Archive for December 11th, 2009
Do you have any interest in seeing the eco-preaching, anti-capitalist movie Avatar?
Here’s one of those things that’s a major head-scratcher for us: James Cameron’s movie Avatar, which he spent half a billion dollars on.
We think this looks like the biggest steaming pile of cinematic fill-in-the-excrement-slang of your choice since Battlefield Earth. But, for years, movie review sites we follow have been raving about this, anticipating it more than the Star Wars Prequels, before any of us knew how bad those were going to be.
We remember, clearly, back to 1997 or so when an Entertainment Weekly arrived (back when we still read that rag) and had a big feature about what a disaster Cameron’s disaster epic, Titanic, was going to be. It complained about all the money Cameron sank into a giant water tank in Mexico, essentially building a new production center there for water-based films, and everything he was “wasting” on computer effects. We read that article and thought, “Wow, the writers of this are so intensely stupid. That Titanic movie is going to be big. We’ll probably see if a few times in theaters ourselves.” And, you know what, the day it opened we actually saw it, left the theater, and got right back in line to buy another ticket, we loved it so much.
It remains one of only a handful of movies we’ll watch again and again and again (in interest of full cinematic disclosure, the others are, in no particular order, Death Becomes Her, The Contender, Mannequin, Easy Money, Back to School, Beaches, Terms of Endearment, An Officer and a Gentleman, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off).
Now, in recent years we’ve backed away from most of our interest in movies, TV, and music. It all just seems so silly and pointless these days, and we don’t make it down to the movie theaters very often. But, we just can’t imagine people will be beating down theater doors to see Avatar.
This whole project reminds us of stupid things we sink too much money into, never realizing it’s time to pull the plug, never understanding it’s going to be a disaster. It’s like when we try to bake a really fancy cake, from scratch, and all the layers just start coming apart, we’re screwing around with fondant having no idea what we’re doing, and the kitchen’s just a mess not even halfway into the process. But, we’re so in the moment and operating with blinders on, we put the thing in the oven anyway hoping for the best, deluding ourselves into believing it will be the hit of the party.
Never a good idea.
Avatar also reminds us of Dubai: all that money spent indulging architectural fantasies, with the MSM cheerleading it all…and now, BAM!, Dubai goes bust.
Everything we’ve seen about Avatar makes it look ridiculous: like watching Smurfs running around in the jungle, only without the catchy La-la-lalala-la theme song and possibility of Jokey Smurf blowing one of the more annoying Smurfs up but good with one of his “surprises”.
On top of that, it’s a movie about how evil business is, how the United States needs to be sorry for using its power abroad, and how native peoples are all sacred, much wiser than us, and always, always right.
We spent enough money in liberal arts colleges listening to junk like this for credit — and don’t need to plunk down another $10 to hear the same lectures during a Smurf adventure on the big screen.
So we wonder if anyone out there thinks Avatar will be a big success.
Do you want to see this movie?
Are you clamoring for it?
Will you go see it again and again and again like people saw Titanic?
Are we wrong to think this will be a giant dud upon release?
What think you?
First step towards "Slavery Reparations" taken today
The black community believes it is getting “Slavery Reparations” from Dr. Utopia before he leaves office. They call this “Obama Money”, and expect it to be tens of thousands of dollars each, delivered in the form of a check from the White House to them.
We wish we were kidding, but we hear this all the time in Chicago. People on the trains and buses talk about it nonstop. The other day, in fact, we were on the Halsted bus headed downtown when we passed a cop car, lights flashing, talking to a motorist who was black. A black man in front of us shouted loudly through the closed window, “Leave him alone! He ain’t did nothing! You’s just hassling him ’cause he black. Let him go! He ain’t did nothing! He’ll learn you when he gets his Obama Money in the mail. Then you won’t be hassling nobody, damn white devil.”
That’s an exact quote, by the way. And it wasn’t a crazy homeless black man shouting that: it was someone who looked liked he worked a steady job, wearing nice clothes, who otherwise seemed like a normal, rational man.
There’s the famous clip Rush Limbaugh runs of blacks somewhere waiting at a government office for checks that they thought they could pick up: and they say the same things about “Obama Money” coming to them. The reporter asks where this money comes from and they say, “Duh, it’s from Obama. It Obama money. Don’t know where he gets it. Don’t care. It’s from his stash.”
