would be a tough old broad.

She would walk softly and carry a big stick.

Most Secretary of State’s from Colin Powell on back to Henry Kissinger do not fare well politically. They usually end up making their living on the lecture circuit talking about the mistakes their administration (not they personally) made with foreign policy. The Secretary Of State position the last thirty-years has become the whipping boy, the doormat, to flawed Presidential administration policies and shifting world demographics, economics, and balance of power.

In Ben Franklin’s day, Secretary of State was an honored and revered position, akin to being the President of the United States. You were hosted by countries that actually requested your presence like France.  (No Freedom fries in those days). Banquets were given in our honor, keys to the city, with a Statue Of Liberty dumped on our doorstep.

In modern times,  Secretary of States,  (like Madeline Albright and  Condoleza Rice) and others who have shown such elementary disregard for foreign public opinion the last 30=years, most times have to duck out the back door before people start throwing garbage. Should Benjamin Franklin, arguably America’s greatest diplomat,  witness the harm Albright and “Condi” have done to America’s relations with the rest of the world (and America’s public diplomacy) he would roll over in his grave.

One of reasons the really qualified politicians turn down the position of Secretary Of State when offered them – it’s political suicide.

If Hillary has any political aspirations for running for the Oval Office in 2012- it would be political suicide for her to accept such a position that could blow up in her face. Should Iran start lobbing missiles at Israel- she can kiss her political career goodbye. Should the Iraq/Afghanistan conflict escalate  and become truly bloody again (as the six months following our invasion of Iraq)- kiss it goodbye Hillary.

Should the world economic/stock markets totally collapse and Japan and Europe suffer a severe recession/depression- kiss it goodbye Hillary.

Should Obama’s well intended foreign policy turn into shit hitting the proverbial worldwide fan- kiss it goodbye Hillary. You won’t be in the position to say, “I told you so” in 2012 for you have now become part of the Obama problem and no longer representing a solution.

Surely, Hillary’s political advisers must be telling her this. Surely they have been telling her that becoming the next Secretary Of State is political suicide and that should it all blow up in her face she has no chance in hell of any future political designs.

Face it, her husbands foreign policy was called, “The Flyswatter technique.” (Lob a few missile into Arab countries when the terrorists/freedom fighters act up) Take out a school or factory by mistake. Under Bill Clinton we had Black-hawk Down- (that tragedy in Mogadishu caused by Bill’s total contempt for our own military while respecting he rights of terrorists who were trying to kill us). Mr. Bill also gave us the bombing of the USS Cole- the newest and most state-of-the-art destroyer in the U.S. Fleet,  with a hole blown  in it the size of a barn simply because he wouldn’t give the officers on deck bullets for their service revolvers.
Oh No … Mr. Bill!

There they were, gathered at George Washington University,  five people who had made history and shaped American foreign policy for nearly four decades. Vietnam and détente. Hot war with Iraq and Cold War with the Soviet Union. Mideast peace-conferences and arms control. Kosovo and Iran. Rwanda and Iraq.
The fall of the Berlin Wall and the scourge of drought, poverty and AIDS in the developing world. Five former American Secretaries of State. The conversation was remarkable for its candor, depth and realism. But the advice the five former Secretary of States were offering President Obama’s pick for the office was this: “Get over it. Get real. Be smart.”

This coming from the five people who have been responsible for America’s safety the last 30-years? I have a five-year-old neighbor boy who could give better political advice.

How could President Obama and whoever he picks do any worse than these idiots?

Madeleine Albright suggests a nuclear confrontation with Iran (like that is gonna work. The only way to win that game is not to play). James Baker wants to increase the military even more. More men in the field when American families want their loved ones to come home.  All that these former politco minds can offer American’s is this:

“Engage the whole world.”

Attack soundbites. That’s it?  Nothing about a Benjamin Franklin or Abraham Lincoln detente, just blow up the whole world?  Smart advice when Russia has recently invaded Georgia, Putin is caving  to the KGB hardliners who want to bring back the Cold War, China’s spying and human-rights abuse against its own people are at atrocious levels, North Korea just closed the border with South Korea, Chavez (that South American wacko)  wants all neighboring countries to join him in a war against the U.S. By all means Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Warren Christopher, Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, lets engage the whole world and watch WWIII destroy the entire planet.

_____________________________________________________

Fortunately for America-

President Obama “gets it.” He wants to sit the wacko’s like Arman-a-dinner-jacket and Castro down at the table for a little detente poker. You can’t make peace with your enemies if you don’t talk to them Obama says. Makes great sense to me unlike the five retired politcio whack-jobs who would wish to watch the world burn. It’s not their beat anymore and they can make even more money on the lecture circuit critizing an Obama administration and making un-wanted/un-needed suggestions. I get so tired of Jimmy Carter shooting his mouth off. He was  horrible President, his foreign policy was this- Americans were held hostage in Iran for a year. So, why does he shoot his mouth off and offer to fix every political crisis that comes along the last 20-years? Stay at home Jimmy- build your houses for Habitat for Humanity where you can actually do more good for Americans.

My hope for Secretary of State is Hillary.  However, I think she’s too smart to fall into that trap.

Whomever President Obama picks for his Secretary Of State,  I hope he/she will, as In Ben Franklins day, restore the Secretary of State post to a once more honored and revered position.      I would rather see our new Secretary Of State wining and dining our enemies at state dinners than ducking out the back way with Molotov cocktails being slung after them or Al-Qaeda making that warbling sound they do with their throats while waving rifles in the air. We’ve seen enough images like this to last a lifetime.

Ben Franklin said it best:  “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”

You can’t make peace with your enemy if you don’t talk to them.

KH

The Lost Art of Bond, James Bond.

The art of James Bond, 007, was this:

he longed for the foreplay and the cigarette afterward and we, the reading public and movie-fans, longed for his longing.

I was severely disappointed with the latest Bond release (Number 24 in the long list of Bond films) Quantum Of Solace not just as an author of a Bond novel, RED INDIANS but as a James Bond fan. Ian Fleming, the creator of Bond never intended that 007 become a “terminator” or two-dimensional cardboard cut-out action figure. Violence was always an annoyance for Bond which distracted him from his passions in life, (girls, cars, Baccarat), and his number one passion, the Vodka Martini, shaken not stirred. No twist of lemon  or Mojito as was added by Pierce Brosnan, just a simple Vodka Martini.

Four years ago,  Bond fans revolted when it was announced that Daniel Craig would be taking over the part from Pierce Brosnan, who played Bond like sex-on-a-stick. That was not the essence of the real Bond either, 007 was not a runway model, though Brosnan could do the double-entendre. Craig is a buffoon in a Tom Ford suit. He cannot do nuance  or smooth like Sean Connery, tongue-in-cheek like Roger Moore or double-entendre like Pierce Brosnan. In fact, Daniel Craig is best as James Bond when he speaks as little as possible. Now, how are you going to bed down the villians girlfriend to extract information from a Pussy Galore if you can’t do the tongue-in-cheek, the double-entendre, the practiced art of the metaphor?

What Craig does best is skull bashing. Might as well have cast him as Conan and given him a sword. (Oh wait, they tried that, he turned down the role of Captain America).  As if that was any more of a cardboard action figure than the Bond he plays in Quantum.

Garrett Young please … no more Bond pictures like this last one or you’ll lose all your die-hard Bond fans if you haven’ t already.

For me, the Bond franchise died when George Lazenby decided not to return for a second film following, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. George was great as James Bond, he could do smooth, suave, the practiced art of the double-entendre and he could do the action as well as any of them. Lazenby just didn’t have the fan base that Roger Moore had coming off The Saint (TV series) so Cubby Broccoli gave him the axe just as recent producers axed Pierce Brosnan because of his age. Have they ever considered how old James Bond would be these days? He would be chasing women in a geriatric ward and his Vodka Matini’s, (shaken but not stirred),  would most likely be Prune Juice. Had Lazenby had the time, he would have settled into the role and perhaps surpassed Sean Connery as the Bond favorite of all time.

Depending on when you were born, you have a different favorite Bond. Most of us, products of the sixties, irrevocably see Sean Connery as our favorite. Lazenby my second favorite with Brosnan a c close third. Those who came of age in the seventies, will always think of Roger Moore as their favorite with Generation X’ers- it is Timothy Dalton who was not half bad in The Living Daylights.

Quantum of Solace  (title which Bond affecionado’s like myself get but whose title confused today’s movie-goers) was the sequel to Casino Royale, the book that first introduced the world to James Bond. Born of an ornithology book about BIrds of the West Indies, Bond was seduced by an agent working for a criminal organization called Quantum whose head was the elusive Mr. White. Bond falls in love with the agent (Vesper Lynd)  sent to set him up  who is killed by Quantum. The sequel refers to the fact that getting revenge for Vesper Lynd’s murder leaves Bond with just a quantum or “minute fraction” of solace (satisfaction). “A quantum of solace.” Get it?

