Misleading head line.

This is the kind of stupidity that drives me mad. Not surprisingly it's from HuffPost, a blog I used to admired and to which I submitted more than 8,000 responses before they changed their policy and only allowed kisses and hugs. The above visual was for a report titled "5 habits that are making you lose hair." Since the picture is of a man, and many men worry about losing their hair I thought there might be some interesting clues for men on how to prevent hair loss. Well, the report had nothing to do with men. All the clues were female-related, including "Your pony tail is too tight." So why not show a photo of a woman to promote the article? The answer is simple. Stupidity.

Note the clueless expression.

What do these people want? This particular Republican creep is John Barrasso (not the ass in his name) from Wyoming, the state that cursed us with Dick Cheney. Seems Senator Barrasshole dismissed the White House's recent announcement that Obamacare enrollment had reached more than 6 million. He called it a meaningless figure, saying that he thinks "they're cooking the books." What does he base this on? Nothing, but his own bitterness, GOP hatred for Obama, and resentment that the health plan has proven so popular. What I don't understand is why these people who should be looking out for Americans are so disturbed to know that people who had no health insurance now do. Why does that distress them? Why?

Fool us once...

Anytime you see a BP commercial, all you need to remember is that BP stands for "Bullshit Propaganda".

A wealth of unwanted opinions.

I see where war criminal Condoleeza Rice is criticizing President Obama on his Russian policy. Doesn't this mass murderer realize that her opinion on the world stage is no longer welcome or respected. She aided war criminals Bush and Cheney in their fake war on Iraq resulting in thousands of deaths and even more thousands of men, women and children blinded and crippled. She should be in prison, not giving out her useless opinions to the press. She may be accepted among Republicans who are willing to overlook her hideous history. I think she's a monster.

Tell me this isn't dippy.

I had to go with someone to their advertising agency office because they had to do a quick chore. While waiting I picked up some fashion magazines and a copy of AdWeek or whatever it's called now. The upshot. You will never convince me that men's fashion ads are not hilariously affected and ridiculous. Most of them feature a handsome effete man in clothing you never see anywhere looking solemn, if not grim, which I suppose is supposed to be sexy. It's not sexy because attractive as these men are they appear to be sexless narcissists who are so vain and so carefully dressed and coiffured the thought of any kind of eroticism is out of the question.

This might be one of almost 3,000 daily factoids

I have a brilliant idea that will never see fruition. Why? For one I'm sure advertisers would find a way to stop it in its tracks. Too bad, because if somebody did it, it would make my life so much better, and it would be one of the best educational tools ever. Here's the idea. A 24-hour a day commercial-free network made up of 30-second educational clips on art, history, literature, science, mathematics in short every subject. This is a station you would turn to every time a commercial came on during a show you were watching. Therefore, instead of having to watch some promotion for cars or cereal, you would be learning one or more facts that could only increase your general knowledge. Imagine how much more educated you would be after a year of switching to this station during commercials than sitting through mindless promotions. Since it is in 30-second segments, you could watch as many as you felt were necessary before you could return to your regular programming. I'd subscribe immediately and so would anyone else who hates being forced to watching endless commercials.

Not a ball among them.

This week President Obama had a very cordial meeting with Pope Francis. Both men are very interested in the plight of the poor, the hungry, the homeless. But Fox News, of course, could not report anything positive about our president, so the three biddies took to their sofa (read back fence) and started nattering away. While all three of these yentas are pathetic in their paycheck-earning need to constantly attack the president, it is especially shocking to see two men who consider themselves newscasters whimpering and whining, carping and nitpicking, gossiping and gloating, and making complete effete fools of themselves without even being aware of it. Years from now their children, if they have any, will say, "What did you do for Fox, daddy?" What their answer should be is, "Basically, I bitched and made catty remarks."

Note: While both these guys are doofuses, Brian Kilmeade, the darker and more creepier looking of the two seems to spend more time with his foot in his mouth since he has so little regard for women and can't seem to stop making anti-feminist remarks.  

Another heartless GOP blonde.

Cornering a Republican is a lot like cornering a rat. They snarl, they hiss, they show their teeth, their beady little eyes are filled with hate. A good example of this was Jennifer Stefano on the Chris Hayes show. When he pointed out that she has no compassion for the uninsured and spends her days trying to destroy Obamacare she. like any rat, snarled, hissed, showed her teeth and attacked him, her beady little eyes filled with hate. Ironic that her group is called Americans for Prosperity because the last thing they want for most Americans is prosperity.

The episodes are getting shorter and shorter.

Every night at 7 pm, WBFS in Miami shows The Big Bang Theory. I often watch the repeats because it's such a funny show. What's not funny are the excessive number of commercials they run during this half hour program. Especially annoying is that after they've run about ten, they have a Big Bang art card and comment as if they're going to return to the show, but it's always followed by at least five more commercials. Do they think we don't notice?

