So we’re talking about sentencing and punishment today in my Courts/Criminal Procedure class and one of students makes a comment that we should have a return of gladiator battles for punishment. “For whom?” I ask. “Child molesters” he says. So then I ask if he expected them to have slap fights in the ring and then we riffed on child molesters beating each other with large all-day suckers — want some candy? Whack! One of my students made a tickle-fight comment in reference to ex-Rep. Massa… surreal, but fun day in class today. I’m not sure if much was learned today, but a good time was had by all.
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Some things just aren’t right. Chief amongst them: grave-robbing, especially when you’re messing with The Hardest Working Man in Show Biz/Mr. Dynamite/Godfather of Soul/The King of Funk/Mr. Please Please Please Her (apparently at least 12 times). Come on now, people, let the man rest in peace.
True Grit is on at 4:00 PM before this and while I like that film a lot, I don’t think it’s even in the Duke’s Top5 and most of you have probably seen it — so watch it again followed by this film. Peckinpah is in fine form and Scott and McCrea wear their age well here — and there’s even Mariette Hartley for Lars (she’s at least Scandinavian!) and even Warren Oates makes an appearance. This was Scott’s last film in a career starting in the late 1920s and a fitting capstone to a legendary career of Westerns (and even roles in a couple of Fred and Ginger films). Before True Grit is Alvarez Kelly at Noon– also a fine Western followed by Will Penny with Charlton Heston. A couple of interesting films earlier in the day is Mr. Sardonicus (4:15 AM) about a man whose face is frozen in a permanent smile and his “hiring” a doctor to fix him — interesting and creepy. At 8:30 AM is Humphrey Bogart’s final film The Harder They Fall a fine film about boxing, corruption, and the media. It’s an under-appreciated film given Bogey’s legendary work in a host of other films. Prime time has a slate of crime films. At 8:00 PM is White Heat with the Great James Cagney and at midnight is the Fritz Lang directed The Big Heat — a nice vengeance piece with a cop avenging the murder of his wife by gangsters.
For those of you who have bothered to keep up with this post, http://www.threedonia.com/archives/21241 First, I apologize for the poor quality of the original post. Sincerely. I am very busy outside of threedonia lately and do not have time to edit my posts and comments. I hardly have time to think of them. It’s mainly stream of consciousness these days. I’ve been attempting to clarify in the comments, and I’d like to use this post to, hopefully, more clearly make my point. I do think it is important for those of you in your teens, 20’s and 30’s to understand.
NSFW or kids… multiple F-bombs. Rated R for “f*&king awesome.
Conrad Black doesn’t find American exceptionalism to be all that exceptional.
Black’s assertions are rather subjective (he completely leaves out the entire argument of representation in his tax bromide), but lets take him at his word. He dismisses American uniqueness (the melting pot, fighting racism, the war against slavery) and distills it down to historical pinpoints, which may be accurate, but leave out the flavor. America isn’t exceptional because of the historical record, but in spite of it – this is what separates America from your average European former-monarchy. This is a nation of immigrants, founded on democratic and classical liberal beliefs. Not some hodge-podge of inbred royals with the stifling foot across the citizenry’s throat until the guillotines roll out. Black’s column is the equivalent of debasing the entire British Army for Dunkirk. While Black, with his prose in full force, waxes cynical over Franklin’s diplomatic accomplishments, the high cost of health care or overzealous prosecutors, he completely misses the point, and in that instance makes one for us. Being American is obviously something he doesn’t understand. Embedding is disabled on youtube, but check this out, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJQcol7HevI That was a popular music video in the ’80s and I guarantee you none of us here who are old enough to remember it batted an eyelash when we saw it. The culture had very successfully convinced most everyone under the age of ‘40 that Reagan was a bumbling fool. Seriously, watch that video from beginning to end and try to keep track of the cliches; Reagan is a doddering old fool, the military is evil, Reagan will blow up the world, America is imperialistic… My college professors were constantly making crude asides about Reagan and the Republicans in charge and we hardly even thought about it. This isn’t new and it isn’t going away. Again, that doesn’t mean you don’t fight, or you give up, but keep in mind; there is nothing new under the sun. Look at how many things the left has insisted on that history has proven absolutely false; Reagan was an idiot for telling Gorbachev to “tear down this wall,” Bush I was an idiot and we were going to lose the first Gulf War because our tanks and other equipment wouldn’t work in the sand, we were going to run out of oil by 2000, we were going to run out of food by 1980, Bush II stole the election from Al Gore, New York will be under 12 feet of water by 2010 thanks to global warming, we will lose in Iraq, the surge will fail, the stimulus will stem unemployment at 8.5%… Time, and time, and time again the Left is getting things wrong, the big things, and time and time again history is proving them wrong but the noise continues, unabated. Again, don’t give up but do not harbor any silly illusions that there is some magic number of Conservative political leaders we are going to elect that will silence the idiots in the opposition. Don’t harbor any silly illusions that some magical new political party is going to sway the hearts and minds of elites and the MSM and the idiocy will stop. When the first Gulf War started I was very naive about war, weaponry, the middle east, politics… Steve Rattner, the man Barack Obama originally appointed to oversee the auto bailout, needs a bailout of his own.
