So I Ask Again, What's Racism exactly?

The face of today's racist

Let me get this straight. A DOJ nominee I mentioned back here got shot down yesterday by the senate.

Sen. Casey, a high-profile Democrat, effectively gave his Democratic colleagues cover to vote "no" after he recently came out against the nomination. Casey represents the state where Abu-Jamal killed a Philadelphia police officer.   

At issue is Adegbile's work with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund on behalf of Abu-Jamal. Perhaps America's most well-known cop killer, he was convicted for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia officer Daniel Faulkner. The case has attracted celebrity and media attention for decades, amid claims that Abu-Jamal faced racial discrimination. Abu-Jamal's death sentence was eventually overturned, but his conviction stands.  

Along the way, Adegbile and the Legal Defense Fund got involved in the case, filing briefs and appeals on his behalf. Adegbile's involvement came after Abu-Jamal's death sentence was overturned and after the Legal Defense Fund first began working with the defendant. 

Harry Reid suggests that it's racism because everything bad that happens to a black person is because of racism.

“Maybe it’s time that America had a good discussion on civil rights,” Reid said after the vote.

See the only reason this guy was voted down was the white people don't like black people, according to Harry Reid.

You want to know what racism is? Harry Reid is the face of it. Abu-Jamal is defended by celebrities and liberal politicians because he's black. A lawyer, who went well above the simple act of defending this murderer in court because the defendant was black, was not confirmed for a high level position at the DOJ. This is basically the same thing as separate drinking fountains according to Harry Reid.

Harry Reid believes that bad behavior and bad choices can be excused if you are the correct skin color. If you are black, you then excused from being a cop killer or vehemently defending a cop-killer. Not on the basis that you believe he didn't do it but because you believe it's OK that he did it. Because he's black and the cop is part of a racist (in your opinion) system and it's somehow justified. Oh and the cop was white so he was asking for it. Or something. According to Harry Reid.

I'm sure I'm using a slight amount of hyperbole but the fact is Adegbile didn't just be this guy's lawyer in court, he really went to bat for this killer well after the trial. Harry Reid thinks this is all excusable and the only reason Adegbile didn't get confirmed is because Republican's are the racists.

That's all it is! Don't look at all this stuff in the past. And don't blame blacks because they just can't help themselves to make bad choices. No it's the Republicans that are the racists! Now vote for me in 2016! So I can stop racists who don't understand that blacks are incapable of making good decisions!

Time to call out Reid and the rest of the left for what they really are.

Environmentalists: Saving the Earth One Lie at a Time.

Price due to greed. No other plausible reason

So today the environmentalists have released their own completely unbiased and not paid for by any groups with any hidden agendas decrying the Keystone pipeline. Because, you know, transporting the oil one truck at time with their engines burning oil and gas is muuuuuuch better then just shooting it down a pipe.

In the meantime it turns out that *gasp* environmentalists may be politically motivated and even capable of *double gasp* unethical behavior.

Now let's juxtapose these two stories:

The State Department’s final environmental impact analysis for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline downplays the significance the pipeline would have for development of the Canadian tar sands, according to a new analysis from a United Kingdom-based group. The analysis also argues that the State Department underestimated the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that would come with that development. 

The Carbon Tracker Initiative, a nonprofit that focuses on how carbon budgets interact with financial markets, released the new report on Monday, making its case for why Keystone XL is more important in the context of global emissions than the State Department’s study indicates. 

… 

Carbon Tracker says the government’s analysis “does not fully explore” how the lower transportation costs of pipeline transportation, when compared to rail transportation, would affect future oil sands production. The price of oil would have to be higher to make shipping by rail cost effective. Given the difference in price points at which the various methods of shipping become cost effective, oil companies could produce much as 525,000 more barrels of oil per day out of the tar sands if they have access to the Keystone XL pipeline.

And this:

Chevron, which some years back was presented with a multi-billion-dollar judgment related to pollution claims in Ecuador, has been engaged in a years-long battle against a coalition of lawyers, environmental groups, and activists, and its defense has been an interesting one: Not only has Chevron rejected the specific claims against it, it has maintained that the case is the result of a criminal conspiracy involving those same lawyers and environmentalists, corrupt judges, bribery, and more. The company’s general counsel, Hewitt Pate, said today: “The case against Chevron was the result of fraud, bribery, and other crimes, and its aim was extortion.”  

