In this vlog entry, I share my impression of the new TV series, 'Jericho' and what I think of the deaf character featured on the show. I also share my opinion on the clichés and characteristic traits of the deaf character, Bonnie.
Friday, September 29, 2006
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Nothing but Praises
Wow, I just cannot believe how great the responses to my first vlog were. Quite a large number of people sent me all sort of messages with nothing but praises. Nearly left me speechless to see quite a large audience who are deeply interested in vlog entries. Not only did I get great responses from this blogsite, I also got a lot of them from some deaf forums where I posted the link to my vlog. Not only is it a great concept, but also it’s even greater when we are able to subtitle these video clips. Google Video has done a great favour to the deaf and yes… the hearing too as well. After all, quite a lot of these people are “signing impaired”.
I’m also deeply grateful for the existence of DeafRead.com; they’ve done a great service to the deaf & hard-of-hearing blogosphere by unifying all of us and reach out to where no men has gone before. DeafRead.com is an amazing success as far I am concerned. There has been a few websites where the same goal was made but failed for some reasons. I believe the reason why it’s a successful site is because they made the html codes allowing any sites to list the latest entries listed on DeafRead. A lot of credits must be given to them for paving the road to expanding the blogosphere with a strong sense of diversity.
I want to thank all of these people who took the time to give me some constructive criticisms about my first vlog and I appreciate them very much. I’m going to take these and work on them for my next vlog. I don’t know when, but I hope it’ll be soon. I’m thinking of covering just one subject, but I don’t know which one yet. Till I posted it, I had absolutely no idea what a big deal it would be among the blogosphere. I showed it to a co-worker yesterday, this co-worker isn’t a signer and she ended up being blown away by it. I believe a lot of hearing people would find themselves blown away by the signing especially when it’s subtitled.
Oh yes, some people asked me about subtitles and how I made them. It’s quite easy to make. There’s a PC freeware for it, it’s known as “Subtitle Workshop”. Click here to access the page. There are some for the Mac, there’s one named “Miyu”. I haven’t gotten around to using it, so I’m not sure how easy it is to use. I have several, but I’ve used Subtitle Workshop on several occasions, mainly to tweak some subtitles I’ve downloaded. Just to remind you, Google Video recommends that you save your subtitles in either two formats, SRT (SubRip) or SUB (SubViewer). I hope that was helpful enough for most.
Have a grand day.
I’m also deeply grateful for the existence of DeafRead.com; they’ve done a great service to the deaf & hard-of-hearing blogosphere by unifying all of us and reach out to where no men has gone before. DeafRead.com is an amazing success as far I am concerned. There has been a few websites where the same goal was made but failed for some reasons. I believe the reason why it’s a successful site is because they made the html codes allowing any sites to list the latest entries listed on DeafRead. A lot of credits must be given to them for paving the road to expanding the blogosphere with a strong sense of diversity.
I want to thank all of these people who took the time to give me some constructive criticisms about my first vlog and I appreciate them very much. I’m going to take these and work on them for my next vlog. I don’t know when, but I hope it’ll be soon. I’m thinking of covering just one subject, but I don’t know which one yet. Till I posted it, I had absolutely no idea what a big deal it would be among the blogosphere. I showed it to a co-worker yesterday, this co-worker isn’t a signer and she ended up being blown away by it. I believe a lot of hearing people would find themselves blown away by the signing especially when it’s subtitled.
Oh yes, some people asked me about subtitles and how I made them. It’s quite easy to make. There’s a PC freeware for it, it’s known as “Subtitle Workshop”. Click here to access the page. There are some for the Mac, there’s one named “Miyu”. I haven’t gotten around to using it, so I’m not sure how easy it is to use. I have several, but I’ve used Subtitle Workshop on several occasions, mainly to tweak some subtitles I’ve downloaded. Just to remind you, Google Video recommends that you save your subtitles in either two formats, SRT (SubRip) or SUB (SubViewer). I hope that was helpful enough for most.
Have a grand day.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Welcome to Banjo's World
My first vlog entry and used to introduce my readers and the new readers to my new blogsite, 'Banjo's World', formerly known as Banjo's Space at MSN Spaces.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Battlestar Galactica Frakkin' Rock!
Originally posted on April 27, 2006
‘Battlestar Galactica’, the reimagined TV series is such a gem. Prior to the airing of the mini-series back in 2003, I was familiar with the original TV series. I never watched an episode of it, but I was aware of it. They also released the original onto the DVD format as a part of the big promotion for the new series. I never bought the set due to the clunky packaging design. I hope they will re-release it in a standard DVD packaging shortly so I can watch them. I’m sure the costume design and special effects are badly outdated, but it has to be popular for a reason. It has a large cult of followers.
So far, I’ve watched the mini-series and the first nine episodes from the first season. I got to say, I am impressed. The special effects are unbelievably amazing for a TV series. Sure, I’ve spotted some imperfections in the special effects on the series especially when they show the robotic cylons, and I swear they use the same shot of the flight fighters several times already, but you have to think of what a burden the financing situation rest on a TV series like this. Just amazing what they have been able to achieve so far.
Character development is also a crucial part of keeping a TV series going. If there were no character development, the show wouldn’t last. Far too many shows have been killed because of that flaw. One may say that the show features far too many characters, maybe there are a couple too many but I believe it’s what keep the show going. As you know, special effects is no longer a factor in keeping a show alive, it’s always the characters that does. ‘Veronica Mars’ and ‘Lost’ has a large amount of characters, and ‘Lost’ is quite popular with the TV audience these days. ‘Veronica Mars’ is on a low-rated TV network, but that may change when WB and UPN merges into the CW this fall. ‘Veronica Mars’ is a personal favourite of mine.
The storylines are enough to keep me hooked. Good storylines are also crucial in my opinion; they keep the show fresh and interesting. I do have my concerns about how many seasons this show is capable of, but it’s a natural concern to hold because I’m familiar with how the quality of most TV series declined in their last few years. All I can say is that I hope that the chance of that happening is quite dim because I want to see this show rock everybody’s socks off.
‘Battlestar Galactica’, I’m looking forward to watching the first part of the second season as soon I’m done with the first season. I’ve been told that only half of the second season is now on DVD, I certainly hope they will release the other half soon.
‘Battlestar Galactica’ frakkin’ rock!
‘Battlestar Galactica’, the reimagined TV series is such a gem. Prior to the airing of the mini-series back in 2003, I was familiar with the original TV series. I never watched an episode of it, but I was aware of it. They also released the original onto the DVD format as a part of the big promotion for the new series. I never bought the set due to the clunky packaging design. I hope they will re-release it in a standard DVD packaging shortly so I can watch them. I’m sure the costume design and special effects are badly outdated, but it has to be popular for a reason. It has a large cult of followers.So far, I’ve watched the mini-series and the first nine episodes from the first season. I got to say, I am impressed. The special effects are unbelievably amazing for a TV series. Sure, I’ve spotted some imperfections in the special effects on the series especially when they show the robotic cylons, and I swear they use the same shot of the flight fighters several times already, but you have to think of what a burden the financing situation rest on a TV series like this. Just amazing what they have been able to achieve so far.
Character development is also a crucial part of keeping a TV series going. If there were no character development, the show wouldn’t last. Far too many shows have been killed because of that flaw. One may say that the show features far too many characters, maybe there are a couple too many but I believe it’s what keep the show going. As you know, special effects is no longer a factor in keeping a show alive, it’s always the characters that does. ‘Veronica Mars’ and ‘Lost’ has a large amount of characters, and ‘Lost’ is quite popular with the TV audience these days. ‘Veronica Mars’ is on a low-rated TV network, but that may change when WB and UPN merges into the CW this fall. ‘Veronica Mars’ is a personal favourite of mine.
The storylines are enough to keep me hooked. Good storylines are also crucial in my opinion; they keep the show fresh and interesting. I do have my concerns about how many seasons this show is capable of, but it’s a natural concern to hold because I’m familiar with how the quality of most TV series declined in their last few years. All I can say is that I hope that the chance of that happening is quite dim because I want to see this show rock everybody’s socks off.
‘Battlestar Galactica’, I’m looking forward to watching the first part of the second season as soon I’m done with the first season. I’ve been told that only half of the second season is now on DVD, I certainly hope they will release the other half soon.
‘Battlestar Galactica’ frakkin’ rock!
Why Does the Media Industry Get Blamed?
Originally posted on April 26, 2006
There are so many activities you can do to keep yourself entertained instead of entering the world of boredom. One of them would be the media industry; they provide entertainment to the public. There are a large variety of concepts in the industry. The media industry is incredibly powerful; they’re everywhere you go, even in the public washrooms.
The movies are obviously my favourite part of the industry, as you can tell from reading my blog on a frequent basis. They can be found to be quite entertaining and something to pass the time by. I will be the first to admit that there are more awful movies being pumped out of Hollywood than the gems are. It has become a standard in the industry to provide mediocre and horrific movies, it is part of doing business. They want to make big bucks, but they don’t always succeed at it because they do blow a large amount of it on advertising their products quite often. Still, that doesn’t justify the blaming game.
The sad part of reality is that the media industry especially the video game developers and film producers often get blamed for the violence in our society these days. Parents set up lawsuits against the media industry for what their children did. The media industry includes a large number of established industries such as television, magazines, newspapers, advertisements and more. The reason why parents try to lay the blame on the industry is because they cannot handle the responsibility of their children’s horrific actions against the society. It is easier for them to blame someone else other than themselves. The parents have a legal and moral obligation to be responsible for their children till the age of eighteen, and they often ignore the importance of educating their children about life and responsibilities. Especially when their children are in their teenage years, for many, it is a hard time to go through with all the changes both emotionally and physically. The minute it becomes too late to take action with a child’s personal conflict is when they commit a murderous act; for example, a school shooting. The parents’ reaction to a school shooting on several occasions resulted in a multi-million dollars lawsuit. Of course, all or most of them ended up being dismissed from the courtroom.
To err is human, but to lay the blame on someone else is more human. It rings true when the parents attempt to lay the blame onto the others for their children’s actions. It is dead-on wrong to blame someone else for something that you know you are responsible for. Children are responsible for their actions too, but they do look to you to guide them through the journey to adulthood.
You would think that some parents would have an ounce of common sense when it comes to watching movies. If a movie has a warning label on it saying it’s not suitable for children, that’s exactly what it means. It doesn’t mean anything else. Yes, it is your decision on what to allow your children to view and what they can’t. That’s your responsibility, and if you see signs of the negativity from the movies influencing your children, take action, don’t blame the movies, and blame yourself. You allowed them to watch it in the first place; the movie producers don’t come to your doorstep and beg you to let your kids watch their movies. It’s all up to you; you have the absolute power when it comes to what movies they can watch in your household. The movie ratings are there for a reason, it’s to suggest what inappropriate contents are featured in the movie and how age-appropriate it is. God forbid you allow your children to watch ‘Debbie Does Dallas’! My father once said to me, “These parents whose blame the media industry should realize that the parents should be the one to be blamed in many ways because they are supposed to take care and watch over them”. I agreed firmly with him on his opinion, the media industry shouldn’t be blamed. It’s just business, nothing personal.
Peer pressure is common among all schools, and they can be a powerful influence on your children, mostly negative. As I grew up, my parents educated me on the dangers of some certain activities and the fact that they are illegal. They didn’t want to see me fall victim and ruin my future by getting involved. Thankfully, I was given the information I needed and I resisted the peer pressure, which is surprisingly easy to do if you know what to do. Education is the key, and having the parents commit to guiding their children through their life greatly increases the chances at being successful. Life is short, but children grow in a flash and will be out of your grip before you know it. So don’t wait, spend time with your children and teach them about life.
The media shouldn’t be blamed for the violence happening in this world. Violence is everywhere. You don’t need the media industry to cause problems; people already are doing a good job of it. We aren’t exactly a peaceful society; we have rapists and murderers on the roam every single day traumatizing and killing the innocents. Long before we had violent movies, Romans used to watch gladiators fighting each other and being eaten by the lions. The horrific wars between the American Natives and the American settlers, the slavery in Egypt, the two World Wars and many more barbaric events to go over in the history books.
The media industry is not responsible for the violence in our society.
It’s us.
There are so many activities you can do to keep yourself entertained instead of entering the world of boredom. One of them would be the media industry; they provide entertainment to the public. There are a large variety of concepts in the industry. The media industry is incredibly powerful; they’re everywhere you go, even in the public washrooms.
The movies are obviously my favourite part of the industry, as you can tell from reading my blog on a frequent basis. They can be found to be quite entertaining and something to pass the time by. I will be the first to admit that there are more awful movies being pumped out of Hollywood than the gems are. It has become a standard in the industry to provide mediocre and horrific movies, it is part of doing business. They want to make big bucks, but they don’t always succeed at it because they do blow a large amount of it on advertising their products quite often. Still, that doesn’t justify the blaming game.
The sad part of reality is that the media industry especially the video game developers and film producers often get blamed for the violence in our society these days. Parents set up lawsuits against the media industry for what their children did. The media industry includes a large number of established industries such as television, magazines, newspapers, advertisements and more. The reason why parents try to lay the blame on the industry is because they cannot handle the responsibility of their children’s horrific actions against the society. It is easier for them to blame someone else other than themselves. The parents have a legal and moral obligation to be responsible for their children till the age of eighteen, and they often ignore the importance of educating their children about life and responsibilities. Especially when their children are in their teenage years, for many, it is a hard time to go through with all the changes both emotionally and physically. The minute it becomes too late to take action with a child’s personal conflict is when they commit a murderous act; for example, a school shooting. The parents’ reaction to a school shooting on several occasions resulted in a multi-million dollars lawsuit. Of course, all or most of them ended up being dismissed from the courtroom.
To err is human, but to lay the blame on someone else is more human. It rings true when the parents attempt to lay the blame onto the others for their children’s actions. It is dead-on wrong to blame someone else for something that you know you are responsible for. Children are responsible for their actions too, but they do look to you to guide them through the journey to adulthood.
