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Weekend Box Office

Thanks and a tip 'o the hat to Box Office Mojo

Ferguson

I don't want to weigh in on Ferguson. Ferguson being my shorthand name for the recent pheonmenon of possibly excessive police violence.

Listen, I got good reasons. I'll put it this way. Rioting to the point of property damage is wrong, and I can't condone it. But I understand where it's coming from. There are an awful lot of police killing an awful lot of unarmed men and boys, for dubious reasons. And it doesn't look good that so many of the victims are black, and they're not firing people over it.

On the other hand, I respect cops. They have an impossible job and it's likely that if they did it strictly by the book, we'd be at the mercy of crime lords and thugs every day of our lives. So I get that in individual cases, it makes sense to shoot before they can pull a weapon on you.

The problem, though, is that I can't give a blanket approval to everybody in any one group. I can't say all the cops aren't hair-trigger racists -- most are not, but some of them clearly must be. And I don't think the rioters are nobly expressing themselves. Most are, but a handful of them nationally are taking advantage of the unrest to wreck stuff and steal things.

So there you have it. How do we solve this? I don't know. I'm a goddam blogger, not Ghandi.

Your Annual Update

"Do you still have a blog?" my mom asked me more than once during this Thanksgiving weekend. It's more complicated that she suspects. Obviously I still have one; you're reading it. But I haven't updated in a long time. A long, long, LONG time.

As I write this I'm on an Amtrak train, the SnowPiercer, back from Oregon. It's an 18 hour trip in which I take a train, a bus, a train, and then another bus to Van Nuys, from whence I drive home.

It's not really called the SnowPiercer, but I AM taking two busses.

Anyway, I have an awful lot of free time this afternoon and the WiFi is spotty at best, meaning that writing is about the best choice I have to keep myself occupied. You know how it is: if you don't keep busy than sooner or later to devise a plan to make it to the front of the train and kill the overclass. Incidentally, note to myself -- next time I'm on a redeye, the sleeper car is worth the money.

This is all by way of explaining why I'm writing now. Politics has lost its appeal to me, since I've learned that no one I argue with is remotely interested in entertaining a rogue viewpoint. People on the right believe what they believe, even if it's implausible, or illogical, or it completely opposes something they believed yesterday. The only way I know if I'm getting through to them is how soon the personal insults come out. I spent a lot of time at my old haunt Where Are My Keys in the last couple of months posting variations of "are you SURE Obama is trying to kill us with the ebola virus?" and as of right now, based on the responses, they still believe he is. It's kind of like "winning" a chess game by simply refusing to admit the game is over. BTW, congratulations of getting the senate you guys. I'm looking forward to seeing the Tea Party wing filibuster the GOP wing.

I do still post to Skot's hangaladderonit.blogspot.com blog, whenever I want to chatter about some old (and usually awful) thing I found on Roku, so it appears I'll never tire of showbiz.

But this thing, this personal blog, I don't know what I'm going to do with it. I mean I really have no personal life to speak of. I can't write a mommyblog. In fact, my friend who writes a mommy blog has devoted her attention lately to a raw food blog. I wonder if her kid just dropped below acceptable levels of adorability?

Well, check back in a couple of weeks and we'll see if I have come up with an adequate direction for this thing.

Deal Or No Deal

Incredibly the public somehow doesn't believe that the reason the Government is shut down is Obama. They blame it on Republicans! Imagine that! Plus, the "slimdown" turns out to not be the popular money-saving measure that they were hoping. Which is why even Gallup admits that the GOP favorability rating is at an all time low.

This could explain why a man who said this last week that there was no way he's allow a no-strings attached continuing budget resolution is now offering one.

The measure, which could come up for a vote as soon as Friday, would allow the government to continue borrowing money to pay its bills through November 22.

Without such an extension, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew says the United States risked default as soon as October 17, an outcome that economists label as potentially catastrophic.

At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney said Obama was "happy that cooler heads at least seem to be prevailing in the House" over the need to avoid a possible default.

However, Obama has said that Congress must increase the debt ceiling and reopen the government -- without attaching partisan side issues to either -- before he would hold talks with Republicans trying to wring concessions on deficit reduction and his signature health care reforms detested by conservatives.

"Without attaching partisan side issues"! Clearly the man WON'T NEGOTIATE! 

