April 14, 2008
Update
By Jay | @ 10:28 am | |
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Everything is absolutely fine with me folks. I appreciate the concern. However, writing about things more important to me have taken precedence over American Idol and sports. You can check the new blog here:
http://righttobeararms.wordpress.com/
Cheers
Jay
Topics: Blogging | Comments Off
March 5, 2008
American Idol - Performances - Guys
By Jay | @ 10:27 am | |
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Ok, it’s 80’s week! That definitely means cheesy performances of lousy ballads and such. The final 6 men will be selected from this group to move on to the final 12. The judges this year are particularly annoying. Randy seems like he is purposely not liking stuff just for the sake of it. I won’t watch the show live because I cannot take Paula Abdul’s drug induced rantings, and even Simon seems to be trying too hard, harshly bashing the contestants he doesn’t like and sucking up to the ones he does. First up:
Luke Menard - Of all the songs this guy could have chosen, he selects one of the wussiest songs in the history of pop music. ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’ is an 80’s classic for the same reason so many other horrible songs in the 80’s are considered classics - they’re so horrible that they survive and still get played on the radio. Not only is this a bad song choice, but Luke sings it horribly. Sorry Luke, but by being that bad and going first, you’ve earned a ticket home. Cheers.
David ‘Bolton’ Archuleta - My wife gets annoyed when I compare him to Michael Bolton. “He sings better than Michael Bolton.” I don’t compare him top Michael Bolton in terms of singing abilities. I compare him to Michael Bolton because like Bolton, he makes every song he sings, exactly the same. So he does ‘Another Day In Paradise’ (a ballad like I said he would) and takes the simplicity that Phil Collins gave it and turns it into a big sweeping song - just like he did with Imagine. BORING.
Danny Noriega - If not for the efforts of those at Vote For The Worst, Danny would have left a long time ago. His performance of ‘Tainted Love’ was horrible. We’ll see how the VFTW voters do. If he makes it to the top 12, they would have been successful.
David Hernandez - He sings the mother of all crappy ballads with “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now”, a song that lived happily in obscurity until Celine Dion and Meatloaf decided to resurrect it. David undoubtedly receives a lot of female votes, especially those in the, “Gay guys are so hot” variety. Judging by all of the screeching in the audience, he’ll easily make it to the top 12. He did the song pretty well, but I just hate that song so much I just couldn’t wait for it to be over.
Michael Johns - He’s starting to bore me as well. He’s a manlier version of David Archuletta. His attempts at aping Jim Morrison are becoming lame, and while his version of ‘Dont You Forget About Me’ was pretty good, the larger part of his success seems to be driven by the judges who I am convinced wouldn’t say anything really negative about Johns, even if all he did was come out and crap on the stage. Randy: “Yo dog….I like the way you brought it home. You didn’t clinch too early…Good pitch.” Paula: “I just…..you are….I see….I have….I swear….I loved it!” Simon: “For me it wasn’t your best performance. It was a little runny and you were grunting a little too much, but I like you Michael.”
David Cook - Ok, this one took me by surprise. When I heard he was doing Lionel Richie’s ‘Hello’, I thought, “WTF?” But then he started and it was really good! He kind of turned it into a just a more power ballad version of the song, but it did sound better with the guitar than with just the regular cheesiness of it all (remember the unintentionally hilarious video for that song?). Randy, proving again frustrating it is for hacks to be successful in the music business said David brought a little “emo” to the song, which it did not. That was good and I think put him over the top.
Jason Castro - I thought he was better the two previous weeks. But he still did pretty well though he was making some strange faces while he sang. Still his performance of ‘Hallelujah’ (another song written in one decade, but made famous in another) was good enough that he’ll sail through to the top 12.
Chikezie - He’s going to get hurt by doing a song not many people know. Simon’s critique was stupid because he had to confirm if Whitney Houston did it before he said whether or not he liked the performance. He was trying to do his best version of Luther Vandross, but Vandross is one of those singers that people shouldn’t try to copy. Vandross had the kind of voice that could move all over the place, but Chikezie doesn’t (though he has a good voice) and attempting to do what Vandross was able to do, also hurt him.
Who should go? Luke Menard and Danny Noriega. However, Danny might be saved by VFTW, so don’t be surprised if Chikezie or David Cook leave.