The story might have struck many as too implausible even for a B movie, but a U.S. district court today issued a remarkable opinion confirming that the judgment against Chevron is indeed the result of fraud.

Just keep on buying the leftist bullshit, MSM, at $5.00 a gallon pretty soon.

Jan Brewer Makes the Right Call

So let's get this out of the way right now: Christians in this country these days are targets. They can be ridiculed, screwed with, and downright insulted to no end and the popular media culture revels in it. There also has never been a better time in American history to be gay as tolerance of that lifestyle is at an all time high. The LBGT community is no longer preaching tolerance as much as being totally in your face with their lifestyle and if you are the least bit uncomfortable with it, then you are a hater. It's getting old.

So that leads us to a wedding photographer in New Mexico who wouldn't photograph a gay wedding on the basis of religious beliefs. That led to a lawsuit which led to the law being passed in Arizona to protect people like the photographer from doing business with whom they choose or don't choose on the basis of religious beliefs. Which Brewer thankfully vetoed today.

Right away I see there's way too much government involvement in all of this. The photographer was in New Mexico where there is a law that allows the lawsuit. That shouldn't be. If this photographer doesn't want to do business with gays then so be it. Let that photographer deal with the fallout of that decision on his business. No lawsuit is needed, the market will speak. It should've never have gotten this far.

We already have a law that says people can do business with whom they wish. It's called the constitution and the freedom to assemble. Which also covers the freedom to not associate. Are gay dating sites discriminatory to straights? New Mexico should rescind their law that lets people sue a company that won't serve them.

But the overreach of Arizona's law to supposedly protect businesses goes way too far. So Muslim restaurants will refuse to serve christians? Maybe straights can start demanding the aforementioned gay website to serve straights. How about no longer serving blacks on religious terms? This law would allow for religious tyranny.

We conservatives can sometimes fall into the same trap as liberals: We run to papa government to solve our problems. That's not what conservatism is all about. In fact, if we really want to solve the gay marriage thing, stop making tax laws based on marriage. If there is no difference in paying taxes whether single or married, then legal reasons for marriage go away. As far as property rights, wills, and other issues, that can all be solved with private contracts. It's none of the government's goddamn business.

I get the kneejerk reaction of conservatives and I agree that we shouldn't have to do business with those we don't want to. But let's face it: this law really was targeting gays. The unintended consequences would've bit us all in ass. Brewer made the right call.

Movie Review Break: "Winter's Tale" or "F**k You Akiva Goldsman"

Yeah. The miracle of Akiva Goldsman's continued employment

I love movies. A lot. I am also pretty critical of movies but bad movies really don't bother me, most of the time they are just "meh" and I move on. But this goddamn movie actually angered me while watching it. I did a little research on the director, Akiva Goldsman, and come to find out among other atrocities, he wrote Batman and Robin. After watching Winter's Tale, I'm beginning to think that Joel Schumacher maybe gets a little too much acrimony for his role in that movie.

My memory may get a few things out of order but it really doesn't matter. If you heed this review, you won't go see it anyway. Judging by the box office so far, I don't think I have to worry.

The movie starts out with Colin Farrell wandering around present day New York and going to the roof or ceiling or attic of Grand Central Station where he finds a box full of stuff. I'll get back to this idiocy later.

Then we cut to 1886 with a couple being turned away from Ellis Island because they are sick with consumption. That's the "too much shopping" disease. So they want their baby to have a chance in America. Do they leave the baby in a basket at Ellis so it can be discovered and taken to an orphanage? No, they get back on the boat and then find a model ship on the boat called the "City of Justice." Because ships are cities. Or something. Anyway, they put the baby in the boat nearly five miles off shore with storm clearly visible on the horizon. Now I don't know about you, but the model ships that I've owned were meant for display only. They were never seaworthy. If I did put them in water, they usually tipped over in a nanosecond which would've immediately sent any baby down to the bottom of the lake but whatever. This one works great.

