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Just for fun, to refresh my basic editing skills, I present for your viewing pleasure a mashup of the Peanut Butter Jelly Time dancing kitty viral video with the Buzzfeed still shots of Beyonce’s worst moments in her 2013 Super Bowl performance. Enjoy. By the way, the “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” song is by Chip-man & The Buckwheat Boyz and is available for purchase at iTunes and Amazon NBC has begun running promos for its newest reality TV show, a dating game for the 1%, for the Buffett Rule eligible, called Ready for Love. And guess who is serving as the face of this slice of entertainment: none other than the National Co-Chair of the Obama 2012 Campaign, Eva Longoria. How odd that just a couple of weeks ago when the Latina hottie appeared on Fox & Friends to promote her love of all things Obama, she made no mention that her campaign role would coincide with a high-profile run as a primetime reality game show executive producer and spokeswoman:
In previous interviews about the show, Longoria has claimed that she won’t be on-air, so it makes it a very odd choice that NBC’s entire promo for the show prominently features her.
Longoria’s bio at the show’s site gives a full account of her entire resume, but just happens to neglect to mention that she is a co-chair of a presidential campaign, and thus putting NBC in an ultra biased position. So the question is, when will NBC give a top Romney advisor his or her own primetime TV show as well? Wouldn’t that only be fair? Hello, FEC.
Then came Vietnam, and suddenly the men that put their lives on the line for us were no longer treated as heroes—they were barely even treated with respect. Not much has changed in the nearly 50 years since then. Hollywood lost touch with the common man. It went from being cheerleader to scold and naysayer. Therefore, it’s a refreshing experience to see a movie in which America’s military is portrayed with pride. Act of Valor is one of those rare films that isn’t ashamed to be patriotic. Yet it’s not sugar-sweet; it doesn’t make battle pretty. We go on a couple of missions with the SEALs, during which they operate with skill, precision, professionalism and honor. The incredibly difficult, tense missions pit them against tough, ruthless opponents. The SEALs don’t waver for a moment. They do their job, without apology. The film is made without apology. While the actors were Hollywood amateurs yet military professionals (real-life active-duty Navy SEALs), they performed quite well. Some of the dialog came across as a bit hokey, a little stilted, but that was easily forgiven, in that the film was much more action-based than dialog-focused, letting the guys do what they do best. The filmmakers packed the movie with action from start to finish. The audience was thrown into the adrenaline and confusion of a firefight, as the SEALs on screen achieved their objectives calmly and purposefully, with awesome firepower, using much of the latest weaponry and surveillance tools. Throughout the film, the families of the sailors aren’t far from their minds or the minds of the audience. Before the men go off to battle, they say they have to make everything right at home so they have no distractions in the field. America’s military families can take pride in knowing their sacrifices, their strength and contributions, were well represented in the script. If the movie had a downside, it was the portrayal of whom we were fighting. The terrorists were not Middle Eastern bad guys. Instead it was an odd assortment of two Russian kingpins (and a handful of babushka seamstresses sewing suicide vests), Costa Ricans, Mexicans and a few Filipinos thrown into the mix. The movie has drawn some criticism because one of the Russians, the billionaire money man funding the terrorist operation, is called out in one line of dialog as being Jewish. Islamic terrorism commentators Debbie Schlussel, Bookworm and Pamela Geller claim this makes the movie anti-Semetic. I disagree. It wasn’t a central point of the film. I do agree it is rather stupid to make the financier of Islamic jihad a Jew. Would radical Muslims even want to take Jewish money to pay for their supposed way to heaven? I rather doubt it. By inserting this one line (“But you’re a Jew”), the filmmakers ask the audience to suspend disbelief that the money man is so down with the cause that the Muslims could overlook their religious animosity. But that premise isn’t supported at all. For one, the head Muslim honcho is a Chechen convert to Islam. No lifelong Muslim takes part in directing the operations. We’re told the Russian Jew and the Russian Muslim convert have joined forces because they were friends back in childhood. Yet they don’t seem to like each other, and