Topics: American Idol | 2 Comments »
March 3, 2008
Monday Musings
By Jay | @ 10:39 am | |
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TCM finished up it’s 30 days of Oscar last night and finished off with ‘Unforgiven’, ‘A Few Good Men’ and ‘Backdraft.’ Recorded all three. ‘Unforgiven’ is a classic, and has gotten better over time. ‘A Few Good Men’ offers up a big time quotable line in, “You can’t handle the truth!” and ‘Backdraft’ is just kind of fun to watch. Great special effects.
—
It’s early, so it doesn’t mean too much but for all the hype about Hendrick Motorsports before the start of the season, you’d think they’d be better on the track. Currently, only Dale Earnhardt Jr. is in the top ten in scoring. Johnson is 14th, Gordon 22nd, and Mears is 34th.
Gordon had a nasty crash yesterday with just a few laps remaining. He hit an inside wall that didn’t have the safer barrier and the front end of his car was practically torn off. The radiator wound up nearly 100 feet from where his car did.
Of course, as I said, most of the race was single file racing with the leader often leading by 2 seconds or more.
—
I’m looking forward to what the Yankees are going to do with Joe Girardi at the helm, but it’s still kind of strange seeing Joe Torre wearing a Dodgers uniform.
—
I’m not one to agree with Maureen Dowd too often, but she is spot on when she mocks Hillary Clinton’s complaints about being treated poorly by the media. Dowd said in so many words that she was lucky she was being covered at all. After all, what other candidates could lose 11 straight primary/caucuses and still get that kind of media coverage?
—
Marion Cotillard, the Oscar winner for Best Actress this year apparently believes in conspiracy theories surrounding events like the 9/11 attacks and the moon landing. Her lawyer has said her comments were taken out of context, but she’s sure to be asked about it again at some point.
—
Yes, I went to look at BIG EVIL GUNS this weekend. I went to Gander Mountain first, and while they had a nice selection, the guy at the store seemed to be a little annoyed that I wasn’t ready to buy on that day, yet I wanted to see more than one. He answered questions, but his knowledge was somewhat limited. One of the guns I looked at was a S&W Sigma 9mm. It’s on the lower end of their stock, and would have been $279 after a $50 mail in rebate. The trigger pull though, was a hefty 11-12lbs. And it felt cheap. The grip was supposed to be a polymer like Glock pistols, but it felt like plastic.
We left there and went to an independent shop a few miles up the road. The prices were in line with Gander Mountain and the two guys there were not concerned at all that I wasn’t buying that day. The guy I talked to most of the time knew his stuff inside and out. I’ll probably go with the Bersa Thunder .380 as I liked the way that one felt the best.
—
Nine Inch Nails latest album is available for download for $5. It’s a four disc set and it’s all instrumental.
—
Everybody expected for teams to overpay for Kyle Lohse in the wake of a pretty weak free agent year for starting pitching. He was demanding $50 million and 5 years. Now? He’s begging teams to take him for one season at $4 million and so far, there are no takers. Gee Kyle. Considering you have a career record that is 10 games under .500, have a career ERA near 5.00, walk too many people and have teams batting .284 against you, it is any wonder why teams weren’t falling over themselves to sign you to a $50 million contract?
—
Remember when blogging took off? It was a different animal back then. It’s changed. Many blogs that popped up from 2002-2004 are defunct or have been merged with other blogs. It’s become a ‘private club’ of sorts as well. The way a blog used to get traffic was to get a link from time to time from the bigger, more popular blogs. My attempts to get people to link to some of the things I have written has been futile over the last couple of months. Of course, I’d see the same blog link to another one writing about the same thing I did (days earlier) and it would annoy me a little bit. It’s a little frustrating. This blog gets around 100 visits a day. Many of those are through Google searches. So sometimes I feel like, “Why bother?”
—
A lot of people are calling out Gloria Steinem for comments she made about John McCain, but I would say that her comments here are worse:
But she also opined that “a majority of Americans want redemption for racism, for our terrible destructive racist past and so see a vote for Obama as redemptive.”
So it’s not that (white) people are voting for Barack Obama because they think he’s a better candidate than Clinton. Most of them are voting for him out of feelings of white guilt.
—
So the Hells Angels tried to kill Mick Jagger. It kills me how motorcycle gangs refer to themselves as ‘clubs.’ The Outlaws have a ‘clubhouse’ in Daytona Beach. Of course, it’s not the kind of place where you’d knock on the door to ask directions.
