Mr. Knowitall

Keep Your Hands Off Our Airwaves

2007-06-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

Who the hell do these people think they are? I know what they are: Left-wingers who want to bring back the totalitarianism of Communist Russia. I'm talking about the Center for American Progress. John Podesta, chief of staff for impeached Pres. Bill Clinton, founded this group and with another outfit, Free Press (what a misnomer) are calling for the state takeover of talk radio.

They recently published a propaganda piece — which they call "a study" — alleging that because of conservative political talk radio, there is an imbalance over the airwaves.

This "study" says government intervention is needed because conservative talk radio has "an unfair advantage that needs to be rectified." My reaction: Duh? There was an attempt to have a liberal talk show on the air, called Air America. But it died. The liberals didn't support it. So, what do the left wingers want? Silence conservative talk radio because it knocked the fuck out of liberal talk radio?

Maybe, just maybe, that's what the American public wants, conservative talk radio.

The "study" also calls for "diversity in ownership" of radio stations. That's what they did in Venezuela. The government took over the stations because they didn't tow the government line. (That's the same country that owns Citgo gas stations and is trying to undermine our economy and Chavez calls Pres. Bush, Satan, right in the UN on American soil!) You assholes who buy Citgo ought to be tried for treason.)

And, this study says, those stations who don't obey what the government says to do over the airwaves, will be fined to support public radio.

Podesta and the other assholes also would like to see the Fairness Doctrine revived by Congress, if that's what it takes to get their points across. Pres. Reagan ended the Fairness Doctrine when he was president because there was no need for it anymore. There are so many radio and TV stations now and satellite radio and cable, that there is no need to supply other points of view because they're already out there. It's not the public's fault liberal radio can't make it. In other words, there's no place for the Democrats — the Jackass Party — to tell all their lies.

I find it very appropriate that the Democrats' color is red. I can't think of a more appropriate hue for that left-wing abomination.

© 2007 Rich Luongo

Logic Points to a Thompson Presidency

2007-06-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

Fred Thompson is the only logical choice for president. The list of presidential hopefuls — on both sides of the aisle — smacks of incompetence and irreverence to the American way of life. Look at what GOP candidate Mitt Romney said recently (which more than qualifies him not to be considered presidential material, along with his Mormonism):

“There are other ways to raise kids that’s [sic] fine: single moms, grandparents raising kids, gay couples raising kids. That’s the American way...”

It is? I thought the American way was a Mom (female), a Dad (male), and kids. This is the traditional American way, indeed, the way of humanity and virtually all other species.

Single moms, well, that’s something that sometimes can’t be avoided. (Nobody ever mentions single dads, though.) Grandparents raising kids is borne out of necessity often brought on by tragedy in many cases. But, don’t forget, there are a grandma (female) and a grandpa ((male).

Then we have the anomaly of gay couples raising kids. Who is the father, who is the mother, who gives a fuck?

Don’t forget, part of this presidential campaign includes those Hollywood types who fancy themselves political theorists and experts….”Listen to us, folks, we know what we’re doing. Do you like our movies?...then you’ll love our presidential choices.”

For example, Stephen Spielberg just came out for Hillary. Which is understandable. She does resemble ET.

The actor Ben Affleck — whose movie hits are as rare as hen’s teeth, as the saying goes — fancies himself a political activist. I’ve listened to his spiel…he’s a socialistic commie, but what do I know except that these Hollywood assholes don’t seem to realize or care (are they in denial?) that communism went the way of all flesh and democracy continues to flourish in this country and is now in more nations worldwide than at any time since the end of World War II. Anyway this political genius — Ben Affleck — was recently quoted as saying:

“President Bush and Vice President Cheney... are going to go down in history as having presided over one of the worst administrations in American history.”

That may or may not be true. But then, he might be onto something. After all, he presided over some of the worst crap to come out of Hollywood. At least, Affleck, Pres. Bush wasn’t impeached, the way your buddy, Bill Clinton, was, and who gave a whole new slant on the use of cigars. Learn your craft, Affleck. Don’t stick your nose in areas where you have no qualifications.

I still like Fred Thompson. Wish he’d declare soon and wipe out all those wannabes.

But then again, what do I know?

©2007 Rich Luongo

Sharpton, you should resign!