Never,never, never, never funny.

I know at least eight people, like me, who would not go to see any movie that showed any kind of animal abuse, even if it were meant to be humorous, which it never is. So when I just saw a commercial for the Grand Budapest Hotel in which someone  asked, "Did you just throw a cat out the window?" they lost any interest I may have had in the film and any goodwill I feel about. I call this stupid. How intelligent do you have to be when making a film to appeciate that millions of people are animal lovers and are not even slightly amused at any kind of offense against animals like, say, throwing a cast out a window?  If I were the producers of that film, I would make sure that the scene is removed a.s.a.p. and that a press release notified moviegoers of such.

Note: I learned today that the cat indeed dies, which makes me nauseated and detest this film. For animals lovers like me there is a website that lets you know the degree of animal absue in a film.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/26/does-the-dog-die_n_5035939.html

A natural unnatural reaction.

It's so easy to see why the Republicans hate President Obama. Of course the first reason is that he's black or at least half African American. That alone is enough to stir their anger. But look at him! He's handsome, articulate, educated, reasonable, popular, and impervious to their constant criticism. Bad enough that he defeated an old war horse like John McCain and his popular harpie Sarah Palin, but he then soundly throttled Mitt Romney and his bookkeeper Paul Ryan, both white and rich and handsome! Talk about a slap in the face. And then there's the problem with his family. Forgetting the annoyance of him being so admired, but then he has a beautiful accomplished wife and two completely charming daughters. It's too much. It's just too much. The result: John Boehner is drinking more than ever. Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are just inches from massive heart attacks. Darrell Issa can barely put a trembling finger on the mike shut-off he's always in such a state of jealous anger. How they hate this man who is pro-labor, pro gay equality, pro raising the minimum wage, pro women, pro health care.
Every night poor Mitch McConnell puts on his 1915 nightshirt and Ebeneezer Scrooge nightcap, climbs into bed, turns out the light and says over and over again,"How did this happen?"

It all began with a broom.

Here's a secret that not many people know. While many cleaning women are just that, women, ordinary women, many others are witches. My cleaning woman is a witch. I don't hire her all that often because it's cheaper to do it myself. But I never get it as clean as she does. Why? Because she's a witch. She doesn't even spend all that much time here, and when I return (I'm never around when she's performing her magic) she has the floors gleaming as I never could, the shower door streak-free, and everything else cleaner and more orderly than she could possibly have done in just three hours.  I was thinking of getting a cleaning-lady-cam. But what if she found out?  It's never wise to play with black magic or get on the wrong side of a witch. Who knows? I could end up as a bottle of Pine Sol.

This is another of those commercials that many people will think is cool and I think is pretentious and a waste of money. What this says to me is, "I don't like doing commercials. I want to be a film director. But that may never happen. So maybe I can talk the client into paying for one of my little mini-films. I'll do the one about the wedding in the desert. Nobody will know what it means and they'll think it's really profound. I guess I'll have to mention the product. Damn it."

"Who's crossing over my bridge?"

Is there such a thing as 100% ugly?  I mean an ugly face and an ugly soul, and bitterness and filth all the way through. Is that possible? Yup. This is Republican super-donor Sheldon Adelson, who lives under a rock in Las Vegas.  If he had his way America's poor would stay that way, children would starve and all liberal thinkers would be banished. But here's the interesting thing. Just because you are hideous of face and form and spirit does not mean that you lack appeal. In fact, you would be amazed at how many Republicans are lining up to kiss Mr. Adelson's ass.

Animals nice and not so.

I was just watching two clips on HuffPost. One was of cats waking their owners, the other was of dogs doing the same. They were both hilarious. Also on HuffPost was a report on how Michigan is trying to ban gay marriages. Thinking of all three subjects I wondering what the fuck is wrong with people? Why are they filled with so much hate and prejudice when the world is filled with hilarious daily events like cats and dogs waking their masters? This country has some seriously sick people, which is anyone who is obsessed with denying other people love, food, housing, health and laughter.

Note: I am not going to show the dogs or cats because that would suggest favoritism. Instead, here's a picture of the clueless Governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder. Why are so many Governors named Rick?

Quick, get me a barf bag.

I would call this commercial cute to the point of insipid. I have nothing more to say.

"Come on, Al, knock it off!"

I like Reverend Al Sharpton. I watch his show almost every day and admire his passion for fairness and love how he lambastes the hypocritical Republicans. But really, how difficult would it be for him to  learn to pronounce "ask" instead of "axe" and "pundit" instead of the wildly incorrect "Pundint"?  When you're as smart as he is, I cannot understand why you would continuously mispronounce these two words. I'd write him directly, but lately it seems to be very difficult to locate the e-mails for these MSNBC personnel.

