Quote of the Day

1st District Congressman David Davis:

"One of the generals said, ‘Congressman, there is a 5-year-old lying in a bed tonight somewhere in America that will be over here fighting this war in the future if we don’t finish it now."

The quote is from this story in today's KNS.

Worth noting is that Davis, as well as most other recent congressional tours of the war-torn country, was escorted in armored vehicles or viewed the scene from a helicopter. Most all reports include as well that such 'tourists' are outfitted in personal armor and helmets, too. I sure would not want to be out and about without them in Iraq, something all reporters have come to realize too.

It seems very easy to say that there is less chaos today than there was last year -- but chaos is the operative word. And despite any improvements on the ground in Iraq, it seems more important to me that the Taliban is returning to strength in portions of Afghanistan and in safe-havens in Pakistan. Why? Because Pakistan already has nuclear weapons, far more important than "trying to build a nuclear weapons program".

Sophie Moved to Undisclosed Secret Location

So many emails and comments have come in regarding Sophie and her recovery after being on the run from nefarious evil-doers late last week that an update is in order.

She has been whisked away from the rolling hills of Talbott to an Undisclosed Secret Location. I say if it's good enough for Cheney, it's more than good for Sophie, too.

Part One of the Relocation story and Part Two of the Relocation Story.

The End Of Bat Boy and (Un)Real Reporting?

I hated to tell Newscoma today's bad news, which also made her say the same as I: NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

But the reports appear to be true -- the Weekly World News is about to cease publication.

I still own the first copy of WWN I ever saw, with the daring news report and banner front page headline: Priest's Head Explodes During Exorcism!

What will become of Bat Boy?? And I say America needs Ed Anger!

Does US Response Empower bin Laden?

Congress voted last week to double the reward for information aiding the capture of terrorist Osama bin Laden.

But longtime newsman and commentator Ted Koppel says the checkbook is a lousy weapon and he is most correct.

GOP Effort To Nullify the Constitution

Cutting off debate and votes in Congress, especially in today's modern-now-a-go-go-world, where the most discussion of the President's plans for warfare have taken place after the Congress and the media has approved of those plans --- just makes little sense and serves the public not at all.

The recent stunt in the US Senate by the GOP minority to squelch a vote on Iraq War Funding is part of an ever growing trend in completely altering the way government operates. Used to be that the Senate would take a vote where the majority is all that was needed to send legislation to the President, which he could veto if he wished and the legislation would come back and more debate would occur.

Trying to "veto-proof" the vote in the Senate is the same as nullifying the role and presence of the Senate and pushes our country one step closer to rule by a single office holder.

A fascinating assessment of the trend to block votes indicates the current session of Congress is on track to triple the record of blocked votes. (via McClatchey):

"Nearly 1 in 6 roll-call votes in the Senate this year have been cloture votes. If this pace of blocking legislation continues, this 110th Congress will be on track to roughly triple the previous record number of cloture votes — 58 each in the two Congresses from 1999-2002, according to the Senate Historical Office."

Triple -- meaning as many as 153 blocked votes in the current trend.

Both parties have done this, no doubt, but the current GOP, including TN Senators Alexander and Corker, are in lock step with the party to shred the role the Senate is meant to play.

Please Meet Safe Sophie, And The Editor Speaks

Let me introduce The Editor to you here, who is the true owner of Sophie (I was adopted by Sophie as her friend and caretaker, as I mostly work from here at the house whenever possible, and caretaker is a rank I hold with some honor, thank you very much.) Along the post here are pictures of the safe-at-home Sophie, just click on them to see larger images and I'd like to add that I hope The Editor could find the time to blog more often, but she is a most busy woman: (NOTE: the story of Sophie's misadventures begins here and continues here. Now, The Editor)

To everyone:

Thank you so much for the outpouring of support while Sophie was missing. It meant so much to all of us here at Casa de Fleaflicker.

When the phone rang this morning and Joe held the phone up to the bowl where Sophie was gulping down water... well I can't tell you how much happiness and relief I felt. It was better than 1,000 Christmases. When I got to the vet and saw my poor beat up baby, I cried tears of happiness as well as worry. Although she is "OK" in the sense that she has neither internal damage or broken bones, she is pretty tattered after her "adventure." think it almost compares to what she looked like when I adopted her--but not quite. The $200 vet bill wasn't much of a surprise (of course, Kelvis topped me on big vet bills when she told me about her cat, Dynamite's, little string incident--this may force her to comment on or write about it herself), but I was more than happy to pay it if it meant by baby was home.

Right now Sophie is sleeping likes she deserves it (and dammit, she does), and I suspect she'll be doing quite a bit of sleeping to make up for lost couch time (and then some). She'll be going back to the vet in 2 weeks to see how she's doing (she takes thyroid medication and was off it for 3 days, so we have to get her back up to snuff on that) and to get her nails clipped (I wasn't about to bring that "injustice" upon her today--it can wait). (Joe adds, no I had her nails clipped today, as the vet recommended.)

Any way, while I have you all here huddled around what is normally Joe's soap box, I wanted to say a few words about pit bulls.

A long while back on my oft-ignored blog, I ran a post on pit bulls after Sophie tagged me in a friendly wrestling match. Link

Over the course of the last 21 years, I've owned or co-owned or co-habitated with a number of pitties, and let me tell you: they are my number one choice of dog. Not as a watch dog, because most all of the ones I've known have been piss poor watch dogs. Sophie is the case in point: she didn't scare intruders out of our house. An intruder had to manhandle her out onto the deck where I imagine her general freaked-outedness at the prospect of thunder and rain finally frustrated the bastard (for the sake of you humble readers, I am not using nearly as strong of an expletive as I'd like in describing this perp) to the point where he (she? nah... HE) gave up.



Pits are the most misunderstood, maligned, misrepresented, and mistreated dog breeds out there today. Shelters all over have no adopt policies on them (mo matter how socially well-rounded the dog). Denver and a number of other cities have banned them (and any dog that even "looks" like a pit). Drug dealers and other criminal elements buy them up, breed them with bull mastiffs and other large dogs and then call them pits, which leads politicos gunning for some half-assed public safety vote to call any dog that is bred with a pit bull a "pit bull" (so if I breed a chihuahua and a Great Dane, then it's still a chihuahua, right?).

American Pit Bull Terriers (real pit bulls, not these 130 lb testosteroid mixes) aren't BIG dogs. They should weigh about 55 - 70 lbs max (Sophie is 70 lbs, but she's also a chubber wubber). They shouldn't stand to your waist; they should be about knee height, and they SHOULD LOVE PEOPLE. They are a terrier breed, so their original purpose was to go after other animals--on the pit bull's case, to take down 2000+ lb bulls for farmers or to aid hunter downing wild boars. But the breed was also meant to be the family dog. Bad people have exploited a pittie's strengths. Stupid people have disregarded a pittie's positive attributes. One of my great worries while Sophie was out and about was that some chucklehead would see a "crazed pit bull," pull out his shot gun, and shoot her. I'm already fairly sure that whomever broke into Casa de Fleaflicker came exclusively for the dog--probably to use as a breeder (until they maybe discovered she was fixed) or as a bait dog.