Who’s laughing now? You will be when you watch this. Bruce Campbell cements is place in cinematic history with this film. If he’d never made another film he’d still be a star. TCM tomorrow night is having a “Mutants” theme in prime time with The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, It Came From Beneath the Sea, The Monster That Challenged the World, and Them!.
Anthony Watts has a nice post today on the Urban Heat Island effect, or “UHI” as it’s known (because we propeller-head types have to use acronyms to keep you commoners off balance). He looks at the temperature records of two cities within close proximity of each other: Ft. Collins and Boulder, both in Colorado. The results of his study are pretty amazing. Over the last forty years Fort Collins has about tripled in size, while Boulder has grown much more slowly. When we turn to the temperature records for the two towns, we see that they are almost indistinguishable between 1930 and 1970. Then in the 70’s, about the time that Ft. Collins starts to grow, a strange thing happens: Ft. Collins gets warmer and warmer and warmer to the point that, today, it records significantly higher temperatures than Boulder. See for yourself, the blue line is Fort Collins temperatures and the red is Boulder.
Continue reading Temperature Risings – Watts Nails It (Again) Former Kansas City Star (and current Sports Illustrated) scribe Joe Posnanski wrote the following column October 7, 2006 — the day after his friend (and frequent subject) Buck O’Neil passed away at 94.
I share it with you today because I shared it with some morons college students this morning and the resulting non-reaction hurt more than it had any business doing. Every group of young people before today’s class of subhuman species had loved learning about Buck and the Negro Leagues. Just because these mental midgets students weren’t impressed doesn’t mean they don’t have hearts or souls. Maybe they just weren’t using them. Anyway. A friend told me long ago that I should share this with 3Ders. Today feels like the day.
My favorite is one of the stories Buck told on Satchel Paige:
Here’s the whole column.
Merlin Olsen, NFL Hall of Fame defensive tackle for the Los Angeles Rams’ Fearsome Foursome, actor in the 1970s on Little House on the Prairie and Father Murphy, and football color commentator with Dick Enberg has died at age 69 of cancer. I liked Olsen a lot… In the 1970s and 80s… watching Enberg/Olsen do AFC games on NBC was a great foil to Madden/Summerall on CBS doing NFC games. I liked both teams equally and for different reasons and his active role in very pro-conservative entertainment in the 1970s is something to appreciate as well. He retired from football before I was old enough to appreciate him, but if Deacon Jones says you could play and were a badass then that’s good enough for me. This and the passing a few weeks ago of Tom Brookshier continues the passing of an era for my generation — a child of 1970s and 80s sports and pop culture. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. Had Paddy been hitting the sauce before he flipped out? Wouldn’t be surprised…
I’m not sure I have words to describe this law or Assemblyman Ortiz for that matter. This is the kind of thing that drove folks to dress like Indians and throw tea into Boston Harbor — it is almost humorous how like 18th century colonial governments modern politicians are. They are the Lords and we are but colonists subject to their whim. When will the Democrats of New York and RINOs wake up? What do chefs think?
“Absurd” — that’s a great word. “Oppressive” is more accurate though. Absurd applies to these chefs who probably vote Democrat every time. Congratulations chefs… in your zeal to control the great unwashed the loons in charge have set their sights on you. Why have this law? It’s all about giving you choice of course: Fitting, the day the United States sets a record for debt in a month ($220 billion, up 14-percent from last year’s already staggering number) we get news from Greece. The Greek government is run by the Socialist party. The Socialist party spent money until it no longer could, resulting in the collapse of its economy and government, and taking down the Euro along with it. This is party why our dollar had a short reprieve in recent weeks and why gas prices aren’t $3-per-gallon yet. With the collapse came the inevitable – Greece had to cut, and cut a lot, something its citizenry isn’t taking in stride.