My advice is negotiate. Start here: the CR must last until 2016 or no deal. There are good reasons for that, chiefly that it would allow the economy to stabilize a little. It would obviously be better for the country. Even better, it would force Republicans to argue that they need to be able to shut down the government again if they have to, which ensures an historic election year in 2014. 

If Republican leaders walk away the poll numbers can do the negotiating for a while.

**Update** Obama says NO DEAL! No details yet, but I'm sure they involve not enough Mosques on federal lands.

The Tea Party: What Do They Want?

According to a Facebook page called The Tea Party, they want this!

The language is a little spare, huh? Let me help out, one line at a time.

BIDEN: NOW!

TOURISM AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE: FORBIDDEN!

SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGES: VERBOTEN!

ANY SONGS, MOVIES OR BOOKS THAT DON'T CITE THE FOUNDING DOCUMENTS: BANNED! (Authors jailed!)

WELFARE: NOT A PROBLEM SO MUCH! BUT THE GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO KNOW WHAT YOU'RE INGESTING!

NON-CITIZENS! YOU'RE ALREADY OUTLAWED BECAUSE OF ITEM 2!
ALSO RAISE TAXES AND LOWER SPENDING, LIKE CLINTON! AND WE CAN'T BE TRUSTED TO SELECT OUR OWN REPRESENTATIVES!

You're welcome as usual.

Why Tom Lehrer Got Out Of The Satire Business

Strictly speaking this is a post about why I haven't been blogging about politics lately but I think Tom Lehrer is a little more interesting than me, right? Anyway Lehrer who wrote The Vatican Rag and a lot of other trenchant satirical songs in the early to mid sixties, pretty much stopped around 1967. And in the early seventies he was asked why. He quipped that when Henry Kissinger received the Nobel Peace prize, it rendered political satire unnecessary.

So it has been with me and making fun of Republican talking points. I can't take this stuff farther than the Republicans already are! For example Ted Cruz. Cruz just completed a 22 hour "filibuster" (not an actual filibuster, because it didn't delay a vote and had no parliamentary purpose) in which he warned that voting for cloture on "Obamacare" {I'm putting quotes around the word because Cruz seems to have gone out of his way to avoid referring to an actual law such as the Affordable Care Act) would be a disaster for America. During the speech, he cited Green Eggs and Ham; which he described as a story about someone who simply didn't like something and refused to eat it, much like Americans simply don't like "Obamacare."

How sincere was he, this Ted Cruz fellow? For one thing, at the end of that Dr. Seuss classic, the protagonist tries Green Eggs and Ham and discovers he LOVES IT! IT'S HIS FAVORITE THING! HE'LL NEVER EAT ANYTHING ELSE! And an hour after he was done, Cruz voted for cloture, just like everyone else in the senate. Clearly he wants Obamacare AND he wants to trick you into thinking he doesn't, but he needs wiggle room for later.

Meanwhile, Larry Klayman, the attorney, has decided that the American justice system as conceived by the founding fathers is worthless and formed his own. Don't pay his retainer up front!

Last Wednesday, the great usurper, Barack Hussein Obama, after having been indicted by an Ocala, Florida citizens' grand jury, was convicted by a people's court of defrauding the American people and Floridians by proffering them with a fake birth certificate. See www.citizensgrandjury.com. As readers of this column and www.wnd.com know too well, Obama is not a natural born citizen eligible to be president of the United States, as he was not born in this country to two American citizen parents. However, to justify his fraud and his elections to the highest office in the land, and after years of inquiry, in 2011 the Obama White House posted on its website a birth certificate purporting to show him having been born in Hawaii. The problem is however, according to forensic experts, the birth certificate is altered and forged.

The day of reckoning has come. Obama, having failed to plead in response to the indictment that was served upon him, waived his right to a jury trial. Thumbing his nose at We the People, as the citizens' prosecutor, I appeared before a citizens' court judge and presented evidence from Cold Case Posse investigator Michael Zullo showing that Obama tricked voters into electing him in 2008 and 2012. As a result, the citizens' judge found him guilty on two counts of falsifying information to federal and state election officials. He was thus sentenced to the maximum prison term for these offenses of 10 years, and ordered to immediately surrender himself into the custody of the citizens of the United States and Florida.

Five years per count? And he's also guilty of... wearing a red tie! I'm a crime! I JUST WROTE THE LAW NOW! 30 YEARS!!!!

