Scenes I Loved In So-So Movies.

I am of the opinion that no movie should be called great until it is at least 10 to 15 years old, if not 20. I think of movies like Titanic, Forrest Gump, and a few others that were declared classics while they were still in the theaters. Now granted they were good movies but do they cultural impact of Casablanca, The African Queen, Ben Hur, or even The Wizard of Oz? I don't think they really do. On the other hand the Star Wars trilogy has endured I would consider them true classics worthy of the name.

Of course different people expect different things from movies. There are those so-called art theaters where limited viewing movies are released and most people wouldn't like them. Those that do consider it proof that they are superior to the unwashed masses but I'll take over Star Wars over Hedwig and The Angry Inch any day (trust me, you don't want to know.) I think that the only reason that some viewers actually pretend to like those movies is because they offend ordinary people and thus prove how unenlightened the masses are and how sophisticated they themselves are.

The majority of movies are mediocre at best but a lot of them have scenes in them that make the movie almost worthwhile. A Very Brady Sequel was probably one of the dumbest movies ever made, yet I laughed hard at Alice making spaghetti and unwittingly using hallucinogenic mushrooms or Greg and Marcia suddenly becoming sexually aware of each other. Of course it didn't make a stupid movie a good movie but it did provide a few laughs.

Here scenes I love from mediocre movies.

The 10th Kingdom is a very long (@7 hr) movie of an unlikely fantasy crossing between the real world and fairy tale kingdoms. It's not a bad movie but it's much too long (primarily because it was Hallmark mini-series). One of the main characters was a fairy tale wolf in human form who starts out as a villain but winds up one of the heroes. (How a wolf wound up in human form is never adequately explained.) This scene is while he is a villain and he has his first encounter with the girl who will ultimately be the chief heroine of the movie and what he is up to when they meet for the first time.



I have spoken before of my love for the movie They Call Me Trinity, being the first of a short series of western comedies staring Terrence Hill and Bud Spencer as two brothers who are goodhearted outlaws of unbelievable (and unlikely) strength and skill. Again the movie is good but hardly what I'd call great. The plot involves a villain trying to remove a settlement of extremely pacifistic Mormons from their land. This scene involves a secondary villain, a Mexican bandito (admittedly stereotyped) who just likes to bully the settlers. Sadly this video is in Italian but it is the action that is comical. The bandit and his gang are slapping up the settlers while laughing and yelling "Please forgive me!" and "Turn the other cheek!" What they do not know is that the settlers have two visitors who are not so pacifistic with them.



Of course there is the great Poker game scene from Trinity is Still My Name which was just as memorable.

Those who saw the movie Superman starring Christopher Reeve were largely disappointed with Supergirl starring Helen Slater. It was not a well written movie and it was also a poorly thought out plot, but nonetheless it had its redeeming features, the most obvious was that as a young man in his twenties I appreciated the fact that Helen Slater looked great in a miniskirt. There were also some highly enjoyable scenes including one where two amoral truckers come across an obviously lost teenage girl in a weird costume and decide she would be an easy target. It was a big mistake on their part.



I guess most movies have enjoyable and memorable scenes even if they were dumb and pointless.

Good News

As of about 10 AM this morning I am officially employed again. It is with my previous employer in a different position, thanks to the Human Resource Manager, whom I have known for close to 20 years, and a little grace. Pay will be just a little more with a little more overtime resulting in about 10% more than I was making last year at this time. And about 60% more than my unemployment. I can't complain about that.

UPDATE: This is not a new job created an expanding economy. I was hired to replace someone who was fired for repeated no-show.

What Disney Character are You?

One gets tired of serious and half serious stuff after awhile so how about this

Which Disney Character Are You?
	You are Donald Duck. You are a bit arrogant. You think you know everything and don't need anybody's help. Little do you realize, you can't survive without your friends. You're more dependent than you think.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Find out for yourself HERE

Hmmmmm Probably because I wouldn't follow directions to put a bicycle together.

Credit

I avoid buying on credit as much as humanly possible. I try to pay cash for a simple reason: I am paranoid about owing money and not being able to pay it back. My current total debt is less than a thousand, and with my current income I don't want it getting any larger.

Let's see. You buy things you really don't need with money you don't have today but hope to have tomorrow. Then all of a sudden, for whatever reason, you not only don't have as much money as you did, you actually have less and you still owe for your previous debts. You can't pay them, so you borrow more money to pay back the debt plus whatever interest it accrued. A bit later the cycle repeats. You keep owing more and more money yet eventually you think you will get out of debt.

Will it work?

If it won't work for you what makes you think it will work for the government?

Our biggest economic problem as individuals and nations is that we depend too much on credit and take foolish risks with tomorrow's (purely hypothetical) income. Speaking through the pen of the Apostle Paul, God told us: Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another (Romans 12:8).

Of course it is impossible to live completely without credit, but like salt in our diet, a little bit is essential and too much can be deadly.