Worst parents ever.

The next scene immediately cuts to Peter (played with a lot of effort by Colin Farrell. He's really trying, as are most of the actors so I'll give him a pass.) Peter is running away from the villain, the comically named Pearly. Pearly is played by Russell Crowe who seems to be channeling his South Park alter ego. You may recall he liked to go "fighting around the world" and was generally irrational. It's easily the most hammy role he's played. He wears a scar that goes all CGI when he's enraged. Most of the time he's just angry and unreasonable.

So Russell Crowe is chasing Peter and is really angry. Why is he angry? I don't know and the movie never really tells us. Oh something is made of Pearly being mad at Peter turning on him but the point is we never see that. We should've seen Peter being found on shore, being raised by Graham Greene, falling into Pearly's gang, finding out Pearly is bad, and finally making the choice to remove himself, thereby incurring Pearly's wrath. We see none of that. Truth is, I'm not ever really sure until the very end if Peter is aware of Pearly's supernatural nature.

So Peter climbs over a tall gate and finds a white horse. Convenient. Where did the horse come from? Why is it here? It turns out it's a magical My Little Pony, winged Pegasus version. He gets on the horse and instead of just flying away from the all the crazy demon people with guns behind the gate, the horse decides to run straight towards the gate so he could jump it. This is way too high for an ordinary horse to jump so now we the audience know it's a magical horse.  This could've been accomplished by having him... oh I don't know... sprout the CGI wings and fly away but instead we just get the jump and then he gallops away down the street.

Fortunately the crazy people either forget to shoot or went to the Imperial Stormtrooper school of aiming. Quite frankly I forgot because I was so overcome by the stupidity of a winged horse who has all the time necessary to fly off in a safe direction and doesn't.

So now Pearly is mad. He's always mad. But he's also a douche. See I know he's evil and all but he's a complete douche on top of it. He begins by telling his head henchman that now that Peter has the dog, he's close to performing his miracle. The henchman is mystified. 1) um, Peter can do miracles? and 2) Wasn't that a horse we saw? Why are you calling it a dog?

Pearly patiently (and by patiently, I mean he refrains from killing henchmeat right there on the spot) explains that Peter can perform one miracle. And it isn't really a horse, it's a dog goddammit! Henchfucked backs off like "ok, whatever. It's a dog. You're the boss."

So then he goes to a random assortment of gems on the table in front of the window, waits for the moon and viola! The gems take the moonlight and make a holographic image of Grand Central Station which tells him where Peter is. Wow. There's wasn't a magic word or anything. He just seemed to drop the gems on the tray and BAM! Instant image. I began to wonder if other people ever dropped some random gems on a tray and then one moonlit night: BAM! Eiffel Tower. BAM! Pyramids. BAM! IHOP.

Pearly then says to henchdead to get the boys and lets go get Peter and the horse.

"Thought it was dog?" the henchscrewed asks quite reasonably. Russell Crowe then gets enraged and CGI face or whatever. Cause Henchwuss can't seem to get this schizo's psychotic random synapse firings straight, he's obviously incompetent. Dontcha hate crazy bosses?

So Peter was at Grand Central, gathering his shit and hiding the box of memories, but by the time Pearly gets there, he's long gone. So the gems were worthless and the image didn't help him at all. There wasn't even the obligatory "They've found me! I have to get away by way of this secret whatever portal only I know about!" Something?! Nope, he's long gone. Stopped his mail, put change of address forms into the post office, cancelled his magazine subscriptions, etc.

Peter and the horse (dog?) have now gone to rob houses. Now at this point in the movie you have a pretty good inkling that we got angels (horsedog, fuck it) and devils (Pearly). Yet horsedog is helping Peter rob these houses because "fuck them rich assholes" or something. I guess they aren't important. Peter has enough stuff but horsedog tells him to rob one more house. There he meets hot sick girl, Beverly.

Beverly, as we learned earlier, is dying of consumption. See? It's poetical. Or ironic. Or who-gives-a-shit at this point. Beverly can see light connections between everything and sees how it's all connected. This is never brought up again and does nothing for her character. It does however give Akiva a chance to indulge in Abrahams/Spielbergian lens flare shenanigans.

