Thoughts for the Week

As a former John Stockton fan, I had to relate a paragraph I read in Bill Simmons column this week: "Did you ever think these guys [The Red Hot Chili Peppers] would still be good after two full decades? I remember being stunned when "Californication" was good and that was eight years ago. They've had one of those John Stockton-type careers where you can't remember one year when they were dominant or anything, then you look back and realize they've been getting it done forever. Although I can't imagine Stockton ever walked around naked with a sock holding his junk."

Let's hope not.

Secondly, the Atlanta Braves were just purchased by Liberty Media.
Here's the skinny: Liberty Media (conveniently located in Englewood, Colorado) transfers approximately $1.27 billion in Time Warner shares to Time Warner. Time Warner then transfers the Braves, a group of craft magazines and $1 billion in cash to Liberty Media in exchange for about 60 million shares (that's 60 million of its currently owned 171 million shares, cutting its stake to about 2.6 percent) of Time Warner; the sole purpose of which is to minimize taxes. Hey Braves fans, how's that working out for you? The team just got sold to minimize taxes. And you thought those outfield seats (with the exception of Francouer's Frenchies) were empty for a reason. Nope, just a tax deduction. More info on the assets for shares discussion here.
(Dale, can't your tithing help?)
Can't say I blame them. When don't we all get hammered by tax regulations. I wouldn't complain (recalling that many other nations pay upwards of 51% for their taxes -- of course they get lots of free things... like health insurance), but I know the income bracket above me pays less percentage wise than I do. So until I get there, I cry foul.

Movie Update - Feb 25

Before Night Falls ****
Mean Girls ***
Crimson Rivers 2 **1/2 (a weak 2 1/2 at that)
Six Degrees of Separation *** 1/2
Moonlight Mile *** 1/2
District B13 ****
Shadow of the Vampire ***
Twin Falls Idaho **

Thinkprogress.org listed an interesting piece about "the artist formerly known as Geraldo Rivera". Apparently, during a radio appearance on 104.1 FM's Monsters, Fox News resident jerk #116 (there's a lot at old Rupert Murdoch News Inc.) Geraldo Rivera called my favorite MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann “a coward — specifically a ‘[female part of the anatomy] who wouldn’t walk across the street against the red light.’ Geraldo then stated he was ready to fight K.O. saying: ‘‘” This is a slight upgrade from his previous terms for K.O., being “lowlife” and “schmuck"; but, never to be satisfied, also said Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert “exist in a small little place where they count for nothing.”

I, for one, can't remember the last time Geraldo was anything memorable, nor edified the media content of this world for better in any way. Being at the forefront of talk shows, sensationalism and overall underreporting of the current issues facing the world, I could just assume place him as a weekly contestant on "Just Shut Up" (although a fanciful Urban Legend exists about his name). But Geraldo represents more than just his own self-indulgent ignorance. He is a conspirator in the Fox News way of life - a staunch vocal piece for the right-wing, Christian, excessively conservative think-tank, and the political operatives who feed into it. (see the discussion of their Strict Fatherhood approach in George Lakoff's magnificent work, Don't Think of an Elephant, and its control of the media, and the masses that view it). He is, in a sentence, biased, unfair, unbalanced and... for the Daily Show... very unawesome.

More right-wing bias rants I'm sure will follow, as well as the "head in the sand" role the Democrats play in this mess.

New Element Discovered

In case you haven't heard, A major research institution (reported by www.velociraptor.net) has just announced the discovery of the densest element yet known to science. The new element has been named "Bushcronium."

Bushcronium has one neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 224 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an Atomic mass of 311. These 311 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. The symbol for Bushcronium is "W".

Bushcronium's mass actually increases over time, since each reorganization causes more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to believe that Bushcronium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as "Critical Morass."

When catalyzed with money, Bushcronium activates Foxnewsium, an element which radiates orders of magnitude more energy, albeit as incoherent noise, since it has 1/2 as many peons but twice as many morons. Fortunately it appears that Bushcronium has a limited shelf life although the studies have been unable to determine exactly how long the stain on things it has touched will remain.

Unstable isotopes of Bushchronium decay into AnneCoulterite. AnnCoulterite is an extremely toxic and nasty daughter element whose emanations are so unpleasant that they poison the atmosphere of any room where this decay byproduct is present.

Favorite Jon Stewart Moments

I was thinking about some of my favorite Jon Stewart moments, well the ones I can reach without being informed of a copyright violation by Viacom, and I thought I'd list them here for you.

1) Jon Stewart versus Crossfire
2) Jon Stewart versus the Grammy's Airport Security
3) Jon Stewart versus stupid Bill O'Reilly
4) Jon's first monologue in 1995 for the Jon Stewart Show
5) Any Daily Show moment

It's a No-No, but You Like It

"Honey you're so cute,
This is the land of forbidden fruit;
Bananas, melonas, yeah...
It's a hot hot summer love. MMMMM"
-- Gunther

Yes indeed. Gunther-Mania has hit Salt Lake County. Those of you who have not yet experienced the sheer magnitude of he who is Gunther, hustle on over to www.gunthernet.com and revel in the excitement.

I am working vigorously on the Gunther Halloween costume, chock full to the brim of mullet-tude and porn stache goodness! Perhaps I can find more sites like this to assist me with collagen injections for those oh so Swedish lips.

Speaking of Gunther, if you'd like the real story (a la VH1's Behind the Music), go to the Wikipedia site detailing the meteroic rise of Mr. Mats Soderlund. And on an even more exceptional note, I just found that Gunther has a Flickr site, complete with his observations of the pictures taken (including "No can keep ladies from touching my Tra La La" and "the peppernazi hide in my bush" -- I don't know what those mean, but I know Jeff will be using the first one).

Movie Update - Feb 1

Session 9 *** (with a really dumb ending)
Monster House *** (saved by its ending)
Feast ***
Battle Royale ****

If you didn't know, I have NetFlix. I at one time considered Blockbuster for my mailed movie needs, but Davey was quick to note that his Blockbuster account took 2 weeks for movies to get to him. Since I've never waited more than 2 days for a NetFlix movie to arrive, I didn't bother changing over to the Blockbuster way.

(Kudos to you NetFlix - I will gladly champion your cause).

Plus, honestly, it is really that advantageous to be able to go to a Blockbuster? Those of us that can't actually stomach the thought of having to push through a crowd of people scrambling for the new Wayans Brothers stinkfest find no inherent benefit to being able to go to their poorly lit and never disinfected stores. And for your blast from the past moment, don't forget the old Blockbuster Music stores (all 3 months of their existence) and their purchase by Wherehouse who, of course, had just emerged from bankruptcy blaming all those damn illegal music downloaders. We'll talk about stupid bankruptcy laws later i'm sure.

Anyway, Shawn and I are working on the brand new crisp clean Movie Goodness website, ETA February 19th. Check it out and enjoy!

Pizza Faces and Movies - Mar 15

Have you ever noticed the ridiculous faces people make during pizza commercials? There must be a "standard pizza gaze" for your first bite into a pizza. Watch the new Papa John's Sausage Sensation pizza commercial - you can almost hear the director overhead saying...
"OK, grab the pizza... great, great... ok, now take a big bite. Great... ok, now CROSS YOUR EYES, PUFF OUT YOUR CHEEKS AND LOOK LIKE YOU JUST FOUND A BILLION DOLLARS (or Scarlett Johannson naked, your call). More... more... give me saucy! Perfect!" I'll try and find the commercial and post it soon.

Website for Movies
A Man Apart *1/2
High Tension **
Crimson Rivers ****
Empire of the Wolves ** 1/2
R-Point ***
So Close 1/2*
Fast Food Nation *1/2

So Shawn has been on a Korean film kick, leading to some interesting movies, except for So Close, which reminds me of a horrific combination of The Matrix:Reloaded and the Gilmore Girls. Yuck. Avoid at all costs.

Another Surprising Bush Feat

A recent article surfaced wherein a lobbyist group closely linked to the Bush Administration has offered cash to scientists to dispute recent global warming evidence.

"Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)."

My favorite line from the article, Ben Stewart from Greenpeace remarking: "The AEI is more than just a thinktank, it functions as the Bush administration's intellectual Cosa Nostra. They are White House surrogates in the last throes of their campaign of climate change denial. They lost on the science; they lost on the moral case for action. All they've got left is a suitcase full of cash."

So, of course, we are all utterly shocked that cronies of the Bush Administration would pay money to refute actual scientific data. Which reminds me of my favorite recent Will Ferrell clip.

Nice frisbee grab though.

Background

"Ernest Hemingway once wrote, 'the world is a fine place and worth fighting for'; I agree with the second part." - Morgan Freeman, Se7en

After severe cajoling from several people (OK, just Anna), I gave in and set up this delightful Blog space. Currently, I fill in random thoughts when I can. I don't know what qualifications you have to have to create a worthwhile blog, but if for no other reason, it allows people to enjoy items they might not have seen normally.

I do have two Masters Degrees, in business and public health, and have management positions in companies surrounding oil refining, international finance and project management, consulting, and other various sales-related projects; not to mention instructing at the University level. So perhaps all that will account for something.

So here goes...