BIG NEWS: James Dobson steps down at FoF

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.

Sometimes there is a Good Political Story

Every so often, a political story bursts through the grime and gridlock that is Washington DC and touches people all across this great nation, a story of hope over hypocrisy and the possibility of a storm of change blowing the serried ranks of Old White Lawyer Guys in the halls of power.

No. It's not Obama. That Change is not The Change We Were Really Looking For.

I'm talking REAL CHANGE, something stirring in the the political nether regions.....

I'm talking about Stormy Daniels running in 2010 for the the Senate Seat in Louisiana currently occupied by David Vitter, a client of the DC Madam.



Go here to sign up... http://www.draftstormy.com

It sure is going to be fun.

Purity? Balls!

So I keep listening to the Focus of The Family broadcast about "Purity Balls" with Randy and Lisa Wilson. It gets creepier every time I listen, but as with everything from FoF it is well worth a second and third go around to pick up some more blatant mistruths.

I have already pointed out in a previous blog entry that Mr Wilson is a serious Bible mis-quoter, but on further review I now see that so is Mrs Wilson.

During the course of the program Mrs Wilson describes an oaken chest that her husband makes for each daughter - she calls it a "hope chest", but in reality it's just a 21st century Chastity Belt Substitute.

Because on a girl's wedding day she gives a covenant she wrote to her husband when she was THIRTEEN that she keeps in the damnable chest. Stuff he daddy had her write about remaining "pure" for that one special and godly man who gets to deflower her..Eeew! Just think of what is going through Randy Wilson's mind when he's making these chests. Eeew! It doesn't bear thinking about. News just in Randy - your daugther's sexuality is not yours to bestow or lock away.

Any ways to get back to the mendacious Mrs Wilson...

She says that the chests are make of oak because her daughters are "oaks of righteousness from Isaiah".

Except of course the term "oaks of righteousness" ISN'T IN ISAIAH.

Everything the woman says ( just like he husband ) sounds Biblical, BUT IT JUST ISN'T.

Here are the verses that mention oak.

Isaiah 6 11-13

Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,

and the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.

But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

So no "daughters" there.

How about Isaiah 44-14 - a section on "The Folly of Idolatry"...

He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest: he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it.

Nope. No "daughters" again.

How about Isaiah 1 27-31 : "The Judgment and Redemption of Zion", not too daughterly I'm guessing.

Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.

And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed.

For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.

For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.

And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.

Well, where's the daughters? I see you do get a "righteousness" in there.

AND THAT IS ALL THE OAK IN ISAIAH.

"Well what about righteousness?" I hear you ask.

Perhaps what Mrs Wilson was grasping for and spectacularly misunderstanding was Isaiah 61 1-6 : Good Tidings of Salvation to Zion

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called Trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.

And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.

But ye shall be named The priests of the LORD: men shall call you The ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.

But alas no cigar. Clearly the "Trees of righteousness" are priests in Zion. That means they HAVE TO BE men.

So Lisa, you lose. No woman can be a "tree of righteousness" let alone an "oak of righteousness".

You did sound convincing to the gullible though.

Latest Focus On The Family Whopper

On the Family News in Focus broadcast of Tuesday February 10th 2009, a woman named Joann Condie who was simply identified as a "Christian Counsellor" uttered a statement of such shattering mendacity that I had to look up the harpie on the Google.....

And guess what? Yep, she works at Focus on the Family. She's nothing but a Dobsonian stooge.

Family News in Focus is James Dobson's daily dose of "redefining Truth one Lie at a time". But I can't for the life of me think why they chose not to identify Ms Condie as a Focus staffer - they usually do say "Here's Joe Schmoe of Focus On The Family Action". Why hide this woman's affliation?

But what did Ms Condie ACTUALLY say?

Well, the piece was about availabilty of pornography in the US and its disemination to people who are "shocked" by it - like some who were recipents of the Comcast Superbowl incident.

They also said some 10 year old kid in Florida ( not identified ) was damaged FOR LIFE because the first message he got on his new phone was pornographic. Really? FOR LIFE? Heck what would even constitute pornographic SMS message? Inquiring minds want to know.

The Focus people of course, gave no details.

And then after talking about this poor "traumatized" kid ( FOR LIFE don't forget ), Ms Condie made the following statement :-

"There are many who, in fact, one image, one time, can be, ah, engraved in their brain that years later they can have an advanced sexual addiction - never having to go online, never having to purchase DVDs or anything else".

That is a word of word quote - Ms Condie is not the most articulate 'counsellor" out there.

But what she clearly is a BIG FAT SCAREMONGERING LIAR.

The Worst EVER

The Focus On The Family broadcast of Monday January 26th will without doubt go down in history as the worst thing that James Dobson ever did in his long and mendacious career.

It was a 20th anniversary rebroadcast of Dobbo's pre-execution interview with the charismatic lying psychopath, Ted Bundy.

Ted said "I want my words to be remembered" and James Dobson was more than willing to oblige just because (a) Ted said he had given his life to the Baby Jesus and (b) he told Dobson EXACTLY what he wanted to hear - "Porn made me do it" - Lurid Detective Magazines. Oooooh!

And Dobson nauseatingly lapped it up like a dog returning to a monster's vomit.

He even got to the sickening question of "What did you feel like, after that first killing?"

AAAARRGGHHHH!!! No one needs to ask that. No one needs to know. Of course Ted, said something like "It was like coming out of a dream" - distancing himself from his actions. And Dobson lets him have his say. He never attacks him or challenges him. He just lets him lie and say whatever he wants. It wasn't an interview, it was a puff piece with that sweet porn center that Dobson so wanted to hear.

And Ted is so solicitous, saying "better men than I have studied this" and then he goes off giving us his lying opinion anyway and trying to justify himself. All the while Dobson is deferential and just as bad as bad can be.

He even lets Bundy get away with saying he is a "normal man, with this 'one thing' that I had to keep secret".

No Ted. You really are a MONSTER.

This interview annoyed me more than ANYTHING that James Dobson has ever done.

You can't rely on the statements of a monster to in any way justify your pet crusades against what you fatuously perceive as society's ills. You cannot. And if you try to, you are an idiot.

Even that day Bundy wanted to be in the news. He wanted to confess to more killings to get a stay from his execution. He still wanted to be famous and James Dobson walked right into that penitentiary and he simply OBLIGED HIM.

James Dobson was as gullible a fool 20 years ago as he is today.

Wherever Ted Bundy is now, I'm sure he is thanking Dobson for the publicity and laughing at him in equal measure.

The Theocratic Cat is out of the Constitutional Bag

This week I was listening to the Chistian radio station WAFG 90.3 FM here in South Florida and I heard something on a broadcast called "Vocal Point" that I feel needs wider dissesmination.

On Friday December 19th on the "Vocal Point" program "Doctor" Gary Cass of an organization called "The Christian Anti-Defamation Commission" uttered the following statement that needs to be heard throughout this great country :-

"The Church is the Secret Government of the World"

Let me repeat that because it sounds pretty freaking significant.....

"The Church is the Secret Government of the World"

Seems to me that this statement is directly in conflict with the Constitution, which let me remind you, is the highest law in these United States.

The presenter of the program was audibly gobsmacked by this zinger and he and "Doctor" Cass had to back peddle like crazy to try to put this Pro-Theocracy Cat back in the Constitutional Bag.

And guess what?

They failed.

Have we finally heard out in the open, the Christian Right's true goal for this country?

"The Church is the Secret Government of the World"

If "Doctor" Cass is in any way working towards this "Secret Government" goal, then he is conspiring to pervert the US Constitution and he should suffer the consequences of that.

Response to a Focus On The Family Drone

Below is my response to a letter left on the Times Union of Albany NY website by someone called Monica Marti who stated she was a "Manager Media and Public Relations" at Focus On The Family.

Dear Ms Marti,

I am writing to you regarding your letter to the website timesunion.com of 12/14/08.

It doesn't matter for how many years "Dobson's radio broadcast has been
'helping' millions of families...." ( your quote ), the problem is when
Dobson goes off on one of his anti-gay marriage rants, his homophobic
attitudes are reinforced in the minds of his "followers". And as a
"psychologist", I am sure that that is his covert intention.

You can't cite "good works" as the sign of someone's veracity and trustworthiness.

You have to look at their deceitfulness and mendacity. And James
Dobson exhibits quite enough of those two qualities each year for us
to know that he is indeed a homophobe.

We go by his deeds not by his folksy schtick.

And he is such a liar too. Ask him who won the Battle Of Franklin.
Ask him to explain the Anthrophic Principle again. Ask him to explain
why Elizabeth Dole is such a godly woman when she ran one of the most
hateful campaigns of the last election.

James Dobson is a dangerous ignorant buffoon.

After Further Review....

So I went back to the Focus On The Family December 1st and 2nd programs about The Civil War Battle Of Franklin and another example of the towering ignorance of James Dobson leaped up and bit me like the metaphor it most clearly is.

As I have previously blogged, in these programs Dobson keeps saying how interested he is in in the Civil War and how he considers himself a "Civil War buff". So in effect he is setting himself up as someone who probably knows more about it than say, Joe Six-Pack or this made up "Fred" guy, who they say supports Doctor and his legions of darkness.

So, he sets himself up for his own fall because, in a towering display of not knowing his musket from his balls, "Doctor" says to the historian at the Franklin site, "This was a victory for the Union forces" and that my friend ain't so.

The Historian had to correct the Expert by saying that in ANY Civil War battle, the victor is judged to be the side that held the field when the opponents withdrew.

And of course in the case of the Battle of Franklin, that side was THE CONFEDERACY.

Amazing. James Dobson knows nothing about stuff he personally studies for a hobby. Makes you think about what he really knows about his "academic field".

But that's not the kicker. What this complete reversal of understanding about who won and who lost and who eventually won and who eventually lost seems to be is, a perfect metaphor for the whole Gay Marriage Debate.

In the Battle of Franklin, the Confederacy won, but in reality they took such huge losses there that it was the beginning of their defeat. And so with Prop 8 in California and Amendment 2 here in Florida. The Focus on the Family types won the day in November 2008, but time and demographics are against them. When Dobson is gone and groups like Focus On The Family are again marginalized politically, then there will be new Amendments and gay marriage will be legal everywhere and then this whole non-issue will be OVER.

Battle of Franklin - 1864
Focus On the Family contributions for 2008 - down $5 million
James Dobson's ignorance - Priceless

Lies Focus On The Family Told Me

I've been trawling the Focus on the Family web site listening to past broadcasts and I came across as pair of doozies from September 15th and 16th 2008.

The two part program was called ( very disingenuously ), "A Father's Commitment To Purity" and was about a guy ( Randy Wilson ), who is the instigator of a nationwide phenomenon called "Purity Balls" and about his putting his daughters through public humiliation in a vain attempt to keep them "pure" for their husbands.

But really, these programs were about this man's purient interest in the sex lives of of his own daughters. Eeeew!

The programs should have be called "A Father's Unhealthy Interest in His Daughter's Purity".

I defy you to listen to these recordings and not feel the need to shower afterwards.

Anyways, right at the start of these very scary programs Randy Wilson authoritatively says that in the book of Proverbs it says "Our brides are a gift from God".

THAT IS A LIE. MY BIBLE SAYS NO SUCH THING. NOT ABOUT BRIDES, NOT ABOUT WIVES.

But that's how this works isn't it? Lie, but do it with conviction.

Why was I not surprised to learn that Mr Wilson used to work for Focus On The Family, the home of Biblical mendacity? And now he is the "National Field Director for Church Ministries for the Family Research Council" - so he's still lying for Jesus for a living then.

Best Week Ever On Focus On The Family

December 1st and 2nd's radio programs were both, for want of a better term, "holiday recordings" of "Doctor" Dobson's taken at the site of the Civil War Battle of Franklin in Tennessee. Apparently the good doctor has been in Tennessee still writing his opus "Bringing Up Girls", but he still had some time to go out and record personal jaunts like this one.

One of the things I love about Dobson, almost as much as the "tsk tsking" and the sighing to show us his sympathy ON MATTERS THAT ARE FREAKING OBVIOUS is when he ventures into areas about which he knows diddly squat and then falls flat on his overly pious behind.

In the case of this week's programs from Tennessee, he produced two classic howlers, even after he had informed us that he was a "Civil War buff".

1. He didn't know when the Battle of Shiloh was - he thought it was AFTER the Battle of Franklin.

2. He kept referring to the Battle of Franklin as the "Gettysburg Of The West" when really it was known as the "Pickett's Charge of the West".

But of course Dobson lies with such authority that I'm sure many people must miss that what he says is just plain wrong.

For the record, The Battle of Shiloh was fought on April 6th and 7th 1862. The Battle of Franklin was November 30th 1864.

The "Gettysburg of the West" was The Battle of Glorieta Pass - as any Google user can find out.

What was also interesting was Dobson's admission that because he is distantly related to General Lee ( he was called "Lee" as a child ), if he had been alive at the time of the Civil War, he would probably would have been fighting for the Confederacy. I'm thinking that's a piece of biography you might want to keep to yourself there Doc.

Anyways, if Monday and Tuesday weren't full of enough nutty goodness, we then came to Wednesday and a program devoted to hand wringing and lamenting the job cuts at the Focus On The Family campus/gulag in Colorado Springs. Doctor was in fine form, taking no responsibility for anything and not realizing that perhaps the $5 million shortfall at the "ministry" might be because Jesus is not pleased with how Focus has been using "the Lord's resources". $590k to defeat Prop 8? Not wise spending there in tough economic times.

The program was GREAT, with Dobson saying he "loved" the people he was kicking in the teeth and that some had been with him for 20 years and oh yes, some of them "will have difficulty finding another job". And a Merry Christmas to you to Doctor. 20% gone, 80% left.....

I wonder how much money that he could have gotten for FoF went to Focus On The Family Action for all its machinations during the past political season? It would be kind of ironic if FoF as a "ministry" becomes economically unglued because of the monies that were syphoned to FoF Action.

And on Thursday? Somewhat unprecedentedly they repeated Wednesday's program because "due some technical difficulties", not all the FoF listeners had gotten to hear Doctor in full on sackcloth and ashes mode. The program was just as funny the second time around. The man is almost a definition of insincerity. It oozes off him - like slime of a slug.

And the week was rounded off with an old program about that "great patriot" and trampler of the Constitution, Colonel Oliver "All I can get is a gig on Fox News" North.

I swear the people at Focus on the Family must have a mandatory irony bypass before they can work there. It's the only explanation.

BarlowGirls

Today ( December 6th 2008 ) I was listening to Focus On The Family's "Weekend Magazine" show with "Doctor" Bill Maier and he had bit with a Christian group called "BarlowGirl" singing "Its the Most Wonderful Time Of The Year".

OMG. But these sisters - Alyssa, Becca and Lauren - CAN'T SING AT ALL.

At the end of the verses when a powerful rising cadence is needed, they produced this horrendous weak sound that was bad beyond belief. There is simply no horse power in these girls' voices at all.

All I could think of as I heard them butcher this classic song was how much better it would be if it was sung by someone who has talent in the singing department - someone like Jennifer Hudson for example.

How the heck did these talentless wannabes ever get a record contract?

Why Sarah Palin represents business as usual

Did you catch Governor Palin speaking at her son's Iraq deployment ceremony? She said "You'll be there to defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the deaths of thousands of Americans."

I guess that is technically true if you stop to think about it.

But most people don't stop and I think, just like when I first heard heard her, all that registers is the same tired 9/11 and Iraq conflation the GOP talking heads have pushed since the invasion.

Subtle Mrs Palin is. Some might say she has already partaken of Bush's Koolaid. By this speech, she clearly showed she is definitely "more of the same".

Go Obama!

Death Race - Yahoo! loses another review !!

This movie is not a candidate for Worst Movie of the Year, it IS hands down the Worst Movie of 2008.

It starts as a homophobic and misogynistic disaster. It quickly drops any references to the gay driver and decides to stick with its basic misogyny message.

Oh boy is it bad.

Joan Allen's red lipstick is welded so tight on her pursed lips to keep the scream of "I'M GOING TO KILL MY AGENT!" from bursting out.

The direction is frantic in that MTV generation, ferret-on-speed kind of way where quite simply, you cannot tell what the heck is going on. There is not enough blood. There is no satire.

"Launch the Dreadnought!"

Right. So we can sink this mess back into the bad movie abyss from whence it came.

However, every misogynistic cloud has a sexist silver lining and here it is how they film Natalie Martinez. And how is that?

Droolingly. Knuckle-draggingly droolingly.

Yahoo! lose another one.....Mummy III

It hard to know where to begin, this film is so mediocre. Let's start with the usually luminous Ms.Bello. What's with American actresses and English accents? Speaking as a new minted US citizen who was born in the UK, I found her accent worthy. BUT...it seemed to me by spending all her time keeping it firmly in place, she lost any nuance or inflection in her voice. Or do Americans truly feel that the British are so refined and stiff-upper-lipped that they always talk like that? Ms.Bello spoke exactly the same during mummy attacks as she did serving tea in her big country house. And it was irritating.

And what happened to the son? In the second movie he was a plucky British schoolboy and in this he is a cookie cutter bloodless American pile of blah.

And who allowed THAT yeti footage to stand? Talk about cheesey AND wrong at the same time.

The plot was boring. The mummies in no way creating any of the dread of the first film.

The best thing in the movie was seeing Michelle Yeogh and Anthony Wong in a picture together. OK, but not in scenes TOGETHER...But what are you gonna do? And was the quite lovely Isabella Leong in there simply because Zhang Zi-Yi has standards?

The X-files movie

Damn Yahoo! They keep losing my movie reviews. They lost this one too.

Dana Scully paved the way to make smartness chic on TV. Without Scully there would be no CSI-babes. This movie is really all about Scully and her inner conflicts. Conflicts between her belief in Science, her Catholicism, her wish to not believe in the irrational and more importantly her desire to "not look into the darkness anymore".

The whole rest of the plot is just something going on in the background. And so what if it is not about aliens, abductions and other Roswelly stuff? The TV series was just like the two movies have been - either you had a continuing episode about Little Green Men OR you had an episode that stood by itself with no reference to bigger conspiracies. This movie is just a standalone. And that doesn't matter one whit to Scully's story.

It doesn't even matter that the story is such a slight one. There is more than enough going on to get Scully fired up. Heck, it could just have been about the kid in the hospital and it would still have carried the same emotional wallop.

Mulder is pretty superfluous to this picture - bringing as he does his usual straight out desire to believe in EVERYTHING. So he is never conflicted. And because he is never conflicted, he is never an interesting person to watch.

Amanda Peet? What a waste.

The Big Yin? Probably there will be no worse miscasting in a movie this year.

Scully holds this movie together. There has not been an actress in many a year like Gillian Anderson who can show so much humanity on the screen with just a simple close up.

Dang! She's so good in this.

The Dark Knight

"The Dark Knight" is definitely on the dark side of Harvey Dent's lucky coin to Will Smith's "Hancock".

While both movies are ostensibly about the same thing, namely what it means to be a superhero and how do such people fit into the societies in which they operate, "The Dark Knight" is the movie without the "Aw shucks Pa! It'll all work out." optimism of Smith's effort.

And is a way better movie for it.

In "Hancock" Will Smith can comes to terms with his place in life and he is embraced by the wider culture around him. The film is essentially a happy one. And once Hancock adjusts to fit in, all his inner conflicts are resolved and he can live with that. He can even be contented by the lonliness and separation from true love. He sucks it up and goes on.

In "The Dark Knight" Christian Bale is a tormented man. Tormented to be Gotham's hero and tormented by his need to be that hero. He doesn't in any sense "live with that" - he cannot - he struggles with that conflict throughout the film. And he is ultimately a character flawed forever by these warring forces within him. He is a man who can never have what Bruce Wayne has.

This movie is out-and-out fantastic. Some of the actors, not Ms.Gyllenhaal, ( whose performance is phoned in ), give almost career defining performances. Heath Ledger WILL win a posthumous Oscar. I have never seen Gary Oldman more subtle, nor more sympathetic.

The big question has to be, "why didn't Katie Holmes do this movie?" Surely she knows what it means to be held captive by a loon?

See this movie. See it on an IMAX screen if you can. This and WALL-E are the best movies of the summer.

My take on that whole Radio Hall Of Fame thing

The following is a quote from Wikipedia about the "radio priest" of the 1930s, Father Coughlin - also know as the Father of Hate Radio....

At its peak in the early 1930s, Coughlin's radio show was phenomenally popular. His office received up to 80,000 letters per week from listeners, and his listening audience was estimated to rise at times to as much as one-third of the nation. Coughlin is often credited as one of the major demagogues of the 20th century for being able to influence politics through broadcasting, without actually holding a political office himself.

Does that sound like anyone we know?

Now what happens if we substitute some names and dates......?


At its peak in the early 1990s, Dobson's radio show was phenomenally popular. His office received up to 80,000 letters per week from listeners, and his listening audience was estimated to rise at times to as much as 0.05% of the nation. Dobson is often credited as one of the major demagogues of the 20th century for being able to influence politics through broadcasting, without actually holding a political office himself. "And also to influence events through a so called "ministry", while all the time not being a pastor either". ( my last sentence added )

James Dobson is the natural successor to Father Coughlin, though thank goodness, he reaches into far less housholds than Coughlin did. Lets just call him and FoF, the Bastard Sons Of Hate Radio. He does love to tell us how many letters he gets a week doesn't he? I guess he feels a tad insecure if he doesn't blow his own trumpet and then tell us how expensive it is to run his propaganda operation - so he can then try to sucker us for "contributions".

So Dobson and the Focus on the Family broadcast is to be inducted into the National Radio Hall Of Fame? Well, looking at our history, Father Coughlin shows us that being popular and doing right are not synonymous.

What a mistake this whole fiasco has become. I voted for Howard Stern and I don't even like him - just to try stop this very sad day from happening.

Next inductee? Tokyo Rose? Josef Goebbels?

Tell me I'm wrong

It seems to me that the President should not have the power to assert executive privilege to block investigations into possible criminal matters. If he does, then the whole concept of co-equal branches of the government is out the window.

The President is top tog. He can do what he wants. He is in effect, a dictator.

And you know the Right is always so quick to back curbs on civil liberties with that mantra, "If you have nothing to hide, why are you objecting? I have nothing to hide, so pass the Patriot Act and FISA why don't ya?"

But methinks they do protest a tad too much when laws tread close too 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Sauce of the goose anyone?

Now, what was that saying about "Sunlight being the best disinfectant"?

And on Day 2...just more of the same lunatic statements

And on day two of the Dobbie and Tom show, Tom Delay issued yet another fatuous statement.

He said "When I left Congress, the Lord had two things for me to do. (1) Support the state of Israel and (2) to stand for Him. And I took that to mean PUSH THE CONSERVATIVE CAUSE."

Really Tom? Really. That's odd because I'm sure the baby Jesus told me that he wants you to be a Liberal. How could you have been so wrong? You misheard the voices in your own head? How bizarre.

Being a Conservative means "standing for God"? Boy what an idiot this man is. We have to be so grateful he is not in a position of power anymore. Tom Delay is as scary as Rick "with a silent P" Santorum.

July 9th 2008 a new nadir for Doctor Dobson

Today Doctor Dobson had the first part of an interview with "Hot Tub" Tom Delay and his wife Christine. At the end of the interview Dobson realized he had just completely trashed FoF's 501(c)(3) status when he said the following :-

"Will you stay with us another day and let's talk about non-political things? erm.. we haven't been talking about politics anyway, we've been talking about values and historic events".

Really? Not been talking about politics? So why would he say that tomorrow would be "non-political" if today was too? Surely he would say ( if they were the same ), "Please come back tomorrow so we can continue our interesting discussion?" His statement ONLY makes sense in the context of him, (Dobbo), understanding that today's stuff was "talking politics". And if he realizes that, he knows his 501(c)(3) status just went out the window.

And what did the Hammer have to say? Well he made some predictions of what will happen "if people like us stay home" [for the upcoming election].

In answer to Dobson asking him "what is this country going to be like in 5 or 10 years?" ( if we continue on the track we are on ).

1. There will be cloning of human beings.
2. There will be euthanasia - with the age "ratcheting down" from 99 today to 90 tomorrow to 80...
3. There will be destruction of churches - "to limit speech".
4. There will be a new religious system - "Humanism, if you will".
5. There will be a "rampant judiciary" who will be "creating all kinds of problems to undermine 'our' culture".
6. You will be paying 80-90% in taxes. "Because you are going to have a socialist society".

So let's set ourselves a promise to look at these predictions again on July 9th 2013.

We'll ignore item (5) because let's face it, Dobson, Minnery and Delay et al think that is happening now. Tom did not say how we might measure if this judicial rampancy has increased in 2013. The best issue we will be able to call him out on will be item (6). How foolish of him to give us a number we can actually measure.

And some other doozy miscelleaneous points from the broadcast....

Guess what? It doesn't matter if Tom does not agree with the admonishments of Congress because of his murky ethics. They admonished him. That is on the record. The only reason that they didn't find him guilty of ethics violations was because his party was in the majority at that time - so it was never going to happen. Therefore his trumpeting of "I was never found guilty of anything" has kind of a hollow ring to it. But Congress did recognize his activities were nefarious enough to warrant admonishment. However much he squirms, he can't remove that. And isn't the Ethics Committee bipartisan?

During the interview when talking about getting his mugshot he said the following ( and I'm not making this up ), "I prayed right before that mugshot [that the Lord..], that people would see Jesus in my eyes. If you look at my mugshot you can see great joy and happiness in my eyes. And I truly believe that."

Yes, he is clearly insane. Barking. Just look at the picture. Tell me I'm wrong.

And what the heck was this little exchange.....??

Dobson: "I would really like to talk about children which, Christine, you have given your life to, haven't you?"
Christine Delay: "Just about".
Dobson: "Err, well..and it is not over yet".
Christine Delay: "No".

Was James Dobson praising Christine Delay there for not being dead?

---||---

Best Quote Ever

Best quote ever from full time "Focus On the Family" Weasel Tom Minnery came in the FoF radio program where Doctor Dobson uttered his stupid "Barack Obama is distorting the Bible" nonsense.

Tom Minnery attempted to explain the relationship between "Focus On The Family" and "Focus On The Family Action" and he said the following.....

"Focus On The Family money works in tandem with Focus On The Family Action money to allow us to move in and out of issues as we need to. It is very complicated but we have very good lawyers advising us at every step of the way"

And that dear reader is called "muddying the waters between your 501(c)(3) and your 501(c)(4) organizations" - really bending if not the law itself, then its intent.

"Render unto Caesar" Tommy Boy? Oh, only when you can get a tax exemption, I get it.

And speaking of Dobson's fatuous comments as we always have to do, Jon Stewert nailed the old hypocrite on "The Daily Show" with what can only be described as a perfect satirical hit.

The Exasperated Sigh

There may be nothing in the world to me more satisfying than hearing Doctor James Dobson sigh. I'm not talking satisfying sighs or deep contentment sighs or heaven forbid, sighs of satiety. I'm talking of that exasperated sigh that is a weird combination of "Tsk" and "Oh". You know it when you hear it.

It made a lovely appearence on the "Focus On The Family" program on Colorado anti-discrimination laws on 5/28/08.

The single syllable that he issues is so, ( he thinks ), damning. It is wonderful containing in its little exhalation 'Oh. What are they thinking? This isn't right. I don't believe it' and 'I don't like this and I am always right'. And 'If you agree with what I am objecting to, there is something clearly wrong with you'. And 'this did not happen in the 50's. Waaah. Waaah. Waaah'

And the program also seemed to explain a lot about Doctor Dobson. It seems he was traumatized as a child by an experience in a girls bathroom.

Hint: He hears girls saying "You're going to be in trouble" in the back of his mind to this day.

Sure explains a lot.

Luckily he gets back at womankind through the patriarchy of "Focus On The Family" and in particular in those programs when he probes women about their husbands' porn problems. The sigh comes out in those shows too.

Dobson bent out of shape again

Well it had to happen. The May 19th 2008 Focus on the Family radio show had to be devoted to the California Supreme Court decision to legalize gay marriage. And oh boy, Doctor Dobson was having a hissy fit.

The image he gave me of him "pulling the [bed] covers over his ears" to hide from the day's problems is really funny. He said, "That is how I deal with things that distress me."

What is he, eight years old?

So the "show" from "Focus On The Family Action" ( natch ) consisted of the usual miscreants, Dobson, Minnery, Fabry and Tony Perkins from the "Family Research Council" plus a pastor, "Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills California".

It was the usual rubbish and ranting against "judicial tyranny" aka "opinions we don't like". Minnery said he had read the whole opinion - including the dissenting part - and he said "this ruling means people in incestuus relationships can petition to be married".

Well, I guess they could try, but as INCEST IS ILLEGAL, I'm guessing that they wouldn't get what they want. What a maroon Minnery is. As you see, I think little Tommy has isues.

But the old trout was on his best form. Both of the following nonsensical quotes are from Doc's own lips.

"Families are ABSOLUTELY ESSESNTIAL to freedom" What the flying crap does that mean?

"The Family...the ground floor, the foundation everything rests on."

Really? Everything? Idiot.

The Whole Pastoral Mess

I want to write this down somewhere because I think there should be a record someplace that someone felt this way.

Has anyone watched the Reverend Wright footage closely? I mean, real closely, not the "GDA" soundbite so lovingly played ad infinitum by the likes of Sean Hannity.

Prior to the infamous phrase, the Reverend is speaking about bad stuff the United States has done to its own citizens and I think he mentions the treatment of Japanese-Americans in WW2 and the Tuskegee experiments and he says that God does not bless a country that does such things and he says something like "It is in the Bible" and then he says the hated phrase.

How would it have been received if he just had an extra "s" after the word "Damn"?

As in...

God doesn't bless countries that do bad things. Look at what happened to Japanese-Americans in WW2 or to the people in the Tuskegee experiments. I say God does not bless America. It is in the Bible. I say God Damns America, God Damns America. And he does so to all unjust nations.

Would there still be a controversy? All that the Reverend was doing was exposing the nauseating platitude ( so beloved of politicians and their drones ) of "God Bless America" used at the end of every speech by every candidate in every election.

I don't believe in God, but if I did, I would definitely think he would not be in the nation-blessing business. ( except maybe Israel ).

OK I know this sounds like I'm parsing phrases even closer than "It all depends on what your meaning of the word 'is' is", but in the larger context of what the Reverend Wright was saying, I think that extra "s" really makes sense.

First Summer Movie Casualty

Looks like the first Big Summer Movie to crash and burn is going to be "Speed Racer" and for that we can be thankful. My local movie theater was promoting the heck out of this movie all last month on their "Pre-Trailers" show - yes I am taking to you Regal Cinemas - and this movie looked like a steaming pile of doo from the get go.

I really do hate Summer Movies. To date it looks like of the heavily hyped movies, I will see "Prince Caspian" and "Wanted" and the Indiana Jones flick. All the rest can become a huge mass of rotting celluloid in my book.

"Iron Man" taking all that money was a huge disappointment, because all that is doing is encouraging studios to continue in their total bankruptcy of ideas and letting them MAKE MORE COMIC BOOK MOVIES.

Aaaaaarrgghhhhh!!!!!! They are all the same......

A misfit is transformed into a hero.
The female lead screams a lot.
The misfit hero triumphs over whoever the bad guy is.
The misfit hero's identity is somehow revealed, but strangely it isn't.
Some aspect of the movie ( escape of principal villain or promotion of villain's sidekick and/or relative ) points the way to next year's sequel.

Holy crap! This stuff writes itself.


This weekend I will probably go see "Fugitive Pieces" with the lovely Rosamund Pike.

I met Nina again.

She was still as lovely and sweet as ever.

It has been a long time

Well it has been such a long time since I blogged ANYTHING so I guess it was time to take up the keyboard once more.

All that is coming out today is stream-of-you-know-what stuff. What's on my mind, what I need to get off my chest. You know "life stuff".

So here we go....

Today ( April 26th 2008 ) some interesting articles appeared in the press about the hijacking of the National Day of Prayer by evangelical Christians. All I see is Shirley Dobson taking her lead from her husband's cult and embedding her "Christian Task Force" in the center of the mandated faith-neutral National Day Of Prayer just like "Doc" does with his political "Focus On The Family Action" within the (supposedly) non-political sect that is "Focus On The Family".

Still I hope Dobson takes some heat for his wife's activities. I like to hear him squirm on the radio. When they skewered him over the "Spongebob is gay" nonsense it was pretty damn priceless. And also when he was back peddling over the comments he made about embryonic stem cell research and Nazi doctors, that was good too. He certainly likes dishing it out, but oh boy, he can't take it.

What else?

Oh yes. "Life Matters" got taken off of "Radio Peace". Yay! A victory for me!

But sadly "Radio Peace" is still on the air here in South Florida, with perhaps, a man with the worst voice EVER for radio - an old trout called Philip Carlton. You have to hear him to believe it. His voice is weak and wavering - he sounds like he is about to croak at any minute. Come to think of it, sometimes he is making frog-like noises. Perhaps he is a herp lover? I guess the Archbishop ( who also is terrible on the radio ) must like old Phil or something, because there is no reason on God's Green Earth why he should be behind a microphone.

They also took off "Catholic Answers" ( yay! ) but replaced it with a daily Mass-and-Rosary session that is definitely not an improvement. ( so boo! to that ).

Oh yes. Websites.

I let all my domain names lapse. Shieldhost is possibly the worst company EVER to handle domain hosting. Cheap? Most certainly? Any good? Most certainly not. I finally had to admit defeat in dealing with them.

Oh yes. Age.

Last year I crashed through the big 5-0 barrier. It was I can tell you, traumatic. And then it was all topped of by my best friend having a heart attack and dropping dead at 59.

That stuff brings you up short let me tell you. I feel no different in myself but I am now aware of my own mortality.

And...movies for 2008

To date the year has been dire for movies. I have liked "Street Kings" and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and everything else has pretty much blown. I enjoyed "The Counterfeiters" up to its highly contrived and unbelievable ending.

All I am looking forward to this summer is "Wanted" and perhaps the Indiana Jones flick. But "Iron Man" AND "The Incredible Hulk"?????? I really don't think so.

The Election Thing

As I became a citizen, I now gets to vote. As of right now I am conflicted.

McCain? He is OK with the US staying 100 years in Iraq? That has to be something a rational person can't vote for. Really. The age thing? I don't care about that. The temper thing? I don't care about that either. His shakiness on the economy and his inability to understand the differences between Shia and Sunni? Those are concerns. And his failure to condemn the fat one from San Antonio? That hurts McCain for me too. Of course most people haven't seen Pastor Hagee's Comedy Hour to know what a jackass he is.

Hillary? Well purely and simply put, I don't want the Presidency to be in the hands of two American families any longer. That is almost monarchical. And I left the UK to avoid that. It shouldn't be taking root in the US. She voted for the war. She always votes for any free trade agreement that loses skilled American jobs. How the heck she can win primaries in Ohio and Pennsylvania is just beyond me. Her Congressional record alone should have lost it for her. Are the people really so gullible to think that a woman who takes a photo op chugging a beer and downing a shot is somehow "one of them"? As Karl Rove has said all along, the Republicans want her as the Democratic nominee. With her built-in high negatives ( "I will never vote for her under any circumstances" ), if she somehow becomes the Democratic nominee, she could be handing the election to McCain on unlikeability alone.

Obama? I wish he didn't have a Pastor. But he does and he went to that church for many years. There is no way to weasel out of that. The question becomes, does Obama's mere association with the Reverend Wright invalidate his candidacy? If you answer "yes" to that question, then Obama will never be your guy. But does that mean that noone can ever be elected to high office because somewhere in their past, in their childhood, they knew, or heaven forbid they befriended, someone from the other side of the tracks? Someone to whom say, fate was less kind than to them?

It seems to me that this "guilt-by-association" argument is one that really doesn't hold up to any kind of logical scrutiny. There has only ever been one "Mr.Perfect" and he was a professional wrestler.

But let's see about the man himself. He didn't vote for the war and he is some sort of "elitist". Two pluses in my book. And he is "inexperienced". Can you say "Texas has a weak gubernatorial system?" Unless you can be delusional enough to think that Obama would be comparable to Bush in the screwing-up department, I think the whole "experience" argument is a complete and utter crock. But I guess if you are looking for an excuse to not vote for him, that's as good as any.

So it has to be Nader again I guess.

Critique of Focus On The Family

"Turning our arse towards hos"

A reissue from the now defunct www.drjamesdobsonsucks.com

The Focus on the Family broadcasts of June 8th and 9th of 2006 entitled "Navigating Today's Youth Culture" showed a staggering return to form in the FoF lying department. And the old trout himself wasn't even present. Yes, amazingly Doctor James Dobson can bend truth AT A DISTANCE.

The two programs were really about three separate topics, but as I will point out later, the goons at FoF tried their darndest to conflate them.

Why?

Because as Odd Todd would say, "They are a bunch of scum liars."

The first issue up for a lambasting was myspace.com

Distorting Truth one issue at a time.

After their usual prurient "today's broadcast may not be suitable for younger listeners" nonsense, Doctor Bill Maier briefly touched on what the program was to be about - a terrible affliction sweeping America's youth called "The Choking Game" and myspace.com . He also introduced the studio guests, Bob Waliszewski of "Plugged In" magazine, Pastor Tim Wilson and his wife Carol "who is an elementary school teacher and also a volleyball coach" along "award winning author of over 50 books", Melody Carlson.

So as they say in The Sound Of Music, "let's start at the very beginning".

Why are these broadcasts not suitable for younger listeners? The folks at FoF are so holier-than-thou, so freaking pious that they NEVER SAY ANYTHING THAT MIGHT REMOTELY AFFECT A "YOUNGER LISTENER". And by the way, when did you last see kid scarred by an adjective? I've seen kids not being spared the rod - they had scars.

Why are all authors described as "award winning"? What awards? Something I've heard of? I'm thinking the use of the epithet "award winning" and "bestselling" is like Dr D James Kennedy listing all his degrees at the end of his comedy hour, to boost someone's shaky intellectual position. Ooooh I am an "award winning" author, my opinion trumps yours. Well, sorry honey, it just don't.

And then it was on to trashing myspace.com

So Doctor Maier lobs Mr. Waliszewski an easy question "So what is myspace.com?" And he says.......

"It is the good and the bad and the ugly, it's not, unlike the choking game, which is absolutely horrendous, in all cases, er, myspace has its good moments. So our discussion about myspace has to have all these different components"

Do you hear the subtle linkage? If you don't hear that second comma, you hear both things are the same and you don't even notice the latter part of the sentence when he's backtracking. Subtle distortion is still distortion.

"It is the good and the bad and the ugly, it's not unlike the choking game, which is absolutely horrendous...."

I had to listen to the damn CD ( $9.00 from FoF ) multiple times to hear these things are not the same.

Distortion # 2

Later Mr. Waliszewski goes on to discuss myspace profiles and he says "It ( myspace ) can be very pornographic. The pictures, that are not meant to be pornographic, but they often are"

Well, I have a myspace profile and my friends are Jenna Jameson, Stormy Daniels, Devon and Janine and I have seen no evidence of pornography from these ladies - who you would think would know a thing or to about that subject.

So again, do you see the subtle distortion? Things are not porn, but they are. They are because Mr. Waliszewski tells us they are?

And of course, he won't tell us what this "pornography" is. He's a "yoof" expert so we roll over for HIS opinion?

I really don't think so.

Of course, he would consider the following to be pornographic.



Which of course it so clearly is not.

Distortion # 3

Later still lying like the weasel he is, Mr. Waliszewski ( or perhaps Dr Maier ) said he was able with just three mouse clicks to "discover some of the most pornographic discussions that I cannot go into on this particular program. But suffice it to say, and you know what I am talking about, it was absolutely horrendous."

Guess what? I don't know what you are talking about. Sufficing ain't cutting it today.

Notice the subtle use of language again? He ( as expert ) opines without ANY examples and we are all supposed to nod sagely and say "Yep, you're sooooo right, it's all over myspace - porn and disgusting STUFF". Stuff of course, we have never seen nor evaluated.

He then legitimately talked about the dangers of online predators. That is always a valid point to bring up. But he then made the statement "myspace is a favorite site of predators". With of course, no statistics, evidence or even anecdotal evidence to back THAT up beyond one case where the crime was still in the "alleged" phase. But "a favorite site of predators"? That might be true. I don't know. But when Mr. Waliszewski says something is true, I immediately doubt its veracity.

Distortion # 4

And then maybe his most egregious distortion was when he tried to link pornography to online predators because some idiot whom he described as someone who "writes a professional digest for the porn industry" had written "one of the first things I did was create a myspace profile and started talking to 'the kids' - just to open up that channel". And that "he began flirting with a girl". Ooooooh.

The unheard link there is between "kids" and "children". And so, if it is "children", it is online predation.

Clearly the guy whom he quoted should not have said "kids". All that does is provide ammunition for people like FoF. But equally clearly he was talking about COLLEGE KIDS. After all, wasn't it at Harvard not that long ago that they showed Digital Playground's new movie "Pirates" on like, the dorm cable system?

"Kids" in college watch pornography. Sorry to burst your 1950's bubble Mr. Waliszewski. And tattoos and piercings have been "in" for at least 10 years. So there is no hidden agenda, no secret corruption of youth. no armies of pornographers on myspace recruiting lil chilluns.

THAT is all in Mr. Waliszewski's mind and I suspect, The Old Trout's.



And now finally, Day # 2 !!

Actually, there isn't much to tell. But let's talk about the 800 lb gorilla in the room that was never alluded to.

The 800 lb Gorilla

In the discussion of the "Choking Game", no one mentioned, hinted at or said the words AUTOEROTIC ASPHYXIATION.

Well, shave my head and call me normal, BUT it seems to me that what they were yakking about probably has something to do with AA. You know why they never said the words? Because then they would have to acknowledge that their fetishistic vision of young people as unblemished virgins is wrong. Oh heck, this activity is SEXUAL? No. That can't be, because our daughter/son doesn't do that! Well guess what? If the "Choking Game" is as big a problem as FoF say it is ( and I wonder about that ), then to say that AA is not involved is being disingenuous at the very least. And for an organization dedicated to providing "information" ( and I use that term loosely ) to America's families, they are singularly falling down at their self imposed job.
Of course, they weren't being disingenuous. They said what they said because ( repeat after me now )....

"They are all a bunch of scum liars."

And then there was Melody Carlson.

Almost the half of day 2 of this FoF special was devoted to trashing so called "Chick Lit" - after we had wallowed in the very tragic death of Pastor Wilson's' daughter to the "Choking Game". Dr Maier's insightful contribution to the debate?

Yup and I kid not, "Satan is after our children"

I just want to make four brief points about the whole Chick Lit discussion.

a) Dr Maier was again able to tell us the material being discussed was pornographic, but again without giving us any examples.

b) Ms Carlson was SHOCKED that in a capitalist society books are marketed at young girls! Ooooh they are "targeting our daughters". Notice that the language subtly conflates a legitimate activity to sexual predation? The books like "The Gossip Girls" glorify a lifestyle akin to Paris Hilton's and Nichole Ritchie's? Then may I suggest the "South Park" episode about Ms Hilton as the fastest way to debunk the non-argument that Ms Hilton is any kind of role model?

c) The books they talked about apparently glorify sex, drug abuse and other ( to FoF ) bad stuff. We got no examples. No passages from any book was read so we could make up our own minds. Guess what? My mind is not made up by listening to idiots like Dr Maier and Ms Carlson. Now I have to check out the "Gossip Girls" and "The A-list" for myself. I think as a grown man, I'll pass on "The Pretty Committee". And speaking of reading, has anyone read a ROMANCE NOVEL recently? Ohmigod. Clearly all that this whole "Chick Lit" phenomenon really is is a primer for romance novels. Get 'em young and keep 'em forever. Just like Budweiser. It's the American way.

d) But the best was when Doctor Maier asked Ms Carlson to recommend books that are suitable for young girls and all she could come up with WAS HER OWN BOOKS. That was freaking priceless. When really pressed she reluctantly had to recommend the works of Robin Jones Gunn - but boy was that an afterthought. Dr Maier had to step in and suggest an alternative. And his suggestion was written by FoF contributor - John Fabry. Talk about nepotism. If you look up these books by Mr. Fabry, you will see they are co-authored with one of the biggest names in "Christian" Fiction i.e. fiction that exploits Christ for a buck, Jerry "Left Behind" Jenkins. So you know they are going to be a huge steaming pile of doo.

You know what? We need some Jesse to cheer us up after trawling through the slime of FoF half truths.

Focus On The Family pixellates out these pentagrams on Jesse Jane's bikini, so I feel sort of obliged to show them too you in all their strained glory.

Radio Infomercials I hate

The so called "Hart to Heart Nutrition Hour" hawks Mother Nature's Miracle - with host, Melinda Hart.

Has it gone off the air? Read on, because if it has, you will see, it doesn't matter.

Michael Brookes is Melinda's "expert" and he is perhaps the worst guy on the radio for using misleading statements about his so called "mineral formula".

