A little French on the Side

I got into an argument today with a neighbor who is in some respects a mentally defected. “Boycott those French Frog eaters.” he says. When I told him that I was considering raising the old French flag out of the basement he became belligerent. “They saved your asses in the revolutionary war.” I say.

I should point out that it wasn’t until the past couple of months that he came admit that going into Iraq was probably not the best option at the time, since then he admits that he wishes that he didn’t vote for George Bush. Yet still in spite of all this he still proclaims that France pushes people around and they’re all out to control the world, like when a child has a tangent until he or she gets what they want. “And all those fat French bastards what to tell us what to eat.”

America is a country that is obese, morbidly obese. The French have their eating habit together. Its all about portion size. The French ideal meal size is much smaller compared to ours. And it should be pointed out that American has a deserts fetish, so do I. In fact most eastern county’s do not serve any kind of desert at the main dinner table and its not because of a lack of money. It just that many coulters see that as being wasteful. American, we are fat and getting fatter. In fact a national recognized health organization decided that their models of that average American was not helping moral. So what do they do? They add on 57.2 pounds, you know that give the working class the idea their not freaks so they can go back to work and not be ashamed.

I tell you, I would never want to live in France. Their health standards are a lot lower, their water is polluted beyond repair and lets face it; its not America. But at least they have low-carb Crescents.

You are what you wear

I saw a news story today that reports that Abercrombie & Fitch Co. are pulling some designs off of their teen fashion line. Due to the fact that some of their shirts have a sexual overtone, like "Who needs brains when you have these?" and "I had a nightmare I was a brunette."

It has always been a personal principle of mine not to ware logo-ed clothes. I hate logo’s and dumb-ass statements on my clothes. If you are a larger person then you know that this concept is pushed on you without remorse. Any big and tall section is full of shirts with names like Big Daddy, Public shield and Professional Bystander.

What these brands are saying is that your lifestyle is not ok, but great and that your lazy and that’s ok too. No thanks, just a plan white t-shirt for me

They’re Still Pissed

Today it was evident that there are still western world countries that hold anti-American sentiment. Today in Mar Del Plata, Argentina. Thousands of protesters took to the street in anger of many things, among them, the nature of the United States and it’s policy’s. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez added fuel to the fire when he told the crowd to “bury the summit.”
There is a lot of chatter that the democratically elected Venezuelan president has been becoming more and more paranoid since the call for his assignation by Pat Robertson.

It’s really crazy to think that there are still people in America, fully grown natural born citizens that don’t understand that there are people, non-government official’s that hate us. And please don’t misconstrue what I’m saying to be Anti-American, I’m anything but. I love this country, it’s may home. But from time to time including right now I’m embarrassed by it’s leaders and policy’s. I don’t like what I see on T.V. I hate to see the American flag burned on foreign lands.

American is not what it used to be, lets face it. But we can change that if we only remember the future and forget the past.

Who Broke Libby’s Foot?

I just cant help to wonder just how the hell Scooter Libby broke his foot, it looks painful. Did someone break his foot, did Karl break his foot? Might have it been self inflicted? Libby doesn’t look like the kind of guy that participates in outdoor activity or even gets out of the office. In fact he looks a rather pasty, you need to eat a steak Scooter. You look scared. Do yourself and all of us a favor, call the authorities, quickly! Tell your story.

Michael Brown: Beyond Dropping the Ball

I cant believe it, and sadly I mean that in a sense that I do believe it, only that I’m freaked out beyond belief. Michael Brown, FEMA’s resigned director has another reason for the people of Mississippi and Louisiana to hate him.

TheSmoakingGun.com is reporting papers that show Mike Brown’s total incompetence of the job. In emails sent by Mike Brown while he was on the ground, he types “If you look at my lovely FEMA attire you’ll really vomit. I’m a fashion god.” “I’m trapped now, please rescue me.”
And he is given advice to “roll up his sleeves.” for the camera, to make him look “hard working.”
This is sick. I think it’s time we look very hard at all of this administration’s appointments.