I'm going to put some links on this site for you to check out if you have a few minutes. I will fight for the healthy continuation of this breed. PeTA won't, and for that reason won't ever get my support. How is calling for the euthanasia of an entire breed "ethical treatment?" Pit bulls continue to rank as amongst the highest scoring dogs in canine temperament.

For the Love of Pit Bulls is a great site if you want the real score on what these good ol dawgs go through.

Pit Bull Rescue Central will help hook you up with a pit.

This site gives an excellent overview of The APBT.

There are LOTS of good sites out there.
But here are some videos I want you to see. (Warning: the second video is HARD to watch if you aren't ready... get a box of tissues if you are prone to tearing up.)

Otherwise, be kind to your animals, and they will be kind to you. Love your animal, and they will be kind to you.

Sophie Is Home!

About 8:30 this morning, found by a neighbor who saw her sitting in the grassy median of the very busy 11-E highway. Sure glad it was a Saturday and traffic was light!

Off to the vet with her now, but she seems to be in good health - dehydrated, hungry and scratched up and shivering.

More details later.

I cannot help but think all the voices added yesterday to ours of "Please, Universe, bring Sophie back!" were most valuable. Thanks to all.

UPDATE: The vet says Sophie, the now most popular dog in Talbott, TN and across the internets, only suffered some scrapes and some heavy stress on her system. She is home on the couch snoring now, having had some deeee-lcious food (just a little until her system gets back to normal) and that is as fine a thing as I hoped for today.

All of you who expressed such concern have my deep appreciation and thanks.

Once I have gathered my wits, I'll put up some pics of the safe-at-home Sophie.

The word for today is -- Woot!!!

A Single Strand of Hope

In a few short hours today my world drove straight down deep into a pocket of hell.

And I am still in this pocket, with perhaps one or two bits of light streaming down into it. I don't even know if I want to explain it or post it but I am likely to be absent for a few days until this situation changes.

Between 3:30 and 6:15, I was out of the house doing a brief job, which I'll call tech support. When I got home, the dog was gone -- which means some unknown person had to come inside, let the dog out onto the back deck apparently, and the dog, dear Sophie she is to one and all, who is terrified of thunderstorms, was put outside during a thunderstorm, and clawed her way through the railings and she was off and gone and she is not here.

It's a weird locked room mystery - nothing in the house missing save dear Sophie. Did some demon tormentor attempt the theft of the dog and she simply escaped on her own? So it appears.

Gone, gone and all my fault because I was not here. I am not seeking pity on this. Its just the way I feel, and for the next few days each ounce of energy I have is going to searching for Sophie.

I'll be back when I've taken hold of Sophie in my chubby hands and until then all I want to do is search. Writing sucks and leaves ashes in my mouth and my view of all humankind is beyond bleak, as some human attempted to hurt the animal who is kind enough to let me share her home.

It's after one a.m. and I won't sleep much tonight. I don't give two diddly-shits how indulgent it is to have a pet who spends most of her time sleeping on the couch or on my bed snoring and watching TV. Causing harm to Sophie is the same as causing harm to any of my human family and my pacifism evaporates. My affinity for dogs has been expressed in these pages before.

Again, none of this post is meant to elicit your pity or sympathy, but I do feel compelled to explain that this blog is interrupted until I've seen the single strand of hope lead to some exit from this particular corner of ugly.

UPDATE: I cannot say how much I deeply appreciate all the readers and bloggers who've been adding us to their own list of hopes, prayers and good vibes. In fact, I just learned some positive info from a neighbor I talked to so your efforts have had some results -- a neighbor saw her running down a street close to our house, Ronald Drive. So now we know she did escape -- no idea how she got out though - and was running fult tilt during the thuderstorm yesterday about 5:30 or 6 p.m..

But now I know a direction.

She is about a 7 to 8 year old pit bull, all white with a brindle spot on top of her head and on her butt, wears a purple harness and I've added a picture of her. I live on the edge of Jefferson and Hamblen county and she was running in the direction of Jefferson.

She is a very people-friendly dog, but very terrified of thunder and rain, so the past 24 hours has made her scared and shy and she is likely hiding out. She will respond kindly to food and treats and here is a full set of the dear pup on The Editor's Flickr page and you can see what a lovable creature she is, somewhat spoiled and deeply loved by the Editor and me and all our family.

If I do get new info I will add it a new post.

And all of your good will is making a difference in finding her, bringing her home and making me think better of humanity in general. I have called many local officials and friends old and new and they all are doing whatever they can to help. Thank you all very, very much.

Manualist Virtuoso Plays One of a Kind Music

I have no woirds to describe the talents and feats of stunning musical achievement this guy has documented via some 37 videos on YouTube. He does jazz, heavy metal, classical, pop, and blues songs with such intense concentration and effort that I am speechless.

According to his page on MySpace, he has been a "manualist" for 37 years, is married, lives in Michigan and is a gun shop owner. To millions of viewers on YouTube, he is simply, Gunecologist.

Selecting just one of his performances to offer here, I had to go with Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. WARNING: repeated viewings could lead to insane laughter and imprint his songs in your brain permanently.



A full list of his performances is here. The amount of time, devotion and effort for all that music makes me wonder what his wife thinks. Perhaps his dexterity won her over. Or maybe she stays at her sister's a lot.

Smokin', Fishin' and of course, Zombies

Even though the smoking ban in public places in Tennessee does not go into full effect until October 1st, a woman who lit up a cigarette in an East Tennessee eatery found herself threatened with arrest. Though as best as I could discern, the law states an offending smoker is to be fined only.

WATE-TV filed a report on the story out of Newport. Two officers needed to arrest her? Perhaps she should be happy they didn't call out a SWAT team.

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On a competing Knox TV station, WBIR, the story they felt compelled to tell was about a group of gals who fish for catfish with their bare hands. Thre's even a DVD for it, called "Girls Gone Grabblin'". You have to admire (well, I do anyway) the ad copy, which says: "Be one of the first to watch & be amazed as 35 Southern Women bring you the thrill of catching catfish weighing up to 44lbs. with their hands and wrestling them to the bank."

Everyone say Yee-haw! A person would have to wrestle me to the ground if they ever expected me to eat catfish, no matter who catches it. Well, maybe Scarlett Johansson could, as long as she's willing to wrestle me to the ground first

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Speaking of news and women (and fishin'), it was the mighty newswoman, known as Newscoma, who clued me in last week to a zombie movie I had no knowledge of, a Lucio Fulci movie which boasts a scene of a zombie attacking a shark. Bets are the shark fired his agent shortly after this was made.



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Meanwhile, from up north, Ms. McGee points out that a manical shambling half-body zombie is available for purchase. There is a video on the website.