Then these people laugh: Heh, heh, heh.
It’s ridiculous, and almost funny, until you realize they really think they are going to get “Obama Money” in the mail.
To many of them, “Obama Money” seems to be some sort of “Slavery Reparations” money.
What’s really interesting is that the Federal Government today paid out $3.4 Billion to Native Americans to settle an ongoing suit having to do with mismanagement of trust funds set up for various tribes. The way the Justice Department under Eric Holder handled this, it sure feels like this decision could be used to come up with a similar payout to the black community for “Slavery Reparations”.
There are roughly 40 million black-identifying people in this country.
Just for the sake of argument, what if the $787 billion wasted on the “stimulus” in February had been divided amongst blacks evenly…how much would each have gotten?
787,000,000,000 divided by 40,000,000 = roughly $20,000 each
Could that cash infusion into the black community have generated more jobs and jump-started the economy more than whatever the “stimulus” was actually wasted on?
Put aside any emotions you have on this issue, and think about it for a minute.
Here are some of the things that could have happened:
(1) Chiefly, one of the major grievances of the black community could have permanently been removed. It sure as heck would be hard for the Race Industry to continue, and for blacks to claim they are being held back, if the federal government gave every one of them a $20,000 check to jump start their lives. That’s a massive leg-up for anyone wanting to start a business, get a degree, pay off debt, find a better place to live, or acquire whatever tools they need to overcome whatever they believe is holding them back. After this payout, all the wailing and crying of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Henry Gates, et al should be moot, since not only is there a black president, but the government just gave you $20,000. What on Earth do you have left to cry about?
(2) That money would have been instantly pumped into the economy, with a good portion of that being spent on consumer goods. We bet 80-90% of the money would have been spent in just a few months…stimulating businesses, buying products now just languishing on shelves, saving retailers from the most horrible year in memory.
(3) Crime would drop, we believe, since anyone who’s been stealing to get by would suddenly have $20,000 to float them. Crime might just stay at low levels for a few years, if people bought everything they could think of, and didn’t have anything left on their wish lists they wanted to steal. Low crime seems to stimulate development, encourage business, and makes people feel safer and happier.
(4) We could finally close the book forever on white guilt and liberal grievance-mongering. “What more do you want?” would be the new meme. After this massive helping hand, there would be no more excuses for failure reasonably accepted from the black community. That one time cash distribution would level the playing field once and for all…just think of all the people this would shut up. Sharpton, Jackson, and Gates are just the tip of that grievance iceberg.
It would, also, of course, guarantee Dr. Utopia is a one term president. That’s why many here in Chicago believe “Obama Money” won’t come until 2013, in his second term, when he’s no longer constrained by re-election chances.
Many have a knee-jerk reaction against Reparations. We know there are more than a few heads exploding reading this, and we’re sure we’ll of course get plenty of hate mail.
But, sometimes it’s interesting to think about what positive effect something like this would have. The $787 billion in “stimulus” money was completely wasted. It was as if the government just set it on fire in a parking lot. Since we can agree this is true, why not consider for a moment whether or not that money could have been used for good if actually given as Reparations — to settle racial grievances once and for all, and to put the Race Industry out of business.
We’re anxious to hear what you think on this. Yes, it’s a radical idea, but the myth of “Obama Money” really is out there…and this $3.4 Billion payout to Native Americans sure makes Reparations look like more of a reality than it was yesterday.
BREAKING: Sarah Palin to appear on Conan tonight. UPDATE: It's a bit mocking William Shatner's beat poetry readings
Word is Sarah Palin will appear on Conan O’Brien’s show tonight. It airs at 1030pm CST here in Chicago.
As soon as someone gets a clip of it, please post it in this thread.
Conan is on opposite the past-his-prime pig who wears diapers, David Letterman — he of the making jokes about New York Yankees statutory raping 14 year olds. There aren’t words in English to describe the place in Hell David Letterman has earned himself; Heironymous Bosch, in fact, couldn’t conjure anything worthy enough for this man’s penance. In a world with some pretty terrible people yet in it, Letterman ranks at the very top. A disgusting pig who wears diapers. Pretty much sums it up.
