The Academy Awards: My favorite James Bond film is "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," starring one-time-wonder Bond guy George Lazenby and Diana Rigg (whose character briefly becomes Mrs. Bond until a violent, untimely death occurs). The snow scenes were great, the theme was okay and -- best of all -- the contentious buzz about Lazenby and Rigg not getting along at all off camera (and, in fact, even more buzz about Lazenby and the production staff in a constant hate/hate relationship) warmed my heart. A Bond man who, um, urinated-off the producers so badly that he wasn't invited back after just one round? My favorite by default.
Another year, another snub: Last year I expressed disappointment that the show couldn't bother to include a brief thanks to U.S. military personnel serving all over the world to protect the Hollywood crowd in no small way, and this year's affair unfortunately provided no exception. When the First Lady (that's Mrs. Obama of the White House, not to be confused with the original "first lady" of the American theater, Helen Hayes) appeared at the end of the awards show, for some reason I momentarily hoped that perhaps she was poised to say something, anything, thanking the military -- but no, of course not. Incidentally, Mrs. O's out-of-place presence at this extravaganza should be the ultimate proof that Obama & Co. are all about Hollywood glitter and personalities, not about running this country anywhere except into the ground, where the elite will influence our lives in every way. You and I don't count at all because we're just normal folk, and to those who expect the rich to carry the nation's tax tab, I have common sense news for you -- sooner or later, the middle class or what remains of its entrails will be taxed incessantly. There's no other way out, though I must admit I'm not a Nobel prize winner like the prez, who obviously deserved the award because of his brilliance and mastery of a whole brand, spanking new upcoming slave class. Yes, that's what I just typed -- and remember, I once wrote this person and told him he should consider running for president. Perhaps the Oval Office deserves an Oscar for its current decorum of fluff, legislation-driven hysterics and pomposity.
I DO wonder whether there was some expectation at the White House that "Lincoln" would win for best picture, thus making Mrs. O's appearance somehow appropriately linked by race to the history of emancipation. I guess that would have been a tear-jerker. Instead, they got "ARGO," guaranteed to remind anybody old enough to remember that Democrat Jimmy Carter's ill-advised attempt to rescue hostages in Iran failed miserably. Um, not to mention that Mr. Obama himself seems to have found something else to do as our people were being violated and murdered in Benghazi. So we have here, via Mrs. Obama, reminders of both an embassy rescue victory and a recent embassy no-rescue-attempted failure, Good going.
The Obama bunch is great at marrying our White House to the entertainment industry and its campaign contribution prop-ups whenever necessary, and those little opportunities at ransacking the people’s House for hack publicity reeks.
Iran and the Bomb: Despite M. Obama's inclusion (I guess she really could be considered an actress) as the movie, "ARGO" won the best picture award Sunday evening, I was taken back to 1968, not really so long ago, when I sat in an Air Force medical classroom with three other airmen, two nurses from a local hospital -- and two young women from the Middle East. Our particular course was unique to the military and received newspaper write-ups, not only because local (Texas) civilians had been invited in for training, but also because the two foreign women were from Iran. The Shah still held power and our countries maintained friendly relations, hard though it is to believe today. Later, in clinical situations, Iranians were sometimes my patients at a pilot training base, where the U.S. taught Iranian military men to become pilots of distinction. But that was then, and now -- and now Iran's uncomfortable embrace of radical elements threatens us all. There are many good people trapped in Iran, their lives changed and clouded for at least the short term, or maybe for always.
China and Obama: What the...??? Congrats to Fox News for investigating the story of NASA's Ames Research Center providing technology to China over a period of years per cyber-hacking and inside personnel. If this is what it appears, and it appears like intellectual property theft like nobody's business, undoubtedly inflicting serious national security damage to the U.S., Obama's Justice Dept. and other agencies have reportedly performed considerable foot-dragging on this -- almost as if China has carte blanche to take and take our deepest secrets without consequence. Congressional committee mouths dropped open when they heard evidence of previously unknown infiltrations? Too bad our country has no leadership, only Academy Award nominees in the White House. One can taste the outrage.
Saturday Night Dive: NBC-TV's "Saturday Night Live" isn't funny anymore and hasn't been for years. Don't take my word for it, just look at NBC's recent sprinkling of primetime SNL "specials" looking back on funnier days. To me, putting all of that out there serves as an attempt to make viewers believe that just because SNL days of old were humorous, current episodes are hanging in there, just as rib-tickling as the old stuff. They aren't. Don't get me wrong, the show enjoyed quite a few great years, the Weekend Update stuff still elicits a few chuckles, and I could even get into Andy Samberg's videos, but the SNL rubber chicken deflated and deteriorated years ago. The assembly line of talentless musical guests is puzzling, and one assumes that not even a drug-infested audience could actually appreciate the offerings, if administered as musical notes sniffed up one's nose in powder form. Um, yeah, and overall their skits treat Mr. Obama pretty much as kindly as do network TV news shows, too, so we miss the biting political satire of olden years.
Nevertheless, while agonizing through a recent first-run episode one weekend, I encountered a brief spoof commercial for a movie about Jesus as a one-man killing machine, wiping out every enemy in his path with elegant weaponry. I wasn't offended (offending me isn't easy), but this attempt to manifest religion into the humor market raised a familiar question -- why don't the writers, producer and others who find themselves so very clever in creating this material also pick on, hmm, oh, let's say. . .Allah and the prophet Mohammad? Hey, old Mo must be good for an SNL comedy skit. So where is it? Why aren't all these TV talk show and comedy show geniuses going right to town on the comedy of Islam? Maybe it's those cartoons a few years back depicting old Mo with a bomb in his turban, the ones that awarded the artist a perpetual death warrant. So I say, come on you TV cowards, if Jesus is fair game, don't stop there. As radical Islamists around the globe busily concern themselves with killing Christians and Jews, surely TV comedy writers can put Jesus aside long enough to churn out a few Muslim one-liners? Mo-ho-ho! So anyway, did you hear the one about the three freshly chopped-off heads that came rolling into a bar, attached to a burka strapped with explosives? The first head says to the bartender. . .
