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Posted on May 29th, 2009 by Mark.
Categories: Editorials, News.
Senator Cornyn, do us all a favor and practice what you preach. How dare you judge editorial worth by whether or not somebody is an “elected official”.
“I think it’s terrible… This is not the kind of tone any of us want to set when it comes to performing our constitutional responsibilities of advise and consent.”
Cornyn dismissed Limbaugh and Gingrich, adding: “Neither one of these men are elected Republican officials. I just don’t think it’s appropriate. I certainly don’t endorse it. I think it’s wrong.”
Have you read the Constitution of the United States of America, Senator? It is every American’s RIGHT to speak their mind and I would go further and state that it is their civic duty. I suppose you being a Senator makes you a more worthy judge of Sonia Sotomayor? It seems you’ve taken as elitist a view as the judge, elevating your position as a Senator above that of the unelected. Perhaps you two could compare and contrast your assertion that elected opinions matter more than those of the unelected, with her view that latina women are better judges than white males.
Excuse me sir, but Gingrich and Limbaugh owe you nothing. They surely don’t owe you their silence. Perhaps if you weren’t such a yellow bellied coward they wouldn’t have to take it upon themselves to speak out. Perhaps if you were as committed to the defense of conservatism as you claim to be, you would understand why the words of Sotomayor are so concerning. Perhaps if you were a man of convictions rather than a hack consumed with being re-elected, you’d be out in front leading on the issue instead of calculating risks to your own political ambitions.
Right is right, sir. Cowardly is cowardly… and you sir, you Senator Cornyn, you are a coward.
Posted on May 29th, 2009 by Mark.
Categories: Editorials, News.
I had to laugh when I read this story. It seems that Ahmadinejad is trying to buy the votes of the poor in Iran by doling out potatoes.
Two weeks from today, Iran’s presidential election will determine whether Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Holocaust-denying, Israel-hating, America-bashing incumbent, remains in office, whether his country continues its drive to become a nuclear power, and whether a state with a key role in Iraq, Afghanistan and other international flashpoints remains hostile to the West.
The stakes could scarcely be higher, but it is the lowly potato that has been grabbing attention.
The Government is handing out 400,000 tonnes of free spuds in rural towns. It says that it is merely distributing the surplus from a bumper crop, but Mr Ahmadinejad’s opponents accuse it of bribing the poor. “Death to potatoes,” they chant at rallies.
One would think that the idea is madness and that the people could see through such things (especially given that Iran has a very high unemployment rate that Mahmoud has done nothing about) but perhaps not. After all, look at us here in the United States. We bought off on a juvenile and populist notion that Barack Obama would deliver “hope” and “change”. Given that the US seems to be doing worse off now than when he took office, it seems that Ahmadinejad’s potatoes are a much stronger offering than Obama’s cheap promises.
I hope that in the future those voting Democrat will demand more of their candidates. It’s time for them to get back to basics… passing out cigarettes, instead of handing off bogus promises.
Posted on May 29th, 2009 by Mark.
Categories: Entertainment.
I’ve never been a fan of Jay Leno. Let’s just get that out in the open. I think the record shows quite accurately that Jay got the “Tonight Show” gig by screwing over a good friend (David Letterman). I don’t have much respect for people that go to such lengths. Leno likes to blame it all on his deceased manager Helen Kushnick but the fact is, Jay had to know what she was up to and the game she was playing in his name. What did Helen get for her efforts? She got fired and thrown under the bus. Jay made it like every lousy thing ever done in his name was something Helen did unilaterally. Uh huh.
Jay isn’t the most original guy in the world either, Howard Stern has maintained that Leno stole the “Jaywalking” segment from him. Let’s just say, I think Stern has a legitimate beef. Leno even went so far as to hire Stuttering John Melendez from Stern’s show, once again going through the back door rather than being upfront and discussing it with Stern.
Now we have NBC going through this whole charade of saying goodbye to Jay… but the guy isn’t really going anywhere. In another shrewd move Leno has managed to wrestle an hour of primetime each night from the network. How did he do it? He did it by acting like he was interested in offers from other networks, namely ABC. Jay Leno is not a nice guy. I seriously hope that his prime time show goes down in flames and that he trashes his already flimsy legacy by making this move. Instead of being classy and handing over the reins in the manner of Carson, Jay has just gone and made it all about him again.