Intelligent Design is too Complicated

I cant help it. I’m a child of the modern media, and I’m also a avid reader of science lititure. So It makes me feel sad for teaches of real science when I read about what has been happening at the Dover area school system. I have read both sides of the argument of Evolution and Intelligent design. And while I have my own views on the subject it has accrued to me that the real debate here is not wither (ID) Intelligent Design should be taught alongside evolution. It’s wither or not it’s correct.

Because when it gets right down to it, (ID) taught alongside evolution is no way to teach. And I know what your probably thinking, cant they both be right? Sorry no they cant. If we use the scientific theory, which sadly many Christian fundamentalists have never even heard of. It would show that in any working universe that things work one way and not the other.

There is not one other subject in any high school in America that teaches in that manner. Imagine a math teacher telling his class that 2+1=3 but it might also be able to equal five. A better way to formulate this is that almost seventy percent of Americans in a recent poll believe that J.F.K was killed either by conspirers or either Lee Harvey Oswald had help from other sources. that’s almost seventy percent of America. Yet there is no history of this fact in any text book. Anywhere. On the other hand roughly fifteen percent of the American public believe in the theory of evolution. True facts are not black and sometimes white.

I love both the Bible and Charles Darwin’s Origin of the species; that’s why I have an original 1864 copy sitting on my book shelf next to the Bible. Fundamentalist ignorance solves nothing. Intelligent design simply says that life is too complicated to be explained, and for the most points no facts to back it up.

To a child; boiling water, the starting of a car, and lightning are simply magic. When that child grows into a adult and still doesn’t understand their concepts is he not better off calling all of them a gift from God?

Its 4:20 in Denver

Good news for recreational drug users in Denver. The city council there just passed a new ordinance decriminalizing the possession of Marijuana. Now if you get pulled over by the local police and you have an ounce of pot or less, you will not be prosecuted on the local level. Not even a slap on the wrist.

In a world of loose nuclear stockpiles and the administration’s lollypop color system we need to free up local authorities to manage things that actually matter. Todd with the dime bag in his pocket is no longer a priority anymore.

The Art of Local Politics: One Year Later

Today is November 2nd One year later after Boy George was elected. Today in my small Iowa town gathered three dozen people who banded together to let the rest of the townspeople or at least the ones driving by the slow paced street that we are still pissed off about George Bush and the occupation of Iraq.

The setting was the veterans monument, which lies in Bayless park, a place already set in controversy. The townspeople raised 1.5 million dollars to renovate park fountain, instead of raising money for the homeless or the treatment growing population of meth addicts.



The last peace rally I went to last year was filled with crusty old women with tree branches glued to their skull, To ensemble the antlers of caribou in the virgin Alaska tundra. This year they skipped the costumes. For the most part “Bush Wanted” leaflets, stickers and the usual suspects were king. Although I support the effort, the leaflets are counter productive for the party and the voting public.

“The right of the people to petition the government for a redress of grievances”

It was local politics at it’s finest. And with true local politics the subject of local politics never comes up. I was impressed with the up and comer Robert (Bob) Chambers. He speaks with a passion that nears the line of anger.

Bob Chambers

There is a veterans memorial in the park which lists the names of all the men from the town who have died in every American war since the town‘s founding. Soon they will have to put up another plaque, it’s only a matter of how many names will be on it.

Bushworld, Enter at your own Risk

New York Magazine

There’s blood in the water Maureen and you don’t care. You crashed the boys club and you don’t care who’s watching, you say what you mean and mean what you say. How do you do it Maureen? If anything can be said it’s that she has a steely eyed wit that doesn’t take any prisoners. She like Ann Coulter in the way that the other side finds her attractive but only in a view master concept. In a way that I argue, its not porn, its art. Ann Coulter has her legs, Yes. But Maureen Dowd has talent.



