The Best Of Kilburn Hall Blog 2008

Changing administrations in the White House, severe changes in the weather, the housing and economic crisis, shifting strategies in the ongoing occupation in Iraq, the continuing decline of Hollywood; author Kilburn Hall takes a look back at some of the best of The Kilburn Hall blogs for 2008.

Great Googa Mooga
Can’t you hear me talkin to ya?”

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THE “GODLESS” SUBURBS

In the ’50s and early ’60s, the postwar exodus from the cities to the suburbs was just beginning. Veterans of the Second World War and then the Korean War sought inexpensive homes of their own.
The dream is dead. The optimism and hope that our parents had when they moved out of overcrowded, filthy cities to give their kids a better life is dead. The suburbs are dead, filled with godlessness, lawlessness, crime, drugs, poverty, alcoholism and despair. The Antisuburban film has become a staple of Hollywood.

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An “Old Lang Syne” to people we will miss from 2008

Of course, I cannot list all the people who passed away in 2008 so here are just a few of the people I will miss from 2008 whose lives touched my life, even in a small way. Your list may vary and you can click below for the complete Death List 2008.

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Anger bubbles over at Amtrak as passengers stranded 24-hours

What happened at Chicago’s Union Station Christmas Day was a near riot with an angry mob of 600 passengers looking for a customer service representative to rip apart. No wonder customers found doors locked, and customers service representatives hiding. As one Amtrak employee told an irate customer, “There’s a lesson to be learned in all this and you need to figure out what that lesson is.” There is a lesson to be learned in this alright and it is Amtrak that needs to learn it by government stepping in and putting the thieving corporate scumbags out of business.

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Gay Trek (2009)

After three decades and four series, the Starship Enterprise has never seen a gay character. Star Trek producers decided they did not want to cross that final frontier. In an odd distinction for the franchise that, 33 years ago, gave America its first televised interracial kiss, the top-command in Star-Fleet did not want to travel down a path filled with political and moral landmines.

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Forced retirement is a good thing for a failed presidency

George W. needs to leave as quietly as possible, with as little fanfare as possible considering the total mess he has left his successor. At first, President-electBarack Obama will be seen as the stable-boy cleaning out the stables after the departed master. His task, in cleaning up the mess in America will not be an easy one. Frankly, I do not think it can be done in one term. Rather thanpositoning himself for a run at a second-term like Obama is already doing, he is going to find that “words are cheap.” He made promises he frankly cannot keep to the American public, many of whom, the devout Obama supporters view him as some kind of Messiah. Here’s the thing about Messiah’s- often they are crucified by their own people. So the deaprting Prez, needs to leave as quietly as possible and the incoming Prez, who has shot off his mouth during the campign, telling the American people what they want to hear and not being able to keep many of the promises he made- needs to take office as “humbly” as possible and with little fanfare.

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Let us not mock the song of peace on earth, goodwill to men

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was in a dark place when he wrote I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day. America was in the midst of the American Civil War and the news of his son Charles Appleton Longfellow having suffered wounds as a soldier in battle. He had suffered the great loss of his wife Fanny two years prior to an accident with fire.

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The 25 Sexiest Women of all time. (The definitive list)

The 25 sexiest women of all time
Because a man needs to know more than just the arbitrary ratings put out by magazines like Men.Style.com. Cosmopolitan, FHM, Esquire, and other magazines that unenlightened twenty-somethings write for.

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The new national past-time (kicking people when they’re down)

While kicking celebrities and politicians when they’re down might make for media ratings and great newspaper fodder for the purpose of selling advertising space, it does not serve society well when we as a society stoop so low as to kick a person when they’re down. It’s petty, mean, and beneath us as Americans.

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“Wise guy, eh?”

It’s a weak case which I’m sure Blago and his army of legal-begals will have no problem getting tossed. One of the reaons the Feds come up with 70 or 100 different charges these ays against an individual is the “old shit sticks to the wall” theory. That is, if you throw enough shit against the wall some of it is bound to stick. This is how our top law enforcement officials are doing business these days. Instead of building a solid case with just one charge which would bring a long stint in the pokey, they throw as many darts at the dartboard as they can hoping one of them will stick. It is a theory that does not work for the most part, as juries, overwhelmed with 70 or 100 different charges are confused by the myriad of charges and evidence and do one of three things, throw it out, can;t decide on a unanimous verdict and come in “deadlocked” or convict on one or two of the lesser charges. A sharp criminal like formerGovernor George Ryan, who was convicted on one or two lesser charges and only given three years in the Crossroads Motel, know this, as do most mobsters, drug cartels, and etc. who keep onretainer an army of sharp lawyers.

But, it makes good headlines. Legal begal Fitzgerald gets to see his photo in the paper, a lot both when he indicts and when the case is summarily dismissed. This is not justice, this is not what we pay our law enforcement officials to do. We pay them to uphold the law, not run their own private little beauty pageant. If the Feds really had anything onBlago- if he was as corrupt, arroognat and stupid as they claim, do you really think they would allow him to return to the Govenor’s office. They are sworn to protect and serve. To protect the public, that’s us, from corrupt officials like the Govenator.

“Wise guy, eh? Why I oughta …………

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