So her family has already headed up north (in winter, good call) to their vacation palace on the frozen river and left her to come after them while they get the house prepared for her. She has a blazing fever all the time which actually melts the snow beneath her feet. Apparently she's the Human Torch now. Peter breaks into her house and sees her and immediately renounces his thieving ways and falls madly in love with her. He decides to take action on this by leaving and thinking.

Pearly is eating at a restaurant where he suddenly has a vision. He kills a waiter who pissed him off (because the waiter asked him if there was anything else they could do to serve him or make sure he was satisfied with the meal or something equally insulting) and he uses the waiter's blood to fingerpaint a hideous drawing that might be an outline of a redhaired woman. Or Halley's comet. Difficult to tell. He demands his henchsofuckingdead to find this woman. From the most obscure drawing ever. In New York. Where there are thousands of redhaired women. In 1914 so no modern advances like the internet or surveillance cameras or even phones. Good luck henchman! You should be dead by morning.

Peter asks the native american who found him (played by Graham Greene who is apparently the only American Indian left working in Hollywood) for some advice on the girl. Or life. I honestly wasn't paying attention because I was trying to figure out why a kid raised by Graham Greene in New York City had a thick irish accent.

ANYWAY, the next day, Beverly's packing and putting the all her bags in the car by servants. And why does she have so many bags? Because she's a woman you silly nip! Women are like that! They always have too much luggage. Akiva would know. So lo and behold one of Pearly's henchstillnotdeadforsomereason is there and knows that this red haired woman is the one Pearly's looking for! How? Because fuck you, that's how!

Peter rides up on his horsedog and rescues her from Pearly even though Pearly could've killed her about 5,742 times while clipclop noisily came up the street (why aren't you flying?) but he doesn't notice Peter until the last 40 seconds. In which case, being a demon, he could've still killed her about 30 times, turned her body into a slimfast shake, and drank her with time to spare. I guess Magic horsedog causes Russell Crowe to go into vapor lock.

So they ride like the wind, jump a cliff and run up the frozen river to the vacation house miles away. This long journey in the heart of frozen winter doesn't kill them. She doesn't die because she likes the cold due to her fever. (Does that work?) He doesn't die because reasons and stuff.

Pearly chases them up the river and kills them both and her family and burns down the house and dances on their ashes. The end.

Ha! No he can't go any further north because the screenwriter needs a half-baked way to keep Pearly from screwing with them for a while so they can fall in love. I mean it's against the "rules." This causes Pearly to  kill his henchItoldyouso (finally) while watching Peter ride off. Pearly goes back to New York and tries to get dispensation from the rules but Will Smith says no.

Oh yeah, Will Smith plays "Lou." The judge. He also gets angry CGI mouth. And in cause you've never actually watched any movies or tv for the last 60 years, Lou is short for "Lucifer." Who's the devil. Not a devil, mind you. THE Devil.

Now we're about halfway in and I have no idea what the fuck is really going on. Why is Pearly so obsessed? Why are there jurisdictions for souls? What the fuck is the horsedog? Is it an angel? A protector? Mythical beast? If it's an Angel, why is it encouraging Peter to break a commandment? Why is Will Smith stuck in this alley or warehouse or whatever? Why can Beverly see light connections and what's the point? What's the point of the gems that don't work? How do they create images and how did they know what image Pearly wanted? If they knew what he wanted, why did they get it wrong?

What is Peter's miracle? Oh yeah, he's going to save Beverly, duh. At least that what you are supposed to think. Of course, that's pretty telegraphed but we have to slog through the love story now. Peter meets Beverly's family including her little sister Willa, who I'd guess is about six years old. Her age comes into play later.

Willa has a made a miracle bed in the greenhouse where her sister the princess will get a kiss from her true love and be cured. Ok, now they are really telegraphing it too far. Failure ahead! GET ON WITH IT.

So they fall in love but Pearly sends a fallen angel to poison Beverley. Apparently Pearly has called in a favor. Even though the Angel came back to be human, I'm not sure how that translate to immediately being evil. What did Pearly have on this guy? The angel doesn't appear afraid of Pearly. I'm mystified.