I never watched Jay at 11:30PM and I sure as heck can guarantee I won’t be watching him at 10:00PM either. What NBC has done, is to basically insured that I won’t be watching an hour of their primetime lineup for the forseeable future. I will however, give Conan a chance as the new host of the “Tonight Show”. Conan is a funny and genuinely likeable guy… and I wish him much luck in his new gig. I’m sure he’s just as baffled by Leno’s latest antics, he just can’t say anything about it… yet. Sorry folks, I’m just not buying that Jay is just this kindly funny man. If anything, I think that’s the image he likes to cultivate while stomping on people and getting what he wants.
Posted on May 28th, 2009 by Mark.
Categories: Editorials, News.
I keep hearing that Chrysler and GM are going to survive albeit as much smaller entities. I keep hearing that America’s big three will survive this economic “downturn”. I keep hearing that Mr. Obama will make sure it’s so. Nonsense. America is down to ONE car manufacturer and that is Ford. If you’re going to buy American, you need to set aside GM and Chrysler as wholly UNAMERICAN. GM and Chrysler are now government entities within the market. They are not American corporations, they are not capitalist endeavors engaged in the risk and reward of business. Until the Obama government is out of GM and Chrysler, these two companies are the antithesis of capitalistic enterprises.
If you want to buy “American” support companies still doing business within the capitalist model. At this point buying Toyota, Honda or Nissan is in essence more in line with “Buying American” than if you bought from either GM or Chrysler. Government is NOT supposed to take over corporations. We have courts and a process called BANKRUPTCY which companies in the straits faced by Chrysler and GM are supposed to utilize to weather such storms, or to fold up and die. We have thrown tens of billions of dollars at both of these auto companies in an attempt to keep them viable. In the end, both Chrysler and GM ended up in bankruptcy anyway. So I ask? What was the POINT?
Congratulations tax payers, we own two worthless companies. Congratulations bond holders, you got robbed. Congratulations union employees, a bunch of you are going to be let go, but hey, your dues have managed to allow your “representatives” to own a stake in these worthless companies as well. I don’t know, is this supposed to be the “feel good” moment?
Forget about helping your fellow American or the economy by buying a Chrysler or a GM car. The temptation will be great when all of the dust settles. It will seem like business as usual, but it won’t be. Business won’t be “as usual” until the US Government is out of the industry. You have to look beyond the little guys where it concerns your next auto purchase. If you believe in capitalism, and further that it has served this country well, then you have to reject GM and Chrysler products. Neither of these companies represents American capitalism. They are now monuments to the Obama dream of a socialist economy in which government is expanded and expanded and expanded. Obama has brought 70,000 people into the government at a median income of $75,000 per year. Was this the hope and change that we were supposed to embrace? Now we can add tens of thousands more to the government payroll under the subheadings of “Chrysler” and “General Motors”. Yeah, a real feel good moment for America and American industry. Give yourselves a pat on the back. Shake your own hand. Job well done.
Posted on May 27th, 2009 by Mark.
Categories: Entertainment.
Showtime has announced that John Lithgow will be joining the cast of “Dexter” in Season 4, portraying a character named Walter Simmons. It seems that Walter Simmons is a serial killer that has managed to evade the FBI for some time and who is called the “Trinity Killer” because he kills in threes. I happen to think Lithgow is at his best when he’s playing either evil or nuts, so hopefully we’ll get a bit of both out of him this season as he matches wits with anti-hero Dex. Season 4 which will be 12 episodes long begins on September 27th.
Check out showtime.com for more Dexter info or to see what others are saying about the latest announcement.
Posted on May 26th, 2009 by Mark.
Categories: Editorials, News.