There is no Q,  (played rather brilliantly by former Monty Python founder John Cleese), no Moneypenny or the sexual double-entendre. Bond doesn’t even try to bed down the luscious Camille whch leads me to believe that the producers are turning Bond into a homosexual or effeminent lout. What next? A half-black, half hispanic, gay, transvestite, non-smoking, non-drinking, politically correct James Bond? Take me out and shoot me now.

As far as an evil villain, there is no diabolical Dr. Evil (Mike Meyer) and his usual accoutrement of henchmen. We get a warehouse, some dock workers and a hotel out in the middle of a desert that blows up with few quests staying in it other than the bad guys. Who stays at places like this anyway? Even when Bond strands Mr, Green out in the desert with no water but just a can of motor-oil to drink, we think what a horrible way to go out. We like this Bond with his unique sense of justice. Then we find out from M (played brilliantly by Judi Dench) that Mr. Green is shot three times in the head and the can of motor oil left untouched. Why do the producers do that? Give Bond a villainous heart and then soft-soap the violence to the public. We want Bond to be villainous of heart- just not all the skull bashing. We want Green to die of thirst with only motor-oil to drink in his last moments. (Green was trying to corner the water supply of some third-world country) the motor-oil an ironic metaphor.

The poor script, acting, plot,  and unabashed skull-bashing made me want to gag!

It’s time for a return to the lost art of Bond or for James Bond to retire gracefully once and for all with his dignity and balls intact.

Any further mucking about with the character by producers or lame acting of Daniel Craig will further serve to kill the franchise. Like Playboy, Hugh Hefner, Walther PBK, Aston Martini, Vodka Martini (shaken not stirred), James Bond, 007, is an icon and as such, there are some icons you just don’t tamper with.

Either return Bond to his elevated perch or kill the bastard off in a diabolical way that Blofeld would be proud of and have done with it once and for all. But no more mucking about with a blonde-haired, inferred homsosexual gnome in an ill-fitting Tom Ford suit who can’t speak more than one or two syllables of intelligent dialogue.

As 007 himself would advise:

You Only Live Twice

“We’ve had some interesting times together – I’ll be sorry to go”

(Bond, just before he dies).

KILBURN HALL

author of Red Indians (A James Bond 007 thriller)

Zack and Miri make a controversy

Since 1994 with the release of the movie, Natural Born Killers, Hollywood has faced an engma. How do you portray violence and sex without showing violence and sex? It’s a Catch-22. The controversy surrounding release of Natural Born Killers is similar to the controversy surrounding release of the recent film, Zack and Miri Make A Porno.

Platonic friends since grade-school, roommates Zack and Miri look to solve their respective cash-flow problems by making an adult film together. As the cameras roll, however, the duo begin to sense that they may have more feelings for each other than they previously thought.

Pretty simple comedy idea from the people who brought you the 40-Year-Old-Virgin. So why is 40-Year-Old Virgin funny and Zack and Miri Make A Porno controversial? The movie trailer poster was banned in the US by the MPAA for it’s content.  The bothersome title made getting ads for the movie difficult in some places.

“Zack and Miri Make a Porno” has been rejected because of the five-letter word that ends the title, said Gary Faber, head of marketing for the Weinstein Co., which is releasing the film.”

Those refusing to carry ads numbered about 15 newspapers and several TV stations and cable channels. Commercials for Zack and Miri during a Los Angeles Dodgers games on Fox Sports was dropped at the team’s request after some viewers complained.

Like who would complain?

We all like sex don’t we? Particularly after living through the 1960’s  and the Kennedy adminsitration where the “babes”  were running out the back door of the White House as fast as Jackie O was walking in the front door? Aah … there’s the rub.

We don’t all like sex. Some of us use “sex” to manipulate others into doing what we want, into giving us the political power or religious dictatorship over others that we crave. Our self-anointed religious saviors like King James Dobson and Jerry Falwell who are often caught in embarasing moments with their pants down around their ankles with a transvestite hooker and many of our Catholic Priests with Alterboys.

The reason that “sex” or even the mention of the word “porn” is controversial is that Americans like their sex behind closed doors. And we like “death” behind closed doors. We don’t like our “sex” lives or sex acts or “death” on public display. We feel uncomfortable discussing it around the dinner table at Thanksgiving. Our uncomfortableness is what keeps the Russian Mafia with its billion-dollar-a-year “Porn” industry on the web in business with its millions of sex webcam sites like Jasmin.com, Liveprivates.com, Cam4.com, Imlive.com, and others.

We are so umcomfortable about having our “sex” in public that sixteen-year-old popstars like Jamie Spears and the daughter of Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin are pregnant out of wedlock. Americans like “to do it” we just don’t like to talk about it. Therein lies the problem. Americans love “to do it” but we feel uncomfortable talking about it. Well, someone has to talk about it. Someone who is not a quack like Dr. Ruth or Dr. Laura. Someone other than the Hispanic gangbanger looking to bang your daughter.

What makes 40-Year-Old-Virgin a funny comedy and Zack and Miri a controversy? One word.

“Intimation.” (a slight suggestion or vague understanding).

Steve Carrell (40-Year-Old Virgin) “intimates” sex never providing graphic details. Even the sex scenes are intimated. In Zack and Miri the sex is graphic and it is raunchy. There is the blonde porno actress who is constipated delivering a hershey-kiss on screen, there is the porn star Bubbles demonstrating for millions of movie-going fans just how she earned her nickname before strapping on a dildo and giving it to her man doggy-style.

The devil is in the details and religious whack-jobs like James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson are foaming at the mouth. They live for soundbite moments like this.

As with the controversy of Natural Born Killers which was deemed “too violent” by the MPAA how does Hollywood have an open and honest conversation about “sex,” “porn” or “graphic violence” without actually showing any “sex,” “porn” or “graphic violence?”

The honest answer is they can’t.

Personally, I loved the movie. I thought Zack and Miri was hillarious and more genuine than the disingenuous 40-Year-Old-Virgin. Who is a virgin at age 40? And who are we fooling by suggesting someone could still be a virgin at age 40? Even our 13-year-olds know we are lying. So how can we have an honest conversation with our kids about responsible sex when we make comedy’s that lie to them? Or comedy’s that lie to ourselves?

Sex in most of todays comedy’s and films is a device, a gimick, a lie, something to move along the plot or storyline. Not something genuine. Take the recent comedy, House Bunny about a Playmate that is kicked out of the mansion and has to fend for herself. Perfect opportunity about a frank and honest discussion of the lifestyle choice of a pornstar or woman who chooses to be one of Hef’s playmates, what really goes on at the mansion, the glamorous lifestyle that results as being one of Hef’s accessories and the disappointing crash and burn when that glamourous lifestyle ends. Instead we get a stereotypical comedy about a playmate with the IQ of a frog. Today’s Playmates are not the dumb blonde bunnies of the 1960’s, (If they ever were). they are sharp, cold, calculating business-women who use Hef (as much if not more) than the retired old pervert or his Playboy Enterprises can use them.

Instead what we get in comedy’s like House Bunny is the stereotypical comedy about the dumb bunny whose only talents lie in her fashion sense and beauty makeup tips.

Please! Pass me the paper-bag now because I think I’m gonna throw up.

Zack and Miri might be one of the more honest comedies made about the reality of sex and the distinction between sex and making love. (Note to parents: if you haven’t checked your teenage daughter’s room lately, chances are she has a porn website of her own and doing things on live webcam which would make Bubbles in Zack and Miri Make A Porn look like a Catholic school-girl).

It is disingenuous for Hollywood to keep making the same, lame, tired-out, “lies”  (about sex or violence)  which refer to sex as merely a device to move the plot along and not engage the movie-going public in an honest and frank discussion about sex or violence. Yet, when they try to have these open, honest and frank discussions, like with Zack and Miri  Make A Porn or Natural Born Killer’s, they are slammed by their own MPAA as too controversial and used as a bully-pulpit for preachers like Falwell, Dobson, and other’s whose only desire is to make us feel guilty about it all so as to continue to line their own pockets.

Zack and Miri Make A Porno is a good start towards having this open and honest discussion about sex just as Dark Knight (the recent Batman flick) was a good start towards having an honest and open discussion about terrorism and the use of violence.

If you’re a movie fan looking for such open and honest discussion, I highly recommend both these films and like Zack would say:

Zack: EVERYBODY wants to see ANYBODY f**k. I hate Rosie O’Donell, but if somebody said “I got a tape of Rosie O’Donell getting f****d “stupid” I’d be like, “Why the F**K aren’t we watching that right now?”