Economically, the United States is traveling a similar road. An already over-spending government is out of control, not to mention the commercial real estate bomb experts have been predicting for months, that’s before inflation comes into play in the next year or two as the administration runs the printing press full speed. So how does this impact socially? We’re getting a taste. Jim Bunning makes one lone stand against $10 billion, he’s the subject of vilification everywhere, even in the pages of Sports Illustrated, courtesy of an epic broadside by Joe Posnanski, the usually apolitical, award-winning sports writer. Bunning, who wanted to simply re-route unemployment funding to unspent stimulus cash, is now subject to questioning by his ex-baseball teammates. Ohio governor Ted Strickland’s approval numbers were find until he started cutting the budget. The result was angry librarians on Page A1 for weeks on end. The lesson – the media is going to punish anyone that cuts anything from anyone who can garner sympathy. Out of preconceived notions of social justice? Maybe, more likely because it’s easy, it’s sexy, it fits that tried and true “comfort the afflicted” meme that is employed rather subjectively in these times of ours, not to mention reporters love government workers. A question I would love asked – how many private citizens a week does the average reporter interview compared to public employees? The Wall Street Journal notwithstanding. If Republicans win big in 2010, and put enough of a coalition together to cut the government, can they? The Bunning situation is fair warning. If anyone cuts, those at the trough will strike. It will be unions, protests (we already have college kids, armed with $100-a-month cell phones, demanding free medical care and “arresting” lobbyists), seniors mad at Medicare cuts (already have that), not to mention the army of public workers weeping on television all night for the inconvenience of those furloughs from the $80,000 a year jobs.
For the second time our very own Eric Porvaznik will be Tonight’s topics include… Paul Westerburg: queer singer, worst singer, or worst queer singer? Good God, man, if you’re going to insult the best songwriter of a generation, at least spell his name properly. At least you’re in good company as the Heathers set designers also used a “u” instead of an “e.”
This is obviously a new one, but is and will remain a classic. If you missed in theaters, catch it on Sundance tomorrow evening. Christian Bale is his usual great self and the criminally underrated Steve Zahn more than pulls his weight as an American POW at the beginning of the Vietnam War who escapes with Bale trying to make it to freedom. This is based on the true story (though it is Hollywood not history) of Dieter Dengler who was shot down while on a classified bombing mission over Laos and captured. This has all the classic elements of a great story… man, nature, etc. — a great movie and none of the Vietnam sucker punches. Dengler is in fact a patriot who loved America and appreciates what she has done for him. Herzog had made a documentary back in 1997 called Little Dieter Needs to Fly about Dengler and was inspired to make the film. Also on Sundance at 12:45 AM EST is David Lynch’s debut — and vastly weird Eraserhead. Post-apocalypse like you’ve never quite seen it. TCM is continuing its Fred and Ginger trip tomorrow night, but I wanted to tip y’all off to Rescue Dawn. Damn, she just makes her hatred so easy to mock. Miss Nasty-Ass, you wanna go out the window or YOU take the stairs? Today Monica Conyers was sentenced to 37 months in jail for her role in a bribery scandal.
I should not joy over someone’s sorrow.
I am kinda joying over this. h/t blogprof & co. Too often the butt of “The Coreys” jokes — some deserved, some not — still hard to deny Corey Haim’s awesomeness in The Lost Boys (and Lucas, plus this hidden gem). With five films in pre- and post-production this year alone, who knows if a comeback was in the works or not, too. Normally I’d go with a one-song tribute, but since The Lost Boys is one of my favorite soundtracks of all time, a three-fer, and RIP Mr. Haim.
Glenn Beck has never been to my taste, but I’m glad he’s out there. (Pun intended). Beck serves a role. When it comes to challenging the socialist in chief and his economic plans, we need guys like Beck who can drive home the message in an entertaining way that Joe Everyman will digest. What Beck is not is perfect. He’s a flawed human being, just like the rest of us, and that’s OK too. At least it’s OK for me. Not so for the sneering leftists who are obsessed with the man. Former Salon writer Michael Scherer, who now peddles his wares for Time, broke out the extra-acidic vitriol to slam Beck’s interview of ex-New York Congressman/tickle warrior Eric Massa yesterday. By all accounts – including Beck’s – the interview was a disaster and libs are celebrating. For some, one pointless interview means the end of Glenn Beck. Give me a break.
Here’s a snippet of what she said:
Get a load of that last sentence…. let it sink in. Getting power out of her hands is probably more important than getting Obama out of office. He’s ignorant and incompetent. She is substantively stupid, but process savvy. Look at healthcare… it has been a herculean effort on her part to get this turd of a bill this close. The overwhelming outrage of the people seems to be the only thing blunting this attack. We can’t get her out of office… apparently her retarded rich voters like her. But we can get the gavel out of her hands.