Another Day

Thursday afternoon I was reading comments and considering responses when my phone rang. Dad needed a triple bypass. I was out the door in just a few minutes, drove over to our "country estate" where my brother was staying and took off to where Mom and Dad are living.

It was supposed to start at 10AM Friday and take roughly four hours. They started at 11 AM and it took about 6 hours but everything went well. Thanks to the surgeons, staff and chaplain at Bay Regional Hospital.

As my brother and I were headed home a snowstorm hit the Saginaw Valley area and we were driving blind for over 30 miles but we made it all right. The last couple of miles before we got to our old house we saw three cars in the ditch and being pulled out, including one that had crossed the road and was in the ditch on the wrong side. (One needs to consider that there is a fairly popular middle-of-nowhere bar -- that people come 20 to 30 miles to visit - - just a few miles north of the old house so they were probably alcohol related as there were none further away.)

I was planning to spend the night at our old house with my brother and nephews when one of my nephews looked out the window and said "It's not snowing anymore." I looked out and it was a lot less so I went on home.

Just A Thought

The left believes in the state. They trust big government as long as they control it.

The right believes in themselves, their neighbors, God and their community. They trust nothing big, government or business.

Big business will play footsie with either side to get what they want.

Big government and big business draw exactly the same kinds of people and create the same kinds of problems. Wherever there is power, even in big religion, people hungry for power over others will be drawn. That is why we need not only three branches of government, but three levels: local, state and federal, with power so spread out that no one ever really holds final power.

Comic Wisdom

He's Exempt

During the Medieval period of our history the lords and kings were exempt from taxes. They received them and lived off of them but did not pay them, except to pass on a portion to their liege. During the dark ages peasants were kept in poverty by extreme taxation while the lords didn't worry about taxes as long as they were paid by other people.

This is how feudal society worked. Everything belonged to the lord who collected virtually everything that was produced and redistributed it as he saw fit, largely to himself. In this way it is much like, heck it's identical to, socialism.

Check this out about Tim Geithner, the designated Treasury Secretary, owed a few taxes that were unpaid. They are saying that it's a common and honest mistake. He failed to pay $34,000 on his earnings at the IMF. Because of its nature the IMF does not withhold payroll taxes but it does advise its employees of their tax responsibility. Advice that Mr. Geithner chose to ignore. He did pay them later - - - after he was caught. Several excuses are being offered but such excuses only work if you are one of the power elites.

"I believe that these errors, although serious, do not rise to the level of disqualification. He is an extremely competent man," said Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont. "The errors were, in my judgment, honest mistakes. He did not in any way intentionally make those mistakes."

I wonder if he would have felt that way had it been a Bush or Reagan appointee. Stupid question. A Republican owing a nickle is far worse than a Democrat owing thousands or even millions.

He didn't pay taxes because he didn't want to or didn't believe he should have to. I believe it is that simple. See only the little people pay taxes while the lords and ladies of the neo-feudalistic Democratic Party are exempt (unless they're caught). I think we're going to see a lot of this in the future and it won't be how much you owe that matters, it will be whose friend you are.

If someone is in near-poverty or actual poverty and owes a couple of hundred dollars then by all means give them amnesty if they really can't afford it but let's not do this for the rich and powerful, especially when they are the ones eager to tax the little guy into poverty and tax businesses out of existence.

Could any of us get away with a couple of hundred in unpaid taxes? Why should he get away with $34,000.00 in unpaid taxes and say "Oops stupid Mistake!" when caught?

Only the little people pay taxes Leona Helmsley

I Am Being Threatened.

Note this comment from an anonymous Watching You on my last posting.

Dear Mr. Rat, Please be advised that I have notified the artist of the poster you have included on the right of your blog the Hope poster which you have defaced to include the word "No". I hope there's a lawsuit in it for you. I don't think you can steal someones artwork, deface it and use for your own purposes. Just because your idiotic president left you (and the rest of us) without hope, does not mean that hope isn't possible. I feel sorry for you.

First his "name" makes me think of Orwell's "Big Brother is Watching You".

OK so he wants to see me sued. Does he have any idea how many defaced pictures of his Messiah are all over the net. Does he care about the defaced pictures of Bush, Palin and McCain? Finally this was a political poster and defacing of political posters is part of what happens.

I briefly considered taking it down but decided not to. This guy is nothing but a bully who is trying to intimidate those who do not agree with him into silence but as long we speak freely we are still free. This guy seems to think that those who don't agree with Obama need to cower before him. By not taking it down I am sending him a message - - that I will not be cowed. The First Amendment is first and foremost about political speech and no one has the right to say Free speech for me but not for thee. Silencing those who don't agree with them is what dictators do, not freely elected presidents. Oh I doubt that Obama even cares what I have done as he has larger concerns but people like Watching You want the whole country to just shut up and let Obama do his thing, which is the opposite of what they did with Bush.

