Much ado about nothing.

I think Tom Cruise is an excellent actor. As a person, I think he's a jerk, mostly because of his idiotic attachment to Scientology. But I have never understood why there was so much ridicule of him leaping on the couch during the Oprah Winfrey Show. It was a bit dramatic, but I see nothing wrong with someone expressing their exhilaration at having met someone they love by making such a gesture. I mention this because Chris Matthews was discussing it today and comparing it to the embarrassing display by Clint Eastwood last night talking to the empty chair.  The chair scene was weird, the couch not all that strange.  As it turns out Tom may not have been in love as much as he suggested. Nobody knows. But jumping on the couch?  Seems perfectly normal to me.

Ryan and Rand, unrequited love.

Paul Ryan this week proved that he is a unashamed liar. But we already knew that. From as far back as his high school yearbook we know he is an obsequious toady or as his classmates phrased it, a "brown nose"  He has also shown us that he is a male chauvinist, prissy misogynist, sexual prig, and mama's boy. I base that last accusation on the fact that Diane Sawyer asked him what Mrs. Ryan thought of his speech, and he immediately answered that his mother liked it. But there is another woman in Ryan's life. He adores her. He worships her. She has guided him from his teens toward his future. He thinks the world of her. But, ironically, she would consider him a raging and naive asshole. She would be intensely offended by his magical thinking Catholicism. And she would be disgusted by his attack on a woman's right to rule her own body. In fact there is probably nothing Ayn Rand would admire about this ass-kissing Eddie Haskell.

Clint is not Harry.

Tonight at the Republican convention the secret guest who is no longer a secret is Clint Eastwood.  I guess that Willard  thinks that Clint's tough guy image will be of great benefit to him. Of course the delegates are so stupid it probably will. Never mind that he was born in gay old San Francisco, a shame in itself. Or, that he has 7 children by 5 different women,though he has only been married twice—hardly suggestive of solid Christian values.  Or that during his long-ago youth he worked as a grocery clerk, paper carrier, lifeguard, firefighter and low paying jobs that Republicans seem to look down on. All these daffy conventioneers know is that Clint was the Man with No Name in spaghetti westerns, the Magnum-carrying Dirty Harry and the crusty old bigot in Gran Torino. No question he was a good-enough actor and  relatively good, though overrated, director. But do these hero-worshipping delegates remind themselves that to be a star he had to sit in makeup every day, have his hair styled and sip his latte while his stuntmen did the dangerous scenes. Hardly a tough-guy in real life. Well, no doubt this wrinkled octogenarian will receive tumultuous applause because these naive people believe Eastwood is the super-hero, no bullshit, tough guy he plays. What's really sad is that he believes it. By the way, what he doesn't believe in is Christ and organized religion. He leans more to two isms: Buddhism and atheism.

Most shocking of all: According to the 1989 lawsuit  filed in Superior Court in Los Angeles,Sondra  Locke, 41, suffered "humiliation, mental anguish...severe emotional and physical distress and...mental and physical harm" during her 13-year relationship with Mr. Eastwood including two abortions  allegedly done at Eastwood's request. 

Postscript: As I suspected Clint got tumultuous applause even though he behaved like a dottering old fool.The fact that Romney permitted this senile actor to go onstage without any idea of what he was going to do gives you some idea of how wel-prepared Romney would be as president. 

The Romney Family Singers

Here are the Romney Family Singers at Yankee Stadium during one of their whirlwind musical tours.
Included are the lyrics to their most popular song.

Our Favorite Things

Chateaus and mansions and villas and chalets.

Chauffeurs and housemaids and personal valets.

Constant attention from mere underlings.

These are a few of our favorite things.

Champion horses, a car elevator

Not one desire to be gratified later.

Skiiing in Aspen, spas in Palm Springs.

These are a few of our favorite things.

Accounts in Grand Cayman, a fortune in Zurich.

Huge dividends that make us euphoric.

Private Bain jets with our names on the wings.

These are a few of our favorite things

_things.html ]

When our stocks sink,

When there's ill health.

When we're feeling sad.

We simply remember our fabulous wealth

And then we don't feel so bad.

Closing down factories and cancelling pensions.

Not paying taxes which nobody mentions.

The magic protection our underwear brings,

These are a few of our favorite things.

A truly unbelievable speech.

