Old Bolingbroke's Travails

2012 - Films to avoid. List # 1

2012-02-03T19:42:00.000-05:00

Following on from 2011, possibly the worst ever year for original ideas in
movies, I offer this list of films to AVOID in 2012 courtesy of Empire
magazine.

Remember the criteria are simple :-

1. No sequels
2. No comic books
3. No TV show adaptations of shows from my childhood
4. No Jason Bourne
5. No Mel Gibson
6. No remakes

Plus, we have to start being careful - the studios are dropping the dreaded
number in movie titles, but they still are giving us a sequels.

Sucks! Ya! Boo! to THAT.

So here's my first 2012 list from the Turkey Farm :-

The Amazing Spider-Man
The Avengers
Wrath Of The Titans
Streetdance 2
American Pie: Reunion
Battleship
MIB III
G.I. Joe 2
Ice Age: Continental Drift
The Bourne Legacy
Total Recall
The Sweeney
The Expendables 2
Taken 2 ( Oh fuck no! )

2012 - The Year The News Media Deserved A Shellacking

2012-01-21T23:31:00.003-05:00

Hang on to your hats people, this is going to get rough.

2012, a presidential election year, surely this is a time when the "news media" can come into their own, earn their collective crusts and actually perform some nominal service to the public, to aid them if you will, through the traps and unseen undercurrents of the American Political System right?

Well, actually no, not at all.

2012 is destined to go into the history books as the year corporate controlled news media failed American Democracy.

Where do we begin? Of course with the Citizens United case and the creation of the whole Super PAC phenomenon. Where were the media when explaining this to the American people was possibly the most important thing they could have been doing? They were AWOL - probably because their corporate overlords saw the Citizens United case as just fine and dandy. And it was just that for the News Corps and GEs of the world, but the American Political Process has been royally fucked up by it.

All the news media ( left, right, undecided ) singularly failed in their mandate to inform the people about the consequences of this truly egregious case. It probably wasn't until the Iowa campaign, when Romney's Super PAC effectively carpet bombed Gingrich out of that race, that they came late to the table and tried to remedy their huge mistake. Too little. Too freaking late. Why didn't they get on Super PACs earlier? Corporate interference not to? Could have been, but I choose to think it was a combination of sheer laziness and a perceived notion that the story was not interesting enough, or it would be too boring, or too obscure or too damn unsexy to snag the interest of people. You know, the "people"? Those human beings who tune in to "news outlets" to heaven forbid, learn something about what's going on so they can make informed choices? THOSE people. Oh yes, they'd certainly go straight to the remote on hearing a story about the usurpation of their country's political system. Wouldn't they?

So it was left to Jon Stewert and Stephen Colbert to guide those who wanted to know through the labyrinthine ways of Super PACs, their function, their controls and the ludicrous notion of "not coordinating" with a particular campaign. Riiiight. I cannot believe that the nine bozos on the Supreme Court couldn't have taken a few minutes to sit down before rendering the Citizens United verdict just to say, like in a game of chess, "If we rule in favor of 'X', what will be the immediate consequences to say 'Y'? " Where 'Y' just happens to be the integrity of the entire US electoral process. Couldn't they have foreseen that ultimate "coordination that was non-coordination" fiasco last week when Gingrich addressed the crowd and said "I'm talking to you ( the audience ) because I can't coordinate with the Super PAC, but the Super PAC should correct errors and remove ads if they have false allegations in them"? Couldn't they have foreseen that a "smart guy" like Gingrich would make a mockery of the Super PAC rules almost before the ink was dry on them? I heard Chief Justice Roberts was a clever man when he was nominated to the Supreme Court. He seemed to be so in his confirmation hearings. But on the evidence of the Citizens United ruling, I think we have been hugely misled on the cleverness issue in his case.

What else? Oh yes, laziness, still reporting the horse race, not reporting the subtlety of changes to delegate allocation, too damn eager to say "After such-and-such a race, it looks like it is going to be all wrapped up for Mr Front Runner".

All the news media were so quick to say "Romney's won two" and "First time since 19xx" and "If he makes a clean sweep in South Carolina, it's most likely all over".

In their lazy and simplistic coverage of the first GOP nominating contests, they ( the news media ) falsely colored people's perceptions of how the race was going when they said that Mr Romney had won the first two contests. This was especially stupid given the 8 vote margin initially given to Mr Romney AND given that the officially announced winner had not been certified by the Iowa Republican Party. So eager were the media to be first, to pick the winner, give him a garland and move on, that they allowed their perceptions, their prejudices to put Mr Romney in that top spot even though THE VERY NEXT DAY one caucus worker said Romney had been give 22 votes in a caucus count when in fact he should have received only 2. But on the night of the vote, a declared margin of victory of only eight should have presented more than enough uncertainty from a process may I remind you that involves COUNTING, for the media to say "Too close to call". But oh no, they wanted that result, they needed that result to validate their election coverage and their process and their glitzy swishy moving walls o'data.

"Mitt's the winner. Nothing else to see here people. On the bus to New Hampshire we go! Single Malts all round! Job well done boys and girls. Here's your bonus, Now let's make sure to wow them in New Hampshire just the same and we can all take a break in Florida, because after that one, we will most certainly be done. And we will have earned our time in the sun. Oh yes indeed we will have".

Also, this desire to be first, announce the winner, move on and so be able to declare someone has "sewn it all up" also leads to a profound and exceptionally unhelpful phenomenon - namely the received wisdom of "the media have decided its over, so it's over".

What should have happened in any of these contests, is that the media should not have concentrated on the winner nor even his margin of victory. This they should have strived to avoid in every minute of every hour of their coverage. What they should first and foremost have said was "Mr 'X' has won and will receive 'Y' delegates for the GOP Convention in Tampa which will happen a long long way down the road in this process of choosing the GOP presidential nominee. Mr 'X' now has a total of 25 delegates, he needs 1214 delegates to secure the GOP nomination".

The emphasis at any time in this process has to be on how many delegates the candidates have and how many they need, not reporting the horse race results after each caucus or primary and then having the talking heads come on and say "This is almost over" and "One more result like tonight and Mr 'X' has the nomination virtually sewn up". What? After TWO contests? And one of those a caucus where but a few thousand people get involved? Really? All over so soon? No. Of course it isn't. The media want you to think it is by telling you they want it to be so.

Heck even the less than unbiased information source called Conservapedia says of the 2012 GOP nominating process that "It is virtually impossible for a candidate to win a majority of delegates before June 2012". ( direct quote )

Why did the news media not report the contests this way? It almost seems they are conspiring with the big money donors, the GOP and the people on the inside to tell us, the saps in this entire process, that "It's all over now. Nothing to see after Florida". Which is of course palpably untrue and does a tremendous disservice to the political process in this country.

And it simply adds insult to the proverbial knee-in-the-groin injury, when you come to find out that this year, the delegates in contests before April 2012 will be allocated proportionately to their vote totals in any particular caucus or primary. This fact alone makes it even more important then ever for the news media to restrain from picking and anointing "The Big Winner" and to just report the three simple facts of, how many votes did each candidate get, how many delegates does that number translate into and how many delegates short of 1214 is each person who is still running.

I am truly appalled by all news organizations' efforts in covering the GOP nominating process to date.

And the sad thing is I don't see them getting any better as we move on to the Florida primary. They clearly will not accept any culpability in their distortion of a process designed not to be over until June at the earliest.

Phew! Rant over.

And I didn't even get to what piss poor candidates they are. How can Newt Gingrich, an insider if ever such a beast existed, get the GOP nomination for President when Congress ( his domain ) has an approval rating of 8%? Which. as was pointed out last week on the TV, is a lower number than the approval rate for Socialism.

And Romney, a man who has changed every thought he ever had in his head?

And Santorum, a theocratic loon with a strange and unhealthy obsession with same-sex relationships?

WTF America? WTF.

Bolt from the Blue

2011-12-30T20:26:00.001-05:00

My favorite ranting "Family Values Radio Station" AM 1040 WLVJ has been sold! Just learned it from Dennis O'Donovan on his "Religion, Politics and the Culture" pro-Catholic daily gabfest. Apparently, from January 1st, it's all over.

So I have rushed to the Interwebs and learned IT IS ALL TRUE! OMG!

In other filings with the FCC, JAMES CRYSTAL ENTERPRISES' JCE LICENSES, L.L.C. is selling Religion WLVJ-A/BOYNTON BEACH, FL to ACTUALIDAD 1040AM LICENSEE, LLC for $2.3 million plus a time brokerage agreement before closing. The buyer, through parent ACTUALIDAD LICENSEE 1020AM, LLC, owns Ethnic WURN-A (RADIO MEGA)/KENDALL-MIAMI, FL and recently bought the construction permit for WURN-F/KEY LARGO.

So I guess, it is going all Spanish, all the time? OMG. Where am I going to go to hear the biggest charlatans on South Florida radio? Yes, I'm thinking of you, Charles Capps and Brother Stair all through the night.

In some ways I am devastated to think that the object of almost 20 years of my unbridled scorn is no more. But of course on the opposite side of that coin, I'm elated because in the true Sheenian sense of the term, I see this as "winning". The dust clears and who is left standing? ME!

So that's Me: 1 Baby Jesus: 0

But don't worry about me dear readers, my invective can now fully turn to the FM dial where we have WRMB, WAFG and WCNO all on my radar. WCNO is the worst, carrying as it does the uber-charlatan that is Joyce Meyer, but WRMB is up there with one of its "Pastors" describing a woman born as the result of a "rape relationship".

This fight ain't over, though it is round one to me.

Question

2011-11-27T08:25:00.001-05:00

Is anyone else out there kind of uneasy that a non-profit 501(c)(3) "ministry" like "Focus On The Family" is trademarking the expression "Helping Families Thrive" (TM)?

For a "ministry" ( and I use that term in the law's loosest sense ), doesn't it seem rather....unseemly?

Sort of "God and Mammon" or "Jesus and the Moneychangers" unseemly?

So I think we should ask Jim Daly (above), what is the true slogan of his company? Perhaps what he really should be using is "Business before Belief" or "Money before Morals" or "Lucre before Love"?

I've got it: "Helping Ourselves To Your Finances".

Really I guess they could change the name of the whole money grubbing organization to "Finance Not Families". Then I guess at least we might see some Truth in Advertising".

But I guess I should not have expected more from the organization with its own the gulag in Colorado Springs because what they have forgotten about Christian charity is more than the world will ever know.

This bugs me 2

2011-11-05T10:11:00.004-04:00

What really bugs me about the Herman Cain sexual harassment story is the media's total inability to explain the law. On CNN last night ( 11/04/11 ), on Andersen Cooper's snoozefest, Gloria Borgia and Jeffrey Tubin both said the story would go away because no specific actions of Herman Cain have been identified to say "he did sexual harassment".

Guys, in the case of sexual harassment, the accused DOESN'T HAVE TO PHYSICALLY DO ANYTHING.

This is a law which says harassment happened when the accuser says it happened.

One of the categories of harassment is "hostile workplace". This means the accuser just has to say she felt uncomfortable and the object of their claim has just about no defense in law that will save him.

You don't have to touch, you don't have to speak - all it might take is a photo on your desk of your wife showing just a little cleavage and "bang!", you are done.

Have none of the so called "pundits" on TV had ANY training in their workplaces on sexual harassment? Some companies say to their employees, "No girlfriend pictures on your desk - because it's best to play it safe".

So to try to protect yourself from false allegations, you sit in an office with a desk, a chair and all white walls - and some bimbo will still say "I felt very uncomfortable in Mr X's office. It felt like he was examining me. You know? Like in a doctor's office. It really creeped me out. I thought he was coming over the desk next. With a speculum and a very slow grin. I had to get out of there!" "Bang!" You are guilty again.

So it doesn't matter what Mr Cain did. It doesn't matter if he perceives he did nothing wrong. It doesn't matter whether 99.9999999% of the population thinks he did nothing wrong. Sexual Harassment as a charge rests solely in the eye of the alleged victim. And once a complaint is levelled, you can't get out from under it.

And if you pay to make it go away, it makes you look guilty.

And "no admission of liability" is just weaselly lawyer-speak that no one but lowlife attorneys believe means ANYTHING.

So the media verdict is "this story is going away". And you know what? If you were a regular Joe, your goose right now would be cooked. And your ability to get ANY new job ( let alone the job of President ) would be very difficult.

This bugs me

2011-10-27T22:12:00.009-04:00

I've been thinking recently about stuff that bugs me about American politics. And no, it's not about Fox News having no discernible "News" in it or why the cable "news" outlets always interview the same people over and over and over again - no, not the obvious stuff.

What's been bugging me is demonization of political opponents. If you will, the creation of the Political Bogeyman. Or in the case of MSNBC, Political Bogey Brothers.

Rachel Maddow and the lefties at MSNBC do it using the Koch brothers. Fox News and the blowhards of talk radio do it with George Soros. And for the the sake of serious political debate it has really got to stop.

So the Koch bothers have an agenda? What Lassie? They fund astroturfing sites masquerading as grassroots organizations? I'm shocked! Nay, outraged!

But actually, no I'm not. I'm saddened because we can now target individual people and scapegoat them as the cause of our country's, or our own personal misfortunes. "These are the guys. These two guys who are secretly rigging the deck against me". No. They are simply rich people who have a desire to remain that way. And they have influence while I don't? Excuse me while I cry into my Wheaties.

And Fox is no better with Soros. "The Billionaire Socialist" who funds Media Matters? ( Which he doesn't ). They are saying just what Rachel is saying on MSNBC. They are pointing to a citizen who's operating perfectly legitimately within our political system and they are saying to their sheeple "This is the guy who you can legitimately blame for everything bad that's happening to you."

Here's a suggestion for you - When this demonization is next happening on your TV set, replace the name "George Soros" with the word "Jew" or "Koch Brothers" with "Jews" and tell me what the taste in your mouth is.

Because I think it's hate and self pity together and we need to tell the media to cut it out.

Email to Janet Parshall

2011-09-28T06:26:00.002-04:00

Dear Janet,

Just when I thought you could never be a bigger schill than you are for the Republican party , you go and prove me wrong with the broadcast of 9/27/11 and the piece about "Christians for A Sustainable Economy" (CASE) and it's founders, Dr. Timothy Dalrymple and Kelly Monroe Kullberg.

Pure politics Janet. These people wouldn't understand the teachings of Christ about the poor if he returned and explained it to them personally.

So Kelly's pushing this ridiculous statement of "Jesus came to remove your financial debts" while at the same time having to reconcile that square peg with the round hole of Jesus saying "the poor will always be with you". Priceless. As with all GOP operatives, irony is completely lost on her.

You often have rabidly religious guests of "the-Lord-spoke-to-me" variety and they are as funny as heck, but Dalrymple and Kullberg are different. They are politicians usurping Jesus' teachings to the GOP agenda.

As I say every time I email you, you excelled your show's low standards once again.

( Janet hosts "In The Market with Janet Parshall", every weekday on Moody Radio )

Bill O'Reilly strikes again

2011-08-30T22:22:00.005-04:00

Today on the segment of the O'Reilly Factor where Bill discuses legal cases with his "experts" Liz Wiehl and the brunette bint, they were discussing a case out of Idaho where a man was arrested for shooting a Grizzly Bear on his property.

The consensus was that the case would be thrown out because you can shoot an endangered species when it is a threat to your family. The law specifically allows for that.

Bill O'Reilly then concluded the bit with something that went like this :-

"The people of Idaho are sensible people. The case will be thrown out. Can you imagine what would have happened if he'd done this is California?

"Luckily there are no Grizzly Bears in California that we know".

My immediate thought? "Ever heard of Yellowstone National Park Bill?"

To make take a cheap shot at wacky California, he just made himself look like a complete moron.

But that's O'Reilly for you. Bombast in a very large bag of Irish wind.

Addressing Excessive Folksiness

2011-08-29T20:59:00.006-04:00

The time has come to finally address a topic that has been weighing on my mind for the last few months. And that topic is the cloying folksiness of people on Religious Radio.

Now, I'm not going to go for the easy low hanging fruit like Joyce "C'mon I'm preaching good up here" Meyer or the decidedly unbiblical cacklings of Charles "Stay with me here, it will all work out" Capps. No, I want to talk about the people pictured above.

Now, even if like me, you are an avid listener to Focus On The Family, Family Talk and just about anything on Moody Radio, you probably won't recognize either of these people. I'm thinking that you have probably heard them though.

The woman is Carol Barnier and the man is Ron Hutchcraft. The latter is actually a real pastor, but Carol is that most ridiculous of things, she is a "much sought after" Conference Speaker. And to that I have to say "Aren't they all?" Perhaps at first you might think they could not have a whit in common, but actually they share more than first glances might yield.

Let's go with Ron first as he has perhaps a real job. Everyday on Moody Radio after the Janet Parshall comedy show ( "In The Market with Janet Parshall" ), he has a little five minute bit. I don't know what to call it other than a bit. It's not a sermon, it's not a devotional, it's not anything to do with the Bible - it's simply a bit. And should be completely inconsequential, but....

The problem I have is Ron's delivery - always chucklingly folksy, down home and creepy. Like that uncle on who's knee you did not want to sit as a child. It's just skin crawlingly false. And what makes it worse is that, he does it every time. So he's consciously wrapping that clammy arm around your shoulder every day. Why? It is so false feeling, so manipulative, so urgh! This bit makes me feel unclean every weekday at 06:50 PM EST. This man could be the reason why pastors are all portrayed so badly in the movies.

Yes, THAT level of folksy and creepy.

Now Carol is a whole different bag of surprising sameness.

She's frequently to be found on the "Focus On The Family Weekend" radio program, usually dispensing some sound advice to Jim Daly's sheeple on subjects as diverse as kids with ADHD are a "gift", shy children, teaching special needs, and home school leadership. Whatever the frack that last thing is. She is a "Conference Speaker" - so she doesn't have a real job and I guess she lives of the fruits of her husband's labors.

Carol suffers from the excessive folksiness of creepy Uncle Ron to be sure, but she doubles down with a speaking style that cannot decide if she's conversing with a audience of ADHD sufferers or whether she's sharing something slightly risque with her wimmin's Bible study group. "Rest assured I was not always this way". Or "this will produce a perfect outcome for your family. Alas it took me five years to realize this".

The little folksy asides are just patronizing and full of self deprecating faux witticisms - truly you have to hear her to appreciate the level of just sheer godawfulness she brings to the microphone. I guess she's always simply aiming for bonhomie, but she's so far from hitting it all she makes me want to say is "Bon Voyage. And don't come back." Which alas she always does.

Both Ron and Carol are regularly on the radio, patronizing their listeners and doing their schtick and every time I hear them one question comes racing into my mind....

"Why?"

Three Trips to the Movie Theater

2011-08-06T08:10:00.009-04:00

This week I had another birthday and took three trips to the movie theater, twice to see movies and once to watch a play from London.

And guess what? As I get older, I find my tastes in entertainment are really changing. I guess I'm finally growing up at the age of 54. Hollywood, is really trying its best to tell me that I am not in the demographic of their idea of a "regular moviegoer".

So what did I see?

The play was "Henry IV Part 1" recorded with a live audience at the Globe Theater in London. And it was simply glorious - funny as all heck, stirring, heroic and wonderful. Roger Allam who played Falstaff was a standout. All bombast and cowardice in equal measure. The comedy was masterfully juxtaposed with the scenes about kingship and honor - Harry Hotspur was all fire and rashness plunging headlong for honor at all costs, while Prince Hal at all times was musing on what it meant to be a king and you could see right into his mind in his response to the pleadings of "Banish not Jack Falstaff" as he visibly took on his royal mantle.

And did I mention it was funny? Gosh, I don't think I will see anything as good on a big screen this year in the laughs department.

I loved this, Loved it.

Alas, then for my next trip to the theater, the movie train crashed into the buffers of mediocrity. I went to see "Cowboys & Aliens".

The best I can say about this movie is that it was OK for a standard American Summer Movie where a lot of stuff blows up. But, alas all the excitement had been marketed right out of it. I think ALL the action scenes had been showing in trailers and TV talk shows. The aliens were goofy. And by the way, what evolutionary purpose is there in having a an anatomy that actually exposes a creature's heart for ease of stabbing? Out hearts are in our chests for a reason people.

The movie was exceptionally linear, with a very poor story. It seemed very formulaic as if the screenplay had been written by committee. James Bond? Check? Indiana Jones? Check? That Hot Chick from House who does girls? Check.

Sorry that's not enough to hold my interest. But one good thing we can say is that, thank goodness this movie wasn't set up for a sequel.

I guess at 54, I am now officially too old for Summer Blockbuster Season.

And then we came to perhaps the Best Movie of 2011, Wayne Wang's "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan".

This movie renewed my faith that there are directors out there making films for someone without acne and raging hormones.

The twin stories are told slowly and with great thoughtfulness. One story is about Nina a hot shot financial executive in Shanghai and her relationship from childhood with her best friend, the more free spirited Sophia. The girls take an oath to be "laotong" which makes them pledged best friends for life after Sophia's snobbish mother banishes Lily from Sophia's side after letting her listen to decadent music.

The two actresses Li Bingbing ( Nina ) and Ji-hyeon ( Sophia ) also play another pair of laotong ( Lily and Snow Flower ) who become fast friends in 19th century China at the time their feet are bound in the hope of making them good wedding matches.

As with the modern women, their fortunes in life over time become reversed because of the financial ruin of one girl's family.

The intertwining of the two stories is handled just wonderfully. Li Bingbing is so good as the laotong who will not let go of her sister even when rejected and pushed away. The final reconciliation of Snow Flower and Lily actually made we cry.

Such a marvellous movie.

Go and see it.

Hurricane Season 2010 in quotes

2011-07-10T10:53:00.007-04:00

Well, we are six weeks into the 2011 Hurricane Season, so it is about time to post the quotes I associated with each 2010 storm.

Tropical Storm Alex - June 27th
Then lowering, and pouring,
The storm no more I dread;
Tho' thickening and blackening,
Round my devoted head.

Tropical Storm Bonnie - July 23rd
Tha'rt welcome, little bonny brid,
But should n't ha' come just when tha did;
Toimes are bad.
We're short o' oobbies for eawr Joe,
But that, of course, that' did n't know,
Did that lad?

Tropical Depression Four - August 2nd
They are all gone away,
The House is shut and still,
There is nothing more to say.

Through broken walls and gray,
The winds blow bleak and shrill;
They are all gone away.

Tropical Storm Colin - August 3rd
'Tis not enough that through the cloud thou break,
To dry the rain on my storm-beaten face,
For no man well of such a salve shall speak
That heals the wound and cures not the disgrace.

Tropical Depression Five - August 11th
There's tempest in yon horne'd moon,
Anf lightening in yon cloud;
But hark the music, mariners,
The wind is piping loud!

Tropical Storm Danielle - August 22nd
There is wild water from the north;
The headlands darken in their foam
As with a threat of challenge stubborn earth
Booms at that far wild sea-linecharging home.

Hurricane Danielle - August 23rd
Safe where I cannot die yet,
Safe where hope to lie too,
Safe from the fume and the fret;
You, and you.

Tropical Storm Earl - August 27th
My Lord Tomnoddy's the son of an Earl;
His hair is straight, but his whiskers curl:
His Lordship's forehead is far from wide,
But there's plenty of room fpr the brains inside.

Hurricane Earl - August 29th
Hast thou in keep some higher, calmer biss?
Ah me! It is pleasant to behold the light,
And missing this.

Hurricane Earl - August 30th
Soon he was safe home, dry as could be.
Soon woke the Dormouse - "Good gracious me!"

Tropical Storm Fiona - Auguest 31st
If you are but a mortal maid,
Then I shall make you half afraid.
The water shall be dim and deep,
The silver fish shall lunge and leap,
About you, coward mortal thing.

Tropical Storm Gaston - September 2nd
To day deep thoughts resolve with me to drench
In mirth, that after no repenting drawes;
Let Euclid rest and Archimedes pause,
And what the Swede intend, and what the French.

Tropical Storm Igor - September 8th
A foutre for the world and worldlings base!
I speak of Africa and golden joys.

Hurricane Igor - September 13th
Safe from the frost and the snow,
Safe from the storm and the sun,
Safe where the seeds wait to grow
One by one,
And come back in blow.

Tropical Storm Julia - September 13th
Thus sung they in the English boat
A holy and a cheerful note:
And all the way, yo guide their chime,
With falling oars they kept the time.

Tropical Storm Karl - September 15th
Through the tracery of bamboo plumes against the afterglow,
I saw mystery flicker along the sky-line
And vanish over Yucatan.

Tropical Storm Lisa - September 21st
The water shall be dim and deep,
And silver fish shall lunge and leap
About you, coward mortal thing.

Tropical Storm Matthew - September 25th
The wind passeth over it, and it is gone;
And the place thereof shall know it no more.

Tropical Depression Sixteen - September 28th
In summo periculo timor misericordiam non recipit.
"In extreme danger fear feels no pity"

De loin, c'est quelque chose; et de pres, ce n'est rien
"From a distance it is something; and nearby it is nothing"

Tropical Storm Nicole - September 29th
Ubi explorari vera non possunt, falsa per metum augentur.
"When the truth cannot be clearly made out, what is false is increased through fear"

Tropical Storm Otto - October 7th
Men die, but sorrow never dies;
The crowding years divide in vain,
And the wide world is knit with ties
Of common brotherhood in pain.

Hurricane Paula - October 12th
Undique enim ad inferos tantumdem viae est.
"There are countless roads on all sides to the grave"

Tropical Storm Richard - October 21st
We look though gloom and storm-drift
Beyond the years:
The soul would have no rainbow
Had the eyes no tears.

Is THAT Trial Over Yet?

2011-07-04T12:46:00.002-04:00

Zapping the TV channels this weekend, multiple times I hit some screeching harpy saying "the nation has been captivated for the last month by the trial of Casey Anthony". Really? I haven't. The coverage by CNN, Fox et al has been uniformly appalling. And let's not even talk about the withering scorn-filled harridan that is Nancy Grace. The truth is that the 24 hour news channels loved this story and shoved it down the nation's throat and told us we were "fascinated" with its bile-tasting horribleness.

How different would it have been if there was a 30 second spot per day on the TV with the anchor saying something like "The Casey Anthony trial continued today. The defense made more indefensible statements". What do I really gain seeing everything from gavel to gavel? I trust the jury system. So all you need to tell me is that (a) the trial is going on and (b) the result.

I have no need for "experts", no need for panels, no need for Marsha Clark or Mark Fuhrman and Stepford judges and their "analysis". I really don't need Margret Carlson's opinions on Fox. I know what she is going to say before she opens her mouth. Because what comes out is always cliche and platitude.

And really and truly I have no need for Nancy "Tot Mom" Grace.

Why does she still have a TV show after she made that woman kill herself? And yes, tragedy happens to many people Nancy, it doesn't make you special or more caring than the rest of us. And it surely does not mean you have a right to an horrific TV show. I think we should buy Nancy pitchforks for Christmas. She sure as hell will know how to wield them before the mobs she inflames with her fatuous rhetoric.

And the trial? It cannot be first degree murder if the prosecution cannot say how the poor child died.

Ms Anthony is going to be convicted for being a "bad mother" and for dancing.

Just had a great idea!

2011-06-09T06:11:00.004-04:00

Let's tax so called "ministries" that have no religious significance.

Organizations with Churches/Temples/Mosques can still be tax exempt. But putting a so called "chapel" on your campus and therefore paying no taxes as a way of dodging the IRS isn't making your company a religion nor a church.

Are you hearing me Jim Daly? "Doctor" Dobson?

Quote of 2011

2011-05-26T21:13:00.002-04:00

I heard this on Christian radio ( Mission Network News on Wednesday 5/25/11 ) and this is going to be the quote of the year. I have no doubt.

Here it comes.....

Get ready.....

"Believe it or not, underwear will be a conduit for the gospel."

And they were not even talking about the Catholic Church! Can you believe it?

So sounds like something Father O'Malley would say just before he diddles his latest altar boy.

But this was the host of the Mission Network News broadcast talking about a charity that collects underwear for kids after natural disasters. However, as an expression, this maybe THE DOUBLE ENTENDRE OF 2011.

Cacophonous Bling: Gastronomic Delights 1: Tournedos Rossini

2011-05-26T06:53:00.001-04:00

Here's a link to a recipe for the great Tournedos Rossini. Yum yum in the tum.

Cacophonous Bling: Gastronomic Delights 1: Tournedos Rossini

Enjoy.

Taken on my Virgin Mobile

2011-05-15T08:02:00.003-04:00

--
Sent from my Virgin Mobile

Taken on my Virgin Mobile

2011-05-15T08:02:00.001-04:00

--
Sent from my Virgin Mobile

So much has happened

2011-05-12T11:09:00.000-04:00

Oh boy. So much has happened since I updated the Olde Travails Page, that I feel what's about to come your way is going to be some seemingly random stream of consciousness nonsense that's gonna seriously sound like ranting.

But I guess if rantings what it sounds like, So Be It.

As I sit here, I can hear the Service America guys installing my new A/C unit. Bang! Bang! Bang! - every two minutes on the sticking door handle on my front door.

I hope when they are done that I will be able to exit the house! Still haven't called the handyman to fix that. Or the Window Screens! Aaaaarggghhhhh! Hurricane Season soon. What a procrastinator I am. There you are, I admitted it. Isn't that the First Step to Change? Must ask one of mt tweeters - she keeps posting what seriously sound like her AA steps. Really. Stuff about her "Higher Power". You know the program.

We got Bin Laden. Yay! But people taking to the streets in celebration? Not sure that's really very seemly. But I guess, that's the British Reserve showing through the folds of my flag draped body.

Saw the Morgan Spurlock documentary "Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold", and while it most certainly had things to say that were quite interesting, Chomsky had it right when he told Spurlock "You dip your toe in the water and the next thing you know, you are swimming". So really as soon as he took the money, the movie was to some extent, out of his hands and under the control of the sponsors. Witness Pom shooting down all three of his somewhat innovative ad ideas for a standard attack ad on their competitors. Guess which ad shows in the movie?

So ultimately the movie comes out as a good idea that was of necessity hijacked and softened by the very forces it was exposing.

What else?

Saw the movie "Jane Eyre". Put it immediately on my "Best of 2011" Yahoo! Movies list.

The horror of the Summer Comic Book and Sequel Bloat has started at the movie theaters. "Fast Five" took a sh*tload of money and so did "Thor" on their respective opening weekends. The US movie industry is doomed unless it can break out of this cycle of endless nonsense.

I gave up on these movies perhaps 5 years ago. The rest of humanity will do so eventually.

Season Ticket for the Dolphins has been purchased - still no guarantee of a season. Next up, 24 tickets for SteveFest 2011.

Newt Gingrich is running for President. He has no chance of the Republican nomination. But all the "Committing Adultery while Impeaching Clinton" stories should at least keep the campaigning fun. Plus Rick with a silent "P" Santorum is running. We should start a a pool to try and guess when the first mainstream journalist will say "Man on Dog". Hehehe.

And finally, I have three words that need to be said, nay they need to be SHOUTED from the rooftops :-

"Zombie Strippers 2".

Please don't clap

2011-03-15T06:54:00.002-04:00

We seem to have developed a habit of clapping at let's say, inoppurtune times.

You really should not be clapping :-

1. In Church - It's a SERMON not a SPEECH. Unless you are listening to John "Fat Man" Hagee.

2. When someone introduces you on a TV show - See Chelsea Handler's nightly panel.

3. When watching a comedian - You are supposed to be laughing - applause can so easily be patronizing condescension.

2011 Shaping Up As a Bad Bad Year 4 Movies

2011-02-27T07:45:00.004-05:00

Thanks to the 2011 preview edition of Empire magazine, here is a list of the movies I will be seriously avoiding this year. The usual rules apply, No Sequels, Remakes, Comic Books and adaptations of old TV Shows.

Originality is all I crave.

So here goes:-

Transformers - Dark Of The Moon
Pirates Of The Carribean - On Stranger Tides
Captain America
Thor
The Green Lantern
X-Men - First Class
Conan The Ballbearing
Spy Kids 4
Footloose
The Hangover Part 2
Arthur
Diary Of A Wimpy Kid 2
Sherlock Holmes 2
The Three Musketeers
Straw Dogs
Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol
The Thing
Twilight - Breaking Dawn Part 1
Scream 4
Final Destination 5
Paranormal Activity 3
Kung Fu Panda 2
Cars 2
Happy Feet 2 in 3D
Fright Night
Piranha 3DD

And finally there's "Jack and Jill" where Adam Sandler plays his own twin sister!

Is it me or is this list even longer than the one from last year?

And they are remaking Straw Dogs? Peckinpah must be spinning in his tequilla bottle.

Stories that make you go "Huh?"

2011-02-19T09:51:00.003-05:00

Every so often, you come across a story on the Interwebs that make you come up short and do one of those Lewis Black style double takes.

This week such a story was the one that said people in the Britain rank 15th in the world for yearly alcohol consumption. Yay! Go Team UK! The Old Country is still good at something after all.

So this ranking of 15th corresponds to a yearly intake of 13.4 litres of pure alcohol per person. Or over 445 pints of strong beer or large glasses of wine. In contrast, Britain's wimpy European neighbors can only pull a lowly 12.2 liters per person.

But then the story gets kind of surreal.

If you discount teetotalers and only put the drinking on the drinkers, the consumption rate in the UK jumps to 15.6 litres per person. Way to go Blighty! This number corresponds to 9.50 litres per woman and a staggering 21.5 litres per man. Surprisingly, a whole 14.4% of the population in Britain do not drink at all.

Now with these new revised and bigger numbers, you'd really think that Britain would move up from 15th to an even more respectable and higher place in this the World's Table of Serious Boozing Nations....

And guess what? If you think that, you are wronger than wrong.

13.4 litres gives to a ranking of 15th, but 15.6 litres puts you, to quote the article I read, as "out-drunk by about half the countries in the world". The report ranked 193 countries, so 15.6 litres corresponds to a ranking of BELOW 96th !!!

I think that is worth repeating. 13.4 is 15th, 15.6 is below 96th.

Huh? Huh? Huh? Whaaaaa?

The report even said that given these revised figures, Britain is overtaken by countries like Egypt and Iraq. Huh? What The F......?

I guess the action of "normalising for teetotalers" really skews the numbers. Say you have a big Muslim country where almost no one drinks. So 227 million people in Indonesia consume 40 litres of alcohol per year. When you put those 40 litres squarely on the 2 people actually doing the drinking, an initial alcohol consumption rate of of 0.00000018 litres per person becomes 20 litres per person.

Yowzer! Living amongst non-drinkers makes the imbibers go at it even more!

But you have to admit that initially reading 13.4 makes you 15th, you were not expecting that 15.6 litres makes you 97th.

Now it has happened twice!

2011-02-06T10:56:00.011-05:00

Twice in my life I have had feelings, I don't want to call them "religious" or to use the weasel word "spiritual" to describe them, but these occasions definitely felt like my life was being guided when they happened.

The first time was of course, the famous -25 metre golf shot. After that happened a thought formed in my mind.

And it was "You do not have to play this stupid game EVER again. You will gain years of life in which to do other things".

And I took that thought and shaped my life around it - not even playing the hateful game when I moved to Florida. A place, let's face it, that might be called "St Andrews of the South".

And I am a better person for having done that.

And now a second instance of such a life changing event has happened.

Yesterday ( February 5th 2011 ), because I cannot play tennis ( "Damn you Tennis Elbow!" ), I decided to get out the bicycle and ride over to see my buddies playing our Saturday morning game. So I got the Raleigh out of the garage and pumped up the tires and took off for the courts which are about 2.5 miles from my house.

I'm tootling along and feeling pretty good, I'm about half way there are then there's a big "BANG!" Oh yes, the back tire just blew itself right off the frame and I had to walk the heavy walk of shame and push the bike back home.

But why is this moment number 2 in my life? Let me explain. As soon as it happened, I thought, "If there is a God, ( and there is not ), this is her telling me to not do this again." Seems to me these thoughts are arising because I'm being guided to stop doing activities that are both (a) mind numbingly repetitive and (b) as boring as an freaking awl.

So guess what? Bicycling is now out of my life and I am now free of participating in this most ridiculously pointless activity.

Free! Free!

Stephen Colbert Testifies to Congress

2010-09-25T18:24:00.002-04:00

I think the time has come to say a few words about this. The first being that Congress has no moral legs to stand on to "Tsk, tsk" Mr Colbert. ELMO has testified before Congress for goodness sake. All high ground was lost a long, long time ago.

Congressmen Conyors came across as a buffoon and most of the members of the committee showed themselves to be intellectual midgets devoid of both a sense of humor and a capacity for rational thought.

He was funny. But he also made telling and serious points, but these idiot representatives seem incapable of holding those two ideas simultaneously in their small round heads. What we saw was them running for cover because of the inevitable sound bites that would be plucked from Colbert's testimony and shown on the TV news in 20 second segments.

What the Congress guys and gals should have done was defend Mr Colbert, not attack him to make themselves appear to have political gravitas before the upcoming election.

Of course the Republicans lambasted him on Fox News ( "Not funny" ), because they have no sense of humor, but I also saw a Democratic "Strategist" doing the same and I thought "you silly, silly woman". Because when you lay down with Neanderthals, your children are going to have really big foreheads and no brains.

Manhattan Declaration

2010-07-28T07:31:00.003-04:00

So after all the ballyhoo last year about the Manhattan Declaration, we can now step back and look at the impact of this "call to Christian values" - whatever they are.

So again, let's take 320 million as the US population and let's be generous and say only adults get involved in this nonsense and that they make up 50% of the population.

So 160 million potential signatories, how many people have signed what Chuck Colson said was"the most important document I have ever signed in my life"?

Answer: 461914.

Or put another way, 0.289% of the American people agree with this "Christian Country" idiocy.

Making up a modern day cliche like "I will render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, but I won't render to Caesar that which is God's" is simply not cutting it today Mr.Colson.

Because the future of our nation is more important than cheap word games based on Bible quotes.

Mel and Oksana

2010-07-17T13:02:00.002-04:00

Mel Gibson is a man with all the rage and resentment of an Australian but without their sunny disposition.

Yes, I know. He was born in New York state. But clearly his upbringing in Australia gave him the chip on his shoulder he so lovingly brings to his movie roles.

And Oksana seems (a) to be in this for the money and (b) very naive about Mel Gibson. Did she never watch his movies? Sometimes buried in fiction is the actual man's true character.

Look how may times his characters have to go through the violence wringer. Talk about self loathing.

Prince says "Internet is over".

2010-07-11T10:51:00.004-04:00

This week, Prince the diminutive artiste formerly known as "Squiggle", boldly announced that "The Internet is over". Of course what is "over" ( and has been for a long long time), is Prince's career. Right now he's as influential as the wax cylinder industry and marginally less relevant.

formspring

2010-06-20T09:21:00.008-04:00

Finally I have to write something about the site www.formspring.me This is a site that allows its users to ask anonymous questions of each other. It's like a more interactive Tweet kind of a deal.

Well since their last site upgrade, certain buttons on the site have completely stopped working - the "More Answers" button for example. So you cannot scroll a page to even see old answers. The site has a troubleshooting forum where every day, people leave posts that this functionality is no longer working.

The people running the site do NOTHING, NICHTS, NADA, absolutely BUGGER ALL in response to these users complaints.

They are, in a few words, useless appendages on the arse-end of the Internet.

This error of course, should be fixed pronto, but in the interest of good user feedback ( and perhaps in getting new users ), these people need to take down the site and restore the old layout until they are in a position to say "That bug is fixed".

Right now the site is generating a huge amount of bad comments from its users and its owners should really be concerned about that.

Oh yes. For me this has been broken for maybe, a MONTH.

Why oh why can't they fix it? The way the error manifests, it might just be a Java version incompatibility - something that should be freaking easy peasy to verify and correct. Or are they giving up on XP? We simply don't know because the site never responds to user concerns.

Vent. Vent. Vent. Dumbasses.

What the heck happened to Han?

2010-05-27T12:49:00.003-04:00

He seems to have wandered in from the wrong movie.

Thinking about pastors and their donors

2010-05-23T19:26:00.003-04:00

Any preacher or pastor who asks for a "donation" for "this week's radio/TV offer" for "the ongoing work of this ministry" is no better than the money changers Jesus threw out of the temple.

Their "churches" are as the seats of those that sold doves.

I guess that's why they will sell you anything except live birds. But that being said, I have seen the one with the wire coat hanger in his mouth, Robert Schuller, sell little birdie ornaments though.

So really there's no difference. NO DIFFERENCE AT ALL. Charlatans all.

S.E.Cupp on Bill Maher

2010-05-16T18:35:00.004-04:00

Self professed atheist S.E.Cupp was on Bill Maher's HBO show this week but her strident assetions on the benefits of religion certainly belie her claim to non-belief. Bill pressed her to say that people who believe in the talking snake and all that rigamarole were deluded and she just couldn't do it.

She did at one time say she had a Masters in Religious Studies and then, for me, the light went on.

She's an atheist as much as those guys who get biology degrees and end up working at The Discovery Institute are scientists.

Classic fifth columnist stuff.

And to put the cherry right on top of this very rancid cake, the president of the Media Research Council, the ginger dweeb that is Brent Bozell contributes a quote on the dust cover of Cupp's latest book "Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media's Attack On Christianity".

Enough said.

New Favorite Radio Loon

2010-04-30T20:48:00.000-04:00

That would be Joyce Riley at http://www.thepowerhour.com

Woo! Hoo! No Station in South Florida for Dobson!

2010-04-29T07:21:00.002-04:00

Doctor James Dobson's new radio comedy show starts on May 3rd. Here is the link to his new website. http://myfamilytalk.com. Alas, there is no radio station in Dade, Broward or Palm Beach counties that will be carrying it.

Why 2010 sucks at the movies

2010-04-25T19:59:00.004-04:00

This is what we have to look forward to for the rest of 2010 :-

A Nightmare on Elm Street
Babies
Iron Man 2
Robin Hood
Shrek For Ever After
Sex and the City 2
Prince of Persia
The A-Team
The Karate Kid
Toy Story 3
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Predators
Hairspray 2
Step Up 3D
The Expendables
Nanny McPhee 2
The Lottery Ticket
Piranha 3-D
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
Jackass 3D
Paranormal Activity 2
Saw VII
The Howling: Reborn
Hairy Pooter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Red Dawn
Tron Legacy
The Green Hornet
True Grit

Sequels. Remakes. Comic Books. Hollywood truly is an industry bereft of ideas.

A remake of Red Freaking Dawn??? That's got to be a joke right? And True Grit too?

Only two upcoming Hollywood movies hold any interest for me in 2010.

One is "Salt" with Angelina Jolie. The other is "Knight and Day" with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.

And alas I have to say this knowing that Olivia Wilde is in "Tron Legacy".

Time to Talk Globalization

2010-04-25T09:07:00.006-04:00

Experts say globalization has lifted millions out of poverty and so it must be a good thing.

The middle class in the US have seen their way of life forever altered and this is a bad thing. It is no coincidence that the children of today's parents will most assuredly not have a better life than their moms and dads - something that was unthinkable only one generation ago.

Where you stand on the whole globalization issue in the US depends on just one thing - whether you are in the middle class or whether you are not.

We've all seen them, "economists", "trade experts" and talking heads from rightwing think tanks like The Heritage Foundation on channels like CNBC and Bloomberg TV telling us that globalization is inevitable and we can't stop it. The kicker always for me, is when they say "In the future people will have 7 different careers in their lifetime".

Woah! Hold on Bald Eagle. No one and I mean NO ONE ever questions that statement - a statement always made by some "expert" safely ensconced in a job-for-life post in academia or by a career politician ( code word for lawyer ) who also isn't getting a new job in his lifetime. What is that percentage of re-elected encumbents again? Over 90% I think. These guys won't be changing careers a whopping 7 times. Of that we can be damn sure.

Now another number we always hear is that 70% of the US economy is consumer spending.

What would it mean for the US economy if the middle class don't spend anything? I think we've just had a glimpse of that in this last recession. I'll answer my own question. It means a future of economic stagnation stretching away as far as the eye can see. It means a US decline foreseen by our masters and sanctioned as "good for us" by them. It means lower wages until we can compete with the most poorest exploited persons in the world. It means our rulers are following policies to keep the mass of the American people in fear and economic bondage.

People won't spend money if their economic future is uncertain. Who can pay a mortgage if their wages crash every few years when they have to go out and get that 4th, 5th and 6th new career off the ground?

In the last few years as globalization has taken hold, CEOs have been encouraged to outsource perfectly legitimate middle class jobs from the US to "low cost" countries and the devil take the consequences. Well the consequences will eventually come home to roost when the middle class raises up and says "Enough! No more of this crap" and we will see such a swing to protectionism and isolationism it will make the 1930's look like a global lovefest.

And why are jobs outsourced? To maintain profits. To raise share prices. To give the CEO his bonus. And to hell with any effects this has on the US or its citizens. It's an attitude of "I'm all right Jack. Sod the workers, they'll never get into this club and affect MY life like I've screwed with theirs."

And then this sentence will be reapplied again by expoited and frustrated US citizens :-

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to the separation.

And that declared cause will be that our rulers have destroyed what it means to be an American. They have destroyed our economy, our way of life and more crucially they have destroyed the American middle class' hope for a better future for themselves and their families.

And with that declaration, the middle class of the United States will dissolve the government of it's elected rulers and throw off the serfdom and poverty into which those leaders have forced them. The only difference will be that this time the middle class with throw off the rule of Washington elites, lobbyists, CEOs and Academia. It is not going to be pretty.

The only way to avoid the coming storm is to change from the disastrous economic course on which we have been set and for the government of these United States to realize the depth of middle class resentment that they are creating.

And don't get me started what are leaders are doing to manufacturing jobs.

And So It Goes

2010-03-28T13:17:00.006-04:00

Nothing undermines the lies of the new regime at Focus On The Family than their treatment of James Dobson. The whole scale political revisionism continues in its almost Stalinesque purge of any reference to James Dobson from the Focus on the Family website.

Now all the icons for "The James Dobson Family Minute" are replaced with those for something now called the "Focus On The Family Minute". Of course, the former all had a head shot of James Dobson on them. The new "Family Minute"? No.

In fact I have been searching the Focus Archive and I can't find ANY "J.D. Minutes" anywhere!

So Jim Daly can continue to mouth his platitudes about honoring Doctor Dobson and saying how everyone in the Colorado Springs gulag loves him, but as the Bible says "By their works, you shall know them".

And judging by Jim Daly's works so far, he's an unchristian power hungry megalomaniac.

However, I will concede he has one thing in common with James Dobson - he doesn't believe the Commandment about bearing false witness applies to him or the other loons at FoF.

And Dobson's last day finally arrived

2010-02-26T21:14:00.005-05:00

The Focus On The Family broadcast of 2/26/10 was a continuation of yesterday's "Passing The Baton At Focus" program with Jim Daly, John Fuller, General Pat Caruana and Doctor Dobson in the studio. But however much false bonhomie they tried to display and how ever much they tried sucking up to Doctor, there were three telling instances that JIM DALY WAS IN CHARGE.

The first was early on when Doctor Dobson very sheepishly asked "May I be permitted to say say goodbye to our listeners out there?" - like he needed Daly's permission and was audibly cowering in front of him.

The second instance was when Dobson said "Can I tell people what you are doing for us?" This was when he said that Focus On The Family's board was giving him $1 million dollars to start "at ground zero again". Again clearly snivellingly deferring to Jim Daly. But what a golden parachute to start his new venture with! Again I have to think he really put the screws to the board to get that kind of moolah. After all, isn't Focus On The Family kind of short of money? They certainly tell us so at the end of every Focus On The Family broadcast. Where did that million come from? Did they find it in the Focus couch?

I wonder how all the people who Focus have laid off recently feel about this "donation"? And the third and this was the kicker, was when Jim Daly said "We have a couple of minutes left. I'd like to forward you that opportunity to speak to the listeners from your heart". Wow! That's so big of you Jim. So freaking gracious. James Dobson doesn't need your permission to speak on a Focus On The Family radio program. This was Daly, even in the last few minutes of Doctor being at Focus saying "Hey! I'M IN CHARGE". Subtle but telling I think.

So, so long Doctor. I'm certainly going to miss your folksy shtick and your phony outrage about popular culture and the President. Your new venture is not going to be called "James Dobson on the Family" as was previously reported, but "Family Talk". I hope you continuously drain money from Jim Daly's pocket until he realizes what a fatal mistake he has made forcing you out of the "ministry" you founded.

I won't be listening to Jim Daly's Focus On The Family because he's a huge stinking Arschloch and douchebag.

Bye bye.

"Doctor's" last week at Focus On The Family

2010-02-25T20:37:00.004-05:00

Well with but two days left for the fabled "celebrations" of Doctor Dobson, he finally was in the Focus studio today with the man who done him wrong, Jim "what a liar" Daly. Also present was The Focus On The Family Chairman, retired Lieutenant General Pat Caruana.

The program was deadly embarrassing - it was very obvious that Doctor Dobson really wanted to be somewhere else.

The program can be summarized as everyone saying "God's hand is on this ministry" and Jim Daly still lying about this being a "planned transition".

Right. Planned in his mind and enacted as a boardroom coup. What a liar.

Doctor did say that his new venture ( "James Dobson On The Family" ) will be getting startup money from Focus. I wonder how he strong armed that out of Jim Daly, a man who he clearly despises? I'm thinking like the end of "The Devil Wears Prada" if you know what I mean. And I think you do.

But thinking that Doctor told Daly, "I'm taking all your donors" now has me seeing him dressed like Meryl Streep in that movie.

Eeeeew! Now I feel so unclean.

Doctor Dobson's last week at Focus On The Family II

2010-02-24T21:52:00.003-05:00

Well Wednesday's broadcast was simply a repeat of Tuesday's - just schmaltzy voicemails of the sheep saying how much "Doctor" had influenced their lives and on more than one occasion, how a book from the old trout had helped men "understand" their wives.

All rather sad really.

Jim Daly was still lying through his teeth saying "this transition had been planned for years". Except of course all that was planned was for Doctor Dobson to hand over the chairmanship and CEO duties at Focus - not the radio broadcasts as Doctor Dobson himself said last February.

Stealing the radio show and kicking Doctor out of his own ministry - that was all Jim Daly's idea.

Show much for honoring Christ at Focus Mr Daly.

James Dobson's Last Week at Focus On The Family I

2010-02-24T06:55:00.002-05:00

And so it begins. This week is James Dobson's final week at Focus On The Family and I must say that to date two days in, the previously much vaunted "celebrations" have been less than enthusiastic.

Monday's broadcast did not have Doctor in the studio.

Neither did Tuesday's.

On Monday, the show started with a lot of clips of Doctor and others singing his praises with athe addition of manipulative tinkling background music as per the worst TV evangelists - I'm think of YOU, Rod Parsley. And then a previous recording of Doctor himself explaining Focus' history to a live audience. We've heard that one before. "We were out of money. I went and begged someone for some more. Praise the Lord. Weren't we faithful?"

And that was Monday.

Tuesday was even worse. That program was 100% voicemail recordings of suck up calls from the public. Plus of course with added musical manipulation. I almost barfed up my lunch.

And yes, I would also like to mention the revamped FoF website has been changed again. Gone is the microphone for "Click on Daily Broadcast" to a picture of....you've guessed it! Jim Daly!

This man can't wait until he obliterates all traces of James Dobson from Focus On The Family.

Don't listen to anything he says, by his actions you will know him.

And so it starts

2010-02-03T07:12:00.002-05:00

Skirmishing in the Dobson vs Daly war continues. On the Focus on the Family website, the link to "Listen To Daily Broadcast" used to be a picture of Doctor Dobson, now since the start of February, it is just a big microphone.

http://www.focusonthefamily.com/

With "Doctor" still in theory having a month of employment at FoF, this in practice, is Daly kicking him while he is down and on the way out.

So Christian of him.

But of course, FoF is a "ministry" in name only - for tax exemption purposes and really has nothing to do with Christ or his teachings.

I've just noticed something

2010-01-31T12:14:00.002-05:00

At the time of the coup at Focus on the Family when Jim Daly and his minions forced out Doctor James Dobson from the ministry he founded, it was stated by many FoF representatives that there would be many celebrations of "Doctor's" accomplishments before he finally leaves the airwaves at the end of February this year.

Er....where are these 'celebrations'? It is now January 31st 2010 and I've noticed something that bears consideration.....

Since old Dobbo announced he will set up a new rival radio program to the daily Focus on the Family broadcast, I don't think that he's been live from the Colorado gulag - not for the entire month of January. At least when I've tuned in, it has always seemed to be a "Best Of The Best" recording of a previously aired program. No live Dobson. No specially interrupted broadcast so he can smack the President around a little with the likes of Gary "the tosser" Bauer and Chuck "the felon" Colson.

So look for any special "celebrations" of Dobson's achievements at Focus on the Family to be if not non-existent, then very perfunctory and aired probably but once around February 26th - basically just as Daly finally boots him from the building.

This Dobson vs Daly feud can only heat up as 2010 progresses and I love it.

With a recession that shows no sign of going away for the middle class and a shrinking funding base for the twisted fare Dobson and Daly offer, the animosity can only keep going up and up.

Let the games begin!

Hooray for Johnny Weir

2010-01-27T21:40:00.003-05:00

It's not that often that I give a shout out to male ice skaters with their "points for style" and their very dodgy wardrobes, but I feel today we must all stand up and say "Well done Johnny!"

Yes indeed, Johnny Weir, all sequins, sparkles and a little bit of fox fur has raised the ire of the animal rights loons and he has said what all right thinking people should say to such idiots :-

“I totally get the dirtiness of the fur industry and how terrible it is to animals. But it’s not something that’s the No. 1 priority in my life. There are humans dying everyday. There are thousands if not millions of homeless people in New York City."

"Look at what just happened in Haiti."

“I tend to focus my energy, if there is a cause, on humans. While that may be callous and bad of me, it’s my choice.”

Bravo Johnny! People are more important. MORE IMPORTANT than animals. Every person in pain in Haiti is worth more than all the little foxes that are or ever were.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand

2010-01-24T08:57:00.006-05:00

Anyone who saw the new Starz series "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" knows it should be renamed simply "Spartacus: Blood". The producers of this so called "entertainment" took an effect used hardly sparingly by Frank Miller in "300" namely the slow motion arterial spray of blood, and put it in almost every hit, stab, punch or kick in every fight scene portrayed. And sometimes the blood, for want of a better term, "redded out" the screen background - why? For a scene change? Now that was not really a cheesy effect, but it was a cheap looking one - like someone had no ideas except "throw up more blood!".

Of course the other aspect of this series that pushes and pushes and pushes itself to the fore is the rumpy pumpy.

In the opening episode there were three scenes, two involving the soon to be named Spartacus played by Andy Whitfield and "his woman" Sura played by Erin Cummings ( I kid you not! ). The other one involved the evil Roman Glaber ( Craig Parker ) and his very conniving wife Ilithyia ( Viva Bianca ) "You know women are not allowed at the front" he tells her. Pfnarr! Pfnarr! And while the first scene between Sparty and Sura was somewhat perfunctory with many fade cuts, the second one between them could hardly be described as such.

What it can be described as is lazy. It was lazy because it used the movie making cliche of having the characters do it directly after a scene of intense danger - which of course is what happened. Hey we killed a lot of bad guys together! Let's do it, right here right now, we are already sweaty and breathing hard, so its really no biggee.

So maybe we should think of a second name change for this "epic" - let's go with "Spartacus: Blood and Sheets".

Now though this is very bad TV and I mean really really bad, I will be watching the next episode to be sure, for the contextual analysis of course.

Woo! Manhattan Declaration Update

2010-01-21T21:43:00.004-05:00

Again, giving them the generous concession of perhaps 160 million people in the US who might be interested in signing, today's number of 404834 signatories to the "Manhattan Declaration" still only represents 0.253% of the American population who gives a flying crappola.

Last week on one of the Focus On The Family broadcasts someone said "hundreds of thousands of people have signed". That would at that time have been THREE hundreds of thousands. Talk about bending the truth while not actually bearing false witness.

All the loons from Jimmy Dobson, to Chuck "the Felon" Colson and Gary "The Tosser" Bauer and beyond can get back to me when they have a 20% sign up rate.

That's going to be for me at 32 MILLION people.

And also, it ain't EVER going to happen.

And one last thing, doesn't this whole "Declaration" thing strike anyone else as kind of prideful? It's like this document's originators are puffing up their importance and the cultural significance of what they are doing. This whole exercise strikes me very much as them setting themselves up as modern day equivalents to those who did actually sign the most significant documents in our nation's past - like say, The Mayflower Compact or heaven forbid, The Declaration Of Independence.

And ladies and gentlemen, I think we can all agree that the people signing this new "Declaration" are truly not fit to shine the shoes of the men from 1776.

But they so think they are. Amd that disturbs me.

This is a Public Service Movie Review

2010-01-01T07:04:00.006-05:00

To all my American friends out there, I want to post a review of a movie called "Vampire Killers" as my latest attempt to bridge the cultural gap between the US and the UK.

Please note that the title of ths movie in Britain was "Lesbian Vampire Killers". That says something right there.

Oh dear. This is simply Lad Culture translated into a movie.

And it is very bad.

If you are unaware of the whole Lad phenomenon, it is a marketing culture from the UK aimed directly at 15-year old lager drinking, Ibiza vacation taking, footie fans. It's "literature" is magazines like "Stuff", "Nuts" and "Loaded" full of stories about drinking, football and with lots of color pictures of topless girls.

It is a culture that is manifestly afraid of women. Or to be the most charitable I can be, it knows nothing about women. But it wants to because it feels a "funny" attraction to them.

It might use the word "pornography" in its mags, but that is really a foreign land to the Lad - he is quite happy that topless girls are chopped off at the waist in his favorite Page 3 photos. He feels that below the female waist is little like Antarctica - something is probably going on down there, but he himself really doesn't want to visit at this time.

All that is reflected in this film - the "heroes" are true lads. They use the F-word all the time, they want to just drink beer and pick up "hot birds". If they were ever successful, they wouldn't have clue what to do with one. The vampires are completely asexual; actually making the title change for the movie in the US a more accurate case of truth-in-advertizing. There is suprisingly little pulchritude on display. There is really hardly any blood. There is definitely no out and out gore a la "The Descent".

If you were looking for female vampires like those in Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula" movie, you are going to be very, very disappointed.

And Paul McGann plays a vicar who uses the F-word a lot? I could hardly contain my water.

A Question to the Faithful

2009-12-30T10:56:00.004-05:00

Today ( 12/30/09 ), I caught "Pastor" Rod Parsley's "Breakthrough" comedy TV show where he said that his "ministry" was under its worst attack in 30 years and oh yes, HE NEEDS YOUR MONEY. He needs it before the end of the year.

So I hear you asking, "what's new with these fakers?"

Pastor Rod said they had met one financial goal ( Damn! ) because of a "matching donation gift", but they still need $500,000 by close of business tomorrow and guess what? Miraculously there is another "matching donation gift" of $250,000 already on the table, so all he needs now is a measly quarter of a million dollars in 36 hours! Hallelujah! Praise Jesus! You can do it!

Now the question I feel that must be raised is "What is the Christian basis of these 'matching' gifts?"

Surely "God loveth a cheerful giver" as it says in Second Corinthians 9:7.

Please note that's not "a matching giver" or "a reluctant giver" and it most certainly isn't "a giver who only gives if he strong arms another giver first". I think the Bible has a lot to say about pride and simply doing stuff for the adulation others in the congregation. And surely isn't that what this "matching donation" nonsense is all about, pride and preening?

Or is it even worse? Is it really Religious Extortion of the believers sanctioned by their Pastor?

James Dobson Quote 12/29/09

2009-12-29T17:18:00.004-05:00

And I jest not.....This has to be the second best quote of 2009 - after the one about "The hand is an object of love...."

"The culture is at war against our kids and against what we are trying to teach. I mean, they are determined to damn them because the popular culture, I think, is Satanic in its influence and they want to take your kids to Hell".

12/29/09 - FoF website - Focus on Parenting - "Heritage Builders I"

Is this man insane? Would you want this man dispensing any advice on raising children? I think not. I wouldn't want this idiot within a 1000 miles of my kids.

I bet Iain Banks would have something to say about this claptrap.....Know your Culture novels people. Special Circumstances would be on Dobbo's case...If they were real. Schade.

Manhattan Declaration = Abject Failure

2009-12-26T07:28:00.002-05:00

Again assuming 160 million adults as potential signers of this thing, with a total of 310830 signatories today ( December 26th ), that only represents 0.194% of the American people.

So Chuck "The Felon" Colson can say this is THE most important thing he ever wrote, but these numbers tell me that people are not interested in signing up to loony right wing screeds.

So the only conclusion we can draw is that this "Call To Christian Conscience" is a complete failure.

Let's see if Dobson has the gall to mention its "success" before he leaves the air for ever in February. I guess he might, given the numerous instances I have quoted and written about of his bearing false witness. He wouldn't know Intellectual Honesty if it showed up in Colorado Springs and demanded an interview.

My sister is back in the hospital in the UK

2009-12-23T17:05:00.004-05:00

Looks like the chemotherapy knocked her white blood cell count down to a big round zero and she's now being ravaged with every opportunitic infection she could have gotten. My mom says she looks like she is bruised all over her body...

This in not in any way going to be a Happy Christmas.

What is she getting for Christmas? Answer: Platelets and Antibiotics.

What am I getting? Answer: Sadness, broad and very deep.

Visor-gate. It looks minor but speaks volumes

2009-12-20T13:14:00.002-05:00

Today ( Sunday December 20th ) John McCain was playing down the Sarah Palin visor-gate story, saying he understood she blanked out his name on her visor to avoid publicity and paparazzi attention on her vacation in Hawaii. Basically he reiterated Sarah Palin's own explanation - one that stands up to no scrutiny whatsoever.

Her explanation makes no sense because (a) the paparazzi would have been photographing her no matter what her sartorial garb was and (b) WalMart sells blank visors.

Clearly she did it to stick a finger in McCain's eye and for her own unending desire to keep herself in the news.

What is disturbing is that this woman, who so promotes herself as one of the people and just a hockey mom, should have such poor judgement when it comes to understanding the public's perception of events. Does she think she's so loved that she is immune to scrutiny or analysis of her actions? Does she really think the public is so stupid that we won't see her petty vindictiveness behind her "Aw Shucks!" schtick? This story tells more about Palin's spite and ego than a dozen rambling interviews with the mainstream media.

And now she has cut short her vacation. Is there nothing in her life that this woman woman won't quit from?

Chuck Colson says Israel is not a "civilized society"

2009-12-12T19:24:00.005-05:00

Listening again to the Focus On The Family radio broadcast of 11/23/2009 where Doctor Dobson and others including convicted felon Chuck Colson were discussing the "Manhattan Declaration" a so called "Call To Christian Conscience", I heard Colson utter a sentence so inane, so utterly loony and also contemptible that I feel I have to share it with a wider world.

Colson said, "We're talking about the Foundational Truths of the christan life, which by the way, are the Foundational Truths of EVERY civilized society." ( my emphasis ).

Do you hear what he actually said? He said that societies not founded on "Christian Truths" ( whatever they are ) are not civilized. You know, like Israel or Japan or India.

I bet that comes as a shock to Bebe Netanyahu. I'm sure he thought these right wing loons were Israel's friends, but there goes Chuck letting the anti-semitic cat right out of the bag. But we know these guys don't care a toss about Israel - after all, working for the Lord's return does imply working for the end of the state of Israel.....but who cares, it will finally be civilized and that's what has to count the most, right?

And for those of you not keeping up with these things, the Manhattan Declaration is a document drawn up by a cadre of religious leaders, prominent evangelicals and general loons which any Tom, Dick and Harriet can sign affirming their commitment to the baby Jesus while at the same time poking the current administration right in the middle of its huge socialist pro-abortion eye.

The Declaration has been available for anyone to sign for just about three weeks now and according to their website, to date ( December 12th 2009 ) it has garnered a whopping 285386 signatures.

Well in a country of 320 million people, if we assume half are adults and only adults are signing up to this errant nonsense, that number represents less than 0.18% of the US population agreeing with Dobson, Colson and the rest.

This can't be the response the Declaration's originators were hoping for. Focus has gone very very quiet on the whole matter - after trumpeting reaching 200k signatures in the first few days of the Declaration's existence.

Also on the broadcast Doctor got his panties so in a wad about the Obama administration and the healthcare bill, he threatened to "pull an Alec Baldwin" and leave the country and "go into exile" if a bill passes.

Alas, I fear he will do the "full Baldwin", which is of course, simply to threaten to leave and then stay anyway.

But I can have my dreams can't I?

Perhaps he will exile himself to one of Chuck Colson's uncivilized countries - how much irony would that entail? Perhaps more than I can handle.

Damage Control Continues Apace

2009-11-17T07:18:00.003-05:00

Still further damage control over at Focus on the Family on Monday November 16th, with a link on the daily program page to "Jim Daly's Story". You know the kind of thing, heartwringingly sentimental claptrap, "both my parents were alcoholics", "my father gambled away all the money", "my mom left him...", "us kids were adopted...." The usual Focus overegged "true" story ending in the clouds parting and behold! Salvation! All of course just to garner sympathy for Jim and the boardroom coup. I understand why they did it. I also understand why this time, because of the enormity of Daly's error, that it ain't going to work.

Damage Control at Focus On The Family

2009-11-10T18:45:00.005-05:00

Following the announcement of the ignominious forcing out of "Doctor" James Dobson last week, the Focus On The Family Daily broadcast of Monday November 9th 2009 was nothing more than a damage control exercise by Jim Daly and other members of the Focus On The Family board - yes, I'm talking about you, the Reverend Al Mohler and Lt. Gen. Patrick Caruana.

It really looks like Jim Daly has blundered big time in his understanding of the public perception of what the Focus on the Family Ministry actually is. And he and his fellow board members can spin what they did until it becomes a dreidl, but they will rue the day they put the knife into James Dobson's back.

You could hear in Jim Daly's statements that the public have contacted him about his boardroom coup and have universally asked him "WTF are you doing?" He said during the radio program "All of us have mixed emotions right now with what's happening."

Daly's emotions may well be mixed, probably a combination of elation and fear he did the wrong thing ( he did ).

The public's reaction is anger all round that a much loved buffoon has been silenced forever.

You could also hear in John Fuller's voice that he is not happy with what has happened. I suspect John will be gone from Focus within three months.

Focus on the Family itself will unravel before then end of 2010. And when it does, that will be the Best News of 2010 if not Best News Ever.

Definition of a Bloodless Coup

2009-11-07T07:00:00.007-05:00

Following his force out from Focus On The Family, Doctor James Dobson in the radio broadcast of Monday November 2nd 2009 desperately tried to spin what had happened into something positive, into something the Lord was leading both the board of FoF and himself to do.

But of course, as always he was lying. And I know this how?

Because between his rambling invocation of scripture and telling us how strong his heart is, James Dobson said the following ( this is an exact quote ) :-

"The Board of Directors voted previously on Wednesday, before we ( Shirley and "Doctor" ) got there, to ask for my resignation. Although their request was made with kindness and respect, we can only guess the reason for their decision, because frankly, I DON'T KNOW WHY". ( my emphasis )

So he doesn't know why? On the radio show he made some half-assed attempt to say that Jim Daly perhaps wanted to fully take control and bring to an end the Dobsonian era, but you could tell from Doctor Dobson's voice that this was pure speculation on his part - and really weak speculation to boot. He simply could not believe Jim Daly had stabbed him in the back - even with the handle of the knife clearly visible. So it had to be "the Lord's will".

So here is my take and I think this is probably nearer to the truth than any spin put on this bloodless coup by James Dobson.

Jim Daly doesn't want to have Focus On The Family perceived as a Personality Ministry. He has seen what has happened to the influence of "The Old Time Gospel Hour" without Jerry Falwell and to "The Coral Ridge Hour" without the intellectually challenged Doctor D.James Kennedy.

Both of those ministries have suffered perilous declines since their founders passed away. They truly were a product of the men who created them. And without their egos firmly stamped on them, they have just become the same as any other mediocre "I-pay-no-taxes" religious Ponzi scheme out there stealing money from the gullible.

Daly fears just such a the decline of Focus On The Family when James Dobson does finally pop his clogs ( that's why Dobson kept rabbiting on about his health ), but alas, his actions are too late to achieve his desired goal.

James Dobson is so associated in the public's mind with Focus On The Family ( was there ever a more folksy voice on the radio offering such hateful advice? ) that his removal will damage the organization irrevocably.

Donations were down $5 million in 2009, leading to many layoffs at the FoF gulag in Colorado Springs. After what has happened, just look how down contributions will be in 2010. Jim Daly has gotten rid of the only reason to send money to the "ministry" and he has ensured its influence will decline to that of the AFA, FRC, PTC, MRC and the "American Values" organization headed up by the Gollum lookalike, Gary "pancake tosser" Bauer.

No one will listen to the FoF radio broadcast after James Dobson leaves. If Jim Daly thinks "Doctor" Bill Maier and Bob "The Squeak" Waliszewski can hold and retain the listenership of the man he has forced out, he is very much laboring under a serious delusion.

I predict real estate sales of parts of the Focus On The Family campus before the end of 2010 as contributions simply dry up.

All that being said, James Dobson going off the radio simply is The Best News of 2009.

Irony Alert

2009-10-10T10:39:00.007-04:00

Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!

Following the UK authorities banning TV charlatan Benny Hinn from entering Britain, one of his disappointed followers, a Ms.Jill Masefield from Bristol was quoted saying the following in the Daily Torygraph newspaper :-

"He's been coming here for years and years, I think it is very unfair that they have blocked him now. It has cost me a fortune in hotel bills and I feel we have been led up the garden path".

Oh the irony. She recognizes the act of being led up horticultural paths, but alas poor dear, she not does see it is Benny himself laying the paving stones of the broad way right in front of her.

I love it.

And Benny has a Private Jet too! I wonder how Jesus feels about that?

I guess that line from the Ten Commandments movie never gets old nor goes out of style :-

"If he had not wanted them shorn, He would not have made them sheep"

Review of "Capitalism - A Love Story"

2009-10-05T07:25:00.002-04:00

Mr Moore's critics fall into two overlapping groups. The blanket "love it or leave it" crowd or the "oh boy what a hypocrite" bunch.

Both really have no merit. In the first instance they simply see America as perfect, so no one should want to change anything. This is clearly asinine. And the latter group can't hold two ideas in their collective head at the same time - they simply cannot understand that a man can be a critic of something, but still make money too.

For them, "socialists" should be bearded Jeremiahs wearing sack cloth - which is just silly.

Mr Moore clearly has a right to make movies and earn a living within the society in which he lives. These people simply LOVE rich people ( as Moore says, the saps think they will be as rich as Croesus one day ), but they really don't like rich people who criticize the system. That drives them nuts because he's telling them that the deck is stacked against them and they most assuredly don't want to hear THAT.

So with all the usual caveats and provisos, you should see this movie for two reasons :-

1. To learn about Dead Peasant insurance.

2. To be simply be amazed by how the $700 billion dollar bailout got railroaded through Congress.

Something from 2008.....

2009-09-26T21:59:00.007-04:00

For the past few years, when Tropical Storms have formed in the Atlantic, I've put up tracking maps near my desk at work. After Hurricane Andrew in 1992, we have been subjected to media fear mongering every hurricane season. To make things a tad humorous, I add a quotation ( usually unmodified ) to the map.

Tidying my desk at work today, I came across the maps for 2008. I thought it might be useful to summarize them.

So here we go.....

The first map is from July 3rd for Tropical Depression Two and because it was so far away, the quotation was "Ah, what a warning for a thoughtless man".

Later, this became Tropical Storm Bertha and because it was still so far away the quotation became: "The ocean is a wilderness reaching around the globe. wilder than a Bengal Jungle, and fuller of monsters, washing the very wharves of our cities and the gardens of our sea-side residences"

On July 7th: "To his friend Fox he wrote from Brazil: 'My mind has been, since leaving England, in a perfect hurricane of delight and astonishment."

And on the 8th, I used my first poem for the year:

Why look the distant mountains
So gloomy and so drear?
Are rain clouds passing o'er them,
Or is the tempest near?
No shadow of the tempest
Is there, nor wind nor rain
'Tis Charon that is passing by,
With all his gloomy train.

All the more ironic, given still how far away Bertha was - AND turning more and more to the north.

Then on July 21st we had Tropical Storm Dolly in the Gulf of Mexico.....along with...

the heart
of Mexico sits in the rain
not caring to seek shelter

And on July 23rd as Hurricane Dolly came ashore....

"It just so happens we be Texicans. A Texican is nothing more than a human man way out on a limb, this year and next, maybe for a hundred more. But I don't think it'll be forever. Someday this country's going to be a fine place to be"

And on my birthday, again in the Gulf it was Tropical Storm Edouard. "We cannot put the face of a person on a stamp unless said person is deceased. My suggestion, therefore, is that you drop dead"

And hitting the Dominican Republic on August 15th, we had Tropical Storm Fay.

The cup of Morgan Fay is shattered
Life is a bitter sage,
And we are weary infants
In a palsied age.

And sticking with Tropical Storm Fay, on August 16th:

And with great joy ride I the last great ride.
I am fey; I am fain of sudden dying.

At this time it looked like it might affect South Florida......

When the storm rattles my windowpane
I'll stay hunched at my desk, it will roar in vain
For I'll have plunged deep inside the thrill
Of conjuring spring with the force of my will,
Coaxing the sun from my heart and building here
Out of my fiery thoughts, a tepid atmosphere.

And then the storm reached Cuba and "The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits."

And about to go through the Keys on August 18th, "From a distance the rushing of the torrent delights and uplifts us, but it rocks us in a flimsy boat, we are overwhelmed by despair. The same applies to danger."

And on August 20th Tropical Storm Fay passed by just north of my house:

Goodbye,
you who are, for me, the postmarks again
of shattered towns..

And a week later, Tropical Storm Gustav crossed Haiti, "To get a man soundly saved it is not enough to put on him a pair of new breeches, to give him regular work, or even to give him a University education"

Of course all that referred to me, not generically to the people residing in Haiti.

And later on August 27th:

When the wind comes up from Cuba,
And the birds are on the wing,
And our hearts are patting juba,
To the banjo of the spring,
Then it's no wonder whether
The boys will get together,
With a stein on the table and a cheer for everything.

And then the storm jinked south a bit, looking to miss both Cuba and Florida..

What matters where we dream away
The ages? In the isles of Ind,
In Tybee, Cuba or Cathay,
Or in some world of winter wind?

And on August 29th he was Hurricane Gustav.

Le temps a laissie son manteau
De vent, de froidure et de pluye,
Et s'est vestu de brouderie,
De soleil luyant, cler et beau.

And on the same day, I started to track Tropical Storm Hanna.

In the very early morning when the light was low
She got all together and she went like snow,
Like snow in the springtime on a sunny hill,
And we were only frightened and can't think still.

And on September 2nd we had way out east, Tropical Storm Ike. So of course I could not resist the pun of "I don't like Ike."

On the same day, it was Hurricane Hanna tracking up the east coast of Florida, but staying offshore:

She will not turn aside? Alas!
Let them lie. Suppose they die?
The chance was they might take her eye.

Then Hanna went back to being a Tropical Storm:

Give not a windy night a rainy morrow,
To linger out a purposed overflow.
If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last.

The next day ( September 3rd ) still as a Tropical Storm just north of Haiti:

Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me,
Saying that now you are not as you were
When you had changed from the one who was all to me....

And still way out east we had Hurricane Ike where "Expectations remain high. Bur realities are disturbing."

And it was still September 3rd and it was still Tropical Storm Hanna when I could say "Court disaster long enough, and it will accept your proposal."

And Hanna on the 4th of September:

O plunge your hands in water, Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin, And wonder what you've missed.

And for Ike? Apparently two concurrent storms were grinding me down:

Turn back
back
to the lake of Delos;
lest all the song notes
pause and break
across a blood-stained throat.

Later on the 4th, the track started to show Ike coming my way:

Alas! regardless of their doom,
The little victims play!
No sense have they of ills to come
Nor care beyond today.

September 5th for Ike, "The Westerly Wind asserting his sway from the south-west quarter is often like a monarch gone mad, driving forth with wild imprecations the most faithful of his courtiers to shipwreck, disaster, and death."

And a nice short one for Ike, "And from the south-west came the end of the world."

And then:

The moan of multitudes in woe, -
These were the things we wished would go;

And on September 8th, Ike was on Cuba:

It was only yesterday sick Cuba's cry
Came up the tropic wind, "Now help us, for we die!"

And later that day it was "There is nothing so desperately monotonous as the sea, and I no longer wonder at the cruelty of pirates" ( or hurricanes - my addition )

And on September 9th it was becoming clear that Hurricane Ike was going to miss South Florida so "To avoid doing anything, wait for the right circumstances."

Then Ike was in the Gulf of Mexico because "In nature there are unexpected storms; in life there are unpredictable vicissitudes."

And it was still Hurricane Ike on September 11th and looking at a Texas landfall and as a man once said "Oregon and Texas, are yet unsung. Yet America is a poem in our eyes' its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres."

Then on September 26th, harmless to the US and going due north there was Tropical Storm Kyle:

Though Canada be felt in beat
Of summer pulse that enervates:
The Old World and the New World meet

In dial, arbor, tropic heat.

On September 29th way to the north ( near Nova Scotia ) there was Subtropical Storm Laura:

Some beauty unforeseen I trace
In every change of Laura's face.

October 7th, way down in the south-west corner of the Gulf, up popped Tropical Storm Marco:

A land of lutes and witching tones,
Of silver, onyx, opal stones;
A lazy land, wherein all seems
Enchanted into endless dreams;
And never any need they know,
In Mexico.

And on October 13th there was Tropical Storm Nana ( near no land at all ):

They are all gone away
There is nothing more to say.

On October 14t, south of Hispaniola, Tropical Storm Omar. But he was moving AWAY from Florida, back into the ocean:

Upon the huge Atlantic, and once more
We ride into still water and the calm
Of a sweet evening, screen'd by either shore...

On October 15th he was harmless as Hurricane Omar:

Consider the sea's listless chime:
Time's self it is, made audible -
The murmur of the earth's own shell.....

On November 5th, Tropical Depression Seventeen:

Late, late yestreen I saw the new Moon.
With the old Moon in his arms;
And I fear, I fear, my master dear!
We shall have a deadly storm.

And on November 6th, Seventeen became Tropical Storm Paloma:

Vengeful across the cold November moors,
Loud with ancestral shame there came the bleak,
sad wind that shrieked, and answered with a shriek.....

And as Hurricane Paloma bore down on Cuba on November 7th all I could think of was Raul Castro with this quote:

What have I done of all the year,
To bear this hated doom severe?

And Paloma went away and died in the Atlantic and Hurricane Season 2008 was over.

I would like to post the quotes for other years, but I'm afraid I may have tossed the tracking maps. ( 2006, 2007 ??)

Of course the tracks for this quiet 2009 season, I am still updating.

More Radio Peace off the air !!

2009-09-11T07:12:00.005-04:00

So first it was three hours. Then it was two. Then it was two, but with
the 07:00 AM to 08:00 AM hour in Portuguese ("Happy Days") and now it
is down to one lonely hour.

Yes people, Radio Peace, the Catholic Church's radio outreach in South Florida is now live only from 08:00 AM to 09:00 AM with "Religion, Politics and the Culture" with Dennis O'Donovan.

And how ever much Dennis says he is respectful of opposing views - he isn't.

This show is a standard right wing gabfest with some Catholic ideas you might not find on Glenn's or Rush's shows - namely an anti-death penalty stance and support for illegal immigrants.

Other than those two, Mr.O'Donovan's "show" is indistinguishable from any other ranting nutbag with a microphone.

And that is why he has sponsors. And that is why he is the only one left on the air.

Which actually is rather a shame.

Irony Alert

2009-09-11T06:57:00.005-04:00

Yesterday ( 9/10/09 ), the Alliance Defense Fund announced it had received an anonymous donation of $9.2 million to aid it in its defense of the First Amendment and Freedom of Speech - especially on college campuses, where they put equal weight behind the discussion of all speech, like the theory of Evolution and the delusion that is Intelligent Design.

Did no one else see the irony of an ANONYMOUS donation for protecting FREE SPEECH?

Sounds like a donation to protect speech the donor doesn't want challenged or even debated.

I'm sure this point is lost on the lawyers at the ADF who just see a big pile of cash.

The Time Has Come

2009-09-08T20:45:00.004-04:00

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the time has finally come to address a issue that truly frosts this humble correspondent's nads.

I am of course, referring to radio preachers who say "C'mon now" and "Are you still out there?" when preaching their most heretical loopiness before a live audience.

The two most egregious charlatans who keep on doing this on my radio are Charles Capps and Joyce Meyer.

They say these things when they realize they gave gone too far in their latest Biblical distortions and they want the reassurance that they still have the audience in the palms of their grossly manipulative hands.

Charles Capps in particular likes to say stuff like "Don't worry. This will all work out" before he goes on to expound his "teachings" that are so contrary to anything Jesus had to say, that they are in fact simply, lies.

And while we are at this, Joyce, what the heck is a "Practical Bible Teacher"?

Clearly not a pastor or any kind of orthodox ordained minister. This woman has no insight and brings no Biblical revelation. She's just a "conference speaker", telling bad jokes and dropping the baby Jesus' name every now and again.

And the audiences for both of these people laugh nervously because though they want to believe, what they really want is to not look like fools duped by the likes of these people.

C'mon now!

GI Joe

2009-08-19T12:59:00.004-04:00

This movie so wanted to be about Sienna Miller's cleavage, but alas the PG-13 rating meant that the camera could only pan past it and not lovingly linger.

The characters in this movie, ( good or bad ) were one dimensional and wholly unengaging. I really didn't care who lived or who died.

I really thought this entire movie was a waste of my time. In the end I felt beaten down by the CGI. And effects can't be an entire reason for a movie.

That's why this sucked and the upcoming 2012 looks so bad.

New favorite religious loon on the radio

2009-08-19T12:37:00.004-04:00

Check out Sid Roth. I swear this week he had a guest on his "show" who said that God had supernaturally, during a church event, given people GOLD TEETH !!

Why would God do gold and grills?

Surely if God is in the dentistry business, he'd just give you a perfect set of what he designed in the first place?

Doesn't God giving out gold teeth imply his original design is somehow inferior? So God made a mistake with "natural" teeth and now he has had a chance to think things over he really prefers gold over enamel?

This is just one example from Mr Roth's radio show. If you listen everyday, you'll hear something just as outrageous.

Please click on the title of this blog entry to link to Mr Roth's website.

Durian Fruit

2009-08-19T11:57:00.009-04:00

Last week someone at work ( Thanks Danh! ) gave me a stinky durian fruit to try.

Oh my! Even after it had been kept in the refridgerator at work in a sealed solid plastic box and wrapped around with two plastic bags, once the package was removed from the coolness, the smell was noticeable. It was noticeable and it was VERY BAD.

As others have described it before me, it smelled like something had died and was rotting, but with a hint of mustiness - like this thing had been rotting for a long long time. And the smell is strong, almost overpowering in what can only be described as its foulness.

So I drove the durian home and put it in my freezer ( as wrapped ) and inside a further small sealed cooler.

The next day, I transferred it to the main part of the refridgerator to thaw it out ( it had frozen solid ) and I went to work, with the intention of eating it that night.

When I got home, my refridgerator upper shelf smelled real bad.

So I put the cooler in the car along with a bottle of soda and drove out to a local park with the intention of eating this foul smelling thing as far from people as possible. In Indonesia, you can't take these things into hotels or on public transport. I didn't need my neighbors complaining to the Home Owners Association.

When I got to the park and opened up all the packaging, the smell was horrible, putrid and really unpleasant. But I persevered, unwrapped the very very soft fruit ( Hmm ripe! ) and without breathing in through my nose, I took a big bite.......

It was wonderful - just as some colleagues described - like a sweet pudding, with a hint of garlic and onion. Somehow the lovely taste completely negated the smell. While eating it, I had no sense of the rotten smell at all. The taste was all pervasive and actually, pretty damn great.

As you can see below, I ate it all up.....

Andrew Zimmern on the show "Bizarre Foods" has totally fallen in my estimation - he spat it out after one taste and said "never again".

I think the people who loathe this fruit somehow either physically still smell it while eating it or, and this is more likely, they come in predisposed to not liking the taste because the taste and the smell MUST be connected right?

Except, in the weirdest of ways as I can attest, the smell and the taste are not connected at all.

What a great experience this was.

PS I left the little cooler in my car. Four days later, someone remarked while putting a tennis racket in the trunk, "What is that smell?". I grinned inanely.

And the smell in the refidgerator? That went away when I stirred the open container of baking soda for a bit.

What is irritating me

2009-08-16T22:10:00.004-04:00

The numbnuts advertising agency who "re-branded" the Sci Fi Channel as SyFy and the executives at that channel who went to all the meetings, sat trough all the presentations and then still gave the green light to such a monumentally stupid marketing decision.

And one of the reasons given was "newer overseas markets don't even know what 'Sci Fi' is."

That's a crock for one good reason :-

Geekdom transcends national borders. The people who like it know what "Sci Fi" is. And if the executives at SyFy don't know that, then they should not be executives at any channel showing Science Fiction content.

All they have done is piss off their core viewing audience with a marketing gimmick so lame that it is difficult to put into words how much damage this change has wrought. I hope they get crapped on by a fleet of Arcturan stunt pigs.

And the name "SyFy"? Pretentious and horrible, like "SoBe" here in South Florida but without anyone being interested in it.

And also of course ( to alienate geeks even more ), so very gay looking - like an Ikea name for a wooden spoon.

Truth In Advertising

2009-08-16T21:47:00.002-04:00

Today on one of my C-SPAN channels, Fox news shill Monica Crowley was interviewing an "author", Brian Jennings who has written a book about the supposed coming censorship of talk radio.

She finally got around to asking if the Obama administration would out and out reintroduce the Fairness Doctrine" or bring it back in some sneakier form and Mr Jennings response was ( and I kid you not ) :-

"If they do, then they can expect a tea party that is incredulous".

---||---

Yes. "Incredulous". As in :-

Incredulous: Adjective: unwilling to admit or accept what is offered as true.

Now a tea party is just an event. In and of itself, it can't be incredulous. The people participating might be, but if the doctrine was reintroduced even they have to accept what is being offered is true, otherwise why protest?

So Mr Jennings gets the quotation remarks around "author" because he doesn't know "incredulous" from "incredible".

What a sad sack Mr Jennings really is.

Father Albert out of the Catholic Church just in time

2009-05-30T19:49:00.003-04:00

This week, the disgraced Roman Catholic priest from Miami, Father Albert Cutie announced he will become an Episcopalian.

This caused Archbishop Favalora to have a little hissy fit. But it looks like Father Albert will be having the last laugh because now the it has been announced that up to 14 Catholic churches in the Miami archdiocese may have to close.

Here is Archbishop Favalora in full on hissy fit mode.

A spokeswoman for the archdiocese, Mary Ross Agosta is quoted as saying that the closings are needed because "We're looking at finances and a shift in the Catholic population."

She did not add "And because we lost our Superstar Priest who was our best TV asset to fleshly temptation"

I'm sure that Father Cutie's loss is simply huge for the Catholic Church in South Florida.

I couldn't be happier.

Lovely News

2009-05-30T19:06:00.004-04:00

U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb of Wisconsin on Thursday May 28th denied motions to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the Freedom from Religion Foundation against the National Day of Prayer.

I'm guessing this will be the only time we will see President Obama and Shirley Dobson on the same side of ANY lawsuit.

Good for this judge!

It all may be a lost cause though because the judge actually wrote that "the defendants arguments have merit and ultimately may be successful". The reason the motions to dismiss were rejected were simply because they are "premature" as summary judgment is yet to be issued on the FFRF's original suit.

Damn! I thought this ridiculous notion of a "National Day of Prayer" was in danger!

What I did find disturbing last year were the stories I read that even though the NDP is a non-partisan event, in her position as Chairman of the NDP Task Force, Shirley Dobson only wanted Christians in her organization - and she interviewed potential volunteers and quizzed them about their Christian Faith.

Of course, if she was just Chairman of the "NDP Christian Task Force" that would be :-

a) More accurate....and.....

b) A clarification that Shirley Dobson DOES NOT have any kind of overarching national role in an event that isn't ( by Presidential decree ), for Christians only.

Shirl and Dobbo every year try to bend the NDP to their Christian will. I'm sure that of the people who even know the NDP exists, the majority don't know that it is open to people of all faiths.

The Dobsons certainly never say so as they pump up Shirley's role from a simple coordinator for one faith's participation in the event to "Chairman of the National Day Of Prayer Task Force".

But that's "Doctor" for you - a man with a slippery and superficial understanding of the Bible in general and that pesky commandment about bearing false witness in particular.

Returning to "Utter Evil"

2009-05-30T18:21:00.005-04:00

I want to just make another couple of points regarding James Dobson's broadcast of May 14th 2009, the great "Utter Evil is coming out of Congress" program.

In the program Dobbo bemoaned the fact that the Democrats control all the branches of government, the Presidency, the Congress and ultimately the Judiciary via the Supreme Court. "Which will only get more liberal". So there are now no "checks and balances" on what the hated Democrats can do. He said in effect that checks and balances to stop the excesses of one party running amok were a good and desirable thing.

Of course what the old goat completely failed to mention was why he was so vehemently against checks and balances when the Republicans controlled the Presidency and both houses of Congress - when just the Supreme Court provided some very light reins to restrain their excesses.

Oh. That's right. They were "Activist Judges". So they must have been the "wrong kind" of checks and balances. You know the kind? Those that James Dobson doesn't like.

What a Republican shill Focus on the Family has become. Now they don't even bother to say that purely political programs are brought to us by "Focus On The Family Action".

They really are that contemptuous of the law.

This week Tom Minnery said on one of the the "Focus Action Updates" on the Citizenlink website discussing the California Supreme court ruling upholding Proposition 8, "Our side raised nearly $40 million and some of that money came from Focus on the Family" [ to initially pass Prop 8 ]. Shouldn't that have been Focus on the Family Action providing the money?

Someone really needs to investigate the 501.c(3) status of Focus on the Family because Dobson and Minnery are definitely playing fast and loose with its tax exempt status.

What else?

I know. During the program Representative Gohmert actually quoted and I guess, expanded on, a quote by Chuck "the convicted felon" Colson that is so freaking stupid that I feel obliged to put it out for the ridicule in deserves.

"You can't have the morality of Woodstock without producing a Columbine, [or a Madoff]".

WOODSTOCK CAUSED COLUMBINE?

What monumental Arschloch-ing stupidity. And what an unbelievably insensitive thing to say to the families of the Columbine dead. "The morality of a rock concert in upstate New York in the 1960's caused your child's death". WTF? What is "The morality of Woodstock" anyway? Free love? Peace? Those things caused deranged killers?

Un-freaking-believable. THIS MAN IS IN CONGRESS FOR GOODNESS SAKE!!

WOODSTOCK CAUSED BERNIE MADOFF?

Deregulation caused Bernie Madoff. Greed caused Bernie Madoff. Republicanism without checks and balances caused Bernie Madoff.

The Travails of Father Albert

2009-05-16T06:10:00.007-04:00

So finally I have to come to the Father Albert Cutie story.

Not too sure how much traction this story is having nationally, But down here in South Florida it is quite a big deal - especially after Father Albert himself introduced that perennial Dade County element - "It was CUBAN SPIES that made me do it".

Let me give a little background. I see the Father Albert story as simply the latest cherry to precariously sit atop South Florida's rancid Archdiocese of Miami.

For me, it all started a number of years ago when 1040 AM WLVJ, a rabid Protestant radio station all of a sudden allowed three hours of Catholic programming every morning. And who opened every daily broadcast? You guessed it, Father Albert praying "The Angelis" whatever that is. I can only guess that WLVJ needed the money for them to allow the Roman Catholic Church to take such a daytime stranglehold on their broadcast schedule.

So we had three hours of Catholic propaganda every day. It surely could not last.

And it did not.

First to go was "Catholic Answers Live!", a phone-in program based out of San Diego. Clearly it being on at 09:00 AM made it spectacularly NOT LIVE! here in Florida.

I was disappointed to see it go because I kind of liked hearing the lunatic certainty of dogma. At least they got in a few licks against WLVJ's regular anti-catholic audience. It that respect, it was kind of subversive.

So then we were down to two hours ( 7:00 to 09:00 )

Father Albert would introduce the whole thing ( I think as a recording ). He certainly every day completely ballsed up the emphasis on the prayer at one point completely altering its meaning. You had to hear it. As Mike Myers would say "He had the emPHAsis on the wrong SylLABle". I always will wonder why they didn't have Father Albert record it again. Probably because he thought it was fine and he was the "superstar priest" so no one would say anything.

So the first hour was a mishmash - some elements being the same every day and others rotating in on a weekly basis. Typically it would be :-

1. Father Albert
2. Sister Ann Shields and "Food For The Journey"
3. Conversations with the Archbishop John Clement Favalora
4. "Breakfast For Your Spirit" with Philip Carlton a 30 minute phone-in where they had to BEG for calls. They usually got a couple, Sometimes they got none at all. Which left Philip in full on waffle mode - very bad radio.

That would typically cover 07:00 to 08:00. Let me say now that Philip Carlton has the WORST VOICE FOR RADIO EVER - it wavers and cracks. He sounds like he is two seconds away from actually croaking.

And let's not get to talking about Archbishop Favalora - He "umms" he "aahs", he clears his throat, he "umms" some more. Simply terrible radio. Awful. You simply cannot listen. He should never do radio again until he improves his diction.

And that brings us to a segment that fell away next - that was the occasional bit called "Life Matters" from the "Respect Life Office" of the Archdiocese. This was spectacularly inappropriate anti-abortion screed every week. I don't want to hear abortion details over my cornflakes - and I guess neither did the audience because this segment bit the dust.

One time I heard a woman call Philip Carlton to say that she missed "Life Matters" because she played it to her young daughter on the way to school. Talk about child abuse. It was always so graphic. I was glad to see it go. It certainly was never appropriate fare for young girls.

And then one day "Pow!" the entire hodgepodge that was the 07:00 to 08:00 hour was gone and replaced by an hour of worship music in Portuguese called "Happy Days!"

Awww! No more Father Albert!

So all we have left is the 08:00 to 09:00 hour called "Religion, Politics and the Culture" with a lay apologist called Dennis O'Donavan. This I guess remains on the air because it is a traditional US radio talk show - a right wing host trumpets his dogmatic opinions and denigrates ( "in love and with respect" ) any callers who disagree with him.

Because this works as radio, there are sponsors for this show and it remains on the air. Dennis says he is respectful of he callers - HE ISN'T.

So that is a brief history of "Radio Peace" on WLVJ showing in just a few hours of programming the ineptitude of the Roman Catholic Church here in South Florida. They got into radio because they could. They sucked at it. They now have one program left in English - a program that brings nothing essentially Catholic to the table.

And in such a weak and badly run Church can a man with the peccadilloes ( sexual and egotistical ) of Father Albert Cutie rise to a position of prominence and influence.

Of course, he's done for now. In the eyes of the Church diddling with a WOMAN has to be the ultimate sin - and a DIVORCEE too! OMG! Next thing you know Father Albert will say she was a Cuban Honey Pot - just to try to save his own skin.

Of course that won't work. WOMAN+DIVORCEE=DONE FOR.

I feel sorry for the woman herself. There were already fisticuffs outside Father Albert's Church between his aged supporters and more traditional wrinkled adherents to Church teaching.

I bet the congregation is not treating this woman well at all.

Doesn't the Bible say we are all sinners? I guess people won't forgive her because she took away their superstar priest. I'm sure they see her as some sexual temptress who snagged Father Albert with her wiles.

When of course, Father Albert broke his vows because, like John Edwards, he sees himself as a big shot and he thought he could get away with it because the organization he works for likes him.

He was and is, simply WRONG about that.

Focus On The Family Brodcast for 5/15/09

2009-05-15T22:43:00.006-04:00

Today on the Focus On The Family broadcast they played a recording taken at the National Day of Prayer and it contained a short speech by Representative Michele Bachmann ( R-Minnesota ). In this address she was explaining about prayer and its importance in her life and she said "the still small voice told me stay home [that day] and to attend my local Republican endorsing convention. Oh that still small voice!"

Listen to that. God or the Holy Spirit or the Baby Freaking Jesus PERSONALLY told her to be a Republican. I think that's significant. GOD TOLD HER to be a Republican.

Which is odd because he told me all Republicans are in league with Satan and should be exposed for the Pharisees that they so evidently are - Praising themselves for the adulation of the crowd. "He [my husband] started a ministry for at-risk children." and "He [the Lord} gave us 23 great foster children to raise". Clap! Clap! Clap! You are so pious Michele, so godly!

Dobson of course praised her to the hilts as "some one to watch in Congress". He clearly is passing on her being AN IDIOT.

This is the woman who called for Congressional investigations of fellow Americans because, in her twisted universe, they are "unpatriotic".

Her latest gaff ( lampooned dead-on by Jon Stewert ) was to try and pin swine flu on Democrats in the clumsiest of ways by equating the last outbreak as also occuring under a Democratic President ( Jimmy Carter ) - when of course it was under Gerald Ford.

What a partisan hack she is. There is no Republican talking point she won't parrot and no Democratic policy she won't sneeringly denigrate.

Focus On The Family 5/14/09

2009-05-15T22:41:00.006-04:00

The Focus On The Family broadcast for 5/14/09 was a doozie.

Doctor said that "utter evil" was coming out of the US Congress and various State Houses so we had to have a special broadcast about what's going on....

His guests were :-

1. Tom Minnery - the Focus on the Family hack
2. Gary "the dwarf" Bauer of "American Values"
3. Representative Louis Gohmert of Texas ( why isn't that a surprise? )
3. Representative Steve King of Iowa

He said he had "dozens" examples he could choose from to show this "utter evil" but he only chose to mention :-

1. The confirmation of Kathleen Sebelius as the Health and Human Services Secretary.
2. The Federal Hate Crimes Bill ( this is where the bulk of the broadcast fell )
3. A California law about sperm donation and "sperm washing". TMI there Doctor!

So let's just say Doctor Dobson hates Governor Sibelius and move on to the meat of the broadcast.

Both of the politicians knowingly misrepresented the Federal Hate Crimes Bill so that they could parrot the Republican talking point that "Paedophiles are a protected class in this bill".

Heck Congressman Gohmert used to be a judge and shame on him for stirring up falsehoods about this bill. "Some judge is going to rule that sexual orientation is whatever you are orientated to sexually".

No they are not you lying idiot Republican you.

Sexual orientation is defined in US law. It is homosexuality or heterosexuality.

It is not like some of the paraphilias Doctor Dobson listed ( but shied away from saying what they are ) will become "sexual orientations" or "gender orientations" under this law :-

1. Urophilia - aka "water sports"
2. Necrophilia - surely even Dobson drones know what this is?
3. Sadism
4. Paedophilia
5. Incest

or even some Dobson didn't mention...

6. Dendrophilia - "you are a GIANT Redwood aren't you?"
7. Knismolagnia - Oooh I'm tickled pink!
8. Sinophilia - Everyone loves eating Chinese don't they?
9. Partialism - I love your eyes/armpits/knees/elbows just not "those rude bits".

No one with these deviancies is going to become a member of a "protected class" under the Federal Hate Crimes Bill and shame on the people on this broadcast who said they are. All they are trying to do is SCARE PEOPLE.

---||---

And then very briefly they talked about some law in California about sperm donation.

James Dobson's seems to have some inside knowledge on the subject of sperm washing. Apparently ( for him ) it is not foolproof. I imagine he washes his every night.

Dobson was concerned that a 2007 California law that allowed people ("homosexuals" ) with STDs and even AIDs to donate sperm ( which gets washed ) now is going to be changed to "weaken the protections" for the women who get this sperm. Apparently ( according to Doctor Dobson ) they now won't be told the health status of the donors.

I would be concerned too if I believed anything that Dobson says.

I can't give blood in the US because I lived in England 25 years ago. So I don't believe that changes to California laws ( if they are even allowed ) will weaken or endanger US citizens because the California Legislature is bowing to the Homosexual Lobby.

Again, it's just scaremongering from Focus - business as usual in Colorado Springs.

Miss California was on Focus On The Family

2009-05-12T21:03:00.003-04:00

Quotes from the Carrie Prejean ( Miss California ) interview with James Dobson.

"These women are beautiful, intelligent. They're driven. Some of us have law degress. We're very educated. We don't solve all the answers in the world. [ We don't have all the answers. ]

Remember, this woman wants to be a teacher.

"I don't see how I got first runner up I really don't. After I answered my question I thought "OK I'm going to be fourth runner up". I don't, I can't say I was going to win or not, but I do know that had I not gotten that question, the outcome would be different."

Er...if the outcome was going to be different, then she's either saying :-

a) She would have won with a politically correct answer - which she admits she can't say.

Or....

b) She would have been even lower in the judging with the politically correct answer. Which implies both that her answer was the "right one" and that towing the pro gay marriage line would have been the wrong thing to do. ( if she wanted to win )

This woman can't speak two sentences without them being contradictory. She couldn't walk the intellectual walk with human cerebellums for shoes.

Family News In Focus - April 2009

2009-05-10T12:50:00.009-04:00

So here is the analysis of the stories run on "Family News In Focus" for the month of April 2009.

Not counting the days where stories were repeated from the previous day and Friday April 17th when the link to "Family News in Focus" was broken, the total number of stories commented on was 101.

The total number of comments, discounting those of reporters, was 169

The total number of comments from "Focus On The Family" stooges was 31.

I have lumped all the following together in the "stooge department" :-

1. Focus On The Family Action
2. Focus On The Family
3. Family Research Council ( because Doctor Dobson was involved in setting it up, pre-FoFA )

So 18.3% of all comments were from people who work directly or indirectly for James Dobson.

As I predicted, the winner for comments from FoFA was Jenny Tiree. Step forward Jenny and take your 2009 "Shilling for an Old Trout" award. You deserve it. Truly.

I ran into that pesky FoF vs FoFA thing. Gary Schneeberger was described one time as working for FoF and another as working for FoFA. Yes, that 501.c(3) status is pretty damn flexible it seems.

What surpised me most was the sheer number of FoFA "commentators".

Carrie Gordon Earll (2)
Bruce Hausknecht (2)
Daniel Weiss (4)
Dawn Vargo (2)
Candy Cushmann (1)
Ashley Horne (2)
Jenny Tirree (5)
Bill Spencer (1)
Chad Hills (1)
Gary Schneeberger (1)

Two other names jumped out as talking heads for sale :-

Wendy Wright of "Concerned Women for America" (4)
Professor John Kent (3) - a "gambling expert". Hint: He's against.

And the kicker......

How many people were actually heard who were AGAINST the
Focus On The Family slant to a story?

1. Perez Hilton ( in a clip lifted from the Today program - 4/22/09 )
2. Winston Blacksone - A PROPONENT FOR POLYGAMY ( 4/1/09 )

And these I would describe as "neutral" to a particular story.

1. Donald Trump on the Carrie Prejean "I believe in opposite marriage" debacle ( 4/22/09 )
2. Pam Young a spokeman for Eastern Michigan University ( 4/10/09 )
3. Andy Fell of UC Davis ( 4/6/09 )

Of course, that means that of the 169 commentators I listened to,
164 towed the Focus on the Family line.

That is 97%. I think I'll repeat that - it sounds kind of important. NINETY SEVEN PERCENT of the people heard on one month of Family News in Focus broadcasts agreed with James Dobson's bias on any particular "report".

How is Family News in Focus in any way "news" with this level of bias in its reporting?

As I stated at the beginning of this exercise, I am not in favor of bringing back the Fairness Doctrine. It isn't coming back no matter how many times loons like James Dobson tells you it is.

All I am asking for is a little truth in advertising. Is that too much to ask?

How about rebranding "Family News in Focus" as "Doctor Dobson's Opinions in Focus"?

What it isn't is "News". With no context or even remote explantion of the contradictory arguments to a story, there is simply not enough infomation in a Family News in Focus broadcast to allow a rational person to take a rational position on the items covered.

Therefore I choose to dismiss Family News in Focus as just hot air from right wing gas bags.

It works for me.

Family News In Focus - Comment Analysis 4/30/09

2009-04-30T20:02:00.002-04:00

AND FINALLY WE COME TO THE LAST DAY OF APRIL !!!!!

1. FCC and Fleeting Expletives*
Comments from :-
a) Dan Ised of the "Parents Television Council"
b) Wendy Wright of "Concerned Women for America"

* And some bleeped quotes from Cher and Nicole Ritchie

2. Gambling In Delaware
Comments from :-
a) Tom Grey of "Stop Predatory Gambling"
b) Susan Edger of the "Delaware Council on Gambling Problems" **
c) Brian McCarthy and NFL spokesman

** A "gambling neutral organization". Really from the title?

3. Gay Activism
Comments from :-
a) Tom Lang a spokesperson for "KnowThyNeighbor.org"
b) Jerry Cox of the "Family Council"

4. Missouri Conscience law
Comments from :-
a) Joe Ortworth of the "Missouri Family Council"

5. Substance Abusing Parents
Comments from :-
a) Joe Grafere of the "Substance and Mental Heatlth Sevices Administration"
b) "Doctor" Joann Condi of FoF

6. Abstinence at Chino Valley High AZ
Comments from :-
a) Pam Malarky ( how appropriate is THAT name?) of "Project SOS"

*********************************

Phew! I have finally finished.
One month of Family News in Focus is over!

Analysis will start in May. I'm guessing the person who has commented most will be Jenny Tiree of Focus On The Family Action - a Dobsonian stooge hawking the FoF line on a Focus On the Family daily propaganda show.

Is that in any way "News"?

I don't think so.

But let's not jump to conclusions before I've really looked over all this data.

Family News In Focus - Comment Analysis 4/29/09

2009-04-30T19:55:00.002-04:00

1. Vandalism at Seattle Megachurch
Comments from :-
a) Ken Hutcherson the "Pastor"
Joseph Backholme of the "Family Policy Institute Of Washington"

2. Violence in places of worship
Comments from :-
a) Steven Henschell of "Calvary Chapel San Diego"
b) Rudy Rudicell founder of "Sheepdog Ministries"

3. 100 days of Obama
Comments from :-
a) Ashley Horne of FoFA
b) Jim Daly, FoF President

4. Obama News Conference ( not on Fox )
Comments from :-
a) Tim Graham of the "Media Research Center"

5. FoF Prayer Vigils for Children in Foster Care
Comments from :-
a) Scott Hosenbaugh a "Show Hope" spokesman

Family News In Focus - Comment Analysis 4/28/09

2009-04-30T19:45:00.002-04:00

1. Craigslist
Comments from :-
a) David Miller of "Citizens for Community Values"
b) Daniel Weiss of FoFA

2. Marie Ann Glenden
Comments from :-
a) Deacon Keith Fournier of "Catholic Online"
b) Thomas Peete of "American Papist Blog"
c) Susan Forney of the "Catholic League"

3. Adopting from the Foster Care System
Comments from :-
a) Cora Nuckels an adopter
b) Sharon Ford of the "Department of Human Resources CO"
c) Kellie Rissotie of "FoF's Adoption Service"

4. Pro-Life License Plates
Comments from :-
a) Russ Amerling of "Choose Life Inc"

5. NARAL vs Abstinence Education
Comments from :-
a) Valarie Huber of "National Abstinence Education Association"

Family News In Focus - Comment Analysis 4/27/09

2009-04-27T20:50:00.002-04:00

1. DC Stand For Marriage Rally
Comments from :-
a) Derrick McCoy a "Coordinator"

2. Christians as Right Wing Extremists
Comments from :-
a) Gary "the Dwarf" Bauer of "American Values"
b) Dr Janice Krauss of "Concerned Women For America"

3. Governor Sibelius
Comments from :-
a) Judy Smith of "Concerned Women for America of Kansas"
b) Marjorie Denithauser of the "Susan B Anthony List"

4. FRC Honors Phyllis Schlafly
Comments from :-
a) Connie McKay of the FRC

5, FoF Marriage Simulcast ( NOT NEWS THEN )
Clip of :-
a) Beth Moore of Living Proof Ministries
Comment from :-
b) Jenny Tiree of FoFA ( I think she's going to be a big winner soon )

Family News In Focus - Comment Analysis 4/24/09

2009-04-24T20:05:00.007-04:00

1. Issuing Marriage Licenses in Iowa
Comments from :-
a) Douglas Napir of the "Alliance Defense Fund"
b) Brian English of the "Iowa Family Policy Center"

2. Dave Ramsey Puff Piece
All you hear is Dave yakking his usual schtick.

3. Plan B over-the-counter sales
Comments from :-
a) "Doctor" David Hagar of the "Physicians Resource Council"
b) Wendy Wright of "Concerned Women for America"

4. Clarksville Indiana Sex Shop Protests
Comments from :-
a) Brian Wikkins of "Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana"

5. Wisconsin School Graduations to be held in a Church
Comments from :-
a) Jeleanne Appling of the "Wisconsin Family Council"

Family News In Focus - Comment Analysis 4/23/09

2009-04-23T08:21:00.002-04:00

1. Gambling in Philadelphia
Comments from :-
a) Jethro Highcoe of "Casino Pree Philadelphia"
b) Diane Berlin of "Casino Free PA"

2. Craigslist
Comments from :-
a) Lisa Thompson of the "Salvation Army National HQ"
b) Linda Smith of "Shared Hope International"

3. Importance of Grandparents
Comments from :-
a) Gavin Harper of the, get ready for this, "Christian Grandparenting Network"

4. Georgetown University amd Joe Biden
Comments from :-
a) Patrick Riley of the "Cardinal Neumann Society"

5. Sexting
Comments from :-
a) Daniel Weiss of FoFA

Family News In Focus - Comment Analysis 4/22/09

2009-04-23T08:12:00.003-04:00

1. Miss USA and The Gay Marriage Question
Comments from :-
a) Donald Trump
b) Carrie Prejean ( for it is she ) with Matt Lauer*
c) Perez Hilton ( an idiot ) also with Matt Lauer*
d) Jessica Hedley a "former pageant contestant"

* Clips from the Today Show

2. Day of Silence
Comments from :-
a) Karen England of the "Capital Resource Institute"
b) Randy Thomas of "Exodus International", a de-gaying "ministry"

3. Online Casinos
Comments from :-
a) John Kent of the University of Illinois. Him AGAIN?
b) Mark Andres of "Casino Watch"
c) Jime Leech a "former Congressman"

4. Praying on a School Campus
Comments from :-
a) Brad Daykus of the "Pacific Justice Union"

5. The Pulpit Initiative Debate"
Comments from :-
a) Benjamin Ball of the "Alliance Defense Fund"

Family News In Focus - Comment Analysis 4/21/09

2009-04-23T08:06:00.003-04:00

1. Video Game Addiction
Comments from :-
a) Douglas Genteel a "lead researcher"
b) Bob Waliszewski of Pluggedinonline ( FoF really )
c) Kurt Bruner author of "Playstation Nation"

2. Dave Ramsey ( a puff piece ) DEFINITELY NOT "NEWS"
Comments from :-
a) The idiot himself
b. Katie Humberson a sheep "in the crowd"
c) Lucille Dawsey "a grandma" and also a sheep.

3. Porn in Montana
Comments from :-
a) David Miller of "Citizens for Community Values"

Family News In Focus - Comment Analysis 4/20/09

2009-04-23T07:59:00.003-04:00

In the home stretch now....

1. National Day Of Prayer Flights
Comments from :-
a) Jerry Kress from "Prayer Flight"
b) Patrick Carlyle a pilot.

2. Indiana School Choice
Comments from :-
a) Jeff Grantly of "School Choice Indiana"

3. US International Gambling Report
Comments from :-
a) John Kent of the University of Illinois. Looks like a tame Professor they always go to for an anti-gambling comment.

4. Becoming Politically Active
Comments from :-
a) Ashley Horne of FoFA

Family News In Focus - Comment Analysis 4/17/09

2009-04-17T18:53:00.003-04:00

They broke the link on the FoF website. No new stories on citizenlink.org as of 19:00 Eastern.

*****

So let's talk about Jimmy Dobson's appearance on the Hannity TV show and the spin put on what he said by this mouthpiece Mr Gary Schneeberger.

Dobson did indeed say ""We are awash in evil and the battle is still to be waged. We are right now in the most discouraging period of that long conflict. Humanly speaking, we can say we have lost all those battles."

He did go on to say that he still puts his trust in Jesus to make it all better. But there is no denying he said "We lost all the battles" - even if completely contradictorily earlier, he ( Dobson ), said that FoF had some successes in its campaigns.

Schneeberger tried to spin "we have lost all those battles" as "we lost some points in the last election". What a liar.

So even though Jimmy Dobson is putting his trust in the Lord to come through in the end, I will repeat myself and remind you once again that he did say "We lost ALL the battles". You can't parse "all" to be "some in the last election cycle".

Schneeberger also blamed "the left wing media" for quoting Dobson out of context and he stated that the story originated in the Daily Telegraph in the UK. What he didn't say is that the Daily Telegrapgh is the most right wing quality newspaper in Britain and it is a natural ally of all James Dobson holds dear. So really, this isn't a "quoting out of context" issue at all. It's quoting something stupid that he really said.

The best thing was Dobson justifying himself on Hannity with something like "this wasn't a press release. This was me addressing the FoF staff" as if he had said these things in one venue and not the other, the words would somehow have different meanings?

The fact that this story came out shows really it is time for Dobson to go. How many times in the election were comments from candidates ( "clinging to religion and guns" ) made public when spoken in front of supposedly closed friendly audiences? Did James Dobson learn nothing from Obama?

And finally we come to the true reason he said what he said.

He was having a little "Pity Party" about stepping down at Focus and he wanted his ego stroked by the audience. "No, not true Doctor, you did GOOD things. You showed those gays where the closet is. Don't beat yourself up. We love you Doctor".

That's what we did it for - Pitiful Adulation. And the words got out and came back to bite him.

End of Story.

Family News In Focus - Comment Analysis 4/16/09

2009-04-17T18:45:00.002-04:00

1. Doctor Dobson is NOT Retiring
Comments from :-
a) Gary Schneeberger of FoFA

2. Gambling in MA
Comments from :-
a) Chris Minno of "MA Family Institute"
b) John Kent a "University of Illinois Professor"

3. Catholic Adoption Agencies in the UK
Comments from :-
a) Reverend Jim Richards of the "Catholic Children's Society"
b) Matt Barber of the "Liberty Council"

4. What Makes The Economy Grow?
Comments from :-
a) Jay Richards of the "Heritage Foundation"

5. Yet Another Piece on Gay Marriage
Comments from :-
a) Jenny Tiree of FoFA

Family News In Focus - Comment Analysis 4/15/09

2009-04-17T18:32:00.003-04:00

Here was a BIG BIG day. With the Family News in Focus site and the link on the Focus On The Family website had COMPLETELY DIFFERENT stories......

1. Adult Stem Cells I
Comments from :-
a) Wesley J Smith of the "Discovery Institute" Yes, THOSE charlatans.
b) Dawn Vargo of FoFA

2. Funding Gay University Club
Comments from :-
a) David Williams a "Student Body President"
b) Carrie Gordon Earll of FoFA

3. Adult Stem Cells II
Comments from :-
a) David Prentiss of FRC

4. Malaria Nets in Africa
Comments from :-
a) Jordon Foxworthy
b) Mark Hannlin of "Compassion International"

5. Love Won Out Ad Banned ( what was missing yesterday !! )
Comments from :-
a) Gary Schneeberger of FoF
b) Jeff Johnstone "FoF pet ex-gay"

6. TrueTolerance.org ( puff piece for an FoF website )
Comments from :-
a) Tom Benyano "opened a chapter in Fairfax County VA"
b) Candy Cushmann of FoFA
c) Josh Bollenger of the "Alliance Defense Fund"

7. Kids "Risky" Behavior
Comments from :-
a) Rob Jackson a "Counsellor"
b) Steve Earle an "Author". Alas, not THE Steve Earle.

8. Vermont Law on Sexting
Comments from :-
a) Cynthia Logan "whose daughter commited suicide"
b) David Weiss of FoFA

9. Justice Ginsberg - She's quoting "Foreign Laws" again mommy!
Comments from :-
a) Ed Waylon of "Ethics in Public Policy Center"
b) Kurt Levey of the "Commitee for Justice"

Family News In Focus - Comment Analysis 4/14/09

2009-04-17T18:29:00.002-04:00

What a balls up. The same as yesterday.........

1. Abortion Clinic Closure in Oakland CA
Comments from :-
a) David Whitaker of the "Pregnancy Medical Clinic" in Union City CA
b) Day Gardener of the "National Black Pro-Life Union"

2. Planned Parenthood Annual Report
Comments from :-
a) Wendy Wright, President of "Concerned Women for America"
b) Joy Yearout of the "Susan B Anthony List"
c) Jenn Jerew of "Women Influencing the Nation"

3. Slots in Valley Forge
Comments from :-
a) Diane Berlin of "Casino Free PA"

PLUS.......

4. Marriage in Rhode Island
Comments from :-
a) Jenny Tiree of FoFA

All day, the link of the broadcast was to a story about "Bias Against Christian Ad", but that story never played.

Oh dear.

Family News In Focus - Comment Analysis 4/13/09

2009-04-17T18:22:00.002-04:00

1. Abortion Clinic Closure in Oakland CA
Comments from :-
a) David Whitaker of the "Pregnancy Medical Clinic" in Union City CA
b) Day Gardener of the "National Black Pro-Life Union"

2. Planned Parenthood Annual Report
Comments from :-
a) Wendy Wright, President of "Concerned Women for America"
b) Joy Yearout of the "Susan B Anthony List"
c) Jenn Jerew of "Women Influencing the Nation"

3. Slots in Valley Forge
Comments from :-
a) Diane Berlin of "Casino Free PA"

Family News In Focus - Comment Analysis 4/10/09

2009-04-10T21:19:00.005-04:00

One third of the way through the month of recording the people allowed to comment on Family News in Focus broadcasts.

And so we come to Good Friday, where the daily broadcast was real late in hitting the websites. But better late than nothing to monitor I guess.

1. Student Expelled frm Eastern Michigan University Counselling Program.
( Hint: She hates The Gays )
Comments from :-
a) Julia Ward the expelled "counsellor" herself.
b) Pam Young a spokesperson explaining the University's diversity policy
c) Jeremy Tedesco of the "Alliance Defense Fund" So Ms Ward's lawyer.

2. Are there "benefits" from the current economy?
Yes there really was no news today because....
Comments were from :-
a) Dr Laura. Comments lifted just straight out of the FoF daily broadcasts from earlier this week.

So there's a thing, the "news" is your own FoF programming. Brilliant!

I think Jim Daly has found a way to get costs at Focus under control.

3. Easter Celebration
Comments from :-
a) H. B. London FoF "Head of Church and Clergy"

So now "news" is your own employee saying "Happy Easter"? WTF?

Family News In Focus - Comment Analysis 4/9/09

2009-04-10T21:08:00.002-04:00

1. Harry Knox, Another Obama Appointment FoF Does Not Like
Comments from :-
a) Dr Micheal Brown with the "Coalition Of Conscience"
b) Susan Fawnee of the "Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights"

2. National Organization for Marriage Ads
Comments from :-
a) Maggie Gallagher, President of NofM
b) Jenny Tiree of FoFA

3. Elimination of the Invocation at University of Maryland
Comments from :-
a) Jay Sekulo of the ACLJ
b) Matt Staver, Chairman of "Liberty Council"
c) Brad Daykis of the "Pacific Justice Institute

4. Abortion
Comments from :-
a) Saron Foster, President of "Feminists for Life"

5. Gay Student Housing at Texas Christian University
Comments from :-
a) Jeff Johnstone of FoF

Family News In Focus - Comment Analysis 4/8/09

2009-04-08T22:27:00.004-04:00

It was a little late in the day before the Citizenlink website got updated. I guess they were all apoplectic about.....

1. Vermont allows Same Sex Marriage.
Comments from :-
a) Steven Cable of "Vermont Renewal"
b) Bill Spencer of FoFA

2. Internet Gambling
Comments from :-
a) Chad Hills of FoFA
b) Dr Guy Clarke of "Stop Predatory Gambling"

3. Rescinding Conscience Protection for Medical Workers

WHAT AGAIN? I told you so.

Comments from:-
a) Wendy Wright of "Concerned Women for America"

4. Red Envelope Campaign
Comments from :-
a) Chris Otto described as the "Project Founder"

I sent a white envelope representing the three times more children lost to SPONTANEOUS ABORTION.

5. Montana Physician Assisted Suicide
Comments from :-
a) Bill Tofler of "Physicians for Compassionate Care"

Heck, is there any other kind dume-ass?

Family News In Focus - Comment Analysis 4/7/09

2009-04-08T22:10:00.010-04:00

This is a bizarro world sometimes. Today the broadcasts first repeated the items of yesterday.....

1. Gay Marriage in Iowa
Comments from :-
a) Doug Napir of the "Alliance Defense Fund"
b) Bruce Hausknecht from FoFA

2. Showing Pirates II on College Campuses
Comments from :-
Pat Truman a "Former Justice Department Lawyer"
Andy Fell of UC Davis

3. Love Won Out De-Gaying Conferences
Comments from :-
a) Mike Geyky who used to suffer from "same sex attraction", an ex-gay.
b) Melissa Fryrear a conference "keynote speaker"

Amd then we had the NEW stuff :-

4. Rescinding Conscience Rights for Medical Workers
Comments from :-
a) Deidre McQuade of the "US Conference of Catholic Bishops".
Er..a WOMAN??

Isn't this a second bite at this cherry? Keep reading, they'll
flog this horse some more before the month is over. Trust me.

5. April is Abortion Recovery Awareness Month - in Tex-ass
Comments from :-
a) Hiram Sassa of the "Libery Legal Institute"

6. School Choice Survey
Comments from :-
a) Virginia Walden-Ford of "DC Parents for School Choice"
b) Andrew Campanella of the "Alliance for School Choice"

7. Iowa Justices say "mothers and fathers are a stereotype"
Comments from :-
a) Jenny Tiree of FoFA

8. Defeat for Illinois FoCA
Comments from :-
a) Eric Scheidler of the "Pro-life Action League"

9. California "Gender Identity" law
Comments from :-
a) Robert Tyler of "Advocates for Faith and Freedom"

10. North Dakota Same Sex Attraction Bill
Comments from :-
a) Tom Fryer of the "North Dakota Family Alliance"

Family News In Focus - Comment Analysis 4/6/09

2009-04-08T21:33:00.010-04:00

And so it goes on......

1. Gay Marriage in Iowa
Comments from :-
a) Doug Napir of the "Alliance Defense Fund"
b) Bruce Hausknecht from FoFA

2. Showing Pirates II on College Campuses*
Comments from :-
a) Pat Truman a "Former Justice Department Lawyer"
b) Andy Fell of UC Davis

3. Love Won Out De-Gaying Conferences
Comments from :-
a) Mike Geyky who used to suffer from "same sex attraction". So an ex-gay.
b) Melissa Fryrear a conference "keynote speaker"

Yes for a de-gaying conference from Focus on the Family, the keynote speaker is called "Fry Rear". You can't make this stuff up.

------

*A few notes on the Pirates II story.

It was very noticeable that they ( Family News In Focus ) would not say the name of the movie or that it was produced by Digital Playground. All they would say was that it was a "parody of Pirates of the Carribean" and that it was made my a Southern California production company. That would be DIGITAL PLAYGROUND in case you missed that before.

The piece then became even more bizarre. Family News in Focus said it was they who had ratted out UC Davis to the authorities about the "public" showing of Pirates II from Digital Playground. Then Mr Truman said what they wanted was for the cops to simply enforce the law. Then Mr Fell said porn was not illegal and that the UC Davis PD had told them that they were not violating the law. In fact Lt Matt Carmicheal of the UC Davis PD was quoted as saying that they "had followed the letter of the law."

And then the piece ended with Mr Truman saying that he was happy with UC Davis PD's response!!

So when the dust had settled what was this story about? Nothing happened at UC Davis and the quoted anti-porn advocates were happy with that outcome. Of course the movie was withdrawn from being shown at the University of Maryland where a threatened removal of state funding quickly achieved Focus' desired censorship goal. No-one commented directly on that case. Strange they should have concentrated on the campus where they effectively lost their case?

Family News In Focus - Comment Analysis 4/3/09

2009-04-03T11:05:00.006-04:00

And on to day 3 we go.......

1. Gays In The Military
Comments from :-
a) Lt Colonel ( Rtd ) Bob McGiness ( my emphasis on RETIRED )
b) Elaine Donnely of the "Center for Military Readiness"
c) Peter Spring of the "Family Research Council" ( another Dobsonian front )

2. Kansas High School vs The National Education Association
Comments from :-
a) Gary Sigell a "track and field coach"
b) Tracey Bailet, spokesman for the "Association of American Educators"

3. Pro-life order in Congress
Comments from :-
a) Representative Stephen King
b) Representative Chris Smith

4. Rescinding Medical Conscience Regulations
Comments from :-
a) Justin Aquilla of the "Susan B. Anthony List"

5. Adult Stem Cell Trials
Comments from :-
a) Dawn Vargo another Focus Of The Family Action ( FoFA ) stooge and from listening to her irritating voice, a Valley Girl.

*********

At least with the last item, they didn't end with the standard lie that Adult Stem Cells are currently used in over 70 cures or treatments.

Family News In Focus - Comment Analysis 4/2/09

2009-04-03T10:54:00.002-04:00

OK day 2...

1. New York State Court cases on Single Sex Marriage
Comments from :-
a) Brian Rolme of the "Alliance Defense Fund"
b) Jason McGuire of "New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedom"

2. Effects of the Recession
Comments from :-
a) Ron Blue of "Kingdom Advisors"
b) Todd Cohen, publisher of "The Philanthropy Journal"
c) Dan Busby, presient of the "Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability"

3. Casino in Arizona
Comments from :-
a) Deborah Shesby of the "Center for Arizona Policy"
b) Diane Berlin of the "National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling"

4. First Amendment in San Diego
Comments from :-
a) Robert Tyler of "Advocates for Faith and Freedom"

5. Pro-life float banned at the Tulip Time Festival
Comments from :-
a) Carol Brower of "Right To Life Michigan"

Family News In Focus - Comment Analysis 4/1/09

2009-04-03T10:24:00.007-04:00

Let me say two things up front.

1. I am NOT in favor of the return of the Fairness Doctrine. With the fragmentation of today's radio markets, it is just not going to happen - no matter how much right wing blowhards try to tell us different.

2. I am in favor of honest reporting. So to this end, I have decided to listen to every Family News In Focus broadcast for the month of April and just to note down all the names of the people and organizations that comment in their daily stories. I have excluded their own reporters because (a) the same names will turn up all the time and (b) I think that by definition of where they work, they already have an agenda.

I will listen to the broadcast on the citizenlink.org web site as well as to the link to the Focus On The Family daily broadcast page. These are usually the same, but at least on April 1st, they were different. Perhaps I got some March 31st stories too.

So here goes for April 1st 2009....

1. Anti-Planned Parenthood
Comments from :-
a) Kristin Hawkins of "Students For Life"

2. Research that Abortion Harms Women
Comments from :-
a) Priscilla Coleman - "author of one such study"
b) Carrie Gordon Earll - Focus On The Family Action ( FoFA )

3. Pro-Adoption
Comments from :-
a) Kurt and Margret Berky - Adopting Parents "Of course as a kid he is better of because he is going to church now"

4. Canadian Polygamy Court Case
Comments from :-
a) Winston Blackstone - THE POLYGAMIST !!
b) Dave Quist of "The Institute for Marriage and Family Canada"
c) Bruce Hausknecht of FoFA ( Natch. This one is going to be a trend )

5. Brain Research - Pictures Objectifying Women
Comments from :-
a)"Doctor" David Stevens of "The Christian Medical and Dental Association"
b) Daniel Weiss of FoFA ( Surprise !! )

6. Adults Only Websites
Comments from :-
a) Bob Peters president of "Morality in Media"
b) Rick Shots of "The National Coalition for the Protection Of Children and Families"

7. Effects of Abortion
Hey, isn't this two bites at the cherry? See item # 2
Comments from :-
a) Doctor Priscilla Coleman ( again ) described as a "lead researcher" - whatever that it.
b) Catherine Coils of "The Alliance for Post Abortion Research and Training" - APART? How twee.

*******

By my reckoning that's one person with a contrary view to the "report" being heard - step forward Mr Winston you raving polygamist you.

So how can this be "news" when I have no context in which to decide if the speakers are mainstream or just Dobsonian stooges?

Time to put the record straight

2009-03-29T09:58:00.005-04:00

This is an email I had to send to the propaganda wing of
Focus On The Family ( aka "Family News In Focus" ) :-

...snip...

Whenever you have a piece on your "news" broadcast about
stem cell research, you always end the piece with "Adult Stem
Cells are already involved in treating over 70 diseases and
conditions"

That is a LIE. Use "the Google" and read what universities say.
You know, REAL DOCTORS. MDs, people like that. Not that idiot
from the "Christian Medical and Dental Association"

Please stop repeating this lie. Aren't you supposed to be a
"Christian" organization? Have you heard that one about
"not bearing false witness"?

No. I didn't think so.

Also please look into what "Research" is. You can't have
treatments with embryonic stem cells UNTIL YOU HAVE
DONE THE RESEARCH.

By your argument, we would have no heart transplants
now because, when they were introduced you could say
"No one has survived any transplant procedure." So that
"research" inititially also yielded no cures, no treatments.

Guess what? More research made heart transplants work.

MORE RESEARCH.

Focus Does It Again - Serial Killer Series II

2009-03-29T09:01:00.009-04:00

This week ( ending March 27th 2009 ) Focus on the Family continued its salacious "Serial Killers" series of radio programs when "Doctor" Bill Maier interviewed David Berkowitz aka The Son Of Sam.

The programs were pretty nauseating, with Maier "hmm-ing" and "ah-ing" to show he has "understanding" and "compassion" for this monster.

I can't believe Maier is a broadcaster at all. His "reaction noises" during interviews are so inapproprate and out of place. But he cares, he really does. That's what those noises are subtly telling us. He has picked up the habit from James Dobson. Neither know how to use a microphone to stop programs being about THEM, about how THEY feel - and by extension, how WE are supposed to feel.

They are manipulators. Horrible, horrible manipulators of pain and suffering. Serving it up to us in programs like those on Berkowitz and Bundy and then telling us how we are supposed to feel about them.

Why did they even have the interviews with Berkowitz? After the Dobson/Bundy love-in, I thought we might be done with this stuff.

Well we had the programs for two reasons :-

1. Because The Son Of Sam ( who brutally MURDERED six people ) has "found Jesus" in jail.

Well whoop-tee-doo. Berkowitz was a monster then and he's still a monster now. Like Bundy, he wanted to "be" someone. Now he gets his wish for fame by Focus On The Family pandering to him.

2. Because Berkowitz said he saw pornography when he was younger.

And even though he said pornography had NOTHING TO DO WITH HIS CRIMES, it didn't stop James Dobson saying "Oh yes it did".

I kid you not, Dobson quoted Ted Bundy as an authority and he then said something like "So as we see, pornography is ALWAYS involved in these crimes" ( Because TED BUNDY TOLD HIM SO ?? )

What a pernicious ax-grinding liar James Dobson is.

Safety vs Liberty

2009-03-15T17:56:00.002-04:00

Today on CNN former Vice President Cheney said he thought we are now less safe under the policies of President Obama than we were previously. This is a pet mantra of Republicans, but I think it is time to call them out on it.

Wasn't this a country built at least in part on the phrase "Give me Liberty or give me Death"?

Now the liberties we have lost in the last eight years may indeed have made us safer, but the correct response to the statement of the former Vice President is "so what?" As Americans we should care more for Liberty than our personal safety - otherwise people like Patrick Henry have become irrelevant and we have failed to both uphold and live up to the very great ideals that founded this great nation.

Of course, Republicans will now say we haven't lost any liberties, But, what do you call the "sneak and peak" provisions of the Patriot Act? I call them unconstitutional.

This whole "more safe vs less safe" argument is completely bogus and those that use it lessen what it means to be an American. And they use it because they want us to be afraid.

The Most Useless Of Advice

2009-03-14T11:07:00.003-04:00

I must say that the most useless piece of advice being repeated ad nauseam by the talking financial heads on TV is "You should put aside 6 to 9 months of living expenses in case you are laid off in the current recession".

What is the percentage of people currently living paycheck to paycheck? I seem to remember it is ( frighteningly ), A LOT.

To many people, this advice is quite useless. And even if people who are in the hole NOW started to put aside some money in case the pink slip arrives, how long would it take to get to 9 months of expenses?

I'm guessing at least a couple of years and maybe longer.

So if the nasty recession can just put itself on hold for two years, people can ready themselves for its consequences RIGHT NOW.

When you are in a recession, telling people how to prepare for a recession is stupid.

BIG NEWS: James Dobson steps down at FoF

2009-03-01T13:20:00.004-05:00

Friday February 27th 2009 will be a day that lives in blessedness because dear reader, that was the day that "Doctor" James Dobson announced thet he was stepping down as chairman of Focus On The Family. And so his personality-ministry moves ever closer to being no more. Hooray!

Unfortunately he will still be doing the daily radio broadcast and the FoF monthly newsletter, but as an indicator that his influence is waning and that Focus will eventually fade away all together, this is simply GREAT NEWS.

I will of course continue to listen to the radio program and keep sending my comments to the gulag in Colorado Springs. After all, Dobson always says they read and value all correspondence from listeners.

The recent shows on "purity" sure have been icky doozies - They yakked on and on about telling even very young children about "mommies and daddies" but before the programs ran they said "you may want to take little ones ( including even maybe young adolescents ) to another room"

The people at FoF are clearly confused.

Yes, I'm talking to you "Doctor" Bill Maier and "Doctor" Julie Slattery.