Wrestle With This

Why does anyone care that professional wrestlers use steroids and other illegal drugs. Does the public want to watch people built like Don Knotts and me to wrestle? Now, I'm no fan of the rass'lin I find it juvenile. But hey, this is America, to each their own. And if "Their Own" means steroids, cocaine, or rat poison, why is it any one else's business? They choose to participate in a dangerous sport and they get paid by a willing audience. Next up I suppose is a speed limit for NASCAR.

Plenty of Vacancy

Loads and loads of Vacancy. We watched Vacancy on Tuesday's Movie Night. What a horrible waste of fake blood. It stars Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale as a troubled married couple. The writers were at at a loss as to how to make these two seem worthy of your pity so they play the dead kid card. As it turns out, the couple has lost a child some years ago when wifey forgets to put up the gate in front of the basement steps. Heres the trailer: (WARNING: You cannot get this two minutes of your life back.)

Yep, that pretty much sums it up. Lost, stranded, and stuck at the Snuff Film Motel. This movie, like the much better 8mm, attempts to shine a light on the world of snuff films. But in the end isn't this movie itself a snuff film? The audience is led down the same path we've been down a thousand times before. Scared innocent people are terrorized by psychopathic killers. Teased by the imminent death of characters we're supposed to care about but don't.
Plenty of Vacancy in the theaters showing this one.

When I'm 64

Will you still choke me, will you still poke me, when I'm 64? According to this it may not be out of the question. The article explains that people keep on having sex until they die. Good news really. However, I hope my reaction to old ladies is not the same as it is today. If it is, I'm gonna need the Viagra. This picture that accompanies the article makes me very uncomfortable.






The guy looks like he's ready to bust someone's lip. The wife, well.... she looks "happy".

Further more, why is that teddy bear on the sofa knocked over? I'm betting just before the AP photographer showed up, they pulled an "Afternoon Delight" right there on the sofa. It's really the only thing that explains that picture. He needs a nap, and she's ready to bake a pie.

Running Low On Ammo

Apparantly, according to this AP article, cops all across the country are running low on ammo. Or maybe they're not.
At first the big headline grabs you.

Ammunition Shortage Squeezes Police

It begins with the usual incitement to fear:

An Associated Press review of dozens of police and sheriff's departments found that many are struggling with delays of as long as a year for both handgun and rifle ammunition. And the shortages are resulting in prices as much as double what departments were paying just a year ago.

"There were warehouses full of it. Now, that isn't the case," said Al Aden, police chief in Pierre, S.D.

Let's take a look at Pierre S.D. shall we? How much ammo does a police force of Pierre S.D. need? Judging by the design of the city's official homepage, they must have used all that ammo to shoot every web designer in town. That website alone is proof that government employees should just stay away from computers. Meanwhile, I'm sure the citizens of Pierre are cowering in their homes until the warehouses can be restocked with ammo and all the "All Clear" is sounded.

ATHF:MFFT

Last night's movie was Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Movie Film For Theaters. ATHF works pretty well in 15 minute cartoon shorts. In a full length movie? Not so much. Ya, it had a few funny lines, but overall it was somewhat boring. There are much better animated movies.

Who Ya Gonna Sue?

A Continental Airlines flight from a foreign country has to land because of bad weather. Since it's an international flight no one is allowed to get off without going through customs. Since Customs isn't really expecting any extra business and it's just about break time, those sorry passengers can just wait. They wait for a few hours, get pissed and decide it's about time to demand to be let off. So, they get to parade in front of a few TSA employees and get on the plane to wait an additional hour. So they're going to sue.

But who should they name in their lawsuit? It is the very policy of bureaucracy that created that mess. How many lawsuits would Continental face if a terrorist had a bomb and they were allowed to get off? How very in-efficient air travel is becoming at the hand of govenrment. Now, some would like you to hand over your very lives to them.

Troublesome Tragedy

Somethign bothers me about this story and it's more than just the horrible tragedy. It seems that a police officer was shooting at a snake, missed at least twice sending his bullets far and wide. One splashed into a lake where 5 year old Austin Haley was fishing with his grandpa. When the first round hit the water near them, the grandfather held the boy close to him. The second round hit the boy in the head killing him. Here is the story from CNN.

The City Manager, Bob Wade, would not identify the name of the officer who is suspected of firing the shots. Wade states that the officer has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

Why is that? Why would a servant of the citizens be protected when he accidentally kills one of them? Why do police get preferential treatment when they screw up? The grandfather seems to have spotted this hypocrisy.

"I'm not saying the cop shot him on purpose," Tracy said. "It was an accident. But let me tell you -- if I had a kid and put him in this car and didn't put him in a car seat and he got killed on the way to town, they'd charge me with murder ... and what this cop did is a lot worse than that."

He's right.

Smoke Screen

I'm a smoker. I love the feeling of nicotine coursing through my blood stream. However, the actual effect on my lungs is something I do not enjoy. There really needs to be an alternative to smoking. Something that would deliver the nicotine I want without the smoking of dead plants. There is only one thing standing in the way of the market delivering this very product to me. The Government. It seems they would rather I die a slow painful death than let product innovation provide an alternative to smoking.

Bathtub Gin

Recently I received in the mail(real paper snail-mail) a pamphlet outlining the dangers of meth-amphetamine. It was a stark warning to all concerned citizens. It highlights the danger of meth. It details some of the signs that a meth lab is in operation and advises on what to do if one suspects a meth lab is in your neighborhood. Certainly this “new” drug is far more dangerous than the drugs of the last few decades. Users often develop irregular heart beats, and a myriad of health problems. It is highly addictive, potentially deadly, and just plain nasty.

So what, if anything, can society do to stop the scourge? Can we pass a law? Can we impose stiffer penalties? Can we put more cops on the street to stop people from making and selling meth? Well, the answer is not so clear.

Where did this new drug come from? Are Columbian Drug Lords invading Van Wert? Is the county airport now home to clandestine air-drops of this substance? Nope. It's being made right here in town by our neighbors. It's being cooked in garages, in campers, and the trunks of cars. The fact that it can be made right here removes the old stereotype drug lord from the picture. No longer is the producer of poison far away in a tropical jungle with a lab and an airplane. Using off-the-shelf ingredients people can brew this stuff nearly anywhere. Using cold medicine, a recipe from nearly any chemistry book, and a few other elements, the guy down the street can turn himself into Tony Soprano over night.

A few lawmakers have decided the problem is in the cold medicine. In Oklahoma, the first state to regulate the sale of ephedrine, some surprising trends have emerged. According to government crime stats, since the regulation of over the counter cold medicine went into effect, the number of meth makers has fallen by 90% in Oklahoma. Good news right? Wrong. While powdered meth has decreased; the availability of Mexican Crystal Meth has grown by 500%. No longer produced in Oklahoma, the streets are now flooded with imported meth. This stuff makes the locally produced stuff look like powdered sugar. It's far more concentrated and far more deadly. We will soon see the same things in our town.

This is not a new paradigm, it's not even a new drug. Meth was first produced in World War 2 to provide soldiers with a quick pick up that would enable them to perform for days with no sleep. The Nazis, the British, and yes, the good old US of A used meth to keep going.

We have been down the prohibition road before. During the Volstead Act that was passed by Congress in 1919, people started brewing Moonshine and Bathtub Gin. These were highly concentrated and highly dangerous substances that nearly anyone could make. It soon became apparent that the cure for alcoholism was far worse than the disease. People were still drinking but instead of beer and wine it was Mezcal and Whiskey. Instead of Miller and Budweiser it's Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly.

So now here we are again. The Government in an effort to protect people from themselves are going to do the same thing. All over again. We are going to take a bad problem and make it worse. I do not want my child to grow up in a world like Chicago in 1930. But this is exactly what will happen.

Everyone Got Drunk

This week's movie was Everything's Gone Greeen. A subtle comedy about the plight of modern day slackers..... I think. As it was everyone was already drinking when I showed up with this weeks movie. Show time was supposed to be at 9PM. I dutifully arrived at 8:30 for the festivities. Upon arriving I realized that the festivities began about 4 hours earlier. As such, everyone was drunk, chatty and in no mood to sit quietly for a movie. For a better review of this pic go here.

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

Having failed to scare the world by blowing up airlines over the Atlantic Ocean, terrorist the world over would like to thank Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
The target of terrorism is not the victims of the act itself. The target is all the rest of us. The goal is to get all of us to react to fear. So when a plot to use liquids to blow up commercial jets failed, those wishing to scare us failed as well.
That's where Chertoff comes in to complete the task. ABC news has a new article up where the DHS Secretary offers chilling details of what might have happened. Chertoff knows only too well that the collective worry of US Citizens will keep him in power.
To keep us all in the grip of panic Chertoff offers this bit of wisdom:

"I think that the plot, in terms of its intent, was looking at devastation on a scale that would have rivaled 9/11. If they had succeeded in bringing liquid explosives on seven or eight aircraft, there could have been thousands of lives lost and an enormous economic impact with devastating consequences for international air travel."

They failed. They failed to blow anything up. They failed to scare us. They failed to change our society. But the the good Secretary comes to their rescue and does their work for them. Way to go Chertoff.

First Post!

Hello and welcome to my screwy chewy blog. Here is where you'll find our weekly movie review, political pontification, random musings, and inspired rants.
First a bit about me and why I chose to begin blogging. I used to be a staunch Republican. I used to believe that the GOP stood for limited government and were pro-freedom. I now realize that power has totally corrupted the Republicans and can no longer call myself one. Now, I'm proud to be a libertarian/conservative. Some of my beliefs could be considered Right, some Left but mostly pro-freedom and pro-capitalism.

So, let's begin, shall we?