While I could only tolerate a small dosage of Ann Romney's speech last night, I hear it received tumultuous applause. So what? Almost every racist joke and attack on our president receives tumultuous applause from the Republicans. She's a Mormon wife. Her job, her responsibility, her duty is to praise her husband, even if it means using a very large shovel. From what little I saw she spoke is she weren't married to a multimillionaire, as if they didn't have many mansions, and as if she didn't have armies of help raising her five boys, as if she didn't have a horse in the Olympics. Naturally she dragged out her cancer and M.S. for the pity vote, once again not mentioning that they could afford the finest doctors, the most elegant of hospital accommodations and she didn't have to ask her boss for time off for treatment. This doesn't diminish the severity of her diseases (though the cancer was a ductal carcinoma, a non-invasive type of breast cancer which was cured with a lumpectomy) but it does take her out of the "I'm just like you" category. Sorry she may be America's sweetheart today, but like Laura Bush she's defending an amoral liar. So while she stands there in her multi-thousand dollar outfit and magic underwear drinking in the praise of these moronic attendees, all I can see is another Republican who, given the opportunity, will make life miserable for everyone who isn't rich.

Most hilarious lie: Ann Romney said that early in her marriage she and Mitt ate tuna and pasta and used an ironing board as a kitchen table. I wonder if she read that touching tale of poverty while she and Mitt were both attending private schools.

There's no stopping it.

I'm a man. I masturbate. All men do. Always have and always will. Including Romney, Ryan, Akin and all those other hypocrites who are so ashamed of their sexual interests and so interested in dominating those of women. According to the Internet, a single ejaculation contains millions of sperm. Therefore, in the past 55 years, I could guess—like most men—I have wasted multiple masses, hordes, armies, endless populations. Does that make everybody a mass murderer among these nutty religious freaks who wants to protect the one or several sperm that get through and will not allow it to be aborted. And what if abortion were outlawed 100 years ago? We'd be up to our eyeballs in people. The unborn would have been born and had children who had children who had children. If you think there's unemployment now, imagine what it would be like with double the population. Republicans are nuts and hypocrites and misogynists. With pornography so widely and wildly popular (particularly in Utah) did they think that men watch all that sexual activity sigh, then  build something in the garage?  And since they don't will they be arrested? When Republican, who are mostly old fools, are not buying sex they're whacking off in front of their TVs or computers, then writing draconian laws to limit birth control or keep women from terminating pregnancies they can't afford, can't handle or just plain don't want. And if Romney's US Taliban should get into office, being so sexually repressed and ashamed, what laws will they pass: cutting off the hands of men found doing the nasty? These people are nuts and, being nuts, they are very, very dangerous.

"On second thought, no ice cream for me."

This commercial is disgusting on many levels, including one that didn't occur to the advertiser. None of us are interested in seeing people sneeze and using tissues. The closing segment in which the customer purchases an ice cream done with a dollar that he has been holding along with his tissues is especially repulsive. But just as repulsive is the vendor handing him an ice cream cone with his bare hands when it should be wrapped in a napkin. When this happens to me, I always decline the cone and often ask the server why they aren't being more hygienic. Once at The Country's Best Yogurt, the vendor ran his hands through his hair, was sniffling with a cold, and grabbed a cone without a napkin. As much as I like frozen yogurt, I was never able to buy from that chain again. What was the ad agency thinking when they allowed this huge logical error?

"Let us now turn to hymn 128.."

There are lots of expressions I dislike. One of them is "Preaching to the choir". Before I tell you why, let me tell you how surprised I was that this is not that old an expression.  From my research of the phrase it seems it only dates back to 1973, supposedly coined in the Ohio newspaper, the Lima News.  The exact quote, according to my Internet source, was, "He said he felt like the minister who was preaching to the choir. That is, to the people who always come to church, but not the ones who need it most." Anyway, the reason I don't think this is all that clever a cliche is that many choir members are not all that religious, but have joined the choir because they like to sing.  They may even be atheists who are willing to put up with a lot of magical thinking crap in order to sing "Rock of Ages" or "Old Rugged Cross." I think a more accurate expression is "Preaching to the congregation." Even then....

Flipping unbelievable!