It’s better to keep your mouth shut and be thought an idiot than open it and remove all doubt. In today’s example that proves the above statement we have one Tom Hanks courtesy of Time Magazine via John Nolte AKA Dirty Harry Tom talking about his new show on HBO:
Read much, Tom? I’m not even going to discuss why the Japanese attacked us and the reasons we were fighting WWII, none of which had anything to do with the God the Japanese people worshiped, but I will discuss what is happening today…and why we fight. Apparently, Mister Hanks missed it. There are a group of people in this world who don’t care much for you or anyone else like you. They will do whatever it takes to either convert you to their way of thinking or they will kill you. They believe they owe you that death because you are not worthy of living in their world. Your way of thinking and living is evil to them and they will do whatever it takes to stop you. Those are the people we fight. I didn’t make this up. This isn’t the product of some wartime propaganda factory. They will tell you what I just typed in their own words. Google it, Bing it use whatever search engine you like but I guarantee you that if you look for it you will find it. What happened on 9/11 was just the cherry on the top of the Jihad cake. If anyone believes that was some random instance of lunatics run amuck, then they are kidding themselves. I would implore Mister Hanks to go back to his nice house with his nice wife and his nice kids and enjoy the life that is his because he was fortunate enough to grow up in America, and leave the thinking to those who are a little better equipped. DOUCHE. Wow, this sounds really, really bad. From Kyle Smith via ACEof Spades
Annnnnnd GO!
Once again I’d like to state that as a Warrant Officer for over 20 years I’m doubly pissed. While it’s bad enough that we have a movie being presented about a war that is still going on…and the thesis of this movie is that WE made everything up making all of THIS a sham…AND the lead character is a Warrant Officer. On the bright side Matt Damon’s portrayal of Chief Warrant Officer Miller may eclipse Nicolas Cage’s Jake Preston in “Firebirds” as the worst Warrant Officer ever in film history. I guess we will see. That is a lofty goal I know but there is hope especially given Mr. Damon’s track record. Take your pick for a fave, folks, from Billboard’s list of musician mugshots. I’m still stunned Ol’ Blue Eyes was brought in on a charge of adultery and going with Ozzy in a St. Louis Blues jersey, George Clinton running a close second.
Earlier this past weekend a new commenter accused us, here in Threedonia, of being high brow because we poked fun at a enviro-comedy (oxymoronic) film called Furry Vengeance. In fact… SlipperyjackHawkEye (not his real name) wrote:
I think his dudgeon was higher than my brow. Anyhoo… I hate to disappoint so here is a new feature I’m calling Floyd’s high brow moment. Let’s all raise our pinkies in solidarity:
Tomorrow is Fred and Ginger night on TCM (Ginger Rogers is Star of the Month)… the usual favorites are there… The Gay Divorcee, followed by Top Hat, and Swing Time. I’m recommending this one if you’ve already seen those fun and great films. Why? Why Irene Dunne and a young Randolph Scott of course. Ginger was third on the bill at this early stage, but is was well on her way to the top by now. Fred, Ginger, music, and dancing… what’s not to enjoy? Ban fishing? Obama is the one who is a barbarian… Here are some cultural offering for him: I’d include Moby Dick, but of course that was whaling. The person who does not appreciate hunting and fishing does not fully appreciate God’s creation.
In an effort to further alienate every human being west of the Hudson, the Obama administration has cut off public input from a new federal strategy concerning recreational fishing. From that deranged right-wing outlet known as ESPN:
It gets better.
Obama seems desperate to create or recreate every mistake Clinton made during his first two years. The healthcare overreach, the general apathy toward public response, raising taxes – and finally – taking aim at sportsmen, be it shooters or anglers. What’s next? Where’s Dick Morris? What strikes me is the utter hypocrisy. You will find no better environmentalist than an educated hunter or fisherman. Most of the habitat, wetlands, forest and fishing areas that have been preserved have been through the efforts of sportsmen, not organizations like the World Wildlife Fund, an almost Python-esque parody of a “concerned” NGO. Successful environmental management works because sportsmen work on the local level, not because of over-reaching government regulation. While the economic impact is felt in places like Ontario, it will be felt on the wildlife population as well through the lack of management. The same will happen in the U.S. from the so-called denizens of the Earth. Fourteen months in, Obama’s best effort has been to replicate Bush’s existing policy militarily, otherwise everything has been an exercise in alienating as many moderates and non-beltway type as possible. If the administration was some Rove-ian plot, it wouldn’t act any differently. As a post mortem on the Eric Massa brouhaha… I like the way Althouse summed it up:
If avoiding gov’t run health insurance schemes is so fundamental to our liberty can’t a 20-year navy veteran handle the heat of this relative tempest in a teapot. We all know he wasn’t seriously propositioning his “young male staffer”, but he completely allowed himself to be buffaloed by a naked Rahm Emanuel. Rock on Ann… man up or shut up indeed. Nimble, silent, cunning. These are but a few of the words that don’t come to mind while watching this cat burglar ply his trade. Here’s the new trailer |
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