2007-04-13T10:24:00.000-07:00

Don Imus did something stupid, true. And he apologized and it should have ended. The man has 40 years in the broadcast industry and has done more charitable work than many other broadcasters. But the man is hounded off the air.

And by whom? Protesters around the country, most of whom never heard of Don Imus until a few days ago, and by Al Sharpton, that piece of crap racist who shouldn't be allowed to work a CD player let alone a radio program.

Sharpton's career over the past 20 years is a disgrace. Let's just highlight a few of things: the hoax of a gang-rape by white men of Tawana Brawley, November 1987; the 1989 case of a white female jogger who was raped and beaten almost to death in Central Park by a gang of black and Hispanic teenagers who said they targeted a while woman and Sharpton said the boys weren't guilty but were framed by a racist justice system.

In 1991 he got involved when anti-Semitic riots in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights section broke out when a 7-year old black child was accidentally killed by a car driven by a Jew; he has gone out of his way to alienate the Jewish population and he even believes AIDS was started by white people to destroy the black race.

And this man continues on the air and demands Imus' resignation for one indiscretion. This hypocritical, prejudicial, bigoted individual should be hounded out of the country instead just off the air.

When will the mainstream media learn to go with legitimate stories and investigate real issues instead of placating certain people with definite axes to grind?

Guess Sharpton's appearance on Boston Legal gave him a feeling of legitimacy. If he only knew.

Employers to Face Challenges As More Workers Retire

2007-04-10T11:42:00.000-07:00

(NewsUSA) - In the coming decades, the number of older workers in America's work force will leap to 34 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Despite the profusion of older adults in the work force, it is expected that in the next few years 40 percent of people with college degrees will retire, resulting in a serious challenge for employers - especially small businesses. As tens of millions of baby boomers reach retirement age in the next four years, the gap between available jobs and qualified workers will increase to 35 million.

These numbers are compelling employers to focus efforts on attracting and retaining valuable older workers who enhance today's work force with their skills and decades of experience.

Through its Senior Community Services Employment Program, Easter Seals provides training and skills development opportunities for older adults with limited income and assists them in rejoining the work force.

The organization recommends a variety of approaches that have been shown to augment employers' success in their quest to attract and retain older workers:

• When developing recruitment messages, focus on the job and skills required rather than number of years of experience.

• Interview and hire based on qualifications and skill set, not age.

• Set clear expectations of workers and maintain ongoing performance appraisals, including personal and professional development plans.

• Offer opportunities for workers to learn new skills for professional advancement through increased responsibility and special projects.

• Cultivate a supportive workplace that fosters a healthy work-life balance. Provide health and safety programs and flexible work hours.

• Promote opportunities for older workers to mentor their younger colleagues. This will foster the transfer of skills to the younger work force as more workers retire.

For more tips and information on older worker programs offered by Easter Seals, visit www.easterseals.com/SCSEP.

Finger down the throat time

2007-04-04T09:21:00.000-07:00

TV personalties love to kiss ass, no matter whose it is. Take Meredith Vieira, cohost of the Today show on NBC. Interviewing that non-entity Barack Obama, she said, “You are the equivalent of a rock star in politics.”

How ass-kissing can you get? He's a nobody without political credentials. He was also raised as a Muslim. Do we really want a Muslim in the White House considering who we're fighting and the the goal of Islam to eliminate all non-Muslims in any way possible?

Quit your ass-kissing, Meredith, but considering where she came from, The View on ABC, home to Rosie O'Donnell (who once had a promising career) and that disappointment, Joy Behar, it's understandable.

Speaking of Joy she's quoted as saying,“You can’t teach [the Bible] as nonfiction. You have to teach it as fiction in many ways.” Great, especially for an Italian-American who was raised as a Catholic. Ever hear of faith, Joy? Like to hear her say that about the Koran and see if she makes it to her car when heading home.

Again, referring to Bacala Obama and his alleged influence on people, Terry Moran of ABC gushed, “You can see it in the crowds. The thrill, the hope. How they surge toward him. You’re looking at an American political phenomenon.”

Finger down the throat. Let's vomit.

Fred Thompson for President...has a nice ring to it.

2007-03-18T11:07:00.000-07:00

Fred Dalton Thompson. Potential Republican nominee for President. He's the only one in both parties who has any brains and there are no skeletons in his closet.