So glad Palin will be helping out the competition tonight. We don’t find Conan particularly funny, but anything’s better than Letterman.
UPDATE: Here’s a link to video of the bit.
Palin comes out after William Shatner has been reading parts of her book, Going Rogue, beatnik poetry style. Palin then turns the tables by reading some of Shatner’s autobiography the same way.
Pay attention to the audience. They go WILD for Palin…cheering loudly for several minutes.
Great bit, very well done by Palin, who clearly has a great sense of humor.
2012, baby, you betcha.
It has begun: today MSM starts pushing John Thune as replacement for Huckabee in GOP's Five Horsemen of the 2012 Apocalypse
If nominated, I would be as boring as possible, I promise. I will, in fact, be coma-inducing, just as the MSM wants me to be. Cucumber and mayonnaise sandwiches? Hell, I'll top that, and be an egg white and boiled potato omelette, hold the butter and seasoning of any kind. I'm John Thune, and I'm ready to step up as a new Horseman of the 2012 Media-Generated GOP Apocalypse.
We’ve been saying since last year that the MSM is working overtime to pick the GOP’s 2012 candidate — much as it selected John McCain for 2008. Republicans need to wake up and see how easily they are manipulated by the likes of MSNBC, CNN, and their parent organization, the DNC.
Until recently, the Five Horsemen of the GOP 2012 Apocalypse were:
(1) Mark Sanford
(2) Mike Huckabee
(3) Mitt Romney
(4) Tim Pawlenty
(5) Charlie Crist
All of these men would lose to Dr. Utopia in 2012.
After Mark Sanford had a personal and professional career-ending meltdown, the Five Horsemen looked like this:
(1) Mike Huckabee
(2) Mitt Romney
(3) Charlie Crist
(4) Tim Pawlenty
(5) John Huntsman
Huntsman is the one the MSM called “the dark horse” candidate for a while, complete with “off the record” reports from Rahm Emanuel that he’s the one the White House is most worried about. Sort of like how the Globetrotters tell the “press” how concerned about the Washington Generals’ offense before their “games”.
The Hunstman push never really took off; he left his governorship to become Ambassador to China, is a fan of Tap & Tax, was a fan of dumping a trillion dollars down the toilet earlier this year in “stimulus”, and is so transparently the candidate the White House WANTS to run against, that even Chris Matthews stopped pushing him.
Today, for the first time, we’re seeing the MSM pushing Senator John Thune as the Fifth Horseman, taking Huntsman’s place. Essentially, it’s a generic, youngish, Western, white Senator as boring as Wonderbread and cucumber sandwiches replacing the Governor version of himself on the list, now including Bobby Jindal again since Mike Huckabee’s political career was terminated by the aftermath of his overzealous clemency spree as Arkansas governor (which caught up with him when a black criminal he commuted the sentence of went on a cop-killing spree in Tacoma, Washington that made Willie Horton look like a choir boy).
The current Five Horsemen of the 2012 GOP Apocalypse are now:
(1) Tim Pawlenty
(2) Mitt Romney
(3) Charlie Crist
(4) Bobby Jindal
(5) John Thune
Here’s why each of these men would be a disaster against Dr. Utopia, and why the MSM wants the GOP to run them as the 2012 nominee:
(1) Tim Pawlenty — there has never been a good picture taken of this man. He looks perpetually tired, with more bags under his eyes than Aliyah tried to cram into that ill-fated flight in the Bahamas. A Pawlenty 2012 campaign would be just as successful as a result. The GOP needs a vibrant candidate who inspires great emotion in her or his supporters. We doubt even Pawlenty’s own family would be revved up and excited by his run. The MSM will be working overtime for Dr. Utopia, so whomever runs against him has to command attention…has to be so captivating that MSM can’t refuse to cover her or him. Pawlenty does not, and will never fit the bill. He could be Vice President though, easily, if the person at the top of the ticket is vibrant and attention getting enough for both of them.