A plague of messages.

The Internet becomes more annoying every day. Or at least Comcast does. It used to be I could write or surf without interruptions. But now during a search or while reading an article, I am suddenly deluged with an audio ad or long infomercial. This requires me to turn off the volume on my computer, which I will have to restart later. This is annoying. I used to be able to download commercials I wanted to comment on without any problems. Now the commercials I post on my blog have all kinds of their own pop-up commercials which, more often than not, block the very content I am trying to show my readers. You would think we pay enough each month for  a provider that we would be protected from all of these commercial interruptions. Not so. And I am guessing it's only going to get worse.

The weird brothers.

These commercials for Romano's Macaroni Grill are very weird. Forgetting that it is difficult to figure out this "voyeur" theme, the two men from Macaroni Grill are very unattractive and creepy and their setting is not all that appealing. They are also oddly sadistic in their joy at the couple's mundane meal. Also unappealing is the man in the living room setting. So basically nothing is seductive about this ugly commercial, including the food shot at the end in which all the selections look cold.

Part Two: What I find incredibly annoying with YouTube is that they are so greedy for advertising revenue that if you want to see a commercial like the one above, then you have to put up with  other pop-up ads. I fantasize the day will come when the American public says enough to this overexposure
to far more commercials than are necessary for providers to make a profit.

Hmmmm?

I wonder why when God created the earth and Adam and Eve, why he never mentioned to anyone that  the earth was only one of billions of stars. Curious. And out of all these billions of stars (and who knows how many planets) why did he choose earth for his "only begotten son", especially since it was one of his much smaller creations? It's certainly is a mystery. And since science has proven that Earth itself is billions of years old, why did he wait so long before causing a ruckus just a few thousand years ago? What was he waiting for? There's no question that the bible is absolutely gospel truth,  but still when one considers the vast and endless universe, it does make you wonder.

Mass murderer still at large.

In recent years American has turned over lots of rocks and found the slimiest creatures underneath them. One of the most repulsive is Donald Rumsfeld, a war criminal who somehow has evaded going to prison and is still moronically mouthing off. His latest vitriol against President Obama is that "a trained ape would have better foreign policy skills." This from a man who has no discernible skills and is responsible, along with his cronies, for the deaths of thousands of young Americans and the maiming of thousands more. Naturally this creep did his whining on Fox  One wonders why is is on TV when  he should be rotting away in a prison cell. Interestingly Rumseld is one of those cretins where every evil thing his is written all over his rotting 82-year old face.

Pick up on Hotels.com.

This is a very odd commercial. Forgetting that I don't find this actor appealing at all, this spot is a little creepy. One. Is he on the job? Is that why he's in uniform? Two. Is she a hooker, or does he think she's a hooker? So does he plan on paying for her? Is that why he's talking about booking a room? After all he's not that attractive and he's dressed for work, so the only logical conclusion is that he thinks she's a hooker and he's ready to pay. That being so, isn't that kind of an unsavory message for a website that is supposedly for booking quality hotel rooms for supposedly respectable people and families. I have no problem with the morality of this spot, but the logic totally eludes me.

We are the polar bear.

I'm getting to very contradictory reports. One is that the Republicans stand a good chance of taking over Congress. The other is that global warming is even more immediate and possibly catastrophic than we thought. But the Republicans don't believe in global warming and are eager to protect their wealthy pollution spewing pals. So if they they take over, we're in big trouble because they will ignore the problem until it's too late, which it may already be. The best thing that could have happened was for Gore to be elected, which he was. If he weren't scammed out of his presidency we may already be better off. But we're not. So if you don't want to face the hunger, disease, drought, flooding, wars, refugee camps and overall effects of global warming predicted by most of the world's scientists, you had better start speaking up against any Republican takeover or, for that matter, against any Democrat who doesn't believe that global warming is man-made. As many scientists have now stated, "We are the polar bear." It has begun and the next elections will determine what we're going to do about it.

So much alike.

It occurred to me today that one of the reasons America's Republican nut jobs were so quick to give their hearts to Sarah Palin is because she was almost like the reincarnation of another of their admired  shrews decades earlier: Anita Bryant. Sarah's mostly senior teabagger fans will remember that Anita Bryant was a popular singer and orange juice pusher in the 60s and 70s. She later became more famous for her very vocal opposition to homosexuality, which damaged her career in show business. Like Sarah, she was a former beauty queen whose warped religious hypocrisy and nasty arrogance eroded her success and caused her to become a forgotten nobody. Sadly Anita is still alive and filled with as much hate as ever.

Tasteless.

Joan Rivers is an entertainer, and generally a vulgar one at that, so I will not fault her for this tasteless commercial. But I will fault the Dodge Dealers. They should appreciate that Alzheimer jokes are not funny.  "If I could just remember where I live." is not an amusing line when you consider how many lives the disease destroys every year.  It constantly amazes me how many ad agencies are completely lacking in any kind of common sense.

What is his problem?

Nothing annoys me more than hypocrites. I am particularly annoyed by the many Republicans who are closet gays yet fight equal rights for gays and any legislation that favors gays when they themselves are cowering in a closet.  A perfect example is Susanne Atanus of Niles, Illinois, who recently garnered 54 percent of the vote to be the GOP challenger to Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill) in the Chicago-area 9th Congressional District. Atanus believes that God dictates weather patterns and that tornadoes, autism, and dementia are God's punishment for marriage equality and abortion. Now this would be annoying enough from a real woman. But Atanus is so obviously a man in drag or a transsexual that it is the height of hypocrisy. One can only assume that he is so ugly, so fat, and so repulsive that he can't find a gay lover and thus speaks against all gay men. Mr. Atanus is sure to be found out before the election and even if he isn't, I doubt that the people of Chicago would want to look at this utterly unattractive drag queen for an entire term. Also please note how much of his name is taken up with the word anus.

Clarence Thomas, perjurer.

I, for one, never doubted for a minute that Anita Hill was telling the truth when she accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. There was no question in my mind that he made vulgar comments and sexual overtures to her and is guilty of perjury. Also, as much as I admire Vice President Biden, I don't doubt that she is correct when she suggests that he handled her hearing badly. Therefore there is no doubt in my mind that we have a nasty perverted bully sitting on the Supreme Court, a man who has proven to be of very little value to the Court itself and incredibly biased based on his sympathetic cooperation with his conservative lobbyist wife, the vindictive Virginia. It truly is a disgrace that this thug is a Supreme Court Justice.

Nat, say it isn't so.

It seems that statistician Nate Silver predicts that the Republicans will win the next race for senate control. Despite his track record, I find this very hard to believe. That would mean that women voters don't mind being considered fourth class citizens, that gays don't mind being reviled, that blacks don't mind being insulted in public forums day after day. It would mean that that poor don't mind being trampled, students don't mind being deprived of a good education, parents don't mind having their children starved for lack of public assistance. And—most important—Americans everywhere don't mind having climate change deniers in office when something has to be done about such current events as Greenland melting. After all you can't win elections if you don't have the majority of votes and that would mean women, blacks, gays, the poor, Hispanics, Muslims, true Christians, every other religion and race that is scorned by White Republicans and your average citizen who doesn't want to swim to work ten years from now. So who are these voters who are going to give the intolerant, mean-spirited, and abysmally ignorant Republicans Senate control? What am I missing here? Can the white, gun-toting, evangelical tea-party bigots really have that much power?

A gang of greedy grifters.

Why am I surprised that so many Christians believed the ridiculous lies of Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent, in which they created a fiction about Burpo's son visiting Heaven?  After all Christians, and especially evangelicals, are the most gullible people on earth. I give you Adam and Eve and Noah's ark as only two examples of absurd fables which they accept as truth! So it makes perfect sense that they don't have a clue they have been totally scammed by the Burpo family who have made a fortune on the downright stupidity of the religious community. The fact that Todd Burpo is a pastor/con man makes the fraud even funnier. So while so many rural evangelicals are trying to make ends meet and giving a fair share of their earnings to their local church, the Burpos will be living in style, driving luxury cars, and enjoying their incredible wealth all thanks to the book and movie of a cynically created fairy tale about a little boy spending time in heaven.

The best Jesus ever.

Despite being an atheist, I love Biblical films. So, yes, I am looking forward to seeing Noah, as absurd as the story is. As a kid I loved all those bible epics, including: The Ten Commandments, Solomon and Sheba, Samson and Delilah, and not only did I love King of Kings, I thought Jeffrey Hunter was the best Jesus ever. But there is a religious film coming out that greatly offends me because, as far as I'm concerned it's been a con game from day one. The film is Heaven is for Real, based on the alleged experiences of a young boy who visited Heaven and came back with a full report. To me it is obvious this brat was coached by his parents to make up a story that would make them a fortune, which it did. They obviously knew that gullible evangelicals all over America would lap up this insipid lie and believe every word. Now Hollywood will be taking in more money from moviegoers who don't care if they're being duped, which they are. But forgetting this scam, I still love biblical epics, and will be curious to compare Russell Crowe's Noah with John Huston's.

Again!

This past Friday, March 21, something happened that leading oil tycoons keep telling you doesn't happen. This time it was in Bismarck, North Dakota. But who knows? someday it may be at a town hear you. Apparently an oil pipeline broke. Really. Can you imagine that?  They're not supposed to break. Developers would try to convince you they never break. But they do. Often. And guess what. It leaked over 34,000 gallons of crude, Think about that figure the next time you fill up your gas tank. Also think about that when someone asks you if you think it's a good idea to run a pipeline from Canada to Texas.