You know Fred Thompson. He plays the DA on Law and Order. An actor as president? Another one? Hold on, people. He's a lawyer and politician first. He was a lead investigator in the Watergate fiasco and in the mid-1980s he brought down Tennessee Gov. Ray Blanton for selling pardons. A book was written about this and a movie was made but they couldn't find an actor to portray Thompson with any depth or feeling. So they got Thompson to play himself and his acting career got started.

But he still loved politics. In 1994 he was elected to finish out Al Gore's Senate term from Tennessee and two years later he ran for a full term and won. He was a possible running-mate choice for Bush in 2000 (thank God for him it never a happened).

In 2002 he got the job on Law Order.

Conservatives, though, want another Ronald Reagan. He's the man. He knows politics, both domestically and internationally, and he's pro-life, pro-family, pro-traditional marriage, and if he runs he could knock the crap out of that abomination Hillary Clinton and her philandering and impeached husband, if the Democrats are stupid enough to nominate her.

Fred Dalton Thompson. President Fred Dalton Thompson. Has a great ring to it.

© 2007 Rich Luongo

Egyptian queen Cleopatra was no stunner, coin shows

2007-02-14T12:48:00.000-08:00

LONDON (AFP) - When Shakespeare wrote that the face of Cleopatra, the ancient queen of Egypt, "beggar'd all description", he meant that words could not sum up her beauty.

But a coin dating from 32BC and put on display in Britain Tuesday shows the phrase had an unintended double meaning -- it depicts the queen as no great looker with a pointed chin, thin lips and sharp nose.

Her lover, Mark Antony, fares little better on the coin's flipside -- the Roman general is shown with a hook nose, bulging eyes and a thick neck.

The portraits are a long way from the famously sultry depiction of the couple by Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in the 1963 film Cleopatra.

The coin went on display at Newcastle University, northeast England, on Valentine's Day after years of lying in a bank.

Cleopatra, who also had an affair with legendary Roman emperor Julius Caesar, also inspired Shakespeare to write one of his most famous lines: "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale/Her infinite variety."

But Lindsay Allason-Jones, the university's director of archaeological museums, said that the image of her as a great beauty is comparatively modern, dating back to medieval English poet Geoffrey Chaucer.

"Roman writers tell us that Cleopatra was intelligent and charismatic and that she had a seductive voice, but, tellingly, they do not mention her beauty," she said.
"It's one of those perpetual myths that has been perpetuated by having people like Elizabeth Taylor playing her and it's very difficult to get that out of peoples' psyches.

"She does look as if she's forgotten to put her teeth in."

The coin itself represents one three hundredth of a Roman soldier's salary and was probably minted to pay the wages of those stationed in Egypt.

Skeletal embrace

2007-02-09T15:00:00.000-08:00

This handout picture given by the Italian cultural ministry shows a pair of human skeletons embracing at a Neolithic tomb in Valdaro-S. Giorgio near Mantova. Archeologists who found the couple February 6 say the couple could have been buried some 6,000 years ago. Even 6,000 years ago, Italians knew about love. (AFP/HO) REUTERS/Enrico Pajello

Restaurant Chain Launches New Country Music Collection

2007-02-09T09:27:00.000-08:00

(NewsUSA) - Most people know Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores for their comfort food and gift items, but over the past few years, the chain has also become a player on the music scene.

Since launching its own music label in 2003, Cracker Barrel has sold more than 2.5 million CDs, including titles by Amy Grant, Sara Evans, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Johnny Cash, and the Charlie Daniels Band. Cracker Barrel has also introduced the Grand Ole Opry Live Classics series.

Using in-store play as a way to entice consumers to the cash registers, Cracker Barrel is carving a new niche in the music retailer sector. Its latest release is Songs of the Year, which is available only at Cracker Barrel stores or www.crackerbarrel.com.

The collection features country music's top artists performing songs that earned "Song of the Year" recognition from the Country Music Association, Academy of Country Music, or the Grammy Awards.

Songs of the Year includes Trisha Yearwood singing "Back Home Again," Trace Adkins performing "Sunday Morning Coming Down," and country legend George Jones teaming up with Dierks Bentley to deliver "Murder on Music Row." Deana Carter joins rock icons Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart for a potent version of Vince Gill's "Go Rest High on That Mountain."