Topics: Life, Pop Culture, Sports | Comments Off
February 29, 2008
Random Musings
By Jay | @ 10:57 am | |
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Last night was a surprise of sorts for AI with regard to who was booted. While Jason Yeager was expected, and Robby Carrico was a little surprising, on the ladies side there were two big surprises. Alaina Whitaker and Alexandréa Lushington were voted off when I was certain that Amanda Overmeyer would be one of the ones leaving. As well as Alaina carried herself, her youth showed when she was clearly crushed about being voted off and sobbed uncontrollably for a few minutes (I thought it was kind of cheap for Fox to have kept her mic’d at that point). Worst moment of the night was watching David Archuleta weeping like he was a at a funeral. I’m starting to hate that kid.
—
Last night on AI they announced that one week contestants will be singing Beatles songs. I can think of nothing more absurd than Amanda singing a Beatles song. Or Danny Noriega for that matter. Next week is 80’s week. $1000 says Amanda sings a Joan Jett song. David Archuletta will sing a ballad (shocker), and David Cook will try his hand at singing Bon Jovi’s ‘Wanted: Dead Or Alive.”
—
If you’re not watching ‘Lost’ then you are REALLY missing out. This season has been unbelievably good. Best since the show first started. Recap coming soon.
—
I ordered ‘Sideway’s’ through the Blockbuster DVD thing I got going (I figured $19.99 for the ultimate deal is a good price. If they raise my fees, I’ll drop it). This is such a great movie and demands multiple viewings. Below is a short scene before the guys meet up with their dates:
—
Some people on the left amaze me. A prominent figure on the right dies (in this case William F. Buckley) and for some reason it compels people to make sure they point out how they don’t think the person who died was a good person.
Of course, “good person” means “liberal” or “Democrat” regardless of what they may have done in life. Buckley in 1957 came out against desegregation in the south. He later disavowed such views, but people in the comments section were all too willing to bring it up. Of course, such is the double standard of such people when they apply such reasoning to that of say, Senator Robert Byrd. Byrd if you need to be reminded:
Was in the Ku Klux Klan and was in fact a local leader in the Klan
He didn’t serve in WWII because he said he never wanted to serve aside “mongrels.”
He voted against and even filibustered the Civil Rights Act
He voted against the Voting Rights Act
But all has been forgiven over time. Why? Well because Byrd is a Democrat. And the view of ‘civil rights’ has been adjusted over time to fit things like raises in the minimum wage and increased government spending. So therefore, if you’re ideologically opposed to such policies, then that means you can have any bad or immoral ideas you may have expressed years ago and have since disavowed brought up and applied today. After all, if you’re a conservative or a Republican, then you must be racist.
Identity politics is big for some people. It’s what causes them to write such idiotic nonsense like this:
Rest in Peace, Mr. Buckley. I hope it doesn’t bother you too much that they let black people into Heaven too.
You see what I mean?
—
After having been to a shooting range a number of times, I’m about to purchase my own handgun. If I had the money, I’d go for a nice Beretta or Sig, but $700-$900 is out of my price range at the moment. I’m torn between getting a .22 where I could buy 500 rounds of ammo for like $10, vs a larger caliber that could also be used for home defense if ever necessary or if I ever got a CCW permit. So I’ve narrowed the choices basically down to three based largely on budget.
The Bersa .380 Thunder This is the one I am leaning towards. I have heard nothing but good things about this gun and the price is right ($249).
The Beretta Neos - This gun almost looks like an outer space ray gun, but it is a Beretta and actually has an optional carbine kit that you can add to it. ($225)
The Smith & Wesson .22 ($225)
The dark horse is the 9MM Ruger which I like as well. ($300)
—
Is this like the lamest time for sports or what? No football. Baseball hasn’t really started spring training yet. The NBA isn’t really close to the playoffs. The Daytona 500 was two weeks ago, but now we have two races at 1.5 mile tracks and if California was any indication, it will be long stretches of single file racing.
Topics: Politics, Pop Culture, Sports | 4 Comments »
February 28, 2008
American Idol - Performances - Girls
By Jay | @ 10:46 am | |
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Usually, the girls do better than the guys, but the guys had a strong night, so it was going to take some serious stuff tonight.