Did I hear right?

Speaking of Bill Maher. On last night's show (March 21) I was amazed to see him defending warmonger Donald Rumsfeld. Apparently there is a new documentary out about this grinning mass murderer, and for some reason Bill seemed eager to say nice things about Rumseld. I would remind Bill that thousands are dead because of the heartless lies of Rumsfeld and all his cronies who danced so merrily into an unjustified war of choice with Iraq. I hope Bill reviews that show and realizes that, for a change, he is the kind of fool he so often ridicules.

These are not nuts.

Tonight on Real Time with Bill Maher one of Bill's guests got discussing the need for gun control and cited the recent shootings in a movie theater and at the gas station. Bill replied, "Those are the nuts." That's what so dangerous about guns. Those are not the nuts. Curtis Reeves, the retired police officer who shot and killed Chad Oulson was not a nut. He was an ordinary man who like many ordinary men had a temper. So his anger at Oulson's texting might have ended in a black eye and a night in jail, except that he had a gun. Michael Dunn, who shot and killed 17-year-old Jordan Davis in a gas station was not a nut. He was an ordinary man who liked many ordinary men had a temper. So his anger at Davis might have ended in a scuffle and a night in jail, except that he had a gun. A gun is not your friend. It is your worst enemy because when you're all worked up over a minor and temporary fury that causes you to lose perspective and control, that gun is the handiest way to momentarily quell your madness. It did that for Curtis Reeves and Michael Dunn. Now both of them will be spending much, if not all, of their lives in prison. If you have a gun, you are likely to use it. And chances are it won't be for some heroic life-saving rescue, but for some idiotic life-changing "terrible thing that can't be undone".

Same old, same old.

If you're under the illusion that advertising agencies are populated by young, exciting, original thinkers, consider this: Almost every major advertising spokesperson is a young, dark-haired man—often a celbrity—with the de rigeur fashionable stubble. That should give you some idea of how original the thoughts of most ad agencies are.

"I hate Obama. I hate him, hate him, hate him."

Is Sean Hannity aware of how unmanly he seems with all his prissy whining about President Obama. This week he is outraged, horrified, offended that President Obama is making his basketball picks  instead of rending his clothing and agonizing over Crimea. Apparently Hannity, being unable to multi-task himself, can't conceive that anyone else can. He's like grammar school nerd who's so jealous of a popular student that he's constantly looking for things to fault and finding nothing. Which means, of course, that he has to make up lies. I don't know how any Republican can look at spokespeople like Hannity, Limbaugh, O'Reilly, and Beck and not see how incredibly petty, juvenile and wimpy they are with their constant bitching about everything Obama does. These supposed men do everything but jump up and down and cry at the top of their lungs.  Come one, Sean, you're 53 years old: Man up!

Two very tough cops.

I was going to write a post about what a terrific crime series Scott and Bailey is, but found myself getting too carried away with enthusiasm. So let me just say that though this British series is similar to  Cagney and Lacey, it is much darker, more brooding, more daring, more involving and much more gut-wrenching. An excellent example of how tough a series by and about women can be.  I highly recommend you try it. It's on PBS stations Wednesday night in Miami. I have no idea when it plays elsewhere.

Couldn't have done it without you.

This is one of the many dopey commercials from Xfinity, creators of the really dumb line "The Future of Awesome" In this spot a young man is calling his friends for help moving. Some friends! Each one of them has an excuse why he or she can't assist him. The commercial goes from this scenario of a man with rooms full of furniture to suggest the Xfinity is helping him move because they'll transfer his service. If that isn't a pathetic connection, I don't know what is.

Get a dictionary, Paul.

Paul Ryan recently attacked the black community, suggesting that they had a culture of dependency and did not even understand the ethic of work. Needless to say he was severely scolded for such racism. Instead of a apology (an act Republicans have never mastered) he said he was "inarticulate" in his speech. Of course that is obviously bullshit. He was very articulate. He phrased his attacks well, he delivered them with grammatical precision. He wasn't inarticulate at all. He was just wrong: incredibly, stupidly, idiotically, moronically wrong.

March 22—Just watched this moron trying to justify his comments to a black man. Every word out of Ryan's mouth was a lie, his excuses for what he said were pathetic. That this man was every going to be a Vice President is nearly as terrifying as Sarah Palin taking that office. What is wrong with these Republicans that they would so easily endanger our country with such losers?

One photo is repulsive. A whole show? Never!

