Entertainment Overnight -- Moonlight Sonata

A breakdown of tonight's presidential debate

From MAD Magazine:

(Click on picture for bigger, easier viewing)

I'm concerned

We haven't heard from The Crustybastard or Damnitkage in 4 weeks.

This is bizarre

Okay, two weeks ago, Whitney Houston died, as we all--heaven knows--know. Last week, the funeral, which took both Saturday and Sunday. Tonight, her best, most famous movie, "Bodyguard" was on, no surprise. I expected it. But I had totally forgotten that the story involved her character in that movie being up for an Oscar. And of course the Oscars are tomorrow evening. I mean, really, once in a while, coincidence or no, things just rather freak you out with how timed they are. My Father's funeral--his death and the funeral, for instance, and the timing of it and a few things--was very similar. Sometimes you're given to thought about the weird, eerie, syncronicity of things.

I'm so old...

...I know who George and Gracie were. (w/ nod to Donna for a reference to them).

Right wing violence seems to be escalating

A blogger points out that, this past week, there were 3 separate incidents of "violent intimidation" of Democrats "by Republican Extremists in One Single Week." He assumed Republicans and I cannot and do not but I do assume they are "Right wing" and I think that is a very fair assumption, agree or no. Those 3 incidents were: 1) A campaign manager for a Democratic congressional candidate in Arkansas came home to find his family's cat killed, with the word "LIBERAL" painted on it. His 5-year old son made the gruesome discovery. This is clearly the sickest one of the three, I think; 2) Five Democratic Missouri state Senators --- four of them African-American women --- discovered rifle crosshair stickers placed on the door of their capitol offices. (Maybe they're just "surveyor's marks" though. Right Sarah Palin?); and finally, 3) A veteran 14-year police sergeant from Peoria, Arizona (near Phoenix), proudly posted a photo he took of a bunch of guys with automatic rifles holding a bullet riddled t-shirt featuring an image of Barack Obama on it. My reason for pointing this out is twofold. First, it's to create awareness of some of the sick things that are taking place nationwide so we are aware of it and maybe so we tone it down, ourselves, if we're getting overly emotional about what's going on in our country. The 2nd reason for pointing it out is to ask if maybe this will increase--heavens forbid--in the months to come, as we get closer to the November election. Hopefully these don't get more prevalent--or worse--as we get closer to the election. Here's hoping cooler, calmer and more thinking and intelligent minds prevail. Link to original post: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=9095

A Sunday suggestion

With thanks and a tip of the hat to friend-blogger Donna. Enjoy your Sunday, y'all.

A challenge, at the beginning of the holidays (guest post)

"What a great time to do something amazing. What an incredible opportunity to start some ripples. I have a serious challenge for all of you. If you have a blog, blog your own bold messages of love. If you have a video camera (don’t forget the one on your phone!), create your own bold messages of love and post them to YouTube. If you have a Facebook or a Twitter a page, post your own messages of love. If you have a voice, say something you normally would hesitate to say. Something powerful. Something full of love. If you have any platform at all, use it. Get your message out. Make it bold. Make it incredible. Make it sincere. Tell those who are different, those who are bullied, and those who need love most right now that you love them. Tell them that you care about them. Offer an arm to put around them. And then… send it to me. I’d really love to post some of them here on Single Dad Laughing." (Contact here: http://www.danoah.com/about-single-dad-laughing/contact/. His blog here: http://www.danoah.com/) As the Beatles said: "All you need is love."

I'm a new, but huge, fan

Holy cow (and thanks--many great thanks--to Donna).

Okay, somebody better check on Tony

I'm just saying. He hasn't written all weekend. I'm thinking he either went on a short vacation or "met somebody", if you know what I mean. Run over to his Mom's basement, will you, and let me know here if he's okay?

I'm so old...

...I remember when Facebook had a button you had to click on in order to enter what you had written.



Enjoy your Sunday, y'all.

How "big" is the internets?

Created by Online Education

The Real Reason Some People Are Upset And We Have The Tea Party, reprise

There is a woman somewhere in town who writes a blog "Uncommon Courage" I occasionally look in on. First, let me say I think it takes guts to label it so, if you're talking about yourself, don't you think? Like, "Here I am, folks, and I am uncommonly courageous!". That's the way it comes across to me but hey, if she's happy, let her have at it. (Side note: under the title, she writes: "My Courageous Clients" but I think it still comes off badly, but that's me). Second, I hate pink and the blog's all pink. Ugh. Call me sexist, whatever, it's just repellent. Third, she's no doubt bright (she quotes Ghandi, for pity's sake--how can you go wrong with Ghandi?) but she's an attorney. Sure, we need people in law to keep things going right but really, an attorney. I won't even start with the attorney jokes. (I love the one about even rats not doing some things attorneys will. It's my favorite but I digress). Anyway, she wrote an entry on The Real Reason Some People Are Upset And We Have The Tea Party and I have to say two things about it. To begin with, she's wrong. She didn't write the real reason people are upset and we have the Tea Party. She got off-topic. Finally, then, all the comments on her viewpoint then got racist. It happens every time with this subject--either the Tea Party people get racist or the people writing about them say they're racist, and then the Tea Party people try to explain themselves and it just devolves further into real ugliness. We should be better than this. Consequently, I have written my take on this subject--the real reason some people are upset and we have the Tea Party. To wit: 1) We pay taxes 2) We have high debt 3) The gov't doesn't work (thank you, Republicans in general and Geo. W. Bush & Co., in particular) In short, folks, people are upset because the system isn't working and doesn't work, period, but we're still expected to do our fiscal duty, even with horrible results. Unfortunately, at the same time, white people really are losing some power while women, Hispanics and African-Americans, at minimum, are gaining so some of them get further insecure and, truth be told, racist. And this has nothing to do with the 3 reasons people are upset but it gets mixed in anyway. We need to keep it simple, folks. We need to not be hating on each other. Let's, instead, resolve that we're all Americans, define our problems and then define solutions we can all work with. If we stick with this, all other labels and ugliness would be unnecessary and we can maybe get good things done. First thing we do, kill all the lawyers. No, no, I'm kidding with that one (though I love the joke). The first thing we should actually do is get all the big, ugly, distorting corporate money out of our government but that's another entry.

A challenge for Tony and a question for intelligent men and women in town

I'll only address this issue once and that issue is the sexist, stupid, infantile pictures Tony at Tony's KC Blog puts up on that same blog.

My question:

Why?

He's addressed it before on his blog, at least a couple of times but seriously, I don't think people read it because he puts those things up there.

He insists it gets him notice. Or "readership" or something.

But why, too, are local women not saying anything about this?

Is this pathetic, high school age sexism so pervasive that you just put up with it?

Is it so rampant that it makes it okay?

I don't get it.

I'd think intelligent, educated, sophisticated women in town--bloggers and non-bloggers, both, would rail against it and request he--Tony--refrain from posting those really childish, insulting things as soon as possible.

On the one hand, he writes mostly about serious things that are going on in the area, however snarkly.

But on the other, he thinks he needs these pictures of buxom young women, barely dressed, so people will read his blog?

No.

Huh-uh.

It doesn't make sense.

There's a total disconnect there.

And he doesn't have any more self-respect, or respect for his column or respect for his readers to do otherwise.

Tony serves a good purpose---most of the time. He writes okay to good stuff lots of times.

But the pictures, too frequently.

That is some kind of sad.

Sure, it's a reflection on him but it's a reflection on the city, too.

So here's the challenge ladies: challenge Tony to, as I put in his comments on his blog, come to the "adults table" and take down the stupid pictures.

Any takers?

(For the record, I'm hopeful. Think of it as a Quixotic dream. Also, again, I will only bring this up this once. I have no interest in some of silly "blog war", if there is such a thing. I wish Tony well. I just wish he'd get and stay more professional--and adult).

Here's why I blog

The actor, Viggo Mortensen is, apparently, a writer, it seems.

It's news to me.

We frequently assume actors are shallow and/or self-absorbed, think (and heaven knows, frequently it's so true) but there are always those exceptions that ruin one more stereotype.

Anyway, his brief article tells of the difference one person or even a small group can make on mankind:

"Whenever change as happened, it has been through protest, dissent, struggle, social movements, ordinary people picketing, striking, boycotting, sitting down, sitting in. All this mans that we make history, history is effected by our everyday decisions. And we have a responsibility to speak out when we see injustice. We can't wait on others to "lead" us or solve our problems for us. We have to participate, to engage, every day and not just once every four years."

And this, as I've always known, is why I blog.

I may just be one tiny "voice in the wilderness", sure, I acknowledge that, but I want to do what I can to point out the obscene, the unjust, the unfair, the untrue and more.

I also enjoy putting up things that are either funny or beautiful or awe-inspiring or the like but more than anything, I put stuff up here to rail against injustice and/or wrongs. I figure if I can touch one person's life and either give information someone didn't have or--in the best case--change a mind, then I figure I've done a small part to affect change for the better.

It's partly cathartic for me, too, but mostly I want to do what I can to get good information--and some entertainment (or, again, beauty and other things) out in the world.

I do what I can.

Welcome back SOTL!

I say it again: Welcome back to State of the Line blog.

Frankly and honestly, I never knew about them while there were here and they left back in February but I see they're back.

And they look good.

I've always wanted a good blog to follow about Kansas City--one written here and about Kansas City--and I've followed a good photography blog (Hyperblogal's) but Tony's KC blog was all I could find.

And while Tony does, admittedly, do a pretty good job of keeping some things up to date, both his hating on Kansas City and those insipid, repeatedly shown pics of half-clad women kept driving me away. I felt like I was trying to keep up on and with the city by reading a blog written by a 15-year-old. (Sorry, Tony. I gave you some credit--repeatedly--for what you do but geez, get over the degrading, sexist shots, will you? I've asked several times).

So, again, welcome back SOTL! Good on ya'. Brief, concise, intelligent writing with some pics and video. I already like what I see.

If you haven't been there, go now:

http://stateoftheline.wordpress.com/

You may thank me later.