On The Senate's Debate About Iraq and War

As I write this, the U.S. Senate is voting on whether or not they will vote on the Levin-Reed amendment, which demands overall changes to the way war is waged in Iraq. With 60 yes votes needed in order to proceed, it fell short, with 52 votes.

After watching much of the debates, here are some thoughts I'd like to share.

There are sound reasons for the Senate in Washington to debate the policies and issues regarding not only the war in Iraq but also the 'so-called' Global War on Terror. While I heard some senators, such as John McCain, Mitch McConnell and others complain the debate is a 'waste of time' or 'usurping the president's authority', where else but in a vote on the funding mechanisms of the war should elected officials publicly debate the policies involved? It was with wisdom the founders of the nation gave different branches of government different responsibilities when it comes to waging war and creating policy in general.

The majority of the nation is debating the war policies and has been for many many months. The reason the GOP lost their majority in Congress is because voters wanted a new approach, new debate, new consideration of how best to succeed. It was a clear signal that the public demands challenges to the President's policies, even if it is a certainty that the U.S. Senate cannot alter the course of the Bush/Cheney war policy.

Serious debate on our policies is an indication of the strength of the nation, not a sign of weakness, Weakness is to abandon legislative oversight and debate. There were many veterans groups in Washington yesterday to call for a 'staying of the course' and many were there to challenge such a plan and call for change.

The elected officials in Iraq are the ones who need to exert the maximum effort to control their own country, to be responsible for securing safety and charting the course for their own future. The U.S. attention needs to be focused on terror threats that have been increasing their capabilities.

I watched many hours of the debate in the Senate last night and this morning, and did not find it a stunt or a manufactured drama. It was one of the few times I heard serious debate about how best to find success, as the current course has not brought success. I heard some of the logic (or lack of it) from members of both sides of the Senate on what has happened and what should or could happen. Media coverage mocking the discussions misses the point of the debate entirely.

Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana spoke most forcefully last night on the fact that the current policy has abandoned an earnest effort to capture or kill bin Laden and his top leaders. She also rebuked the senior senator from Tennessee in her speech. You can hear and see her speech via this link.

She also introduced legislation as well, making the destruction of al-Qaeda our top priority:

"Introduced as an amendment to H.R. 1585, the Defense Authorization Bill, the proposal states that "it shall be the policy of the United States Government that the foremost objective of the United States in the Global War on Terrorism is to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and other leaders of al Qaeda, and to dismantle the al Qaeda network."

The Landrieu plan repositions U.S. troops from Iraq to Afghanistan to root out and combat al Qaeda forces, authorizes $3.6 billion for counter-terror programs in the region and reestablishes Alec Station, the CIA mission to hunt down Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants.

The mission had been aborted last year after the Bush Administration determined that bin Laden no longer posed a threat to the United States. An intelligence report due out today, however, is expected to describe al Qaeda's strength as having returned to pre-9/11 levels.

"Our brave soldiers and Marines, sailors and airmen, answered the duty call of 9/11," Sen. Landrieu said. "But our nation's focus has been misdirected, allowing al Qaeda to flourish while the White House pursues a flawed strategy in Iraq. Nearly six years after orchestrating the deaths of 2,997 people, Osama bin Laden remains at large, rebuilding his network to strike again. Holding him and the other perpetrators of that horrible day to account can be no less than our foremost priority. We must redouble our efforts to deliver justice where it is due, root out evil where it hides and destroy al Qaeda's capacity to act out its desire to destroy America."

Consistent with the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, the Landrieu proposal boosts support for Afghan Security Forces and NATO forces in Afghanistan and for increased security cooperation inside Pakistan. It also adds funding for translators and translation technologies, drug interdiction and counter-drug activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and operations to secure the Pakistani and Iranian borders.

As the U.S. draws down combat forces in Iraq, the Landrieu amendment would limit the mission of remaining combat troops to protecting U.S. and Coalition personnel and infrastructure; training, equipping and providing logistical support for the Iraqi Security Forces; and conducting targeted counter-terrorism operations. Combat resources could then be repositioned as needed to support the bolstered mission of Operation Enduring Freedom and the NATO International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

Under the Landrieu plan, every unit deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan would be required to meet the baseline C-1 readiness standard. Units would not be permitted to deploy without the proper training and full complement of equipment required for their specific mission.

"Where al Qaeda and other terrorist groups exist in Iraq, this plan would continue to empower our forces to strike, and strike hard," Sen. Landrieu said. "But a fish rots from the head, and we've spent too much time chasing the tail. We must make sure our skilled men and women in combat have the clear mission and full resources they need to focus their fight at the top, where it belongs."

The Strategy of Confusion

There are as many confusing and conflicting opinions about the war in Iraq and the 'war on terror' as there are stars in the sky. The dim light of these distant objects are somehow the basis of mystical interpretations, indicating signs and wonders of what may be or may not be. I'm surprised we aren't getting cable news updates from outside the cave of the Oracle of Delphi.

"Within the last week we have been told that Al Qaeda is weaker, Al Qaeda is stronger, Al Qaeda is coming, Al Qaeda is here, and that we are fighting them in Iraq so we don’t have to fight them here except, somehow, maybe, they’ve found there way to our shores. Add to this Homeland Security Chief Chertoff’s “gut feeling” that we will be attacked even though there is no credible evidence. (via TPM)

Then today comes another assessment, which has been three-years in the making, that America is facing a persistent threat, but it's worse in Europe.

Maybe these claims and warnings are all just Weapons of Mass Confusion, driven by the idea that the nation's leaders should never be specific about success or failure in order to confuse The Enemy. But my 'gut feeling' is that the leadership is some seriously sad disarray.

For sheer obscenity, however, nothing tops this company which is selling fake boobs to support the troops.

We have no need of fake boobs, there is enough boobishness already.

UPDATE: Also see this post from R. Neal. I saw the 'press briefing' he mentioned and it was hardly informative but was quite confusing.

North Carolina Scandals Outshine Tennessee

It is not just the Tennessee legislature which has been troubled with ethics violations and bad behavior from elected officials. I think one North Carolina official may have just earned the prize for Worst Legislator of the Year.

While the Tennessee Waltz sting, uncovering bribery, saw two more legislators, Crutchfield and Bowers, enter guilty pleas, the hallways of the state capitol in North Carolina were abuzz with some mighty strange and deranged behavior from a two-term GOP state representative, David Almond.

He resigned late last week in the wake of allegations from a female staffer who says Almond exposed himself to her and chased her about the office uttering some pretty vile stuff. Even more ugly is the fact that Almond was vice-chair on a state committee for children, youth and families.

At least he resigned pretty much immediately, avoiding a legislative investigation. And though Crutchfield and Bowers have been charged with accepting a few thousand dollars in bribe money, the scandals (yes, plural) in the N.C. legislature involve bribes of half a million dollars, and the bad news just keeps arriving.

So I guess the good news is, some states have it worse than Tennessee. In Alaska, for another example, elected officials now have to undergo 'ethics training.' Tennessee's efforts to create an 'ethical environment', sadly, are not faring well either.