KH

WALMART PUTS THE WORD “CHRISTMAS” BACK IN SALES

WalMart’s recent Christmas TV ad is set to the classic Christmas Carol, The Carol of the Bells, as Wal-Mart associates flicker their checkout lane lights in time with the music.  At the end, they say they will open all lanes to accommodate more “Christmas shopping.”  Additionally, when shopping there at Halloween, I saw a large sign outside their garden center displaying the words, “Christmas Central.”

That’s right. WalMart is using the C-word again. A radical departure from 2005, when WalMart banned its employees from saying, “Merry Christmas,” unless it had been said to them first. Not everyone celebrates Christmas and WalMart didn’t want to offend anyone.” (lest it cut into their sales revenues). Heaven forbid, customers might be offended by having a minimum-wage earning cashier who’s scared of losing her job wish them a “Merry Christmas” and take their business to Target.

“Isn’t it a bit hypocritical to sell and make lots of money off of any item that has to do with religious significance and not acknowledge the religious significance? Like “Christmas” signifying Christ. The Christ in Christmas?

Christmas Made In China

Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart and the higher ups decided it wasn’t politically correct to wish someone a “Merry Christmas” or recognize the religious significance of the holiday for all the cheap knockoff Chinese junk they sell. Might as well wish Wal-Mart customers the following Chinese proverb:

The weasel comes to give New Year’s greeting to the chickens; no good intention in mind.

The giant U.S, big-box retailer Wal-Mart changed its greeting in 2005 from “Merry Christmas!” to “Happy Holidays!” Naturally,  it drew complaints- from WalMart’s “Christian” shoppers. The Catholics came to the rescue, a boycott was duly summoned, WalMart relented, and heads rolled for anyone not using the officially approved WalMart phrase, “Happy Holidays.” (which is WalMart’s way of saying, “Bah Humbug!”)

Although reminders of Christmas were all around last year, you’d be hard pressed to find the word “Christmas” in any store signs, displays, and advertisements. Only a handful of stores at the malls included the word “Christmas“ in their storefront displays. Bath & Body Works had the words “Celebrate the perfect “Christmas” on their store window, while Finish Line had the words “All I want for Christmas” at the top of a gigantic wish list. Last  year most retailers  omitted “Christmas“ from their displays and advertising to make shoppers of all faiths feel welcome in their stores.

This year, 2008, with the horrible economy and  money being tight, retailers are bending their own rules and using the word “Christmas,” at least once in their ads. Does that mean the alleged war on “Christmas” is over?

Hardly. (postponed would be a better word)

Retailers in a bad economy have to bend over and kiss a little consumer butt if Black Friday is to put them in the “black” once more so  consumers will be hearing the word “Christmas” at least once in ads. But the word “Christmas” is a manipulation being used by the Scrooge’s that run WalMart and the “big-box-stores” instead of  “Bah Humbug!”  The female voice doing the Carol Of The Bells WalMart TV ad, says the word “Christmas” like someone was holding a gun to her head.

Though the retailers use the word  (Christmas) instead of  “happy holidays” they don’t mean it as anything  other than a device to get you in the door to separate you from your money.

But “Save money, live better, and Bah Humbug! Implying that, “We just want your money fools!”

After the events with WalMart the past few years, I was shocked to hear them saying let alone using  the word, “Christmas.” Guess the economy is so bad this year, money so tight that WalMart doesn’t want to offend wealthy Christians lest its wealthy Christian customers put a dent in their sales revenue.

Nice hypocritical company that WalMart. Nice to know that they value your money more than your beliefs or their own religious beliefs.

I plead with all that believe in the spirit and reason for Christmas, even if not in the strictest religious of reasons, to say to every WalMart employee you see in the store,

“Merry Christmas from your future union who has your best interests at heart.”

If you  have the nerve, stand at their front door and wish everyone that comes through,  “Merry Christmas from the union.” You could make a game out of it with your friends. Go to different stores and time that store to see how long it takes the poh-lice to show up. Shortest time wins … err loses. (for you)

WalMart hates the idea of a union. Being forced to treat their employees as human beings and not use intimidation and extortion to keep employees in line.

I think it was more honest when WalMart said Bah Humbug! err … “happy holidays.” At least we knew where they really stood.

With only 30-days to Christmas, already I am so sick of Christmas I just want it to be over with.  I am sick of Christmas because all that Christmas has become to retailers is a manipulation,  a device,  just like Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and Easter. Though they mouth the words, there is no sincerity behind them. You feel like the Grinch is giving you his calculating stare.

Just once, I would like to see Walmart and the other retailers really show the Christmas spirit by not laying people off, paying a “liveable” wage,  becoming more involved in the community they serve by doing community outreach. Why can’t Wal-Mart employees visit all the shut-ins in their community, delivering (as Christmas presents) all the the cheap Chinese knockoff junk they make a volume profit on?  Or, serve soup in the soup kitchens to the thousands of homeless this year? Target does it! Why can’t WalMart employees sing carols in the front of the store? Hand out free little bags of candy to the kids? Why can’t WalMart put a Santa in the store’s? I have never seen a Santa in WalMart stores have you?

The Bottom line is this-

giant “big-boxers” only care about their bottom line and its management, about year-end bonuses. They will do anything, say anything, bend any which way the wind blows to get you to spend money in their stores.

Personally, I’m getting into the true spirit of Christmas by boycotting WalMart and not stepping foot in a big box store this year. I will spend my money at the little ma-and-pa stores the shop around the corner, which are truly desperate for my business so they might be around next Christmas.

So, Merry Christmas Lee Scott, and Happy Unions!

KH

THE WORLD MUMBLES IN MUMBAI

America’s foreign policy is in shambles.

As Americans headed over country and through the woods to grandmother’s house enjoying its most American of holidays, “Thanksgiving,” American foreign policy mumbled as terrorists calling themselves the Deccan Mujahideen stormed luxury hotels, restaurants, and hospitals in Mumbai, India rounding up Americans and British tourists for execution and spraying commuters with bullets at the Chhatrapati Train Station. The media dubbed the incident, “India’s 911.” The death-toll so far stands at 82 with 120 wounded and Indian Army snipers man rooftops battling gunmen to retake control of that city. The U.S. has issued a travel ban to India through December 31st. The visciousness of the attack left most Indian people stunned. It was cold, calculated, and deadly, the images on the front pages of major newspapers- appalling. The attack on India’s financial capital had all the earmarks of al-Qaida, (simultaneous assaults in iconic buildings meant to kill scores of Westerner’s).

Many of the Middle-Eastern countries are beginning to realize now what George W. has been telling them all along about terrorists. They have no “rules.” And that quickly brings me to the point of this blog. America is a nation of laws, of rules. We have a moral compass to guide us. We are the “nice guys.” Terrorists have no rules. Former Secretary of State, Warren Christopher,  kept telling President Clinton, “the only way to get rid of terrorists is to terrorize the terrorists.” Become as viscious, bloody, and brutal as they are.

Therein lies the problem. America, with its moral compass cannot bring itself to act like barbarians and so when it comes to Al-Qaeda, Mujahideen and other terrorist groups who commit barberous acts, when we go head to head with them in any ground action- we will lose, despite all our modern-day technology. Whatever ground action we take simply escalates the level of violence. In the recent Dark Knight movie, the police want to beat the crap out of the Joker until they realize that he would enjoy it too much. Which raises the question: how do you deal with someone who just wants to watch the world burn? Someone instills violence in others and enjoys the violence perpetuated on him without it creating an armageddon?

It’s a no win situation. The only way to win is not to play that game and for the news media not … to give the terrorists the publicity they crave. The media needs to start seeing terrorists as the thugs they are, criminals, scumbags, dirtballs, and not play up to them as glorified freedom fighters. The only cause terrorists believe in is anarchy and death. The Taoists believe that anger begets more anger, violence begets more violence- terrorists believe in “Jihad.”

The recent massacre in Mubai shocked a world who believed George W. that America had put an end to terrorism. Apparently not. Terrorism wasn’t thwarted by our 5-year occupation of Iraq, merely postponed;  and is back in full force now that we have a presidency in transition. The terrorists are testing our new presidents resolve before he has even been sworn into office. What does this say about their resolve to commit barberous acts.