In an attempt to appear more human the robotic Mitt Romney and his supplicant wife Anne opened their vacation home to "Fox News Sunday". In a segment that can be only described as absurd, they made pancakes and assured us they prefer to do things on their own. Needless to say Chris Wallace was only to happy to aid in their domestic charade as Mitt flipped (something he's good at) the pancakes. The vacuous Mrs. Romney rhapsodized about Costco, proclaiming her love for shopping there.To further humanize her automaton hubbie, she told us she had recently purchased discount dress shirts for him. We all know that multi-millionaires leap at Kirkland shirt bargains. The giveaway to this deception was when she asked Wallace if he'd ever been to Costco. Since almost every American has been to Costco this struck me as rather bizarre question, rather like "have you ever heard of Coke?" I doubt that the lazy network news will point out the falseness of this attempt at being real people and give America a rundown of the numerous chefs (not cooks), gardeners, chauffeurs, masseurs, masseuses valets, maids, etc. it it takes to maintain this Ken and Barbie couple.

A septuagenarian super hero?

Not only are the Era commercials stupid, but the idea that a Chuck Norris endorsement has any value at all is laughable.It's a detergent. A soapy liquid in a plastic bottle. This attempt at humor falls totally flat and even if It were a valid concept, which is isn't, it is not clearly presented in this or other longer Era commercials. If the creative team is under the impression that Chuck Norris is an admired celebrity, they are very much mistaken. He has always been a kind of joke—the least attractive of the so-called super heroes.
And now that he's ancient any suggestion of super-power is even more comical.

Semi-unrelated note: I think era must be the most mispronounced word in the English language. The correct pronunciation is ear-ah, which you almost never hear.

"Was it something I wrote?"

What I hate most about society today is that you cannot reach actual people. It seems like every company is terrified to speak to its customers. If you look them up on the Internet, you will find websites and e-mail addresses. More and more telephone numbers are non-existent and sometimes even street addresses are not available. This is particularly annoying for me at the moment. In the past few years I have written over 7,500 comments to Huffington Post. It's a fun hobby, and interesting to see who agrees with me: Democrats. And who disagrees: Republicans. It's also fascinating how nasty some replies can be. But for the past week, I cannot get my posts through to Huffington.  If I go to their "contact us" section, I also draw a blank. So there is no way for me to contact HuffPost. I wonder if I was too critical of some of their policies and they wished me into the cornfield.

The Deciders.

Let's see if I understand this. A young girl is walking home at night and is dragged into an alley and raped and beaten by a serial rapist. He gets away. She gets pregnant. Now the Republicans demand that this young victim who has her whole life ahead of her give birth to this criminal's child. Nine months pass. Now, she can no longer go to college. She has to put all her plans on hold. Her boyfriend isn't thrilled to have to deal with this child of a dangerous criminal. She, frankly, finds it hard to love the child herself. Now she has more expenses and all the requirements of an unwed mother. Her future is gone. Her boyfriend is gone. Of course she could always hand the kid over to an orphanage. But she has higher standards than that. Still any great happiness she would have experienced is gone. And what did she do wrong? Nothing. But the religious chauvinist Republicans in power, who will never donate a penny to helping this girl, believe that life is important.  Not her life, mind you.

"Quick, hand me the remote!"

Call me petty, small, vindictive, unfair, shameful, prejudiced. I don't care. I find this person repulsive. I don't know why, but he offends me beyond endurance. Is it because he seems to think he's so attractive and talented when he's neither? I don't know. Is it because creditreport.com is scam and that always offends me?  Probably. Or is it my general distaste for unworthy persons being given fame and fortune when far worthier people are pounding the sidewalk. I don't know. I was going to put one of the commercials on my blog,  but I couldn't even bear the sound of those offensive channel-turning ads. This photo seemed more appropriate as it perfectly shows this potbellied no-talent with his insipid grin and dishonest message.

The Original Band is Back

Hey, Mack, tell me another one.

While I live in Miami, I don't know much about Florida politics. I know that Allen West is a mental case and Governor Scott is a Martian. But other than that, not much. This morning there was a Congressmen on CNN with Soledad O'Brien: Connie Mack. A nice-looking liar. It's sad to see a grown man transparently lying through his teeth. When Soledad mentioned that people are concerned about the Republicans plans for Medicare, he, like all Republicans, changed the subject. He pointed out that Obama took 178 billion out of Medicare and put it into the so-called Obamacare. Like all Republican liars he said that Floridians don't want Obamacare. Interesting that they don't want good health care, protection for preexisting conditions, a safety net that will protect their finances if they get sick. They don't want that? Also he didn't mention, of course, that the $178 million in cuts was mostly administrative and did not affect member benefits. His biggest lie was that he said the people of Florida, for the most part, ask him to fix the Medicare problem. What a crock! Can you imagine Florida's northern crackers making such a request?  What makes toadies like Mack so willing to lie and embarrass themselves with scenarios that ring so false and make them look so pathetic?  Poor lemming.