Anyway, he poisons the girl with special time release poison to make her dead right Peter and her make love. So Peter thinks he fucked her to death. Lovely. Predictably at this point, the magic princess bed doesn't work because she's not Peter's miracle. Also we have like 45 minutes left of running time.

So Peter's heartbroken and he and the horsedog go riding casually around New York to get found by Pearly so he can end it or whatever. The horsedog flies off because Peter told it to and because even though it's a magical winged horse and they could've gone to Miami, the script needs Peter to stay and winged horsedog to take a powder for about a century, give or take a couple of years.

And Pearly finally has him. Does he shoot him in the head? Rip him from limb to limb? Nope he throws him off the bridge. He stumbles out of the river with the most wonderful of plot devices, amnesia.

So now we skip ahead to 2014. Yup, a century has passed and everyone that Peter cared about is long gone except Peter who's unaged and has grown a kickin rock star hairdo. Peter draws the redhaired woman in chalk on the sidewalk and wanders aimlessly. He appears to have an apartment however and in New York. Um, how does he afford it on a vagrant's salary? Maybe that's his miracle. Oh and he's unaged but that's just standard issue magic. Seriously, he's allowed one miracle but living for a hundred years without aging is apparently not it.

Anyhow one day he bumps into a little girl who reminds him of Willa and that jars his memory. Really? After 98 years? He's been just wandering around for 98 fucking years and now this is the first little kid he's bumped into? Fuck you, movie.

So he goes to a library and then to Grand Central where his little room is kept intact and the hidden box of memories is still there. After 98 years. Surely Grand Central has had a renovation or two? Something? Someone must've been up there at some point!

Peter goes to the newspaper archives where Jennifer Connelly works. Who just happens to be the mother of the little girl that bumped into Peter that started this whole thing and who conveniently has the access to let him go to the archive to look up the past. Where he finds pictures of Beverly and himself. Wait, what? When did he take that picture? When did they take any of these pictures?! FUCK!!!

Now I'm rapidly getting pissed off. The coincidences are piling up and I still have no idea why he's in the present day or what the previous 3/4 of the movie was leading up to.

Connelly is mildly, and I can't overstate the word "mildly" here, surprised that here this person is standing here, over 130 years old and still looking pretty damn spry. We find out that Beverly's family owned the newspaper. Guess who's the owner? Willa! Yes at 104, she owns and runs the newspaper. Most 104 year old's don't know they are still alive but WHATEVER. (I find myself saying that a lot.) She gives us some plot information or something. I'm too angry to listen anymore. Oh and same paper Jennifer Connelly works at who is the mother of the little girl he just happens to bump into who jars his memory.

In the meantime we find out Pearly still at it and we know he's been successful at doing... whatever the hell he does... because he has a great apartment and rows of henchgeeks running computers. I guess angels and miracles are now published on the internet or something. Somehow he knows that Peter is back. There may have been a half-assed explanation. I don't care. He goes to Will Smith to get dispensation (again) to get Peter. Cause after 98 years he's apparently still THAT pissed.

He and the Fresh Prince of Darkness have a contemplative moment discussing how they are losing the war for humanity's souls. Really? Sure looked like you were doing well to me. Big apartment, lots of infrastructure. And have you looked around lately? War? Drugs? The shit that went down in the last hundred years? WWI? WWII? Holocaust? Vietnam? 9/11? New Coke? Justin Bieber? This movie? I think you're winning.

Will Smith gives him mortality to go after Peter which means he can go anywhere and take his henchbabies too. I guess Lucifer mellows after a century or so. Probably still is smarting thanks to "After Earth."

So Peter stays with Jennifer Connelly and her daughter who has a big red scarf on her head and we realize she's the girl Peter's been drawing. Also she has cancer. She needs a miracle.

So wait. Wait! WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE! So the entire first 3/4 of the movie was a red herring? It meant NOTHING? FFFFFUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKK!

So Peter takes the two on the winged horsedog (yeah it's back now. Why now instead of sometime in the previous 98 years? Because fuck you, that's why.)