Randy Travis, JoDee Messina, Blake Shelton, Lonestar, The Wreckers, Jack Ingram, Jamie O'Neal, Deana Carter, and Michael McDonald are among the artists participating on the 12-song collection.

"This CD continues our tradition of connecting country music's past and present," said Simon Turner, Cracker Barrel's chief marketing officer.

Cracker Barrel collaborated with Vector Management on this project to generate support for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Cracker Barrel and Vector will donate $125,000 to the not-for-profit museum from "Songs of the Year" sales.

Internet Broadcasting Takes Online Classes to New Level

2007-02-09T09:13:00.000-08:00

(NewsUSA) - In today's digital age, going to school abroad has never been so close to home.

According to a recent report by the Sloan Consortium, a major association of organizations dedicated to online education, 81 percent of all higher education institutes now offer at least one fully online or partially online course, a fact that means many students are no longer limited by distance when it comes to taking classes at the university of their choice.

With media players that feature interactive video capabilities, universities have the ability to not only provide enriched classroom experiences but also host guest lectures and other live events on the Internet.

"Using the Internet, educational institutions can broadcast everything from guest lecturer series, classes, graduation ceremonies, school government meetings and even virtual tours of their campuses to attract new students," said Greg Demetriades, chairman and chief executive officer of WhiteBlox, a Houston-based provider of Internet broadcasting technology.

Although some universities have offered online courses for years, in the past these classes were often limited in terms of their interactive features. For example, a student might have been able to log in to a university's Web site and listen to a recording of a lecture, but there was seldom any kind of live, visual student-teacher interaction.

But now, through the use of Internet broadcasting technologies like the one developed by WhiteBlox, institutes of higher education can bring their students a virtual classroom with all the same benefits promised in a traditional classroom, in addition to some new ones.

WhiteBlox's customizable online media player, for instance, can allow universities to broadcast videos of classes or lectures in which professors can also interact with their class through chat rooms, polls or surveys.

"Since online programming can be offered on-demand, anytime, anywhere, Internet classes add a tremendous level of freedom and flexibility to students," said Demetriades. "In the future, we may see more and more classes moving online, as our world becomes increasingly mobile and tech-savvy."

For more information, visit www.whiteblox.com or call 281-210-5206.

Internet Broadcasts, Ads Engage Viewers

2007-02-08T08:52:00.000-08:00

(NewsUSA) - In the information age, even couch potatoes are getting active.

Thanks to television shows that stress viewer participation, gone are the days when watching TV was a purely passive activity.

In addition to programs like American Idol that are wholly dependent on viewer participation, many advertisements have become interactive as well, often encouraging viewers to reach for their telephones and participate in polls or trivia questions relevant to certain shows.

But now, that same notion has made its way online as more companies broadcast their content on the Internet.

"The Internet offers a level of interactivity that even goes so far as to allow fans to choose which camera angles to follow during live sporting events. It doesn't get much better than that," said Greg Demetriades, chairman and chief executive officer of WhiteBlox, a leading provider of Internet broadcasting solutions. The Houston-based company's technology is used to air live or on-demand content on the Internet through one interactive media player.

Unlike regular television, Internet broadcasts grant viewers the opportunity to communicate with one another via chats, forums, and surveys. Supplementing the online content is increasingly sophisticated advertising targeted to reach viewers by demographics and geography.

Last year, the Indy Racing League used WhiteBlox's technology to broadcast the Indy 500 live over the Internet. Fans were allowed to choose from seven different camera angles while watching the race — six from inside separate cars and an additional feed from inside the press center. It's these kinds of customizable, participatory features that experts identify as a major cause of Internet broadcasting's continued rise to prominence.

"With the customizable options offered by online interactive broadcasting, more and more fans are able to find specific shows and events that truly speak to their interests," said Demetriades. "This kind of niche broadcasting is going to continue to skyrocket with the Internet, which means great things for viewers."

For more information about Internet broadcasting technology, visit www.whiteblox.com or call 281-210-5202.

College Ain't for Everybody

2007-01-26T12:47:00.000-08:00

The dream of most parents is to have their children go to college, to excel in the land of academia, maybe even going for a Master’s Degree.

Many parents don’t want to hear the truth, though: their kids may not be college material. When I was in college (at Flintstone University) the figure often quoted by educators at the time was that at least 50 percent of those in college should not be there. I would venture to say that figure is higher today.

