MORNING UPDATE - MARCH 6

Good Morning, peeps! Happy Wednesday! The weather is blah again, and tonight it is supposed to snow, hell take it! Today I glanced at the calendar and realized that I did not claim my February freeby from Godiva - again, damn it! Today Sniffles decided to show his chutzpah and sat on my desk - smack dab on my laptop! The crazy upstairs is silent again. The left's war on women and their constitutional rights rages on - no peep from my learned and open-minded friends and acquaintances on the left and in the center. The Venezuelan Dictator, excuse me President, cocked his toes yesterday, assisted by (no doubt) oh-so-superior-to-ours socialized medicine in Cuba. It did not take long for his successor to accuse USA of killing their Dear Leader - as I said yesterday, I am only waiting for him to insert the Jews in the story somehow. Needless to say, Sean Penn and Oliver Stone are in mourning. Also, yesterday, while browsing on youtube, I accidentally came upon the trailer for the new movie called Olympus Fallen - where White House is taken by North Korean terrorists and Morgan Freeman plays the Speaker of the House in charge of the bad situation - news flash, Morgan! The White House is already occupied by a terrorist - the one you supported. And now, to more important stuff: Jessica Simpson recently admitted that her second pregnancy is very different from the first. She has no energy and her favorite snack is Tums; but her fiance still can't keep his hands off her - all of this breathtaking information is currently trending at #6, by the way. And at #8 - Holly Madison had a baby girl! Mazal Tov - and thank Gd it's now, and not in the summer! Speaking of summer babies - it looks like Kate mumbled something that might be interpreted as if she is having a girl - which got English public riled, exited, and overwhelmed to no end. In the news of fashion: Rihanna was modeling the jeans from her new collection with which some arbiters of fashion did not automatically fall in love - and this time I tend to agree with them. In the same column: Tina Fey was photographed in her one-piece retro polka dot bathing suit - which incident she described as a nightmare. Tina, my heart officially bleeds borsch for you. Also in fashion: Selena Gomez "vamps up" - which basically means that she decided to ditch her Disney image and dress "hotter". And speaking of her former boyfriend: Bieber will not be fined for showing 2 hours late to his concert. Would be interesting to see how ordinary people could pull this one off by showing two hours late for work and escaping with just an apology and no penalty of any kind. Coffee this morning in my Disney Mini Bean Plush mug with the 7 Dwarfs.

AN EVENING OF HOME ENTERTAINMENT

Or My Short Response to Barack Obama

Tuesday night, arriving home at the un-G-dly hour of ten forty eight pm, after a relatively uneventful day at work and a very enjoyable evening spent with beloved sibling and munchkins, I came to a strange conclusion: the night is young, and going to sleep just to be refreshed for the next workday is passé.

So, in accordance with this plan, I spent about half an hour playing America's favorite sport: flipping the channels on my TV remote. On the thirty fourth minute I realized that I will probably not see anything even remotely worthwhile, so I decided to finish my latest Netflix arrival. That was "Music and Lyrics", and I highly recommend it as a very sweet, light-hearted, feel-good with happy ending romantic comedy; plus, it had very enjoyable musical numbers in the style of the 80s music (OK, I am getting on in years).

After finishing the movie, I decided to play a bit on the Youtube; another very pleasant and time consuming activity, during which I found a music video of Sara Brightman singing "Harem". Sue me, but, despite the objectionable words due to the objectionable subject matter of this song, I actually enjoy the music and the beat (hey, nobody said that I was sane).

Next morning, while trying to wake up in the shower after half the night spent on those home entertainments, I was suddenly struck by this freaky connection: the movie and the song represented something diametrically opposed.

Now, a lot of people more gifted than yours truly already wrote brilliant summaries and responses to Obama's latest round of Muslim bootlicking, excuse me, attempts at diplomacy. But here is my short and not humble two cents worth of personal opinion.

Despite the fact that our non-esteemed supposed President went to Ivy League schools, and yours truly went to "Dura" college, I am firmly convinced that I am more knowledgeable in history than he is, even though I majored in psychology. All his claims to Muslim achievements are in error; whatever they supposed to have brought to civilization was brought by other nations and other religions. And even though thousand years ago they were better at medicine than the Europeans, come on! Even I am better at medical knowledge than the people who were convinced that you can heal wounds by the means of a fried field mouse. And they, by the way, made significant advancements since then; as apposes to the supposed beacons of civilization who only know how to torture and kill practically with their bare hands, but not to heal.

But Muslims always were, are, and will be famous (or infamous) for their elaborate harems and the entire culture attached to it (although that also was invented before their time).
Americans, on the other hand, are famous for their constant and almost unwavering hope for a better tomorrow. The Kenyan bastard stole that concept, trivialized and cheapened it in his campaign. But the concept is alive and well.

Other countries also make movies that have a happy ending, and that extol the healing power of love, friendship, art, and hope; but somehow, American movies are still the best and mostly unique in that regard.

And that, my friends, is the ironic connection that my head made when it was trying to wake up while being shampooed.

WALL-E

As I mentioned at the beginning of my blogging career, when I kept a paper and pen journal, it was exclusively to record my opinion on the books I read and the movies I have seen. I intended to do this here, in my virtual journal, but, unfortunately, there are some many other things to express my opinion about, and so few hours of mental breaks at work, that I have been consistently lagging behind. I watched "WALL-E" at the beginning of the last Independence Day weekend (back when we still had half-decent President, and not an America-hating crooked bastard), and I have finally decided to pen down few remarks.

Even though I have watched the commercials prior to actually seeing the movie, I still suffered a mildly severe disappointment after being introduced to the actual "work of art". To put it mildly, it was a propaganda fest for the brown-shirt-wearing, red-flag-waiving members of the one of my all time favorite groups - envirowacos. Basically, mother earth became totally unfit for human habitation because it was covered by mountains of garbage produced by our over-crazed consumerism and total disrespect for Gaia. Humanity (somehow exclusively American) escaped Earth (being lied to by corporate goon) on super-luxury space ships that were programmed to cater to their every need, and where they remained for few generations, eventually de-evolving into stupid globs of fat with atrophied legs. Finally, with some help from love-struck WALL-E (a robot), they returned to Earth and started cleaning and re-planting it (in the process somehow resembling evolving cave people).

Animation was fantastic, and the love story between WALL-E and EVA (another robot) very, very touching. A lot of noise was made to the tune that there is practically no dialogue between those two; in my case, funnily enough, it was a fellow moviegoer who pointed that fact out. Whatever the case, the effect was truly, well, effective; the absence of dialogue makes the whole romance that much more touching. But, as a whole, after such funny and heart-warming productions like "Ratatouille", "Monsters, Inc.", and "Incredibles", and such touching, tear jerking masterpiece like "Finding Nemo", "WALL-E" rings hollow with this anti-sustainability, pro-capitalism, jaded and cynical consumer.

TRIP TO THE MOVIES

Or the melting iceberg

As I mentioned before, I actually enjoy going to the movies, even though my primary goal is the same as in reading romances: just disconnect from the reality and fry my non-existent brain cells some more. Add to this the fact that I am very much a chicken, meaning I really do not like to see gore and violence in surround sound, and my choice of movies becomes extremely limited. Anyway, to make a long story a bit shorter, the last movie I watched before the one mentioned in this story was the fourth Harry Potter. Basically, I was pretty much movie deprived: no time, no money, nothing showing I want to watch when I have time or money, etc. So, finally, somewhere in the fall, I finally made my way to the movie theater to watch "Stardust".

I enjoyed that particular cinematic experience, even with the usual protracted battles towards the end and the usual for our wonderful times addition of a fierce pirate captain who ended up being a cross-dresser. Basically, the whole shebang was worth my ten bucks, but that is not the main point of this story. Dork that I am, I usually enjoy the previews as well: either I know ahead what to look forward to, or, more often, what not to look forward too; this time, one of the previews was for "Elizabeth:The Golden Age."

Now, in my personal opinion, Cate Blanchette is a pretty decent actress, but Elizabeth she is not, nor is Clive Owen a believable Sir Walter Raleigh. Hollywood is also very rarely accused of historical accuracy, and I am sure this movie was not an exception. All in all, this would not be the one motion picture I would run to watch, but that preview left an impression on me. It was Elizabeth's exclamation "by god, England will not fall while I am queen!" that made me remember why I admire her so much.

I remember my history professor, who, of course, was a feminist, pointed out to us that Elizabeth's reign was an ultimate irony on her dear Daddy. What she did not mention and what the sick lesbians from NOW, who presume to speak to and for all women, will never acknowledge was that her life was actually a personification of feminist's dream. Just think about it: her birth itself was a disappointment to her father since she was not a boy; her mother was executed on the false charges of treason before Elizabeth's third birthday; she was largely ignored by her father; she was accused of treason and thrown in the Tower by her own sister! Sufficient grounds for spending the rest of her life on the analyst's couch, wouldn't you agree?

When she became queen at the ripe old age of twenty five, the country was basically in shambles: impoverished, torn by religious strive, and in danger of being conquered by much stronger enemies. At the time of Elizabeth's death England was strong, prosperous, and undefeated master of the sea; in short, according to many historians, she was the best monarch in English history. Bess not only survived in the men's world against unbelievable odds; she was the best ever man (sorry, woman) for the job!

Elizabeth was smart, highly educated (probably more well-rounded than the professors at Teacher's College who think that studying Shakespeare is superfluous and outdated), and a brilliant politician. People who specialize in her biography like to point out that she was strong and strong-willed, but not mulishly stubborn: she surrounded herself with capable advisers to whom she listened very carefully (and whom she always rewarded for their faithful service to the Crown); but, most importantly, she genuinely loved her country and her people. "England will not fall while I am queen": to her being the queen and wearing the crown was first and foremost a sacred duty from Heaven; a moral obligation to dedicate her life to her country and her people. I am not trying to romanticise the second part of the sixteenth century, but, considering our extremely jaded times and the idiotic circus usually surrounding any kind of political elections, how many politicians have that kind of vision for their role?

While I was reminiscing about Bess, I also started remembering my general admiration for Albion. In my opinion, there is no coincidence that United States emerged from the English colony: the ideas of "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" as "unalienable rights... endowed by the Creator" could only come from the country of Magna Carta. In the course of the centuries, especially in the view of this and the preceding generations' general disregard and, in some instances, the re-writing of history, people either have no inkling of what Magna Carta was, or they view it as nothing more than the landlord/tenant squabble. Overall, English history usually gave a "vibe" of limited monarchy and admirable politicians like Edmund Burke (yes, I know he was Irish); Brits were in the forefront of the industrial revolution (and personal freedom in that case was as important as the presence of working grey matter); they almost single-handedly defeated Napoleon, and were the only European country to offer any kind of serious opposition to the Nazis (geography can be blamed for this, but only up to a point). On the lighter note, I personally love their dry wit and their "classical" writers are the only ones whose books do not promote the general air of depression; but, again, that is a deeply subjective and very personal opinion.

Alas, their glory days were gone the minute they voted Churchill out of the office. Once the Nazis were defeated, Brits decided to embrace socialist ideas, and the rest, pardon the pun, is history. Now a days, they are overrun by Muslims and pacifists; the situation deteriorated to a point where Archbishop of Canterbury openly proposes to incorporate sharia law into the law of the land and, as a side note, the British flag was removed from Heathrow airport, because the compilation of three patron saint crosses, which basically comprise the English flag, were apparently very offensive to the Muslims. That is after English were subjected to the tender mercies of the Muslim terrorists, with more and more plots constantly being uncovered. What gives? So, my personal conclusion was that that country is basically finished, and it is only a matter of time before it becomes official; and as much as I love Margaret Thatcher, Jo Rowling and Helen Fielding (different kettle of fish, I know), they are not going to save the situation much. That is, until I accidentally stumbled on the article about Stewart Dimmock.

Since it is a save guess that very few people in this country heard about him, let me just summarise it briefly. Dimmock was a school governor and a father of two who protested the indoctrination of the two said children and thousands of others into the very popular church of global warming. As Joseph Farah very nicely put it, Dimmock did not want his kids tortured by Al Gore and his "Inconvenient Truth". Even though the case resulted in the decision of allowing that masterpiece of cinematic wonder and political dissent to be shown in schools, there are two major caveats: number one, any teacher showing that tripe to his or her students is obligated to point out all the major mistakes made (if memory serves right, there are seven of them); and, number two, a mere mortal went against Al Gore and got his say! Of course, all the enviros here, when recounting this episode, start by pointing out that Dimmock is just a truck driver (or lorry driver, as they say across the pond). All I can say to this is: hurray for this lorry/truck driver! He had the guts and determination to try and protect his children by going against the powerful government machine and even more powerful political establishment! I, of course, do not know his family tree, but I would like to think that the blood of his probable ancestors who fought Napoleon and Hitler boiled in his veins and gave him the courage to fight. Who knows, maybe, just maybe, more people will wake up and try to protect their country and the future generations of that country. And maybe at Heathrow, just a few miles away from where Elizabeth is buried, Union Jacks will proudly fly again.