I'm A Lefty?

I suppose it's official now -- I'm a 'left-leaner' in the political landscape. At least Michael thinks so, and adds that I'm on his regular blog-reading list, and I am much appreciative of the mention.

I have never been a member of any of the political party systems active in America today, and in fact, the first time I was old enough to vote in a presidential election, I voted for John Anderson. (Yeah, who??) I think I still have a button from his campaign. It wasn't because I agreed with much of his very conservative GOP history, it was more of a vote against the other two candidates.

Over the years, I have rather sadly learned that there is much truth to the fact that the majority of voters cast votes based on who they are against rather than who they are for. These days, I sometimes vote for a Democrat candidate and sometimes a GOP candidate. I try and learn about who the candidate is, what they propose or claim they might do if elected and so my votes seldom if ever hew to a single party.

What does trouble me is that the last decade or so has seen the worth of an Independent voter (and thinker) has been marginalized as merely fodder for one party or the other. Folks seem to perceive their vote and their voice as less than a minor influence.

Here in Hamblen County, we have a Democrat state representative, John Litz, and a GOP state senator, Steve Southerland. If you counted monetary efforts, however, the GOP rules. As for news sources - a single company owns the press and radio - which means a singular viewpoint is the only offering. So be it. If the residents wanted to change it, they would have to battle for it, and they seem not interested in doing so.

Briefly, from the summer of 2001 to the summer of 2005, I hosted a daily live talk-radio show in Hamblen County, until that station was sold (and is now part of the single-owner world). At times I know I came across as a Liberal, sometimes as a Conservative. But I know what ultimately led to the demise of the show was simply that I offered a free and open forum for discussion. Such a forum was viewed as a dangerous thing. Most listeners responded to the show as some sort of Rorschach ink-blot: what they perceived had more to do with them than with what was aired on my show.

Readers here know my penchant for writing endlessly about movies, so that's gotta make me a Liberal Lefty. I even own DVDs with subtitles. so I may even be some kinda Socialist.

Later this month, this blog will start it's third year of existence. And in that time, I expected to see many other blogs from across the counties of the 1st District appear. That really hasn't happened. I know there are some in this county who have MySpace pages, but a daily blog? I see none. And I have only seen a handful appear in any of the other counties. Yet, from Knoxville/Chattanooga and to the west, they are constantly appearing and they are most vocal. The optimist in me thinks the lack of eastern blogs is is more indicative of a lack of internet access than any other cause. The pessimist says folks here in ET play it very close to the vest and seldom speak out publicly, due to lack of ever doing much of it.

For a variety of reasons, I have always held that everyone is entitled to my opinion. And God bless the internets for allowing me to write and publish on a worldwide basis without the need for corporate support or advertising dollars. Yeah, I do this for free. (which may make me more of an idiot than a lefty or a conservative).

As I say in my profile for this blog, you have to come back more than once to read here to learn what I'm about. There are some political thoughts I have been most adamant about, however, and these are just some of them:

-- The current administration in the Oval Office has made one hell of a mess of domestic and foreign issues. For them, the ends justify all means. I often doubt if the nation can resolve the mess in less than a decade.

-- Lobbyists and business and wealth are weighted with greater importance than the individual, and the end result of that is an ever-decreasing sense of individual worth. That could cripple this nation in endless ways and make a mockery of the sacrifices of many.

-- The object of three branches of the federal government are meant to challenge each other, in hopes that the better policy prevails. Phrases like "unitary executive" are counter to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

-- Rabid partisanship is doing more harm to the nation than any other force, deflecting criticism as anti-American is a sign of tremendous and debilitating weakness.

I read blogs to learn about many things other than politics and will write here on many topics other than politics. My goals here have been to improve my own writing skills, to share other sites which exhibit the same, and to sometimes challenge myself and you, dear reader. Often I enjoy offering an idea or a link that just provides amusement and entertainment. It's a big ol' internet and it grows in size every day.

Your views may differ from mine and you are free to express such in the comments here, as long as you don't get nasty just to get nasty. Pointless bullying is and always has been a game of children who are victims of self-loathing.

OK, time to get off this particular topic. as their are some other topics to provide as the day progresses.

Thanks for reading and having a Cup of Joe.

Outsourcing the CIA

"In April, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell was poised to publicize a year-long examination of outsourcing by U.S. intelligence agencies. But the report was inexplicably delayed -- and suddenly classified a national secret. What McConnell doesn't want you to know is that the private spy industry has succeeded where no foreign government has: It has penetrated the CIA and is running the show.

Over the past five years (some say almost a decade), there has been a revolution in the intelligence community toward wide-scale outsourcing. Private companies now perform key intelligence-agency functions, to the tune, I'm told, of more than $42 billion a year. Intelligence professionals tell me that more than 50 percent of the National Clandestine Service (NCS) -- the heart, brains and soul of the CIA -- has been outsourced to private firms such as Abraxas, Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon." (Via the Washington Post)

The above story was penned by writer R.J. Hillhouse, who also writes her own blog, The Spy Who Billed Me. She also happens to have a new novel out, titled "Outsourcing", a fictional thriller about the privatization of the intelligence community, and whose sales will likely benefit from her article in the Washington Post.

Her site includes this description of herself:

"Dr. Hillhouse has run Cuban rum between East and West Berlin, smuggled jewels from the Soviet Union and slipped through some of the world’s tightest borders. From Uzbekistan to Romania, she's been followed, held at gunpoint and interrogated. Foreign governments and others have pitched her for recruitment as a spy. (They failed.)

A former professor and Fulbright fellow, Dr. Hillhouse earned her Ph.D. in political science at the University of Michigan.

Camera Obscura - 'Cloverfield' Clues; New 'Barbarella'; Steve Martin Goes Spy Thriller; Peckinpah

The real buzz getting ramped up from the 'Transformers' movie is the teaser trailer shown with it for a movie which is so far being called "Cloverfield", from producer J.J. Abrams. Much secrecy has surrounded the making of this relatively low-budget ($3 million) feature, so much that movie fans are wondering just what the heck it is about -- some claim it's a new take on 'Godzilla', but some tricky and puzzle-oriented web sites have been cropping up on the Web which seems to discount all that.
(NOTE: For the full and complete rundown on every aspect of "Cloverfield", go to this post and scroll down to the last item. Every "Cloverfield" detail is there.)

And Abrams loves to pose mysterious and convoluted plots ("Lost"). Some clues to the movie were offered via a website called Ethan Haas Was Right. (NOTE: Despite the report from Scott Weinberg, thie Haas webiste is about a videofame -- his error which I mentioned here, so not my error. For more info, go here.) You'll have to solve the little puzzle box on the site (really a sphere, not a box) and then you see a grainy, garbled transmission of some sorts. It seems to point to a movie more based in apocalyptic sci-fi and perhaps some kinda alien deal. Kudos to Abrams for providing yet another mystery for fans to ponder on and about.