It’s been driven into our minds that we have to attend college to be a success. Is that true? Do we all have to have letters after our names to show we’ve become someone? Frankly, that’s a lot of nonsense.

Do we need more lawyers or accountants or architects or doctors or MBAs? Do we need all those who are graduated each year? We really don’t need more lawyers. We have more attorneys in this country than all the other nations in the Western World combined.

And not everybody has the ability to be a doctor or another professional. That’s just the way it is.

We’ve always been led to believe that in order to make a good buck you need a college degree, preferably as a professional.

Years ago, when I was first married, the nicest and most luxurious house on our block was owned by a local plumber, not someone with a college degree. He was educated, obviously. He had to learn the trade to be a success, apparently (if all the trucks parked in the garages behind his house were an indication of his success).

We need plumbers. We need carpenters. We need masons. We need electricians. We need construction people. We need all the crafts. You don’t need a college education to be successful in them. You can go to college later, for self-esteem, perhaps, but you won’t be pressured to get a sheepskin to make it. You have to go to school, yes, to learn your craft or be an apprentice or whatever it takes. But you don’t need a college degree.

If you watch the Food Network on cable you’ll see chefs make a good living. Most go to specialty schools to learn the food industry, which is a rough business and tedious but when you make it, you can earn six figures a year. And if you get your own TV show, seven figures or more if you count the endorsements and books. Many do get degrees in the culinary arts and learn every aspect of the business, including behind the scenes. Most of us are never told about the food industry and how well you can do in it. Be a lawyer, an accountant, a doctor…that was all we heard.

It’s getting tougher and tougher to get into college. The tuition is obscene so your child opts for a scholarship to make the grade but if he or she fails at that they’ll think they have failed at life. Nonsense. Look at the crafts. Take some business courses at a county college and open a business. You can be a success without a college degree.

College is not for everyone and it’s nothing about which to be ashamed.

© 2007 Rich Luongo

With Interactive Video, A New Age of Radio is Here

2007-01-25T15:56:00.000-08:00

(NewsUSA) - If you think radio is a hark back to an age of one-dimensional entertainment, think again.

Today more radio stations are utilizing the unique capabilities of the online world to bring their listeners new interactive video features. Audio is becoming audio-visual.

"With the video capabilities radio stations have on the Internet, everything from celebrity interviews to live in-studio performances can now be seen as well as heard by fans everywhere," said Greg Demetriades, chairman and chief executive officer of iSEEradio, a leading provider of Internet radio broadcasting technology. "In addition, online interactive broadcasting offers advertisers the ability to create a one-to-one relationship with their customers that in turn increases product knowledge and brand loyalty."

Through the use of technologies such as iSEEradio's, stations can bring consumers online video footage of live broadcasts and special events or concerts. For example, if a radio station hosts a major giveaway, it can use online broadcasting technology to air a streaming video of the event and even encourage viewer participation through the use of certain interactive features such as polls, surveys and chat rooms.

Orlando-based radio station XL 106.7 FM used iSEEradio's technology to broadcast a week-long reality show, featuring eight people living together in a pool house and competing to win a ticket to the Bahamas. Through the use of iSEEradio's online media player, viewers took part in interactive voting, knocking people out of the house one by one.

This type of online radio broadcast, which in its first four days logged more than 270,000 viewer minutes, represents a dramatic shift from the type of content that radio stations of yesteryear could offer. Demetriades says that these kinds of broadcasts are the 21st century version of radio, the next step in radio's evolution.

"Savvy radio broadcasters like Orlando's XL 106.7 will use online broadcasting to their advantage to strengthen the scope of their offerings to fans," said Demetriades. "And audiences everywhere will in turn benefit from more dynamic programming."

For more information, visit www.iseeradio.tv or call 281-210-5205.

Don't Stand Downwind of Hollywood

2007-01-19T07:52:00.000-08:00

The entertainment world, you gotta love it. As long as you’re upwind of it. Let’s look at an area the average fan never discusses: personal hygiene of the rich and famous.

I have a brother who’s been in California for nearly 40 years. He’s in a business where he often comes into contact with the Hollywood set. He claims they stink. Not talent-wise...body-wise.

I didn’t believe this until I read an article where certain Hollywood actors were taken to task for various anomalies. Matthew McConaughey, starring in We Are Marshall, was accused of having horrendous body order. How could this be? He has to work with other people. Can this be? Then I remember an interview he did last year with Barbara Walters where he admitted he hadn’t used deodorant for more than 20 years.