Carly Smithson - She ‘Crazy On You’ by Heart. She does it pretty good. My wife liked it better than I did. She has a tendency to shout at times more than sing on big notes. But overall, it was good.
Syesha Mercado - Does ‘Me. And Mrs. (Changed to Mr.) Jones’ - This is not a song for her. First of all, having to change it to Mr. Jones didn’t work very well and Mercado, while having a great voice, doesn’t have the deep soulful kind of voice that a song like this requires, so she looked out of place doing it.
Brooke White - Brooke is cute, perky and friendly. She’s the kind of woman you’d want around at parties. She does a good version of Carly Simon’s ‘You’re So Vain’, but it’s a pretty easy song to do. There’s not much room for danger, but it was a smart choice. It wasn’t a slow, boring song, but it wasn’t something where she took a chance, as it is too early to be so bold. She stuck with what works and that helps her.
Ramiele Malubay - She does ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’ and while she’s 20 years old, she looks like the youngest female contestant. Sometimes when somebody so young does a song like this it doesn’t work. Plus the song has been done a million times, so it just didn’t come off that well.
Kristy Cooke - She’s smart, I’ll give her that. She’s very attractive and probably had a lot of guys take notice about her love of the outdoors and sports. Of course, we have to know if she likes watching ESPN. She picks a safe song, ‘You’re No Good’ by Linda Rondstadt and doesn’t disappoint. It wasn’t great, but it was certainly better than last week.
Amanda Overmyer - Oh man. We couldn’t even watch the entire performance because it was so bad. Last week Paula said to her, “You’re not a one trick pony.” Well, she is. If it’s a soulful, bluesy kind of song, she can do it. But she attempted ‘Carry On Wayward Son’ (No, the title is NOT ‘Carry On My Wayward Son’ even though they sing it that way) by Kansas and it was terrible. The guy who did the vocals for that song, Robby Steinhardt, had a very melodic voice. It’s obvious that Amanda can’t do songs that are strong on melody. I fear the end is near for the Harley riding nurse.
Alaina Whitaker - She, like Brooke, choses a safe song, ‘Hopelessly Devoted To You’ and she pulls it off because the song is safe. It’s enough to keep people interested, but not ‘out there’ enough to cause any problems. IE, no big notes or anything like that.
Alexandréa Lushington - Her inexperience is showing. ‘If You Leave Me By Now’ by Chicago is your standard rock song. Which means, it’s in 4/4. That’s four beats per measure, regardless of tempo. Count to yourself, “One, Two, Three Four, One, Two, Three, Four…” and that’s it. When you start syncopating the vocals as she did, it just becomes messy.
Kady Malloy - Not sure what Kady’s issue is. In front of the camera, behind the scenes, she’s funny, engaging and full of confidence. She hits the stage and suddenly, it seems like she gets stage fright. ‘Magic Man’ is not a song that Ann Wilson belts out, so it would fit for Kady who does have a very good voice, but it doesn’t come off that well. That idiot Randy said it was a bad song choice. I disagree. It was a good song choice, she just didn’t do it well.
Asiah Epperson - ‘All By Myself’ by Eric Carmen. First of all, I hate this song. I don’t care what anybody says, the majority of 70’s music for the most part, sucked. Bad enough this song sucked when Carmen did it. It only reached new levels of suckiness when Celine Dion decided to cover it. The problem for Asiah is that she has a throaty, kind of raspy voice and I knew this was going to be a disaster before she started, and sure enough, it was. Doing Janis Joplin was perfect for her, and she should have stuck to a similar kind of theme.
Amanda Overmyer should be going home. She doesn’t have what it takes to win this competition because she has one zone that she can be in and that’s it.
If I was going based on the overall, I would say that Kristy Cook deserves the boot, but if I were going based on just last night, I would have to say that Asiah would be gone.
Topics: American Idol | 1 Comment »
American Idol - David Archuleta
By Jay | @ 8:47 am | |
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My brother sent me a text last night that said, “That kid’s version of ‘Imagine’ was incredible.” My wife thought I was off my rocker when I said it wasn’t ‘great.’ And I got an email wondering if I had watched the same thing that person had watched because they thought it was one of the best vocal performances of the last few seasons.
