Movies You Will Want to Miss

Movie Wiz Kid Jeff Otto reviews the summer movies- at Reelz Channel

http://www.reelzchannel.com/article.aspx?articleId=382

Meat that Can't be Beat

A few weeks ago an article in the Atlanta Journal highlighted the great steakhouses in Atlanta and comparable prices. Good prime steak are generally going for $40 to $45 at Bones, Chops and Prime.

Chops serves a Wagyu steak, 12 ounces for $85.

If a piece of meat is going to sell for $85 it better have a pulse.

What We Tolerate We Teach

Many forget that the original articles of impeachment against Bill Clinton had nothing to do with lying about sex; it was about illegal campaign donations from a foreign national. The charge was treason.

Now Hillary is caught in a very similar act that is so obvious that the staff must believe they wear an invisible cloak.

If a candidate can not obey the law during a campaign why would we expect them to do so when they occupy the highest office?

From Opinion Journal- 8/31/07
"All of this is very reminiscent of the 1996 Clinton fundraising scandal. A total of 120 witnesses either fled the country, pleaded the Fifth Amendment or otherwise were unavailable for questioning. In the end, a total of 14 people were found guilty on various charges relating to the scandal. No wonder the Hillary Clinton campaign wants to change the subject away from Mr. Hsu."

A Slow Blog Day

Michael Vick is demonized for several weeks in the news for promoting dog fighting, yet the TV has prime time wrestling and boxing where people beat the crap out of each other.

Lithuania has the highest suicide rate.

Hitler was not a vegetarian, but he was plagued with chronic flatulence. He received a serum derived from pulverized bull testicles. A real party animal.

Panama hats come from Ecuador.

The last three are from The Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson

The Biggest Killer Will Be .......

What will be the biggest killer in the world by 2030?
a) Tuberculosis
b) AIDS
c) Malaria
d) Tobacco
e) Murder

Puttin on the Ritz

One of my favorite comic bits.....

From Young Frankenstein http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGN2aa3oQRM&mode=related&search=

.....ok so it is a bit eclectic

Harmless as an Enemy, Treacherous as a Friend

from the Orange County Register

Saturday, August 25, 2007
Mark Steyn: They wait for us to run again

in part

as Iran reminds us, the enduring legacy of the retreat from Vietnam was the emboldening of other enemies. The forces loosed in the Middle East bedevil to this day, in Iran, and in Lebanon, which Syria invaded shortly after the fall of Saigon and after its dictator had sneeringly told Henry Kissinger, "You've betrayed Vietnam. Someday you're going to sell out Taiwan. And we're going to be around when you get tired of Israel."

But if you lived in Damascus and Moscow and Havana, the Vietnam war was about America: American credibility, American purpose, American will. For our enemies today, it still is. Osama bin Laden made a bet – that, notwithstanding the T-shirt slogan, "These Colors Do Run": They ran from Vietnam, and they ran from the helicopters in the desert, and from Lebanon and Somalia – and they will run from Iraq and Afghanistan, because that is the nature of a soft, plump ersatz-superpower that coils up in the fetal position if you prick its toe. Even Republicans like Sen. John Warner seem peculiarly anxious to confirm the bin Laden characterization.

But, if you're not a self-absorbed poseur like Sulzberger, "Vietnam" is not a "tragedy" but a betrayal. The final image of the drama – the U.S. helicopters lifting off from the Embassy roof with desperate locals clinging to the undercarriage – is an image not just of defeat but of the shabby sell-outs necessary to accomplish it.

Professor Bernard Lewis' dictum would be self-evident: "America is harmless as an enemy and treacherous as a friend."

for the complete article http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/vietnam-people-america-1821074-times-new

Looking Beyond the Past Failures

from Ralph Peters in the New York Post
SENATOR WARNER'S BAD WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS

August 25, 2007 from FALLUJAH, Iraq -

Should we rob them of their victory now and enhance al Qaeda by giving them a free win? How can we even contemplate quitting now?
I've been sitting down with Iraqis, too - including former enemies. They don't want us to leave. They finally cracked the code. They need us. And although they've got a range of their own goals (not all of them tending toward Jeffersonian democracy), they're unified in their hatred of al Qaeda.
Yesterday I listened as an American officer sought to restrain Iraqi security forces from attacking one of al Qaeda's last strongholds prematurely - the local rage toward al Qaeda goes deeper than any column could communicate.
If our former enemies are willing to kill our enduring enemies, why abandon them?
And it isn't just about al Qaeda, either. This conflict's now about keeping Iran from achieving hegemony over the Persian Gulf and its oil reserves - and preventing Tehran's extremist policy from tearing the Middle East apart. The Maliki government sucks, but, brother, it's still better than an Iranian proxy in Baghdad would be for our security.
Sen. Warner cares about our country and our troops. But the security of our country and the progress of our troops would both be compromised fatefully were we to announce that we're pulling out of Iraq.

for the complete article http://www.nypost.com/seven/08252007/postopinion/opedcolumnists/senator_warners_bad_withdrawal.htm?page=0

Flight of the Conchords

It is a bit of a quirky comedy on HBO but I love it. Two New Zealand musicians and their manager struggling in the music business in New York. It is a bit like Laurel and Hardy for the MTV set. It is hilarious and very original.

The two New Zealand Youths were double dating a two fans and were faced with an opportunity offered for a three way, but the offer was uncertain if it was two men or the two women who tilted the offer. The song and video from their reluctant acid trip was terrific.

The closest I ever came to a three way was a brief liason with a schitzophrenic.

Do two schitzophrenics constitute an orgy?

for a sample check them out at YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGOohBytKTU&mode=related&search=

Who Reads More?

Apparently the American Publishers Association conducted a poll that said liberals read more than conservatives? Since it is headed by Pat Schroder, previous Democrat in the House I may be suspicious of the objectivuty of the poll, but it found that liberals read 9 books per year and conservatives read only 8 books a year.

One in four Americans read no books at all. I wonder how many of them are liberal and conservative?

Inernet reading apparently is excluded. I read about 30 books a year but probably the equivalent of another 5 on the internet.

Schroder of course pontificated that this worthless poll meant that conservatives are closed minded and get their information from bumper stickers.

What I would surmise is that people are really too diverse to split into just two categories.

Better Reality

Occasionally I hold up in a hotel room in Atlanta (The Intercontinental) for a few days to enjoy some silence, read, and organize quietly. I sleep a lot, take a lot of showers and read. I even read a paper and watch some TV that I rarely see. I may go for a walk on Peachtree with a cigar but it is just too damn hot outside. At 9:oo PM it is an instant sweat.

I watched Glenn Beck. He mentioned a blind woman got a hole in one (on the golf course in case you needed that clarification). She even learned the game while blind. There is just nothing one needs to add to that.

He also mentioned a man counted from one to a million on a typewriter. If that was not a big enough waste of time he took 16 years to do it again this time spelling the numbers out instead of just typing the numerical symbols.

If I had known television had this much interesting information I would watch it more. It is so much better than hearing about Linsey Lohan and Paris Hilton driving drunk.

The Science of Denial

Ellen Goodman has written that the deniers of global warming are on par with deniers of the holocaust.

really.... is this what scientific discourse has become? Was Galileo not a denier because he said the sun did not revolve around the sun?

check out Blond Sagacity- The Dangers of the Dangers of Global Warming. http://mobyrebuttal.blogspot.com/

The Biggest Killer

What will be the biggest killer in the world by 2030?
a) Tuberculosis
b) AIDS
c) Malaria
d) Tobacco
e) Murder

ponder this - I will have the answer in a week.

A Brief History of False Teeth

George Washington's false teeth were made from hippopotamus and elephant ivory held together with gold springs.

Before synthetic material the prefered choice was human teeth. The preffere donor was young and dead; battlefields were ideal.

50,000 dead at Waterloo were plundered for their teeth. For years afterward dentures were known as Waterloo Teeth.

The Civil War also provided a plentiful supply.

Celluloid was the first artificial material to be tried. Celluloid teeth smelled like ping pong balls and melted if you drank hot tea.

Fr0m The Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson

Earwig Penises

The European or black earwig carries a spare penis. Scientists from Tokyo Metroplitan Museum pinched a male earwig's rear end while the bugs were having sexual intercourse (apparently the Japanese are into that) and the when the penis broke off in the female the male quickly produced a backup.