(2) Mitt Romney — Nobody trusts this guy. What does he even stand for? We’re sure he’s a nice man. When he was manufactured by Mattel several decades ago, he was a very successful model. Will he ever fire conservatives up to rally behind him? Not on your life. They don’t trust him any more than we do. Romney is the classic GOP candidate from a bad movie: slick, perfect hair, giant plastic smile, with the ability to change positions on every issue like a weather vain (spelling intended, because it’s so apt for Romney too). By 2012, one of the narratives against Dr. Utopia will be that he’s been all sizzle, no steak…all promises and marketing, but no substance. People will want a GOP candidate who stands for something, who means what she says and says what she means. Unless Romney puts on a wig, starts rocking great boots, and changes his name to Sarah Palin, he has no chance in Hell of beating Dr. Utopia. Unlike Pawlenty, we also don’t think he can be her VP. He’s too slimey, and too much of an opportunistic flip-flopper. He would, however, make an EXCELLENT Commerce Secretary or Secretary of the Treasury. Palin should campaign with him as that…just right out of the gate, have Romney say that if she’s elected he’d be heading up Commerce or Treasury. Wouldn’t that be interesting?
(3) Charlie Crist dressed up in drag on many occasions as “Charlotte” at the Green Igauna gay bar in Tampa, Florida. The MSM knows this, just as the MSM knew all about Tiger Woods’ depravity and philandering. The MSM chose to hold off on exposing Crist so it can push him for 2012, and hope he gets far enough into the nomination process to hit the GOP square in the eye with photos of him carousing around with scantily clad men — if you have spent any time in a gay bar in the last 20 years, we guarantee there are photos of you when you are drunk, SOMEWHERE. Crist will do more damage to the GOP than Larry Craig, Mark Foley, and Trent Lott combined. He is like a suitcase nuke just waiting to go off — a powder pink, Louis Vuitton with little hearts and rainbows stamped all over it.
(4) Bobby Jindal was pushed by the MSM right after Dr. Utopia was elected, because the MSM thought the GOP would be stupid enough to run him — for the sole reason that he’s Indian, so not white, and the GOP would Marginot Line the 2012 elections by thinking it needed to run a non-white candidate to go up against the non-white Democrat incumbent. Wrong. All of that white guilt and historic “first admittedly part black candidate” stuff is over. It was all used up in 2008. Jindal is honestly one of the ugliest people in politics right now. He is creepy-looking. That’s not because he is Indian. There are plenty of gorgeous Indian men. Jimmy Mistri, for one. That guy’s a babe. Jindal looks like something that would be hiding under the bed waiting for you to fall asleep so it could smuther you and eat your toes. Gives us the creeps, and like Pawlenty there are no known good photos of him. Top this off with the fact that he comes off as a bumbling fool on television — like when he did the Republican rebuttal to one of Dr. Utopia’s endless speeches and was so terrible he was lampooned as “Kenneth the Intern” by just about everyone. Let Jindal stay the Governor of Louisiana for as long as the people there want him. Then, send him to the Senate so he can be the “first Indian Senator”. He is not a VP choice either. Great Merciful Zeus, that man is ugly.
(5) John Thune — a generic white man of average-to-decent looks, straight out of central casting. This is another man who will not inspire anyone to give up their jobs, leave their families behind, and volunteer for him the icy cold of Iowa and the months that feel like years which make up a presidential campaign. No one is going to wake up at 5am and work until 3am the next day for John Thune. However, he might be a good Vice Presidential pick, especially for a female candidate who would want a decent-looking guy to share the ticket with her. The question remains: could Thune be the attack dog the VP candidate needs to be? Could he decimate Joe Biden and make him look like an absolute fool? Does he need to, since Biden’s pretty good at doing that to himself?
Republicans need to run a solid conservative who generates excitement in 2012. Someone people can be passionate about, someone people are willing to break up their piggy banks for and give up most of their free time for the next two years.
You know by now we want that person to be Sarah Palin, but here are some more names for who we think could give Dr. Utopia a run for his money in 2012:
(A) Sarah Palin — the only person we see right now who would definitely win
(B) Dick Cheney — he’s said he doesn’t want it, but we’d campaign our hearts out for him too. He would be tough as nails and deliver some serious smackdown.
(C) Newt Gingrich — before Palin and Cheney, this was the biggest boogeyman the Left had. We think what he did to his cancer-stricken wife earned him a special place in Hell, and we would not campaign for him, but he’s still a better choice than the Five Horsemen
Hillary's Gift
The latest Newsweek has a little sidebar listing 10 people who changed the way we think:
1. Steve Jobs (Apple)
2. Jon Stewart (news done as comedy)
3. Larry Page & Sergey Brin (Google)
4. Karl Rove & David Plouffe (campaign managers)
5. Biz Stone & Evan Williams (Twitter)
6. Michael Pollan (“locavore movement”, books on food and plants)
7. Malcolm Gladwell (inventor of new genre of nonfiction: engrossing books about ordinary things like ketchup)
8. Nick Denton & Arianna Huffington (new media)
9. David Chase (makes TV like movies)
10. Hillary Clinton (made female president normal to Americans)
Newsweek says history will record Hillary Clinton as the person who made it possible for America to have a female president.
When we first started campaigning for her in Iowa in 2007, it was strange to many of the people we met to think about voting for a women as president. We heard that a lot in Dubuque, Waterloo, Des Moines, and parts in between in those days. But, Clinton’s 2008 campaign changed that forever.
We believe, from now on, there will be a woman running for president every four years. Sometimes she’ll win the nomination of either party, and sometimes she won’t. There will be years when a woman is on both sides of the ballot. There will be a time when a woman occupies BOTH spots on a ticket, and maybe even all FOUR spots on the ballot (with female presidents and vice presidents nominated on both sides).
We wish more than anything that Hillary Clinton was our president today. We want her to run again in 2012 and/or 2016.
But, no matter what happens, we’re happy to see Newsweek give her the credit she deserves. We hope Hillary Clinton does become our first female president, but if she’s not, then Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Diane Fienstein, Sue Lowden, Meg Whitman, Liz Cheney, Chelsea Clinton, or whichever woman ultimately puts that final smash into the glass ceiling will owe Hillary a world of gratitude.
AS DO WE ALL.
Al Gore confronted on Climategate in Chicago
Have you seen this yet?
Al Gore confronted on Climategate here in Chicago. We don’t know the WeAreChange people, but know those who do. They seem to be disenchanted Utopians, not conservatives or PUMAs like us. That’s very, very interesting.
The Frog Princess Discussion Thread
Photo h/t our friends at www.2HelenaHandbaskets.com
Today Disney releases “The Frog Princess”, it’s latest hand-drawn fairytale, and first featuring a black princess. Our friend Robby’s mother, Patricia, is coming to Chicago with her niece and nephew for a visit this weekend, so we hope to have a Frog Princess review up for you before Monday, if Pattymelt is kind enough to type one up for us on Robby’s computer.
Disney movies become instant parts of our pop culture, and because of the Race Industry in this country, this cartoon in particular is going to take on all sorts of unintended meanings on all sides. Who knows what those will be, because none of us have seen the film yet, but we’re sure it’s going to make a big impact (if not a lot of money at the box office).
Already, we see so many parallels between the current president and the film’s main villain, Dr. Facilier. Maybe when we see the movie, those similariites will disappear, but the way Disney drew its villain, he’s just a SPOT-ON send up of Dr. Utopia…as created below by a reader who was kind enough to create this photoshop for us:
Thanks again to Chrissy-the-Hyphenated for doing the Photoshop. We hope it inspires many, many more in a similar vein.
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Next year, in 2010, Disney will also release Rapunzel, making another addition to their Princess line of characters. This is Disney’s most lucrative line for girls…so we wonder what other stories they could animate in the future that would have Princesses in them.
More likely than not, they’ll probably just start remaking the older stories, like Snow White, with “updated” versions of the Princesses we all know.
That would be a shame, but where else are they going to take their line? Do you know of any other stories they could do?
* Princess & the Pea (if they took the Frog Prince and made it into a movie, they could work with this one too)
* Rumplestiltskin (peasant girl, marries king ultimately, has to outwit the goblin/demon/troll)
* Cleopatra (since they take major liberties with everything else, they could find a way to tamp down the suicide and adultery in this historical story)
* Any number of Greek myths, involving Princesses being abducted by someone or something
* The Ozmas of Oz in the L. Frank Baum stories
Any good ideas?