they never give the audience any common goal that has now brought them together after all these years. In fact, the billionaire tries to back out, saying he doesn’t want to be directly involved anymore though he’ll keep paying for the plans in motion. We’re never told why this billionaire, who has made his rubles as a drug smuggler, would benefit from blowing up Americans. Throughout the first part of the movie, we are left to assume he is a radical Islamist too. Later, when the Rob Reiner-looking SEAL senior chief confronts him on his yacht and mentions he is Jewish, it makes no sense. It’s just all so preposterous, the Russians’ backstory, that it is easy to dismiss as lousy scriptwriting and forget it all when the action soon retakes the screen. And that’s the last we see of the inexplicable Mr. Russian Jew Islamic Jihadist. Schlussel, Geller and Bookworm seem to be upset that anyone engaged in terrorism could possibly be Jewish. But this guy didn’t seem very religious or very bright. (From the start, I was wondering how in the world this greasy-haired hippie could have possibly amassed a billion dollars, even in a corrupt Russia.) I could see someone who was obsessed with making money by any means could associate themselves with terrorism if they were gonna make money off of it, but this guy was funding it, not profiting from it, thereby negating that angle (and potential charge of pushing a negative Jewish stereotype). But I ask Schlussel, Geller and Bookworm, why should Jews be excluded from being the bad guys? Are all Jews perfect angels, never driven by baser motives? Wouldn’t it be anti-Semetic to say Jews can’t be treated like everyone else? Be bad guys in action movies? Granted we would all prefer bad guys that make sense in the constructed scenario…. If I had to guess, I’d say Obama’s Defense Department had a lot to say about whom the bad guys were to be. The people that Obama has spent most of his presidency bowing to, giving apologizing speeches to, relinquishing all American military superiority to, attempting to ignore all their connections to violent terrorism, are the people that are completely left out of the movie: radical Islamist Middle Eastern Arabs. At first glance, it seems surprising the Defense Department consented to make Russians the bad guys, no matter how bumbling and disconnected to true Islamism they were. Obama has been courting the Russians since Day One, unilaterally giving up key strategies and forsaking our allies for them. But one bad guy was a Chechen, whom the Russians don’t like anyway, so they’d be cool with that. Making the other Russian Jewish also fits with Obama’s world view of good and evil. With the animosity this current administration has shown towards Jewish people, it would not surprise me if that group would be Obama’s personal choice to make the bad guys (if he had to choose some group other than American right-wingers). As far as the Mexican connection is concerned, hey, the Obama administration has sent Americans guns into Mexico and caused Mexican deaths and crime as a result, without giving Mexico the typical apologies they love to give to our foes, so it’s no surprise they wouldn’t care much about making them the bad guys. I don’t know what beef the Obama administration has against Costa Ricans. Perhaps they better start worrying what Obama has up his sleeve for them. So yes, having a Russian Jew fund the operation was a dumb, unexplained twist. But it was such a minor plot point, it did not impair my enjoyment of the movie. (In fact, Bookworm retracts the charge of anti-Semetism after more consideration.) Our military deserves to finally have a supportive film in the long 10 years of war they have endured. Films like Act of Valor and Restrepo have sadly been few and far between. In an torn America that can’t even bring itself to give our returning warriors a parade, supporting this little film feels like a fine way to support our troops. Good job, guys. Bravo, for all you have done. As Twitter takes on a Saudi prince as a $300 million investor and attempts to find ways to remove tweets that various governments around the world find offensive, they have used an unusual photo for their welcome page:
It’s understandable that they have pride in being a vital communication vehicle during events such as Iran’s Green Revolution and the so-called Arab Spring. But for their home page, why would they have a romantically dusty photo of a bunch of guys playing cricket in front of a mosque? (I presume that’s Pakistan, due the mountains and the residual colonial enthusiasm for the British sport.) It’s a little jarring, as if I’m signing into Al-Jazerra. It doesn’t seem to have much to do with me or with the Arab Spring. But it definitely makes a statement. I’m just not sure what they are saying.