George W. may have been right in going after the terrorists, but wrong in getting side-tracked by false intelligence and WMD’s and invading Iraq where we have now been stuck for the last five-years. The real war against terrorism has been in Afghanistan all along and America helped create it. We created the Mujahideen when Congressman Charlie Wilson (Wilson’s War starring Ton Hanks) financed arms for the Mujahideen to defeat our then supposed enemy (Russia) in Afghanistan. Charlie Wilson before leaving office, begged the powers to be to build schools, roadways, hospitals. America instead cut and ran leaving a  void which was filled by Osama bin Laden, Taliban, Al-Qaeda and Mujahideen. Charlie Wilson was right.

“The part that I’ll take to my grave with guilt is that . . . I didn’t stay the course and stay there and push and drive the other members of Congress nuts pushing for a mini-Marshall Plan,” he said. “And I let myself be frustrated and discouraged by the fact that (the Afghan) leadership was so fragmented that we were unable to do the things we needed to do, like clear the mines, like furnish them millions of tons of fertilizer to be able to replant the crops.”

George W.  has opened Pandora’s Box and there is no closing it again if America continues to operate “Old-School”  and  engage terrorists on their terms with ground action and occupation the bloodshed, violence,  roadside bombs, the kidnapping and herding of tourists into stairwells for execution will continue. The terrorists know America plays by the “rules” – they have no such rules. In the end, we cannot possibly hope to win an occupation of Iraq or Afghanistan by force but our troops will be overrun as they were in Vietnam. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.  America cannot continue its “Cowboy” diplomacy,  (our “go it alone” foreign policy) while snubbing our noses at our best friends and allies like France, Germany, Britain. We cannot do everything by ourselves we need help. Even help in new found friends and allies like former President Ronald Regan forged with Gorbachev and Russia which have been recently put on hold by Bush’s insistence to build a missile-defense-system in Europe, a defense system that Bush wants but that the Russians do not want or feel they need.

Now that terrorism is out of the box,, the only way to combat and  defeat it  is a combined world-wide effort including countries in the process like Russia, India, Pakistan and Iran who now are becoming targets themselves. This is what they get  for years of looking the other way while terrorists sought sanctuary .America’s new foreign policy must be “inclusion” not division. Not “cowboy” diplomacy which didn’t even work much for the cowboys in the days of the old west. Hanging badguys from the nearest tree didn’t discourage organized crime syndicates like “The Cowboys” or “Red Sash Gang”  in Tombstone.

With the round-up and execution of foreign tourists in Mubai, India’s financial district, the government and Army of India are now faced with a choice. To step up and join the fight against these terrorists or continue to look the other way and do nothing.

The line in the sand has been drawn. George W, drew that line  for all Americans and every country in the world who would give terrorists sanctuary. There is no going back now. Pandora’s Box has been opened, the forces of terrorism have been unleashed. George W. is gone now in a few weeks, he won’t  have to shoulder the burden of a failed terrorist policy in the MIddle East,  future Presidents like Obama  have inherited that burden. It’s unfortunate because Obama could have been a great President. If his administration can’t figure out a way to include countries like India and Pakistan in the war against the terrorists and rally our allies like France, Germany, Spain,and other’s- the cause is lost. America will pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan, the region will fall back into anarchy  under  control of the war-lords, Iran will develop nuclear capabilites which threaten the stability of its neighbors like India and Pakistan who already have nuclear capabilities. The result will be catastrophic.

I feel confident an Obama adminstration will pursue a vigourous foreign policy based on public debate and inclusion, (a sit-down-at-the-table tough talk)  not “cowboy” diplomacy ground troops, and division. America must convince India, Pakistan, Iran,  and Syria that it is in their best interest to join the fight against  terrorists.. Only then, with their comittment, troops, and determined cooperation, can we hope to wipe out al-Qaida, Mujahideen and other terrorist groups who now threaten the stability of the entire world.

Otherwise, Mumbai will become the rallying cry of terrorists everywhere and Americans will not be safe even here in the states. Our subways, railways, airlines, and our largest shopping malls will all become targets for bombers.

The biggest mistake of the Bush adminstration was its  “cowboy,” go-it-alone diplomacy instead of pursuing the policy of negotiation and missile-deterrents (also known as the Fly-Swatter techinque) implemented by the Clinton administration where America was beginning to see slow but steady progress.

As Secretary Of State, hopefully Hillary Clinton will put America back on the right path diplomatically and not create a shadow government with her husband Bill. America must restore our alliances which have served us so well the past 100 years. We must  talk-tough with our enemies, practice “inclusion” not division, and head off the wacko’s like Chavez in South America who have now convinced Russia to provide them with the means to create a nuclear program.

America is the last super-power. The last shining example for the rest of the world to follow. If we fail- the world fails. The recent presidential election of 2008 demonstrates to the world that Americans can put our century-old prejudices behind us, hold hands united, and take one step forward into the future instead of remaining stuck in the past. Now, if we can just get the rest of the world to do the same, view terrorists as the Deccan Mujahideen like the criminals they are and not glorify them as heroic freedom fighters, deny them sanctuary, freeze their bank accounts, conduct vigourous border crossing checks, the terrorists will find there are few places to hide.

But there can be no more mumbling by world governments as Mumbai burns.

KH

THE BUSH LEGACY

Every President leaves a legacy. George Washington, founder of our nation left us democracy. Thomas Jefferson left us the Declaration of Independence,  Lincoln freed the slaves, Teddy Roosevelt created our national parks, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Nobel Peace prize and a determination to defeat the Nazi’s, Nixon ended the Vietnam conflict and opened trade with China, Regan tore down the Berlin Wall while ending communism and George W. ???

In a few weeks, the 43rd-President of these United States will turn over the reigns to President Barack Obama. There will be a new round-table. As with all outgoing President’s, George W. is concerned about his legacy, which will be known as “The Bush Legacy.” George W, is hoping history will see him as a president who liberated millions of Iraqis and Afghans, who worked towards peace and who never sold his soul for political ends.

I however, think history will view him as a reckless President who opened Pandora’s Box, unleashing a form of terrorism on the world that we cannot put back in the box. One who pushed his “Cowboy” go-it-alone diplomacy which alienated some of America’s oldest friends and allies, and infuriated old enemies like Russia and latin America.

George W. would also like to be seen as the President who relieved HIV/AIDS and malaria on places like the continent of Africa; but truth be known, HIV has swallowed up 2/3rd’s of that continent with America not being able to get the rest of the world community on board its relief efforts financially. Bush would also like to say that he helped elderly people get prescription drugs and Medicare as a part of a basic package but the elderly are more confused about Medicare and prescription drugs than ever before with increased government regulation and red-tape.

About the only claim to success that Bush can claim is the removal of Saddam Hussein, one of the most evil dictators in history. But then, it was America, the CIA and George Bush Sr. that put Saddam in power in the first place.

Frankly, I’m glad to see George W, stepping back into the shadows. He stepped on too many toes, rubbed too many people the wrong way, stirred up animosity the world-over against the U.S. and its citizens (which is why terrorists were singling out U.S. citizens for execution in Mumbai). Under Clinton, the world loved America- under Bush, the world hates us and seeks our destruction. So, it is time for him to go back into the shadows from whence he came.

In his defense, though the CIA had warnings of a coordinated attack on America, they lacked the specifics (where, when, how). There is no way George W. or his administration could have prevented 911. Osama bin-Laden had been planning the attack on America during the Clinton administration. George W, did however restore dignity to America’s military unlike the contempt Bill Clinton had for our military. But Bush’s “Cowboy” go-it-alone diplomacy, his five-year occupation of Iraq, his insistence to build a missile-defense system in Europe which angered the Russians who have been feeling impotent of late, his “axis-of-evil” speech have not inspired world-leaders to band together to defeat terrorists or terrorism but instead only seem to inspire the terrorists themselves in their drive and comitment to thwart U.S. empire-building and single out and kill Americans;  any Americans, civilian or military.

Bush opened Pandora’s Box, unleashing world-wide terrorism and the brutality the likes of which have never before been seen on earth. In Mumbai, 197 were rounded up and executed by the Deccan Mujahideen. Today in Nigeria, sporadic bursts of gunfire rattled the central Nigerian city of Jos as security forces tried to prevent more clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs in which hundreds of people have been killed. Somali pirating has become so bad in the Persian Gulf that many of the supertankers refuse to use the Suez Canal after Somali Pirates hijacked the world’s largest supertanker the Sirius Star.

Terrorism, after 911 and the successful attack on America has become  premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents. Groups like al-Qaida, Deccan Muhajideen, Taliban, and others with links to organizations outside the country they operate in, who get their training, funding, and affiliation, without the knowledge of the authorities who provide law enforcement in those countries. Brut force, will not halt the spread of worldwide terrorism, violence only seems to increase the level of the terrorists brutality. The only way to defeat this systemic cancerous growth of terrorism is by a concerted world-wide effort. The incoming Obama administration is smart enough to recognize that America cannot be the world’s policeman and that in order to achieve this worldwide cooperation, we need to enlist the help of allies and other countries, to win back worldwide respect by sitting people down at the table and getting them to talk to us, including our enemies. You can’t fight your enemy if you can’t find them.