Here’s my problem with him and how he did the song. Yes, the notes were good. Yes, he was in the right key the whole time. The problem is, he failed to interpret the song in any way. So he does the song in a more grandiose fashion, hitting big notes and he thinks (and so do too many other people) that’s enough. The thing is, you could take almost any other song, let him sing and it would come off the same way. Somebody else somewhere compared him to a younger version of Michael Bolton.
You watch. When this kid has to sing something out of his comfort zone, it’s going to look awkward.
Topics: American Idol | Comments Off
February 27, 2008
American Idol - Performances - Guys
By Jay | @ 10:07 am | |
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Ok, so we’re into week two. After watching this week, I’m about ready to give up. Not because the performances are that bad, because it’s a much better group than last year, but because it’s so obvious who the judges want to win, that they’re doing everything they can to influence the votes.
Michael Johns - Performed, “You Can Go Your Own Way” and while he was able to do the verses good, when he got to the chorus, his voice actually squeaked on the high part. Because Lindsey Buckingham isn’t a flamboyant kind of performer, I think people underestimate what a talent he is, both musically and vocally. It really wasn’t that good, and though the judges didn’t rave about him, they weren’t as critical as they should have been (Johns is obviously one of the ones they want hanging around at the end)
Jason Castro - He busted out the guitar again and did “I Just Want To Be Your Everything” by the BeeGees and I thought it was great. He did an off-beat kind of arrangement and it looked like he has done this song all his life it looked so easy for him. Yet the judges, who were clearly listening to something else (like the producers in their ear-buds telling them to bash the guy), gave it thumbs down. Paula suggested he not use the guitar anymore? WHY?
Luke Menard - There are certain singers that guys shouldn’t go near: Freddie Mercury is one of them. I guess because Luke sings in an a Capella group, and can do falsetto, he figured he could tackle ‘Killer Queen’ and he was wrong. It was not good.
Robbie Carrico - He couldn’t even rock ‘Hot Blooded’ and he wants people to believe he’s a rocker? The performance was very flat, and while Lou Gramm can’t sing live to save his life, he’s an outstanding studio performer, and you’re going to be judged against the original and this was about as good as those people you’d see in those karaoke booths they used to have at Six Flags parks.
Danny Noriega - Sucked. But the judges went easy on him. Another one that producers want around longer than they should be.
Dave Hernandez - He did “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” and he did it very well. His performance was a hundred times better than last week and though he’s not a judges favorite, even they couldn’t be critical of him this time around.
Jason Yeager - Dude. You’re done. Before his performance they were showing how many instruments he was able to play. Good. Keep playing because you’re not a singing performer. IE, he can sing and his vocals were pretty good, but his performance of the ‘Doobie Brothers’ ‘Long Train Running’ was pathetic. Why? Because he tried to dance. Ever see Eddie Murphy, ‘Raw’? The part where he makes fun of white people dancing? THAT’S Jason he was making fun of.
Chikezie - I thought he was better last week than people said and he was better this week. He did “I Believe To My Soul’ by Donny Hathaway. His vocals were spot on and he even worked his own name into the song which can sometimes work against you, but it’s not like his name is ‘Joe’ or something like that, so it actually worked.
David Cook - Did a very good version of ‘All Right Now’ and if I was a record producer, I’d write his name down and get a number. He’s got potential. Though he may not be a superstar or be good enough to win AI, he could easily front a band. Good job.
David Archuleta - Did ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon, and while it was very good, it wasn’t that great. Yet the judges slobbered (Paula literally) over him. Randy called it “one of the best vocals he has ever heard” on the show? Huh?? Like I said, Paula might as well have said, “David, I want to sleep with you” and even Simon was all ga-ga. It almost made me gag. Look, the kid can sing. I can’t dispute that. But he’s the kind of performer that is going to appeal largely to 13 year old girls and people who listen to easy listening stations. You know the kind. The ones who think Poison is “heavy metal” and think every person who plays rock music is “on dope.”
I won’t make any more predictions. Based on their performances, Luke Menard and David Yeager should be shown the door.
Topics: American Idol | 8 Comments »
February 26, 2008
Republicans For Obama
By Jay | @ 10:38 am | |
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Story is here in the LA Times:
Chatter bounces off the bare walls and checkered linoleum floor as Josh Pedaline and other Barack Obama supporters burn through their call sheets.