John Bobbit, eat your heart out.

by the way - earwigs do not crawl in your ear any more than any other insect and they do not burrow into your brain. With all those penises they have better things to do.

from The Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Michinson

Subprime Math

Real estate foreclosures are up over 90% since May 2006.
About half of these are in 5 states: CA, FL NEV, AZ and GA-
13% of the mortagage market is subprime.

14% of them are in delinquincy- meaning more than 30 days past due.
5% of the subprime are in foreclosure.

As a percent of the total (14% x 13%) 1.87 % are delinquent. Still high by national standards.
As a percent of the total (5% x 13%) .65% are in foreclosure.

Historically bad for the industry and especially for those concentated in one of those five states- but it doesn't seem so devastating for the country as a whole. Is it worth 1,000 points on the dow?

Beats me, but it is fun to watch. Markets tend to run to extremes.

Controlling Gun Control

From The AJC 8/22/07

Kennesaw, Ga achieved some notoriety 25 years ago for its ordinance to require all local citizens to maintain a firearm in their home. The City Council recently passed an ordinace forbidding anyone from carrying a firearm in its loacl parks.

The ordinace was rescinded because of pressure from GeorgiaCarry.org. They argue that local ordinaces are subordinate to state law which allows it.

Given how some parents behave at their little league games I can certainly understand why some would want to keep guns away from them. Are we more concerned that too many people have guns, or than nobody will have one when we need it the most?

How about requiring an armed police officer at any site where guns from private citizens are banned?

We would need a lot of new cops.

Surfing for Peace

from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Wednesday August 22, 2007 p A7

Dorian Paskowitz, an 80 year old Jewish surfing guru donated 12 surfboards to Gaza's small surfing community to promote peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, starting a movement called "Surfing for Peace."

No I am not doing drugs. With news like this why bother.

I bet when one of the Gaza surfers drowns while surfing it will be the result of this insidious new Jewish conspiracy.

A Sub Prime Loan Can Be Better than a Prime

Apparently it isn't only the subprime loans that are causing the fallout it is the prime loans. People have bought more home than they can afford in order to participate in the real estate boom. The default rate on the prime mortages are the problem.

I would rather have a performing sub prime loan than a non performing prime loan.

This means people will buy the house they need rather than the house they can manage with a 100% loan on an ARM mortgage. The impact of the squeeze affects other markets. On MSNBC radio I heard that 17% of car buyers were delaying car purchases because of the impact of the mortgage squeeze.

New homes, banks, building material suppliers, contractors, and even furnishing retailers will be affected. Look for bargains in homes and cars.

For people who manage their debt load, meaning that they have cash, opportunities are on the horizon.

How Is This War Different?

Victor Davis Hanson has a great article on how this war is so different from previous American Missions. I highly recommend the entire article at http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=MWZkN2FlZDY0MWZlYWMzMTExMDhkYjliNmIzYWUzNjU=

The Burdens of General Petraeus
No simple mission.
By Victor Davis Hanson

a few excerpts

But so far, no recent military has succeeded in defeating a radical Muslim terrorist insurgency, while subject to a constitutional government and an absolutely free media. In this regard, the United States — given its position as the world’s only superpower and recognized as the most sensitive of all countries to easy criticism — is especially at a military disadvantage.

There is yet a third anomaly: We are presently fighting two simultaneous wars under a conservative Republican administration. And that too is fairly rare in the last 100 years, and far more challenging. Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Bill Clinton all at times proved bellicose, bypassed Congress if needed be, and (with the exception of LBJ) largely got a pass from the Left. World War I, Korea, and Vietnam were all controversial in their time. Apparently, the intelligentsia and media felt that no liberal Democrat could possibly have preferred war, and had only fought when forced to — despite the use of Democratic preemption in a variety of instances.

In contrast, it is hard to recall of any war in our history — the Vietnam hysteria aside — that a sitting Senate majority leader declared it lost in the middle of hostilities. We have not previously witnessed senior opposition senators alleging that their own American servicemen were analogous to Nazis, Stalinists, Cambodian mass murders, Saddam’s Baathist killers, or engaging in habitual terrorizing and killing of innocent civilians.

The result is that U.S. military officials recognize that any possible strike on the Syria border would be broadcast worldwide as carpet bombing of a wedding party or tribal reunion, while the enemy’s mass beheadings and torture will often go unreported.

