Books, movies, politics, and whatever I want

Archive for July, 2012

Thank Our Troops Day

Tuesday, July 31st, 2012

Monday Book Pick: Red Shirts

Monday, July 30th, 2012

Red Shirts by John Scalzi

Scalzi takes a humorous, and also deadly serious look at one of the most famous themes of Television SciFi. Why Ensign Ricky doesn’t beam back up with the ship’s command crew. At the same time, he has fun with the topic of his earlier book, “Agent to the Stars”, the day to day work of Hollywood. As the author points out in the book, the theme is not new, but he does have an interesting take on it. One thing I did find interesting was that in list of “world as myth” examples, he left out “Number of the Beast.”

Monday Book Pick Archive

Thanks!

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

Just a shout out to everyone who uses the Amazon links here and else where on my various sites.

It helps to support the running all the sites and keeps me in reading/viewing/listening material, as well as the occasional new gadget.

 

Let us review the Obama Economy once more

Saturday, July 28th, 2012

We’ve take a couple of health checks of the economy under the Obama regime, and they haven’t looked good.

Let’s add this data point: the Obama administration projects $1.2T 2012 budget deficit.

Didn’t our Dear Leader promise to cut the deficit in half? Instead he is taking it to new record highs.

Here is another example of fiscal mismanagement by the Obama regime: GM (Government Motors) ramps Up Risky Subprime Auto Loans To Drive Sales.

Let’s review recent history, it was the federal government policy of forcing record numbers of subprime housing loans that lead to the last fiscal crisis. A policy formed by the so-called “Community Reinvestment Act” that was put in place and defended by the far left wing of the democrat party.

Can anyone see the subprime auto loan market turning out any better than the subprime home loan market?

Quote of the Day

Saturday, July 28th, 2012

Cars didn’t shape our existence; cars let us escape with our lives. We’re way the heck out here in Valley Bottom Heights and Trout Antler Estates because we were at war with the cities. We fought rotten public schools, idiot municipal bureaucracies, corrupt political machines, rampant criminality and the pointy-headed busybodies. Cars gave us our dragoons and hussars, lent us speed and mobility, let us scout the terrain and probe the enemy’s lines. And thanks to our cars, when we lost the cities we weren’t forced to surrender, we were able to retreat.

–  P.J. O’Rourke

More P.J. O’Rourke

Friday B-Movie Pick: The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption

Friday, July 27th, 2012

The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption

This turkey could fly about as well as the one the WKRP staff had shoved out of helicopter. The “name” actors in this were Ron Perlman and Billy Zane. I can only hope they did this because they needed the money for their kids’ braces. Bad script, bad acting, low budget, all the elements of a hack B-Movie are here. The one plus is that they shot in Thailand, so they got the elephants cheap. Just how a the main character and his Germananic barbarian sidekick made from the desert to Thailand is kinda glossed over. Don’t ask how the Roman soldiers , with the overly long swords, made it there either. Really, that is easier to buy into than the Forest Ninja. Yes, I said Forest Ninja. Really, by this point in the film, you’ve given up on any hope of good movie and are along for the ride.They don’t explain why the Book of the Dead was in Thailand either. There are worse movies you could watch, like Cyberjack, but really, do yourself a favor and rewatch old epiodes of UFO, Firefly or Babylon 5.  I’m not kidding here, Leonard Pinth-Garnell could do a special on this flick.

Friday B-Movie Pick Archive

History is not a friend of the left

Thursday, July 26th, 2012

You must have noticed this before, leftists are bad at history.  Even when they are “good” with most historical items, they selectively edit history to line up with their political views.  Views with tend to run at odds with reality.

An example I’ve listed before is where one leftist accused President Reagan of reinstating draft registration as part of his ‘war mongering.’  He was not happy when I pointed out that it was Jimmy Carter, the worst president of the latter half of the 20th Century, who did that.

Here is a new example, a very smart fellow, whom I know is a more than mildly serious history buff, rattled off a very clear, concise and accurate, summary of the failure of Solyndra.  It was however, missing some key facts that didn’t fit his political world view.

The facts missing completely change the narrative, which is what he objects to.

The facts in question are:

  • Solyndra applied for federal loans/grants during the G.W. Bush administration, which turned them down.  The reason stated was that they did not have a solid business plan that showed a path to profitability, no matter how much money was dumped their way.
  • After our Dear Leader, Barack Hussein Obama, occupied the White House, Solyndra reapplied, and where quickly approved as part of the Obama regime’s “Green Jobs” program.
  • The CEO of Solyndra was a major “bundler” to both the DNC and Barack Hussein Obama.

In the world of the left, Solyndra failure was ‘not their fault’ and had nothing to do with Obama paying off his political donors with tax payer money.

If this was the only case of a company, which happens to be run by a big DNC/BHO donor, receiving millions of taxpayer dollars as part of BHO’s “Green Jobs” program, and then “unexpectedly” went bankrupt, I’d be willing to buy into this particular leftist fantasy.  It is a leftist fantasy because there have been multiple other companies that fit this same profile.

How is the Obama Economy doing?

Sunday, July 22nd, 2012

Based on the recent check on economic health, not too bloody good.  Here are a couple of data points to add to the pile.

US poverty on track to rise to highest since 1960s

It’s just not the poor getting poorer, the rich are becoming less rich as the Obama regime sucks their money out of the private sector.

Wait! It gets worse!

According to CNBC: Earnings Show Recession May Be ‘Fast Approaching’

Just how is that Hopey Changey thing workin’ for ya?

Friday B-Movie Pick:Colombiana

Friday, July 20th, 2012

Colombiana

Executive Summary: Lt. Uhura kills a lot of Columbian drug gang members, and a lot of other people. Ok, it’s Zoe Saldana, played Lt. Uhura in the last Star Trek movie. She plays the daughter of a ‘wet work’ specialist for a Columbian drug lord. There is a falling out and the drug lord has her parents killed. Of course they get shot to doll rags right in front of her. She escapes, makes her way from Columbia to Chicago. There she finds her maternal uncle, who takes a break from beating a man tied to a chair for touching reunion with niece. Now flash foward and the kid is now an adult and an experienced assassin. She gets herself arrested, so she will be in the same jail as her next target. She changes into a catsuit, slips out of her cell, kills the target, slips back into her cell and is released before the feds lock the jail down. Yes, she is that bad ass. The final fight scene is the best part of the movie through. Really nicely done and down and dirty.

Friday B-Movie Pick Archive

Quote of the Day

Thursday, July 19th, 2012

“Firefly just won’t die. And that’s a good things. Browncoats never surrender, they just take up misbehavior…”

— John Ringo