Guilt

OK then. I am a REALLY long term Republican. Those who think that there is no difference between the current crop of Democrats and the current crop of Republicans just aren’t paying attention. There’s a difference. Consider this.....Obama/Romney. See? Different. Anyone who thinks that Elizabeth Warren is a mainstream Democrat is wrong. If you think that Rand Paul is a savior you're delusional. But what really bothers me at this juncture is that the only big name candidate for the upcoming campaigns of both major parties who has any military experience is Rick Perry. Everyone else, apparently, just figured that is wasn’t their responsibility. Not their deal. Too big a bother. Might interfere with their attending an institution of higher learnin’. Might be dangerous. Might be scary. Whatever. It just wasn’t their responsibility to the body politic. Someone else can do it. To say that I'm appalled, shocked, or even surprised that almost all of the ca...

I think that before media employees (all of them, but particularly those in the employ of MSNBC) begin to exercise their 1 st Amendment rights, they should all be required to do the following: Take a state-run class consisting of the theory, dangers, definitions, and responsibilities of speech Take an additional state run class in the practical aspects of the exercise of speech Pass a state examination to display all the necessary abilities to correctly and lawfully exercise speech Then..... Pay a fee to the local jurisdiction wherein you desire to exercise speech in order to obtain your license for speech Be fingerprinted Wait for your background investigation to clear Be issued a license to exercise public speech (provided you pass all your classes and your background investigation) that will have to be renewed on it's expiration date Repeat for each state or other jurisdiction in which you wish to exercise speech If you are identified by law enf...

I live on the border between Oregon and Washington.  I get my local TV news from Portland, Oregon but live in Vancouver, Washington.  Vancouver is the poor cousin in this relationship. As election day gets closer we are inundated with television campaign ads (just like everyone else, I imagine).  Here in Washington, the candidates and incumbents don’t have to declare their party affiliation in the TV ads.  Which is interesting. Here’s what is happening at every commercial break---Every incumbent (regardless of party affiliation) running for re-election has the same pitch, to wit:  “I been fightin’ da’ man all along to get you folks sumpthin' good and keep da' man from doin’ sumpthin' bad.  Reelect me so I can keep fightin’ da’ man.”  The Republicans generally say that they are, in fact, Republicans.  The Democrats generally say nothing about party affiliation.  Like I said--Interesting. The kicker, though, is that the incumbents seem to...

As a retired law enforcement guy (32 plus years) one might be forgiven for believing that I am automatically against the legalization of marijuana. I forgive you. I’ve advocated for the legalization of weed for a really long time. Back when my peers thought I was nuts--OK, many of them still do, but no longer for this specific reason. My only beef is that the advertisements during the election season that push for legalization laws always include an interesting array of fictions. They perpetually claim that a repeal of criminality associated with marijuana will somehow free up the police to catch more child molesters and rapists (thereby making a vote to legalize marijuana a women's issue). Frankly, I'd like to see some stats from Washington and Colorado to see if that's actually the case. Or that nasty little lie that the extra taxes that will be generated (to replace the sin tax on tobacco, I guess) will help fund schools (another women's issue), and...

Having nothing to occupy myself this morning, I turned on the high definition wide screen Sceptre and launched the Xfinity programming guide.  To my delight, I found that Comedy Central (which, frankly, isn’t all that comedic most of the time) was showing Animal House.  What a grand way to kill the dead time between awakening and the start of the Giants baseball game. Animal House is a hoot.   Comedy Central..........not that much. Endless commercials.  This is why I seldom watch regular TV and mostly stick with Netflix, Amazon Prime, Pub-D-Hub Gold, and other offerings from my beloved ROKU box.  Via the ROKU box, I also watch some advertiser supported programming, like Crackle, Popcorn Flix, and Moonlight Movies but the ads on such, um, “channels”, I guess, is not nearly as annoying.  Don’t really know why, but part of it is that there just aren’t quite as many and they aren’t quite as pervasive. Back to Animal House.  I’m watching and hoot...

Armed with my wide screen high definition TV, a working WIFI in the house, and my constant companions, the ROKU box and a fully paid up Pub-D-Hub Gold subscription, I took in that 1962 period piece, The Intruder. A serious piece of work for the time, this movie is at the epicenter of the crossing paths of William Shatner and Roger Corman, and this can only mean one thing..... Movie Notes From Vantucky--Vancouver, Washington The Intruder has a confused little plot, containing all of the necessary early 60s causes--Racism, Sexism, Sex (without the “ism”), KKK and Cross Burning, Southern Crackers.....Oh, you get the picture.  There’s not too much convalution to get in the way of the story here--Evil white agitator shows up in a conservative southern town, stirs the yokels into an anti n-word frenzy (they actually use quite a bit of the n-word, if you know what I mean and I think you do) on the eve of integration, and, ultimately, is shown for the coward that he is.  In other word...

I’m quite a fan of the short-run TV series.  For whatever reason, some programs that are given the green light for production on TV only last a few episodes, or a single season, or something.  Some seem to be by design, (like Harper’s Island), some are summer replacements--although that concept is sort of dated, leading the enlightened reader to conclude that the writer has been around for a really long time (and he has), some were truncated long before their time (like Life and Brimstone), and other reasons--low viewership is a really good reason to cancel a series early on.  There is another important reason that a TV series only lasts a short time.  I’ll let you guess. Television Notes from Vantucky--Vancouver, Washington Having time on my hands, a Netflix subscription, a wide screen high definition TV, my constant companion (the beloved ROKU box), and a working home wireless network, I tackled a one-season wonder known as Persons Unknown.  13 one-hour epi...