Where was that pain again?

Okay, I'll try SalonPas. But I don't understand why this model begins by rubbing is shoulder if he no longer has pain. In fact, I don't know why he's rubbing his shoulder at all and is later shown with the SalonPas on his shoulder. I thought he had back pain. Did the director of this commercial know what the message was?

Bayer facts.

For this post I searched YouTube for the current Aleve commercials that run endlessly. You know, the ones with the line, "....but wait..." I couldn't find them, but I did find this commercial featuring Leonard Nimoy that ran during the Super Bowl years ago. Seeing it, I wonder if Leonard Nimoy who was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Yiddish speaking Orthodox Jewish immigrants from Isaislav, Soviet Union (now Ukraine) knew that Aleve is a product of Bayer Pharmaceuticals and Bayer is the German company that provided the gas to exterminate the Jews during World War II. Now many people will tell me that was a different company with different people at a different time. I don't care. This company was built on the deaths of millions of innocent people. And I don't think anyone should forget that. Especially since, even though they produce medicines, they also specialize in producing high-priced poisons.

Lies his father told him.

I totally don't get commercials like this, and there are dozens of them. In this case it is a father conning his son to play hide and seek so he doesn't have to share the bite sized chicken. Am I supposed to be charmed that this kid has a father who is glutton and a liar? Is this supposed to make me feel warm and cozy about KFC? Ads this sick must be successful because there are so many of them. Friends cheating friends out of their soft drinks, their tacos, their beer. All kinds of people engaged in all kinds of lies and deceit to push the most mundane products by suggesting they're worth lying about. From what I know about the Colonel he would have found this commercial as offensive as I do.

Outnumbered.

One of the biggest problems with gay-straight relationships is they are founded on cliches that are often inaccurate or exaggerated to the exclusion of all else. For instance today HuffPost reported than Florida elected a gay representative, thus breaking the "lavender ceiling." Why lavender? Because it's feminine? Even well-meaning liberal comics spice their pro-gay jokes with comments about dress designers and hairdressers. (Many of the hairdressers I have met are straight.) Like any businesses, there are gays—perhaps even a predominance—in some creative-oriented businesses. But straight people are kidding themselves if they don't think there are millions of invisible and highly masculine gay men out there. I defy any macho straight man to start trouble at a leather bar. So the gay ceiling isn't all lavender. And  gay pride parades—fun and outrageous as they are—represent a very small fraction of gay men. Homosexual men who appear perfectly straight are just common as straight men who are not all that macho or what my friend Stuart called, "Fairies of the heterosexual world". And many gay women are absolute knockouts and far removed from the short-haired, plaid lumberjack shirted cliche. Even the news reporters never show two attractive, average looking Joes getting married. They always choose the most giddy of male couples or the most masculine of lesbians (never an Ellen and Portia). It's a pity really because who can blame straight society from feeling that gays are completely different from them when that's how they're promoted? Being gay, of course, I fit into one of the major stereotypical cliches: a fan of musical comedy. (Do you really think Broadway stayed in business on gay ticket sales?)  I am a fan of musicals.  I also like films like Von Ryan's Express, Where Eagles Dare, The Guns of Navarone and The Bourne Identity to name a few.  But going back to musicals, a little known TV musical was called The Adventures of Marco Polo, and one of the best lyrics was, "When you know me with more familiarity, if you don't look at the difference, you'll see the similarity." Unfortunately the media rarely give straight society the chance to see the similarities they are so bsy promoting the differences.

Note: I thought this photo was amusing. But these tough-looking guys are just another gay stereotype. Between them and the twink sitting on the bar stool are millions of men that don't belong to either cliche. And you're probably very close to one of them who you keep trying to fix up with the wrong sex.

Pound Wise and Penney Foolish.