A map of Delaware County splays across a tabletop. Another table is laden with cookies, pretzels and other snacks. Volunteers sit elbow to elbow, pecking at cellphones and pitching the Illinois Democrat in advance of Ohio’s March 4 primary. The scene is a typical campaign boiler room.
Except that four of the 13 dialing away are lifelong Republicans, including Pedaline, 28, who reveres Ronald Reagan and twice voted for President Bush.
“I am so sick and tired of the partisanship,” Pedaline says before starting his night shift at Obama’s outpost in this affluent Columbus suburb. “I don’t want to be cheesy and say, ‘He’ll bring us all together.’ But he seems like someone willing to listen to a good idea, even if it comes from a Republican.”
Pedaline and other GOP renegades are part of a striking phenomenon this campaign season: They are “Obamacans,” as the senator calls them, and they are surfacing in surprising numbers. Though some observers question their commitment, they are blurring — for now, at least — the red-blue lines that have colored the nation’s politics for the last several years.
This is the part I found most interesting:
[Josh] Pedaline, a loan officer at a Columbus mortgage company, grew up in rural Ohio and still carries the heft of his high school football days. His father, a salesman, and his mother, who ran a pizza shop, were largely apolitical. But Pedaline was bothered when the Democratic congressman from nearby Youngstown, James A. Traficant Jr., went to prison on corruption charges. “I had a bad taste in my mouth about Democrats from the beginning,” he says over a chicken dinner.
During his college years in Columbus, the political talk was all about President Clinton and impeachment. That compounded Pedaline’s contempt for Democrats in general, and the Clintons in particular. “Disingenuous,” he says of the former first lady. He will vote for McCain if Clinton is the Democratic nominee.
This is what I keep telling my Democratic friends who think it doesn’t matter who the nominee is. They believe either Hillary or Obama will win and I don’t think that’s the case. I think she’s too polarizing a figure and will lose a lot of independent voters and Republican voters willing to cross over and vote for Obama.
Now I know that there are some, like Ricky, who will not vote for Obama and has stated several reasons for doing so and I respect that. I have my policy differences with Obama, but one thing I have not seen from him yet and that is the unwillingness to at the very least listen to the ideas of others and see some good in that. Matt led me to an article Obama wrote in Mother Jones (I think that’s where it was) about improving our educational system. He had some good things to say about voucher systems. He wasn’t all in, but he also didn’t dismiss the idea the same way so many Democrats in the back pocket of the NEA and UFT do.
In President Bush we had a President that did some good things. People keep pointing to his low approval numbers, but he’s unfortunately the victim of bad timing in that regard. The housing market and gas prices right now is at the heart of those low approval ratings. If gas prices were $1.35 a gallon and the housing market was still robust, his approval ratings would be far better. Still, there has been too many times where Bush has surrounded himself with people who think they knew better than everybody else, including the experts. There’s a big difference between somebody that has experience in an area and somebody that has expertise in an area and too often, Bush would ignore the experts in favor of those closer to him who simply had some experience. Several times he also signed off on legislation which was seemed designed to trump Democrats rather than actually do anything, particularly the No Child Left Behind Act and the prescription drug plan for Medicare.
Hillary Clinton would bring more of the same. In a moment of clarity, Andrew Sullivan wrote the following:
Clinton is a terrible manager of people. Coming into a campaign she had been planning for, what, two decades, she was so not ready on Day One, or even Day 300. Her White House, if we can glean anything from the campaign, would be a secretive nest of well-fed yes-people, an uncontrollable egomaniac spouse able and willing to bigfoot anyone if he wants to, a phalanx of flunkies who cannot tell the boss when things are wrong, and a drizzle of dreary hacks like Mark Penn.
He’s 100% correct. You’d get more of the same crap.
As for John McCain, I have no issue with him and if Hillary is the nominee, I am going to vote for him. But his ‘maverick’ tag is a media creation. Yeah, he’s broke with the party on issues like campaign finance reform, tobacco legislation and even on taxes to some degree. My issue with him isn’t like that of other conservatives like Rush Limbaugh for example who just don’t think McCain is a conservative. My issue with him is that despite all of the ‘maverick’ talk, McCain is just another Senator that’s been out of the loop for the last 25 years who has a lot of hands in his pockets.
Like I said before, DC needs a shakeup.