You would think that some parents would have an ounce of common sense when it comes to watching movies. If a movie has a warning label on it saying it’s not suitable for children, that’s exactly what it means. It doesn’t mean anything else. Yes, it is your decision on what to allow your children to view and what they can’t. That’s your responsibility, and if you see signs of the negativity from the movies influencing your children, take action, don’t blame the movies, and blame yourself. You allowed them to watch it in the first place; the movie producers don’t come to your doorstep and beg you to let your kids watch their movies. It’s all up to you; you have the absolute power when it comes to what movies they can watch in your household. The movie ratings are there for a reason, it’s to suggest what inappropriate contents are featured in the movie and how age-appropriate it is. God forbid you allow your children to watch ‘Debbie Does Dallas’! My father once said to me, “These parents whose blame the media industry should realize that the parents should be the one to be blamed in many ways because they are supposed to take care and watch over them”. I agreed firmly with him on his opinion, the media industry shouldn’t be blamed. It’s just business, nothing personal.
Peer pressure is common among all schools, and they can be a powerful influence on your children, mostly negative. As I grew up, my parents educated me on the dangers of some certain activities and the fact that they are illegal. They didn’t want to see me fall victim and ruin my future by getting involved. Thankfully, I was given the information I needed and I resisted the peer pressure, which is surprisingly easy to do if you know what to do. Education is the key, and having the parents commit to guiding their children through their life greatly increases the chances at being successful. Life is short, but children grow in a flash and will be out of your grip before you know it. So don’t wait, spend time with your children and teach them about life.
The media shouldn’t be blamed for the violence happening in this world. Violence is everywhere. You don’t need the media industry to cause problems; people already are doing a good job of it. We aren’t exactly a peaceful society; we have rapists and murderers on the roam every single day traumatizing and killing the innocents. Long before we had violent movies, Romans used to watch gladiators fighting each other and being eaten by the lions. The horrific wars between the American Natives and the American settlers, the slavery in Egypt, the two World Wars and many more barbaric events to go over in the history books.
The media industry is not responsible for the violence in our society.
It’s us.
The Existence of Spirits in Today’s World
Originally posted on April 23, 2006
There are so many different mysteries and phenomena that are still unexplained in this world. Spiritual activities continue to be one of the most unexplained mysteries because there are no physical evidences, and this is still just a big theory today. To many, it’s real and they’ve seen it. The reason why I’m sharing this with you is because I strongly believe in this subject. I believe I have seen so much that I could barely explain and I have no way of proving it. However, that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.
Many people don’t want to believe in ghosts because they have a fear inside of them. Or they’re just skeptical due to the lack of experiences. Human beings have a tendency of being afraid of subjects that they don’t have a strong grip on to understand. It may seem to some people that I have more courage but I know that courage is being the only one who knows you’re afraid. If somebody who has a fear of ghosts saw some of the things that I have seen, it would really turn their hair white. Some of my stories about my early childhood are featured here. These experiences did make a big impact on my whole life just because of what happened in my childhood. As far I can remember, I was just 3 to 4 years old when these paranormal activities began occurring in my bedroom. I know this kind of strangeness wouldn’t happen to most people when they are young. It’s either that or they just keep it to themselves.
It took place in the middle of the night, I was sleeping gently in my bed; all of a sudden, the ceiling light in my room came on causing my body to react by waking up. I looked around; I knew that nobody was up at the time. My family wouldn’t dare to play tricks like that on me, as that would be a cruel practical joke to play on a 4-year-old child. I got back into the bed after turning off the light, then a few minutes later; the light came back on its own. Naturally, I began to get scared a bit. My eyes suddenly widen and looked at my closet door as it began to open slowly and that terrified me so much. I felt the urge to panic and ran to my parents’ room. I pounced onto their bed to wake them up. I dragged them by hands to my bedroom. They quickly inspected the room by their eyes. They proceeded to tell me, “It was just a bad dream”. At that time, our communication wasn’t as fine-tuned as it is today, I and both of my parents just had began to learn sign language, naturally I was already far ahead of my parents.
After being tucked back into my bed and my parents went back to bed, I was still terrified by what I had seen. My father already had shut the closet door wide shut and turned off the light. Shortly after dozing off, the light came back on once again. I turned my head to look and I saw an image on the ceiling, it has been burnt into my head forever and I’ll never be able to push it out of it. The image appeared to be an icy blue face. I recognized the face; it was one of the illustrated faces from a childhood toy of mine. It was a Ghostbusters Proton Gun; it had some slide images that you could project onto a surface. You could make the jaws of the characters featured in the slide images move. The face was moving its jaws but I wasn’t sure if it actually said something or not due to my deafness. I do believe that the spirit may have made the attempt to communicate with me; it wasn’t a success. Through the next several years, I’ve encountered and experienced a large number of paranormal activities, but I kept it to myself because I didn’t believe my parents would believe me after what happened in my bedroom that night.
One day in the year of 1993, everything changed. The first sibling in the family had been staying in a hospital in the city of Toronto for three months. My mother stayed in the city to keep her company as any loving mother would do. My father stayed home with me and my other two siblings. During my mother’s absence, it isn’t very common for my parents to be apart for more than a night or two. One evening when he went to sleep in his big empty bed, something strangely happened. It was as if somebody was walking onto the mattress in a slow motion. Suddenly, he felt a set of hands rubbing his feet and they slowly went up to his knees, he saw with his own eyes, the skin on his knees were moving as if they were being rubbed. Quickly, he exited his bedroom after being spooked by the experience. After a while of being awake, he decided to go re-enter the bedroom and go back to sleep. He couldn’t go through with it as it had reoccurred. The same activity started night after night in the bedroom, he ended up sleeping onto the couch in the living room.
The day my mother came home from Toronto, she was heavily exhausted after all the stress of being in the big city for months. She decided to take an afternoon nap while my father was out doing errands. My father did not inform her of what had happened to him in the bedroom. He was too worried his own wife wouldn’t believe his story. Shortly into her nap, the same paranormal activity occurred as it had to in my father’s experience. She was startled and terrified. In fact, it was a more amplified version in comparison to my father’s, her legs were being pulled and lifted into the air screaming for help. My older brother and his friend immediately ran to the room and aided her out of the bedroom. They had caught a glance of what was happening to her, they were also terrified. My father instantly knew he wasn’t just imagining it as it had happened to his own wife in the very same room. In fact, they ended up sleeping onto a mattress on the floor in the living room for months before finally being able to sleep in the bedroom in peace.
One of my sisters also had some particular experiences, one evening when she had some of her friends sleeping over. They were all sleeping except for my sister; she saw a sphere entering her bedroom that had a glowing green aura around it. It was floating in the air and heading toward her. It stopped into a corner and frozen while still glowing for a few minutes or it may had felt that long to her and only had been a few seconds instead. Being terrified can make the time seems slow or fast.
I think I’ve shared enough stories for tonight. I wouldn’t want to be held responsible for keeping you up at nights.
There are so many different mysteries and phenomena that are still unexplained in this world. Spiritual activities continue to be one of the most unexplained mysteries because there are no physical evidences, and this is still just a big theory today. To many, it’s real and they’ve seen it. The reason why I’m sharing this with you is because I strongly believe in this subject. I believe I have seen so much that I could barely explain and I have no way of proving it. However, that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.
Many people don’t want to believe in ghosts because they have a fear inside of them. Or they’re just skeptical due to the lack of experiences. Human beings have a tendency of being afraid of subjects that they don’t have a strong grip on to understand. It may seem to some people that I have more courage but I know that courage is being the only one who knows you’re afraid. If somebody who has a fear of ghosts saw some of the things that I have seen, it would really turn their hair white. Some of my stories about my early childhood are featured here. These experiences did make a big impact on my whole life just because of what happened in my childhood. As far I can remember, I was just 3 to 4 years old when these paranormal activities began occurring in my bedroom. I know this kind of strangeness wouldn’t happen to most people when they are young. It’s either that or they just keep it to themselves.
It took place in the middle of the night, I was sleeping gently in my bed; all of a sudden, the ceiling light in my room came on causing my body to react by waking up. I looked around; I knew that nobody was up at the time. My family wouldn’t dare to play tricks like that on me, as that would be a cruel practical joke to play on a 4-year-old child. I got back into the bed after turning off the light, then a few minutes later; the light came back on its own. Naturally, I began to get scared a bit. My eyes suddenly widen and looked at my closet door as it began to open slowly and that terrified me so much. I felt the urge to panic and ran to my parents’ room. I pounced onto their bed to wake them up. I dragged them by hands to my bedroom. They quickly inspected the room by their eyes. They proceeded to tell me, “It was just a bad dream”. At that time, our communication wasn’t as fine-tuned as it is today, I and both of my parents just had began to learn sign language, naturally I was already far ahead of my parents.
After being tucked back into my bed and my parents went back to bed, I was still terrified by what I had seen. My father already had shut the closet door wide shut and turned off the light. Shortly after dozing off, the light came back on once again. I turned my head to look and I saw an image on the ceiling, it has been burnt into my head forever and I’ll never be able to push it out of it. The image appeared to be an icy blue face. I recognized the face; it was one of the illustrated faces from a childhood toy of mine. It was a Ghostbusters Proton Gun; it had some slide images that you could project onto a surface. You could make the jaws of the characters featured in the slide images move. The face was moving its jaws but I wasn’t sure if it actually said something or not due to my deafness. I do believe that the spirit may have made the attempt to communicate with me; it wasn’t a success. Through the next several years, I’ve encountered and experienced a large number of paranormal activities, but I kept it to myself because I didn’t believe my parents would believe me after what happened in my bedroom that night.
One day in the year of 1993, everything changed. The first sibling in the family had been staying in a hospital in the city of Toronto for three months. My mother stayed in the city to keep her company as any loving mother would do. My father stayed home with me and my other two siblings. During my mother’s absence, it isn’t very common for my parents to be apart for more than a night or two. One evening when he went to sleep in his big empty bed, something strangely happened. It was as if somebody was walking onto the mattress in a slow motion. Suddenly, he felt a set of hands rubbing his feet and they slowly went up to his knees, he saw with his own eyes, the skin on his knees were moving as if they were being rubbed. Quickly, he exited his bedroom after being spooked by the experience. After a while of being awake, he decided to go re-enter the bedroom and go back to sleep. He couldn’t go through with it as it had reoccurred. The same activity started night after night in the bedroom, he ended up sleeping onto the couch in the living room.
The day my mother came home from Toronto, she was heavily exhausted after all the stress of being in the big city for months. She decided to take an afternoon nap while my father was out doing errands. My father did not inform her of what had happened to him in the bedroom. He was too worried his own wife wouldn’t believe his story. Shortly into her nap, the same paranormal activity occurred as it had to in my father’s experience. She was startled and terrified. In fact, it was a more amplified version in comparison to my father’s, her legs were being pulled and lifted into the air screaming for help. My older brother and his friend immediately ran to the room and aided her out of the bedroom. They had caught a glance of what was happening to her, they were also terrified. My father instantly knew he wasn’t just imagining it as it had happened to his own wife in the very same room. In fact, they ended up sleeping onto a mattress on the floor in the living room for months before finally being able to sleep in the bedroom in peace.
One of my sisters also had some particular experiences, one evening when she had some of her friends sleeping over. They were all sleeping except for my sister; she saw a sphere entering her bedroom that had a glowing green aura around it. It was floating in the air and heading toward her. It stopped into a corner and frozen while still glowing for a few minutes or it may had felt that long to her and only had been a few seconds instead. Being terrified can make the time seems slow or fast.
I think I’ve shared enough stories for tonight. I wouldn’t want to be held responsible for keeping you up at nights.
United 93: The Heroic Sacrifice
Originally posted on April 28, 2006
Today, Universal Studios released the movie based on the true event that took place on September 11, 2001. Four airplanes were hijacked and three of them reached their targets. United Flight 93 did not. The passengers on flight 93 turned to each other for support and to form a plan to thwart the terrorists' plan. Click here to access the official site. The movie has been receiving a lot of praises from both the Liberals and Conservatives, 9/11 was where the Americans truly became united for a while till they went back to their old ways of hating each other's guts.
Today, Universal Studios released the movie based on the true event that took place on September 11, 2001. Four airplanes were hijacked and three of them reached their targets. United Flight 93 did not. The passengers on flight 93 turned to each other for support and to form a plan to thwart the terrorists' plan. Click here to access the official site. The movie has been receiving a lot of praises from both the Liberals and Conservatives, 9/11 was where the Americans truly became united for a while till they went back to their old ways of hating each other's guts.When a movie like this come out. We have to put all our politics aside and take the time to remember the heroes of 9/11. The passengers of flight 93 did the right thing and saved hundreds of people's lives by sacrificing themselves. Suicide and sacrifice are two entirely different concepts. Suicide is a concept where one intentionally kill itself and sometimes to take other people with them to cause pain and grief. Sacrifice, it's when you give yourself up in order to save the others from dying. That's when you become a true hero, when you put yourself into peril in order to help someone out.
How quickly people have forgotten the impact of 9/11 made on every soul. It wasn’t even 5 years ago that it happened. Yes, people may remember that it was such a horrific event to remember how you and everyone else felt that day and scars it placed into people’s lives. However, Americans have forgotten how to get along like they did on that very day. Everybody were hugging each other and crying over the massive losses.
Does it have to take another 9/11 to unite all of you all over again? The answer should be a definite no, but what will it takes to unite the people of America once again?
Well, that’s something you’ll have to figure out on your own. I don’t have the answer for it.
It’s really sad that I have to see people foaming at their mouths over some ridiculous politics. Is it absolutely necessary to refer to each other with crudely made names like Moonbats, Repukes, Unhinged and many more? Yes, I would have expected some 4th graders to hurl some names toward each other, but not from people in their 30s/40s. To tell a child to grow up would be like insulting them because the adults aren’t doing any better either.
Only if people could see the simple truth of life and that the reality doesn’t have to bite as hard as it does now.
Paul Greengrass directed the film, United 93. His previous directing gigs included ‘The Bourne Supremacy’, ‘Bloody Sunday’ and more. With all the great reviews this movie has been getting, the movie may be potent at the box office or it’ll just simply flop. The moviegoers have been known to be unpredictable at times. Especially when it comes to controversial movies. It’s really hard to tell what will happen with this one over the weekend because of the subject and politics surrounding it.
If some of you have seen the movie and would like to share your thoughts, feel free to share it here in the comments section.
Personally, I don’t believe it’s too soon or too late for a movie like this to come out. People may find it hard to stomach, especially the New Yorkers since they were there to see it. I think it's great that we are paying tribute to them in this way.
May the heroes of United Flight 93 rest in peace and be remembered for their unforgottable sacrifice to save America.
How quickly people have forgotten the impact of 9/11 made on every soul. It wasn’t even 5 years ago that it happened. Yes, people may remember that it was such a horrific event to remember how you and everyone else felt that day and scars it placed into people’s lives. However, Americans have forgotten how to get along like they did on that very day. Everybody were hugging each other and crying over the massive losses.
Does it have to take another 9/11 to unite all of you all over again? The answer should be a definite no, but what will it takes to unite the people of America once again?
Well, that’s something you’ll have to figure out on your own. I don’t have the answer for it.
It’s really sad that I have to see people foaming at their mouths over some ridiculous politics. Is it absolutely necessary to refer to each other with crudely made names like Moonbats, Repukes, Unhinged and many more? Yes, I would have expected some 4th graders to hurl some names toward each other, but not from people in their 30s/40s. To tell a child to grow up would be like insulting them because the adults aren’t doing any better either.
Only if people could see the simple truth of life and that the reality doesn’t have to bite as hard as it does now.
Paul Greengrass directed the film, United 93. His previous directing gigs included ‘The Bourne Supremacy’, ‘Bloody Sunday’ and more. With all the great reviews this movie has been getting, the movie may be potent at the box office or it’ll just simply flop. The moviegoers have been known to be unpredictable at times. Especially when it comes to controversial movies. It’s really hard to tell what will happen with this one over the weekend because of the subject and politics surrounding it.
If some of you have seen the movie and would like to share your thoughts, feel free to share it here in the comments section.
Personally, I don’t believe it’s too soon or too late for a movie like this to come out. People may find it hard to stomach, especially the New Yorkers since they were there to see it. I think it's great that we are paying tribute to them in this way.
May the heroes of United Flight 93 rest in peace and be remembered for their unforgottable sacrifice to save America.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Banjo's Recommendations: No. 013
'Finding Forrester' DVD Packaging@2000 Sony Pictures. All Right Reserved
Bitterback Mountain: A Clarification
Originally posted on March 24, 2006
Recently, I was sent an e-mail regarding the blog entry titled, ‘Bitterback Mountain – Ungracious Losers’. The reader had made the attempt to post it in the comments section, but
it didn’t work for some reasons that I cannot explain. My blog is set to allow all of my readers to post their opinions and feedbacks. If you cannot, click here to send me an e-mail.
I felt that a misunderstanding had taken place and the main point of the article I had written was overlooked. I need to make a clarification regarding the blog entry I had written and hope that the misunderstanding will be cleared up.
I did not make fun of any movies. The title, ‘Bitterback Mountain’ was a metaphor in describing Annie Proulx’s reaction to the upset victory of ‘Crash’. To me, it made perfect sense, as she was the author of the original short story. As you may recall, I did not make any jokes regarding the homosexuality theme in the film. Nor did I make any jokes about the racial theme in the movie, ‘Crash’. In fact, I found most of the jokes to be heavily juvenile. I don’t care too much for Jay Leno or any talk show hosts; they aren’t what they used to be.
In today’s society, people find it easier to make a mockery out of homosexuality rather than using a racial theme. It doesn’t mean it’s right what they are doing. It’s a condition in the society. It has more to do with mind programming from the families and the mainstream media, which does make a large influence in how we think and react to social issues. However, I would have note the irony because I've seen people made fun for wearing a turban when they’re in fact, Sikh instead of Muslim. Turbans are mostly worn by Sikhs. Yet they are so intimidated by people of different backgrounds and not the Islamic terrorists. It’s a social condition that evolves to different themes through the ages and we always are fighting to break the barriers. People are like a flock of sheep, it’s easier for them to believe the negativity than it is to believe the positive perceptive of life.
The point of writing it was to show how I disapprove of people who react to their losses in such an ungracious manner. It’s a strong sign of being a poor sport, if I was nominated for an award and I didn’t win, I will not write an article and send it to a major newspaper saying how I should had been recognized for my works. It's just tacky. The best way to achieve a global recognizance is to not ask for it.
Had it been Paul Haggis, the director of ‘Crash’ who lost to ‘Brokeback Mountain’ and wrote a similar article to Annie Proulx’s, you can bet that I will react in the same way. Ungracious losers easily turn me off. It’s all about sportsmanship when it comes to victories and losses. I’ve seen ‘Crash’ and I do plan on seeing ‘Brokeback Mountain’ once I get the chance to. I never vow to not see a film, some people are just being ridiculous when they vow to not see a film simply because they find the storyline to be offensive. Some of the Jewish followers tried to accuse ‘The Passion of the Christ’ of spreading anti-Semitism only to end up looking like fools because it wasn’t. The movie was decent, not fantastic in my opinion. It was pretty over hyped.
An important reminder to my readers, my opinions is my true opinions. Any one will not sway my opinions. You are free to speak your mind here and be immune from any patronization. I don’t tolerate patronization here at my space. I treat all of my readers as my equals, no matter what. I will not treat my readers as if they have an I.Q. of 9. I strongly disapprove of the bloggers who does patronize their readers.
You are my equal and I will treat you like one, even if you don’t treat me like one.
Recently, I was sent an e-mail regarding the blog entry titled, ‘Bitterback Mountain – Ungracious Losers’. The reader had made the attempt to post it in the comments section, but
it didn’t work for some reasons that I cannot explain. My blog is set to allow all of my readers to post their opinions and feedbacks. If you cannot, click here to send me an e-mail.
I felt that a misunderstanding had taken place and the main point of the article I had written was overlooked. I need to make a clarification regarding the blog entry I had written and hope that the misunderstanding will be cleared up.
I did not make fun of any movies. The title, ‘Bitterback Mountain’ was a metaphor in describing Annie Proulx’s reaction to the upset victory of ‘Crash’. To me, it made perfect sense, as she was the author of the original short story. As you may recall, I did not make any jokes regarding the homosexuality theme in the film. Nor did I make any jokes about the racial theme in the movie, ‘Crash’. In fact, I found most of the jokes to be heavily juvenile. I don’t care too much for Jay Leno or any talk show hosts; they aren’t what they used to be.
In today’s society, people find it easier to make a mockery out of homosexuality rather than using a racial theme. It doesn’t mean it’s right what they are doing. It’s a condition in the society. It has more to do with mind programming from the families and the mainstream media, which does make a large influence in how we think and react to social issues. However, I would have note the irony because I've seen people made fun for wearing a turban when they’re in fact, Sikh instead of Muslim. Turbans are mostly worn by Sikhs. Yet they are so intimidated by people of different backgrounds and not the Islamic terrorists. It’s a social condition that evolves to different themes through the ages and we always are fighting to break the barriers. People are like a flock of sheep, it’s easier for them to believe the negativity than it is to believe the positive perceptive of life.
The point of writing it was to show how I disapprove of people who react to their losses in such an ungracious manner. It’s a strong sign of being a poor sport, if I was nominated for an award and I didn’t win, I will not write an article and send it to a major newspaper saying how I should had been recognized for my works. It's just tacky. The best way to achieve a global recognizance is to not ask for it.
Had it been Paul Haggis, the director of ‘Crash’ who lost to ‘Brokeback Mountain’ and wrote a similar article to Annie Proulx’s, you can bet that I will react in the same way. Ungracious losers easily turn me off. It’s all about sportsmanship when it comes to victories and losses. I’ve seen ‘Crash’ and I do plan on seeing ‘Brokeback Mountain’ once I get the chance to. I never vow to not see a film, some people are just being ridiculous when they vow to not see a film simply because they find the storyline to be offensive. Some of the Jewish followers tried to accuse ‘The Passion of the Christ’ of spreading anti-Semitism only to end up looking like fools because it wasn’t. The movie was decent, not fantastic in my opinion. It was pretty over hyped.
An important reminder to my readers, my opinions is my true opinions. Any one will not sway my opinions. You are free to speak your mind here and be immune from any patronization. I don’t tolerate patronization here at my space. I treat all of my readers as my equals, no matter what. I will not treat my readers as if they have an I.Q. of 9. I strongly disapprove of the bloggers who does patronize their readers.
You are my equal and I will treat you like one, even if you don’t treat me like one.
Bitterback Mountain - Ungracious Losers
Originally posted on March 14, 2006
Annie Proulx, the author of 'Brokeback Mountain', a former Best Picture contender at the Oscars slammed the recent upset victory for 'Crash'. The voters spoke and they will not be swayed by the reactions, not even from a sore loser. 'Crash' is still the winner, like it or not. It doesn't mean you have to agree, you have your preferences, they have theirs'.
Here's an excerpt from the article at Chicago Tribune,
Update: Here's the complete raving rant of hers on Guardian Unlimited. All 1,109 words of them. Get this; she's 70 years old. Quite a grumpy old woman, I'll say!
I guess some people just never stop wanting more.
Hat tip: Kokonut Pundits
Annie Proulx, the author of 'Brokeback Mountain', a former Best Picture contender at the Oscars slammed the recent upset victory for 'Crash'. The voters spoke and they will not be swayed by the reactions, not even from a sore loser. 'Crash' is still the winner, like it or not. It doesn't mean you have to agree, you have your preferences, they have theirs'.
Here's an excerpt from the article at Chicago Tribune,
"And rumor has it that [Lions Gate] inundated the academy voters with DVD copies of `Trash' -- excuse me -- `Crash' a few weeks before the ballot deadline. Next year we can look to the awards for controversial themes on the punishment of adulterers with a branding iron in the shape of the letter A, runaway slaves and the debate over free silver."
To read more, click
here.
It's not everyday that you hear about a Oscar loser being so bitter. Sore losers aren't too appealing, they take everything for granted and act as if they are owed something. Sheesh, some people are just so ungracious these days. Just when you thought somebody would be just happy enough to be nominated for an award. By the way, Annie Proulx won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for 'The Shipping News'. A novel that was also adapted into a film starring Kevin Spacey.
Update: Here's the complete raving rant of hers on Guardian Unlimited. All 1,109 words of them. Get this; she's 70 years old. Quite a grumpy old woman, I'll say!
I guess some people just never stop wanting more.
Hat tip: Kokonut Pundits
To the Whiners - Don't Watch the Oscars
Originally posted on March 5, 2006
Every year after the Oscars telecast, there's a bunch of "viewers" whining about the so-called politics. For your sake, you aren't being forced to watch the Oscars. You're only watching it to make some complaints to get attention and feel better about yourselves.
The Academy Awards members watch the movies and vote, not you. You get to watch the awards being awarded to the nominees, but you don't get to vote. So why whine? That's what People's Choice Awards are for.
I find it amusing when I see somebody making a fuss about a certain win being "politicized" when they are in fact politicizing it themselves. If you think they're all out to get the President; you're being paranoid. Last time I checked, the President has a 34 percent of the nation's approval on his performance and it's still sinking. As I recall, some people tried to say that Bill Clinton suffered the same problem, which is completely untrue.
Bill Clinton was at his lowest during his first year in office and suddenly, it spiked and never came down near to his lowest point since then. His lowest was at 36 percent in May of 1993 and it lasted barely 2 months then it went above 40 percent and never went any lower ever again. In fact, he has the highest approval rating for any outgoing president in history. President Bush's approval rating has suffered for a good while. Will President Bush be able to get a good rating when he finishes his second term? Click here to read a blog entry I made back in November on the presidential job performance ratings.
I doubt it. They're on the losing side. No need to be a sore loser about it. There may be some jokes that may not reflect the President too well, especially when he has such a low approval rating. Maybe the late night talk show hosts wouldn't be making fun of the President if his approval rating were high. I wish the best luck to Jon Stewart on his hosting gig tonight at the Oscars. He probably won't be a screamer like last year's host, Chris Rock.
By the way, I predict 'Crash' will achieve an upset victory over 'Brokeback Mountain'. Though I do predict the Best Director award going to Ang Lee for 'Brokeback Mountain', after all he does deserve it. Most of the times, both Best Director and Best Picture are awarded to the same movie. Though back in 2003, the Best Director went to the U.S. fugitive, Roman Polanski for The Pianist and the Best Picture award went to the musical, 'Chicago'. In 2001, Steven Soderbergh snagged the Best Director award for 'Traffic' and 'Gladiator' was declared the Best Picture. 'Shakespeare in Love' had an upset victory over 'Saving Private Ryan' in 1998, Spielberg was awarded the Best Director but they felt that 'Shakespeare in Love' was a better film. Nobody has talked about the movie in ages, I wouldn't be surprised if people barely remember it while they recall what a great movie 'Saving Private Ryan' was.
It doesn’t happen very often, it has only happened 20 times out of 77. Click here to view the database of "Picture and directing winners not from same film".
Hey, if I end up being wrong about 'Crash', at least it's just a prediction. I highly recommend the movie, it's a well-done film made on a budget of 6.5 million dollars. The only big budgeted film is Steven Spielberg's 'Munich' at 70 million dollars. Both 'Capote' and 'Good Night, and Good Luck' had $7 million each. 'Brokeback Mountain' was produced at a low price of $14 million. Just because the average moviegoer may had not seen them doesn't mean they are flops. All of them has made back or exceeded the budget enough to make a profit.
No need to politicize it. Repugnance isn't necessary. It's like listening to a spoiled 3 years old on a sugar high and throwing a temper tantrum. It's a simple task, just don't watch it if you don't support them. Otherwise, just shut up and enjoy the show.
To the Oscar nominees, good luck on winning the awards.
Every year after the Oscars telecast, there's a bunch of "viewers" whining about the so-called politics. For your sake, you aren't being forced to watch the Oscars. You're only watching it to make some complaints to get attention and feel better about yourselves.
The Academy Awards members watch the movies and vote, not you. You get to watch the awards being awarded to the nominees, but you don't get to vote. So why whine? That's what People's Choice Awards are for.
I find it amusing when I see somebody making a fuss about a certain win being "politicized" when they are in fact politicizing it themselves. If you think they're all out to get the President; you're being paranoid. Last time I checked, the President has a 34 percent of the nation's approval on his performance and it's still sinking. As I recall, some people tried to say that Bill Clinton suffered the same problem, which is completely untrue.
Bill Clinton was at his lowest during his first year in office and suddenly, it spiked and never came down near to his lowest point since then. His lowest was at 36 percent in May of 1993 and it lasted barely 2 months then it went above 40 percent and never went any lower ever again. In fact, he has the highest approval rating for any outgoing president in history. President Bush's approval rating has suffered for a good while. Will President Bush be able to get a good rating when he finishes his second term? Click here to read a blog entry I made back in November on the presidential job performance ratings.
I doubt it. They're on the losing side. No need to be a sore loser about it. There may be some jokes that may not reflect the President too well, especially when he has such a low approval rating. Maybe the late night talk show hosts wouldn't be making fun of the President if his approval rating were high. I wish the best luck to Jon Stewart on his hosting gig tonight at the Oscars. He probably won't be a screamer like last year's host, Chris Rock.
By the way, I predict 'Crash' will achieve an upset victory over 'Brokeback Mountain'. Though I do predict the Best Director award going to Ang Lee for 'Brokeback Mountain', after all he does deserve it. Most of the times, both Best Director and Best Picture are awarded to the same movie. Though back in 2003, the Best Director went to the U.S. fugitive, Roman Polanski for The Pianist and the Best Picture award went to the musical, 'Chicago'. In 2001, Steven Soderbergh snagged the Best Director award for 'Traffic' and 'Gladiator' was declared the Best Picture. 'Shakespeare in Love' had an upset victory over 'Saving Private Ryan' in 1998, Spielberg was awarded the Best Director but they felt that 'Shakespeare in Love' was a better film. Nobody has talked about the movie in ages, I wouldn't be surprised if people barely remember it while they recall what a great movie 'Saving Private Ryan' was.
It doesn’t happen very often, it has only happened 20 times out of 77. Click here to view the database of "Picture and directing winners not from same film".
Hey, if I end up being wrong about 'Crash', at least it's just a prediction. I highly recommend the movie, it's a well-done film made on a budget of 6.5 million dollars. The only big budgeted film is Steven Spielberg's 'Munich' at 70 million dollars. Both 'Capote' and 'Good Night, and Good Luck' had $7 million each. 'Brokeback Mountain' was produced at a low price of $14 million. Just because the average moviegoer may had not seen them doesn't mean they are flops. All of them has made back or exceeded the budget enough to make a profit.
No need to politicize it. Repugnance isn't necessary. It's like listening to a spoiled 3 years old on a sugar high and throwing a temper tantrum. It's a simple task, just don't watch it if you don't support them. Otherwise, just shut up and enjoy the show.
To the Oscar nominees, good luck on winning the awards.
Fighting the Undocumericans
Originally posted on March 11, 2006
With all the people screaming about how all the illegal immigrants should be arrested and deported from the USA. Don’t they realize that it’s pretty much impossible at this stage now that the population of illegal aliens is now in double digits?
There has to be a different solution to this problem, it’s out of control and it isn’t getting any better. The USA has a large deficit and it’s growing, even though they swore to God that it’d be butchered in half by 2008 but will that happen? We’ll have to wait and see. With the deficit, it will be more difficult to use more resources to capture and deport the illegal residents. The public schools are already suffering due to poor funding and with the expensive costs of the wars; it won’t be easy to fund the agencies to chase these people.
There need to be a different solution, the USA cannot risk any more than it already has to use more resources to chase people around while the population keep on exploding. It will cost you even more in the future, somebody need to come up with a plan. I don’t know what can be done, we don’t have this kind of problem in Canada, we do have illegal aliens but we are able to keep it under control. We even do kick the refugees out of the country after a lengthy stay. It’s sad because many of the refugees have proven themselves to be law-abiding tax-paying civilians of Canada. With all the bureaucracy, it’s bound to drive me absolutely bonkers.
As of now, there’s an estimated population of 12 million illegal aliens from 8.4 million in 2000. What a difference 6 years can make. Yet they try to point fingers at countries like Canada and more for “harbouring” terrorists. They can’t even stop the Mexicans from entering the USA illegally. It’s amazing what blame games they resort to, they only have themselves to blame, and we didn’t encourage anybody to do it to the USA. The truth is, the President of America has a soft spot in his heart for the illegal aliens. Whether you want to admit it or not, do you remember his “Temporary Worker Program” proposal for the illegal aliens that got shot down back in January 0f 2004? It cannot be denied that President Bush is pushing for the illegal aliens to become legal residents of the USA.
It’s a great danger to the people of America economically wise. There are millions of unemployed Americans and it’s bad enough that they lose these jobs to these people. Not only that, there’s a large number of legal immigrants who went through hell to be granted the permission to reside in the country. I imagine they must feel quite insulted when they see these who are undocumented granted the freedom to reside wherever they wish to after breaking the law.
I wouldn’t be surprised if most people are able to “vaguely” recall it, it was swept under the carpet so quickly that one wouldn’t had the time to listen to the plan. Though there were good intentions in it, but the flaw was… it takes the job opportunities away from the legal US residents. Our-sourcing jobs isn’t helping much either, there’s even rumours of Apple setting up a call centre in India.
I do have great concerns for the welfare of the legal residents of any countries, they shouldn’t be denied the job opportunities and be given to illegal aliens who are willing to work for less. Wal-Mart has been guilty of hiring quite a number of illegal aliens and there is an occasional big bust at a big-box retailer for hiring undocumented civilians. Many, many American employers are hiring undocumented civilians because of the lower costs, I don’t think enough American employers are being arrested and sent to the prison. In fact, I believe American employers should be held on a higher account and be sought by the Federal agents because these people are encouraging and funding the illegal population to expand at an unstoppable rate.
The conclusion is, go after the employers and slap them with severe punishments. I believe it will slow down the population growth because not so many employers will resort to such a tactic after seeing all the harsh punishment being laid onto the people of their kind. In my opinion, none of them has to do with moral values; it's an economical problem. People should be held accountable for deliberately sabotaging the economics of the USA.
Punish the employers, not the illegal aliens. It’ll only cost the government more. This is an alternative solution and a potential reduction in costs to fight the ongoing illegal immigration problems. It's just an idea, there are many more ideas with a lot of potential. With the nasty deficit breathing down their necks, they should go back to the drawing board and go over more ideas on how to fight it.
With all the people screaming about how all the illegal immigrants should be arrested and deported from the USA. Don’t they realize that it’s pretty much impossible at this stage now that the population of illegal aliens is now in double digits?
There has to be a different solution to this problem, it’s out of control and it isn’t getting any better. The USA has a large deficit and it’s growing, even though they swore to God that it’d be butchered in half by 2008 but will that happen? We’ll have to wait and see. With the deficit, it will be more difficult to use more resources to capture and deport the illegal residents. The public schools are already suffering due to poor funding and with the expensive costs of the wars; it won’t be easy to fund the agencies to chase these people.
There need to be a different solution, the USA cannot risk any more than it already has to use more resources to chase people around while the population keep on exploding. It will cost you even more in the future, somebody need to come up with a plan. I don’t know what can be done, we don’t have this kind of problem in Canada, we do have illegal aliens but we are able to keep it under control. We even do kick the refugees out of the country after a lengthy stay. It’s sad because many of the refugees have proven themselves to be law-abiding tax-paying civilians of Canada. With all the bureaucracy, it’s bound to drive me absolutely bonkers.
As of now, there’s an estimated population of 12 million illegal aliens from 8.4 million in 2000. What a difference 6 years can make. Yet they try to point fingers at countries like Canada and more for “harbouring” terrorists. They can’t even stop the Mexicans from entering the USA illegally. It’s amazing what blame games they resort to, they only have themselves to blame, and we didn’t encourage anybody to do it to the USA. The truth is, the President of America has a soft spot in his heart for the illegal aliens. Whether you want to admit it or not, do you remember his “Temporary Worker Program” proposal for the illegal aliens that got shot down back in January 0f 2004? It cannot be denied that President Bush is pushing for the illegal aliens to become legal residents of the USA.
It’s a great danger to the people of America economically wise. There are millions of unemployed Americans and it’s bad enough that they lose these jobs to these people. Not only that, there’s a large number of legal immigrants who went through hell to be granted the permission to reside in the country. I imagine they must feel quite insulted when they see these who are undocumented granted the freedom to reside wherever they wish to after breaking the law.
I wouldn’t be surprised if most people are able to “vaguely” recall it, it was swept under the carpet so quickly that one wouldn’t had the time to listen to the plan. Though there were good intentions in it, but the flaw was… it takes the job opportunities away from the legal US residents. Our-sourcing jobs isn’t helping much either, there’s even rumours of Apple setting up a call centre in India.
I do have great concerns for the welfare of the legal residents of any countries, they shouldn’t be denied the job opportunities and be given to illegal aliens who are willing to work for less. Wal-Mart has been guilty of hiring quite a number of illegal aliens and there is an occasional big bust at a big-box retailer for hiring undocumented civilians. Many, many American employers are hiring undocumented civilians because of the lower costs, I don’t think enough American employers are being arrested and sent to the prison. In fact, I believe American employers should be held on a higher account and be sought by the Federal agents because these people are encouraging and funding the illegal population to expand at an unstoppable rate.
The conclusion is, go after the employers and slap them with severe punishments. I believe it will slow down the population growth because not so many employers will resort to such a tactic after seeing all the harsh punishment being laid onto the people of their kind. In my opinion, none of them has to do with moral values; it's an economical problem. People should be held accountable for deliberately sabotaging the economics of the USA.
Punish the employers, not the illegal aliens. It’ll only cost the government more. This is an alternative solution and a potential reduction in costs to fight the ongoing illegal immigration problems. It's just an idea, there are many more ideas with a lot of potential. With the nasty deficit breathing down their necks, they should go back to the drawing board and go over more ideas on how to fight it.
DVD Review: Brokeback Mountain
Originally posted on April 6, 2006
The thing is, this movie started out as an 8-page short story that appeared in a magazine a few years ago. Then it was adapted into a thick screenplay, an 8-page story into a 2 hours and 15 minutes long movie. It's an incredibly difficult task to pull off in most cases. Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!’ and ‘The Cat in the Hat’ suffered greatly as full-length movies. The short books were highly entertaining for the children, but the adapted movies weren’t.
Brokeback Mountain got sort of lucky here, but the story does drag on a lot. Not a lot happen between important moments of the movie. Exceptional performances stand out in this movie. Great cast, everybody deserved the nominations they received. The movie could had been better paced if at around 15 to 30 minutes were cut out of it, maybe more. Jack Twist's death at the end of the movie was pretty short and under detailed. You didn't have any time to feel anything for his death because you suddenly learn of it and it isn't done with a lot of emotions. Though the love relationship between the two actors seemed very real with some emotional struggles because of Ennis’ fear of the homophobic society due to an unforgettable moment in his childhood when he saw a dead body of a gay man in a ditch with his genital pulled off. He feared that it would happen to one or both of them. Though Jack Twist fell victim to a hate crime in the end, as Ennis always had feared.
The movie was overall decent, maybe a 6 to 7 out of a 10. The quality of the movie suffered greatly due to the over hyped marketing and politically fuelled debates among the politicians, religious activists and more. The beef I have with the Oscars is that they don’t pick the best movies to nominate, they rarely do.
To the Oscar voters, don’t pick movies solely based on your political beliefs. Base it on the quality of the stories, performances and the technical aspects.
Brokeback Mountain was decent, so was Crash. But were these two some of the best movies of the year?
Not really.
I enjoyed the heck out of ‘A History of Violence’ by the Canuck director, David Cronenberg more than these two nominated movies combined. David Cronenberg is a highly entertaining and skilled filmmaker; he deserves more recognition. One of the most underrated storytellers ever.
I watched a movie last night, Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain. All of you had heard of the controversy surrounding the film concerning the strong push for acceptance of homosexual relationships in the society. I do have to say that Ang Lee is good at directing a film, but there's more to say. Though I must warn you that there are some heavy movie spoilers in my review.
The thing is, this movie started out as an 8-page short story that appeared in a magazine a few years ago. Then it was adapted into a thick screenplay, an 8-page story into a 2 hours and 15 minutes long movie. It's an incredibly difficult task to pull off in most cases. Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!’ and ‘The Cat in the Hat’ suffered greatly as full-length movies. The short books were highly entertaining for the children, but the adapted movies weren’t.
Brokeback Mountain got sort of lucky here, but the story does drag on a lot. Not a lot happen between important moments of the movie. Exceptional performances stand out in this movie. Great cast, everybody deserved the nominations they received. The movie could had been better paced if at around 15 to 30 minutes were cut out of it, maybe more. Jack Twist's death at the end of the movie was pretty short and under detailed. You didn't have any time to feel anything for his death because you suddenly learn of it and it isn't done with a lot of emotions. Though the love relationship between the two actors seemed very real with some emotional struggles because of Ennis’ fear of the homophobic society due to an unforgettable moment in his childhood when he saw a dead body of a gay man in a ditch with his genital pulled off. He feared that it would happen to one or both of them. Though Jack Twist fell victim to a hate crime in the end, as Ennis always had feared.
The movie was overall decent, maybe a 6 to 7 out of a 10. The quality of the movie suffered greatly due to the over hyped marketing and politically fuelled debates among the politicians, religious activists and more. The beef I have with the Oscars is that they don’t pick the best movies to nominate, they rarely do.
To the Oscar voters, don’t pick movies solely based on your political beliefs. Base it on the quality of the stories, performances and the technical aspects.
Brokeback Mountain was decent, so was Crash. But were these two some of the best movies of the year?
Not really.
I enjoyed the heck out of ‘A History of Violence’ by the Canuck director, David Cronenberg more than these two nominated movies combined. David Cronenberg is a highly entertaining and skilled filmmaker; he deserves more recognition. One of the most underrated storytellers ever.
Shattering the Innocence of Youth
Originally posted on April 17, 2006
Child pornography has always been a problem. But what people don’t understand is that an enormous world of danger to the children was opened more than a decade ago and not enough has been done about it. The Internet itself is the most powerful form of communication and distribution of child pornography and it has been proven many times over the years. Yes, they are fighting it but it’s not enough if the problem is not shrinking. Politicians have far too much self-interest and other political issues to focus on making themselves unable to fully commit to the war on child pornography. Children are being lured onto the Internet by the child predators every single day right under their parents’ noses.
This is also a problem in Canada, people are getting arrested and prosecuted for possessing such materials; which I applaud. However, the core of the problem continues to be complicated, that would be the photo developers and distributors of the materials. It’s not everyday you get to read about a photographer/distributor getting arrested and prosecuted.
Millions of child pornographic materials are being downloaded off the Internet
every hour around the world. That means more and more children are being molested and forced into performing sexual acts. It is an issue that continues to be heavily neglected despite the media coverage in our daily newspapers, TV News programs and more. Parents need to be made aware of the dangers of allowing minors to use the Internet with total freedom. A 14-year old girl may not like being supervised, but she’ll end up thanking you at her high school graduation for being a parent with a lot of love and concerns for his/her children.
It's a subject I don't like to discuss, but it's part of the reality. Reality bites.
I have 3 nieces and an either nephew or niece on the way this May. The oldest being 18, I'm proud of them and I do worry about the choice they make because of the potential consequences, but it's a natural trait in my family to care and worry for the others more than ourselves because we want to see each other succeed.
It is a problem that is very likely to be never eliminated, but it can be fought and reduced to a low number. One is too many, but it's better than having millions of children be used as sexual pleasures for the adults. Especially in countries like Taiwan where children are being rented as sex toys. People need to pay for what they're doing to the children.
They don't deserve this at all.
Child pornography has always been a problem. But what people don’t understand is that an enormous world of danger to the children was opened more than a decade ago and not enough has been done about it. The Internet itself is the most powerful form of communication and distribution of child pornography and it has been proven many times over the years. Yes, they are fighting it but it’s not enough if the problem is not shrinking. Politicians have far too much self-interest and other political issues to focus on making themselves unable to fully commit to the war on child pornography. Children are being lured onto the Internet by the child predators every single day right under their parents’ noses.
This is also a problem in Canada, people are getting arrested and prosecuted for possessing such materials; which I applaud. However, the core of the problem continues to be complicated, that would be the photo developers and distributors of the materials. It’s not everyday you get to read about a photographer/distributor getting arrested and prosecuted.
Millions of child pornographic materials are being downloaded off the Internet
every hour around the world. That means more and more children are being molested and forced into performing sexual acts. It is an issue that continues to be heavily neglected despite the media coverage in our daily newspapers, TV News programs and more. Parents need to be made aware of the dangers of allowing minors to use the Internet with total freedom. A 14-year old girl may not like being supervised, but she’ll end up thanking you at her high school graduation for being a parent with a lot of love and concerns for his/her children.
It's a subject I don't like to discuss, but it's part of the reality. Reality bites.
I have 3 nieces and an either nephew or niece on the way this May. The oldest being 18, I'm proud of them and I do worry about the choice they make because of the potential consequences, but it's a natural trait in my family to care and worry for the others more than ourselves because we want to see each other succeed.
It is a problem that is very likely to be never eliminated, but it can be fought and reduced to a low number. One is too many, but it's better than having millions of children be used as sexual pleasures for the adults. Especially in countries like Taiwan where children are being rented as sex toys. People need to pay for what they're doing to the children.
They don't deserve this at all.
Banjo's Recommendations: No. 012
'Cool Hand Luke' DVD Packaging@1967 Warner Bros. Studios Entertainment Inc. All Right Reserved
Mainstream Media: Impossibly Stupid
Originally posted on April 18, 2006
The mainstream media sure know how to ruin a good joke. Earlier today, I saw a ton of articles on Tom Cruise's insistence that he and his family plan to eat the placenta from Katie Holmes' womb.
I watched the recent interview on Primetime, Tom Cruise made a big joke out of the idea of eating the placenta. He did the same joke in an interview with the magazine, GQ. For some odd reasons, it was taken out of context. Big time.
Many "journalists" were actually reporting it as a fact instead of a joke. I was appalled to learn of it. Yes, it may be a tradition in some countries, but it isn't in North America. If people want to eat it, go ahead. I certainly wouldn't, it’s not something I believe in.
Want to see one example of what I'm talking about? Just click here. Now, click here to read the article stating that it was only a joke that Tom Cruise made. Even I instantly knew it was a joke by the way Tom Cruise said it in his interview on Primetime. Not only to mention that the controversial subject of Katie Holmes being forced into having a "silent" birth is a bunch of baloney. From what I've read, it isn't what the mainstream media made it out to be. It’s not a total silent birth where she’ll be punished for moaning in pain. Katie Holmes is allowed to express her pain but she also intends to keep it as low as possible.
They are both scientologists, it’s their choice. Not yours, not mine nor anybody else’s. Just like a Christian, Muslim, Sikh and more different followers of religion wouldn’t appreciate being personally insulted all around the world. Criticizing a religion is a different concept from personally insulting or ridiculing an individual for his/her beliefs. Ridiculing an individual for his beliefs is just a low blow especially when they’re making millions off it.
Congratulations to both Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes on the baby girl, Suri. According to some sources, the meaning of the name is "Princess" in Hebrew or "Red Rose" in Persian. I wish the best to the two of you.
While that I’m still covering the subject on the actor, Tom Cruise. I am looking forward to Mission: Impossible 3. It’s J.J. Abrams’ first gig as a film director. He’s the co-creator of some of the big hits on the boob tube including ‘Lost’ and ‘Alias’. Ought to be a blast. Pretty much the first one this year I’ve been looking forward to watch at the theatres. Yeah, it hasn’t been a great year so far for Hollywood. I enjoyed the first two movies; the first one by Brian De Palma was better than John Woo’s in my opinion.
Bring on the action!
The mainstream media sure know how to ruin a good joke. Earlier today, I saw a ton of articles on Tom Cruise's insistence that he and his family plan to eat the placenta from Katie Holmes' womb.
I watched the recent interview on Primetime, Tom Cruise made a big joke out of the idea of eating the placenta. He did the same joke in an interview with the magazine, GQ. For some odd reasons, it was taken out of context. Big time.
Many "journalists" were actually reporting it as a fact instead of a joke. I was appalled to learn of it. Yes, it may be a tradition in some countries, but it isn't in North America. If people want to eat it, go ahead. I certainly wouldn't, it’s not something I believe in.
Want to see one example of what I'm talking about? Just click here. Now, click here to read the article stating that it was only a joke that Tom Cruise made. Even I instantly knew it was a joke by the way Tom Cruise said it in his interview on Primetime. Not only to mention that the controversial subject of Katie Holmes being forced into having a "silent" birth is a bunch of baloney. From what I've read, it isn't what the mainstream media made it out to be. It’s not a total silent birth where she’ll be punished for moaning in pain. Katie Holmes is allowed to express her pain but she also intends to keep it as low as possible.
They are both scientologists, it’s their choice. Not yours, not mine nor anybody else’s. Just like a Christian, Muslim, Sikh and more different followers of religion wouldn’t appreciate being personally insulted all around the world. Criticizing a religion is a different concept from personally insulting or ridiculing an individual for his/her beliefs. Ridiculing an individual for his beliefs is just a low blow especially when they’re making millions off it.
Congratulations to both Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes on the baby girl, Suri. According to some sources, the meaning of the name is "Princess" in Hebrew or "Red Rose" in Persian. I wish the best to the two of you.
While that I’m still covering the subject on the actor, Tom Cruise. I am looking forward to Mission: Impossible 3. It’s J.J. Abrams’ first gig as a film director. He’s the co-creator of some of the big hits on the boob tube including ‘Lost’ and ‘Alias’. Ought to be a blast. Pretty much the first one this year I’ve been looking forward to watch at the theatres. Yeah, it hasn’t been a great year so far for Hollywood. I enjoyed the first two movies; the first one by Brian De Palma was better than John Woo’s in my opinion.
Bring on the action!
An Online Epidemic
Originally posted on April 21, 2006
Gonzales, the Attorney General made a wake-up call to the people of America. The Attorney General himself has declared the problem with child pornography an online epidemic. Click here to read the article. He referred to it as a real threat, and I completely agree. It is a growing threat and at a rapid rate.
As I have tried to tell some people, they just don’t want to realize the harsh reality. People need to understand the natural dangers of not educating the children to take precaution measurements with their online activities. I don’t advocate taking the computers out of their bedrooms, but I do believe that a video camera has no place being in a child’s bedroom because they can do whatever they wish to with it behind closed doors.
Parents may think they know their children enough to trust them to make the right choices. They may be capable of making good choices, but they still make a lot of mistakes and learn from them. But to become sexually active on the Internet is a regret or trauma one may live with for the rest of their lives. The only way I can think of keeping a computer in the bedroom is to make house rules that the parents reserve the rights to inspect the computers on a frequent basis to ensure that their children are sticking to the rules. Otherwise, don’t connect them to the Internet except on the family computer.
The Internet is such a wonderful tool, I was blown away by it when my father subscribed to an Internet provider with a $25 package and we were limited to 10 hours per month back in the 90s. Just 10 hours a month? Not only to mention the dreadful slow modem we had. Nowadays, you can go as fast as the wind and stay on as long as you wish to. Now, with children being so savvy with the gadgets today, they can access anywhere without asking an adult for help. It also means they are more vulnerable to the dangers. Online predators are mentally ill and all twisted up in their heads, but they know how to lure children by just having an online conversation.
In fact, child prostitution is getting more common these days. According to the experts, an estimate of half the street-level prostitutes are under the age of 18 in Atlanta, Georgia. A large number of the sex clients are believed to be from out of the city and state. Sex tourism is a growing industry and it isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Click here to read an article on sex tourism thriving in the southern states of America.
It is a growing problem everywhere else including Canada, Romania, Taiwan and many more countries around the world. A frightening threat and not enough noises are being made about it. According to a study done at the university of Pennsylvania, there is an estimated 200,000-300,000 underage girls participating in the prostitution industry. The FBI has pinpointed 14 cities in the USA as centres where children are being exploited. The cities listed are Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, St. Louis, Tampa and Washington D.C. I can’t say I’m surprised considering the population of all these cities and the strong communication networks that are invested in these cities.
I imagine it’s the same case in Canadian cities like Calgary, Edmonton, Montréal, Toronto, Vancouver and more. Despite the laws we already passed, the problem is still growing. Gonzales is right, it is an online epidemic, potentially the biggest online epidemic we have ever encountered in our lifetime.
Now, are you going to talk to your children about the dangers of talking to strangers on the Internet? Don’t wait till it happens to one of your children.
Do it now and they will love you for it even if they didn’t see the point of having the conversation at the beginning, they will realize it sometimes after the talk. They don’t want to put themselves in situations where they are being asked to take off their clothes in front of a web camera with a pedophile watching.
Spare yourself the trauma of having to deal with such a situation. If this isn’t enough for you, then I don’t know what will. I don’t believe a parent would be pleased if they were to stumble onto a pornographic image or video and discover that it’s his/her child.
A big wake-up call to the people of Canada and America is needed.
Badly.
Special Thank to Magatsu of 'The People's Blog, Rants & News' for his contribution to the subject.
Gonzales, the Attorney General made a wake-up call to the people of America. The Attorney General himself has declared the problem with child pornography an online epidemic. Click here to read the article. He referred to it as a real threat, and I completely agree. It is a growing threat and at a rapid rate.
As I have tried to tell some people, they just don’t want to realize the harsh reality. People need to understand the natural dangers of not educating the children to take precaution measurements with their online activities. I don’t advocate taking the computers out of their bedrooms, but I do believe that a video camera has no place being in a child’s bedroom because they can do whatever they wish to with it behind closed doors.
Parents may think they know their children enough to trust them to make the right choices. They may be capable of making good choices, but they still make a lot of mistakes and learn from them. But to become sexually active on the Internet is a regret or trauma one may live with for the rest of their lives. The only way I can think of keeping a computer in the bedroom is to make house rules that the parents reserve the rights to inspect the computers on a frequent basis to ensure that their children are sticking to the rules. Otherwise, don’t connect them to the Internet except on the family computer.
The Internet is such a wonderful tool, I was blown away by it when my father subscribed to an Internet provider with a $25 package and we were limited to 10 hours per month back in the 90s. Just 10 hours a month? Not only to mention the dreadful slow modem we had. Nowadays, you can go as fast as the wind and stay on as long as you wish to. Now, with children being so savvy with the gadgets today, they can access anywhere without asking an adult for help. It also means they are more vulnerable to the dangers. Online predators are mentally ill and all twisted up in their heads, but they know how to lure children by just having an online conversation.
In fact, child prostitution is getting more common these days. According to the experts, an estimate of half the street-level prostitutes are under the age of 18 in Atlanta, Georgia. A large number of the sex clients are believed to be from out of the city and state. Sex tourism is a growing industry and it isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Click here to read an article on sex tourism thriving in the southern states of America.
It is a growing problem everywhere else including Canada, Romania, Taiwan and many more countries around the world. A frightening threat and not enough noises are being made about it. According to a study done at the university of Pennsylvania, there is an estimated 200,000-300,000 underage girls participating in the prostitution industry. The FBI has pinpointed 14 cities in the USA as centres where children are being exploited. The cities listed are Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, St. Louis, Tampa and Washington D.C. I can’t say I’m surprised considering the population of all these cities and the strong communication networks that are invested in these cities.
I imagine it’s the same case in Canadian cities like Calgary, Edmonton, Montréal, Toronto, Vancouver and more. Despite the laws we already passed, the problem is still growing. Gonzales is right, it is an online epidemic, potentially the biggest online epidemic we have ever encountered in our lifetime.
Now, are you going to talk to your children about the dangers of talking to strangers on the Internet? Don’t wait till it happens to one of your children.
Do it now and they will love you for it even if they didn’t see the point of having the conversation at the beginning, they will realize it sometimes after the talk. They don’t want to put themselves in situations where they are being asked to take off their clothes in front of a web camera with a pedophile watching.
Spare yourself the trauma of having to deal with such a situation. If this isn’t enough for you, then I don’t know what will. I don’t believe a parent would be pleased if they were to stumble onto a pornographic image or video and discover that it’s his/her child.
A big wake-up call to the people of Canada and America is needed.
Badly.
Special Thank to Magatsu of 'The People's Blog, Rants & News' for his contribution to the subject.
Banjo's Recommendations: No. 011
'Fire in the Sky' DVD Packaging@1993 Paramount Pictures. All Right Reserved
The Righties Praise Oliver Stone!
Originally posted on July 21, 2006
In the last few weeks, Paramount Pictures has held several advance screenings of Oliver Stone’s latest, ‘World Trade Center’. Obviously based on the horrific event that took place on September 11, 2001, a day I remember as if it was yesterday.
Several conservatives who attended the advance screenings surprised themselves by making some strong praises for the movie and applauded the director, Oliver Stone. The man himself isn’t well liked by many from the right because of his strong political beliefs and has communist tendencies. Though many Americans continue to be heavily misinformed on the true meaning of communism and socialism because of the ‘Red Scare’, but that’s another subject I’ll have to write about one day.
It’s great that a movie done by Oliver Stone is starting to gather some strong praises from the right. It’s about time that they’re not letting their politics get into their way of watching a movie that wasn’t politically influenced. It’s simply a movie about humanity and how they overcome the force of evil. You have no idea how much I wish people wouldn’t play politics over a movie that isn’t even about politics to begin with.
3,000 innocent souls departed from the city of New York City on that very day. This is the second movie from Hollywood that pays a big tribute to the victims and their families to come this year. I do believe we have forgotten 9/11 too soon. Nobody talk about it, nor do any of them recall how he or she felt on that day. Despite the big-shot columnists and political pundits expressing their “feelings” in relation to 9/11, I believe they are taking advantage of it to gain popularity and fame.
Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, John Kerry, George W. Bush, Michael Moore, Thomas H. Kean and many more are guilty of taking advantage of the 9/11 events to gain their fame and adding to their political statuses.
Now that I’ve mentioned Michelle Malkin, the thing about this so-called conservative is that she’s terribly biased to the point of no return. As a person, I believe in giving everybody a chance and I don’t hold grudges against him or her for his or her political beliefs, though I do think some people may be becoming mentally unstable once they start forming quite a number of conspiracy theories about their opponents and are unable to say a single word that would reflect their “opponents” positively. I have friends from both sides and I don’t see them as opponents, and I never will. I enjoy debating politics and I never get angry with my friends over our differences in opinions. If I seem to become somewhat miffed, it is because that person doesn’t know how to debate, not because of the opinions.
Now, why did I even bother to mention Michelle Malkin? Well, because she is “reserving” her “skeptical” judgment with the rest of the conservatives for the movie. It’s funny how Michelle Malkin cannot go on one story about a liberal without some smearing to go with it. Just click here for her bit on Oliver Stone getting praises from the right. See what I mean about some people being unable to go on without resorting to negativity? How the heck does this woman go on with her life with such an amount of negativity?
Can you imagine living with a person who is constantly complaining about the liberals, liberals, liberals or conservatives, conservatives, conservatives? I couldn’t live with anybody who cannot complain about anything else but politics. It’s just unbearable. Thankfully, I’m able to go on with my life without politics taking up hours of my time a day. I feel sorry for these who do. It’s certainly not a way to enjoy life if they are constantly ranting like rabid dogs.
John Podhoretz, a film critic from New York Post wrote a review. He gave it a poor review, but he seems to have a different perception on the events of 9/11. He believe it was a day of barbaric mass murder, not a day of hope. Myself, I believe it was both as we all witnessed thousands of people falling and being crushed to their death. We also all suddenly came together and came to help which brought hope to the people around the world. He’s entitled to his opinion, but I disagree with him.
I know I will be finding it difficult to bring myself to watch the movie; I even had a hard time watching the preview for it. Seeing the Twin Towers featured in a post-9/11 film sent chills down my spine as I remember the fear we all felt that day. We weren’t sure what to believe if the world was truly coming to an end or that we would be seeing World War III. I’m considering seeing the movie at the theatres once it hits the theatres on August 9. It’s not too soon, it should had been here earlier because people forgot too soon.
In the last few weeks, Paramount Pictures has held several advance screenings of Oliver Stone’s latest, ‘World Trade Center’. Obviously based on the horrific event that took place on September 11, 2001, a day I remember as if it was yesterday.
Several conservatives who attended the advance screenings surprised themselves by making some strong praises for the movie and applauded the director, Oliver Stone. The man himself isn’t well liked by many from the right because of his strong political beliefs and has communist tendencies. Though many Americans continue to be heavily misinformed on the true meaning of communism and socialism because of the ‘Red Scare’, but that’s another subject I’ll have to write about one day.
It’s great that a movie done by Oliver Stone is starting to gather some strong praises from the right. It’s about time that they’re not letting their politics get into their way of watching a movie that wasn’t politically influenced. It’s simply a movie about humanity and how they overcome the force of evil. You have no idea how much I wish people wouldn’t play politics over a movie that isn’t even about politics to begin with.
3,000 innocent souls departed from the city of New York City on that very day. This is the second movie from Hollywood that pays a big tribute to the victims and their families to come this year. I do believe we have forgotten 9/11 too soon. Nobody talk about it, nor do any of them recall how he or she felt on that day. Despite the big-shot columnists and political pundits expressing their “feelings” in relation to 9/11, I believe they are taking advantage of it to gain popularity and fame.
Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, John Kerry, George W. Bush, Michael Moore, Thomas H. Kean and many more are guilty of taking advantage of the 9/11 events to gain their fame and adding to their political statuses.
Now that I’ve mentioned Michelle Malkin, the thing about this so-called conservative is that she’s terribly biased to the point of no return. As a person, I believe in giving everybody a chance and I don’t hold grudges against him or her for his or her political beliefs, though I do think some people may be becoming mentally unstable once they start forming quite a number of conspiracy theories about their opponents and are unable to say a single word that would reflect their “opponents” positively. I have friends from both sides and I don’t see them as opponents, and I never will. I enjoy debating politics and I never get angry with my friends over our differences in opinions. If I seem to become somewhat miffed, it is because that person doesn’t know how to debate, not because of the opinions.
Now, why did I even bother to mention Michelle Malkin? Well, because she is “reserving” her “skeptical” judgment with the rest of the conservatives for the movie. It’s funny how Michelle Malkin cannot go on one story about a liberal without some smearing to go with it. Just click here for her bit on Oliver Stone getting praises from the right. See what I mean about some people being unable to go on without resorting to negativity? How the heck does this woman go on with her life with such an amount of negativity?
Can you imagine living with a person who is constantly complaining about the liberals, liberals, liberals or conservatives, conservatives, conservatives? I couldn’t live with anybody who cannot complain about anything else but politics. It’s just unbearable. Thankfully, I’m able to go on with my life without politics taking up hours of my time a day. I feel sorry for these who do. It’s certainly not a way to enjoy life if they are constantly ranting like rabid dogs.
John Podhoretz, a film critic from New York Post wrote a review. He gave it a poor review, but he seems to have a different perception on the events of 9/11. He believe it was a day of barbaric mass murder, not a day of hope. Myself, I believe it was both as we all witnessed thousands of people falling and being crushed to their death. We also all suddenly came together and came to help which brought hope to the people around the world. He’s entitled to his opinion, but I disagree with him.
I know I will be finding it difficult to bring myself to watch the movie; I even had a hard time watching the preview for it. Seeing the Twin Towers featured in a post-9/11 film sent chills down my spine as I remember the fear we all felt that day. We weren’t sure what to believe if the world was truly coming to an end or that we would be seeing World War III. I’m considering seeing the movie at the theatres once it hits the theatres on August 9. It’s not too soon, it should had been here earlier because people forgot too soon.
September 11, 2001 Lest We Forget
Detox Clinic for Video Game Addicts
Originally posted on June 10, 2006
No, I am not joking. It's for real. They are opening one in Europe. I wonder if they'll open a detox clinic for movie addicts. Okay, that one was just a joke. Though I do think any form of addiction is nothing to make light of.
What opinion do I have of this? Well, I cannot take advantage of people's misery and a mockery out of it. Addiction is a serious burden on many people. Myself, I've never been addicted to alcoholic beverages, illegal substances or anything like that. I've never became literally addicted to something that my life began to disappear and holding onto something as if I cannot live without it. It's a mental illness, and I believe video games can become addictive and can become a problem if you allow it to happen. However, they are like illegal substances. You may start taking drugs but it's very likely you were already aware of the dangers surrounding them, but it's not like that with video games. Video games are often viewed as a recreational hobby.
It's hard for some people to imagine that it's a real problem and I don't believe most people are probable to becoming a video game addict. I would be willing to bet that it is linked to several mental illnesses that contribute as a factor to the cause of addiction. I do strongly caution parents to impose a severe limit on the time length of playing video games as kids are often interested in them and may neglect other important aspects of their lives. I enjoy playing games, but I don't often play them due to having a career and being such a movie buff eats up a lot of my time.
Just a word of caution, don't ridicule people for being addicted to video games, even if it seems silly. It may be but an addiction isn't something to make fun of. It's a real mental illness and people need help from it.
An addiction alone can ruin an individual's entire life including its career. People have lost their families and jobs to drinking and drug addictions. Just imagine what would happen with a video game addict, they’d never leave the room and take drugs to stay awake to play more. Even a drunk may take its time to give the kids a hug, but I doubt a video game addict will be able to spare a single second as every second counts to a video game addict.
Life, it's not always fair.
No, I am not joking. It's for real. They are opening one in Europe. I wonder if they'll open a detox clinic for movie addicts. Okay, that one was just a joke. Though I do think any form of addiction is nothing to make light of.
What opinion do I have of this? Well, I cannot take advantage of people's misery and a mockery out of it. Addiction is a serious burden on many people. Myself, I've never been addicted to alcoholic beverages, illegal substances or anything like that. I've never became literally addicted to something that my life began to disappear and holding onto something as if I cannot live without it. It's a mental illness, and I believe video games can become addictive and can become a problem if you allow it to happen. However, they are like illegal substances. You may start taking drugs but it's very likely you were already aware of the dangers surrounding them, but it's not like that with video games. Video games are often viewed as a recreational hobby.
It's hard for some people to imagine that it's a real problem and I don't believe most people are probable to becoming a video game addict. I would be willing to bet that it is linked to several mental illnesses that contribute as a factor to the cause of addiction. I do strongly caution parents to impose a severe limit on the time length of playing video games as kids are often interested in them and may neglect other important aspects of their lives. I enjoy playing games, but I don't often play them due to having a career and being such a movie buff eats up a lot of my time.
Just a word of caution, don't ridicule people for being addicted to video games, even if it seems silly. It may be but an addiction isn't something to make fun of. It's a real mental illness and people need help from it.
An addiction alone can ruin an individual's entire life including its career. People have lost their families and jobs to drinking and drug addictions. Just imagine what would happen with a video game addict, they’d never leave the room and take drugs to stay awake to play more. Even a drunk may take its time to give the kids a hug, but I doubt a video game addict will be able to spare a single second as every second counts to a video game addict.
Life, it's not always fair.
What's the Matter with the Moviegoers?
Originally posted on July 15, 2006
Moviegoers today aren't what they used to be. They are perfectly willing to spend their hard-earned dough on a ticket to a lousy movie like 'Saw'. Or even 'Hostel', which I haven't bothered to watch. I'm sick of movies that try to push the envelope on how far they can go without making the audience puke.
Today's people are far too desensitized to acts of violence; we are being constantly exposed to many horrific images. Yet these people don't care. Something's seriously wrong if people aren't bothered by such acts of violence, even if it's in a movie.
They do it for shock value, and if the tread keep up, these movies will be tame in comparison to what they bring us in the future. I've read about some horror movies from Japan being so extreme that the DVD distributors are reluctant to even consider bringing them.
What really baffles me is; why aren’t the moviegoers going to the movies that are worth seeing? For instance, ‘V for Vendetta’, I was quite surprised to find myself enjoying it quite a lot. When I saw the preview for it, I thought to myself, must be another one of these anti-Bush movies. Even though I’m not a fan of Bush, but I do get sick of how some filmmakers go overboard on their conspiracy theories. Michael Moore is a good example. As a moderate Liberal, I do find myself embarrassed to see how some of the people who claim to be liberal-minded act out their opinions of their opponents in the public. In my opinion, it’s all about having class, but too many people simply resort to mud-slinging these days from both sides. Back to the movie, I wasn’t too familiar with the background of ‘V for Vendetta’. I dug a bit deeper into it and discovered that it’s based on some graphic novels from the 80s’.
The movie was lucky to be made on a moderate budget of $54 million and grossed $70.5 million in North America. It could have been much better, but I believe it was due to bad marketing strategies. Several movies has gotten some awful marketing, it seems like some people just don’t know how to market a certain type of movie. ‘United 93’ was also made on a low budget of $15 million, but it grossed only $31.4 million domestically. Some people said that we weren’t “ready” and that it was too “soon”. What a bunch of baloney. These are the very same people who went to see far more disgusting duds like ‘Saw’ and ‘Hostel’ which made far more than ‘United 93’ did. A portion of the gross from the movie was given to a charity, but I’m betting that not a lot was given away because people these days are so full of themselves. ‘United 93’ was tastefully done with a large sum of respect to the victims. That movie portrayed these real-life characters in a very powerful and heroic way, while the fictional characters in ‘Saw’ was full of nasty secrets that nobody knew about and some wacko was out to “test” them in such a disgusting manner.
Yes, I am fed up with the moviegoers sending a portion of their weekly paycheck to the untalented filmmakers. What’s wrong with these people? I don’t want to see more of these movies making more money than they deserve. It seems like the moviegoers aren’t able to think for themselves and buy into the Pop Culture as if it’s a requirement. To be honest, most of what the Pop Culture has to offer are crap. They know they can sell any sort of dud because they know how to market it. Just because it may be popular doesn’t mean it must be good. Yes, some of what they have to offer are good, but quite a lot aren’t.
By the way, ‘The Da Vinci Code’ was and is still a disappointment as a standalone movie. The book wasn’t that great either; it was only popular because of the subject surrounding Mary and Jesus. In 10 years, people will be saying, “The Da Vinci what?” when they are being asked about the movie. Many were and are doomed to this type of fate. I reckon it’ll happen to this novel and the movie. Dan Brown, the author has written far superior novels than his last one. ‘Deception Point’ is a good read and would make a good movie. ‘Da Vinci Code’ is a whole different story, and could have been adapted better. The only reason why it made $725,000,000 worldwide is because the book sold 40 million copies. The next adaptation, ‘Angels & Demons’ should be better, as long they don’t screw up the screenplay like they did with ‘The Da Vinci Code’. If they’re going to let the dollar bill be the judge of a movie, then we have a problem.
‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’ grossed around $745 million worldwide, but it was not a great movie, just decent and geared toward the children more than the whole family together. The reason why this movie was a big success was because of its large base of fans from the last 50 years. ‘Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith’ made a good amount, $850 million from around the globe. That’s no small figure, but is the movie any good? Sorry, but I still like the original trilogy better. George Lucas shouldn’t have written the screenplay all by himself. Sure, it had nice special effects and the battles were cool, but the overall experience was disappointing. I imagine it wouldn’t have been too difficult to write some good screenplays for some of these movies, but I guess some people just don’t know how to write.
Maybe they should consider making some movies with deaf characters and have the story revolve around them and with subtitles. Hey, ‘The Passion of the Christ’ made $611 million worldwide and it wasn’t even in English. So why not give it a shot?
Maybe they’ll be actually worth seeing.
Moviegoers today aren't what they used to be. They are perfectly willing to spend their hard-earned dough on a ticket to a lousy movie like 'Saw'. Or even 'Hostel', which I haven't bothered to watch. I'm sick of movies that try to push the envelope on how far they can go without making the audience puke.
Today's people are far too desensitized to acts of violence; we are being constantly exposed to many horrific images. Yet these people don't care. Something's seriously wrong if people aren't bothered by such acts of violence, even if it's in a movie.
They do it for shock value, and if the tread keep up, these movies will be tame in comparison to what they bring us in the future. I've read about some horror movies from Japan being so extreme that the DVD distributors are reluctant to even consider bringing them.
What really baffles me is; why aren’t the moviegoers going to the movies that are worth seeing? For instance, ‘V for Vendetta’, I was quite surprised to find myself enjoying it quite a lot. When I saw the preview for it, I thought to myself, must be another one of these anti-Bush movies. Even though I’m not a fan of Bush, but I do get sick of how some filmmakers go overboard on their conspiracy theories. Michael Moore is a good example. As a moderate Liberal, I do find myself embarrassed to see how some of the people who claim to be liberal-minded act out their opinions of their opponents in the public. In my opinion, it’s all about having class, but too many people simply resort to mud-slinging these days from both sides. Back to the movie, I wasn’t too familiar with the background of ‘V for Vendetta’. I dug a bit deeper into it and discovered that it’s based on some graphic novels from the 80s’.
The movie was lucky to be made on a moderate budget of $54 million and grossed $70.5 million in North America. It could have been much better, but I believe it was due to bad marketing strategies. Several movies has gotten some awful marketing, it seems like some people just don’t know how to market a certain type of movie. ‘United 93’ was also made on a low budget of $15 million, but it grossed only $31.4 million domestically. Some people said that we weren’t “ready” and that it was too “soon”. What a bunch of baloney. These are the very same people who went to see far more disgusting duds like ‘Saw’ and ‘Hostel’ which made far more than ‘United 93’ did. A portion of the gross from the movie was given to a charity, but I’m betting that not a lot was given away because people these days are so full of themselves. ‘United 93’ was tastefully done with a large sum of respect to the victims. That movie portrayed these real-life characters in a very powerful and heroic way, while the fictional characters in ‘Saw’ was full of nasty secrets that nobody knew about and some wacko was out to “test” them in such a disgusting manner.
Yes, I am fed up with the moviegoers sending a portion of their weekly paycheck to the untalented filmmakers. What’s wrong with these people? I don’t want to see more of these movies making more money than they deserve. It seems like the moviegoers aren’t able to think for themselves and buy into the Pop Culture as if it’s a requirement. To be honest, most of what the Pop Culture has to offer are crap. They know they can sell any sort of dud because they know how to market it. Just because it may be popular doesn’t mean it must be good. Yes, some of what they have to offer are good, but quite a lot aren’t.
By the way, ‘The Da Vinci Code’ was and is still a disappointment as a standalone movie. The book wasn’t that great either; it was only popular because of the subject surrounding Mary and Jesus. In 10 years, people will be saying, “The Da Vinci what?” when they are being asked about the movie. Many were and are doomed to this type of fate. I reckon it’ll happen to this novel and the movie. Dan Brown, the author has written far superior novels than his last one. ‘Deception Point’ is a good read and would make a good movie. ‘Da Vinci Code’ is a whole different story, and could have been adapted better. The only reason why it made $725,000,000 worldwide is because the book sold 40 million copies. The next adaptation, ‘Angels & Demons’ should be better, as long they don’t screw up the screenplay like they did with ‘The Da Vinci Code’. If they’re going to let the dollar bill be the judge of a movie, then we have a problem.
‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’ grossed around $745 million worldwide, but it was not a great movie, just decent and geared toward the children more than the whole family together. The reason why this movie was a big success was because of its large base of fans from the last 50 years. ‘Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith’ made a good amount, $850 million from around the globe. That’s no small figure, but is the movie any good? Sorry, but I still like the original trilogy better. George Lucas shouldn’t have written the screenplay all by himself. Sure, it had nice special effects and the battles were cool, but the overall experience was disappointing. I imagine it wouldn’t have been too difficult to write some good screenplays for some of these movies, but I guess some people just don’t know how to write.
Maybe they should consider making some movies with deaf characters and have the story revolve around them and with subtitles. Hey, ‘The Passion of the Christ’ made $611 million worldwide and it wasn’t even in English. So why not give it a shot?
Maybe they’ll be actually worth seeing.
An Animated Movie for the Deaf
Originally posted on July 17, 2006
As a deaf young man with a strong passion for the art of film, we do get treated to a major motion picture featuring a deaf character once in a blue moon, bur rarely as a leading character like Marlee Matlin was in ‘Children of a Lesser God‘ and ‘Hear No Evil’. Last winter, a movie titled ‘The Family Stone” which I found to be somewhat bittersweet, and I liked how they integrated the deaf character into the storyline, but still underused. The cast’s efforts to sign were noteworthy, as it showed how a family with a deaf individual should be portrayed.
Only God know how many times I have to see a movie where the method of lip-reading is used instead of signing, but the strange thing is, according to some sources, lip-reading even by the best lip readers are more likely to recognize no more than 30% of what is being said. Yet the deaf characters understand absolutely every spoken word in the movies. It’s just completely unrealistic, I don’t know any deaf people who are capable of reading lips like they can in the movies. I do know some deaf people with residual hearing who are able to understand nearly every word with a hearing aid on, but not by reading lips. Sure, I can understand that it’s necessary to take liberties with the storylines and characters to keep the movie pacing smoothly and more entertaining, but lip-reading is a cliché and need to be eliminated from the movies because it’s just not believable.
My family is all hearing, and they can sign to communicate with me. Just like the family does in the movie, ‘The Family Stone’. I know of many families with deaf individuals where they are expected to lip-read or wear hearing aids, many of these deaf individuals often find themselves alienated and frustrated because it takes a big effort to comprehend the spoken words especially when they were born deaf with low residual hearing. Hard-of-Hearing, now that’s a whole different story because they are more likely to succeed at understanding the spoken word with little effort later in their lives while it will continue to be a big frustration for the deaf in their adulthood. I’ve seen how many of these individuals communicate with their parents who cannot sign by making small gestures and mouthing words hoping they’ll understand. I just cannot imagine myself having parents who barely understand what I’m saying. Not only that, it would probably had changed my outcome in a big way. Would I be working as a full-time graphic designer for a media corporation today if it wasn’t for my parents’ efforts to communicate and encourage me to pursue a higher education and a professional career? My instinct tells me the answer would have been a big no.
What I’m saying is, Hollywood need to take less liberties with deaf characters and start creating a more realistic and suitable environment for the deaf rather than using a bunch of clichés. ‘The Family Stone’ took a big leap in making that effort, and I hope it’ll influence the other filmmakers to start researching the lives of deaf people. It is true that there are an incredible amount of different lifestyles among the deaf community, but we are seeing too much of the same thing over and over in the movies.
Which is why I think creating an animated movie featuring deaf characters would be a grand idea. Sure, it’s a financial risk; but how do you know it won’t succeed if you’ve never tried it? The best way to make an animated movie featuring deaf characters would be to go down the same route the filmmakers did with the movies, ‘The Polar Express’ and ‘Monster House’. These two movies used real-life actors; they wore utilized costumes and dots all over their faces. It’s quite a fascinating technology, and it’s still underused at the moment. Don’t worry about the ‘Dead Eyes Syndrome’ that you saw in ‘The Polar Express’, they’ve fixed that problem. There are a lot of details I could write down on how and what they do with the technology, but that would take a good while. To simplify it, they capture the movements and facial expressions of the actors onto the computers, they are now able to take these movements and turn it into a 3-D character model, you can even revolve the cameras around the 3-D models which give them the big advantage of improving the cinematography, and it definitely would give them the advantage of making the transition from real-life signing to animated signing much easier and smoother.
I can imagine the reasons why the executives in Hollywood would be reluctant to take such a risk, but look at the risks they’re taking on these days and many of them are flopping. Poseidon had a budget of $160 million and it made only $59 million. I think Hollywood should take the chance and make an animated feature with the deaf characters in leading roles. They can always do what Mel Gibson did with his movie, ‘The Passion of the Christ’ since it didn’t have a single word from the language of English, and they can subtitle it for the hearing audience.
So, what do you think?
As a deaf young man with a strong passion for the art of film, we do get treated to a major motion picture featuring a deaf character once in a blue moon, bur rarely as a leading character like Marlee Matlin was in ‘Children of a Lesser God‘ and ‘Hear No Evil’. Last winter, a movie titled ‘The Family Stone” which I found to be somewhat bittersweet, and I liked how they integrated the deaf character into the storyline, but still underused. The cast’s efforts to sign were noteworthy, as it showed how a family with a deaf individual should be portrayed.
Only God know how many times I have to see a movie where the method of lip-reading is used instead of signing, but the strange thing is, according to some sources, lip-reading even by the best lip readers are more likely to recognize no more than 30% of what is being said. Yet the deaf characters understand absolutely every spoken word in the movies. It’s just completely unrealistic, I don’t know any deaf people who are capable of reading lips like they can in the movies. I do know some deaf people with residual hearing who are able to understand nearly every word with a hearing aid on, but not by reading lips. Sure, I can understand that it’s necessary to take liberties with the storylines and characters to keep the movie pacing smoothly and more entertaining, but lip-reading is a cliché and need to be eliminated from the movies because it’s just not believable.
My family is all hearing, and they can sign to communicate with me. Just like the family does in the movie, ‘The Family Stone’. I know of many families with deaf individuals where they are expected to lip-read or wear hearing aids, many of these deaf individuals often find themselves alienated and frustrated because it takes a big effort to comprehend the spoken words especially when they were born deaf with low residual hearing. Hard-of-Hearing, now that’s a whole different story because they are more likely to succeed at understanding the spoken word with little effort later in their lives while it will continue to be a big frustration for the deaf in their adulthood. I’ve seen how many of these individuals communicate with their parents who cannot sign by making small gestures and mouthing words hoping they’ll understand. I just cannot imagine myself having parents who barely understand what I’m saying. Not only that, it would probably had changed my outcome in a big way. Would I be working as a full-time graphic designer for a media corporation today if it wasn’t for my parents’ efforts to communicate and encourage me to pursue a higher education and a professional career? My instinct tells me the answer would have been a big no.
What I’m saying is, Hollywood need to take less liberties with deaf characters and start creating a more realistic and suitable environment for the deaf rather than using a bunch of clichés. ‘The Family Stone’ took a big leap in making that effort, and I hope it’ll influence the other filmmakers to start researching the lives of deaf people. It is true that there are an incredible amount of different lifestyles among the deaf community, but we are seeing too much of the same thing over and over in the movies.
Which is why I think creating an animated movie featuring deaf characters would be a grand idea. Sure, it’s a financial risk; but how do you know it won’t succeed if you’ve never tried it? The best way to make an animated movie featuring deaf characters would be to go down the same route the filmmakers did with the movies, ‘The Polar Express’ and ‘Monster House’. These two movies used real-life actors; they wore utilized costumes and dots all over their faces. It’s quite a fascinating technology, and it’s still underused at the moment. Don’t worry about the ‘Dead Eyes Syndrome’ that you saw in ‘The Polar Express’, they’ve fixed that problem. There are a lot of details I could write down on how and what they do with the technology, but that would take a good while. To simplify it, they capture the movements and facial expressions of the actors onto the computers, they are now able to take these movements and turn it into a 3-D character model, you can even revolve the cameras around the 3-D models which give them the big advantage of improving the cinematography, and it definitely would give them the advantage of making the transition from real-life signing to animated signing much easier and smoother.
I can imagine the reasons why the executives in Hollywood would be reluctant to take such a risk, but look at the risks they’re taking on these days and many of them are flopping. Poseidon had a budget of $160 million and it made only $59 million. I think Hollywood should take the chance and make an animated feature with the deaf characters in leading roles. They can always do what Mel Gibson did with his movie, ‘The Passion of the Christ’ since it didn’t have a single word from the language of English, and they can subtitle it for the hearing audience.
So, what do you think?
Exposé: President Bush's a Masseur
Originally posted on July 18, 2006
Not a good Masseur by judging the facial and body expression of the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel. Click here to view the video clip featuring Bush's infamous moment with the Chancellor. Hat tips to the 'Green Knight' for the scoop, and 'Crooks and Liars' for the video clip.
Not only to mention that it was probably embarrassing for the President. He probably didn't think this through, but since when does he in any situation to begin with? He have already gotten himself into a few embarrassing incidents and even was publicly rebuked by Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia. There's also that remark made by President Bush that made its way onto the microphone during a private conversation between him and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair. Really, they shouldn't have reported that one to begin with, as it was a private conversation. Though, I think somebody need to teach him a thing or two about table manners and to not talk with his mouth full.
The Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper was also there as a part of the G8 Summit. There's not really much to discuss, though he did make some efforts to bring the proposal and discussion of Canada being an 'emerging energy superpower'
Maybe the Chancellor did think it was amusing after being surprised, but the face she made at first is bound to give someone the impression that she isn't too amused.
Not a good Masseur by judging the facial and body expression of the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel. Click here to view the video clip featuring Bush's infamous moment with the Chancellor. Hat tips to the 'Green Knight' for the scoop, and 'Crooks and Liars' for the video clip.Not only to mention that it was probably embarrassing for the President. He probably didn't think this through, but since when does he in any situation to begin with? He have already gotten himself into a few embarrassing incidents and even was publicly rebuked by Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia. There's also that remark made by President Bush that made its way onto the microphone during a private conversation between him and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair. Really, they shouldn't have reported that one to begin with, as it was a private conversation. Though, I think somebody need to teach him a thing or two about table manners and to not talk with his mouth full.
The Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper was also there as a part of the G8 Summit. There's not really much to discuss, though he did make some efforts to bring the proposal and discussion of Canada being an 'emerging energy superpower'
Maybe the Chancellor did think it was amusing after being surprised, but the face she made at first is bound to give someone the impression that she isn't too amused.
Heartless: The Church of Conservatism
Originally posted on June 8, 2006
Okay, most conservatives I personally know aren't heartless. Just like most liberals I know aren't. It’s just a parodied version of Ann Coulter’s new book, ‘Godless: The Church of Liberalism’. The title for this blog entry is well earned regarding a disgusting remark she made recently toward some of the political activists whose husbands died on September 11, 2001 in the terrorist attacks. Clearly, she is far too biased for her own good. I don’t think too much of Hilary Clinton either, even after she tried to add some character to herself after blasting Coulter. Sort of an odd egg if you ask me.
Yes, I do have my bias just like everybody does. Though, I do my absolutely best to keep it out of the way when I make my political commentaries and I put my personal feelings into it instead. That’s something Ann Coulter has failed to demonstrate, she absolutely refuse to see a single positive aspect about any other political philosophy other than conservatism. As a person, I believe there are positive and negative aspects in all liberalism, conservatism, libertarianism and more. For me, I’ll call it Banjoism. The philosophy is, I believe in what I believe, it’s that simple.
It's a matter of far the extremism goes on both sides of politics. For example, Alan Hevesi, the NY State Comptroller a while ago said to a bunch of college grads that he would “put a bullet between the President’s eyes” if “he could get away with it”. It was incredibly moronic of him to say such a thing. Even with his public apology, it was still quite damaging to his reputation. With his political agenda toward gun control; you would think he’d know better than to make such a comment to the public. Personally, I think he should resign; no politician should ever make a hint at wishing death upon the others. In fact, isn’t it a felony to wish death upon a president? A person can be jailed for up to ten years for making such a threat.
Ann Coulter, recently made an appearance on NBC’s ‘Today’ to promote her new book, ‘Godless: The Church of Liberalism’. She’ll do anything to make a quick buck these days and using ‘shock’ tactics can either work or backfire. In many cases, it works for her, as it will quickly become controversial leading to a spike in copies sold. Ann Coulter may have a lot of good points to offer on some subjects, but must the sheep always gleefully nod in agreement with everything she says on the television? No, you don’t have to. You are your own person with the ability to form your own opinions and stand up for what you believe in. It’s not the point she was trying to make; it’s her lack of decency that is causing the nasty backlash from the liberals, moderates and quite a good amount of the conservatives.
What I cannot believe is how many people are coming to her defense. It was dead-on obvious that Ann Coulter lack humanity in her character. She claims to be a Christian, but she acts in a quite unconvincing way for a Christian. I know this myself because I am a Christian and I was taught to never hurt people for political purposes. If Ann Coulter wants to talk about morals, she should at least practice it herself.
She said this on NBC’s ‘Today’, "I have never seen people enjoying their husband’s death so much.” How can this remark be ever justified? You cannot defend this. It’s different when you criticize a person for their political beliefs, but it is crossing the line when you are using their own family against them. Especially when they are dead. Never, never in my life have I used the death of someone against a person for political purposes.
I don’t believe in using death as a political tactic. Period. However, I will express my feelings toward world issues involving deaths in wars, poverty, genocide and more. They are not political; they are my personal feelings.
Ann Coulter is all about politics. Nothing more. She’s just doing this to make an extra million dollar. Such a shameful display of greed, she’s using all of her followers to turn a profit. It’s such a shame that some of these people have blinders on and aren’t even aware that they are being used to make her richer when she really don’t give a single crap about them. She just wants to make money, and that’s why she resorts to the ‘shock’ tactics.
Sorry folks, but it’s my personal opinion of her. A person with such weak humanity doesn’t settle too well with me when it comes to him/her being the ‘voice’ of a country. A country cannot be considered a great nation if it lacks humanity.
They are picking the wrong ‘voice’ to speak for them. At least, that’s what I believe and I am deeply concerned about it. Picking the wrong ‘voice’ to represent your country can be a grave danger to your welfare and the principles the country was built on.
They have the freedom to make their own choices. They often forget one thing; they usually come attached with consequences.
Just think about it. Is this what you really want for yourself and your country?
Okay, most conservatives I personally know aren't heartless. Just like most liberals I know aren't. It’s just a parodied version of Ann Coulter’s new book, ‘Godless: The Church of Liberalism’. The title for this blog entry is well earned regarding a disgusting remark she made recently toward some of the political activists whose husbands died on September 11, 2001 in the terrorist attacks. Clearly, she is far too biased for her own good. I don’t think too much of Hilary Clinton either, even after she tried to add some character to herself after blasting Coulter. Sort of an odd egg if you ask me.
Yes, I do have my bias just like everybody does. Though, I do my absolutely best to keep it out of the way when I make my political commentaries and I put my personal feelings into it instead. That’s something Ann Coulter has failed to demonstrate, she absolutely refuse to see a single positive aspect about any other political philosophy other than conservatism. As a person, I believe there are positive and negative aspects in all liberalism, conservatism, libertarianism and more. For me, I’ll call it Banjoism. The philosophy is, I believe in what I believe, it’s that simple.
It's a matter of far the extremism goes on both sides of politics. For example, Alan Hevesi, the NY State Comptroller a while ago said to a bunch of college grads that he would “put a bullet between the President’s eyes” if “he could get away with it”. It was incredibly moronic of him to say such a thing. Even with his public apology, it was still quite damaging to his reputation. With his political agenda toward gun control; you would think he’d know better than to make such a comment to the public. Personally, I think he should resign; no politician should ever make a hint at wishing death upon the others. In fact, isn’t it a felony to wish death upon a president? A person can be jailed for up to ten years for making such a threat.
Ann Coulter, recently made an appearance on NBC’s ‘Today’ to promote her new book, ‘Godless: The Church of Liberalism’. She’ll do anything to make a quick buck these days and using ‘shock’ tactics can either work or backfire. In many cases, it works for her, as it will quickly become controversial leading to a spike in copies sold. Ann Coulter may have a lot of good points to offer on some subjects, but must the sheep always gleefully nod in agreement with everything she says on the television? No, you don’t have to. You are your own person with the ability to form your own opinions and stand up for what you believe in. It’s not the point she was trying to make; it’s her lack of decency that is causing the nasty backlash from the liberals, moderates and quite a good amount of the conservatives.
What I cannot believe is how many people are coming to her defense. It was dead-on obvious that Ann Coulter lack humanity in her character. She claims to be a Christian, but she acts in a quite unconvincing way for a Christian. I know this myself because I am a Christian and I was taught to never hurt people for political purposes. If Ann Coulter wants to talk about morals, she should at least practice it herself.
She said this on NBC’s ‘Today’, "I have never seen people enjoying their husband’s death so much.” How can this remark be ever justified? You cannot defend this. It’s different when you criticize a person for their political beliefs, but it is crossing the line when you are using their own family against them. Especially when they are dead. Never, never in my life have I used the death of someone against a person for political purposes.
I don’t believe in using death as a political tactic. Period. However, I will express my feelings toward world issues involving deaths in wars, poverty, genocide and more. They are not political; they are my personal feelings.
Ann Coulter is all about politics. Nothing more. She’s just doing this to make an extra million dollar. Such a shameful display of greed, she’s using all of her followers to turn a profit. It’s such a shame that some of these people have blinders on and aren’t even aware that they are being used to make her richer when she really don’t give a single crap about them. She just wants to make money, and that’s why she resorts to the ‘shock’ tactics.
Sorry folks, but it’s my personal opinion of her. A person with such weak humanity doesn’t settle too well with me when it comes to him/her being the ‘voice’ of a country. A country cannot be considered a great nation if it lacks humanity.
They are picking the wrong ‘voice’ to speak for them. At least, that’s what I believe and I am deeply concerned about it. Picking the wrong ‘voice’ to represent your country can be a grave danger to your welfare and the principles the country was built on.
They have the freedom to make their own choices. They often forget one thing; they usually come attached with consequences.
Just think about it. Is this what you really want for yourself and your country?
Condemning the Terrorists
Originally posted on June 4, 2006
To the vandals of Toronto, grow up for God's sake! At least one mosque already had been vandalized in the city of Toronto after the news of the terrorism-related arrests. According to several news sources, approximately thirty windows at a Mosque were smashed. Not only that, some nearby cars was also damaged.
This was a response that was completely uncalled for. Just because the suspects were arrested doesn’t mean you are entitled to cause damage to anybody’s property, not even a church, mosque or any other religious establishment. It’s an act of stupidity; vandalism is never to be condoned.
This isn’t the time to get all politically correct. All of you need to remember that there are many different religions among the people including Christianity, Islam and more. All of these religions are about peace and love, none other. However, you also have to remember that many religions can be manipulated and used as a tool by the terrorists. Creating a series of provoking statements against a certain religion is going to do you no favour except stir up a nasty storm around the world. I am not saying we should bow to their demands, but it is also our duty to keep peace intact and that means no provocation.
No religion, I repeat, no religion should ever be provoked into a war. Especially when it come to massive religions like Christianity, Catholicism and Islam. Absolutely no need create a bloodbath over a few terrorists. I don’t just mean five terrorists, I am perfectly aware that they are now in the thousands who are actively setting off bombs and participating in suicide missions. Still, do the bloggers and politicians have to use their religion against them? These are the very same people who scream about Christians being attacked by the liberals, atheists and more during Christian holidays especially during Christmas. Yes, another hypocrisy. Personally, I believe the “War on Christmas” bit is just one big myth they are trying to dupe us into believing. It’s completely ridiculous and people are so quick to believe it’s a real problem. I celebrate Christmas as a Christian every year and I’ve never witnessed an anti-Christmas incident-taking place in my entire life. The only time I read about it is by the columnists and misguided souls.
Sure, I remember seeing a photo of a madman dressed like Santa Claus stained with blood all over as a protest to the commercialization of Christmas. That’s a different issue because Christmas is a holiday that shouldn’t be commercialized and is taken advantaged of by many capitalists. It’s a time where people celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, not Santa Claus or anybody else. So in a way, these protests makes sense but I think some went too far by turning Santa Claus into a madman. Santa Claus is based on a real saint, and should be respected as a figure but shouldn’t overshadow the meaning of Christmas. It’s not just about Jesus Christ; it’s also about humanity and the importance of love for each other.
Anyway, what I’m saying is. Leave the religions alone and hold the terrorists accountable for their actions and plans. They should be condemned to life in prison for their evil deeds to the world. No religions should be used as a weapon. Unfortunately, both sides are constantly using their religions as their choice of weapons. The more uses we get out of them, the more wars we will create.
The vandals need to grow up and stop acting their anger out because it’ll do us no favour except cause more problems among the society. Religious tolerance need to be encouraged among the people, there are many people around with different faiths. Many of them have several elements in common when it comes to their faith; it’s love and peace. Tolerating a religion doesn’t require joining them or sharing the same beliefs. It’s a way of agreeing to disagree.
Terrorists represent a significant small percentage of any religions, I believe in karma and justice will always be served, it may not happen now but it will happen later. It is our job to pull the danger out of the world and keep it safe. The terrorists need to be punished for wishing death upon the innocents.
Six billion souls living on the face of Earth, we don’t need a bloodbath just because we don’t share the same beliefs and opinions. We don’t need to fill the ocean with innocent blood.
Condemn the terrorists, not the religions.
To the vandals of Toronto, grow up for God's sake! At least one mosque already had been vandalized in the city of Toronto after the news of the terrorism-related arrests. According to several news sources, approximately thirty windows at a Mosque were smashed. Not only that, some nearby cars was also damaged.
This was a response that was completely uncalled for. Just because the suspects were arrested doesn’t mean you are entitled to cause damage to anybody’s property, not even a church, mosque or any other religious establishment. It’s an act of stupidity; vandalism is never to be condoned.
This isn’t the time to get all politically correct. All of you need to remember that there are many different religions among the people including Christianity, Islam and more. All of these religions are about peace and love, none other. However, you also have to remember that many religions can be manipulated and used as a tool by the terrorists. Creating a series of provoking statements against a certain religion is going to do you no favour except stir up a nasty storm around the world. I am not saying we should bow to their demands, but it is also our duty to keep peace intact and that means no provocation.
No religion, I repeat, no religion should ever be provoked into a war. Especially when it come to massive religions like Christianity, Catholicism and Islam. Absolutely no need create a bloodbath over a few terrorists. I don’t just mean five terrorists, I am perfectly aware that they are now in the thousands who are actively setting off bombs and participating in suicide missions. Still, do the bloggers and politicians have to use their religion against them? These are the very same people who scream about Christians being attacked by the liberals, atheists and more during Christian holidays especially during Christmas. Yes, another hypocrisy. Personally, I believe the “War on Christmas” bit is just one big myth they are trying to dupe us into believing. It’s completely ridiculous and people are so quick to believe it’s a real problem. I celebrate Christmas as a Christian every year and I’ve never witnessed an anti-Christmas incident-taking place in my entire life. The only time I read about it is by the columnists and misguided souls.
Sure, I remember seeing a photo of a madman dressed like Santa Claus stained with blood all over as a protest to the commercialization of Christmas. That’s a different issue because Christmas is a holiday that shouldn’t be commercialized and is taken advantaged of by many capitalists. It’s a time where people celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, not Santa Claus or anybody else. So in a way, these protests makes sense but I think some went too far by turning Santa Claus into a madman. Santa Claus is based on a real saint, and should be respected as a figure but shouldn’t overshadow the meaning of Christmas. It’s not just about Jesus Christ; it’s also about humanity and the importance of love for each other.
Anyway, what I’m saying is. Leave the religions alone and hold the terrorists accountable for their actions and plans. They should be condemned to life in prison for their evil deeds to the world. No religions should be used as a weapon. Unfortunately, both sides are constantly using their religions as their choice of weapons. The more uses we get out of them, the more wars we will create.
The vandals need to grow up and stop acting their anger out because it’ll do us no favour except cause more problems among the society. Religious tolerance need to be encouraged among the people, there are many people around with different faiths. Many of them have several elements in common when it comes to their faith; it’s love and peace. Tolerating a religion doesn’t require joining them or sharing the same beliefs. It’s a way of agreeing to disagree.
Terrorists represent a significant small percentage of any religions, I believe in karma and justice will always be served, it may not happen now but it will happen later. It is our job to pull the danger out of the world and keep it safe. The terrorists need to be punished for wishing death upon the innocents.
Six billion souls living on the face of Earth, we don’t need a bloodbath just because we don’t share the same beliefs and opinions. We don’t need to fill the ocean with innocent blood.
Condemn the terrorists, not the religions.
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