I made a huge mistake this week. While I was planning and upcoming vacation, it occurred to me that I had a lot of "Thank You" points on my Citi Card. So I called them. It seems I had 28,000 points which was worth $100 in cash, but $275.00 in store merchandise. Knowing I would need luggage, I chose to get my points in cards from J.C. Penney, assuming that being a large department store they would have a wide choice. And for some insane reason, I thought they were reasonable. Armed with my valuable cards, I went to J.C. Penney at Dadeland in Miami. The first thing I noticed was the incredibly loud music playing throughout the store. I asked a clerk (oops, sorry, associate) if they could turn it down. She indicated that she also hated the music but that it came directly from Ohio. Ohio! It was downhill from there. Tacky and wildly  overpriced luggage which I didn't buy. Sales on tee-shirts marked $12 and up. Naturally they were all "up" and there were about three Mediums in the stacks of dozens. The clerks were either snippy or uninformed or lost in action. And the whole experience felt like going back in time to Jordan Marsh in Boston in the 60s, except for the screaming music. So now I'm stuck with $275.00 in purchase power and very little purchase. I called Citi Corp in the hopes I could return the vouchers and swap for another company. With their usually helpfulness they said "no".

Every major company has one.

I am pleased to say that I don't feel that  Paul Ryan will continue to be the prized candidate that everyone is praising today. Why? Because every major company has a Paul Ryan and he's usually not popular. And I think the average American, even Republicans, will recognize their own version of Paul Ryan in this ambitious climber. He's the ubiquitous, tall, youngish, smart and aggressive young man whom the boss thinks is fabulous and most of the employees feel is a kisser of ass. There's basically nothing wrong with him other than his own high opinion of himself and his ideas to the exclusion of those of almost everyone else. He usually has some good ideas on how to increase profits. They often involve firing some long-term and loyal employees or withdrawing appreciated company perks. While this sometimes bothers the boss, it never concerns him. It's business. He has no thought that those being fired are people with families. He's the guy that arrives early, works late, never misses a day, and usually dresses very well. Surprisingly he's not usually a philanderer because that would interfere with his ambition: There is no room on the ladder to success for a woman that might complicate his climb. Besides he's   usually married to someone attractive and equally ambitious who reflects well on his incredible self-worth. He's often dour or chilly around employees who are of no value to him, but a charming and constant smiler around those who can aid his success. Needless to say when he makes a misstep or loses his job for whatever reason there is general rejoicing around the office. And that's why I'm not concerned about Paul Ryan on the ticket.

Elect Romney, kiss Medicare goodbye.

I don't understand exactly what draconian measures Paul Ryan is plotting. All I know is that I am 70 years old and have worked since I was 16. Every month a Social Security check is deposited in my account and, along with savings, it helps me enjoy a comfortable retirement. I have a Medicare supplement account which covers most hospital expenses and allows me to  have very small co-pays at doctor's offices and often no co-pay. More often than not my prescriptions are free. All together it's very comforting and very uncomplicated. It pleases me to know that all hard-working Americans will enjoy similar benefits when they retire. Unless of course somebody like Paul Ryan manages to destroy this terrific system and has people like me running around looking for insurers who are unlikely to pay very much in benefits for the stipend Ryan wants to give the elderly. I happen to like Obama and think he's doing a great job considering the crap that Bush left behind. But even if I hated him I could not support Romney and Ryan who, if elected, will make a lot of people perfectly miserable, make the rich richer and make the country one that Americans will not recognize.

What Republlicans are great at.

I think it's very important to fix problems that exist in this country. That's why I am a Democrat. But even I  have to admit that if you're anxious to fix problems that don't exist, the Republican party should be your choice. All over America Republican state legislators are enacting laws to prevent voter fraud, which is one of the most egregious problems that doesn't exist. Very few people realize that in the past ten year there have been 340 cases of voter fraud throughout  the whole country. You can imagine what a non-problem that is in a nation of 300 million people and why the Republicans have spent so much time and money to remedy this artificial situation. With Republicans in office there is no end to the problems they can fix which do not exist and never have.  They could outlaw couples having sex on the mattresses at retail outlets. They could forbid city dwellers for operating pig farms on their patios. Laws could be passed to make cribs non-smoking zones. And with enough Republican backing they could prevent intergalactic marriages between Martians and humans. No question about it: Republicans are the ideal choice to attack and conquer non problems, address non issues, and introduce the essential  non sequiturs to keep our flag flying high in April. So if you are a Republican voter with the proper photo i.d. who doesn't give a damn about the Constitution and the right of every citizen to vote, show your strong support for causes that need no support, elect  Willard "Get those blacks out of our voting booths" Romney.