My favorite example this week was a syndicated photo of a poor elderly Iraqi woman holding up two bullets with the caption: “An elderly Iraqi woman shows two bullets which she says hit her house following an early coalition forces raid in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City.(AFP/Wissam al-Okaili)”. The only problem was all that was the bullets shown were unfired and still in their casings!

read the rest Hanson's article

Caption This

Tolerating Intolerance

from National Review Online

As the Washington Post’s Marc Fisher reported, University of Maryland student Mia Lazarus recently went to buy some chips and juice at the Maryland Food Collective. The clerk at this grocery and sandwich shop in the student union read her t-shirt’s “Baltimore Zionist District” and “I Stand for Israel” slogans and then declared, “Your shirt offends me. I won’t ring you up.”

Exactly how “tolerance” devolved into coddling those who choose to take offense for the slightest of reasons is a question for another day (although decades of experience demonstrates that on-campus tolerance is more frequently understood as the right of “victims” to air grievances than of heterogeneous speakers to be heard). Another question is how and why we’ve allowed identity politics to constrict public spaces.But the pressing problem with the way “tolerance” as touted by too many educators is that it rewards zealotry; while the zealots are understood to be beyond its soggy grasp, the rational and pragmatic are expected to do what is necessary to keep the peace.

for the complete story http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MjU0M2UyNjFiMmM0ZDUzZjcxY2EwYjk5MGVhYTFiOTU=

HKO

I am reminded of a great Southpark episode when the kids are sent to 'Tolerance Camp' where 'tolerance' is forced upon the kids with Gestapo like camp counselors. It's like 1984 when Good is Bad and 'tolerance' has now become 'intolerance.' It's screwed up folks!

A Crisis is the Rallying Cry of the Tyrant

from OpinionJournal's Poltical Diary 8/14/07 (part of Wall Street Journal)

Quote #1 on Newsweeks recent front page attack on those who doubt global warming-

Quote of the Day I
"Unfortunately, self-righteous indignation can undermine good journalism. Last week's Newsweek cover story on global warming is a sobering reminder. It's an object lesson of how viewing the world as 'good guys vs. bad guys' can lead to a vast oversimplification of a messy story.... As we debate it, journalists should resist the temptation to portray global warming as a morality tale -- as Newsweek did -- in which anyone who questions its gravity or proposed solutions may be ridiculed as a fool, a crank or an industry stooge. Dissent is, or should be, the lifeblood of a free society" -- Newsweek columnist Robert Samuelson.

Quote #2 from same issue- from Cardinal Pell

Quote of the Day II
"Some of the hysteric and extreme claims about global warming are also a symptom of pagan emptiness, of Western fear when confronted by the immense and basically uncontrollable forces of nature. Belief in a benign God who is master of the universe has a steadying psychological effect, although it is no guarantee of Utopia, no guarantee that the continuing climate and geographic changes will be benign. In the past pagans sacrificed animals and even humans in vain attempts to placate capricious and cruel gods. Today they demand a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions" -- Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, in a speech last year at Naples, Florida.

from HKO

I repeat I do not begin to understand the science of global warming. I do not deny that it exists, but I do have doubts about its danger, its cause, its priority, and the cure. When the language drifts into 'nay sayers' a 'need to unite' and accusations against 'special interests', then the arguments leave the realm of science and enter the political and the religious.

I also find it odd that the same ilk of people who rally around the cry of global warming resist the most effective cure- nuclear energy. No solution is without risk or cost.

Over Reaction in the Subprime Market

The subprime market is just too small to have that much of an adverse effect.

according to Ben Stein in National Review-

Currently there are about 44 million mortgages in the U.S., and less than 14 percent of them are sub-prime. And only about 13 percent of those are late on payments, with the majority of late payers working through their problems with the banks.So, all in all, when you work through the details and get down to the number that really matters, only about 0.6 percent of U.S. mortgages are currently in foreclosure.

That’s up a hair from roughly 0.5 percent last year. That’s it.Actually, that’s not it. Things are actually better than the numbers suggest, since sub-prime-mortgage homes are less expensive than prime-mortgage homes. This makes sense. Wealthier people, generally, can afford costlier homes than less-wealthy people. The recent sub-prime surge brought large numbers of moderate-income families into the home-ownership market, and their houses are less expensive than most.