Topics: Politics | 7 Comments »
February 22, 2008
The Name Of This Blog
By Jay | @ 3:41 pm | |
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I’ve had several people ask me, “What is ‘See You At The Yard, Meat’?”
If you’re a fan of the movie Bull Durham, you probably know what it means. It’s a line from that film. After Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) and Ebby Calvin LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) have their little barfight, they’re invited back to Annie Savoy’s (Susan Sarandon) place where she tells the guys they’re going to try out to see who’s going to be her man for the duration of the season. After Crash says, “After 12 years in the minors, I don’t try out. Besides, uh, I don’t believe in quantum physics when it comes to matters of the heart.” he hits her with what he does believe in and leaves.
As he is leaving she calls after him and he says, “I’m not interested in dating a woman that would date….that boy.” Ebby’s like, “Who you callin boy?” to which Crash responds:
“See you at the yard, meat!”
That was actually the second time he called him ‘meat.’ The first time was during their ‘fight’ when Crash challenged Laloosh to him him with a baseball.
See? A simple explanation!
Topics: Baseball, Movies | Comments Off
Lost Recap
By Jay | @ 11:40 am | |
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Spoilers
Ok, so this wasn’t a very good episode save for the scenes between Locke and and Locke and Miles. Locke and Ben are without a doubt, the best characters on the show.
So Kate wants to talk to Miles and when she “Scooby-Doo’s” Hurley into letting her know where he is, she arrives and wants to know what Miles knows about her? Who cares Kate?
Anyway, Miles says that if she gets him a moment alone with Ben, he’ll tell her everything. Kate concocts a scheme with Sawyer to get it done.
In flash forward scenes we see that Kate is indeed Kate (so the theory that she took on somebody else’s ID is out the window) and she’s on trial for all of the bad things she did. We even learn that she has a son. So much for all of the, “He’ll be waiting for me” theories at the end of last season when she said that to Jack. The ‘he’ is her son.
Jack Sheppard (it’s weird. We know these characters so much by only their first name that when we hear their full name, there’s this extremely brief moment of, “Who—” and then it’s like, “Duh.”) is called to the stand to testify. He lies as he says there was only eight survivors (Of course people are saying, “Well how is the Oceanic 6 then?” Simple. Crap like ‘The Oceanic 6′ is an American thing. As we saw last night, Sun doesn’t want to live in the United States. I am guessing they are the other two and that their move back to Korea leaves them out of the whole ‘Oceanic ____’ title bestowed upon the others) (***Editors note: Jack said 8 survived the crash, but that only 6 lived to return) and that it was Kate that pretty much saved the day for everybody. Committing perjury for Kate. Jack’s a sucker.
So when we finally get Miles and Ben together, Miles simply tries to extort $3.2 million from Ben! Ben must have money somewhere and he quizzes Miles about the amount. “Why not $3.3 million or $3.4?” Ben’s great, but Miles isn’t having any of it saying, “Don’t treat me like one of them!” as he throws a look Kate’s way. Ok, meeting over and Kate basically hears from Miles what we all knew. She’s a fugitive facing serious charges and Miles tells her, she’d be better off staying on the island.
Locke says to Kate, “You’re not welcome here anymore. I want you gone by morning.”
Then we find out the helicopter is missing. Nothing is EVER easy on this island. So we have no idea where Sayid is. But since he is one of the Oceanic 6, we know he makes it.
Locke now with Miles telling him basically that he’s king of the castle. He sticks a grenade in Miles mouth and pulls the pin. Miles is safe as long as he keeps biting down on th grenade. Before he leaves, Locke says, “No use having rules, if there is no punishment for breaking them.” That dude is tough.
Sawyer tells Kate she’ll be running back to him once she gets into another fight with Jack and she slaps him. But he’s right!
Kate’s mom, who was going to testify earlier, now is not going to, so instead of Kate getting 16987 years in prison, she gets 10 years probation with the condition she doesn’t leave the state that entire time. She sees Jack outside. He doesn’t want to come by and see Kate’s son. Why? Because Sawyer is the daddy?
When Kate gets home, we learn her ’son’ is actually Aaron. I kind of saw that coming, so it wasn’t a big surprise. Of course, it’s easy to speculate as to why Jack didn’t want to see Aaron. Claire is probably dead and Jack has some guilt issues as a result.
Previews for next week showed a lot of helicopter stuff. We’ll see.
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