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Robert Rodriguez sure seems to be working hard at a host of new movies (he has announced he will make a feature version of the movie "Machete", which was one of the fake trailers in 'Grindhouse") and is now set to direct a new version of the old sci-fi movie "Barbarella". Rumors are swirling about who will have the the title role -- and now comes mention of Halle Berry in the part. The script is being made by the writers of the recent James Bond hit, "Casino Royale." As for me, I'm wondering who'll play the part of Duran Duran?

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Comedian. writer and wild 'n crazy guy Steve Martin is turning his attention to a spy thriller, called "Traitor," based on a story he pitched a few years ago. Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce are set to star in the movie as undercover CIA and FBI agents chasing the same group of villains. DIrector Jeff Nachmanoff wrote the goofy-but-enjoyable "Day After Tomorrow" and is now working on a film adaptation of the video game Prince of Persia.

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I watched a movie the other night which sent me time-traveling through movie experiences of the past and am compelled to write about it.

During summer vacations when I was a kid, my dad and I (sometimes my sister) always made time to check out a few movies. Since no theaters were close to our town, it was a huge treat to see a new movie on the big screen. I often wonder how my dad found some of the movies he took us to watch, but I think his guiding muse was The Western.

Back one hot summer day in Nashville, in the days when theaters were gigantic art-deco cathedrals of entertainment (and Nashville seemed to me to be a city crammed with such cathedrals), he picked a movie with Steve McQueen as a rodeo rider called "Junior Bonner." It was the first time I had ever seen a Sam Peckinpah movie, and it would be some years before I saw any other of his movies. Dad seldom talked much about the movies we saw but I do recall him saying after we left the movie "That was a great movie."

"Junior Bonner" is hardly typical of Peckinpah's violent Westerns, but it does focus on elements to be found in the best of his work: characters who seem to be lost in time and keenly aware the modern world has little, if any place, for them. The past and the future collide, but in this movie the story is told through the lives of a diverse family, some who live in the past and some who embrace the future, and all looking for a way to stay true to their dreams and each other. It's certainly a kinder-gentler Peckinpah, and one which expresses much love among the characters though not through words and speeches, but through their actions and the quiet power of Peckinpah's imagery.

The movie is a quiet and simple elegy to family and to the once rustic town of Prescott, Arizona. Several scenes were filmed in the Palace Bar - a rowdy saloon built in 1877 - which had been a regular home-away-from-home for such cowboy legends as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. By 1927, the town was termed The Cowboy Capital of the World, and boasts the oldest rodeo in America. Other bits of movie trivia in the film is that the dog Spike, owned by the senior Bonner (Robert Preston), was the 'grandson' of the dog from "Old Yeller".

Peckinpah knew all of these facts, but he folds them into a modern story as McQueen and his family likewise struggle to reconcile the past, the present and the future. Preston's character was once a major player in the rodeo world and he's looking for new frontiers, and McQueen is trying to regain his own confidence as a major player. His brother, played by Joe Don Baker, has been selling off the family farm by the acre to build trailer parks and even operates an Old West Gift Shop in his efforts to make the past into something more profitable. But no one in the story is portrayed as a bad guy - the empathy for the characters and the Bonner family gives the story a certain sweetness one seldom associates with Peckinpah.

Throughout the movie, Peckinpah shoots an almost documentary-style portrait of the town and it's people. He captures the world of the rodeo circuit to the point you can almost smell and touch it.

Movie critics at the time were not kind to the movie, complaining it lacked Peckinpah's violence (which the critics always demeaned anyway) and they seemed honestly perplexed at the character-based story and the humor of the film. There is a bar fight (at the Palace Saloon), which is very funny, especially when the bar band realizes they can calm the crowd down by playing the Star-Spangled Banner.

Knowing my dad's fondness for Westerns and cowboys, the tendency to wear cowboy hats and boots and western string ties, I am not surprised he liked the movie. What puzzles me to this day is just how he decided that Junior Bonner was a movie we wanted to see. Maybe it was the poster for the movie, with McQueen walking along carrying his saddle, with the tag line "The Last of His Kind."

Best Captions Ever

A post from Hillbilly Savants recently introduced me to the work of Jerry Tracy, a Knoxville native, who has a great sense of humor which he applies to all types of clip art and older drawings. For more info, please see this post at Hillbilly Savants or visit Jerry's blog, The Saturday Bulletin. It's a treasure-trove of all things funny.

The War of Words on Iraq

Intense debate today in Congress about the status of the war in Iraq and what the next steps should be or could be, all airing on CSPAN for the next few hours.

Lots of clips and snippets and rhetoric will filter through the news services from this debate, some will moan and wail that the Democrats are evil whiny quitters, and some will find members of the GOP as the only true patriots in America.

Boiling down the vast complex issues regarding Iraq to li'l quotes is a fool's errand.

James Joyner of Outside the Beltway has some thoughts worth pondering on the interim report regarding the status of the "18 benchmarks" necessary for progress in Iraq (didn't we already claim an accomplished mission?):

"Essentially, despite AQI (al-Qaeda in Iraq) comprising something like five percent of the insurgency, we have diverted most of our resources to combating it. And we’re failing. Not only is AQI stronger but, as another report being released today suggests, al Qaeda in general is enjoying a resurgence.

Meanwhile, the ISF (Iraq Security Force) continues to be an undependable, lackluster fighting force four years into the game. That, despite their training having been headed up by the counterinsurgency guru who’s now in charge of the whole shebang.

To be fair, the full complement of troops that made up the Surge are just now coming into place. When this was announced, President Bush warned that we would not see immediate results ...

"At the same time, the Iraqi government is, by the White House’s own admission, making essentially no progress on any of the meaningful milestones. It has long been an article of faith among both supporters and critics of the war that it would not be won militarily but politically. There’s not much sign that either are happening."

One item of note -- it is astonishing to me to hear numerous congressmen dismiss as 'irrelevant' that the U.S. was given false information to justify the invasion, or that the strategies of the last 4 years have yielded little success. We are where we are, they say. And yet somehow, for Congress to urge and support a whole new strategy is the most dangerous act imaginable.

I have often wondered what the status of unrest and warfare might be in the mideast today has our strategy been to establish a thriving, successful non-terrorist-ridden nation in Afghanistan first before diverting attention to the nation of Iraq.

I likewise wonder if a society such as ours, who stand irritated in front of a microwave oven fuming mad over how long it takes to cook food, is taking time to think rationally about this war. I also remain befuddled that the nefarious goals of a few hundred or few thousand of radical terrorists are enough to confound politicians and elicit emotional squeals of fear from so many.

In a few months when new elections for office in Washington are held, I'd wager American voters will have the final say and the plans of the current administration will be abandoned.

No Indictments in Death of Peyton Strickland

"Peyton Strickland's parents, Don and Kathy said: "Our unarmed 18-year-old son Peyton was killed when Chris Long, a deputy sheriff, fired three bullets from a submachine gun through the front door of Peyton’s house while he was answering the unlocked door. The failure of the grand jury to indict Long on any charge compounds our family’s tragedy."