I don’t even have to go very far on this one. Is Sonia Sotomayor a great jurist? Nope apparently not. From the various reports trickling in from colleagues, it seems that Ms. Sotomayor leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to her abilities. I have serious questions about a woman that intimates on video that courts, “set policy”. Courts are NOT supposed to set policy, they are supposed to interpret the law. Further, it seems that Ms. Sotomayor thinks that her experiences as a latina female make her somehow more qualified to render judgment than say, a white male on matters of race and sex. Really? How so? If a judge is supposed to work within the context of the LAW, what personal experience is it that she wishes to impart where it concerns her application of said law? It seems that the law will be trumped by Ms. Sotomayor’s life experience. Oh how nice for all of us that she is going to bring her bias to the bench.
Congratulations Ms. Sotomayor, not for being a learned scholar of law, but for being female and latina… that seems the most pressing of criterias in Mr. Obama’s selection of you as a Supreme Court Justice. How does it feel to have subjected yourself to years of education and to then find that what qualified you was obtained at your birth? Somebody with a wee bit of self respect might be offended, but hey, you said it yourself, you’re only half the woman your mother is.
Posted on May 26th, 2009 by Mark.
Categories: Editorials, News.
Memo to Barack Obama, Kim Jong-il and Ahmadinejad don’t give a hoot what you think. After detonating a “test” nuke, it was nice to see Mr. Hope and Change come out and condemn it (after following prompts from China and Russia) and followed up by hastily tossing the matter off to the UN. Way to lead Mr. President.
Last week Benjamin Netanyahu paid Washington a visit. Without a doubt he voiced his terrible concerns with regard to Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. After all, Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric hasn’t exactly been reasonable whilst he’s chased down “the bomb”. Barack Obama is the biggest advocate of the two state solution to ever hold the office of President of the United States, and it doesn’t matter a lick. The tiny tyrant is unimpressed. Iran does as it likes, Ahmadinejad continues to make threats and what does Obama tell Netanyahu? He says that he wants progress with Iran on nuclear weapons by the end of the year. I wonder if Barack Obama would be so cavalier if nuclear weapons were being installed in Cuba and Castro was threatening to wipe Florida off of the map. Somehow I’m not convinced that he’d do much of anything to stop it. Hey Mr. Putin, you might want to finish what Khrushchev started.
Who is spearheading the Obama effort on North Korea? Hillary Clinton? No. It seems that the Secretary of State is being relegated to second fiddle while we pass the buck to the UN and to Susan Rice, who by my estimate is a neophyte. Remember this is the woman that said that neither Clinton or Obama were ready for a “3 AM call” during the campaign. Isn’t it nice to know that Ms. Rice is bringing her own brand of naivete to reining in North Korea? Rice isn’t ready for a call, period. Watching her on the morning talk circuit this morning inspired no sense of confidence within me… and today, the missiles continue to fly despite all of the “condemnations”.
This is madness. Nuclear proliferation was poised to become epidemic, unfortunately the election of Barack Obama has made what was going to be a tough job (stopping it/slowing it) impossible. Meanwhile, in Pakistan… the Taliban marches on.
Sooner or later we have to expect this president to commit to a course of action on SOMETHING. Giving away the store and bankrupting tax payers for the next half a century somehow now seems irrelevant in the scope of wondering if this guy is going to twiddle his thumbs on the road to Armaggedon.
Posted on March 6th, 2009 by Mark.
Categories: Uncategorized.
From the music, to the action… it just looks so damn good. It’s about time this beat up old franchise got the epic treatment. I am loving what I am seeing, and if it all holds up for a 2 hour flick, JJ Abrams will be the savior of Trek.
Don’t take my word for it, click and watch!
See? I told you. The thing looks entertaining as all hell.
Posted on March 2nd, 2009 by Mark.
Categories: Just Dumb, Writing.
So here I sit, at my desk. The blinds are drawn shut, behind me incense (Citrus Teakwood, which cultivates in me neither a sense of citrus or teakwood), burns on the mantle in the soap stone burner that Sam gave me for Valentine’s Day. To my right the halogen of my desk lamp shines a warm cone downward onto the keyboard and desktop. It’s light illuminates the ghostly strands of steam that rise up and out of my coffee cup. I have devoured my daily regime of vitamins, even going so far as to double up on the Ginkgo and the Ginseng. Surely the mood will strike me. Surely my eyes will glaze over in a haze of imagined happenings and I will write. I keep my ears tuned to hear the voices but none come. The silence is *insert cliche here* deafening. I put on the Pastor of Panic for a brief instant, but the inane ramblings of Glenn Beck do nothing to stoke the inner writer. Is there one amongst us who is not keenly aware by now that the Messiah is in all actuality, more mediocre?