NASCAR, SMASHCAR, injuries and mayhem from multiple race car crashes? Those spectators know very well they wanted to see chaos, and they got -- and in some cases felt -- exactly what they wanted, deep down. Don't you wonder whether some of those fans secretly love the rush, the possibility of being killed by a flaming metallic piece of auto hurtling toward them at 200 miles per hour?
Remember just months ago when the experts said gasoline prices should decline sharply? Well, that's working out to the letter, isn't it? We can blame the world and we can blame China (deservedly so) for the express elevator of price rises, but to believe that President Obama's "green" energy policies have little bearing on this foolishness is purely self-delusion. Now he's engaged in a critical tirade about banning future coal plants in the USA. Don't you love the enviro folk who push their agendas Now! Now! Now! but have absolutely no understanding that we must continue delving into the "old ways" of energy production for years to come because we have no temporary replacements? Yes, years back I used to donate to Greenpeace, and now I'm starting to think I'd have been better off sending my dollars to the National Rifle Association. Meantime, thanks Mr. Prez, I hope everybody thinks of you and higher prices for everything when elections roll around. And, may I suggest, elections can't get here fast enough. Fair ones, maybe?
Immigration and Reality: Do I have this straight -- a bipartisan government panel at some point suggested that annual immigration into the USA should be cut to 500,000? And now we have the "Gang of 8" and/or others suggesting we should double the disaster of well over a million legal entries that we experience every year? Hey kids! -- if you're not currently engaged in smoking weed or sexting, you might want to take a little time trying to understand the many ways your government -- primarily its liberal members, whom you find oh-so-kool because They Seem To Be Just Like You -- is screwing you and your future.
Sequestration is such a fun word to say and Mr. Obama is its daddy, but now he rejects the offspring he originally birthed. He takes responsibility for nothing. This calls for another Oscar award, as he now condemns his own idea with some degree of feigned credibility. Bravo!
Political megalomaniac governor and perhaps delusional self-presidential hopeful Andrew Cuomo of New York has seen his popularity decline significantly since he whipped out hysterical gun legislation and alienated a large portion of good, tax-paying New Yorkers, instantly transforming an honest population into the untrustworthy. They still love dictators down in the Big City, but numerous counties elsewhere now have his highness Gov. Cuomo II pegged for what he is, a law school control-freak automaton and near-dictator who grew too big for his politically-blessed britches. He obviously wanted to beat Obama to the punch in regulating guns as the 2016 elections creep closer, and his political future may and should suffer for it. May his bright future become only interviews by his brother What's-'is-Name on some hack TV network, where they can recall boring childhood memories of political family privilege. By the way, word has it that an impressive percentage among NY State Police are far from willing to go along with the new legislation, as they mentally battle the relationship between their sworn duties and the U.S. Constitution they protect. Lawsuits are in the works to defeat Cuomo and his legislative puppets on this issue, but nobody knows where all of this will go as the country and primarily liberal bonkers lawmakers continue gardening public gun hysteria like champion turnips destined for the turnip truck. My confession: When A.C. was first elected in NY, I was actually quite pleased, based on his record. Now, so sorry, his reputation is irrelevant and this phony political gasbag in a suit is lower than dirt to me. And New York residents continue to vacate the state. Enough said.
Repeat: The Second Amendment is NOT about hunting: It IS about government gone really, really rotten and being protected from it. Yes, sounds like paranoid talk in 2013, but just take a look at the rest of the world as governments unravel. Homeland security here? Not even flu shots provided sufficient immunity from disaster this year, so why expect government to inject grade-A rule in any society? Universal background checks. . .so the gov can make a master list for master confiscations at its pleasure? Mark my words -- guns or anything else, this White House is not your friend. We cannot become England (took away guns) or Australia (gradually taking away guns).
Tip of the day: Thugs can dress nicely, too. Clothes make the man, and fashion finery completes the thug who controls you.
Why is it that almost every American city in trouble has been run into the ground by liberal Democrats?
Health care costs go crazy sometimes because department heads think they should. I once witnessed a hospital department chief justify raising patient costs simply because rates hadn't been raised "in a while." There were no additional expenditures involved. It was just time for a raise. Now you know why charges vary so wildly from hospital to hospital. No brain surgery necessary here.
Go away TSA, don't return another day: Thanks for everything you do, but before you folks begin insisting upon checking body crevices on fetuses -- you know, after you finish with three-year-old spina bifida patients in wheelchairs -- please disband and let individual airports hire their own security personnel to get the job done the right way. Oh, I know, I can smell union activity climbing up the beanstalk I just put into words, but the sad truth is -- it's time for you to go away, and along with your solid examiners be sure to take the thieves, sexual adventurers and others who never should have joined your ranks in the first place. Smaller government, more intimate government when absolutely essential -- but non-invasive government, please.
A crack in the mainstream media egg is just becoming evident as The Most Transparent Administration In History has proven to be anything but. I hope to explore this further later on, but for now the media's rising discontent over access to information not already carefully orchestrated, crafted and sanitized by Obamaland's elves should serve as music to the First Amendment's intent. It's gonna get nasty out there, and so it should.