Only history knows how the Bush administration will be judged and what, if any, will be the “Bush Legacy.” But the Bush Legacy will not be what he hopes it will be. If anything, I think history will see that the Bush years took America and the world a huge step backward, escalating the level of violence around the world and almost wrecking the world economy.

Iraq, of course, remains the main argument that Bush and his few remaining supporters use to justify his legacy. Didn’t Bush get rid of Saddam Hussein? George W. Bush actually believes the Iraq war was a success and is “very pleased” with what is happening there. George W.’s war on terror has only seemed to increase terror around the world as copycat terrorist groups emmulate the success of al-Qaidi. Instead of Afghanistan becoming safer after the Taliban, it has become an even more dangerous place as remaining terrorists go out of their way to commit barbaric beheadings and other crimes against women and Americans. Mrs. Bush said that women in Iraq are safer now since the American occupation yet the attacks against women there, (throwing acid in their face) have escalated since the Americans arrived.

One of the American guards at Guantanamo Bay (Camp Gitmo) was quoted as saying, “if they didn’t hate America when they came here, they sure will after what we’ve done to them here.”

It’s a good thing Bush is leaving.

The saber rattling has increased with  a palsied intensity the last eight years while our closest friends and allies have tried to quietly tell us that America is only increasing the violence around the world. America, plain and simply, needs a “time-out.”

First came Afghanistan, Americans  wondered,  when the Ruskies spent years there to no avail why we were able to overthrow the Taliban so quickly. Then came the two-week war in Iraq. Bush in his flight suit strutting his stuff and here five and a half years later, American GI’s are still in surge mode. The president only has a few weeks left with India and Pakistan melting down fast and Iran still “touch and don’t go.”

George W.’s overly-aggressive response to 9-11 eventually sent liberals and Democrats over the edge. While Afghanistan was mostly supported, his invasion and occupation of Iraq sealed his doom. America has had few allies in this endeavor, and now faces an even greater number of enemies around the world. Proclaiming himself a “compassionate conservative”, George W. did nothing to reduce the size of government and cut government spending, he deregulated to the point where greedy lenders and investors have brought down not only our economy but the world economy to the point of a global melt-down.

So what will George W. Bush’s legacy be? Simply this.

It will be that he foolishly believed that bringing democracy to a region that had never experienced it would remove the terrorist threat in the long term. You cannot give democracy to anyone. They have to want it for themselves and be willing to fight for it as our founding fathers did in 1776. Secondly, that you cannot defeat terrorists by brute force but that brute force only emboldens them.

In the long term, these lessons might be a great legacy should Americans chose to learn from them and never forget them. But at the cost of almost ruining the American way of life, losing the respect and friendship of our oldest allies, earning the hatred and murderous contempt of terrorists around the world and giving them the “Jihad” they always wanted and an excuse to kill Westerner’s, it might have been lessons the world could have done without.

KH

Today’s sex in advertising goes from ‘So Fly’ to ‘No Fly.’

Yuh nuh see how mi fat in a mi jeans,
kitty kat just phat a buffy – nuh any bowy can handle mi speed,”
Bad Gal Ce’Cile “ from her latest hit single ‘So Fly’

The old adage used to be that “sex sells.”  Ads laced with sexual imagery of women geared toward men to buy Budweiser, expensive cologne, cigarettes, and alcohol products.  Images of sexy men to get women to buy those needed cleaning products sold by a sexy bald-headed Mr. Clean, along with perfume, cigarettes, condoms and fashion.

Many young people are surprised that sex in advertising has been around the block once or twice believing it to reflect the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 70s. Farrah Fawcett was a sex-in-advertising icon in the 1970s. The use of “sex” in advertising to sell a product however has been around as long as there have been advertisers. Where in the 1960’s, (with the strict FCC),  sex in advertising was an innocent form of flirtation, today’s FCC seems to have relaxed the rules to the point where the sex being hinted at is kinky and quite perverse with sado-masochism, bondage, and other forms of titilation being hinted at.

The “does sex sell?” question is actually pretty simple. The answer is “yes, it does.” However, only to a point.

In the last forty-years, companies have embraced sex in advertising with some really fun, successful, sexy and/or annoying results. But they’re not depending on their sexy ads to pay the bills. While a nice rack might get a spike in traffic or sales, they’re not the most reliable meal ticket. Good looking models that demonstrate weight-loss products promise to make you look better (the benefit of that is being more attractive to others, especially to the opposite sex) is a good use of sex in advertising. Ramping up the sexual content to the point that people are thinking about sex rather than the product, then the sex overwhelms the product message. That has been the problem lately for advertisers trying to use sex to get our attention. They have to ramp up the sex because after  40-years of sex in advertising, it’s harder and harder to get our attention. We’ve become desensitized.

Sex in advertising can also be a lame cop-out used by marketers who lack imagination to create more compelling work that will sustain itself beyond the initial titillation and as such, will continue to be used in advertising because it’s a quick and easy solution which doesn’t require much thought and can garner the immediate attention some marketers need for their promotional efforts. The question being asked lately by those in the industry is just how much is enough? How much is too much? When do the advertisers cross the line of public decency?

The public has long tolerated the use of the sexual double-entendre in advertising on radio and TV thinking it cute and adult. Young children for example, do not get the meaning of “The Big O” used for the “Big O” website or other sexual double entendre’s. An all-time classic use of innuendo was Clairol’s “Does she or doesn’t she?” The overt meaning is obvious: “Does she color her hair or not?” However, a covert meaning could be does she or does she not have sex. Even the rest of the headline, “Only her hairdresser knows for sure.

“There was a young man named McNair, Whose cologne did defile the air. Women with him were brusk, Until he tried Jovan Musk, And now he gets more than his share.”~Jovan sponsored limerick contest in 1979.

Two ads for Noxema in the 1970’s are excellent examples of sexual double entendre and innuendo. In one spot, Fawcett sings the jingle, “Great balls of cum… fort.” Another features Joe Nameth playfully lamenting, “I’m going to get creamed,” as Fawcett lathers his face with Noxema shaving cream. “You’ve got a great pair of hands.”

“Can you keep it up for a week?” The Vegetarian Society asks encouraging non-vegetarians to try shunning meat for seven days.

In the ad for Nissan, Kim Catrall is heard telling a car salesman: “Why didn’t you tell me it was so big, I just wasn’t prepared for it. The all-new Nissan Tiida makes you feel really, really, really good inside.” And after her test ride, the star goes on to comment: “Ah! That was amazing. Absolutely fabulous! I mean the great body and the way you moved it.”

Sexual content in fragrance advertising is manifest in the usual ways: as models showing skin-chests and breasts, open shirts, tight-fitting clothing-and as dalliances involving touching, kissing, embracing, and voyeurism. These outward forms of sexual content are often woven into the explicit and implicit sexual promises  to make the wearer more sexually attractive, more likely to engage in sexual behavior, or simply “feel” more sexy for one’s own enjoyment.

There’s a danger people could become, and perhaps already have, desensitized to sex in advertising as a method for motivating behavior, (the slippery road for Axe commercials). Changes in advertising are, of course, changing as society changes.  Women in today’s society are much more liberated in their sexual mores than they have been in millennia past. Advertising, realizing this change in women’s perception of sex and sexual activity, is beginning to alter its approach to sex as a selling tool to women.

You know those weird Wendy’s ads with guys wearing the red pigtailed wig and people doing odd things? The ad company loved them. They said they were funny even though the commercials gave off a weird “transvestite” vibe. Wendy’s scrapped the concept because they weren’t making people buy burgers. Old Dave would be turning in his grave if he saw the company he started go the way of “transvestism.”

Too much sex. Too much funny. Same thing. And why do advertisers do this? Because they think everyone else is as bored with their product as they are.

The sadomasochistic, kinky pickup scene the ad company sold Microsoft recently starring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates is also being scrapped. Two guys meet in a shoe store. The one guys offers a churro to the other—an obvious phallic symbol, possibly a code word. The guy refuses. So the guy with the churro starts to massage the other guy’s foot, and asks about what he’s feeling. The guy who relented at first says a definite code word: “leather.” The two look furtively at each other for an uncomfortably long time. They scene is just short of a wink taking place. One mentions “showering” with clothes on. The next thing you know the twosome, now each holding rigid churros, walk off together. One asks the other to adjust his underwear as a “sign.” Mysteriously the advertising campaign stopped, changed directions, and Seinfeld was no more.