Therefore, the dollar impact of the sub-prime default is smaller than if it were a prime default.With approximately 254,000 mortgages in foreclosure at the moment — up from roughly 219,000 last year — the sub-prime meltdown has given us an increase of 35,000 mortgage foreclosures over the last quarter. Since the average sub-prime mortgage clocks in at almost exactly $200,000, we’re looking at an approximate $7 billion increase in foreclosed value in the first quarter of this year.

Raymond, how big is household net worth in the U.S.? About a hundred dollars?Actually, it’s a lot bigger than that — about $53 trillion. In other words, the recent increase in sub-prime foreclosures amounts to 0.01 percent of net U.S. household wealth.That’s toothpicks, Raymond.

complete story http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Y2Y5NGVmODQzNTEwOGZmMzExNzRkYzBkMzA4OGI1ZGM=

A Sub Prime Primer

You have equity in your home and you want to borrow money but you have a less than stellar credit history. You apply for a mortgage loan in a subprime market.

If you had good credit you could get a mortgage loan for let’s say 7%. Let’s say you have $200,000 equity in a $300,000 home and you want a loan of $100,000. A local credit broker loans you the money thinking the house could drop in value 30% and he could still foreclose and get his money. He charges you an interest rate of perhaps 12% plus a few points closing.

The 12% yield is attractive to investors, and is ‘safely’ secured by the house. Typically a subprime borrower will borrow in this market for a few years, rebuild his credit rating to apply for a prime loan, and then pay off the sub prime loan. The loan costs therefore must be amortized over a short period, hence the higher rates and fees.

Wall Street sees the higher yields, likes what they see, buys them up from the knowledgeable local brokers and packages them in units to sell to investors, keeping some of the higher yields. In fact the fees become so lucrative that they throw lots of money at brokers to find more of these rich yields. Prudence is sacrificed, appraisals become inflated, the local touch is lost.

Bankruptcies happen, the safety spread has diminished aggravated by a soft housing market and more aggressive lending practice, and now principle disappears (along with principles). Banks and brokers that packaged these sub prime loans show record defaults, Wall Street panics.

A few lessons- what works locally does not always work nationally. What may work in small units does not always work with larger numbers. When the fees to originate loans become too lucrative there will be incentives to inflate values and make loans work that should never have been put on the books.

The local broker used to see his investors at the grocery store and in church and had an incentive to be sure the loan performed. The Wall Street whores rarely had to look their investors in the eye.

The subprime meltdown was the result of a good investment vehicle with a limited market that was destroyed by Wall Street throwing too much money at it. It wasn’t the first time.

And it won’t be the last.

Who Goes Where for Health Care

from the Opinion Journal's Poltical Diary- 8/10/07

Hillary was responding to a question about her support for socialized medicine

Mrs. Clinton also declared that Western European care was "better on balance" than U.S. care and offered to provide her questioner -- a freelance writer named Kiara Ashanti -- with background information "if you're interested in being educated instead of being rhetorical." Oh, snap.

Moreover, her hosannas to Western Europe don't really hold up under scrutiny. The U.S. may rank lower in crude health outcomes like life expectancy and infant mortality, but these reflect a variety of factors (such as lifestyle choices) and measure health, not health care. More sophisticated metrics (like five-year outcomes from the point of diagnosis) consistently show American medicine offers better, more state-of-the-art care to more people.

So Hakim Mansour Wants to Support the Poor?

Jack praises Hugo Chavez, a petty dictator and sympathizer with the world's worst terrorist states, for offering to subsidize oil to poor people in the US.

How about solidarity with a country that has fed more starving people around the world than all the rest of the countries combined, delivered more medicine to the sick that anyone, sent more help for those devastated by natural disasters, and liberated more citizens from the kind of tyranny schmucks like Chavez imposes. You will not need a courier to deliver your statement, just a 41 cent postage stamp.

SEE STORY ON fOX NEWS

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,293197,00.html

the image was created by Steve Wilson at http://www.wmccnews.com/

Hitler, Chamberlain and Bush

Let’s stretch our brain a little.

We often hear the comparison of Bush’s decision to invade Iraq to Chamberlain’s decision to not stop Hitler at Munich. If only Chamberlain had the foresight to have seen what would be the consequences of his appeasement (surrender on the installment plan- Churchill) he could have averted the tragedy of the holocaust and WWII.

But Chamberlain feared the results of the last war, millions killed for reasons atomized afters years of trench warfare, until both sides were exhausted. We seemed perpetually doomed to fight the last war.

But what if we compared Bush’s decision not to Chamberlain, but to Hitler’s decision to invade Russia. When France surrendered so quickly Hitler wanted to avoid interference from Russia when he invaded England. Stalin, having purged his military leaders, led Hitler to believe Russia would go down without much of a fight.

Today in hindsight Hitler’s decision was a catastrophic mistake. While our war movies glorify the heroism of American and British forces much of the havoc wreaked on Germany came from Russia.

History will tell us whether Bush avoided the blunder of Chamberlain or committed the blunder of Hitler.

I am certainly hoping for the first.

Inspired and summarized from Aug 5 Toronto Star, Vit Wagner review of Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions that Changed the World 1940-41 by Ian Kershaw, Tips to Doug Ott for the e-mail.

Global Warming Haiku

It's hotter than hell,
I awake in a warm sweat,
Could Al Gore be right?

Press '3' if You Require Blood Pressure Medication

I just went through one of those infuriating experiences with an auto-attendant to call a bank about a letter charging me $1200 for insurance I did not need. The details would be too long and boring and everyone has these stories, the ones that start "press 1 if you want english...."

My sole suggestion- If the message I am greeted with says, "your call is important to us"... be damn sure it is not spoken by a computer. All that computer cares about is my binary digital code. I am no more important to that machine than the color of the phone I am using.

If my call is important to you then have a human answer it.

Armed and Not Dangerous

Last Saturday I went to the Eastman Gun show at the Macon Coliseum. It has been many years since I attended such a show. I was interested in comparing prices on a few pistols of interest.

One would expect your typical white redneck shopper, and there were many such representatives. There were also a large group of African Americans and women. Some booths had seniors with some collector items, but most had used pistols and rifles and most had a big selection of new guns such as Glocks.

Gone were the right wing fringe booths I had remembered from years ago. The only political type booth was an unmanned Minuteman booth. Based on their literature their only position was to stop ILLEGAL immigration; not very far right.

What amazes me is that you have all of these people in a room with all of these weapons and everyone feels safe. It is not simply because practically everyone is armed. This is apparently true in Gaza. It is because these same supporters of second ammendment rights also respect all the other laws.

Guns do not make a society safe if there is no underlying repsect for law and order.

John Mayer Concert

Just returned from dinner at the OK Cafe in Atlanta, one of my favorite Atlanta spots and then a John Mayer concert at Phillips Arena with my wife, daughter and three of her friends.

Mayer is quite a talent, a good singer and songwriter and he can scorch a guitar. The audience was an interesting mix, and the crowd control was much better than I remember in my younger concert days.

A very nice evening.

The Thrill of a Filipino Prison

Tips to Chic Chat for this one- (I guess I do have a feminine side)

Filipino prisoners choreograph "Thriller" .

Check it at You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5nZcFIf3qc

You gotta love the internet.

Have Some Bush Bashers Lost Their Mind?

From Blond Sagacity http://mobyrebuttal.blogspot.com/

what if..

...George Bush allowed no dissent

....GWB made the GOP the only party

....GWB dismantled all separations between the military, the government and the GOP....GWB took away all transparency

....GWB instituted a policy of unlimited funding for his administration and the GOP with no oversight or approval needed

....GWB jailed those that staged protests against him

....GWB and the GOP confiscated property with no compensation.

Would there be a countrywide revolt? A World-wide revolt for that matter? These are a few of the things the Hugo Chavez government has done in Venezuela. (source)

Yet, Hollywood and the American left embrace him. Why? Are they so blinded by their manufactured Bush hatred that they will cling to anyone that opposes him?"...Hollywood star Sean Penn applauded President Hugo Chavez on Thursday as the Venezuelan leader lambasted the Bush administration and demanded an end to war in Iraq.

Chavez met privately with Penn for two hours and praised him as "brave" for standing up to the White House and publicly calling for U.S. President George W. Bush to be impeached.

Penn sat near the front, at times applauding and nodding in agreement. He is the latest in a series of celebrities who have come to visit the socialist leader, including actor Danny Glover and singer Harry Belafonte.

When Passion Replaces Common Sense

Penn and Teller ask environmentalists to sign a petition to ban di-hydro monoxide- water.

Without lying it is described in the language of an environmentalist alarmist.

check it out at You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTw

tips to Marty Carter