Saturday, November 28, 2009

Two Questions, Movie Reviews

It seems like I get the same two questions about our current President of the United States on a very frequent basis. The first question is what are we going to do about what the president is doing to our nation, and the second is, why are people following him when they have always been the direct opposite of him in political, business, and religious philosophy? My answer to the first question is a real simple one, go to the polls in the next election and vote him out of office. That is what we do in a democracy and why our form of government has lived on for so many years. Now to vote him out of office the voters must do the same thing he did, organize the campaign to raise huge sums of money (he raised $745M) and then make sure to go to the polls and vote. President O also did the other smart thing in that he was recognized as a Black- American, not a Half White American, so then he could appeal to the Black-American population of around 60 million people which he did and they voted for him and sealed his victory. Since coming to this realization I have also studied how this might be accomplished in the next election by whoever his opponent might be and I have come up with the solution. There needs to be a drive to combat the above mentioned 60 M voter base and that can be done by going directly to the senior citizens(meaning all over 65) which numbers around 51 million now. If you go ahead and take in the over 60 population you would probably gather the remaining votes. So what will happen is the opponent will have to gather these folks up into a hard charging group and then they will offset his power base of voters. For the opponent to really make his case he/she will make it a campaign theme that for the first time in 35 years social security payments will not be given a cost of living increase in 2010, so that will be blamed on President O (even though it is not his fault, but who will believe that if you really do the proper presentation, meaning you have to lie a little which is fair in all elections). Now that will insure that the voter base will be enough to win the election and we have our new president. Otherwise let’s get ready for another four years after this and then who knows what will happen. It is possible that President O will have the legislation passed that will have unlimited terms, so he could be in for 20 years or till he dies. Hopefully the congress would not let that get by the American public. On the second question my answer is also quite simple. After living through 8 years of a really bad presidency of the W. man much of our population was mesmerized by the smooth talking new president and believed everything he said. They were ready for a change after the 8 years and believed he could change everything he said he could. Also, they listened to his first 90 days of speeches where he spent more time talking about how bad off the country was and how he was going to fix it that they really believed it. Now we are deeper in debt, unemployment is the highest in history and instead of getting out of Iraq as promised; we are now building up in Afghanistan. It reminds me of when I use to try to quit smoking (yes I did that nasty habit over 45 years ago). I would buy me some cigars, and a pipe hoping to cut out cigarettes. But what I would do is smoke all three of them. My own question on the Afghan thing is, what do we have after we win? Hope this clears up the many inquiries on the subject.

Movie Reviews: “This Is It”-This review will be handled in a little different way than most. While I will have 1-5 stars in the rating it will be based on you choosing your star determined by where you fit in the rating as presented. This movie is really not a movie but is filming of the rehearsals of the Michael Jackson movie, by the same name. It was not finished because of his death; however, they decided to organize the rehearsals and show it to the public. Again, making money off of him after his death but on the other hand showing some sides to him that may have been a surprise to some. Here goes: * it would be rated one star if you totally hated Michael Jackson, have no tolerance for him or his music and believed he was the biggest pervert that ever lived, ** it would be rated with two stars if the first star assumptions were how you use to feel but you might watch the rehearsal movie if it was free with fresh popcorn. ***, the three star rating is for the people who didn’t like Michael Jackson, didn’t care for his music, got a discount to see the movie, and bought your own popcorn, but came out of the movie with a greater appreciation of his music and what he did for Pop Music and how he appreciated, mentored and taught the younger people in this movie. ****, the four star rating is for those that loved his music, thought he was kind of weird but not a molester, or cared if he dyed himself white, loved to watch him dance, and believed he was the King of pop music. *****, the five star is for the fan that loved everything thing and every moment that Michael Jackson spent on this earth. This fan holds nothing back on how they feel and knows for sure that he was not weird, not a pervert, not a molester, and was without a doubt the King of Pop Music. NOTE: Please place me in the three star *** category.

“Men Who Stare At Goats”, *, A really bad movie and the one star comes only because of the good actors and fresh popcorn at discount prices. It is supposed to be a black comedy, I think, but comes off as boring, stupid, and a waste of time. Set in Iraq the movie centers on a reporter who thinks he’s stumbled on a huge story when he meets Lyn Cassady (George Clooney). The latter claims to be a former US psychic soldier who has been reactivated. Jeff Bridges co-stars as the founder of the psychic soldier program. This movie never makes sense. Rated R for language, some drug content and brief nudity.

“The Twilight Saga: New Moon”, ***, While I am not a vampire type movie fan I went out of curiosity. Well now I know, but I don’t really know why people like this. It has been stated that the biting of the vampire is somewhat sexual, so be it. This is a sequel and is a love story between a human teenager in high school with a vampire, also a high school student. These vampires are different since the whole town knows that they are blood suckers but they only suck animal blood, not human. So this makes it alright in the community. It is very good acting and lots of drama. The human girl is madly in love with the vampire but he wants to protect her so moves away. She goes through strange moods and wants him back. She also makes friends with a very well stacked guy who turns out to be a werewolf. The closing scene calls for a sequel, for sure. Rated PG-13 for some violence and action.

“2012”, **, this movie is another attempt of the end of the world theme. The two stars come from the visual effects, since it is way too long (2 hrs 50 minutes), very monotonous, the love story was very corny, and it just drug on and on. Rated PG-13 for intense disaster sequences and some language.

Rats!!! I need a good movie, so will go see “Blind Side” sometime this weekend.

greerman

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Birds and the Bees, On? or Off?, President O, Movie Reviews-not

The birds and bees expression has been around since the beginning of time, as far as I know. I am guessing that it really became a point of conversation after Adam, in all his naked glory, took that infamous bite of the forbidden fruit. While he was crunching on the juicy delicious shiny red apple he looked down South and discovered the tools of the trade that would soon get him in deep trouble. Along these same lines I suppose he came up with that quaint little expression, while conversing with Eve about reproduction and other sexual topics, “the birds and the bees.” While I have only been on this earth a relatively short time compared to the overall big picture of the creation, etc., I have always heard this express when it comes to discussing sex and other related subjects. For the life of me I do understand the bee’s role in this drama, but I am not sure what the birds have to do with it. I would think the expression “rabbits and bees” would better describe reproduction than “birds and bees.” The male rabbit is well known for his abundance of testosterone and the female rabbit is equally proud of her ability to conceive and produce many off spring. But before I go on the crusade to change this expression I want to convey my recent experience with a bee and how he showed me how it got the reputation of a re-producer. I was laying out in the backyard gathering up some unusual November sun and was drinking a coke out of a can. As I sat up and put the can between my legs, this bee approached me. I sat there very calm and watched it do its little bee thing of going around in rapid circles, moving its’ wings at a 100 rpm’s, and sighting on the best possible place he could land to start gathering this sweet sugar, then taking it home to the hive to reproduce and make a little honey. It was interesting to watch the bee make the circle, then make the approach and then the landing. As he started nuzzling the coke at the top of the can he decided to go inside the can. When he went down inside he must have gotten a real strong taste of sugar and caffeine, since he was a tad bit wobbly and had a little trouble initiating the flight off of the can. Again I just sat there with patience and no fear that he would sting me. He then started flying again, made a couple of passes and then made another landing. He looked at me like, hey dude this is good stuff and I want a little more. He then went back inside the can, guzzled some more coke, came back out and then flew off to the mother land. Now I understand the “birds and the bees” expression a little better, but I still believe the rabbit has a place in this story.

In this modern world of electronics I sometimes get very frustrated and wonder what happened to some of the really simple words that were used to help you operate these gadgets. To best illustrate my point I think that the most important thing you need to know is where the “off” and “on” buttons are on things that are powered by whatever means. But I have noticed that these two words are used less and less each time something is manufactured. When I go to turn the television on I want to just look for the on button and simply turn it on. But now we have three different hand held control gadgets that do not have on or off on either of them. They have words like, power(probably on, but a guess), select(that is if you get it turned on), recall(recall what if you can’t turn it on), play, stop(stop what, if I can’t get the damn thing on), mute, search, pause, and browse.(Again all of this is moot if you can’t turn it on). Then there is the computer, no off and on anywhere, but you do have enter, shift, backspace, num lock, control, tab, home, caps lock, end, page up, page down, etc., but no off and on. I have discovered a black button on the main face of the computer box that does allow me to shut this thing off if I get really frustrated. The other day it just froze, so I defrosted it by hitting this button that didn’t say “off.” Fact is, it doesn’t say anything. Then there are cell phones that have talk, end, back, text, next, space, but no “off and on.” We have a couple of those little electric heaters for the exercise room and they do not have “off and on” buttons. But they do have, mode, osc, timer so I just start hitting buttons until something happens that I like and be done with it. After searching all over the house for something with “off and on” on it I finally found it with my alarm clock. Believe it or not it was off, on, buzzer, alarm, dream bar, snooze and sleep. So, there is hope that maybe these two words will return to power objects and mankind will not have to be left guessing.

This morning someone sent me a very disturbing You Tube presentation of President Obama proclaiming that he is a Muslim and that the United States is not a Christian nation. He proclaimed the goodness of Islam and covered in detail all the great things the Muslims have done for the United States. He even did something that no American president has ever done (including the oil loving W.man); he bowed to a Muslim hierarchy. Now I don’t know where all of these things come from but I do know I have never seen as much stuff written about a president as there has been about his one. I even got one e-mail that had he and Mrs. Big O going to a costume party with him in a Joker costume and she in a very revealing (at least D cups) costume with the belly button showing. When I am ask, what are we going to do about this president? My only response is—get your butt off of the couch at election time and vote him out of office. That is how we do things in this democracy and he became a master at raising money for the election (a record $745 million) and THEN getting the people to vote for him on Election Day. They jus t didn’t raise money for him; they also went out and voted for him. My thinking is that if all of the Seniors(over 65) in the country(approximately 51 million from what I can gather) went out and voted in the next election for the opposition candidate against President O, then there would be a chance for him to be defeated. Since 95% of the black voters in the country voted for him the senior population, with the same turn out, could get the job. Come on Seniors, let’s get out there and get it done.