I don't watch reality TV, but I can understand why some people like it. Well, some of it anyway. I can see why people get hooked on Survivor (is that still on?) and its exotic settings. I can see why people get attached to someone on American Idol (is that still on?), and I can understand why the watch Dancing with the Stars, The Biggest Loser, The Amazing Race and almost all of those mindless shows which of course, are not real at all. (Let's face it to film an episode in the supposedly dangerous jungle, you need cameramen, wardrobe, makeup, art directors and all kinds of people.) But never mind that. What I cannot understand is why anyone would watch Duck Dynasty. I would vomit just looking at those ugly men and those shaggy beards which must harbor any number of forgotten food items. Why would anyone want to know about the daily lives of these bigoted anti-gay nutcase evangelicals.  I know this hideous show has high ratings. I can't imagine why. Unless millions of people tune in to say, "Thank god I don't look like that, live like that, or think like that."

DING DONG, THE BASTARD'S DEAD!

Now that's what I call good news. No sooner had I finished by tribute to Andrew Breitbart and thanked him for dying so fortuitously, then  I learned that another evil creature has been slayed by the benevolent hand of fate.  Hallelujah, Fred Phelps, the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church has died at the age of 84. Look at that face. Only a lifetime of hate and bigotry can create that kind of ugliness.

A tribute to Andrew.

There are so many evil people in America, mostly Republicans. They're greedy bastards protecting the interests of even greedier bastards They're cold-hearted hypocrites who have no problem taking food away from starving children, keeping working people at poverty level, and passing laws to force women to toe the line on their idea of morality. These are despicable men and women who I would love to hear died in a car crash, suffered a fatal heart attack, or were slaughtered at a gun show by a madman with an automatic rifle. But alas, these satisfying events don't happen. And every day we wake to more hideous news stories about such creatures as Ted Cruz; Paul Ryan; Michele Bachmann; that creep of all creeps, Sarah Palin; and all those other Turkey Vultures. Which is why in this post I want to thank Andrew Brietbart, yet another one of these detestable liars who committed one odious act after another. This was a man who created even more of a stench than his odorous comrades, who told bigger lies,  made nastier comments and had a blacker and smaller heart than just about anyone.  But we must thank him, for he did do the one thing that made our lives better, our day sunnier, our hearts more hopeful:  He dropped dead at 43.

Good question.

I always enjoy reminding what few loyal readers I have to avoid a certain store. That store is Walgreen's whose prices are outrageously and unrepentingly  high. Today my goal was the  8.4-oz can of orange Edge shaving gel.  At Winn-Dixie it was $3.99. At Publix,  only $2.99. But at Walgreen's, the winner and still champion rip-off emporium, it was an obscene $4.49. My advice: never buy anything at Walgreen's that you can buy elsewhere without too much trouble.

Iron horses.

You know what I think when I see a commercial like this? That some coked out art director/writer team and fast-talking art director convinced some gullible client into spending a fortune to produce this pretentious ad so they could win awards. Give me a break. What the hell do metal horses super-imposed over some racing scene have to do with Acura. So while I think this is a really impressive
short video with fabulous special effects, I think it's a really stupid car commercial.

Soon to be an 8-minute sitcom?

I appreciate that in order to provide TV programming some commercials are necessary. Some. But the amount of commercials these days is excessive. It's more like in order to have commercials some programming is necessary. The number of ads that are run have nothing to do with economic necessity, but with greed, pure and simple. Advertisers recognized early on that the American consumer is more tolerant of commercials than almost anything else. So they have decided to see just how many interruptions than can get away with. Which means that even though we now pay high prices to have cable, we—suckers that we are— are still being deluged with dozens of commercials during each half hour program. Tonight the locally syndicated show The Big Bang Theory, which only has a half hour spot, featured 18 commercials. I'm sure the station could have run have as many and still made a big profit, but as long as no one complains why not make them watch twice as many?

The cosmos I can understand. This ad I can't.

I just saw this commercial seven times on the On Demand repeat of Cosmos and I still haven't a clue what they're talking about. What the hell is two pete or peat? It seems more and more commercials take from fron granted the viewers will understand what they're saying. Sorry, I don't.

Yuck.

I have always felt that Sarah Palin is an ignorant, petty, malicious harridan. But I realize now my opinion of her was all wrong. She's even worse than I thought. In reading Rogue by Joe McInnes, it's fascinating to learn just how low-rent she is and has always been.  John McCain must feel like the fool of all fools in that he unleashed this vengeful bimbo on the American public. Actually this was a much longer post. I just went back and shortened it because she's really not worth discussing.

This is Phil without his hood.

Needless to say it would be a Republican who would think that discrimination should be acceptable in modern times. That Republican would be racist Phil Jensen, State Senator from South Dakota. He thinks discrimination against African Americans and gays is is just fine according to an article in the Rapid City Journal this past Sunday. Of course he tries to mitigate his hate mongering by saying that it would be acceptable because people would stop patronizing any merchant who refused service to African Americans or gays or anyone else they didn't like.  But that's just an excuse for his dream of having people he hates treated as second-class citizens and he  certainly would not stop patronizing any store that displayed such bigotry. How do these creeps ever land jobs in the government of the United States?