As far as defacing the picture goes, maybe he should troll the net a bit more and he will find some that make mine look benign. Secondly I don't get a penny off this site so I don't see why he would sue me when some are selling similar items. More to the point is they start small, little blogs like mine, but there are individuals who want to squelch all criticism of Obama from the public discourse and it starts with little stuff like this.

What They Could Have Had

In the early parts of the 20th Century a group of Zionists, ie Jews (mostly secular at that time) seeking a Jewish nation, legally purchased large amounts of land in their historic home to rebuild the ancient homeland for the Jews. They purchased the land fairly and legally and were the owners of it. It was a plan to rebuild Israel.

They never intended to purchase the whole thing or take the whole thing. The so-called Palestinians would have had plenty of land for themselves. The UN divided the land between the Jews and Arabs based on who owned the land and who lived there. The land that would have gone to Israel was overwhelmingly Jewish with very few Arabs

The compromise would have given the Arabs in the area about half the land.

They wanted all of it. They also wanted to steal the land the Jews had purchased.

These maps compare the most they can possibly get to what they would have had if would have accepted it. The orange areas of the first map were where the Arabs lived and would have been theirs if they would have simply accepted it. The sky blue areas were overwhelmingly Jewish with very few Arabs that they also demanded be Arab land.



I think they made a pretty dumb decision and now they are murdering Israelis and intentionally putting their own children in the crossfire with Israel in order to create "martyrs" to blame on Israel.

We will have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us. Golda Meir

Watch Where You Cut

Are They Serious?

Larry Flynt of Hustler and Joe Francis of Girls gone wild are asking for bailout money for the porn industry

I don't know if it's a gag or for real. With Larry Flynt you can't always tell. From what I know of him and his deranged sense of humor, this could well be a joke. But then you don't know.

I posted some time ago that free porn on the internet was hurting the publishers of this stuff, not that I have a tear to shed for them. Penthouse went bankrupt a few years ago because of this (I guess it still exists but I haven't seen an issue of Penthouse in years.)

Is he making a point of the absurdity on bailouts or does he really think the government can save America's porn industry? (As if it really needs to be saved.)

My gut says he's kidding, but my brain just isn't convinced. (or perhaps the other way around).

I do remember when there were shortages in the early to mid seventies and Johnny Carson jokingly said that there was a toilet paper shortage as well. He touched off a panic and, as people stocked up, stores DID run out of toilet paper. You never know where a joke will lead.

I suppose that next week pimps and pushers will start demanding that they get bailed out as well, then we can bail out the Mafia or have we already done that?

America's new growth industry. Government bailouts.

If it's for real, I say let em suffer.

Dylan Understood

Bob Dylan described what Israel is facing today and he did it some twenty five years ago (give or take.)

Just shows that things never change.

The Neighborhood Bully is guilty of the crime of surviving his enemies.

Well, the neighborhood bully, he's just one man,
His enemies say he's on their land.
They got him outnumbered about a million to one,
He got no place to escape to, no place to run.
He's the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully just lives to survive,
He's criticized and condemned for being alive.
He's not supposed to fight back, he's supposed to have thick skin,
He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in.
He's the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land,
He's wandered the earth an exiled man.
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn,
He's always on trial for just being born.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized,
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad.
The bombs were meant for him.
He was supposed to feel bad.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, the chances are against it and the odds are slim
That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him,
'Cause there's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac.
He's the neighborhood bully.

He got no allies to really speak of.
What he gets he must pay for, he don't get it out of love.
He buys obsolete weapons and he won't be denied
But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, he's surrounded by pacifists who all want peace,
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease.
Now, they wouldn't hurt a fly.
To hurt one they would weep.
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Every empire that's enslaved him is gone,
Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon.
He's made a garden of paradise in the desert sand,
In bed with nobody, under no one's command.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Now his holiest books have been trampled upon,
No contract he signed was worth what it was written on.
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth,
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health.
He's the neighborhood bully.

What's anybody indebted to him for?
Nothin', they say.
He just likes to cause war.
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed,
They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed.
He's the neighborhood bully.

What has he done to wear so many scars?
Does he change the course of rivers?
Does he pollute the moon and stars?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill,
Running out the clock, time standing still,
Neighborhood bully.

Copyright ©1983 Special Rider Music

I'm Not Dead Yet! :-)

I'm still here and will hopefully be posting soon. Possibly later today.

A I do have a possible job offer from a previous employer that was totally unexpected and will know more in a couple of weeks.

God Bless Mosab Hassan Yousef

Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of one of the founders of Hamas and was raised to be a Jihadist but he saw something in an Israeli prison and did some searching and converted to Christianity. For obvious reasons he has little praise for Israel but he is just as scorching on Hamas.

The sad thing is that he is now an "Apostate" and could theoretically be marked for death. It takes great courage for him to speak the truth as he now is and more people need to hear what he is saying. More than one ex-Muslim has been martyred for turning to Christianity, or even other religions.

Here is an interview with this courageous and honorable young man.