Category Archives: General

February 2, 2010

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I am interested in policy and politics in a way few people share. I try not to bore the few readers I have with much about politics when there are no elections at hand, my frequent posts about the presidential election of 2008 nonwithstanding.
However, I read about politics and policy every single day and I get upset and I have strong opinions whether I blog about them or not.
I didn’t write about the State of the Union Address because I figured anybody who cared about it had better sources than me. I didn’t write about Obama’s Q&A with Republicans last week for the same reasons.
Today, I can’t help myself.
Markos Moulitsas, better known as “kos”, the publisher of the left wing site The Daily Kos, recently commissioned a poll of self-identified Republicans by Research 2000. Some 2,000 Republicans from across the nation were live interviewed. The results of this poll are startling and disturbing — and hilarious and sad and maddening.
The poll and its “crosstabs” (the really, really wonkish part) are available HERE and I really recommend it to you.
Some 39 percent of Republicans believe Obama should be impeached and another 29 percent aren’t sure. His high crime or misdemeanor? Who knows? A clue can be found in another finding: 63 percent of Republicans believe Obama is a socialist. WTF? Do they know the meaning of the word? Well, since McCain said he was a socialist, that must be it.
Significant numbers of Republicans think Obama was not born in the U.S. and wants the terrorists to win, but then about a quarter of Republicans would like to see their state secede from the Union (I thought we’d settled that in 1865).
More than half of Republicans (53%) believe Sarah Palin is more qualified to be President and 31% believe Obama is a racist who hates whites while another 33% aren’t sure whether he’s a racist who hates whites.
More than 3/4s of Republicans (77%) believe that public schools should teach Genesis in science class. I find that gobsmacking.
For some real gobsmacking, however, try this: a third of Republicans (34%) believe the birth control pill is abortion, more than 3/4s believe abortion is murder (76%), and nearly a third (31%) would outlaw all contraceptives.
I just don’t know what to say about that.
How can we have a reality-based dialogue with these people? How willfully ignorant are they? I’m at a loss for words, despite having just written a couple hundred about this.
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January 26, 2010 (updated)

An early morning fire at Flip’s, according to press reports. First accounts say there is extensive fire, smoke and water damage, particularly to 2d floor. Minimum of 2 weeks before reopening. Gail, Betsy, et al, you are in my prayers. God Almighty, two or more weekends and Thursday night meat markets without Flip’s? Will OKC survive? Stay tuned.

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January 19, 2010

Finally saw Avatar in IMAX 3D last night. I’m glad I did. If I’d watched it as a regular movie, I’d be so pissed right now I couldn’t type.

I L-O-V-E-D the technological achievements. I literally reached out my hand to see if I could affect the trendril that seemed to hang over my seat. The 3D achievement knocked me out.

As a movie, meh. In fact, if this were just a sci-fi movie, we’d all be laughing at it.

The stand-out acting performance? Eh, was there one?

Take the Sigorney Weaver character, for example. A biolabs chief from the future that still smokes filtered cigarets? IN THE LAB??? I think I call bullshit. What’s the throw weight of her cases of cartons of smokes?

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shut up, he explained


This movie was definitely not about acting chops. In fact, I wish to God someone would grab Mel Gibson and Sigorney and sit them down in front of a screening of The Year of Living Dangerously and remind them that before they were C-List Hollywood celebs, they used to know how to act. What they didn’t know about acting in that movie, they could have learned from Linda Green, who won a Best Supporting Oscar for her role in that film.

Does anyone buy a plotpoint of a gung-ho fighter pilot who calls it quits because she doesn’t like shooting rockets at a big tree? I mean, after all, only her atmosphere, food, water and TRANSPORT BACK HOME is at stake.

I recently posted what I thought was a funny comment by Air America’s Anna Marie Cox about the movie that Dances With Wolves wanted its plot back. That gives this movie way too much credit, although there’s enough truth in it to keep it wryly humorous.

I just can’t let go of some of the more stupid things in the movie. The head bad guy in a future world in which American militarism and capitalism still rules the roost (uh, really?), tells us the motivating factor in all this is the mineral “Unobtainium”. OK, that’s enough right there to make me taste a little vomit in the back of my mouth. Was there ever in the history of fiction a worse name for an element? Then, it’s that this mineral is millions of dollars a kilo back home. Uh, in the future, how much money is that? Is it a whole lot? ‘Cause I can’t really tell.

And, how did a prissy Gen-Xer get to be in charge of such a large enterprise? That guy wouldn’t be allowed to bring in the coffee for grownups in such a large enterprise as the looting of an entire planet. He was an obvious goober.

Was there ever a more two-dimensional military bad guy as the character of the Colonel?

Don’t even get me started on the biology of a cat’s tail that mind melds. It does sort of amuse me to think that everybody on Pandora has most of their minds in their butts. That’s a pretty straight-on view of cats, as I often discuss with Sinatra.

Yeah, this Cameron guy is a really great director. I think there may have been a good reason why I remain the only man in western civilization who never saw Titanic. It’s the stoopid. It burns.

January 15, 2010

The End Of The World?
Really, baby sis? Really?
The End of the World?

There was a time in the 19th Century when some American religious zealots thought they had calculated precisely the day of the Rapture, the “end of the world”. Hundreds of Americans devoutly gave away their worldly possessions and gathered on a particular hilltop. Eh, not so much. Eventually, they just drifted away after awhile.

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cosmic hand of god

Think about most of the “end of the world” scenarios that become popular. The Mayan 2012, nuclear winter, the Rapture, massive asteroid smashes into the globe, for example. Actually, if you think about it, the WORLD doesn’t end; it’s just most of us and civilization AS WE KNOW IT that ends. Not the world.

Absent Trafalmagorians racing into their sun/star or Darth Vader’s Death Star, the world isn’t going to end for billions of years until old Sol gets feisty and swallows us. I’m thinking we won’t care half as much a billion years from now. We’ll just teleport to another solar system and get on with our lives.

And conspiracies? Puh-lease.
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January 8, 2010

John Belt has bought the former Paseo Plunge/Spaghetti Factory on Paseo, according to this story in The Oklahoman.
Belt’s plan for the 30,000 square foot building, which has not been updated since 1962, were not disclosed in the article. Belt now owns virtually every property along the street.
IMHO, whatever he does will be better for the neighborhood than having that hulking and dilapidated place glooming over the rest of the now-vital arts district. Say what you will about John, but he’s been the man who was willing to put his money up to make things go for decades in the Paseo district and we all benefit from his foresight and willingness to hang in there.

Not sure what day it is

I’m staying with Rush in L.A. I’m not sure what the date or time is because I’ve crossed so many time zones and the rhythm of my life is disrupted. I’ve been to Duke’s in Malibu, seen the Rose Bowl and Pasadena, Beverly Hills and the Hollywood sign. I’m toast. No one could accuse me of partying like a rock star, but I feel like that’s what I’ve been doing. Another 200 mile drive in a car. Only in America.
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December 25, 2009

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Let 'em eat cake

Merry Christmas!
I understand my hometown of Oklahoma City is all snowed in with the biggest snowstorm there ever. I’m sorry I missed all the misery, but I’m in Tucson, AZ, with the grandkids, who were a real joy this morning ripping off wrapping for a boatload of presents. RebL and Hubster are blessed with the bestest kids evah.
Saw DaynaD yesterday while I was out here and she’s doing very well in the desert, which she loves. There are mountains in all directions and mild weather this time of year. We had a great catch up on each other talk.
Tomorrow, I head for Los Angeles, where I’ll spend New Year’s Eve with Rush Riddle. Can’t wait. I think I’ll also get to see MB, who is visiting her grandkids out there (odd that she lives in NW Ark and I live in OKC and I”ll see her on the West Coast, but that’s America for you). Since we didn’t plan any of this out with the other in mind, whether we see each other depends on her sons and my host, Rush, and whether we can put things together by phone on the fly, but we’ll see.
Heard from my New Orleans son this a.m. and he was having a merry Wii xmas.
Mom’s snowed in and so my big worry is that Sinatra will have to make do with dry food for a couple of days until she can get to him.
Gotta call from the Debster this a.m. Unfortunately, AT&T doesn’t seem to have coverage where I am in Tucson. I can’t get a signal at all. Not even the shortest of bars. I do have wifi, so I get half of my emails but not the Microsoft ones.
I took Christmas morning photos of the grandkids opening presents so if I ever get back home, I’ll try and post the best of the best of that.
Stay safe and warm, OKC, and try to thaw out before I get back, if you don’t mind. I could get used to this 60 degree afternoons as bundle-up cold the way Tucson is treating it.
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