Movie Reviews-not: No time for movies lately, but on the radar for future viewing, “Men Who Stare at Goats”, “Amelia”, “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” (not a fan of his, but our local guy gave it 5 stars, got to check it out), “Zombieland”, “The Fourth Kind”, There are some real weird movies on and from what I can gather the most weird and disturbing is “Paranormal Activity.” Big warning signs are up on this one as being very disturbing.

greerman

Sunday, November 01, 2009

Service, Bueaucrats-Payoff time, Movie Review

Who said service is dead in this country? This week I traveled to San Antonio to do some marketing work for Athletes Honey Milk (try it, you will like it) and experienced some great service. I will admit I had gotten tired of the usual rental car stuff where they throw the keys at you and move on to the next customer, then the hotel makes you feel like you are an alien and you are lucky if the plastic key works. Well I was shocked when I got off of the plane picked up my bag and strolled up to the rental car company to a smiling face and a big welcome. Then the shuttle driver was very nice and helpful with putting my bag on the bus. When arriving at the area to pick up my car there was a person waiting for me to get off the bus and she walked me to my car and made sure it was what I wanted and that it was in good order. Usually you have to find the space that is on your rental agreement and then you have to wander around the parking lot to find it, especially if they want to get tricky with their numbering since it never just goes, 1, 2, 3, etc., and always has some kind of lettering to go with the numbering and they never make sense. In other words, no common sense logic. But with my rental the young lady just walked me to my space and I had no worries, and she gave me a fresh bottle of water to boot. Needless to say my impression was good and I looked forward to the day (this has to be what it feels like to be president I think to myself). Later I checked into the hotel and the service, bright smile and what can I do for you just got better. They gave me a much discounted rate in a first class room with major discounts on everything. It just can’t get any better than this I am thinking to myself, and then it does. We go out to eat to a very first class restaurant and the service is beyond reproach and the food matches it. The next day I scoot around the city and take care of business and decide to return to Ransom Canyon a day early. Now if I am flying American Airlines I know that to do this is like changing the original Ten Commandments, or bluntly speaking it takes an act of God to change a ticket and more money than the original ticket cost. But I was flying Southwest and compared to American it is like eating juicy rib eye steak to raw crawdads, it just doesn’t compare. As I suspected the exchange was done very easily, with no extra charge and I was on my way home a day early. When I entered the Enterprise parking lot I was greeted by two gentlemen who were very attentive and very inquisitive to how my day was going. I assured them that it was going great guns and their service was beyond reproach. Since tourist cities have a tendency to really not be too service oriented I am really impressed with San Antonio. I have traveled there many times and I don’t think it was ever this good. So, go to the Alamo city and see what you think, just don’t go swimming in the river walk.

When traveling I always read the USA Today newspaper and I noticed a glaring article on page one about our president, yes that President of the United States, the Big . It is titled, “Top Obama Fundraisers get Posts.” Turns out that 40%(20 of 47) of President Obama’s top-level fundraisers have secured posts in his administration, from key executive branch jobs to diplomatic postings in countries such as France, Spain and the Bahamas. That doesn’t surprise me, why would they want to go to Iraq, Afghanistan, or say maybe a little outing in Pakistan to picnic with Bin Laden? So, they get the top spots based on the money they raised for him to get elected. Thought this was a volunteer thing? Now you wonder, well are they getting paid anything to do this or would they donate their time to our great country. Guess you thought I had been eating rotten chocolates to even suggest such a thing since their salaries will range from $152,000-162,000. Normally these salaries are determined by seniority on the job, so I wonder, how are these salaries determined? Forgot to mention that to get this kind of plush assignment you will have had to raise at least $500,000 for his campaign. He also has appointed 54 volunteers to his campaign staff to other government positions. Who says bureaucrats don’t have it made? While I realize the Big O has never been in business, has never had to make or meet a payroll and has always lived off of the government(local, state, and national) cash register he really doesn’t care how much debt is rung up since he just knows that the government will take care of it. I hope that all of these people enjoy their gift, while the country goes to hell in a hand basket the bueaucrats just keep on taking and the free enterprise system keeps providing. And that is all I am going to say about that.

Movie Review: “Couples Retreat”, **, this movie is based on an idea by co-star Vince Vaughn, a good actor and sometimes funny. It revolved around four couples who all have been married at least 10 years or more, with one couple deciding they are going to get divorced. But before they do this they want to try one last remedy for what ails their marriage. They talk the other 3 into going with the understanding that they do not have to do any of the marriage repair stuff. When they get there they find that they all must go through the therapy. That is when the movie gets nearly good. Vince Vaughn is the only actor I recognized. Go see at discount or wait for DVD. Rated PG-13 for sexual content and language.

greerman