Yuk! And he’s in the spotlight. He was voted the sexiest man in America by People. How did they vote? Upwind of him, I hope. I have a word to best describe him: schifoso. My fellow Italians know what that means.

Hygiene, or the lack of it, is not really surprising considering the type of life this new breed of Hollywood folk lead. Most of the men don’t know what the business end of a razor blade looks like. No matter how they’re dressed most of them have a two-, or three-day-old growth of whiskers.

Is that sexy? I don’t think so. It’s discourteous to others.

Let’s analyze the entertainment world on the little screen. TV producers will do anything to increase ratings. The biggest thing now are reality shows, which have about as much to do with reality as a bag of marshmallows has to do with nutrition. The bigger and dumber the concept the bigger the ratings, or so it’s hoped. The newest one involves out-of-work and soon-to-be-out-of-work actors dressed up like cops and actually performing like cops (if I believe that, I’ll stand in line to buy that bridge in Brooklyn).

Now let’s look at that contrived fiasco between Donald Trump and Rosie (“I’m a great Mom”) O’Donnell. They say The View, which Rosie apparently has taken over as the chief man-basher (and she’s well qualified), has increased in ratings since she came aboard. When did that happen? The day she said “I’m here!” or when she started to bad-mouth Trump?

Trump’s new Apprentice show just got off the ground and what better way to launch a new season than to have an on-air feud with somebody, say, like Rosie O’Donnell?

Come on, people, the Trump-O’Donnell feud is a bunch of nonsense. It was contrived to raise the ratings of both their shows. You can’t tell me differently. O’Donnell is not in Trump’s league. Any legitimate altercation between the two would leave O’Donnell by the roadside pleading for mercy.

And about The View....Is it me or is it really anti-men? Sure, they have men as guests but if you watch the show (even occasionally as I do), you know the conversations and subject matter invariably go against men, with subtly, but it’s there.

Don’t stand downwind from the stuff emanating from that show.

© 2007 Rich Luongo

Could Your Home Survive A Neighboring Fire?

2007-01-18T13:04:00.000-08:00

(NewsUSA) - A burning cigarette left carelessly on the edge of a nightstand may be all it takes to lose a home to fire. And if the fire begins in a town house or another type of adjoined dwelling, the damage could be significantly more severe, spreading to neighboring homes.

Although noncombustible fire walls are required by law to separate adjoining homes, experts at the National Concrete Masonry Association say that many buildings' fire walls are not up to par because they are not made of substantial, noncombustible materials such as concrete masonry.

"Unfortunately, our building codes are not restrictive enough to ensure that adjoining homes are separated by fire walls that will prevent the spread of fire," said Harry Junk, residential markets manager for the NCMA. "In too many cases, little or no attention has been given to this important construction feature and, as a result, people die needlessly and billions of dollars in property are lost every year."

When shopping for a new town house or seeking out a nursing facility for loved ones, Junk says that families should investigate or inquire about certain safety standards that are incorporated into a facility's construction. Doing so not only sets the mind at ease, but can also save money and ultimately lives in the event of a fire.

"Make certain the facility has sufficient fire detection systems throughout and fire suppression systems in the form of sprinklers are present and operational," Junk said. "Also, ask to be shown the placement of fire walls designed to prevent fire from spreading."

Junk also urges concerned citizens to contact local code officials and encourage them to help make building codes more fire-safe.

For more information about concrete masonry fire walls, log on to www.ncma.org or call 703-713-1900.