This weekend was a mixed bag. It was back to the rental house which has been a drain on my sanity. What was avoided is now mission. The work must be done, the deeds completed. It is a mindset that spans the spectrum. I grabbed up the writing with the same vigor as I will all things. I powered through a scene that had me slowed to a crawl. I pressed on in spite of myself, a wonderful, courageous, feat if you’re me. No second guessing (other than about chapter length) and no introspective clap trap… I suppose I shall leave that to this bit of cyber obscurity.
I have bouyed my position in the positive, with all things. Where it concerns the writing, I have turned to comments I have received. Thus far with the exception of one, they have all been good. Constructive criticism was offered where people thought it needed. Not granting a name to the pro/an-tagonist of the the story until the final paragraph of the first chapter seems a common gripe. Usually that gripe carries a caveat, that the character is compelling in spite of it and that he is written with strength. That seems to me to indicate that I have done something right, and if it works regardless why change it? It was an editor that first brought this to my attention, I hadn’t noticed it. He said, “I’m invested in this guy within the first page and I don’t even know his name.” It’s the first draft, this is when you experiment. Could I rearrange the chapters, make the story more linear? Absolutely. For now though I’m doing it the way that works for me, the way in which I would like to read it. For now (in this first draft stage) it’s my story and I’m going to do it my way. I know, typical greedy bastard… I can accept that. And if in the end it doesn’t work, the chapters are easily interchangeable.
Another friend offered, “I was compelled to read it, I was drawn to it.” I took that as complementary, but then the demon spoke, “Car accidents are compelling, people are drawn to those too.” I am quite pleased to say that I stomped the ever living crap out of that demon, and the quote from my friend remains ever accessible in my saved email folder. One more weapon, one more inspiration, one more reason to try.
So, I sit here. The coffee cools, the spirit of the incense drifts high above my head, the vitamins turn my stomach sour, and the Pastor of Panic has taken a long commercial break. My long lament, like the remnants of my inane rituals serves as gentle reminder. “Hey Stupid, it’s time to get to work.”
Today’s goal? Fleshing out Victor Avila… no pun intended.
Posted on November 23rd, 2008 by Mark.
Categories: News, Politics.
Barack Obama is set to unveil his economic team on Monday. At the forefront and heading up the Treasury will be New York Fed president Timothy Geithner. To hear people speak about this guy, is to hear nothing but high praise. Is he the panacea that the economy and our Florida mortgage applicants, so desperately need? Wall Street hunting up any straw on which to hang, seemed to react positively to the news of Geithner’s impending appointment as Treasury Secretary. The market closed up 494 points Friday afternoon supposedly on the news. Will it last? The market seems to have a short memory when it comes to good news. If recent history is any kind of indication, the market will fall back to reality quickly, focusing in on the more pertinent indicators and the glow of Geithner will be a fast passing fad.
Still, the man has an extensive history within government, heading up the New York Fed as well as playing a key role along with Bernanke and Paulson in trying to contain the economic mess. At the very least he will come to the table knowing exactly what’s been going on. Considering he’ll be inheriting Secretary Paulson’s stewardship of $700 billion in bailout funds, it seems fortuitous that he has been so closely involved in the process to date. As president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Geithner is keenly aware of what it is that is occuring on Wall Street and his appointment would signal a very real desire to address the concerns of the market.
One thing is clear, if there is one sector of the country that truly requires “change” it is the economic sector. At the same time, hopefully Geithner will be able to impart to the President elect, the need to reconsider implementing tax hikes in the near future. Wall Street cannot be pleased with the notion that a President Obama would enact tax increases while the country stumbles through this economic bog.
Is Timothy Geithner the answer to the nation’s economic woes? We can only hope so.