If the River was Whiskey...

Here is a video of Jeff Beck with Imogen Heap performing the Muddy Waters classic "Rollin & Tumbling"

War

Last night I started watching the PBS Ken Burns documentary titled "The War".  You can read about it here:  http://www.pbs.org/thewar/



Tonight I watched "Hell and Back Again" which is another fine documentary that you can read about here:  http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/hell-and-back-again/film.html

 

Sobering stuff.  

Supreme Court issues a liberal ruling on double jeopardy

Today's news reports a 6/3 US Supreme Court ruling and I agree with the minority on this one.

Here is the link to the news story:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-says-double-jeopardy-does-not-protect-against-murder-retrial/2012/05/24/gJQAnXlznU_story.html


Here is a link to the text of the ruling itself:

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/10-1320.pdf


Basically, a guy in Arkansas was accused of Murder and the Jury Forewoman announced in open court that the Jury was unanimous against a capital or first degree murder verdict.  They then went back in and deliberated for 31 minutes and could not agree on manslaughter so the judge declared a mistrial.   

This is the most unconservative iterpretation of the constitution ever by a US Supreme Court. 

Up until this point, I had always felt good about this particular panel of judges but now I am not so sure.   How they could collectively get something this wrong is beyond me.

Crescent Sun

I was on the sixth floor of the building where I work and had a great view of the solar eclipse which was only visible in Houston right before sunset.   As I said, I had a great vantage point and I even clicked off a picture on my cell phone.  The only problem was that it wasn't until the part of the Sun that was being eclipsed had already dropped out of view that I realized that I had failed to click the "Save" option and I no longer had the picture.

Basically it looked like a large crescent and I couldn't keep looking at it because I didn't want to hurt my eyes.

Facebook; an investment opportunity for zuckers

I don't get the idea of connecting back with people who I never really connected with in the first place.  If we wern't friends in High School then why would we want to be friends now?  I don't give a damn about an official friends list and if I had two hundred or more people on it then it would be a lie.  I simply don't have that many friends and don't want to pretend like I do.

Here is my stock tip:  If you think Facebook is a good investment, then just buy stock in Myspace instead.  It will be much cheaper and you won't lose as much money.  Of course Myspace is not a public company but if it had gone public, it still would have flopped. 

Also,  if the CEO of Facebook wants to drop his citizenship to get out of paying taxes then he needs to go on over to whatever country it is that he likes better.   If you want to know what I really think, Mark Zuckerberg can kiss my American ass.



UPDATE 12/27/13

http://www.minyanville.com/trading-and-investing/stocks/articles/In-Insider-Trading-Mark-Zuckerberg-Dumps/12/27/2013/id/53170

http://www.forbes.com/sites/haydnshaughnessy/2013/12/27/facebook-is-dead-and-buried-argues-eu-study-lead/

The stock is still selling for top dollar but it seems like Mark Zuckerberg knows it has crested.

Chen Guangcheng arrives in the USA

This is some good news. 

Strike that. 

This is some most excellent news and an aswer to prayers:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/20/us-china-dissident-idUSBRE84I04V20120520


"I am very gratified to see that the Chinese government has been dealing with the situation with restraint and calm and I hope to see that they continue to open discourse and earn the respect and trust of the people," Chen, speaking through a translator, told reporters outside a New York University housing building in Manhattan's Greenwich Village neighborhood.

Tenacious D

"Tenacious D" was on the Jimmy Fallon Show the other night promoting thier new album.  This time they hired some good musicians to back them up.  The drummer is from the band Bad Religion and he is definitely good.  If you don't know quite what to think about "Tenacious D", that may be the general Idea.  The video above might help explain it a little better.

Whooping Cranes Hatch Chick Without Biologists’ Help In Wisconsin

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/05/03/whooping-cranes-hatch-chick-without-biologists-help-in-wisconsin/

Top movie list

I generally don't like "best of" lists but so what?

Here are some of my best of all time movies according to me.  I am not including Gone With the Wind because it didn't have an big impact on me. 

I am however including:

The Wizard of OZ

Star Wars, the first three but not the newer ones.

Jaws

Pulp Fiction

Goodfellas

Terminator

The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  This one was a good book, or 3 books, first but the movies are quite exceptional also. 

To Kill a Mockingbird.  Another good book but the move was great also.

The first Two Godfather movies.

Blair Witch Project.  I am including this because it is a well known low buget movie they got me to shout at the screen.  I couldn't understand why they kept going back to sleep in the tent when that was when bad things would happen.

Hoop Dreams.  I agree with Roger Ebert on this one.  It is a great documentary.


There are quite a few other good movies but these are the ones that come to mind.  I am not including foreign movies but only well known movies that I think top off the list.

I may update this post later and not admit to it but for now it is done.  That is it.

Live and let live

If you pay attention to the news and politics, then you have probably heard that Joe Biden first made a comment about Gay Marriage and now Obama has clarified his official position somewhat.  Here is a story about it from today's internet news:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/obamas-declaration-on-gay-marriage-welcomed-by-friends-foes/2012/05/10/gIQA1p9sFU_story.html


I have to wonder if Joe Biden's comments were not part of a carefully calculated administration strategy much the way the controversy about women's birth control costs in association with Obamacare were  purposely interjected to create a predicitable reaction from the opposing party.

You have to figure that the folks that feel strongly that gay marriage should be outlawed would never have voted for Obama anyway.  Obama had kind of gone to mush as far as his liberal convictions so maybe he is trying to shore up his base a little bit.

It does seem like a chess move that did force Romney to respond.  

Believe in somebody

Here is a short article from today's internet news:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hXJ3QFCmR8BFZxND2gjdu3jF3H9A?docId=N0152701336465918258A

Johnny Depp is talking about how he loves Tim Burton "like a brother".

I have to agree that Tim Burton was right to beleive in Johnny Depp and it may be true that Depp would could have ended up as a minor leage actor if it wasn't for Edward Scissorhands but nobody could ever know that for sure.

Johnny Depp does seem to have a unique acting ability that made him perfect for the Edward Scissorhands and Maddhatter (Alice in Wonderland) roles.   Personally, I never bought  into the Pirates of the Caribbean as much as the general public and I thought the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was already magical enough that it couldn't be outdone.

Regardless of all that, the news story reminds me how important it is to believe in  the people that you are supposed to and also be loyal.

I remember a science teacher I had in 7th Grade named Mrs Willis.   For some strange reason she believed in me even when I wasn't participating or engaging in her class at all.  Somehow she turned me from a disinterested knucklehead 13 year into a kid who believed he was capable of making an A in her class.  I don't know why she did it but it still brings a tear to my eye to think about her. She is a ture hero.  Another guy I wish I could go back and thank was Mr Martinson who was the junior high school orchestra teacher who didn't pay attention to how I potrayed myself at the time and instead was extremely patient.  Looking back, I wish I could have appreciated him at the time the way I do now.  He was an older guy and I am sure he has passed on now but I can only imagine how many people's lives he touched.

So the lesson for today is to appreciate and believe.  I hope I pay attention and get it right.

Render unto Texas...

A few months back or so I got the notice to replace the license sticker that goes on the inside of the windshield on the car.   I forgot about it and when I remembered, I realized I had been driving around for about a month with expired plates.

Today I went over to the Clay Road Courthouse Annex and stood in line.  They have the little poles with the ribbon shaped ropes that form a the meandering line deviders so everybody can work thier way through when it is crowded.  It was crowded today but the line moved pretty well so I have to say that they are doing thier job over there.

When I got there, there was an Asian fellow getting out of a car as I walked in.  He came in and got in line right behind me.   He appeared to be in a hurry becuase he kept standing right behind me.  Litterally about 2 inches away.   I tried doing a sidestep to the other side and then he just moved up right next to me and I looked at him and told him to go ahead if he was in a hurrry.  He just grinned and stepped right in front of me.  This was in the first section of the line and I didn't want him breathing on my neck the whole way through.  It may have seemed like an act of kindness but it was actually pretty rude that I put him behind the next guy.  The guy who was now in front of him was a white guy that looked like he probably drove a pick-up truck and isn't ever going to vote for Obama.  The asian dude, who was probably about 55 or 60 just stepped right up and started tailgating the white guy who was about a foot and a half taller.   I could tell pretty quickly that it was getting on his nerves because he tried the same thing I did which was to look back at the guy and see if he could stare him off a little.  It didn't work.  The white dude apparantly then just decided not to react any more but when we got to the final section of the line, he finally couldn't stand it anymore and told the guy not to stand so close to him. 

The funny thing was that when we got to the front, a lady called out for the next person doing a renewal to come on up.  There were about 7 people in front of me and all of them, including the close standing asian guy,  must of had some other sort of business because I was able to go on ahead and get processed while they waited for a window to open up that could help them.

Like many of the previous stories here on the one man web log I don't know the moral of this particular story but it sure was nice not to have they guy standing so close to me the whole way through the line.  I was really surprised by how eager he was just to step right in front of me when I offered.   I doubt he even gave it  as second thought.

Pray for this man: