Eastern Conference Finals Boston Vs Miami

Feel free to comment even if you aren't watching the game and don't know what you're talking about. Hell That's never stopped anybody before.

1st Quarter Thoughts by Jonathan: Celtics are getting out to a faster start: Rondo and Pierce leading the way with 8 pts. each. Rondo needs to finish with the layups, and Boston has to avoid giving fouls (4 in the 1st quarter alone?) Love how they're neutralizing D-Wade with double teams (0pts., only 2 assts.). Overall, a good quarter for Boston.


2nd quarter thoughts by Jonathan: This half would have finished perfectly for Boston, had Miami not gotten off and finished on a 7-0 run, thanks to Mario Chalmers battling to get the Heat back in it. And yet, there's so much to like: Rondo has 22 pts, 4 reb and 7 assists; Ray Allen's 3-3 from the field and Pierce has 10 pts. D-Wade has been a non-factor, thanks to double and triple penetration whenever he's had the Rock in his hands. Here's the big question: Now with D-Wade being neutralized, that bright spotlight now turns to "King" James. Can he lead this team when it becomes crunch time?


3rd Quarter Thoughts by Jonathan: Wow. Just a poor 12 minutes of basketball by Boston. To make matters worse: D-Wade woke up. Now we'll see how the Old Three and Rondo can stop the Dynamic Duo + Chalmers.

The Birther Saga Returns!

Just when you thought it was over, "The Donald" rears his ugly head (and his orange toupee) back into the national media with more Birther crap. Read all about it over at The Way I See It. Also, feel free to make a comment about my latest piece, and, as always, "The Count" is more than welcome to publish my piece over on BAD if he so chooses.

 __________________________________________________

Great Stuff as always Jonathan. 

The Birther Saga Returns!

In 1946, one year after the end of the Second World War, a young, ambitious veteran defeated a three-term sitting senator from his own party, Robert M. La Follete, Jr. of Wisconsin. The reason for his victory? He claimed that La Follete had not only being a coward for not enlisting in the war after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, but for making obscene profits while he was gallantry fighting for his country. The belief that La Follete was a war profiteer damaged his career, and was swiftly defeated. The name of the newly-elected nominee for the state of Wisconsin was Joseph Raymond McCarthy. Ironically enough, Robert was 46 years of age and serving his third term when the attacks took place, and that McCarthy himself, invested money in the stock market whilst serving his country, raking in $42,000 in 1943. Those facts didn't matter in the end. What stuck was the repeated spin that La Follete's very patriotism was suspect. McCarthy's brash, brazen and disgusting attacks on an opponent's character have been apart of his rise to power and prominence, even back to when he was running for local office in his home state, as the internet magazine on law, Legal Affairs, documents:

The 10th Judicial District was largely rural, and McCarthy, in his three-month campaign in 1939, visited farmers and their families. He knew how to talk to them about crops and climate. He sent out thousands of postcards showing a little boy holding a baseball bat, captioned: "Let's Play Ball." But more potent than these Currier & Ives methods was his attack on Werner's weak spot. The standard biographical source for lawyers, the Martindale-Hubbell directory, listed Werner's date of birth as 1866, which would have made him 73. As a candidate in 1916, Werner had added seven years to his age in order to seem more mature. But now the deception, repeated in edition after edition, backfired. Joe ran ads in the local papers accusing Werner of lying about his age. Werner produced a birth certificate that showed he was born on July 24, 1872, in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, which made him 66 in February 1939. But he was not as effective in broadcasting his defense as McCarthy was in attacking him. Shortly before the election, Joe ran an ad under the headline: "What About This Age Question?" In April 1939, McCarthy won, by 15,164 votes to Werner's 11,219. Once again, the lesson was: Dirty tricks work. At 30, Joe McCarthy was the youngest man ever elected a circuit judge in Wisconsin. 

McCarthy's bully-boy strategy of destroying an opponent by fabricating the most outrageous and malicious slanders, half-truths and false accusations imaginable without even a hint of remorse or shame, and how repeating said smears ad nauseum  until they become the truth, lives on in our political climate to this day. From Saxby Chambliss tearing down the career of thrice amputated war veteran and then-sitting Senator from Georgia Max Cleland, to Karl Rove using John Kerry's service in the Vietnam War to question his own patriotism, the politics of character assassination serve as a reminder that they work and have gotten others elected.

Which brings me to Donald Trump and the resurgence of the Birther bullshit. Yes, just when you thought this sad and shameful bit of thinly-veiled racism had finally been put to bed by President Obama himself when he released, to the press, his birth certificate, "The Donald" makes his un-inglorious return to the 24-hour cable news circuit whilst shilling for the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee, Mitt Romney.

On Tuesday morning, Trump appeared via telephone on CNBC, where he argued that questions about Obama's birthplace have not been adequately answered, despite Obama releasing a copy of his birth certificate over a year ago.
"Nothing has changed my mind," he said.
Trump was skeptical about a recently unearthed promotional booklet from Obama's former literary agency that erroneously reported the president was born in Kenya. After the discovery of the booklet reignited rumors that Obama is not a natural-born American citizen, the author of his biography quickly came forward and said the mistake was a simple fact-checking error.
Trump, however, was not convinced. "Look, a publisher come out last week and had a statement about Obama given to them by Obama when he was doing a book as a young man, a number of years ago, in the 90s," he said. "Now amazingly, the publisher is 'oh we made a mistake.'"
"[Obama was] a young man doing a book, and he said what he believed to be the truth."
Unsatisfied with Obama's birth certificate, the authenticity of which he said many people have "serious doubts" about, he called for Obama to provide his academic transcripts from Columbia, Harvard and Occidental College.
"A lot of people want to see his college transcripts," Trump said. "They're not looking at his marks, his grades. ... They want to see, what does he say about place of birth. Now, those transcripts have disappeared, nobody seems to be able to get them."

I'm not about to re-hash this matter, mostly because i've pointed out the obvious several times before on this blog. What I will say is that if you're looking for Mitt to distance himself from this nonsense, don't waste your time. He won't, and neither will the rest of the Republican Party. In secret, they know this line of attack is reprehensible and ludicrous in almost every conceivable way.  But they're hunting bigger game: the game plan has been to use coded words to paint President Obama as "foreign", or a president "who isn't like us," or "one of us." This line of personal attack is one i'm sure ol' Tailgunner Joe would be proud of.

Eastern Conference Final Preview: Boston v. Miami

There was once a time were I had the Boston Celtics being the dark horse in the postseason. I thought Doc River's team was getting hot at the right time, and with a healthy Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett, I thought Boston had enough for one last run at the title before they would have to seriously re-tool, get younger Point Guards and wait a few years before coming back to the spotlight, and it looked like Boston was going to get that chance: they played great in Games 3, 4 and 6 to bounce out Atlanta in the Fist round of Eastern Conference play, Derick Rose tore his ACL and Joakin Noah left Game 3 with a sprained ankle, and with LeBron James and his well-documented history of choking in the postseason, I thought Boston would have a shot at making it to the Finals, maybe even winning it all.

That was until Boston faced Philly in the Semi-Conference Round, and San Antonio went off sweeping Utah and LAC in the first two rounds. Boston is too old, too banged up (I'm looking at you, Pierce and Brandon Bass), and suffers from a similar mentality the Lakers: the notion that they can "turn it on" whenever they damn-well feel like it, leading to sloppy, inconstent play by the starters, and dragging that series to a decisive and climatic Game 7, when in reality, the Celtics should have wrapped it up by Game 6. Sure, Miami's without Chris Bosh, and the bench is about as useful as the Lakers', but a hungry D-Wade and LeBron vs Boston's Old 3 + Rondo?  Unless "King" James has one more glorious choke job left in him, Wade won't allow Doc and company to humiliate them like they blasted the team 2 years ago, and exposed LeBron in Game 5 back when he was a memeber of the Cavs.

My Prediction: Miami in 6. Also, this thread can be used for real-time thoughts and posts from Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

 The Count: Boston had no chance of beating LA in 69, LA in 84, LA in 08, Cleveland and Orlando in 10, No chance of beating Miami in 2012 No none at all. 

The Count: It looks like the NBA has decided to put the Heat in the finals no matter what. This has been the worst officiated game I have ever seen and that is saying a lot. Tell me Stern as a Boston fan is there a reason I should watch the rest of this series? Has it already been decided? 

Boston 85 Philadelphia 75

Boston wins the series 4-3

Conservative Troll Calls Poster A "Stupid Bitch" Wants Civility.

Joshua Pabelick commented 14 mins ago ·  Anyways Kevin you do make good points and i can say at least go back and forth with you has not resorted to name calling so thank you. 

Great English BTW Josh. 

Joshua Pabelick commented 25 mins ago
Wow Aria is it that time of the month or are you always such a stupid bitch? 


Why do all conservative trolls sound alike? Like Bob Peters? They all act the same way too. Begging for civility while they stab you in the back. 

Philadelphia 82 Boston 75

Series tied 3-3 Saturday is the deciding game 7.

Boston 101 Philadelphia 85

Boston is up 3-2

New Skyfall Trailer

Jonathan Goes To the Movies: Battleship

I hate Michael Bay.

With a passion, I might add.

After two successful hit movies, the Will Smith-Martin Lawrence buddy-cop action-comedy Bad Boys in 1995, and the prison break action movie, The Rock one year later, the summer of 1998 saw the rise of what would soon to be, one of the most profitable directors working with the smash hit, Armageddon. The film would serve as as a blueprint for how Bay would direct future films with his following trademark Bay-isms: 

• shaky camerawork
• quick cuts in action sequences
• big, loud explosions that assault the eardrum
• slow-mo shots aircraft and people posing behind a backdrop sunset
• poorly-developed characters
• ethnic stereotypes
• female characters that serve nothing more than eye candy for the audience, or merely being in love with the male protagonist
• an overbearing score

Little did we know, Armageddon was just the beginning. Although the movie was widely panned by the critics as mindless junk stretched out for 2 1/2 hours, the audience ate it up, making over $200 million domestically during its box-office run and became the highest grossing movie worldwide in 1998, making over $550 million. Bay's gigantic success signaled to him two key things: One, this is what audiences want to see. And two, that the critics who dismiss his movies as idiotic drivel can go fuck themselves. From 2001 - 2011, Bay would go on an almost uninterrupted streak of crafting action movies that follow in Armageddon's footsteps: be it the disrespectful and offensive WWII romantic drama Pearl Harbor in 2001, the mean-spirited and misogynistic follow-up to 95's Smith/Lawrence action-comedy Bad Boys II in 2003, the Blade Runner/Matrix ripoff sci-fi action movie The Island in 2005, the surprisingly entertaining Hasbro toy line-turned feature-length motion picture Transformers in 2007, and their godawful sequels; Revenge of the Fallen in 2009, and last year's Dark of the Moon, the James Cameron wannabe made Hollywood blockbusters that catered to giving the audience what it wanted: two-plus hours of relentless action, little character development or growth, stories filled with plot holes, and caricatures that either act as comic relief, or sex appeal for the male viewers. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Now, in the fifth month into the year of our lord 2012, we have finally arrived at a movie that takes it's cues almost note-for-note from the Michael Bay playbook....another Hasbro game getting the silver screen treatment in Battleship. How does a shameless Bay-ripoff look like in the hands of a decent blockbuster director in Peter Berg (Hancock, The Kingdom)? The answer is that Battleship is one of the most infuriating and dreadful experiences i've ever had at the movies since I walked out on Norbit. 

Lieutenant Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch) is an arrogant, irresponsible douchebag who commands the USS John Paul Jones in a training exercise for the RIMPAC Naval War Games, a competition between American and Japanese soldiers on the shores of a naval base in Hawaii. His brother, Stone (Alexander Skarsgård, what the hell are you doing in this picture!?) is tired of dealing with his brother's latest fuck-ups, and Admiral Shane (Liam Nesson, phoning his performance) is on the cusp of booting his ass out of the Navy. Enter the appearance of an invading alien army, and Hopper and his crew aboard the John Paul  Jones - along with his hot girlfriend Sam Shane (Brooklyn Decker), the Admiral's daughter, and a double amputee Afghanistan war vet Mick (played by real-life Iraq war veteran Gregory D. Gadson) charged with keeping ET from calling home (don't ask) - are the only people that can stop the aliens from enslaving the world. If you're wondering why the invading alien race are trying to rule the earth, that plot point is never explained, at all. They're here to kill and conquer, and that's all you need to know! 


The unknown reasons for the aliens to invade, other than to set up tired, uninspired and unexciting action set pieces and mindless CGI destruction is one of many reasons why I hated Battleship, easily the year's worst movie. I also hated the "characters", from the dickhead Alex, to his stereotypical hot fiancee Sam (seriously, what does this bimbo see in him?!) to the amputee, who comes away with the worst lines of dialogue in this movie. I hated how the action scenes are just CGI set pieces that don't have that "wow!" factor which made Marvel's The Avengers a blast, or the last 40 minutes of Dark of the Moon somewhat entertaining. Most of all, I hated how, even at an hour and a half of all of this, that the filmmakers hadn't even gotten to the really stupid parts yet, as the last 40 minutes contains a jaw-droppingly idiotic sequence of events that even I can't begin to explain, and even if I could, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. The one good thing about this overlong assault on story, character development, and common sense is that pop star Rihanna's performance as Petty Officer Raikes isn't as terrible as I thought it would be: she's kind of a badass, who is unfortunately given little to do and less to expand her character on. There's still seven months left to go in the movie season, but i'm already betting on Battleship to clean up at the Razzie Awards. A movie bereft of suspense, excitement and common sense will win the title every time.


0 stars out of ****

Ok Here's the play

Kobe takes the ball down the court. He doesn't look to move the ball. He completely ignores Bynum open from 3 feet under the basket. He takes a 27 foot contested jumper and misses by 13 feet. Then we blame Pau Gasol. Got it? Ok let's run it!

Philadelphia 92 Boston 83

Boston 2 Philadelphia 2

Skyfall poster

The new poster for the next James Bond movie, Skyfall, due out November of this year. The big question: what does the Count think of the teaser poster?

Also: the trailer for Skyfall will be released on Monday.

Boston 107 Philadelphia 91

Boston up 2-1 and takes back homecourt.

They're Here! They're Queer! The Right Refuse to Get Used To It!

As we know, President Obama this week, made history this week by coming out of the closet in support of gay marriage. The asylum at Blogs for Victory.com didn't take the news too well, as you might expect, but more on that in a minute. Matt Margolis, the resident attack is livid that Dick Cheney, who came out in support for gay marriage, isn't being showered with praise from the media. Yet the article he linked to tells the story as to why Cheney isn't getting, as Margolis feels, the attention he deserves: Cheney came out in support for marriage equality.....in June of 2009, almost six months since he left office, whereas Obama was the first official in office to actually utter his support for this particular issue. Big difference there, Matt.
As I stated earlier, the mental patients in the asylum of a blog, didn't take the news too lightly...

js03May 11, 2012 at 3:13 pm #

America was founded on the Declaration of Independence. Its foundations lie under the respect of the laws of nature, and of natures God. Any medical doctor will tell you what the human reproductive system is for. Sodomy is not sex, it is deviant sexual behavior. It is not reproductive behavior; it is nothing more than selfish lust and is a huge indicator of sex addiction. Homosexuality is an abomination of the human body, and its reproductive system. An abomination is aberrant behavior, deviant sexual activity, and is often a part of a lifestyle that includes alcohol abuse, drug abuse and depression.

There is no protection for an imagined civil right to deviant behavior.
That was just one of the many comments you'll find that show their feelings on the news story which I'm not going to link, monstly because it's the lot of them using the Bible to justify their own prejudice, a pastime which has been well documented on this site for years now. The one question I have about this whole affair is why do they amass so much energy into raling against gays and lesbians getting married? What difference does it make if two men are married or two women?

Philadelphia 82 Boston 81.

Boston fucks themselves by not bothering to play 3 quarters then they get fucked by the refs at the end of the game.

Boston 92 Philadelphia 91

Boston up 1-0 Don't think I am not grateful for the last 2 victories Boston but it is legal to play in the first 3 quarters and not just the fourth.

Remembering James Bond Omnibus Vol 3.

You can read my reviews for Vol 1 Here
And Vol 2 Here

The works of Ian Fleming that were usable in comic strip format had all been used by 1968 so now Jim Lawrence (writer) and Yaroslav Horak (artist) began to produce original stories. All of the strips in this volume except Colonel Son were original stories by Jim Lawrence. Colonel Sun was an adaptation of Kingsley Amis' loan work of James Bond fiction. The stories collected in Vol 2. which contained Fleming stories with plot elements added to by Lawrence were the best the strip had to offer. Volume 3 starts off strong but the quality of the stories begin to dip starting with the strip Fear Face which with it's killer robots veers off into the world of science fiction.

The Harpies 1968-1969: 222 Strips. The first full Lawrence Original is a strong strip. I am a fan of the longer strips stories as it gives the writer more time to flesh out a good story. Eventually the strips would start running less than a 100 strips with some running only between 55-80 and the quality of the stories would suffer. Horak's art work is always first rate. A group of jet packed females have kidnapped a scientist named Phineas who has created a death ray. He's hasn't decided yet what to do with his invention and the evil Simon Nero wants it for himself so he uses his Harpies to kidnap Phineas. **** 1/2

 River Of Death 1969 126 Strips. One of Lawrence's favorite plot devices trained animals makes it's debut here. This time it's trained howler monkeys who kill people by gassing them. Bond and Kitty Redwing investigate one Dr. Cat who is training the monkeys. This is one of the most well thought of strips in the cannon but it's not with out flaw. Bond's dialogue which begins to sound more suitable for Willie Garvin with it's increased cockney slang is often mentioned for starting in the strip Golden Ghost. In actuality he starts to use "loves" and "blimeys" and the like in this strip. Why does Bond take so long to connect the store owner LT Grey with Dr. Cat? I mean come on El Tigre? One last thing. Various Bond reference books mention that it's a mistake that Bond knows Kitty Redwing's name because she doesn't introduce herself. Really? Strip 1097 "My people predate the "yanks" Mr Bond we got there before the Mayflower I'm a Sioux Indian Kitty Redwing" That sounds like an introduction to me. ****

Colonel Sun. 1969-1970 212 Strips. A straight adaptation of Kingley Amis' book. The Chinese under the leadership of one Colonel Sun Liang-tan. is going to blow up a  middle eastern Russian peace meeting and make it look like the English did it starting world war 3. Bond teams up with a communist Greek agent Ariadne Alexandrou to foil the plot. Yes the move The Spy Who Loved me borrowed liberally from this story. The book is considered by many the best James Bond continuation novel and the strip is pretty much a straight retelling of the book. It's one of the best strips of the cannon. *****

Golden Ghost.  1970-1971 124 strips. The British have created a luxury blimp and nothing can possibly go wrong. Well except that one of the pilots and builders of the thing is planning to highjack it and collect ransom on all of the high rollers aboard the ship. MI 6 gets word of the plot through a clairvoyant witch on TV who herself gets tipped off from her Boy friend. Bond visits the Witch who is murdered and boards the Golden Ghost as a journalist. It's a good strip somewhat ruined by the now complete change in Bonds dialogue. He is now full blown Willie Garvin with his Blimey's Crickey's and me love's.  ****

Fear Face. 1971 76 Strips. Its hard to flesh out a good story in 76 strips and Fear Face suffers for it. Robots are killing influential people and Bond has to investigate. it's a plot apparently taken from the British TV show avengers. Even keeping in mind the medium of a comic strip this story is too silly and too short to be one of the better strips. ***

Double Jeopardy. 1971. 115 Strips. Now we deal with the old Spanish telenovela staple of plastic surgeons being able to produce perfect doubles of people. The first is black mailed with nude photos of somebody who looks just like her unless she can get the secret plans from her husband a top minister of defense. SPECTRE is behind the whole deal and they plan to produce perfect doubles of other key people. Can a plastic surgeon produce a perfect replica of somebody else even the best of the profession? What about Body types? There will be far more improbable story lines to follow in the strips future. Not a bad strip not great either *** 1/2

Star Fire 1971 100 Strips. Hippies! A Hippy cult leader promises revenge from the stars to anybody who dares question him and SPECTRE get's a hold of the story and uses for cover to take out some of their enemies and get the plans for a new airplane. They pay Luke Quantrill to enact revenge and make it look like in fact it was Lord Astro the hippy cult leaders doing. Lord Astro is nuts and takes credit for the murders which are caused by  model remote controlled air plains made to look like celestial attacks that are triggered by a homing device planted on the victim. Quantrill takes out SPECTRES enemies and anybody else whoever done him wrong making it look like they were all the work of Lord Astro. Silly and one wonders why Bond is involved since the whole thing takes place in Britain (though that has never stopped him before) Still it's a stronger story than the last 2. ****

Vol 3 is the shortest Omnibus yet and while it maybe as good or better than Vol 1. The stories aren't as strong but they are executed better with better art work it's not as good as Vol 2. Still it's well worth picking up if for only The Harpies and Col Sun. One last thing Titan books normally has on the back page an add for the upcoming volume. There was none here. Though the stories have already been republished and the quality of the coming stories vary I do hope there is a Volume 4.

James Bond Omnibus Volume 3. ****/*****

Boston 83 Atlanta 80

 

Boston wins the series 4-2.  The 76ers are next series starts Saturday.

I've Always Said If I Moved South I'd Move To North Caroline

But I could rethink that

CBS News) A majority of North Carolina voters on Tuesday approved a controversial amendment that will write a ban on same-sex marriage as well as civil unions for both gay and straight couples into the state Constitution, according to the Associated Press.
With most precincts reporting, the amendment was passing by a 61 percent to 39 percent margin.
The amendment mandates that "marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized." Opponents of the measure ran ads stressing the impact the language would have on straight North Carolina residents, arguing that the measure would eliminate protections against domestic violence.
Former President Bill Clinton campaigned against the amendment, arguing that it "will hurt families and drive away jobs," and President Obama opposed it in a statement - though the president, who is walking a careful line on same-sex marriage, did not mention the amendment during a recent visit to the state.
Supporters, like 93-year-old Rev. Billy Graham, made a more straightforward appeal: "Watching the moral decline of our country causes me great concern," he said in a newspaper ad supporting the amendment. "I believe the home and marriage is the foundation of our society and must be protected."

Go back to sleep Billy.

Atlanta 87 Boston 86.

3-2 Boston game 6 Thursday.

Boston 101 Atlanta 79

Boston 90 Atlanta 84 OT

Boston is up 2-1.

Avengers Assemble!

Going to tonight's midnight screening of Marvel's The Avengers. From what i've heard, the lines are going to be long, and many theateres are going to make room for more midnight shows. Needless to say, I am stoked to see this. Full review should come in tomorrow.

My review: In a word...wow! Just wow! The Avengers lived up to the hype, and then some. This is a film that has huge set pieces, top-notch visual effects, a middle brimming with tension and great fight scenes between Marvel giants, and a third act that really has to be seen to be believed. Yet, for all of the film's non-stop action, it never loses the the more important aspects: story, engaging characters, and a consistent plot. A moment on the characters: normally, character overflow drags a movie down (see: Spider Man 3, Iron Man 2) but here, the numerous characters works in the film's favor, because writer/director Joss Whedon knows the Marvel universe and what motivates each individual character to do what they do. (I should warn you that if you haven't seen any of the movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe -- Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger -- you'll be somewhat lost, as Whedon doesn't take time for audiences to play catch-up) After Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is banished from Asgard, he makes an alliance with a militant alien race that sends him to Earth to retrieve the Tessaract, an ancient power source that acts as a portal to deepest reaches of space, and as an unlimited source of energy for the peacekeeping agency S.H.I.E.L.D. When Loki captures the device, the world's security is thrown in jepardy as Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) begins a recruting effort of assembling superheoroes in order to stop Loki's plans from coming to fruition: The banter between Iron Man (the ever-terrific Robert Downey Jr.) and Captain America (Chris Evans, perfect as the leader of this rag tag of "lost creatures" as Loki described them) is pitch perfect, highlighting the polar opposites of their characters: Tony Stark is a narcissistic playboy who's all about style, while Steve Rodgers is a natural leader who isn't searching for attention for his heroics. Thor (Chris Hermsworth) wants to bring his adoptive brother to Asgardian justice, and non-superheroes of the group, Agents Natasha Romanoff (a bad-ass Scarlet Johansson) and Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner, playing a modern-day Legolas) want to atone for sins committed in a past life. All the actors bring their A-game and not a minute of screen time is wasted, but the star of The Avengers is Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, the scientist who turns into "an enormous, giant green rage monster" in the Hulk. Ruffalo lets us show the menace simmering underneath, as well as his conflict to keep the monster at bay. He was born to play the Hulk, and finally, the visual effects team get look of the unstoppable juggernaut right! The last leg of the film, in which NYC becomes a warzone, is where Whedon unleashes the team, and the action is something to behold. The Avengers, is simply, the most fun you'll have at the movies all year.

***1/2 stars out of ****

The View From My Ass

Men, and I am talking to you men who are about to, or thinking about, getting married.  I have one piece of advice and one piece of advice only.  Value your own opinion. Don't share it, cause no one cares, but value it. I think back to the time when I was bright eyed and star struck and heard "let's go the furniture mart and look at some furniture the two of us we'll get something we both like." I was fucking dumb enough to believe it. Of course when we got there my opinion was solicited and I was fucking dumb enough to give it. What do you like? "oh I like this" "no no no that's too dark we'll go with this"

 Lesson learned.

Next time we're at the mart:
"what do you think dear?"
"you ask me and then when I show you something I like you'll say I don't like it" so why are you asking me? "No what do you like dear?" "
OK I like this."
No I don't like that we'll go with this"

Again lesson learned.

Now when I am at the mart or any store for that matter and I am asked what I like I say "Don't ask me you pick it out and it will be fine." The sales person may give me a dirty look but I just ended the charade and saved them...and me valuable time I can spend some place I'd rather be. Which is of course about any where else. 

Do I always like what she picks out? No. Do I value my opinion on what she picks out? Yes. Do I share it? Oh hell no. Because at the end of the day it doesn't matter what my opinion is to anybody but me.

And then of course there is this conversation. You're at home. The wife is shopping. ring...ring...ring...

"I am about to pick up food dear what would you like to eat?"
"What would you like?"
"anything you want is fine with me"
"OK _____________________________ sounds good."
"No I think I'll go to __________________________________"

In time that turns into...

"I am about to pick up food dear what would you like to eat?"
"does it matter what I want?"
"yes you know it does"
"Just get what you want"
"Tell me what you want"
"I'll tell you then you'll say no"
"No I won't just tell me what you want"
"OK I want________________________________________________________________"
" No I think I'll go to __________________________________ instead

Finally it becomes this....

""I am about to pick up food dear what would you like to eat?""
" wherever you go just find something on the menu I'll like" "hurry home bye"

I skip the charade of her pretending my opinion matters and the back and forth that can take hours before she goes wherever she was going to go in the first place. Again value your own opinion. It's the only person it matters a lick to. But don't share it... trust me nothing good can ever come of that.

This is why I like cats. Oh the cat doesn't give a rat's ass about my opinion. But at least he's not selective. He doesn't give a rat's ass about her opinion either.

Is this is why I am so opinionated on line? I don't know. I've always been opinionated. It's not like I've never taken a look at something she's picked out (including me) and thought what the fuck were you thinking? I just don't say what the fuck were you thinking. I say that's nice dear. Oh sure I could have gone with her and tried to sell her on something that I would like more but that ain't gonna happen. And instead of seeing some great sporting event of getting some much needed sleep I wasted my time and the store's and she still bought the same damn thing I couldn't stand.

I am I must admit on a win streak. I went to go pick up a clock for my new "man cave" and actually selected one I liked. She actually also liked the clock I picked out. I got the clock! I probably could have bought more but I left while I was ahead. Well not quite. On the way home she asked me where I'd like to eat and "any place would be fine" Of course I pointed to a restaurant and said that sounds good! And of course she said no let's go to ______________________ instead.

KTF
Count Istvan.

RIP Junior Seau.

I don't normally believe in curses but Seau is the 8th player from this team to pass away.Very sad indeed.

Edit by Jonathan: Today, and in the days to come, the flag of Chargers Nation will be at half mast to honor and mourn, arguably, the greatest player this team has ever known. A huge loss to the Seau family, the San Diego sports scene and football.





No Rondo, No Ray, No Problem

Boston 87 Atlanta 80. We did what we had to do. Got 1 of 2 in hotlanta. Now we go back to Boston.

Shut Up and Watch This