Saturday, March 6, 2021

Friday Night Blights

I couldn’t sleep last night, which is no different than most nights except that instead of laying in the dark I perused the offerings of Stars On Demand and selected Good Will Hunting, the 1997 Ben Affleck/Matt Damon written movie that won wild acclaim at the time but I’d never seen. It was awful with a capital A.

Amazon.com: Good Will Hunting: Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck,  Stellan Skarsgård, Minnie Driver, Casey Affleck, Cole Hauser, John Mighton,  Rachel Majorowski, Colleen McCauley, Matt Mercier, Ralph St. George, Gus  Van Sant,

Despite all the acclaim it is a schlocky piece of badly written, overacted tripe which nevertheless kept me company for an hour and half of wokeness. I can’t help but feel my time would have been better spent watching the Friday-up-all-night Diners, Drive-ins and Dives marathon.

Very early on in the movie we are exposed to the protagonist's (Will Hunting played by Matt Damon) genius and wisdom in this exchange with his therapist, played by Robin Williams:

Will: "A History of the United States, Volume I." If you want to read a real history book, read Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States." That book will knock you on your ass.

Sean: How about Noam Chomsky's "Manufacturing Consent?"

A People's History of the United States: 1492 to the Present: Zinn, Howard:  9780060194482: Amazon.com: Books

“Historians may well view it as a step toward a coherent new version of American History.” That’s the ticket.

And with that one scene this ridiculously overrated 25 year old movie shows us how the fire of today’s woke culture was initially stoked by classroom indoctrination and then insidiously reinforced by cultural outlets like movies.

Interesting side note: Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were neighbors with Howard Zinn before they wrote their Oscar winning script. So in a way the scene was simply product placement for Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. It represented a construct the naïve 20-something boys already firmly ascribed to: the alternate history of the U.S. relying on anti-American narratives, bereft of mitigating historical context and committed to presenting the story of America as an evil history of western-white-male-racism-paternalism-and-imperialism. The fact that it was written by a guy in the neighborhood who supported Mao, Castro and other mass-murdering commie thugs was just a bonus. And with their Oscar success that one throw-away line in the movie helped transform Zinn’s alternate history of America into a cultural icon. That’s the power and the glory of Hollywood.

Several years later David Chase worked Zinn’s American Manifesto into his hugely popular HBO show, The Sopranos, albeit from a rather different mindset. Keep in mind that Chase cast the rather dim Anthony Jr as “the clueless asshole of the family, an obvious unworthy future mob boss that was Tony's burden as a father to endure.” So you can interpret any of his dialogue as the expression of something Chase considers stupid.

This New York Post Obit of Zinn is rather fair and balanced:

Zinn ransacked the past to find alternative models for future struggles. That, of course, is not the job of the historian but of the propagandist.

  Like Zinn’s book Good Will Hunting is mind-numbingly superficial, naïve and sophomoric. Don’t waste your time.

cat and pigletThe next time I can’t sleep I’ll just look around to see if I can find a Piglet to snuggle.

Friday, March 5, 2021

Truth Is Like A Lion

“Makes no sense!”

bolt cutters holding it all together.

National Guard Troop Guarding Capitol: More Media Here Than Anyone Else, It's A Beautiful Day

In fact the longer you consider it the less sense it makes.

Either our “intelligence” services are criminally inept or they’re simply criminal. Either way it gives you cause to worry about whoever has their hand up the so-called President’s butt and continues to wag his hand and tongue around to the ruin of this country. There is only one thing left to do, but that will be no simple task while half the citizenry remains insensate to this batch of usurpers committed to undermining our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

prove them wrong

Pray that some day soon truth will once again come to be valued, recognized and accepted.

St. Augstine truthtrump lion2

Thursday, March 4, 2021

Space X: The Stolen Ending

stolen x 2

Best headline of the week, so far:

“SpaceX Starship Rocket Lands Successfully But Then Explodes”

It contains everything one has come to expect from media coverage: a lead with a disingenuous “fact” intended to muddle the case then stick the “landing” with all the sensationalism one can muster. Damn! They are good.

Granted, the rest of the operation was most impressive:

But unfortunately the patient died.

spaxe x 10 explodes after apparent safe landingSpace X explodes after landing

It’s enough to make you think that Space X’s victory was stolen at the very end. I doubt, however, that will deter Elon Musk from trying again.

It sort of reminds me of when Trump won the 2020 election only to have it stolen at the very end.

Stolen-white-house-rigged-2020-election-fraud-trump-shirt

 

I doubt that will deter President Trump either.

Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Hoping All The Chickens Go Home To Roost

chicken boy smoking  I don’t remember how Wednesday – formerly Hump Day – came to be Chicken Day around here, but why not? Chickens are so underrated.

It’s as good a meme as any and sometimes the world is so distressing that camels just can’t do it justice any longer.

Crazy_Snow_Rooster

So here’s hoping that all who’ve fallen ill will heal soon so we can transmogrify back to normal.

Or at least what’s come to be known as the new normal.

f279f036737055853f5a2d0efc2ae9aa

I’m off to the hospital, hoping that Raj will be ready to be released some time today. Here’s hoping pbird and escaped commieny’s DH will be able to go home to roost today; prayers for them and all others in need today.

Tuesday, March 2, 2021

Is There Anything They Can’t Do?

Between global warming and the coronavirus, is there anything they can’t do? They literally cover every trouble in the world.

It's the US' deadliest avalanche season in years. Experts say Covid is partially to blame

How two skiers survived an avalanche in Vermont – NORTHEAST EXPLORER

Of course they do. And the “experts” would certainly know wouldn’t they?

snow coronavirus

Little Johnny discovered this giant coronavirus in his front yard after a recent record global warming snow event. What is he thinking standing right next to it without a face mask!

you_can_do_anythingDon’t tell that to the “experts”

 

 

Raj update: nothing new since last night to report. I left the hospital at 8, got home at 8:30 and was asleep by 8:45. Woke at 6 feeling humanoid again. Heading back to the hospital and if the new meds and electrolyte infusions get his labs and tachycardia incidents under control they’ll release him. Otherwise they will hold him for more tests to see what’s messing up the electrolytes. Will keep you updated.

Monday, March 1, 2021

Good Morning From Somewhere

Sunrise in fogSunrise Somewhere in Northville

I’m  pre-posting this open thread for Monday whereas I’m not sure where I’ll be in the morning.  It’s currently 1:00 am and Raj and I are at the University of Michigan hospital awaiting an available room most likely at their satellite hospital down the road a piece. His cardio monitor started showing multiple incidents of tachycardia Sunday afternoon and the oncall doc called 3 times to tell him to get to an emergency room. Being stubborn he ignored the first 2 but I took the last call around 8:00 pm and here we are, where we should have been this afternoon.

Long story short, they administered some drug to get his heart back in rhythm – I know many of you have been there and done that. He’s doing fine but obviously they want to keep him overnight for additional monitoring and from the looks of it that might be accomplished right here in the ER.

So that’s all from MOTUS central for now, will check in sometime in the morning, assuming I’ve managed to get a couple hours shuteye and my phone isn’t dead.

Your prayers are most welcomed.

Sunday, February 28, 2021

More Leadership Lessons From Governor Cuomo

I confess, I haven’t been following this story closely:

Second former aide accuses Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment

bennet2Charlotte Bennett, a young looking 25

But shouldn’t the headline read “Second former aide accuses Emmy-award winner and best selling author Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment” you know, in deference to all his iconic accomplishments?

Andrew Cuomo's book sells 11,800 copies, lands on best sellers list

Now you can’t blame me for enjoying the few times the left decides to get rid of some of their baggage by applying their rules to one of their own. I would imagine that the over-under pools for how long the Guv still has in office have been hyper-active this weekend. And I’ve certainly enjoyed the comment section at the NYT article about this: what the devil is this cancel culture thing?! Take Alex G’s lament for example -

“Are we living in such a dystopian society where a man can’t flirt with a colleague without being cancelled?…It’s a scary world we are going to live in when people have to live in fear how their comments will be interpreted.”

Yes, Alex, we are, and it is; thank you for pointing that out. And probably for helping create it.

Can we all recognize now that the halls of political power have become the new Hollywood for young people seeking fame and fortune? Accordingly, politics has and always has had its own casting couch culture. Given that fact it is not at all surprising that the left believed they could take Trump out with allegations of sexual misconduct in our oh-so-sensitive #MeToo world. After all, haven’t we seen time and again that when you control the press you control the narrative, be it true or false.

What this latest saga clearly demonstrates above all else is just how right Rush Limbaugh was all along: the media couldn’t destroy Trump because they didn’t make him. The story’s corollary though is just as interesting: when you are a completely media-made man it is quite simple to take you down. Buh-bye Andrew.

Andrew Cuomo, New York's Covid hero, is on the ropes | World | The Sunday  TimesOopsie! No Do-overs this time.

You probably should have stuck with Sandra Lee, Andrew, even though she was only semi-homemade.

Notable New York political exes | City & State NY