Enemies of the GOP.

These are the people the wealthy members of the Republican party are out to crush. These are the enemy. Hungry children. Children who often go to bed with empty stomachs and no relief at breakfast.
The Republicans don't empathize with their pain. They see them as parasites, users, recipients of food stamps, a costly program which they would like to repeal. The Republicans are convinced that their parents are indolent indigents with absolutely no interest in going to work when they can live off the government. Of course through the tinted windows of their luxury cars, these pols don't see the parents of these children sitting on bus benches on cold winter mornings waiting for the costly bus to take them to work. They don't see them leaving one job and heading for another so they can make the minimum wages that help them get by. Republicans like Paul Ryan. who never knew want. has only contempt for the poor and the struggling. After all if they had any gumption they would be as successful as he is, wouldn't they? Which is why he and his cold hearted cronies feel they have to to stop this excessive use of food stamps and all these children standing in line expecting to be given a meal to make them healthier and help think more clearly. Horrible little users!

Let's take a poll on the value of polls.

As you may know I detest the lazy media. And one of the ways in which they are laziest is with these meaningless time-and-space filling polls. One of the latest has supposedly found that Americans are more likely to view Putin as a strong leader. Duh. Yes, I would think they would find a dictator who sends troops in at the blink of an eye to menace a peaceful country a stronger leader than a president who wouldn't think of doing such a thing. Is this really worth reporting? Now that they have this idiotic poll, they can waste time with other statistics like President Obama's favorability numbers are higher than Putin's, and eat up more time listing figures when they could be working on real news. But real news takes effort and money, so how about we do a poll on whether Americans prefer mashed potatoes or french fries?

Co-conspirator.

This week war criminal Condoleeza Rice encouraged a group of Republicans in San Francisco to be more inclusive on issues like immigration. As Condy said, "We cannot abandon them...We were once them." Grand talk for a woman who, when she was U.S. Secretary of State under Bush, was totally hot for a fake war in which thousands of young Americans died. This piano playing hypocrite can make a hundred grand speeches. She is still a person who should be in prison for war crimes along with Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and others.

A death to celebrate.

In the good news department Fred Phelps, the founder of the pews-full-of-screwballs Westboro Baptist Church is said to be dying at a hospice center in Kansas. Let us hope when this nutcase finally dies that he is buried rather than burnt. Then thousands of people who have been offended by him and his followers  protesting funerals with signs such a "God Hates Fags" can attend the joyous event of his burial with their own signs. The question is which of his mentally disturbed parishioners will take over his ministry of hate. 

P.S. I don't consider Phelps vitriol considerably less offensive than that of Franklin Graham who is also a hate monger and false prophet. He's just more secretive and shady. 

A nation of liars.

What kind of government do we have? A person can be arrested and go to jail by trying to scam someone out of a few thousand dollars. But manufacturers can produce products with false claims, charge high prices for those fake products and make millions of dollars scamming consumers and there's no penalty. This is true of weight-reduction pills, e.d. remedies, memory-improvement products, whitening toothpastes, vitamins,hundreds of over-the-counter pseudo-medications that don't do a damn thing. Yet our government allows us to be lied to and swindled constantly. Just as guilty of course are the chain pharmacies and markets that stock these fake products, knowing full well they are completely ineffective. Yes, I know all about caveat emptor, but some agencies are being paid to protect us from liars and they're not doing it.

Bad move, lady.

This commercial is totally illogical for several reasons. First of all this woman is already in the chair and being cared for, therefore she is obligated to pay the $20.00. So there is no reason for her to leave. Secondly, why would someone who cares enough about their feet to have a pedicure walk across a dirty city street barefoot? Third the commercial makes it look like she's going to Walgreen's for a pedicure. And finally, and most important, one does not go to Walgreen's to save money. Walgreen's prices are always more expensive than almost anywhere else.

Note: When is this endless, excessive, unnecessary, greedy, annoying barrage of commercials everywhere going to stop. Now a blogger, like myself, can't even show my readers a commercial like the one above without having another ad parasite on to it.

A word for the unwise.

What is this sudden urge to name actions that we have all been doing for years? Since the invention of the camera people have taken photos of themselves. Now we call them "selfies" as if it had never happened before and it is somehow worth commenting on. It isn't. Also from the earliest days of cameras, some idiot has leapt into the picture or appeared accidentally or done that dumbest of all dumb moves: put two fingers over someone's head. Now it is called "photobombing" for no good reason. What's next? Will there be a new name for interrupting a conversation, for asking a dumb question, for using the wrong word? I have a new word, based on the word lexicon, it means a newly created word for no apparent reason: lexy.

