The Results are In…

Hey, I just heard some talking head yahoo say that the writers’ strike will last another six more months. Since I’m also a yahoo, I’m predicting 6 more days - the producers fold up like a lawn chair and the writers get all they deserve. Of course the talking head yahoo says they deserve to walk on the picket line for 6 months. So, Adam, who you going to listen to? Huh? Semper Fi! or Solidarity! or whatever you’re are saying these days. Sorry, I’m not up to speed - I’ve been out of the loop. Or maybe I’ve just had the loop around my neck…. Yeah, that’s it.

Can someone explain why No Country for Old Men isn’t playing in Seattle? I’m starting to get really frustrated.

Adam, my psychologist advises me, since I’m in country, to not fixate on the past - “Look to the future”, “Get on with life”, “One day at a time” - that sort of thing. After working with her for seven months, I’ve granted her a “not totally full of shit” rating, which is quite rare for shrinks, I’d say. So I’m going with her suggestion and dropping my “Back from Iraq” handle. I’ll be just plain Jack from now on.

I’ve come to realize that America is a truly wonderful country; but we do have to start acting like we care about it. Speak your mind, write your congressman, vote your conscience, walk the picket line, bring the troops home, and reduce our carbon footprint, each and every one of us. Amen (end of sermon).

Way to go Jack. Well put. Though, if it were me, I’d keep the “Back from Iraq,” if for no other reason than to make it clear that soldiers and marines are not some monolithic, pro-Republican blob that all think and act alike.

Besides, you’re kinda the Yin to George-Never-Been-to-Vietnam’s Yang, if ya catch my drift.

What was it Bruce Springsteen said about the country we still have in our hearts? Yup, what he said!

Oh, and welcome home.

cooper, I’m not familiar with local NC politics, but Sue would have to go a long way to beat Diane Feinstein and Joe Lieberman out of that title.

I’m not much for war stories, but this one about the Marlboro Marine is riveting.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-marlboro11nov11,0  ,4380908.story?page=1&track=mostviewed-storylevel

Boomer, thank you so much. There are three parts to this video story and each one should be viewed. It brought tears to this man’s eyes.

Steve, you think your IQ was sucked lower from the movie poster? Wait till you’re bombarded for ads for these new reality shows that are being planned if the strike goes on for months:

Oprah’s Big Give - Winfrey bestows cash on needy families.

Do You Trust Me? - Tucker Carlson hosts a quiz show in which strangers bet on their mutual confidence in each other.

The Moment of Truth - Game show in which contestants are strapped to a lie detector and asked highly personal questions.

Celebrity Apprentice - Stars compete for Donald Trump’s approval as hot-dog vendors and in other unlikely occupations.

Amnesia - Dennis Miller hosts this quiz show that asks contestants to recall key moments of their lives.

Crowned: The Mother of All Pageants - Mother-daughter teams compete for a beauty pageant title while shacking up in bunk beds in a Hollywood mansion.

I’m not kidding.

Wait till you’re bombarded for ads for these new reality shows that are being planned if the strike goes on for months. . .

I’m with hedera. . . sort of.

I do regularly watch Alton Brown’s Good Eats on Food Network but that’s just about it, other than Mythbusters, whenever they have a new one.

Oh, yeah, and Book TV on C-SPAN 2.

Personally, I’m anxiously waiting for bandwidth to get to the level that I can watch the BBC and CBC on a live stream over IPTV.

Wunderbar! I’m coming to America next April! I’m so excited. I called Father Guido today in Ibiza to ask him about what places are must-see when I’m in Washington und New York City. I had Archbishop Sambi listen in on the conversation und take notes. My penmanship is - how do the young folk say it these days? Oh yes - “It sucks”. What a time we’ll have!! Die restaurants, das theater, die museums, das baseball Yankee Stadium! Whoopee!

Cardinal Bernard Law came into the room while Pietro und I were dancing around, completely thrilled with our coming adventure. He took one look at the itinerary, wadded it up und threw it in the trash. “You can’t go to these places und have fun. What will the people say?”

“Oh… I don’t know… maybe - Welcome to America, Pope? Have a blast while you’re here und go easy on the tequila?” Bernie can be such a disagreeable man! He took the list back out of the trash, flattened it out und went down the column - “Nein! Nein! Nein! Okay, Yankee Stadium you can do - but no baseball und you must say mass to 80,000 religious fanatics while you’re there. They shouldn’t be hard to find in the US. We’ll bus them up from Georgia, Mississippi und Alabama. They don’t even have to be Catholic. Just speak in Latin and they’ll think it’s Billy Graham on a bender.”

Maybe the cherry trees will be in bloom.

Dee, now you know why Americans elected the idiot president.

Speaking of electing.

Yesterday I spent the day traveling and photographing Tony Barr’s official 2008 congressional campaign kickoff. (www.tonybarr2008.com) We stopped in 3 (out of 15) counties and Tony gave his speech before the crowds and press. Started at 7:30 in the morning and got home at 11:00 in the evening. It was a good day.

On one stop a woman during the Q & A wondered about Tony’s single payer plan for health care. Seems she was very concerned about socialized medicine and that Canadians wait 5 months for health care. Tony asked her if she had Medicare and how did she like that. Yes she had Medicare and it was great but she didn’t like the idea of socialized medicine for the entire country because it might raise her taxes. A woman with a small daughter sitting several chairs beside me asked her why she should be against the schip which would cover her now uninsured child. “The government shouldn’t be in the business of taking care of it’s people, that is what private industry is for”.
On the way home I said to Tony that we have to discipline ourselves not to get drawn into stupid arguments that can’t be won. It bogs down the meeting. Instead he needs to give a quick answer, thank the person for the question, say that he would discuss it later if the other wanted to, turn to the other side of the room and ask, “who else has a question?”

This time we have a year to campaign, the staff is more or less experienced, we know the news outlets, we know who to hit up for money, and things are getting worse in the district. Shuster (who has voted more times with Bush than the Republican leadership, has voted against schip 4 times, this in a district filled with blue collar working poor who, much more than the national average are without health insurance.

This time the media is taking Tony seriously. He ran as an idealistic school teacher with no political experience and gathered more votes than any challenger in recent history, 9% better than the last one.

This is still a Republican stronghold with 1864 being the last time a Democrat held the seat. It won’t be easy. There are still lots of people who scream “Keep big government away from my Medicare!” and who are afraid that the Democrats will tax the house trailer they leave to their 5 children with the “Death Tax”. Oh, and don’t get them started on gays. But if not now when when? and if not Tony then who?

I can’t recall the reference right now, but years ago, the late great Art Buchwald was involved in making a movie, I think as a writer, for which he never got a single penny in royalties. The movie studio had a whole encyclopedia of reasons why this was so; but I think they lost, because I think Buchwald wrote a book about it. You didn’t want to be on the receiving end of Art Buchwald’s sense of humor.

I think Buchwald sued the producers of that Eddie Murphy movie, “Coming to America”. I think the suit went nowhere because of creative accounting, the producers claimed that the film lost money.

An expanded version of my comment above is now on my blog:

http://anothermonkey.blogspot.com/2007/11/writers-strike-and-future-of .html

It’s always fun to see Eric Braeden (Victor from The Young and the Restless) on the cover of the soap opera magazines at the supermarket checkout and think “Hey! That’s Hans Gudegast, the guy from those Rat Patrol Season 1 discs we did a while back!” This guy’s been acting for over 45 years!

Do you know how much Mario Puzo got for his work on the Godfather movie? That would be writing the book and screen play. He got 100% of the net profit. That should be 10’s of millions right? He walked away with 0 dollars.

He learned his lesson.

Just Jay, I could make a living on all of the stuff my mother threw out when I was a kid.