My favorite is his citing Doctor Linus Pauling about taking vitamin C and then later talking about ALL diseases being a result of a a mineral or vitamin deficiency and citing someone called Doctor Paul Linus. Well who the **** is he?

My second favorite is when he says, "drop a penny in a glass of water and the next morning it's still there!" Like a pill in your stomach? Right?

Heck no. Drop a penny in dilute hydrochloric acid and look how shiney it is in the morning.That would be BECAUSE THE ACID IS DISSOLVING IT you idiot.

But wait now we have a new infomercial....or do we?

"The Life Long Wells Nutrition Hour" with host Sheryl Wells is hawking Bio-Vaccine. Her expert is Mr Ted Lemus.

At many points, this is almost WORD FOR WORD the same infomercial, up to and including an additional ad within the infomercial itself for a "bone supplement" containing MSM, glucosamine and condroitin and guess what? You can take this with their main miracle product with no interaction. Imagine that! Wow! And they also repeat the lines like "if you take X, you have to take Y for Z and then you must take P for Q and don't forget R for your S, otherwise all your are taking is useless" rant. So you have to take their formula which is "balanced".

What a bunch of freaking charalatans. What's happened? Has the FDA closed down Melinda's "show" and it's all now morphed into these monsters?

The big question we have to ask is.......

Are Melinda [Hart] and Sheryl [Wells] THE SAME PERSON? They certainly have the same irritating habit of mindlessly interjecting stuff like "I see" and "amazing" and "[he] is a highly intelligent man", but they also pitch the same softball questions to their respective "expert" who sadly, though he could not save his loved ones when he was younger, he hopes his total absence of medical qualifications will allow him to "help other people" because he has "read over 700 books" and has done a lot of private "research"..

Mr Lemus also has a great story about giving Bio-Vaccine to a man called Harry who THE VERY NEXT DAY after miraculous results said "this must be a placebo". Why would he say that ? Why would he think that something that does nothing ( which is what a placebo is ) had somehow "cured his symptoms"?

Oh. Right. Mr Lemus ( "a highly intelligent man" ) doesn't know what a placebo is.

God save us from these bastards.

Some things are just not right

Just saw the lovely Anne Hathaway in "Becoming Jane". Not a bad flick, but the husband and wife next to me were yakking all the time. ALL the time.

The classic was when LeFoy hands Jane the novel that will "open her eyes to the world" and the idiot husband next to me leaned over and said conspiratorially to his equally fatuous wife, "Lady Chatterley's Lover".

Rare to see that level of ignorance so proudly trumpeted in public.

Must Do More For 2007

So 2007 is off to a whimpering start, with the Damoclesian Sword of Potential Layoffs still hanging over my future. By the end of February I may know more.

So far my resolutions are holding up pretty well, no fast food, no chocolate, no Diet Pepsi, no unnecessary DVD or book purchases, no HUGE bacon and sausage-filled breakfasts.....

If only I didn't have this "Plantar Fasciitis" thing going on, I could get in a few games of tennis. I reckon I'm looking at the very least, six months before I can even think about a game. Of course, as weight is also a factor in this thing, I now have some incentive to come down from 240+ to something "more reasonable". I am not going to define that here because if I do, I'll be disappointed when I fail to achieve it.

So right now, my target for my birthday in August is.........a secret.

I've already seen a few movies, Pan's Labyrinth, Children Of Men, Little Children, The Curse Of The Golden Flower...
Nothing stood out except the shear ineptness of "Little Children". All it had going for it was Kate Winslet, but even her obvious draw was lessened by the stupid script and mindless narration. Jings and it got some Golden Globe nominations too! Hopefully the Oscars won't be so stupid and do the same.

What else? More resolutions I guess. I have to read some of the many mnay books purchased in 2006. I have started on the first Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes novel by Laurie King, "The Beekeeper's Apprentice". It's not bad, I am a big fan of Holmes stories written by other authors. I do have one quibble though. Would a 15-year old girl ( albeit with an American upbringing ) say in 1915, "I am a feminist"?

I venture to say "no". Wow! That's really what I call "venturing".

To date, that has been the one jarring idiom that crashed against my ear and made me go "Oh no, I don't think so".

I'm still playing my PSP, still never getting remotely near the scores posted by little kids on websites - 900,000+ playing "Luminies" - sorry Timmy, I ain't buying that one today.

Definition Of Pretentious

I swear today I read a review of the movie "Little Children" that began with this sentence of TOWERING insight.....

[The movie Little] Children, above all things, explores the psychosis of the adult mind either when it finds itself in the grips of a socio-economic inequity or under the terrible flaggelations of emotional apathy.

What does that mean? Apart from the obvious, "I am a pretentious git".

Sweet Jeezus what an end to the year 2006

Where the heck to begin? I suppose with work and the swirling corruption scandal that threatens to engulf the company I work for. What will happen in 2007? Who can say? Layoffs are coming to some divisions for damn sure. Have you noticed it is always those people with VERY secure jobs who tell the rest of us that job security is a thing of the past? They have very secure jobs and mortgages that are paid off. The middle class paradigm of employment is totally incompatible with mortgages and having to change your job seven or nine times in your career.

BECAUSE THOSE NEW JOBS WILL INEVITABLY BE FOR LESS MONEY.

What else? Well the Dolphins sucked even if they did hold on to the unbeaten record and they did shit out the Patriots. I went to two games against the Jaguars and the Vikings - at least the tailgating didn't let me down. Look at the picture above for goodness sake! That's a man enjoying cake dammit!

What else? No major hurricanes. That was good after taking a glancing hit from the young Katrina un 2005 and a direct one from Hurricane Wilma. There was another 2006 expense - $4000 for shutters on five windows in my house.

Movies also sucked pretty bad with only a few good offerings like "The World's Fastest Indian" and "The Illusionist". In 2007 I'm really hoping "300" will be a stand out. Other movies I liked were "Superman Returns", "Water", "Thank You For Smoking", "Who Killed The Electric Car", "Deja Vu", "The Lost City" and "The Queen".

MI-3 ? MI still awake? ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz

Right now I'm in a financial hole of my own making. Maybe I'll be 50% out of it after April 15th.

Today December 28th 2006, I am trying to get my web sites in order.

Here's a hint: Don't have them registered and hosted by different companies.

And oh yes indeed, MS FrontPage is terrible - it has forgotten all my login IDs and of course after changing my email provider, I have that information not all too.

Today I have gone 15 rounds with verio.com and shieldhost.com. I am bloodied, no doubt about that, but I am still unbowed.

Hopefully I have the ability to publish DrJamesDobsonSucks.com in a few days. I have to post a comment about something Michael Medved said on Doctor James Dobson's hate filled show a few weeks back.

Oh and yes, my new favorite target of religious intolerance? "Life Matters" on my local radio station "Radio Peace" aka "Radio Piece of Cr*p". The sanctimonious ramblings about teenage sexuality from Ms Barbara Graber and Mr Jim Morris are possibly the worst radio EVER - every Tuesday morning at 7:30 AM. I've yet to hear them address who is responsible for Spontaneous Abortion. By my calculation that probably resulted in more than 120 million lost fertilized eggs since Roe vs Wade.

What do Babs and Jim have to say about THAT? Why nothing of course. Once again proving they are only interested in the stuff IN a woman's body, not what comes out of it - egg or baby.

So as you can see, 2006 has made me an ANGRY MAN.

House Of Wax

I saw the movie "House Of Wax" last night - that is I did, and so did the other two people in the theater. The movie stumbles badly as the director breaks perhaps THE cardinal rule of the "cute-girls-in-danger-from-deranged-redneck-killers" movie genre.

At first it looks like he knows what he is doing, the principle female lead character dons a man's white singlet early on in the flick.....

BUT THEN.....BUT THEN.....

He drops the ball on the golden rule, the very reason these movies exist.....

HE FORGETS TO GET IT TRANSPARENTLY WET. Dirty? Yes. Wet? Not really.

That was why the last remake of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" was so successful. Amid all the carnage you knew that water was going to make everything good at some point. And it did.

This is the same reason why ( looking at the trailer ), the upcoming Ring ripoff, "Dark Water" might just be worth a peek.

But overall my impression of "House Of Wax"? A miss. A most definite miss.

Web site generation continues apace dear reader. Not sure how long this site will be up. I'm seeking legal clarification to see if I am violating the copyright of a so called "ministry". Getting sued I might wear as a badge of honor.  

Oh my. Dyed my hair.....for a dare. And yes other important stuff to take to heart. (a) Anais Alexander is gorgeous. (b) The new Devon DVD is piss poor. Plus as it is recorded in HD-DVD, it won't play in a regular player. (c) The new CD by the Prog Supergroup called "Kino" is well worth checking out.

Al Pacino's Merchant Of Venice....

Nothing undervalu'd to Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia.

I finally got to see the new "Merchant Of Venice" movie and from the opening editing of Antonio's "In sooth" speech I was concerned. And as the movie progressed my concerns were amply justified. There is just too much monkeying about with the text. Shoot where is "How sweet the moonlight sits upon this bank?" and all the "on such a night.." stuff? The text was pared down way too much, breaking the poetry very badly. And then inserting modern words just kills the beauty of the language even more. So "Not until it is paid according to the tenure" has to become "Not until it is paid according to the terms". There are many other jarring examples you can pick out for yourself, needlessly changing the lines. I was also disappointed by the playing down of the Lorenzo and Jessica story. If the most important aspect of this work is the humanizing of Shylock with the "hath not a Jew hands?" speech, surely almost equally importantly is the Lorenzo and Jessica story showing that love can overcome prejudice? That being said, Pacino is excellent as is Lynn Collins, primarily because they have less of the "updated dialogue to say. The "quality of mercy" speech is just about the best thing in the picture, delivered flawlessly by Lynn Collins.

The supporting act for Steve Earle.....Allison Moorer

Allison Moorer is a thousand times more beautiful in person. She was the supporting act for Steve Earle at the Carefree Theater in West Palm Beach. Her voice is to die for and she is simply pretty beyond belief - definitely this picture does not really do her justice. She also accompanied Steve on those songs requiring female vocals. The song "Comin' Around" was just perfect. Steve said "When you have a beautiful red haired girl from Kentucky on the stage, you have to use her as much as possible". I'm so glad that he did. Her set was with an acoustic guitar only and at one point she thanked the audience for "listening to my sad songs" and that was the point that I became a fan. She also had Steve Earle come out on the stage to accompany her on the mandolin for her version of "Carrickfergus". That ( being such a classic ) is not an easy song to pull off, but she added some words of her own and carried it off flawlessly. She had an Oscar nomination some years ago for a song in the movie "The Horse Whisperer".

It has been a couple of weeks people

Steve Earle looking happy.

I saw Steve Earle And The Dukes At the Carefree Theater in West Palm Beach. He was his usual curmudgeonly self, cracking jokes and ripping the US political system. He said "Clinton was the only Republican I ever voted for....twice". I think it's good to have an overtly left wing country singer to provide balance to the Toby Keith's of this world. Steve was pretty funny, cracking quite a few jokes. The one about the red haired girls from Alabama and tornadoes was quite well received - perhaps hitting a little close too home as he said, because Florida is in some proximity to Alabama. Check out his latest CD, "The Revolution Starts Now". It is probably the best thing he has done in a while. We all enjoyed a good sing-a-long to the songs on the new CD, including the rocking "F the CC". The crowd booed during the song "Condi Condi" at the one point where the name "Condolezza" is mentioned in full. It was quite a moment. All in all, I would say a good time was had by all and I got to hear two sentences I never felt I would hear in the USA...."I am from Texas. I make pretty good money for a borderline Marxist".

Now THAT was worth the price of the ticket.

Avoid the radio programme "Catholic Answers"

I just heard the apologit Tim Staples on the Radio programme "Catholic Answers Live" say the most outrageous things. He said "there is wisdom in celibacy" because if a priest is married, maybe he can't spend all his time on his flock if he has to go home and sort out his kids. Apparently, he never read Matthew 18:12. What a moron. He also said that "marriage is a supernatural process designed to produce a supernatural result". WTF? The "supernatural result" is apparently, entering heaven. How do single people get in? What about child molesting priests? If you contact "Catholic Answers", Tim will come to your town to push this stupid propaganda in person. Aren't you soooo excited? I can hardly contain my water. 

"Only Time Will Tell"

Today, I heard the most maudlin song EVER written in the history of songwriting. It was a song of monumentally cloying lyrics, I had an unstoppable urge to shower to get the lyrical treacle from my body. I am of course, refering to the song "Only Time Will Tell" by the contemporary Christian "artiste" known as Carolyn Arends. It's a song that supposedly she wrote for friends whose child died soon after birth. It is simply fucking awful. It pushes The South Park Alan Jackson parody "Where Were You When They Built The Ladder To Heaven" into second place in the list of worst songs ever recorded. Here is how it starts :-


They took his picture in his mama’s womb
He really put on a show
Dancing and diving for the ultrasound
Fearfully made, and wonderful
But the doctors said we’re sorry, there’s a problem
We’ll do our best to make him well
But we’re not sure if we can fix him
Only time will tell, only time will tell


And there's a lot more of the same. A lot more. Jesus effing Christ but it's bad. I feel like barfing. It is so heartwarming, so full of its own goodness, it make your throat gag. Have we really gone from Mahler's Kindertoten Lieder to THIS? Of couse, I'm sure Ms Arends sees nothing wrong with this song. When of course, what is wrong with it is simply....everything.

The world is truly.....doomed.

I just saw Benny Hinn on the "Behind The Scenes" TV programme with Jan Crotch. Can there ever have been a bigger charlatan liar in the history of TV evangelism? The man is pure evil personified. He lies with such false sincerity, it make me sick. 

I went to see "House Of Flying Daggers" today. If there is a more emotive actress than Ziyi Zhang in the world today, I don't know who she is. While lacking the sweep of "Hero", this movie still knocks the socks off anything that Hollywood has to offer. Go see it.
 

New Years Day 2005

So, I went to the beach in Delray this morning at 08:00 AM. The wind was fresh off the ocean with a three foot surf throwing hundreds of blue men-o-war up onto the newly sculpted sands. Only a few hardy Canadian souls were there braving the ozone chill. A group of three very well wrapped individuals were asleep at the edge of the dune field, apparently sleeping off last night's pointless festivities. The sun peered palely through some high early morning clouds giving the Atlantic a slate green hue like unwashed emeralds. The spume foamed like the sea's spittle and the waves stood high like defiance. I saw a hawk riding the crests of the wind as he searched the green waters, perhaps mistakening them for the verdant fields of some avian calenture. A small knot or dunlin limped amongst the jellyfish and seaweed in the splashing shoreline, oblivious to its pain and the new year's rampant indifference. After a 40 minute walk at the tide's edge with the gulls and terns hanging like feathery mobiles so close to my head that I could almost reach out to touch them, I walked back along the sidewalk of A1A and took my car home.

So much for my beachgoing for 2005.

And oh yes, better news. I met a dancer in Scores in Fort Lauderdale last Tuesday. Her name was Shannon - she was simply beautiful - something good has come out of Canada to bless us here in the land of hurricanes and hopelessness with her clear and shining eyes.