The increasing use of sado-masochism in TV ads is becoming disturbing. Take the Altoid-Sours TV ad. In a blind taste-test, the taster only likes the mint after the sexy blonde female tester slaps him with a black leather glove.

What is particualry distrubing is that our young people who are just learning about sex and how to form natural realtionships are exposed to all these unnatural choices which disrupt their normal sexual development. Should I be homosexual or lesbian? Should I be into S/M? They see it on TV, in TV ads, and so they think these examples must be the norm. To what extent does advertising create people’s image of the human body and sex? The trend of portraying sado-masochism shocks feminists but at the same time, advertising works with fantasies, advertising starts trends, like the recent wave of “fashion pornography.”

Most people aren’t shocked when they see very sex-oriented advertising and that should give us some cause for concern, particualry when it comes to the messages we are sedning our kids. People have seen women on TV wearing nothing but a bra and panties for 20 years. If we dont; speak up, our children interpret this as our acceptance or approval of the message which implies to a teenager that its okay to do this. Which is why you have teen pop idols driving drunk, exhibiting their nudity in public, posting private sex tapes to the internet for millions around the world to view. Where did they get the idea that this behavior was acceptable? From television and the movies. From Madison Avenue with its too sexy ads for Victoria’s Secret and from Hollywood portraying teenage sex and nudity in movies. We’ve seen the end result, spoiled, pompous little diva-sluts like Paris Hilton, Britany Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Miley Cyrus and other’s.

Creating an ultra-thin ideal of the body, as personified by top model Kate Moss has certainly had a big influence on anorexic teenagers. The depiction of homosexuals, is a major revolution. Surveys show people aren’t in the least shocked by the presence of homosexuals in advertising images. All this has helped to win acceptance for the idea that a man has the right to take care of his body and choose his own sexual lifestyle. Some could argue then that advertising today has become more than just an ad to sell a product, it is  a political statement. In the 1980’s, a time of increased VIV/AIDS scare, the headline for a Coty Emeraude perfume ad read: “I love only one man. I wear only one fragrance.” Talk about mixing advertising and political-correctness.

The matter of constitutional freedom of speech as applied to advertising has raised serious questions concerning control of sex and decency in advertising. Are there any taboos left in the way the human body is depicted and what should be taboo? The last taboos, thankfully, are pedophilia and zoophilia. I don’t think we want to see that in a TV ad for Wendy’s, pink wig or not.

KH

THE GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS SINGERS (PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE)

“I’ll be your Christmas past present and future baby
My yesterday every day tomorrow too
Underneath the mistletoe
Let me show what I know
I’ll be your Christmas past,  present, and future.”

Christmas Past, Present, Future
Album : “School’s Out Christmas” CD, 2002
(Al Kasha Ron Dante Paul Murray)
Ashlee Simpson

I was trucking through Jewel the other night ( a grocery-store chain in Chicagoland) when I heard Bing Crosby booming out a Christmas classic (Ba-Ba-ba-Boom) followed by crooners Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. They sounded like they were stuck in a time-warp, some Norman Rockwell Christmas somewhere that no longer exists. “Dated” is the word they use in the industry. Though their material was hip, hop, happening in their time- today they sound like the tunes you hear sung at old folks homes.

As we head into Christmas and think about Dickens, A Christmas Carol, and Ebeneezer Scrooge being visited by three ghosts, (ghost of Christmas past, present and future) it dawned on me that every year, we to, are visited by the ghosts of Christmas past,

present,  and future-singers in the form of Christmas Carols or songs being played non-stop betwen October 31st and Christmas day.

Every year, they trot out the same lame Christmas songs we have heard for half-a-century, It’s starting to feel “contrived.” There’s Burl Ives singing, Have a Holly Jolly Christmas or Frosty the Snowman (the two biggest hits he ever had), Bing Crosby doing the Ba-Ba-Ba-Boom, “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,” as I begin to nod off while Dean Martin croons Christmas Blues on another station and Elvis strums Blue Christmas on a Gibson sun-burst guitar on yet another.

Isn’t it interesting how Karen Carpenter’s career is reborn every Christmas with her song Merry Christmas Darling? Other ghosts of Christmas past singers include John Lennon’s Happy Christmas, and then there are what can o

nly be described as the “wierd” or most annoying Christmas songs. These were novelty songs that played well the first few times but after the 5,000th playing of Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer- we just want to scream or pull our hair out.

The ghosts of Christmas present are unfortunately well known to us. There’s Madonna beltong out her version of Santa Baby  (voted one of the top-ten worst Christmas songs of all time) Bon Jovie doing their version of Back Door Santa making it sound very “gay” the Valley-Girl crowd (Ashely, Brittany, Christina, and other’s) doing their take on a Christmas classic and usually singing the ass off it.

Finally we have the ghosts of Christmas future-singers, like Gloria Estefan whose song, Christmas in Your Eyes is destined to go on to become one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time surpassing Bing Crosby’s White Christmas, or Nat King Cole’s version of Mel Torme’s, The Christmas Song.

Some people don’t like Christmas songs because they find them too familiar or overly sentimental. But I have been reminded that some people don’t like Christmas songs because they don’t like Christmas. I sympathize. It does seem so arbitrary to just pick a month and then say we’re all supposed to be happy and get along with everybody. If your life isn’t like that the other 11 months of the year, then Christmas ain’t gonna do it for you. The message of the season may not be that it’s a wonderful life. It may be that life sucks — believe me, sometimes it royally sucks — but we carry on anyway. We rise above. We carve out that little hollow in the snow and curl up for warmth in a cold, cold world and Christmas songs, the good, the bad and the annoying help us get through the process every year.

To honor the festiveness of the holidays I present to you, oh blog-readers, my version of the best and worst of Christmas singers past, present and future.

Ghosts of Christmas past-singers Best:

1. White Christmas by Bing Crosby

2. The Christmas Song sung by Nat King Cole

3. Christmas Blues by Dean Martin.

4. Have Yourself a Very Merry Little Christmas by Judy Garland

5. Happy Christmas by John Lennon

6. Blue Christmas by the King (Elvis Presley)

No one does Blue Christmas like Elvis and he  looked oh sooooooooo good in that black leather jacket strumming that Gibson sun-burst guitar.

7. Merry Christmas Darling by Karen Carpenter

8. Peace On Earth/Peace On Earth – Bing Crosby + David Bowie

This makes the list just because it was such an odd but wonderful pairing – spaceman Bowie and old timer Bing, the voice of Christmas. The odd couple teamed up to record this hit in the late 1970s for a TV Crosby Christmas Special and Bowie swears to this day he has no recollection of the performance. Still, Christmas magic all the same – Par-um-pah-pum-pum!

9. Feliz Navidad by Jose Feliciano

10. You’re A Mean One Mr. Grinch

originally done for the 1966 cartoon special How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The lyrics were written by Dr. Seuss, the music was written by Albert Hague, and the lyrics were performed by Thurl Ravenscroft.

Because Ravenscroft was not credited in the closing credits of the special, it is often mistakenly attributed to Boris Karloff, who served as narrator and speaking voice of the Grinch in the special.

11. Someday At Christmas by Stevie Wonder

Spinner’s 12 Best Christmas Songs:
“I Want an Alien for Christmas,” Fountains of Wayne
“Pretty Paper,” Willie Nelson
“Candy Cane Children,” White Stripes
“Christmas Is the Time to Say I Love You,” Billy Squier
“Someday at Christmas,” Stevie Wonder
“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” U2
“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” Brenda Lee
“Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto,” James Brown
“River,” Joni Mitchell
“Blue Christmas,” Elvis Presley
“Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” John Lennon and Yoko Ono
“Christmas in Hollis,” Run DMC

Ghost of Christmas Past-singers worst:

1. Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer by Elmo & Patsy (so bad it’s good)

This song might have been funny when it was written 25 years ago, but in today’s world, this is about as humorous as the average episode of “The Wiggles.” Even worse, it spawned an animated special, a number of spin-off songs, a ringtone and one truly dumb music video.

2.  The Christmas Song by Alvin and the Chipmunks

3. Barking Jingle Bells by Don Charles/The Singing Dogs

4. anybody singing Santa Baby

5. anybody singing a “cutsey” version of Jingle Bells

6. Snoopy’s Christmas by  The Royal Guardsmen

7. anybody singing I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

8. Please, Daddy (Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas)’
–John Denver (1975)

The late Rocky Mountain troubadour sometimes introduced this song as a funny little ditty that took on more serious overtones over time. It’s hard to see what could have been funny about a seven-year-old pleading with Daddy not to pass out under the tree. Not when you consider that Denver had two DUI arrests before his death in 1997.

9. Run Rudolph Run (Chuck Berry)

Whizzing like a shooting star the R & B has been featured in countless number of really bad Christmas Movies like Home Alone 2.

10. Dominick The Donkey (The Italian Christmas Donkey)
by Monte, Lou

Even if I was Italian and in the mob and the Godfather’s kid wrote this song, this would still be a really awful Christmas song.

11. Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee
Yes, I know that this song is considered a classic by many music fans. But there is something about Lee’s piercing vocals and 1950’s delivery that has always managed to give me a headache.

12. Wonderful Christmastime” by Paul McCartney
McCartney’s post-Beatles discography falls into two basic categories. There are the really great tunes, such as “Band On The Run” and “Jet.” And then there are the goofball, maudlin songs that often make me suspect those rumors about McCartney being replaced by a look-alike back in the 1970’s just might be true. While this song was a modest hit when it was released, it gets played a lot on the radio every year. And it’s managed to get more annoying as the years pass, primarily because the cheesy synthesizers and looping vocals make it more appropriate for playing at a roller skating rink than at a Christmas party.

13.  ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas by Liberace with George Liberace & His Orchestra

14. Jingle Bells by Looney Tunes Sing-a-Long

15. Santa Claus Is Comin to Town by Bruce Springsteen

Spinner’s 12 Worst Christmas Songs:
“Santa Baby,” Madonna
“Wonderful Christmastime,” Paul McCartney
“Christmastime,” Smashing Pumpkins
” Days of Christmas,” Destiny Child
“Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” Bruce Springsteen
. “Christmas Conga,” Cyndi Lauper
“Santa’s Beard,” Beach Boys
“Merry Christmas With Love,” Clay Aiken
“Merry Christmas (I Don’t Wanna Fight Tonight),” The Ramones
. “Oi to the World,” No Doubt
“Please, Daddy (Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas),” John Denver
. “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” Band Aid

Ghosts of Christmas present-singers best:

1. Ave Maria by Kenny G or any Christmas song by Kenny G especially Auld Lane Syne (Faith). Kenny plays the hell out of that song.

2.  The entire A Charlie Brown Christmas CD by Vince Garibaldi

3. Driving Home For Christmas by Chris Rea

4. I Believe in Father Christmas by U2

5. All I Want For Christmas by Mariah Carey

While Christmas albums seemed to be the trend in the 1990s for pop artists, not many went the places that this Mariah Carey single did. Granted, everything that Mariah Carey touches turns to gold, but having been released as recently as 1992, the classic status that this record has acquired is quite impressive.

6. There’s Something Stuck Up In The Chimney by Bob Rivers

Ghosts of Christmas present-singers worst:

1.  Santa Baby by Madonna

Madonna had been around the block far too many times to get away with playing the infuriating Betty Boop-ish ingenue. When Eartha Kitt made a case for being a good, deserving girl — “think of all the fellas that I haven’t kissed” — it was mildly amusing. When Madonna trotted out the line, it was just another reason for Sean Penn to start throwing ornaments.

2. Backdoor Santa” – Bon Jovi:

This song was originally part of the very first “A Very Special Christmas” benefit album. I guess other people realized how bad the song was because on later copies of the CD, they replaced this song with another only slightly less bad Bon Jovi song. Fortunately it appears that you can’t buy this song anymore. Talk about your Christmas miracles!

3. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday by Wizards

4. 12 Redneck Days of Christmas by Jeff Foxworthy (so depressing because it’s true when it comes to rednecks, Christmas and mobile homes)

5. Last Christmas – George Michael

This song has become a staple of Christmas radio airplay, seeing nearly as much as classics like Jingle Bell Rock. With two recent covers of the song, one by Hilary Duff and another by Indie-Rock trio Jimmy Eats World, it is unlikely that any one will be forgetting George Michael’s poor contribution to Christmas music any time soon.

6. Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band-Aid

Another eighties classic, 1984’s call to action for the American people to look at the poverty crisis in Africa is still resonant today. The Boomtown Rat’s Bob Geldof has been a constant crusader in this battle that he began over twenty years ago, all starting with this one simulcast song. While community activism is good and all- this song gives me a migraine and it sounds like the theme song from Dr. Who.

7. Merry Christmas Everybody by Slade

8. Merry Christmas by Schelle

9. Merry Christmas Everyone by Shakin Stevens

10. I Can’t Believe It’s Christmas by GiR2007

Ghosts of Christmas future-singers best:

1. Christmas In Your Eyes by Gloria Estefan

This Grammy Award-winning Cuban American singer and songwriter, in the top 100 of best selling music artists with over 70 million albums sold worldwide, has recorded what I think will go on to become the number one Christmas song in the future even surpassing The Christmas Song, White Christmas, Blue Christmas and other’s. Give it a listen and you’ll soon agree.

2. Ave Maria by Barbara Bonney.

Barbara Bonney, who also sang with Michael Crawford in the Phantom Of The Opera, this is quite possibly the most beautiful version of Ave Maria I have ever heard. “O wärst du da!” (“Oh, that you were here!”) Barbara Bonney was 38 when she made this breakthrough Schubert recording in 1994.

3. Don’t Save It All For Christmas Day by Celine Dion

4. Peace by Norah Jones

Ghosts of Christmas future-singers worst:

1. Christmas Shoes by Newsong

2. Christmas Past. Present, Future by Ashlee Simpson and The Little Drummer Boy” by Jessica and Ashlee Simpson
Jessica Simpson is an impressive singer, and her Christmas CD, “Re-Joyce: The Christmas Album” is an overall entertaining package. But this tune — a duet with sister Ashlee — sounds more like a German military march than a Christmas tune. And without being unduly mean, let’s just say that Ashlee’s voice does not quite come up to the standards of her sister.

3. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday- Sarah Brightman

Winter Symphony is a Christmas album from the English soprano singer Sarah Brightman, released in November 2008. Although Sarah is brilliant when it comes to Opera, she absolutely sucks when it comes to pop or rock.

4. Last Christmas by Hillary Duff

For those new parents starting families of your own and Christmas traditions of your own, here are the 25 most recognizable Christmas songs:

According to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, these are the Top 25 most-performed “Holiday” songs for the first five years of the 21st Century:

1. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) – Mel Tormé, Robert Wells
2. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town – Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie
3. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Ralph Blane, Hugh Martin
4. Winter Wonderland – Felix Bernard, Richard B. Smith
5. White Christmas – Irving Berlin
6. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! – Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne
7. Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer – Johnny Marks
8. Jingle Bell Rock – Joseph Carleton Beal, James Ross Boothe
9. I’ll Be Home For Christmas – Walter Kent, Kim Gannon, Buck Ram
10. Little Drummer Boy – Katherine K. Davis, Henry V. Onorati, Harry Simeone
11. Sleigh Ride – Leroy Anderson, Mitchell Parish
12. It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year – Edward Pola, George Wyle
13. Silver Bells – Jay Livingston, Ray Evans
14. Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree – Johnny Marks
15. Feliz Navidad – José Feliciano
16. Blue Christmas – Billy Hayes, Jay W. Johnson
17. Frosty The Snowman – Steve Nelson, Walter E. Rollins
18. A Holly Jolly Christmas – Johnny Marks
19. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus – Tommie Connor (PRS)
20. Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane) – Gene Autry, Oakley Haldeman
21. It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas – Meredith Willson
22. (There’s No Place Like) Home For The Holidays – Bob Allen, Al Stillman
23. Carol Of The Bells – Peter J. Wilhousky, Mykola Leontovich
24. Santa Baby – Joan Ellen Javits, Philip Springer, Tony Springer
25. Wonderful Christmastime – Paul McCartney (PRS)

BEARS FANS DIE HARD.

It’s one-degree outside at 9 a.m. on a partly cloudy Sunday morning. Beautiful weather for a Polar Bear, Penguin, or Chicago Bears fan. The Metra trains are jammed-pack with Die-Hard Bears fans who have tickets to sit in the 7-degree-weather to watch the Bears put the sunshine boys from Jacksonville out cold.

Having grown up in Chicago, a veteran sports-writer for the Chicago Sun-Times, personally I think its pathetic that all these people are willing to risk illness sitting out in sub-zero weather watching a team that has played as pathetically as the Chicago Bears have the last few years. Last week, all I saw was purple watching the game as the Minnesota Vikings stomped the Bears. The week before all I saw was a “green-wave” as the Green Bay Packers did the same thing.

Chicago fans are either to be pitied for their love and loyalty or committed for insanity. Personally, I think its the latter.

“It’s cold up here, there’s no way around it,” said Bears coach Lovie Smith, a Texas native who began his NFL coaching career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Another sunshine state team. Lovie, you think?

Instead of Lovie Smith worrying about the cold, he should be worrying about his future with the team since his new “defense” hasn’t been working all season. The new defense he sold to Bear owners. The defense folds like a cheap accordion. Somebody needs to tell the defensive players and Lovie and Babich that the defense now stinks, and can no longer be the focus of the team. You can’t game plan to win with defense and special teams. Not with this defense and this special team. These next four games will be crucial, though.  There probably won’t be a wildcard in the NFC North.  The Bears might either rise to the top of the division, looking for the Vikings or Packers to falter, or end up getting nothing.

My bet, if I was in a sports-book in Vegas would be nothing.

The Bears should be in their element today, playing in cold weather typically places a greater premium on the running game, which also should help the Bears and generally “sunshine state” teams can’t play in artic climes like Chicago and Green Bay. With a game-time temperature of 7 degrees and wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour dropping the wind chill to 18 degrees below zero, passing the ball will be virtually impossible. As a result, the Bears will be committed to the running game. That makes it essential for the Chicago Bears to have some kind of defense, which they don’t seem to have this year.

I prefer to stay toasty-warm in the sports bar watching the game in front of a roaring fireplace while swilling down cold brewskies instead of watching the game out in the cold swilling down Hot Chocolate with Peppermint Schnapps.

Even if die-hard Bears fans won’t be able to feel their toes today, the weather is the least of coach Lovie Smith worries. If he can’t salvage a decent season, he may well not have to worry about coaching in sub-artic temperatures next season for he may be  looking for another coaching job in a “sunshine state.” Bears fans however, will show up next year in sub-artic weather as they did last year to watch the same excuse of a team lose so pathetically.

It’s tough being a Chicago sports fan. To live in a town where the owners of all the teams are so cheap they just won;t spend the money to hire the talent that will get them to the Super-Bowl, Stanley-Cup, World-Series or NBA Finals. And so, Chicago sports-fans are the most long-suffering fools on the face of the planet.

I learned my lesson the last two times the local media made a fuss about the Chicago Cubs going to the World-Series (who remained in first place all last season) only to be pathetically swept in the first round of the playoffs. They couldn’t even win one game. Pathetic is the only word that comes to mind when I describe Chicago sports teams, any teams.

You can’t call them losers because they win enough regular season games to keep fans coming to the games. They just lose when it counts, year after year after year after year.

Pathetic!

After a 34-14 key loss last week to division rival, The Minnesota Vikings,  it’s time to  push the FireLovieMeter to high. On a longer scale of perspective, Lovie still has us within striking distance of the division and we split the season series with the division leaders, losing on the road.

That’s a really lame excuse for retaining Lovie Smith as coach for next year but one Lovie Smith will be making and very soon.  The Chicago Bears have had 24 quarterbacks since Jim McMahon in  1979.  That’s one of the main problems with the Chicago Bears. For God’s sake, spend some money, go out and hire yourselves a decent quarterback like Matt Leinert with the Arizona Cardinals (Lienert signed a 7-year deal but he is going nowhere with the Cardinals anytime soon) and let the man develop for 7- years like John Elway did with the Denver Bronco’s. But, this switching around the quarterbacks every other game is pathetic! The problem with Chicago sports teams has been and always will be with the team-owners. They’re cheap! As Steinbrener showed the nation with the NY Yankee’s,  you can go out and buy a winning team, if you’re willing to spend the dough. Chicago owners are not.

So, the Bears will remain pathetic for years to come, Lovie Smith will catch the heat and be fired at the end of this season which is just four games away, any remaining player who has talent and a shot at a Super-Bowl ring will bolt for a winning team and Chicago will wallow in its patheticness.

Somethings never Change and if you’re a die-hard Chicago Bears fan you know what I am saying is true. Which is why I don;t understand traveling downtown on a Sunday morning in one-degree temperatures to watch a pathetic team you know might lose, a team that is going nowhere, a team that will most likely fire the coach and get yet another quarter-back next year. Being a Chicago Sports fan is an exercise in futility.

Perhaps it is our determined faith that makes Chicagoans great-           either that or they ought to commit us all.

KH

Won’t Get Fooled Again!

“There’s nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now the parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight.
Meet the new boss-same as the old boss.”

Way back in 1971, the English rock band, The Who,  had a hit song called “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” The song’s personification of the age-old struggle – and inevitable exploitation of the common man at the hands of the “powers that be” endures as one of the premier works of Pete Townsend’s sarcasm and irony of its time and genre, constantly reminding us not to expect too much! The messianic fervor which has preceded  Obama’s expected ascension to the White House is a painful reminder that most Americans have once again been suckered into believing that national politics offers any real solutions or any real change to the nations problems.

After eight long years of Bush and “Cowboy diplomacy” America underwent  a fundamental transformation electing its first Black President, and a commitment to radical change. Sound too good to be true?

Obviously it was.

America’s 44th-President won’t even be sworn in until January 20, 2009 but already, from Obama’s cabinet choices, it’s beginning to look like the “new boss – same as the old boss.”

Politicians never keep their campaign promises. You think by now Americans would undertand that. Just once… we were hoping against all hope that America could forever put off the old clothes of poltiics, lying politicians, patronage jobs, and just for once, embrace real and radical change.

Boy,  were we fools!

Americans tried to look beyond symbolism and appearance by electing the first black President but national politics is more about advertising than substance, collective vision/illusion. More than policy, about aspirational hopes more than reality, and Obama, a better actor than Ronald Regan- suckered us all. We believed him. We believed him because we wanted to believe him even though our guts told us that national politics have become a cesspool of lies, treachery, and deceit. The same bait and switch trick again and again every four years.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Already the signs are there from Obama: reneging on campaign promises, compromise on U.S. Troop withdrawal from Iraq, a band-aid approach to economic problems by caving to his cronies like Emmanuel who, when he left the Clinton administration after voting in NAFTA and riling Democrats, moved home to Chicago to make $18-million as an investment broker. It seems like only yesterday that Obama was promising to end the war in Iraq the moment he was sworn in. Now, he’s reneging on that promise and taking a more aggressive stance with pro-war Hillary Clinton as Secretary Of State (whom the far left alike criticized heavily during the primary), and by retaining the likes of  “Neo-con” Robert Gates as Secretary Of Defense (who was lambasted by the anti-war crowd). New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner has been asked to serve as Treasury secretary. This is a guy who has been quoted as saying:

“Most consequential choices involve shades of gray, and some fog is often useful in getting things done.”

Shades of gray??? There can be no shades of gray when millions are losing their jobs and homes. Shades of gray by greedy bank lenders and stock-market investment brokers are what led America to its financial meltdown this past primary season with the housing crisis, collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and led to the government bailing out Wall-Street to the tune of  $700-billion-dollars in liguidity. That lines a lot of deep pockets folks. Geithner will continue unbridled implementation and expansion of the banker bailout, doling out taxpayer’s money to Wall Street, causing rampant inflation, a lowering in living standards, and the destruction of the dollar.

My 401K is already in the toilet. How’s yours?

Now, Detroit and the Big-3 want a huge government bailout to the tune of $ 38-billion-dollars. If Obama goes along with this, continues to reward the wealthy who have created this mess in America and his wealthy political cronies like Emanuel,  America will be bankrupt in a year and we won’t just have a recession folks, we will have revolution. Crime, anarchy, rioting, and looting will fill our streets. Perhaps, that’s why secretly the “Neo-cons” are laughing at Obama’s election. If it all goes to shit- they can blame the black-guy.

The Far-lefties, the true “Obama believers” are having a hizzy-fit.

People are suffering, almost a million Americans losing their homes and their jobs, national unemployment rate of 7.3 percent (with many economic experts saying secretly that the real unemployment rate, if you count the millions who have just given up their job search hovers around 14-percent).  This past President, with his delusional “cowboy diplomacy” and Empire-building has been embarking on eight-years of constant war, pouring money to sustain corrupt Saudi rulers and financing hugely expensive armaments, for what? It costs $2million for one missile fired from the air against a car below. The Iraqi war has already cost $300 billion. Who do you think has paid for George W’s delusions? President Bill Clinton refused to spend $2-million on a missile to blow up sand.

What did we expect? The Messiah?

With his meteroric rise and ascension to the White-House, the far-left, you know,  “Liberals” all believed Obama’s messianic powers by proclaiming that as soon as he was elected, all America’s problems would simply disappear. And Americans fell for it. The oldest trick in the political black-bag of dirty-tricks. Tell us what we want to hear.

With all the “racism” in America which is buried but not dead, did we really believe we could put the first black-guy in the Oval-Office with his black family and the white-