Long, who was fired after the shooting, has said he fired his fully automatic submachine gun because he mistakenly thought he heard gun blasts. Instead, he was hearing the officers' battering ram hammering Strickland's door. Long admitted in an affidavit filed Monday that his hearing was impaired by an earpiece, a hood and helmet." (link)

This case, which grew stranger with each new report, was first mentioned in this post as well as here and here.

Is Financial Aid For College An 'Entitlement' Program?

Following hot on the heels of the revelation that banking and finance firms have been offering kickbacks and other schemes to colleges if the schools make pacts with the firms offering such kickbacks, the Congress is voting today on a proposal to increase dollars for college education. Or, as the opponents from the GOP call it -- another dang Liberal new entitlement program.

Congressman George Miller outlines his proposals on his web page. Some details include:

"The legislation pays for itself by reducing excessive federal subsidies paid to lenders in the college loan industry. It also includes $750 million in federal budget deficit reduction."

(snip)

scholarship increases passed or proposed by Congress this year, the maximum "Under the legislation, the maximum value of the Pell Grant scholarship would increase by $500 over the next five years. When combined with other PellPell Grant would reach $5,200 by 2013, up from $4,050 in 2006, thus restoring the Pell’s purchasing power. Roughly 5.5 million low- and moderate-income students would benefit from this increase.

The legislation would also cut interest rates in half on need-based student loans, reducing the cost of those loans for millions of student borrowers. Like legislation passed by the House earlier this year, the College Cost Reduction Act would cut interest rates from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent in equal steps over the next five years. Once fully phased-in, this would save the typical student borrower – with $13,800 in need-based student loan debt – $4,400 over the life of the loan. About 6.8 million students take out need-based loans each year."

The President vows to veto this bill, which would slash subsidies paid to Bank of America and Citigroup, SunTrust Inc. and many others. This bill was already passed in a slightly different form by the Senate.

I don't think I've ever heard programs which provide financial aid for college study referred to as 'entitlements', but that's a nifty buzzword of demonization. I thought money spent (even those dollars which arrive from the federal budget) or borrowed for college education were dollars of 'investment'?

Without financial aid and low-interest loans (an $85 billion dollar industry), I wonder how low college enrollments in the U.S. would become?

Tuition costs in Tennessee and nationwide have been steadily rising and rising and rising (much higher than the rate of inflation) over the last few decades.

NOTE: from a June article in the Tennessean newspaper:

"It's 94 percent to 100 percent more expensive to attend a state university today than it was in 2000, but the cost of living has risen only about 22 percent."

snip

"On the other hand, the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators reports that a majority of full-time undergraduate students — about 63 percent — don't shell out the full price for college expenses. They receive grants — money that does not have to be repaid — from federal and state governments.

For students who qualify for the state's lottery scholarship, the good news is that the state legislature's recent decision to bump annual awards from $3,800 to $4,000 will cushion most of the tuition increase's blow."

Health Care Maze of Mystery

Some provocative debate has been prompted by the movie from Michael Moore, "Sicko", though just about any person in the country could reel off stories of high comedy and tragedy so one need not be a filmmaker to have some intense opinions about the state of healthcare.

A fascinating exchange between Moore and CNN was highlighted here by R. Neal (Moore really lays into CNN and Wolf Blitzer, with much reason) and Neal also has some thoughts on how or if health care might be improved here. Some of the ideas there require you to think and consider how we can effect change for the better. It gave me much to ponder.

I have no solid answers to the dilemmas of outlandish behavior via insurance companies, giant hospital corporations, pharmaceutical companies or the curious twists and turns created by state and federal government regarding health care.

I do know that urging realistic debate is far more important than jingoistic blather about reform. Specifics are needed, not platitudes of "we are working on improving" blah blah blah.

Also, the link in Neal's first post above contains a link to Moore's rebuttal of some of the wild distortions and claims made against "Sicko". One fact is clear -- medical bills are a key cause of bankruptcy, and many in this most prosperous nation can be financially decimated by medical costs alone.

If You Email Me, I Will Write

The creator of a video which I mentioned a few weeks back, titled "100 Movies, 100 Quotes, 100 Numbers" sent me an email with a simple request. It should be noted that the video is one of my favorite little short bursts of internet goodness and was expertly created. So, since the creator of the video, Alonzo has asked so nicely, I am happy to comply.

(NOTE: I did an 8 Random Facts meme a few weeks ago, but as the keyword here is 'random. I am happy to offer up 8 more such facts. Plus, my previous post of 8 Random Facts has shown up quite often in internet searches under the heading 'naked fishing' because of a random fact I mentioned. I guess it is good to be noticed, web-tastically speaking.)

(NOTE 2: Alonzo has a few more videos on YouTube for you to view, and of course, I would be remiss to not mention Alonzo's blog, Acrentropy, which has been running for some 3 years.)

Also, the rules about this meme are available at Alonzo's page, and I am not tagging anyone else with this peculiar assignment since I did that already. My blog, my dictatorial rule prevails.

8 Random Facts

1 -- On this morning, there is not enough coffee in the house to open my eyes wide nor to disengage my sleep-deprived brain from the murkiness of a humid, heat-blurred night of insomnia. And yes, insomnia has been my companion since I was a wee toddler.

2 -- Speaking of coffee, if I had known of the Curious and Powerful Magic of the Brew when I was a freshman in college, I could have made those darn 8 a.m. classes.

3 -- I remember watching Nixon resign on TV one summer night while at the house of the grandmother of a friend of mine. She had no electricity, but ran a series of incredibly long and tangled extension cords from the nearby house of her son to power her 13 inch black and white TV. (True story: her son's nickname was Mousey and she had another son nicknamed Meatskin, but that's all another post.) The grandmother also had no indoor plumbing and the Standing Rule of visiting at her house was to never go to the right side of the house, because her outhouse was about 25 feet from her kitchen door and had been there for decades. In summer, the Danger Perimeter of the outhouse expanded to such size that I always associate a certain aroma with Nixon.

4 -- Once in high school, I went out one night and drank such copious amounts of alcohol that when I arrived home, I began a Technicolor Yawn over the porcelain that seemed to last a week, After howling and hurling for some 45 minutes, I left the bathroom to find both my parents standing in the hall with deep scowls on their faces. My dad proclaimed, "You smell like a brewery!" I weaved about dangerously and calmly replied that I had been to McDonald's that night and met a girl, whom I kissed, and that "I think she had a beer." The next day my dad told me if I was out late at night again and kissed a girl who had a beer, I should just call home and say I would not be driving home and to find a safe place to spend the night.

5 -- When I mentioned the above story to my mother recently, she still saw no humor in it.

6 -- I used to raise and sell rabbits when I was a young boy. While waiting for customers, I would read books of collected Pogo comics by Walt Kelly. I read recently that J. Edgar Hoover had an FBI cryptology team scour through Pogo books as he was convinced that coded messages of subversion were hidden in the nonsense poetry and Southern accents of the characters. Perhaps Hoover's dresses were jes' a little tight in those days and cut off circulation to his brain.

7 -- Speaking of youthful days, the small Tennessee town I grew up in was so small, they had to widen to road to put white lines down the middle and was so small it said "Welcome To" and "Come Back Again" on the same sign.

8 -- I almost cut my right hand off once when I was a kid, while I was playing Spiderman. And once, some years later, I fell in a hole and cut myself on a walnut. These are both stories too long and detailed to provide here. Maybe later.

Man Dressed As Tree Robs Bank

Law enforcement officials in New Hampshire said the bandit -- with some limbs and leaves stuck all over his body - never claimed to have a weapon ... so why did he get money from the tellers???

Astonishing pictures and a video of the ... Tree Bandit (at a bank branch, no less) are here.

Maybe it's the heat.

And Now, President Nancy Pelosi

I see little real chance that Congress would instigate impeachment proceedings against Bush and Cheney, despite a public willing to see such a thing happen. And nothing in the behavior of either man has shown a desire to resign the powers they control.

But just for argument's sake, let us say that on some sweltering hot August night in 2007 both men decide to tender resignations and go back to the private sector. The law says in such a case, the Speaker of the House would then take the office of President. That person today is Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

What might happen next?

She does not strike me as a politician of uncanny wisdom and strength, and I hardly think she would (or could) bring the nation to some political nightmare landscape. For the most part, the functions of the federal government are carried out daily by non-elected workers and even a radical shift of power would likely be accommodated and all would precede as it does now.

I do think you'd see a definite and steady drawdown of troops in Iraq, which is going to be happening by early next year anyway. Concerns about a civil war in Iraq would be answered with the fact that it is a nation mired in civil war today.

In other words, the fate of Iraq is on a course now which must play itself out before additional steps can take place. It certainly seems little will be done from a US perspective anyway until after the 2008 elections are done.

However, with a major shakeup in the Oval Office and the burdens of decisions placed on other shoulders, some one (and I have no idea who at this point) or some group in Washington could emerge with some workable, practical and effective ideas for how to resolve the problems in the Middle East. And I know full well, whatever decisions the US makes, it is ultimately the people in that region who must decide what happens next.

And truly, short of some new, heinous catastrophe I see no changes in the Oval Office until after the elections. But Americans are a hardy and tough bunch, who have been through huge changes in the Oval Office for many decades, so fears it might crumble under Pelosi are unmerited. We've been here before and will likely he here again.

In pondering this idea, I was reading about Oklahoma Congressman Carl Albert, "the little man from Little Dixie", who was House Speaker from 1971 through 1976. With the roiling turmoil of the Nixon presidency, he could have easily become President, though he remarked then and in his autobiography he thought it would be hazardous for a Democrat to replace a Republican.

This page has a brief history of Albert, who, more than anyone else, shaped the modern office of Speaker of the House and helped solidify and concentrate Democrat power in Congress.

Albert could have moved to take the office of President, but seemed reluctant, as mentioned. Still, it could have been.

And while I see no Oval Office shake-up ahead, I wonder how many in Washington are currently weighing options now about the costs of massive change and the costs of sitting back and doing nothing. As it stands now, Congress seems poised (finally) to challenge Bush and Cheney at every step from here on out -- which is precisely the intention of our system of checks and balances. Many arguments could be made that when this system is out of balance the nation is poorly served.

Sunday Web Walking - Extended Edition!

Buckle up for a brief yet intense whirlwind tour of the internet and the bloggers and more.

The WKRN-TV blog Nashville Is Talking may soon be Not Talking So Much, though comments from their GM Gwen Kinsey are not easy to decipher. Suffice to say the future of NIT is where it has been for the last month: Unknown. But the Web is an always-evolving place, so it is no surprise that many mid-state and beyond blog-makers decided their best option was to create their own collective and hold their own conversations, which they call Music City Bloggers. I wish them much luck and thank them for linking to this humble (but lovable) page.

Another page I've been meaning to link to is heretofore presented with some fanfare: Russ McBee. And yes, he is right that this post on the "Amazonian Bigfoot" got my attention. I will confess a curious interest in cryptozoology. Why, just the other day, I discovered that scientists have known about the Vampire Squid for over 100 years. Anytime you write Vampire _________ as the name of a creature, I take note. Please take note of Russ McBee who writes about much more than the odd things which might perplex me.

Perplexed describes my reaction to this report from Grainger Today newspaper -- for some reason, a SWAT team raided a news publisher's home for some kind of suspect wanted for something. Details are scarce, and yet sooooo tantalizing.

First District Congressman David Davis was lauded by local officials for opening an office in Morristown on Friday, at Walters State Community College, in a branch of offices related to Homeland Security and much more. Rep. Davis had promised to open such an office -- staffed by some familiar GOP names from past office-holders. Also this week, a Tri-Cities TV station which had endorsed Davis gives him a failing grade some six months into his first year in office. They say his actions show him more interested in serving the GOP than serving his district. I would be greatly surprised if more than 20% of voters in the First District could even name their own congressman.

A regular feature via Jack Lail and the KNS on Sunday is an overview of what East Tennessee bloggers are talking about -- always a good way to peek into what people are writing and saying on a wide range of issues and topics.

It's kinda funny to write something like "East Tennessee bloggers" as the phrase really did not exist a few years back. I am happy it does exist. For the first time in my lifetime, I have scores and scores of local resources for news and information, all freely provided and independently created. What is provided on this humble (but lovable) page barely scratches the surface of info on the area and the state which is available.

If you have a suggestion for another place to seek info, to learn and to read, please add it in the comments!

IN OTHER NEWS: I haven't had the chance yet to write of the recent passing of composer Will Schaefer, so I will make time to do so now. His music is well-known by many, whether they are aware of it or not. His musical themes and songs are well known to you if you ever watched "The Flintstones," "Scooby-Doo", "Hogan's Heroes", "I Dream of Jeanie", "The Super Friends" or Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show, countless commercials throughout the 1960s and 1970s and he is the man who re-crafted a popular song into a theme for one of the most well-known of Disney's theme park rides: "It's A Small World."

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I'm ready to train the dog to do this.

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The European Union provided a commercial about how the government spends money and the result was Sex, Sex, Sex!!!

Poll: Majority Favor Impeaching Bush and Cheney

Just as President Bush was marking his birthday this week, a new poll shows a majority of Americans surveyed favor the start of impeachment against him and his vice-president.

The New Hampshire-based American Research Group released the survey, which revealed these deeply troubling viewpoints for Bush and Cheney.

The breakdown:

Among registered voters - 46% favor the start of impeachment by Congress, 44% are opposed and 10% are undecided.

Cheney scored worse -- 50% favor the start of impeachment, 44% are opposed and 6% are undecided.

Also this week, one news anchor stepped forward and called for both Bush and Cheney to resign. (I know over the last few decades, the final two years of a two-term president brings much talk of impeachment and resignation. Maybe the love just dwindles to hostile familiarity over time.)

Happy Birthday, Mr President. (See also.)

Camera Obscura - Walking Out On A Movie

Brad Pitt trying to remake "Bullitt"? Worst. Idea. Ever. (link)

George Romero says his new "Diary of the Dead" is a whole new take on the zombie epic he has created. I love Romero soooooo much.

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Let me ask you, have you ever paid for a movie and left it long before it was over?

I have admitted many times that I will watch almost any movie --- almost. I've even taken a movie which challenged my endurance or shocked me silly to movie parties, seeing how long it would take for the movie to 'clear the room.'

There was an article, which I found here at MetaFilter, about movies that prompted walkouts.

So, some of my own personal 'walkout' stories.

Once, while a student at MTSU during a summer session, I paid 50 cents for a ticket to see "The Sound of Music". I had never seen it and went to the student center to watch it. It was done out of overwhelming boredom and fear of the dorm roommate I had, who carried a gun and drank tequila by the bottle while smoking some weird mixture of pot and prescription sedatives. So I figured what the hey. The movie had to be better. I left after about 15 minutes. I found it excruciating. I ended up sitting in the dark, on a bench outside the dorm, wondering if I would ever get back into my room or if my roommate might shoot me if I came in before he was passed out. Suffice to say I left not only the movie, but MTSU.


When I was around 18, some friends and I paid money to see "Xanadu" with Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly, all rollerblading and disco dancing like mad to the music of Electric Light Orchestra. I get queasy just thinking of the movie and I really think we must have been drunk to even go into to watch this crap. We wanted to leave, but started having too much fun loudly deriding the movie. The theatre sold godawful soybean-ish cheeseburgers and, drunk and hungry, I went to buy one.

For some reason I cannot recall, a scene made me so irritated I actually threw the burger at the screen. It stuck and then slowly slid down Gene Kelly's rollerblading legs. I remain utterly embarrassed by my actions, as I have never been so disrespectful to a movie screen before or since that moment. But in my heart, I still think my impromptu review was accurate.

A few weeks later, a friend and I went to see "Raging Bull". I was mesmerized by it, but for some reason it utterly freaked out my friend. With about a half an hour or less to go, he jumped up and said "We're getting out of here now!!!! NOW!!" and he bolted out the door. I reluctantly followed and he refused to ever talk about what bothered him and I have no idea to this day what dug into my friend. I went back the next night and watched it again, alone.

A few years Later, I took my girlfriend at the time to see "Brazil" when it came out. Again, I was mesmerized and apparently the movie sent her straight to Hell. And again, with less than half and hour to go, she starts loudly weeping and runs out of the theatre. I sat there for a minute NOT wanting to leave this movie for a second, but since she was so freaked, I did leave. But on my way to find her, I realized I liked the movie more than I liked dating her. (I know, I'm evil.) She was sobbing in the lobby and she said the movie reminded her too much of some recurring nightmares she had. I did my best to calm her down for a minute or so, but eventually (again, to my embarrassment) told her to stay put and I went back in to watch the rest of the movie. That was pretty much the end of our relationship.

As a paid movie critic, I never, ever walked out of a movie. A bad review, like a praiseworthy one, can often write itself. But some sure made me squirm like mad. Case in point - "Steel Magnolias". I get hives just thinking about that movie. My nasty reviews of it brought endless hate mail. But I realized hate mail and stalkers were better than that movie. And no, I'm not linking to that movie.

At home, there have been a few really cheesy Grade Z horror or sci-fi knockoffs I have fast forwarded through, but usually if I start it I will finish it. One that failed to keep me to the end recently was called "Seven Swords" by Tsui Hark. I had read some great pre-release press about this epic kung-fu movie, backed by the Weinsteins, and was really looking forward to watching it. So a few weeks ago I got the DVD and reluctantly shut it down after the first hour. It was just so convoluted and boring, despite a big budget and some OK acting. Even the worst of the old Sir Run Run Shaw movies were better.

My favorite walkout story though arrived courtesy of Andy Warhol and his "Flesh For Frankenstein" in 3-D.

This 1973 X-rated (now R-rated) movie showed up in a Morristown theatre in the early 1980s, just after some huge business for the movie theatre from the "Friday The 13th" in 3-D and "Jaws 3-D" movies. I nearly wrecked my car when I saw on the movie marquee: Andy Warhol's Frankenstein in 3-D.

I told some friends we HAD to go watch the movie, if only to see the audience get totally freaked. So we go into the first show on a Friday and the house was packed to the rafters -- including lots of parents and kids. I was almost hysterical with laughter even before the movie started, just imagining what this movie would do to the audience.

Within the first ten minutes, the spooked crowd started leaving, most of them visibly shaken by the Weirdness on the screen. 20 minutes in and the crowd was cut to less than half it's size. The "oh my Gods!" from customers made me wonder if the manager would shut the movie down before it ended. About 40 minutes into the movie, the deranged doctor F. is caught by his assistant, Otto, having sex with a female corpse. The room went deadly silent, and the doc yells at Otto the immortal line: "To know life, Otto, you must f**k death in the gall bladder!"

Boom!! A sonic blast occurred as the crowd fled at high speed, leaving only myself and my two friends behind as we laughed until we cried. We stayed and watched the whole movie, laughing the movie and the terrified crowd. The movie got yanked the next day. Oh, yes, that was much fun.

If you have a movie walkout story to share --- have at it!

The Neo-Con Alternative

The conservative alternative to YouTube is ... wait for it ... YouTube!


Much more unveiling of the ugliness and lies of FOX News via FoxAttacks.com. (And another tidbit of FOX goofiness via NiT.)

Freedom Day!

I'm glad to see that this Independence Day finds writers like Jack Neely and Elrod agreeing with me and other bloggers, like Brittney and ACK.

A poem lionizing the soldier above all other Americans is also disparaging of all others, as Neely says in his MetroPulse article.

No one "gave" us the Freedoms of American life -- we were all born with them. Yeah, sometimes any of us face situations wherein we can either defend and fight for the continuation of such Freedoms, or bail on our responsibility to ourselves and our country.

Elrod's post on Neely's article is nicely written:

"Yes, soldiers dedicate their lives to their nation and for that we should be grateful. But believe it or not, there is a difference between "America" and "freedom." As Neely rightly points out, none of our wars since 1812 have involved foreign adversaries with the capability to destroy our freedoms. Nearly all of our freedoms have been lost because of governmental paranoia in response to these various threats from abroad or from within. For example, it wasn't Osama Bin Laden who suspended habeas corpus rights. It was the US Congress and President Bush who passed a law to do so."

I hope you take time to read these opinions above and consider what they mean.

(NOTE: Both ACK and Brittney got some serious heat after posing doubts about the poem in question a month or so ago -- more info here.)