The Lizard and the Wolf.

I just saw Newt Gingrich being interviewed by Wolf Blitzer on CNN. It occurred to me as I watched him grin and grimace and bloviate that this man is an idiot. True he's articulate and glib and informed, but still an idiot. He spent his time on the show kissing Romney's ass, the same magic underwear-wrapped ass he was kicking many months ago. But with his little girlish giggle, he assured us that all that bombast was the expected banter of opponents, not enemies, surely not enemies. And while he sat there, his pompadour looking as shiny as the angel hair we used to toss on the Christmas tree, he gave the impression of an enormous baby dressed in a suit instead of diapers. He frequently beamed at Blitzer with his ga ga grin while his pouty little mouth formed lie after lie, assault after assault, insanity after insanity. Just watching him made me realize that the Republicans aren't another party, they're another species. They're an army of soulless liars who have no feeling at all for the common man, no sympathy at all for starving children, struggling parents or even returning soldiers, whether intact or emotionally or physically destroyed. They are amoral, indifferent, lockstep liars with only two goals: one to win, two to get as rich as possible. They are exactly like the replacement beings in the Invasion of the Body Snatchers after the pods had converted them into cold and unfeeling automatons eager to take over America. And the sad thing is that so many millions of Americans, like so many still-humans in the movie don't recognize the difference. If Newt Gingrich ever had any integrity, honesty or empathy it must have been before a pod was slipped under his bed.

Diet aid?

Though I have no affection for companies like Verizon, since I think these smart phones have made us all a great deal less smart, I do like this commercial. Although, minus the phone,  it could just as easily be used for a dozen other products that result in weight loss.

Today in an interview with Candy Crowley on CNN, this little weasel suggested that Harry Reid lied when he said an informed source told him Romney hadn't paid taxes in ten years. Reid may have lied, which would be shameful. But even more shameful is the outage this toad suggested about Reid when Romney, whom he praised, himself lies at  every speech and opportunity and makes outrageous, petty and usually inaccurate comments about our president. Yet Lindsey apparently  has no objections to those lies. Later in the show, a clip showed Romney, in his snarky way calling the president insane, and suggested that he, Willard, cared deeply about the middle class. He quickly tossed in "and the poor"since he had in the past made so many gaffes showing that he didn't gave a damn about the poor. It's sad that so many ass-kissing creeps like Lindsey Graham are wiling to help lie Romney into office.

Things that drive me mad.

You will note that this audience is sitting in a theater watching, we assume, a 3-D movie. But the photo is faked because movies were not watched with two-color glasses, but with single tinted glasses with polarized lenses. It never happened, at least not enough to suggest it was ever even close to standard, yet so many advertisers, like Discover Card,  keep using visuals like this. Are they stupid or just don't care about accuracy? In the early days of 3-D—prior to 1948— theaters may have used such glasses (which I believe are called anaglyph) for short films and novelty features. . But with the Golden Era of 3D cinematography in the 1950s polarized lenses, not bi-color glasses, were used for every single feature length movie in the United states and all but one short film.  In the 21st century,polarization  systems continue to dominate the 3-D scene. Were bi-color lenses ever used in theaters? Yes, but rarely. In the 60s and 70s some classic films were converted to anaglyph for theaters who couldn't afford polarization. Also one uses the analglyph system for television. But theaters do not use paper glasses with red and blue lenses and when advertisers show faked photos that suggest they do it drives me nuts. 

Checking out checking in.

I see lots of commercials for sites like Expedia and Hotels.com. They promise me these great deals on hotels and in their commercials show prices like $97, which would probably be a good deal even in
Stockton,  Texas. But when I contact them, which I have tried doing often in the past few years, their prices seem no lower than the hotel's and sometimes even higher. Today for instance, I tried booking directly with a Washington, D.C. hotel. The rate was $209 a night. Ah, I thought, it must be much less with Expedia. But when I went to them, the same kind of room and the same nights were an average of $236.00 a night. So where are these great savings? In addition Expedia charges my credit card immediately (for a booking two months away) the hotel only when I check in. And the hotel has a much more flexible and less complicated cancellation policy. Maybe there are people who are getting great deals on these sites, but I'm sure as hell not one of them.