More than meets the eye?

Republicans, as you must know, love making comments that suggest that Obama is a Nazi. That is when they aren't suggesting that he's a Socialist, a Fascist, a Dictator, a Kenyan terrorist, and any number of other philosophical terms that they can't even define. And while I think drawing these parallels is idiotic, I am beginning to see one aspect of the Nazi party that is becoming more and more evident in Republican propaganda. They are trying to do with American Blacks what Germany did with the Jews. The Nazis constantly denigrated the Jews, tried to make the German people feel that they were responsible for all their problems. The Republicans are similarly tying to denigrate America's African Americans, suggesting they are are non-productive parasites. The GOP's constant references to slavery I believe are designed to create a resentment among the supposedly productive white population. It is no coincidence that racist Paul Ryan suggested that "inner city" people (read Black) have a culture of welfare and indolence. Add to that all the other Republicans who are constantly trying to equate Obamacare and similar programs with past slavery. A ridiculous comparison, of course, but so was the German assault on its country's Jews and we know where that led. The frequency of changed voting laws which mostly affect blacks are still more evidence of this attack strategy. The fact that Issa tried to belittle one of our most admirable Black congressmen is suspicious. Today's leading Republicans seem like ignorant and hypocritical boobs. But maybe there's more to their apparent stupidity than we think.

Hate monger.

Here's a repulsive bit of news. Evangelist (read charlatan) Franklin Graham is praising Russian President Vladimir Putin for his aggressive crackdown on homosexuality. In short, this fraud who claims to be represent God approves of a repressive and brutal regime against the freedom to love whom one wants. This grifter adds that Putin is protecting children from gay propaganda, which is rather like protecting blue-eyed children from suddenly choosing to have brown eyes. Graham, like his hypocritical father, and all the other money-grubbing evangelists promotes hate and distrust in the world far more than any kind of Christian charity. Decades from now in a more modern and enlightened word we will wonder how assholes like Franklin Graham ever managed to con so many people. In addition, Americans should start to worry over how many unpatriotic racists like Graham and Giuliani are publicly praising one of the world's most dangerous dictators because they so hate that we twice wisely chose Obama as our president.

Breakfast of non-champions.

Look at this doofus. This man is the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.  Yet he's so awkward and so discourteous, he can't even stop playing with his food long enough to swivel his stool around and talk to these young people (who is works for)  in an honest eye-to-eye fashion. This man is not only a drunk, he's a coward, and an incompetent legislator. It's a disgrace that we have useless fools like him at the head of our government.

Enough already!

One of the things I most strongly believe is that we are exposed to a zillion more commercials than are necessary for advertisers to make a profit. Why? Because nobody complains. People watch television and seem to think that 25 ads during a commercial break are acceptable. They're not. On the Internet, you have to watch dozens more ads than are necessary for someone to make a huge profit. I especially think it's insane that you have to watch a commercial in order to watch a commercial that you want to see. I don't there is any area of the American experience that is more taken for granted and ignored than the fact that each of us is deluged with unnecessary advertising that we could easily rid ourselves of if we just spoke up.

Not even close.

I've bitched about this before, but what the hell it's worth repeating. It's very annoying when directors remake classic films. First because the film they make is never as good as the original. And once they make it, the original is rarely ever shown again. So instead of showing the Out-of-Towers with Jack Lemmon, the networks only show the boring Steve Martin version. The original Stepford Wives has been replaced by the lackluster imitation, the edge-of-your-seat The Manchurian Candidate by the so-so remake. And, most offensive of all, the poweful 1961 Raisin in the Sun has been usurped by the 2008 tepid made-for-TV version. If it weren't for Turner Classic Movies we would never see the originals again since all the other networks, for some strange reason, seem to show only the third-rate ripoffs.

Is anybody there?

Perception is amazing. Republicans, for the most part, see Paul Ryan as a powerful congressmen, a hunk, a brilliant star on the political horizon, a possible future president. Most people I know see him as a doofus, a misguided goon, a clown, and a narrow-minded bigot. His recent comments about certain men who are inarticulate and don't value work were, as usual, inaccurate and offensive. What was really pathetic is his claiming that those comments were not racist when they clearly were. His recent maudlin tale about the little boy who didn't like getting free lunches at school and would rather have a brown-bag lunch because that meant somebody cared was so obviously fake that you would think he would blush as he told it. But no, he goofballed his way through the tale as if it were true and wore that dopey look of self-satisfaction that has become his trademark. The Republicans do not have a single man of character, a truth teller, a patriot, or an intellect. Instead they have a sad collection of liars,  snobs, racists, and unfeeling millionaires. And, of course, Stepford congressmen like Paul Ryan.