Porker of the Month

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named Senator Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) Porker of the Month for his legacy as the “King of Pork,” as he became the longest-serving Senator in U.S. history this month. Sen. Byrd has sat on the Appropriations Committee since 1959, his first year in the Senate. Since 1991, West Virginia has received $2.95 billion in pork, $1.2 billion allocated in the Senate. The state has ranked among the top four in CAGW's pork per capita every year since 2001 and became the first state to reap $1 billion in parochial projects in 1999, earning Sen. Byrd the CAGW-bestowed moniker, “King of Pork.” Despite the senator’s beneficence, justified on the premise of his state’s poor economy, decades of raiding the federal Treasury have failed to improve the lot of West Virginians, who now suffer from the third-lowest personal income per capita in the country. For his legacy of narcissism and waste, CAGW names the “King of Pork,” Sen. Robert Byrd, Porker of the Month for June 2006.

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Why Kerry Can't Win

"There are his Purple Hearts that his officers deny authorizing. There are the missing medical records needed to substantiate his decorations. There are the questions the Swifties raised about his honorable discharge, a mysterious discharge not issued until several years after he was out of the Navy and then only issued by President Jimmy Carter in the midst of his amnesty program for draft dodgers. And there is all the controversy about young Mr. Kerry's dealings with the North Vietnamese in Paris while the war was going on and he was still in the service. Doubtless there are more indelicacies to be examined. Frankly I doubt the American electorate will gain any higher opinion of a presidential candidate who in 1971 appeared before Congress to claim that American soldiers "raped, cut off ears, cut off heads" and otherwise mistreated the Vietnamese."

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US Military vs. French media — who will win?

Don't shop at Borders...and read this post by journalist Michael Yon:

"Service members have been complaining for years that they get a bad rap in the press. This is a moment of truth. Our service members, veterans and their families could topple a spin-staggered French mega-heavyweight that denigrates them with Shock, while seducing them with Car and Driver, Road and Track, Woman’s Day, Flying, Boating and others. If our people are willing to kick HFM off the bases, the world media is watching. US Military vs. French media — who will win?"

Superman Returns - Movie Review

Reviewed by Jason Apuzzo

Earlier today I had my first opportunity to watch a $260 million film. I've never seen a $260 million film on the big screen, and so I was a bit curious as to what the experience would be like.

"Superman Returns" - which is not to be confused with "Batman Begins" or "Spider-Man Reborn" or "The X-Men Get Rolling" or whatever other comic book movie has been out there lately - clocks in at about 2 1/2 hours - while feeling twice that long. It represents an attempt by Warner Brothers to restart what is thought to be the ultimate comic book franchise.

Whatever I or anybody else says about the film, the Superman franchise has definitely been restarted. When a studio pumps $260 million into a film, there is basically no point standing athwart the tide of history yelling "Stop!" The franchise is going to happen. Sequels must be made, video games must be sold. What does it matter what anybody thinks about it?

And yet it does matter what people think. All of us as audience members have our pride, and at least some of us remember when movies were better - a great deal better, actually. Some of us are romantics, you might say. And so, for what it's worth, here's what I think of director Bryan Singer's $260 million "Superman Returns":

I think it stinks. I think it's a complete waste of your time and money. I think it's a film made by idiots, for idiots - a film made for people whose standards have dropped so far they don't even remember what a good film was like.

Saying these things, I recognize that I run the risk of being called cranky or even crazy. Comic book movies these days seem to survive every market trend in Hollywood, every downturn, and so I have no doubt that "Superman Returns" will open to a massive, $100 million-or-more weekend. The people who always see these films will go see it, lots of people will leave the theater with placid smiles on their faces, so why complain? Who cares? Hey - what did Brandon Routh ever to do you?

Nothing, of course. But Brandon Routh isn't really the problem with "Superman Returns" - he's merely a symptom of it. Granted, he looks to be about ten years too young for the role, but I think Bryan Singer got what he wanted out of him. Routh comes across as a pleasant, bland, affectless Superman who will play well in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Thailand, Ecuador - or wherever else this film plays. Have you ever heard Muzak playing in an international airport lounge? That sort of vague, synthesized, colorless music that lulls you into a pleasant stupor as you wait for your next flight? That's our new, generic Superman.

Supposedly Nicolas Cage was at one point attached to this film as Superman. Personally I think that would've helped matters enormously, because if nothing else Cage has what is quaintly referred to as a personality. But this is obviously not the direction Bryan Singer wanted to go. Why? I think because personalities are funny, unpredictable things. They have rough edges. They lead people in unexpected directions. And you really can't base a $260 million franchise film on a "personality," can you?

No, you can't. Executives at Warner Brother would find that fiscally imprudent, and so what do we get instead with "Superman Returns"? We get bland, affectless actors like Kevin Spacey (playing Lex Luthor). Experts have been telling me for years that Kevin Spacey is a bona fide Hollywood "star." Really? Well, it's funny because I remember Gene Hackman playing this same role years ago, and Spacey's flat performance is an embarrassment in comparison.

You also get people like Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane. Actually, you get Kate Bosworth as hard-bitten, Pulitzer Prize-winning, mother-of-a-5-year-old Lois Lane, a role Bosworth might've been suited to if she were ten years older and a bit more careworn in the face. The problem is that Bosworth is 23, and although she might've looked great in a bikini in "Blue Crush," she doesn't have much of a personality.

Anybody sensing a pattern here?

Our new Superman, incidentally, doesn't even stand for "Truth, Justice & The American Way" anymore. Playing Daily Planet editor Perry White, Frank Langella tells us that Superman stands for "Truth and Justice . . . " and leaves it at that. The "Superman Returns" press materials tell me that Superman now stands for "truth, justice and all that is good." "All that is good" is apparently the phrase of choice when "The American Way" sounds too . . . what? Imperialistic? Jingoistic? Symptomatic of Bush-style militarism? I'm not sure, exactly.

All I know is this "American Way" stuff is now apparently too edgy and controversial for a Warner Brothers product shipped to Peru, Pakistan and Malaysia. Don't want to offend anyone!

I would normally pause at this point and discuss the "Superman Returns" plot, but characters and plotline really aren't very important here. Like most summer films, "Superman Returns" exists in order to provide one violent and spectacular FX sequence after another.

For whatever reason, incidentally, most of these sequences involve Kate Bosworth getting thrown around like a rag doll. There was a more civilized time when violence against women was kept to a minimum on screen; not anymore, apparently. Mr. Singer likes it rough.

"Superman Returns"' FX tend to be on the hyper-detailed side, and impressive. Clearly about $200 million of the film's budget was spent on FX, but after a while the visuals cease to be compelling. You just want a character, some recognizably human personality to hang on to.

You can't make a 2 1/2 hour film and not have characters - but that's basically what Singer's done here. He expects you to be 'blown away' so much that you don't notice what's missing: humanity, emotion, personality. Superior filmmakers like George Lucas and Peter Jackson use visual effects to create worlds, new environments. Singer does none of that - his New York looks no different from Spider-Man's New York, no different from any other New York - just louder and a lot more violent.

I'd like to stop the review here and make a suggestion to the powers that be in Hollywood. Hollywood spends a lot of its time and seemingly all of its money these days making superhero movies about guys with special powers. "Superman," "Spider-Man," "Batman," "X-Men," "Daredevil," "Hulk," "Fantastic Four," etc., ad nauseam. And here's the rub: I don't remember guys like Humphrey Bogart or Gary Cooper or James Cagney or John Wayne or even Harrison Ford having "special powers."

The only special powers those guys had were their fists, their wits, and their character - their substance as human beings. Most of us in life don't have 'special powers' to brood over. We're just regular Joes trying to get by, and we have a hard time relating to wonderboys like Brandon Routh or Tobey Maguire because their problems seem extremely trivial, and because while they probably look great in Zegna suits on the cover of GQ they don't look like they can take a punch. Nor do they seem to stand for much. I know what Gary Cooper stood for in his films. I have no clue what today's boyish little superheroes stand for, other than their own narcissism.

Just think this over, folks, because this comic book thing is getting really old.

"Superman Returns" opened on June 28.

Reprinted here with permission from the author.

Technorati Tags: Movies

Getting ready to change

"Dear friends,

What a strange and strangled week it has been.  The tension was building and building and for a long while there was no outlet for the increasing pressure.  But this morning, thankfully, the bubble popped and the tension began to finally relax.  The energy has been ratcheting up over the last weeks to a whole new intensity.  We are, as a group, getting ready to change.  Change can feel confrontational in that it asks us to be different.  Change isn't bad, but it surely brings up our stuff, things maybe we haven't looked at, or would rather not look at, but always, change is asking more of us.

These are powerful times we are living in.  The power of our thoughts, our word and actions are increasingly important.  This is a time to be responsible to ourselves, to keep our word, to do what we say, to walk our talk, to be congruent, knowing it's a practice and a privilege to be able to do this, or even to be conscious that we have a choice about it at all.

When we become tight, we can practice letting go.  When things become frantic, we can be calm.  When life gets complicated, we can be more simple.  

During times of change, return to the things that you know.  Go back to the basics, using the tools that you know work -- eating right, resting enough, asking for help, staying present, meditating, and any other powerful tools you know.  By taking care of yourself in these most fundamental ways, you are bringing a bit of order into the confusion. 

All of this buys you time, and it will help you sustain through the changes and keep your head up and out of the mire.  It will keep you clearheaded and openhearted.  And sooner than you think, by your simple practice, you can find your balance again.

And then simple becomes genius.

Diana Lang
THE WEATHER
©2006 by DIANA LANG

Please feel free to pass these letters along, they are a gift and a service.
If you wish to be added to or deleted from the mailing list, please let me know.

You can see archives of these reports on Diana's blog at: the WEATHER from Diana Lang

Diana Lang
from the City of Angels
818/888-7319
www.DianaLang.com

"Everything you do right now ripples outward
and affects everyone." - David Deida"

The New York Times Is Endangering My Life

As published 6/28/2006 in Bear to the Right by Gary A. Aminoff

And it's endangering your life, your children's lives, your parents lives, your grandparents lives--everyone who lives in the United States has been placed in grave jeapardy by this once-great newspaper.

The NYT Suicide Bombs Our National Security according to Maryland attorney Peter Byrnes, another outraged citizen...and there are thousands of us, if not more, rising up in protest (the New York Times has already lost thousands of subscribers over this blatant breach of national security).

The public schools in this country have produced a generation of Zinnified (and I used to like Thomas Merton) self-hating zombies who have no real compass points to follow in this dangerous world and who will, if left to their own devices, take all of us over a cliff with them.

It's a Bird...It's a Plane...

...It's a Bush!

I have a relative that can't go a day without mentioning President Bush. It doesn't matter what the subject is or what the particular activity or event, it always includes or ends with a rant about president Bush (and it is, of course, always a negative). I will be so glad when we have a new President simply to stop the endless Bush babble--it's like water torture, the endless drip, drip, drip of poison.

I was raised by a Republican (my Dad who was a self-employed marketing consultant) and a Democrat (my Mom who, like many women, was a talented multi-tasker and creator of beautiful knitwear). I remember their respect for the President of the United States of America and their pride in their country (no wonder they were called "the greatest generation").

Today I read that President Bush's approval rating has gone from 33% to 38% this month but you'd never know it from reading Al Gore's recent fund-raising email charging that Bush broke the law!: "In my view, a president who breaks the law poses a threat to the very foundation of our democracy."

What law did President Bush break?

The law of being the most powerful man in the world, natch!

After all, hasn't he been responsible for just about everything bad that happens on Planet Earth?

Forget Blofeld, Dr. No, or Goldfinger, George W. Bush and Bush alone is responsible for the hurricanes that have devastated the coast of Florida, for inflation, deflation, stagnation and stagflation, for disease and unease, for global warming (along with Jesus who, it was reported last week, was the last powerful figure to walk the earth when it was the warmest until George Bush was President), and for the actions and atrocities of all the most brutal terrorists in the world today (imagine controlling these guys--whew, how does he manage to fall asleep every night)!

There's a secret part of me that is proud to have the most powerful man in the world as MY president. The Power and The Glory for ever and ever man.

But, I suppose, all this will end in a couple of years when control is restored to us mere mortals on Planet Earth and we will all return to our normal state.

Part of me is sad.

You're on a boat

You're on a boat.

You and a few other people decide you don't like the Captain of this boat. But not only do you not like him, you hate him! In fact, you hate him so much you start planning to sink the boat in order to get rid of him.

Crazy?

Welcome to the USS America.

"The New York Times is doing one heckuva job underming U.S. national security."

"Al Qaeda has long worked to manipulate the media in its favor. It can disband that operation now, knowing that, unbidden, America's most powerful newspaper is looking out for its interests."

"I am outraged that the newspaper [Los Angeles Times] revealed classified details of a successful anti-terror operation.

"Dear Mr. Keller: Thank you for continually contributing to the deaths of my fellow soldiers."

"...what's so infuriating about this is the smugness of Bill Keller in overriding the judgment of all of our elected officials, really, and just single-handedly providing this information to terrorists, and to everyone else."

"For the second time in seven months, the [New York] Times has exposed classified information about a program aimed at protecting the American people against a repeat of the September 11 attacks. On this occasion, it has company in the effort: The Los Angeles Times runs a similar, sensational story."

You're on a boat.

Some people who don't like the Captain are trying to sink the boat in order to get rid of him.

What do you do about the people who are trying to sink the boat?

What will you do when they finally sink the boat?

If you believe in Justice, you believe in an afterlife

It's really very simple:

Justice is one of the most profound and valuable concepts ever conceived by the human mind but I knew a wonderful man who liked to say that justice was only found in the dictionary.

If you've lived long enough, you'll relate to that sense of frustration as you see time and time again that terrible people die calmly in their sleep (Stalin) or never get punished in this lifetime (al-Zarqawi).

So, here's the dilemna for those intellectual giants who don't believe in God (and usually look down on the rest of us who do):

Justice is either arbitrary (and therefore not justice at all) or there is an afterlife where justice completes itself.

You choose.

It's easy for me.

Clinton/Carter cabinet members want preemptive strike against N. Korea

This is very interesting--isn't preemption a dirty word these days?

Former V.P. Walter Mondale, and former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry have both advocated preemption against North Korea.

"This is such a legitimate thing for the United States to do...the nature of the threat is so serious that I think we should knock it out right there if they won't stop."

"...if you're getting ready to fire this, we'll take it out."

Both Perry and Ashton B. Carter (former Assistant Secretary of Defense during Clinton's first term) want Bush to launch a preemptive strike against N. Korea because "diplomacy has failed."

"U.S. Rejects Suggestion to Strike N. Korea Before It Fires Missile"

But...what if this intelligence turns out to be incorrect??? After all, we found out about the wretched state of the intelligence community the hard way didn't we? Why, Mondale and Perry would then be called liars would they not? If I were them, I'd just wanna safeguard my reputation for posterity; I'd just keep my big trap shut! I mean, who wants to be called a liar? Not me! Screw protecting the damn people of the United States! Hell, most of 'em are here illegally anyway.

Where is the fucking outrage!!!

You've heard the endless clamor over "possible torture" at Gitmo, the "rights" of terrorists, the poor child rapists, the this and the that. So many hands that are wringing, so many worried and furrowed brows, so much fucking concern.

E.D. Hill at Fox News has a response, following the UN-godly mutilation-torture of two young servicemen recently kidnapped, tortured and killed in Iraq:

"So what do they say when torture OBVIOUSLY occurs? How do they react when two U.S. servicemen — in Geneva Convention-approved uniforms — have their hearts cut out, their testicles cut off, their penises cut off and stuffed in their mouths, arms contorted and eyes gouged? THIS is torture."

An attorney in Maryland has written something you--and every Amercian--must read if you need ANY clarification of this issue:

Silence on Butchery, Whining at Guantanamo

May their souls be at peace and their eternal home be in the true paradise where decent human beings are welcomed: Army Pfc. Thomas Tucker and Pfc. Kristian Menchaca.

A Sadist's God

Would a sadist's god be a sadist or a masochist?

A sadist's god would have to be a sadist because torture, cruelty and sheer terror are worshipped by a sadist.

So, what do you s'pose the sadist's god will reward his sadist worshipper with after the sadist dies???

72 virgins or...?

If you really loved me, you'd call me on your cell phone

"I know that 999 out of a thousand cell phone conversations are totally unnecessary. Who am I, you ask, to decide which calls are necessary and which aren't? Easy. A necessary call is one made to the auto club, letting them know you've run out of gas on the Hollywood Freeway, or a call to let someone know you're running a half-hour late because you got stuck behind some idiot who ran out of gas on the Hollywood Freeway. Otherwise, what's so urgent? As you see them posing all over town with their tiny phones, their brows furrowed in feigned concentration, pretending to be oblivious to everything around them, you can almost pity the poor souls. Who do they think they're fooling with their little charades? Are we supposed to assume that President Bush just called, wanting to know what to do about the Middle East peace talks, or that [Ben Bernanke] phoned, wanting to know if he should raise or lower the prime rate?... The fact is, none of us are buying the routine. We all know that you're just gossiping with your cousin Shirley or lying about your golf score or yakking incessantly about 'The Apprentice'. There's no harm in it... It just seems so darn goofy. The real mystery remains, why would anybody want to pack around a telephone? Is it possible that I am the only person in the world who doesn't want to be reachable 24 hours a day?" —Bert Prelutsky

Do you know what every father wants this Father's Day?

"If you are a dad, like me, you'll feel that your kids are one of the most important factors of your life. One of a father's greatest joys is to hear the words from your son or daughter, "I love you Dad." These are special moments that you keep and cultivate forever.

However, if you've gone through divorce, you will know the anger, grief and Loss that comes from the experience. You might not even get to see your kids as often as you like, or at all. And your friends don't know how to treat you, nor your former partner.

Moreso, loneliness is a thunder that depletes your inner core. As a result of many years of life without friends, you may feel unloved, and sometimes even desperate for a friend. Even worse, how do we go about making friends, once again?

When we were kids, we didn't need to worry about life and relationships. These things "just happened" along the way to adulthood.

Finally, we arrived at an age where we are recognised as being an "adult". That is, we were legally allowed to drink, drive, marry, vote. We were expected to pay our bills and keep our morals high.

However for many fathers, and men, this reality becomes too much to handle. Every day is a crisis. Work is a bore. Your family situation is a complete mess. You desperately want it all to end - but you know you can't get off the treadmill.

Your finances to keep your family alive are tied to your job. And so is your sense of satisfaction - though that also has disappeared. Which leaves you feeling trapped and emotionally void.

This can produce angry arguments that flare up at home. And just one situation can blow your credibility with family and neighbours.

Next thing you may have police turn up on your doorstep and question you. You may spend hours down the station answering their belittling questions. Being fingerprinted and photographed with your records on file. "I'm not even a bad person!" you moan.

Now let me come back to my first question:

"Do you know what every father wants this father's day?"

For most men, they want:
- to be told that they are loved
- to know that they are appreciated
- to be forgiven
- to be given the right to start over, once again
- to know that the past can be forgotten
- to feel the warmth of a loving partner
- to know ... that it is all worth it

If you want to do one thing for your dad this weekend, then prepare yourself and do this:
- give your dad a phone call
- talk about what has hurt him most
- listen to his story, just listen
- tell him how much that meant to you to hear his story
- tell him you forgive him
- tell him you want to start a new chapter
- tell him that you believe it will work
- thank him for being there for you all your life

This is the process of change that can dramatically impact your dad's life. Your relationship with him can start afresh.

It is not enough to struggle through life and hold on to our hurts, our grief and our pain. We need to deal with the issues that we picked up early in life. Get our lives back in control again.

This is a free-ing experience.

We become free to love, to laugh, to smile, to forgive. The past is forgotten, and the future isn't written yet. "The future is what you make it." (Doc, Back to the Future III)

If you have lost your dad, then you can still take action. Sometimes a person who has died can rule our lives even more than when they were alive.

Do you think that your dad is still controlling your life from the grave?

Then forgive him.

Put away the past. Move on. Create a new tomorrow.

It is time to start a new chapter. Keep your dad in mind this fathers day.

===============================================
Copyright (c) 2006 Bradley Smith www.easterjvgiveaway.com
You may freely reproduce this article though you must keep the resource box with it.
===============================================

Technorati Tags: Love

"I don't see why people care about patriotism."

"The entire country may disagree with me, but I don't understand the necessity for patriotism," Maines resumes, through gritted teeth. "Why do you have to be a patriot? About what? This land is our land? Why? You can like where you live and like your life, but as for loving the whole country… I don't see why people care about patriotism."

--vocalist Natalie Maines of The Dixie Chicks.

Well, because, for one thing, so many, many people have died in order to give you the freedom to open your big, empty head and emit communications about things you know nothing about (history, geopolitics) and, for another thing, you would not be able to do what you do and earn what you earn in, say, for example, Saudi Arabia (where women can't even drive) or, say for another example, even be able to expose that head in order to emit these ideas because you would be forced to observe hijab, or purdah.

Duh.

Technorati Tags: Politics

Shameless and Irresponsible

"Unlawful command influence..."

Congressman Murtha did not say which Marine commanders told him that our boys were guilty of murder as he busied himself with prejudicing the jury in advance, but he may soon be required to do so in court.

One of those boys has a lawyer that's not going to let the fact that a Corps' top officer may, if Murtha is telling the truth, have ruined their chances for a fair trial.

Murtha, as we only just discovered, has grand political illusions which requires him to step over the dead bodies of all his fellow marines on his way to the top, but what would be the motive of the commandant? Or was Murtha lying about that too?

Marine may call Murtha as witness
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
June 15, 2006

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"Why I Left The Left"

"I used to be a liberal. I was in one of the first "open" classrooms growing up in very progressive Great Neck, New York, in the 1960s. In 1971, when I was 11, I wrote vitriolic letters to President Nixon demanding an end to the Vietnam War. My first vote, in 1980, was for Independent John Anderson, followed by Mondale, Dukakis, and Clinton-Gore."

Seth Swirsky, "songwriter, author, recording artist and memorabilia collector" cast his first Republican vote in 2004 and he REALLY tells it like it is!

I challenge any Democrat to read this article!

Technorati Tags: Politics

Scientists respond to Gore's warnings of climate catastrophe

"Carter does not pull his punches about Gore's activism, "The man is an embarrassment to US science and its many fine practitioners, a lot of whom know (but feel unable to state publicly) that his propaganda crusade is mostly based on junk science.""

Click Here to read more!

It's Flag Day!

Betsy Ross with the first flag

On 14 June 1777, the Marine Committee of the Continental Congress adopted a resolution, which gave birth to our National Flag. The resolution read: "Resolved that the Flag of the United States be made of 13 stripes, alternate red and white, that the union be 13 stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation."

"This flag, which we honor and under which we serve, is the emblem of our unity, our power, our thought and purpose as a nation. It has no other character than that which we give it from generation to generation... Though silent, it speaks to us—speaks to us of the past, of the men and women who went before us, and of the records they wrote upon it." —Woodrow Wilson

‘Amnesty John' McCain

"Senator McCain has never been a friend to rank-and-file Border Patrol agents," says the union. "He routinely ignores correspondence from Border Patrol agents and often gives the impression that he is just too big and too important to deal with us. He attempts to undermine our mission at every turn and actively supports the criminals who violate our laws. He always tries to downplay the fact that illegal aliens knowingly and willingly violate our laws."