Amazon.com Bushworld

Her new book Bushworld: Enter at your own risk. Is a rehash of her best New York Times columns on the Bush franchise from 1992 to present. Rehashed yes, but damn if it’s not still sharp. It’s more then a manifesto, it’s a dairy of the madness of King George.

Tom Delay Exhales

Well it looks like today we have another instance in which we can use that Orwell quote; All Animals are equal. Today Tom Delay (Smiley) got his democratic judge thrown out. Because the Judge, Bob Perkins
made donations to Democratic causes including one to the 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry. How he was able to pull that one out of his ass, we may never know. This is abuse of justice at its core. I thought Americans were beyond this, the McCarthy era is dead. I thought it doesn’t matter if you’re a democrat or republican, extremist or fascists. Obviously it still matters.

Halloween’s Forgotten Hero: Rod Serling

It doesn’t matter wither or not you grew up in an era without the Twilight Zone. There’s still a good chance you can identify immediately that tune. I’m talking about the sound that brought millions of baby boomers afternoons of enjoyment and somtimes a major freakout.

But the question I ask, is there still good Science Fiction on TV? Or has that time come and gone? Rod Serling brought thought and from to a new developing art, the TV medium.

When the Twilight Zone went on the air in the 1950’s, America was not used to ideas that maybe we all could be wrong and maybe the good guy can really turn out to be a real rotten person.

Has America lost it’s interest in good un-adulterated Sci-fi?
There is no doubt that we have Sci-fi and in fact a lot of it is really good. But is it to predictable? Are the cast of characters still going to make it to the end for the 200th episode in a row? Will the spaceship make it across the wormhole while loosing all of it’s tails?

Lots of the Science Fiction my merely hold a shock value rather then substance. Goulash monsters and aliens still fill the screen but the big revile is missing. What ever happened to the big “Oh Wow!” modern culture has made it hard to watch good movies. While today most of the baby boomers, my self included want instant gratification.


We want the big bad thing shown to us up front. However there are people standing in the way of this new trend. Like writer and director M. Night Shamalan. who can still pull of the big “Wow!” at the end while still keeping the picture solid and entertaining. Pictures need more big relations. We need controversial movies and TV shows. Or have we just bowed to our corporate masters who just want a picture with a star and can be out by Christmas?

That’s why I think we really need to look back at the masters. Like that of Rod Serling who unlike many of today’s writers was not afraid to stand up and make a mistake. Write something that challenges the system on what they hold to be truth.

Sunday Night Movie Review: Breakfast with Hunter

To start off the Sunday movie review this week, I review not so much a movie but a documentary about by many accounts one of America’s prolific journalists; Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. It’s been less then a year since Thompson’s death back in February; this film is proof that without a doubt the sprit of Gonzo lives on.

Breakfast with Hunter is a documentary that was filmed over recent years, however it’s much more then a collaborative group a clips. Wayne Ewing a friend of Thompson’s and a director of political and human interest documentaries was able to edit this film in such a way to bring to the screen the strangeness and yet at the same time the real Hunter S. Thompson. As he shows Thompson is much more then an old writer that plays with guns, bombs and experiments with drugs. Although that is also a part of Thompson, there is also the Thompson that is a father and a champion for personal freedoms from government ternary.

As much as Thompson is known for his dislike of the current administration and his general view of the republican party this film portrays the moderate Thompson when it comes to his choice in personal affaires, as he is seen at his home with conservative writer P.J. O'Rourke. You can also see the two in extended material in the DVD bonus selection where there is no shortage of footage. Although some of the extra footage is short, it covers everything thing from the definition on Gonzo, the history of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to the editing of The Rum Dairy.

Also in the main DVD are scenes with Hollywood actors Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro and John Cusack. The film goes into some detail with Depp as he learns how to act like Thompson from the man himself to the set of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

A lot can be said about one of the most famous American counter culture hero’s and by no means does this even begin to peer into the life of Hunter S. Thompson. But if this film shows anything, it’s that we are once again heading for the high watermark that Thompson wrote about not so long ago.

I recommend this DVD as a buy.