They go to the now abandoned vacation house, Pearly finds them, they fight, Peter wins in a callback that's too stupid to mention. The little girl dies for plot timing reasons. He takes her to the still fucking there princess bed. Which by the way looks pretty damn good with only a few dead leaves on it. Whatever.

She comes back to life. Then there's a voice over how the universe will bend over backwards once in a while to create miracles. And Beverly yells down from the stars "FUCK YOU, where was my goddamn miracle?!" And the waiter that got killed by Pearly has a word or two for the universe as well. And about a billion other people who died horribly throughout the last century. Fuck you Akiva.

From what I've read, the book is supposed to be pretty good. It appears that Goldsman completely missed the point. After "I, Robot," "Batman Forever," "Batman and Robin," and "I Am Legend," I would say this is just another Akiva Goldsman failure. With him writing and directing, we finally realize that this is the luckiest son of a bitch in Hollywood. I don't know who he has pictures of but congrats on being able to make a career out of ruining things.

You've been warned.

Network Decides Hiring an Asshat Might've Been a Mistake

Oh Piers. We hardly knew ye. Oh wait, we knew you only too well.

A CNN rep confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that the show would be ending and stated that the "date of the final program is still to be determined." 

Morgan, the successor to Larry King at the hour, had hosted Piers Morgan Live on the network since January 2011. Morgan told the newspaper that CNN president Jeff Zucker had made the decision to cancel the show. 

Don't let the door hit you in the butt on the way you, you sanctimonious, ill-informed, hack asshat.

What? Are you exiled to a swamp planet beyond the outer rim or something?

Something like that. I work as a manager of a tech department and this is review time. Also budget time. And other beginning of the year stuff time. And time. Anyhooooo.....

Han and I are planning some podcast stuff, we still need to work out the logistics. Since we carpool together and have epic conversations from everything political to theatrical, we thought you'd find it interesting. And things are calming down somewhat around here so I'll try to post a little bit more again. Still can't get Han to post but hey, he's got a life too.

If a Tree Falls in the Forest, and no Reporters are Around to Cover it, Does it Cause a Controversy?

Sports Illustrated created a controversy. I guess. It says so in the story so it must be true. Apparently they created a video with some women in swimsuits giving safety instructions on an airline and this is controversial. Cause it says it is.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the magazine's most famous annual edition, SI put the most famous doll in the world on some commemorative covers of this year's swimsuit issue. And that move set off quite a firestorm of controversy.

 And on Tuesday, a quintet of SI swimsuit models, led by Brinkley, appeared on monitors aboard Air New Zealand flights in the airline’s new "Safety In Paradise' video, a steamy version of that video every flight plays before taking off to cover the flight's safety rules.

Wow a "firestorm" huh? I'm guess people taking to the streets with picket signs, angry demonstrators burning bikini tops, and just a whole lot of mad faces all the way around. So let's see what all these people have to say?

And like the Barbie cover, this video starring Jessica Gomes, Chrissy Teigen, Hannah Davis and Ariel Meredith alongside Brinkley, was met with controversy, especially when a behind-the-scenes sneak peak was released last week. 

"My concern is that as a woman I get on a plane to go to a business meeting say — something serious — and I am confronted by women in bikinis in what are highly sexualised images. That jars," Dr. Deborah Russell, a lecturer and feminist commentator at New Zealand’s Massey University, told Fairfax Newspapers, according to The Telegraph. "I want to be taken seriously but it seems that suddenly they are saying that my sexuality is all that matters about me."

So Deborah Russell, a feminist professor or lecturer or whatever at Perpetually Pissed Off University is the sole source of this controversy it appears. That's it? The other 6 billion people on the planet could pretty much care less. 

Is this the face of feminism now? She sees women in swimsuits that --and I'm just going to say it-- are probably better looking than her and she's threatened and has to register her displeasure to the first dewy eyed reporter that will write the story? 

Does anyone else care about it? I mean really, is this woman really this weak that a few images "jar" her? If she wants to be taken seriously, stop whining about what other women are choosing to do.

Feminists are pathetic.