Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Dumb Stuff

US Rep Steve Asutria (R-OH) believes that the Obama stimulus package will have a negative effect on the US economy. Said Asturia: "When President Franklin Roosevelt did this, he put our country in a Great Depression." The depression began with the stock-market crash of 1929 and Roosevelt took office in 1933.

John McCain announced that he is planning to run for another term as US senator and the current economic crisis is the clincher. McCain will run as an obstructionist, having already voted against the Obama stimulus package, which, he said will saddle our "children and grandchildren with a staggering debt." Unlike the shenanigans of  the past eight years.

The treasury department announces a new stimulus package and the Dow falls like a rock.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) attacked President Obama for not being bipartisan and a bad leader and threatened to further obstruct bills that might come up as the administration attempts to dig out of the mess caused by the GOP.

The Mattel Company on February 5 unveiled a new Barbi doll depicting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

President for less than a month, Obama's approval rating has dropped by 10 points since the first week of February.

Ann Coulter is being investigated for vote fraud--again. In her new book Coulter says that unwed mothers are a bigger threat to the United States than smoking.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Semantics

Bristol Palin and Levi Johnson quit school so that they could shoulder the responsibilities of teen parents. He's someplace "up north" doing an apprenticeship as an electrician and she's just given birth to their first child. They are not high school drop outs and she is not an unwed mother. According to her mom, Sarah Palin, they are working their butts off to become self sufficient, high school educated parents. Unwed teen parents who drop out of high school are the children of somebody else. Yep, they are working, or will be, working to obtain a correspondence GED, just like the many thousands of kids who drop out of high school every year. But in Sarah Palin speak they did not drop out of school, although they no longer attend, she Bristol is not an unwed mother just an engaged girl with a baby. It's a matter of semantics.

According to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, he is a "casualty of the war on terror." Mr. Gonzales is writing a book about his experiences as Attorney General even though he remains under investigation for alleged political meddling at the Justice Department.  Unlike other members of the Bush Administration, Gonzales has been unable to land either a job or lucrative speaking engagements. Could be that most people know the difference between mild physical discomfort and physical torture that causes excruciating pain and death. Maybe people don't put much store in the musing of a man whose final act as Attorney General was to lie about his intention to resign after he had already informed President Book of his intention to resign. Is he a lying weasel looking for an opportunity to explain away some of his less stellar moments or is he a victim of the wild out-of-control liberal press? It's a matter of semantics.

Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh is advising his listeners that the current economic crisis was not the end result of Reaganomics, but a conspiracy masterminded by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). It's not that George Bush was a bad president, but that he was a victim of bad luck. It's not that appointments were made to repay party operatives for their loyalty, as opposed to finding the right person with the appropriate qualifications to full the job, but that unexpected events derailed what should have been a terrific eight years.

It's all in how you look at things. 

We've been told that it is a very dangerous thing to have one party in charge of all three branches of government--and now we have the past eight years to stand of an example of just how bad it can get. I have no idea what the next four years will bring, but can it be any worse than the reign of Kid Bush and the GOP gang? His response to the crisis on the Gaza Strip? Let Obama handle it.

I read in the Washington Times that some RNC officials what to pass a resolution accusing Bush of embracing socialism.  I'm not sure when the bail out became what it was, socialism for the wealthy, but I am sure  they are simply preparing their response to any all all of Obama's proposed, imagined, or feared public initiatives. The RNC has never come to terms with Social Security. Again, its a matter of semantics.

And finally, just to be on the safe side, Bush has written a memo specifically suggesting how those who toiled in the White House lo these past eight years should remember him. Some would say he is attempting to revise history, others claim he is just being helpful.

It's simply a matter of semantics.


Tuesday, December 30, 2008

...and a happy new year

Christmas week was wildly insane, finding me in the car every day and exhausted at the end. It was fine, I could have been a better person, but I wasn't. Anyway, it has been a hellish year, who knows what fresh hell 2009 has in store?

Friday, December 19, 2008

Perfect movie moment

The Bishop's Wife is one of my favorite movies. It's a romantic comedy that was released in 1947 with David Niven as the harassed bishop, Loretta Young as his unhappy wife, and Cary Grant as a very suave angel. Originally, Niven was the angel, but after some casting problems, Cary Grant agreed to appear in the movie on condition that he could be the angel--which leads to the perfect movie moment. All three are in the back of a taxi, Niven seething with jealous rage as Grant seems to be wooing (and winning) Young. There's this great moment when the two men indulge in some low key, subtle, verbal fisticuffs which is perfect, for what is not said, and what is said with only a look.

Movie making at its best.

Dana Young was originally cast as the bishop, which would have made for a less enjoyable film.

The movie has since been remade (what isn't these days) as The Preacher's Wife with Denzel Washington as the angel, Whitney Houston as the wife, and Courtney B. vance as the preacher. It's not as good, although the soundtrack (song by Houston) was  nominated for an Academy Award. They kept the skating scene, but, well, it's pallid. There are no perfect moments in The Preacher's Wife.

Which makes me wonder why perfectly good movies are remade and perfectly awful ones are not. I guess turning a pigs ear into a silk purse is more difficult than putting lipstick on a pig.