I could go on but I got work to do but I think this last one is worthwhile. You know how the CBO keeps dropping the estimated price of the Affordable Care Act (a real law) and conservatives keep saying no no, it's going to be twice as much as you're paying now? I figured out how this is happening - they're not lying. They just don't get the whole Less/More concept. Here's a tip... the lower number is LESS. The HIGHER number is more.

A Reminder To People Who Insist They're Not Being Racist

This guy insists he's not being racist.

David Marsters, a conservative candidate for a town position in Sabattus, Maine, was surprised by a visit from the Secret Service after he posted an article on his Facebook about President Obama along with the words “Shoot the ni**er.” But even after the Secret Service visit, Marsters continues to defend his comment as freedom of speech — although he deleted the original posting.

“[They] didn’t see no pictures of Obama with bullet holes in his head,” Marsters said. “It’s not a threatening statement, in my opinion. People take it out of context as a threat.” Marsters maintains his comment isn’t racist, because “white people are ni**ers, too.” In addition to subscribing to the conspiracy that Obama faked his birth certificate, Marsters has pushed for a town law to require a gun in every house.

So you're in that company. Just sayin'.

Analogies Are Trouble Part 1

Obamacare is just like the Iraq War!

HOW DARE THE GOVERNMENT SPEND GOVERNMENT MONEY TO PROMOTE A LAW PASSED BY THE GOVERNMENT! They're ENCOURAGING people to sign up for INSURANCE! I haven't been so outraged since Michelle Obama promoted healthy eating!

Locking Horns With Harry Shearer

I wish all my online arguments were like this. And I LOST this one!

https://twitter.com/theharryshearer/status/370232646959251456

1. Harry Shearer ‏@theharryshearer54m

   Nuremberg lesson: don't leave your conscience at door when you enlist in military. Manning lesson: do.

   Details
2. Daniel Krause ‏@piker6235m

   @theharryshearer Morality would dictate editing before releasing.

   Details
3. Harry Shearer ‏@theharryshearer33m

   @piker62 What the military calls "collateral damage", no?

   Details
4. Daniel Krause ‏@piker6230m

   @theharryshearer If you're a whistle blower, you need to be better than the organization you're blowing on.

   Details
5. Harry Shearer ‏@theharryshearer29m

   @piker62 Okay, I'll bite: how many innocent civilians did Bradley Manning kill?

   Details
6. Daniel Krause ‏@piker6227m

   @theharryshearer That information is classified, sadly. Some informants were compromised though.

   Details
7. Harry Shearer ‏@theharryshearer23m

   @piker62 Fraid not. If you're going to raise the "better than the organization" argument, reports of damage can't just be taken on trust.

   Details
8. Daniel Krause ‏@piker6215m

   @theharryshearer Fair enough. And we both probably agree that the sentence is way too severe.

   Details

 

Harry ShearerVerified account‏@theharryshearer

@piker62 Indeed.

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Republicans Backing Socialist For President

Several years back I was arguing online with one of my esteemed 'bagger friends about the border fence. They said we'd need it because it would stop terrorists from crossing over from Mexico. "It will be expensive," I insisted, "because don't forget we'll also need one all along the Canadian Border."  Oddly, they didn't believe such a thing could happen. It's almost as if they define "terrorist" as "person browner than us". And no one is whiter than Canadians, even the brown ones.

Anyway, they should have listened, because a Canadian has somehow infiltrated the senate.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) announced late Monday that he will renounce his Canadian citizenship, less than a day after The Dallas Morning News noted that the senator, who was born in Canada to an American mother, is likely a dual citizen.

“Now, The Dallas Morning News says that I may technically have dual citizenship,” Cruz said in a statement. “Assuming that is true, then sure, I will renounce any Canadian citizenship. Nothing against Canada, but I’m an American by birth and as a U.S. senator; I believe I should be only an American.”

I can see it now - the first thing he'd do as president is get us some of that good single-payer Canadian healthcare! And cheap pharmaceuticals! Next, French lessons for everyone.

Still at least he's not one of those Latinos trying to take jobs from Americans. 

Find the Villain

Interesting tech story caught my eye this morning:

A hacker was able to shout abuse at a two-year-old child by exploiting a vulnerability in a camera advertised as an ideal "baby monitor".

ABC News revealed how a couple in Houston, Texas, heard a voice saying lewd comments coming from the camera, made by manufacturer Foscam.

Vulnerabilities in Foscam products were exposed in April, and the company issued an emergency fix.

Foscam said it was unable to provide a statement at this time.