Last night, a reporter for the Contra Costa Times and Oakland Tribune photographed a surprising sign in the window of the Men’s Wearhouse Oakland store:  Photo by Matt O'Brien (@mattoyeah)
The sign reads “We stand with the 99%. Closed Wednesday November 2.” That’s the day the Occupy Wall Street movement in Oakland called for a general strike. Men’s Wearhouse is a publicly traded corporation (MW on the New York Stock Exchange) that takes in over $2 billion a year selling suits, with a net profit of over $67 million last year. So a company that caters to capitalists and businessmen chose to strike against its customers in support of the socialist, communist, anarchist movement that has violently clashed with police in Oakland and has had scores of reports of degenerate behavior across the country, ranging from numerous rapes to defecating on a police car. The photo of the closed sign was tweeted last night, but nearly 24 hours later, Men’s Wearhouse has still not made a response to the numerous tweets sent to them. (The @Mens_Wearhouse twitter account says that it is staffed by four people. Surely one of them took notice of the hoopla their Oakland store had created.) I contacted the corporate headquarters by email and phone to get an official response, and to learn how the store closing came about. However, I received no reply to my multiple inquiries. Men’s Wearhouse does not have franchises. The Oakland store is corporate-owned. No one answered the phone at the Oakland store (store ID 2169, to the best of my knowledge) during business hours to give their side to the story either. Regarding the strike itself, many businesses fear the damage the protests have done and could do to their businesses. According to the Oakland Tribune’s “Oakland businesses brace for general strike by Occupy demonstrators“:
It’s highly doubtful that Occupy Oakland’s hippie protesters have caused Men’s Wearhouse’s business to boom. Yet, these are the people with whom Men’s Wearhouse has chosen to stand, in opposition to their customers. On the bright side, should riots break out, the store won’t have to fear looting from the hippies and hipsters. Note that this is not the first time that Men’s Wearhouse has, as a corporation, supported left-leaning politics. In 2009, the company removed its ads from the Glenn Beck show on Fox News. Perhaps Men’s Wearhouse would be more comfortable selling tie-dyed t-shirts and Nehru jackets, because those Occupiers throwing rocks and bottles at the Oakland police weren’t wearing their product. UPDATE: Men’s Wearhouse has now released a statement on their Facebook page. It reads in full:
UPDATE: UPDATE: UPDATE: (h/t Nathan Wurtzel) UPDATE: UPDATE:
He is posting a collection of them here. UPDATE: HotAir also joins the reporting of Men’s Wearhouse siding with the flag-burning, window-smashing hoodlums, as Ed Morrissey waxes poetic….quoting Kipling. UPDATE: UPDATE: RB of The Right Sphere reports that Men’s Wearhouse’s siding with the hippies, communists and anarchists of Occupy Wall Street and OccupyOakland didn’t save them from having their window smashed as their non-suit-wearing friends rioted on Wednesday night. @PoliticalMath tweets with the picture: “Huh. Men’s Wearhouse took down the ‘We are the 99%’ sign.” I presume it was a joke to get people to look at the photo, but he has a point. Why would they take down the sign, when leaving it up would have shown their continued solidarity with rioting anti-capitalists? Perhaps Men’s Wearhouse didn’t want to shame its uncouth, uncivilized comrades. Perhaps it wants to act as if it never cast its lot with the barbarians. Those people are gonna need a lot more than a new suit to take their place in polite society. Greg Pollowitz notes the coverage of the nightmarish scenes of destruction in the San Francisco Chronicle, which pins the blame squarely on the protesters. An excerpt:
To steal a bit more from Political Math, he tweets: “If this is Krugman’s army, think of all the jobs they’re creating w/ all those broken windows!” So true. Think of all the Men’s Wearhouse suits that will now be able to be purchased due to the repair of that broken window. Oh, wait, no. Proper, non-Keynesian economics proves that broken window will reduce the number of suits that con now be purchased. Confused? This short little economic cartoon will enlighten you while entertaining you: Pop Quiz! What item did the baker say he would have spent his money on if he didn’t have to waste it repairing his window? Oh, the irony of this pre-Occupy Oakland video tutorial! P.S. Welcome to Lonely Conservative readers! When Mario Vargas Llosa won the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature, I was surprised to see conservative commentators giving his selection approving nods. I’d only read his entertaining, soap-opera-esque Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter Somewhere in some review, I read that his characters are secondary to the socioeconomic, political backdrops of the historical events of the period in which the characters are immersed. I don’t agree that they are secondary, but the real histories do add a sense of vibrancy and tension to the stories. In Vargas Llosa’s novel The Bad Girl,
Reading that passage, my mind fast-forwarded to New York City, lower Manhattan, 2011, and the swarm of wannabe hippies at the Occupy Wall Street “protest,” proselytizing utter ignorance about the financial system and the economy, demanding handouts, defecating in the doorsteps of the surrounding good citizens, and drumming incessantly, noisily keeping the neighborhood children awake all night and distracted in school all day. If only these hipsters “wanted to be left in peace, absorbed in their frugal egotism and their psychedelic dream.” But that’s the difference between these hipsters and old-school hippies. These people also reject conventional morality and values—but only because it’s too hard. They want stuff that others have, but don’t want to work for it, don’t want to start at the bottom and climb as they build experience and skill. They want the bourgeois money, power, position, social success; they just don’t see the need to earn it. It’s simply unfair if others have it, so they’re gonna pout and stamp their feet about it, and tweet their outrage from their iPads. Another Vargas Llosa description pointed out, however, that the types of people drawn to 1960s London hippieville and 2011 NYC hipsterville are essentially the same:
All that dopey folly was tolerable enough, by virtue of being so inane it could be ignored. However, it came with a very dark side back then:
Is the reemergence of a skinhead movement likely to occur in 21st-century America with the Democratic Party and President Obama’s constant stoking of class warfare? Our top levels of government and media and entertainment now tell people they should look to scapegoat others for their lack of success instead of picking themselves up and attempting to succeed on their own. I fear this will not end well. A revival of skinheads is only one group to worry about. The organizers and propellers of Occupy Wall Street are not dopey hippies. They are hard-core Marxists, communists, socials, anarchists. They don’t want to be left alone. They want to coopt our American way of life, our American dream. They want to finish the job that Barack Obama has so successfully begun. They don’t intend to fade away peacefully in a haze of pot smoke.
I’ll take hippies over hipsters and union thugs. We’ll know they’re winning the battle for control over Occupy Wall Street if there starts being more tables selling macrame potholders and tie-dye t-shirts than copies of the Daily Worker and the Communist Manifesto. The Wall Street Journal’s “NBC Unable to Shake Slide in Ratings” says that NBC, which has been in fourth place for years, has continued to go downhill. The only network up in ratings for the same period as last year is…Fox. But FOX is hardly the conservative bastion that Fox News and Fox Business are. Instead, the FOX network has cornered the market on soft edgy. (The hard edgy is over at F/X.) I may be conservative, but when kids aren’t around, I don’t mind edgy. However, I also don’t mind wholesome, clever, educational, inspiring, or any of the myriad other things television programming can be. The strange thing is that the article doesn’t address any of the reasons why I no longer watch NBC. In hopes that the NBC/Comcast executives would actually read the comments, here’s what I had to say to them:
Oddly enough, if I’m in the mood for comedy and want to watch an NBC property, I don’t turn to Bravo or Style or A&E. Instead, I’ll watch MSNBC. Now that’s some pure comedy gold. Could it be a sign that the Obama 2012 is feeling shaky? Politico has reported that Oprah is ready and willing to campaign for Obama again:
So now all of a sudden she is back on board, after reports in April that she was going to stay publicly out of 2012 because she had been concerned Obama boosterism would hamper her efforts to build an audience for her struggling television channel, OWN. Could it be that Oprah’s network has now gained a sufficient share of the viewership so that she doesn’t have to worry that her liberal Hollywood politics would drive segments of her audience away? Um, not likely. About.com Media reported last week in “The Oprah Winfrey Network Falls to 73rd in Cable TV Ratings” that:
This comes after the announcement in early July that Oprah was taking over as CEO at OWN. The About.com Media story goes on to note:
So is Oprah simply willing to toss her troubled network over to assist her buddy Obama? Or is campaigning for him simply a way to get her name in the media again? Oprah’s CEO announcement in the NY Daily News also included a little tidbit about one of OWN’s shows in development: a new talk show hosted by Rosie O’Donnell set for this fall. Anyone afraid their endorsement of Barack Obama would damage their business would not be putting the toxic, hate-spewing Rosie O’Donnell in a prime slot on their network. Having O’Donnell gush anger and slime daily might tend to turn off more people. Oprah can’t help herself. She’s just a lefty, now more anxious and willing to promote liberal views. Therefore, I’d bet Oprah needs the publicity as much as Obama does. She’s gonna gamble that she’ll gain more eyeballs than lose the ones she pokes in the eye by appearing in support of Obama again. [NOTE: Ginger Lee's statement on Congressman Anthony Weiner's resignation can be found in the update at the bottom of this post.]
Ginger supposedly felt the need to hire an attorney because some man was threatening her. That sounds horrible, awful—until we learn it was not a threat to harm her physical safety. No, it was a threat to release a statement that she had not authorized. What? Is there any man that would want to release a statement for her other than Rep. Anthony Weiner (or one of his staff on his behalf)? Yet, at the press conference called to address this very issue, Allred refused to name the man. She would only say that he knows who he is, and they (Allred and Ginger) have the proof of it. Ginger also reiterated her charge that Weiner had asked her to lie for him, and Allred creepily read from three emails in which Weiner tried to engage Ginger in a discussion of his “package.” That’s where I felt a bit sorry for her. If that’s the most brazen of Weiner’s sexy talk with her, I suspect it was rather bland communications. She was emphatic that no photos had been exchanged (although Weiner had apparently perused the numerous photos of her on her Tumblr blog). This was Ginger’s opportunity to cash in on the scandal. If she had any super racy messages or obscene photos from Weiner, this was her one shot to release them. (Otherwise, it will be her later having to say that she was lying as well.) However, it seems that having Gloria Allred as her attorney is far more sensational than the actual communications with the congressman. Good for Ginger if she denied him the pleasure he was seeking. I don’t doubt her statements that he wanted what she wasn’t giving. Jim Treacher at the Daily Caller said he wouldn’t live-blog the press conference, but couldn’t help himself. See his quick outline of the sideshow, which concludes with a few Catskills-worthy jokes about the media-loving attorney and her porn star client. Unfortunately, only a few short video clips from the press conference are currently available online; I can find no full unedited video of the show.) Here’s TMZ’s typically raunchy juvenile edit, which features a couple of typical Allred awkward public relations moment:
Lastly, here’s the most complete version, with both Gloria Allred’s and Ginger’s statements, along with a few questions from the media at the end: I hope someone will please upload the full press conference portion. The Q&A session was the most illuminating, and Allred made several misstatements…or untruths. Allred concluded the press conference saying that her client would not be able to do interviews after the press conference due to her heavy schedule. We now see that schedule involved flying off to Atlanta to begin capitalizing on her increased name recognition due to her Weiner connection. The poster for her two-night appearance at the Pink Pony is quite amusing, reading: “Exclusive engagement” “The Pink Pony has done it again!!! We present Ginger Lee, the pornstar connected with the “peter tweeter” in Weinergate. June 15th & 16th. 2 shows a nite. 8:30pm & 11:30pm.” “She’s here for 48 hours only!!!” Gotta love the little Weinergate Seal with a bust of Weiner amidst stars and jackasses (okay, okay, Democrat donkey logos). TMZ notes that Ginger’s new gig was booked last week. They report that:
As the breaker of the Ginger Lee story, I’m pleased to note TMZ’s last sentence:
And so the slow-speed trainwreck that is Weiner’s career continues, and Democrats desperately try to just move on with the Weiner albatross around their neck. As Ed Morrissey at Hot Air said of the Democrats’ PR strategy after taking note of the Ginger Lee/Gloria Allred press conference in which the porn star called on the congressman to resign: “Gloria Allred? Yeah, that strategy of ignoring the story is totally going to work now.” UPDATE 6/16/11 1:30am Earlier today Ginger put out a statement regarding Weiner’s resignation that even MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell called more dignified than Weiner’s own press conference. I had a hard time finding a complete copy of it anywhere in the major newspapers, magazines or blogs. The first place it finally popped up in full was at ExtraTV’s website—showing Miss Ginger to be smart again in going after the glitzy, fawning celebrity press instead of the rumpled, gruff political press:
Rep. Anthony Weiner just had what one tweeter/Weekly Standard editor called “the Hindenberg of press conferences.” As Dana Bash of CNN tweeted and which I have added to and annotated, here are a few questions that @RepWeiner refuses to answer: 1) Is the tweeted picture of you? Is that you in the photo, regardless of whether you tweeted it? 2) Why not let law enforcement handle this? It has been three days. Why not report this? Are you not concerned about evidence being destroyed or lost? Weiner has previously been involved in the formulation of cyber-security legislation, but suddenly, he doesn’t think hacking a congressman’s account and sending lewd photos from it (not to mention viewing all the private information inside the congressman’s account) to be anything to be concerned with. These positions are inconsistent, and logically lead to a conclusion that Weiner knows who is responsible for the photo and the tweet and does not wish to have them investigated, publicized or prosecuted. With his resistance to reporting the crime (if he was not personally responsible for the photo’s transmission through his accounts), Weiner is protecting the perpetrator. In the meantime, aspersions are being cast on innocent persons, particularly right-wing tweets and bloggers. Weiner needs to allow their names to be cleared—either through an admission that he knows the perpetrator or by getting law enforcement on the case. 3) Why did you hire a lawyer? I have to wonder whether Weiner knows that as the “victim” of a crime, that the district attorney would be his free lawyer as well. Someone, please tell Mr. Weiner that they’ll do all the criminal prosecuting for him. 4) Why are you following 21-year-old college student [across the country from you]? +) Did you send the photo or not? +) Did you follow Ms. Cordova on Twitter? If so, how did you find her? He has tried to claim that he does not know her. Does this mean he did not ever meet her in person (likely) or he has never interacted with her at all, beyond clicking her follow button but never having sent or received a tweet or private message to or from her? The big question not asked in this contentious exchange: Did you privately tweet with Ms. Cordova at any time? Not necessarily sending her any photos, but even the most innocent exchange. Another question no one has bothered to ask: Do you customarily, or even occasionally, send private messages to your fan followers (not just professional acquaintances or media or governmental persons)? +) Another reporter or producer there asked why he follows so many women in his account. But he doesn’t really follow an excessive ratio of women to men. It’s more who these women are. Most appear to have no connection to his district or legislation or committees. Going back to my elaboration of question 4, my question would be, why did you choose to follow this select group of women out of your 47,000+ followers? What made you decide to include them in your very small, select Twitter inner circle? ******* |
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and hadn’t considered its politics at the time. But if his novels have conservative themes, I’d sure like to read them. So I’ve begun to progress through his oeuvre.
which spans several decades and countries, his protagonist Ricardo finds himself amid the hippie scene in 1960s London, and it struck me as a contrast with today: