The New Batman Movie

  Okay, as the ad campaign is about to heat up for the new Batman movie let me make some comments before the ads trample any other thoughts anyone might have about the movie.  First, I have not seen a single trailer for the film other then the teaser that showed the costume and the Joker’s face.  But I can already tell you the plot.  I’ll get to that in a minute.

  Let me really start by saying that of everyone I know only two people didn’t love the first movie-myself and another friend who has a long history of reading Batman comics.  We both would have prefered that Frank Miller’s Year One story be directed by, well, Frank Miller.  Likewise we both would have loved his script be used instead of the bastardized version they used.  We both would have loved to see the whole romance dropped from the storyline (seriously, is there a law that a new female must discover Batman’s identity in every movie?).  Also, come on, that whole training scene was stolen directly from the 1980’s Sci-Fi classic Highlander (only they added snow).  Do I even need to mention the two plot wholes big enough to drive a bat-hummer through?  Here’s some dialogue that you could add over the score to two big scenes…

“I will not kill you.  Oh wait, it’s about two minutes later and the entire building is on fire but I’m going to run out of here and let you die anyway.  Yep, that makes sense to me.”

And then at he climax of the movie:

 ”Sorry honey, I’m going to have to leave you and this little kid up on this building surrounded by poor people who’ve been driven insane so I can rush to the rich, white part of town to save the important people!  Hope you somehow get out of this and somehow the crazy people are cured immediately even though the scientist already said it’d be weeks before they make enough antidote.”

Anyway… here’s my prediction on the plot:  Joker appears, Batman blames himself for somehow inspiring the Joker, then Batman doubts himself as he struggles to deal with the joker.  Batmans girl of the month is torn between Batman and the crimefighting DA Harvey Dent (who fights bad guys legally and doesn’t wear spandex).  Joker kills girl (she’s expendable, she’s not important and new girl will learn his secret next movie because hollywood can’t stand a movie that doesn’t have a romance).  Dent is hurt physically and emotionally and this sets him off on the road to become Two-Face. Yadda yadda yadda… Batman is even more conflicted and seriously thinks about commiting the final vegelante act.. but doesn’t.  Batman saves day.

Oh, and yes, they’re going to give dead guy Ledger an award even though lets be honest, acting as a complete over the top character is much easier then bringing subtlety to a normal character.  But he’s dead, so he wins.

Movie will suck for the hardcore fans but be loved by everyone esle for it’s “original” take on the Dark Knight. 

An Exchange with Steven Cohen

  Those of you who know me know that I have a love for Football (soccer).  As such I regularily listen to World Soccer Daily a podcast about soccer.  It’s truely a great show, but one of the hosts (Steven Cohen) regularily makes out of place political comments.  I took the opportunity to shoot the show a nice, friendly email poking fun at how out of place these comments were on a soccer show.  I’ve included his heated reply and my reply back.

My first email:

A very weird thing happened last night, I was flipping through the 
> news
> channels and I caught an exchange between Hannity and Combs about 
> soccer!
> Hannity is a Newcastle fan apparently and Combs used to be a Man U 
> fan but is now a
> West Ham fan (now that Hillary the Man U fan has been beaten by West 
> Ham
> Obama).  Next I flipped the channel to CNN and Anderson Cooper was 
> wearing a
> Liverpool shirt (it figures).  Cooper started talking to Larry King 
> (a born-again
> Chelsea fan) about the importance of playing a 4-4-2 formation.  I 
> quickly
> turned the channel.  See, I have absolutely no freakin’ interest in 
> hearing
> political pundits talk soccer.  Just like I have no interest in 
> hearing my favorite
> soccer radio show hosts talk politics.
>  I was considering quitting listening to the show as I am constantly 
> ripped
> out of the world of football and back into the politics that I am 
> escaping
> from my local AM chanels by listening to your show.  Then I decided 
> I’d do
> something better… everytime you guys make an Obama plug I’ll just 
> write a $10
> check to McCain for President (enough to print two yard-signs).  
> Just know every
> time you stump for Obama on air you’re helping McCain beat him.
>  In all seriousness I love the show (despite the distractions from 
> time to
> time), but hate your politics (perhaps that’s a reason I hate Bruce
> Springsteen, well that and his music is middle-aged sentimental 
> drivel).

 

  His reply:

  hey, the read we do for whoareya this week has asked to mention it.  I 
am sorry you don’t like it, write all the checks to McCain you need to 
he needs the money and it will not make the slightest bit of 
difference come November …THANK GOD.

I am glad you can sleep so well at night with 4200 American soliders 
dead so some wanker in the White Hose called Bush could get even with 
Hussein…you should really think about you are saying…we have lost 
our soul and our conscience and our ability to tell right from wrong.  
So make all the jokes you want but you are talking to a veteran of US 
Army and i don’t take the needless and senseless death of 4200 
American serviceman quite so humourously.

I am happy for you that you think it is so funny…but if there is a 
heaven and hell George Bush is surely going to hell.

Cheers,
Steven.

 

And finally, my reply to his reply:

  Let me first clear something up:  in no way was I poking fun or making a joke about the sacrifice of our troops.  Nor was I commenting on your beliefs about the war.  My letter was in response to the pro-Obama comments (and yes, this time it was done as an attempt to shill for the shirt company but there have been many others).  I poke fun to point out how out of place these political jibes are on a football show.  I simply reversed the situation to point this out.  I feel now that we are both people to whom our politics run deep and we sometimes refuse to put those aside in favor of other interests/persuites or in our professional lives.  Of course I don’t front an organization, company, or even an entire sport and aren’t likely to turn someone off to soccer because I state my political beliefs. Once again I would like to remind you that nothing in my email even poked fun at your beliefs about the war.  As for your letter…
    I sleep well at night knowing that the 4,200 soldiers who sacraficed everything for our countrymen did so NOT in vain.  I sleep knowing I and both of our (your and my) friends and families across the country will not be awoken by a car-bomb going off near our homes by terrorists.  This is precisely BECAUSE of the sacrifice of our vets.  I thank you for your military service for our country (and yes, I believe you are ever bit the American I am despite my having the luck to be born here).  Howevever, I think you certainly have lost your ability to tell right from wrong as you chalk up our efforts to stop terrorists (and nations like Iraq that support terrorists–and surely you understand that paying the families of martyrs to kill Isreali’s is state sponsored terorism that Hussein helped cause) as a personal vendetta Bush had with Hussein.  I am stunned that anyone could see the death of our soldiers as needless and senseless.  Particularily when little girls in Afghanistan are allowed to go to school again (thanks to the removal of the Taliban), one of the world’s worst dictators is dead and free elections are occuring in his absense, the Kurds are no longer gassed for who they are, Iraq no longer pays the family of martyrs to kill Isreali’s and Al Quaida has been unable to launch another attack on American soil (something unimaginable in 2001).
  I won’t even get into the McCain versus Obama debate as I can tell it would be pointless.

 

 

  I thought I’d share this little exchange because I found it interesting.  A friend and fellow fan of the show read it and said “it’s nice to see Steven’s mean and nasty streak isn’t limited to his soccer views.”  I don’t quite think that’s fair.  I obviously touched a nerve (accidently as it is not like I wrote to him about how his opinion on the war is wrong). 

  I think Mr. Cohen (and other like him) are deeply motivated by their beliefs about the war.  I disagree and think he is completely wrong on the war, but I understand where he is coming from.  He is no different then the strong pro-life people who base all their politics on that one issue.  I will leave it to you to decide what the bigger tragedy is, the murder of one million innocent babies a year or the sacrafice of  600 soldiers a year to protect us from a real and true enemy.  If you believe that America has nothing to fear from international terrorist organizations who hate us and want to kill us AND you believe that a fetus is a lump of skin or a “mistake” as Obama calls it, then you are clearly going to be an Obama supporter.

Thank God McCain will win in November.

 

Keeping Up with the election overseas

 What a wonderful time we live in.  Think about it… thanks to the internet we can keep up with the election even if we live overseas.  That would have been impossible 15 years ago for most of us.  You can even keep up with state or local politics thanks to the explosion in blogs from the last 5 years.

  Imagine if I had to stick to The London Times or Guardian for their bias coverage (although to be fair they’re not much more biased then the US liberal media)!  I’d have to limit my attention to nothing more then English commentaries about how much they’d love Obama to win (sure they give a few random reasons but they always come back to the truth:  Obama is seen as less likely to promote American interest overseas and to cooperate with Europe’s vision of a European-Union led Free World).  The media over here is salivating at the opportunity for America to lose their status as the only super-power.  However, the public is more worried about becoming the next America–idiots in America are talking about becoming liberal and socialist (and let’s not kid ourselves, nationalized health care and the higher taxes to pay for it are about all that’s left for them to do) while all of Europe is becoming conservative and capitolist.  Ask the Conservative leaders who were recently elected in Germany, France, and London’s mayor.  Look at the next parliament election and the impending defeat of centralist Gordon Brown in favor of a more right-wing leader.

 

It’s a great time to spend some years Abroad in Western Europe if the Dems actually win back home.  With any luck the four years of Obama will fly past and by the time you come home the nation will have returned to their senses.

Support Those that Support the War

Go read this

http://patdollard.com/press/maxim-interview

 

Who’s more Bi-partisan, McCain or Obama?

Here’s the list of bi-partisan work done by Senator John McCain:

the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act (with Sen. Feingold), bipartisan legislation addressing immigration (with Sen. Kennedy), climate change (with Sen. Lieberman), patient bill of rights (with former Sen. Edwards), and the Gang of 14 (dealing with Judicial appointments).

Here’s the list of bi-partisan work done by Senator Obama:

 

And no, I didn’t write his bi-partisan works in invisible ink.  There simply aren’t any.

Press to Play by Obama’s book

Play a game with me, count how many times the mainstream media try to slip the word “angry” into any story about McCain.  We’ve known for months now that Obama is running on his likeability, and plans to hint at McCain being a grumpy old man.  Obama has been dedicating at least 15 minutes a speech since Iowa towards negatively attacking McCain (go back, check it out), but nobody ever calls him “angry” or says he’s going negative, but he has already done so.

But anyway, check out this article… where any reply by Obama is just a reply, and anything McCain does is “an angry reply.”  How pathetic is the national media and specifically the A.P.?

 

Why Declare Obama the Winner Now?

With Hillary winning 2 of the last three states to vote (including the biggest one), why declare the race over now?

I figured it out… West Virginia and Kentucky are next to vote.  According to polls last week Obama was going to get the crap litterally pounded out of him in both of these states.  West Virginia was going to go for Hillary by 40 points!  The biggest victory for either candidate not in their own home state.  Kentucky was pro-Hillary by 30 points.

Imagine the talking points Hillary would have had… 4 of the last 5 states.  Gained half a million votes net total over Obama from those two… Obama’s support amongst working class states had collapsed.  Hillary closing in on the popular vote lead.

Now by trying to depress the vote turnout Obama will do much better in these states… imagine if he shaves 15 to 20 points off what would have been Hillary’s wins… losing by 20 in WV would still be embarassing… but losing by 10 in Kentucky would be par for the course… and Hillary wouldn’t get the net advantage in voters she needs to strike at the popular vote total.

Voters in West Virginia and Kentucky can thank the Democratic party and the media for making sure that once again their votes won’t matter much this primary season.

Obama’s Support in Heavy White States

Here’s a list of state PRIMARIES (Caucus States are different so they are left out) where Obama won despite the African-American population accountng for less then 17% of the primary voters:

Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Connecticut.

That’s it.  Every other primary in which A-A’s have accounted for less then 17% of the vote has gone to Clinton.

Remember, African-Americans make up 12% of voters in the fall.

Obama would have negotiated with Hitler

  In his speech last night after winning North Carolina and (probably) stealing Indiana, Obama tried to justify his amazingly daft position about dealing/negotiating/meeting with terrorists.  In his speech he said it wasn’t weak, it was smart to meat with our enemies… just like JFK, etc, etc, etc, and Roosevelt did.

  Wait a minute!  What enemies did FDR meet with?  I know we didn’t meet with the Japanese as we refused to deal with them or even meet them until they left China (which they refused to do), so then that leaves only one American enemy… HITLER.  Did FDR meet with HITLER?  Not that I know of.  So I think Obama’s history is quite off. 

More importantly, this means Obama would have MET WITH HITLER!  REALLY?  You would have met with Hitler!  I wish the media was smart enough to have caught this, but I know they’re not. 

 

OKAY here’s the fine print, if you can find where FDR met with Hitler then I applaud you… quite frankly it’s midnight-ish here and I’m not going to even google it on my dial-up computer.

Liberal Racists Try to Smear McCain

  I got into an arguement with some liberals over at a Kentucky blog.  Then the liberals tried to call me racist (on the grounds that I don’t support Obama).  Next, the liberals tried to smear John McCain with the same dirty trick that their supposed enemy Karl Rove used in South Carolina in 2000 (to pass McCain’s adopted Bangledeshi daughter Bridgett as a half-black love-child).  I figure since they specifically hammered home that it was a Black daughter (and said it as if it was someone worse then if it was a white bastard) they must have some racism issues themselves.  No longer they are willing to go so far to elect the totally inexperienced Obama, they have to do this to feel better about their being a racist!  This way they can convince the world (and themselves) that they aren’t really that racist.

Just goes to show you that liberals are complete pieces of crap.