However, a UK-based reseller told the BBC it would contact its entire customer database to remind them "the importance in setting a password to their cameras".

The spokesman added that it would be urging Foscam's head office - based in Shenzhen, China - to send out a memo to all its resellers suggesting they too contact their customers.

ABC reported that Marc Gilbert and wife Lauren were left shaken when they heard a "British or European accent" coming from the camera.

Mr Gilbert said the voice directed offensive, sexualised words at their daughter Allyson, who was asleep in bed.

The family believed the hacker was able to call the child by her name because it was spelt out on the bedroom's wall.

The two-year-old is deaf, something the couple described as "something of a blessing" in the circumstances.

This is as bad a privacy breach as I can imagine - people all over the world having access to watch your child AND BULLY HER without your consent. And the people who are terrified because the government has access to your secrets aren't going to angrily protest Foscam, or demand that the head of Foscam be impeached. They won't even boycott Foscam.

The crowd that's enraged about the NSA surveillance program don't seem concerned that the information they're mining all comes from private corporations, who could just as easily be targeting you for elimination or social turmoil. In fact, the only reason Edward Snowden is in Russia right now is because the government farmed out all this data to ANOTHER private company, which didn't have the good sense to keep it away from him.

It increasingly looks to me like Government and Corporations both know too much about us. But at least the Government isn't a bunch of amateurs about it. The government has never let my credit card information fall into the hands of thieves, the way Exxon/Mobil did once. The government just wants to keep tabs and lock my information down. Google and Facebook... God only knows. If there's money in it, they'll sell me to Al Quaeda.

Rick Santorum, Marxist

Exhibit A:

"Santorum Hopes To Rebuild Middle Class" courtesy his website.

Exhibit B:

Santorum in Iowa, yesterday



This is no fringe player, either. For a while he was the FRONT-RUNNER in the race for a Republican presidential candidate. It's only a matter of time before he starts demanding abortions and Sharia law!

A Little Something You Hadn't Considered, Immigration Wise

...It will bring about the biblical end times!

No seriously. Don't believe me, believe former Texas Republican Party Head Cathie Adams.

Wiles: Do you know where they're taking us with this? Because they said the solution to all these lost foreigners in the country, the solution is biometric scanning. That's where they're taking us Cathy.
Adams: I do understand that. I've seen it. I've heard it. And, of course, we know in biblical prophecy that that is the End Times. That is going to be the brand either on our foreheads or on the back of our hands. That is demonic through and through. That is End Times prophecy. There is no question about that.
But, you know, another group of people that are coming into our country as refugees are others that are mostly from Moozlum, Hindu, and Buddhist cultures. There are people who are not here because they love America but because they are fleeing countries, and yet, what kind of culture are they bringing here? They want sharia law, just like what they left that was causing them to be persecuted.

I'd call her nuts but as she says, there's no question about that. 

It's odd that all these people are fleeing Buddhist and Hindo countries to escape sharia law, yet they want to install it here because there wasn't any.. oh never mind. Why deconstruct this one? Like all comedy it's funnier if you don't analyze.

When Politics Hits Too Close To Home

You know where I live? Woodland Hills. You know who was visiting last night? President Obama.

I think he's swell, is doing an incredible job considering that his opposition sabotages him and brags about it, but that's different than liking the apparatus that had to go around with him. As long as he's an abstract concept that symbolizes a force for good, more power to him. But once he and the entourage are clogging up the roads just five miles from me, that's when I get annoyed.

Not in MY backyard!

Having said that, I had absolutely no reason to leave the house last night, so the visit didn't directly effect me at all. But I got phone calls from my financial advisor complaining about how difficult it was to get into her office, so there's that.  Go away, presidential apparatus, and leave us common folk alone!

I wonder if it it does any good, putting a hashtag in a blog? #firstworldproblems

"Life" Imitates "Art"

It's an old trick on sitcoms: find your main character's least appealing trait and introduce a character who has it ten times worse. Maxwell Smart is dumb? Maybe, but he's not Larrabee dumb! Jack Tripper is a lothario? Not like Larry Manetti!

With that in mind, consider Sydney Leathers. A google image search of her reveals dozens of bikini shots and selfies -- she just made a PORN VIDEO for heaven's sake. It's interesting, no? It makes me wonder if Anthony Weiner is behind the leak, and even maybe hired her with a mind toward betting back into politics down the line. If so, I have a much greater respect for the whole team now.

But still, for God's sake, drop out of the race Carlos.