© 2007 NewsUSA

3 Easy Payments...For Whom?

2007-01-12T09:19:00.000-08:00

Love those retailers. They're always pricing items in fractions: $9.95, $11.99, $1.99, $12.98, and so on. J.C. Penney is credited with starting this nonsense. $1.99 sounds better than $2.00. It's a psychological thing. Most people will travel a couple of miles to save a penny or five cents.
(By the way, there is no penny in American coinage. We have cents. Penny is British, a holdover when we were British colonies, using the British pound and shilling and penny and etc.)
Ever hear those ads on TV?..."Buy it! for under $200!!!" Yeah, it's only $199.99. That's under $2oo, they're not lying. Of course, the sales tax brings it up way over $200, but that's not part of the price. That's a tax, remember. And the shipping and handling...of course that raises the price but the initial cost was under $200.
Let's take a look at those infomercials and other ads on TV where they're selling items that can only be bought over the tube (in a few months, you'll see the same thing in discount stores and at places like CVS and Walgreen's under the banner, "As seen on TV," for the same price but you save shipping and handling).
For some reason, these boob tube retailers have latched onto a figure and they can't get away from it: $19.95. Virtually no matter what they sell, it's $19.95 or three "easy" payments (easy for whom?) of $19.95. I guessed wrong a couple times and the price was $19.99.
And they'll throw in two, three, or four additional items for the same $19.95 or for the same "easy payments" of $19.95. Sometimes they'll do away with one payment -- if you act only within the next 20 minutes -- and you'll get the same items for two "easy payments" of $19.95. Ironically, you'll see the same commercial in a few days and buyers will still save one payment if they act "only" within the next 20 minutes.
Before the time the TV spot is over, you're being given "over $70" worth of additional merchandise for that same $19.95. Did you ever wonder that maybe the items were only worth $19.95? Wait. You have to put in the retailer's profit. Maybe the items were only worth $9.95, the rest is profit. Now, I'm not begrudging the boob tube retailer's profit, but...come on, $70, $80, $90 worth of merchandise for $19.95? I doubt the value is there.
A few years ago I sent away for some knives from a shopping network and, because I was a first-time buyer, I got them for $5. Believe me, those knives were overpriced at $5. Never bought from this network or from any infomercial again.
I must admit I did buy something that was sold on television many years ago and it turned out to be a good product. I bought it, though, in a store after it made its TV run. It was Ron Popiel's Vegamatic. It lasted more than 20 years. And it was under $10.
After Ron started painting his head on TV, though, I got turned off by him.
But that Vegamatic was great.

© 2007 Rich Luongo

A cup of 'joe' keeps the doctor away

2007-01-11T12:57:00.002-08:00

Well, it’s finally in: coffee’s good for you. Especially on a cold, snowy day. For today, that is. Who knows about next month or next year? But for now, coffee’s a good guy. So have your cappuccino and double lattè and regular cup of joe. Scientists say you can’t go wrong.
It’s seems coffee contains antioxidant that might help prevent cancer. It contains the most of any drink or food with tea coming in second.
Of course, there are disclaimers by the anti-coffee lobby that can’t find anything good in coffee, noting that coffee contains caffeine (decaf also has antioxidant in it) and hundreds of chemicals that may or may not be good for you…nobody knows. So they say eat fruits and vegetables instead for their antioxidant powers.
That’s fine. But how about drinking a cup of coffee with a bowl of strawberries or a banana or an apple? Can’t hurt.
It seems there are groups out there watching over us and telling us what to eat or drink. I don’t mean medical outfits but self-styled do-gooders who have no medical background but might’ve have read a book on nutrition somewhere and are suddenly experts and tell us what is good for us.
Remember how bad bacon was? Now it’s not that bad. And remember the hoopla over butter vs. margarine? Well, butter ain’t that bad either but now margarine leaves a lot to be desired. It’s loaded with chemicals and dyes. At least butter is natural.
Remember how they used to tell you that charcoal food was bad for you? Not so anymore. It does have some redeeming qualities.
And bread and pasta and carbs in general were all no-nos. Not true. There are bad carbs and good carbs. The anti-carb crowd has been saying all carbohydrates were bad. Again, not true. There are good carbs like whole grains that are beneficial and bad carbs such as refined sugar that are not. The body doesn’t process bad carbs as well and as efficiently as good carbs.
So eat whole grains. Stay away from candy bars and doughnuts and brownies…in other words, all the good stuff.
Do you sometimes get the impression that do-gooders go around condemning things that people like because they’re good and they don’t want people to have them? Because the majority of people might like something, does that make it bad simply because everybody likes it? I don’t think so.
Coffee is the number one beverage and the number one exported item in the world. Even England drinks more coffee than tea and that country popularized tea-time.
There’s nothing wrong with coffee or even tea, which has its share of chemicals and caffeine. Coffee should be consumed in moderation, though, as with anything else. Moderation is fine. Going overboard is not. One or two cups of coffee a day is fine. A couple of pots may not be, but is it? Is it really that bad? Is an overabundance of coffee really harmful?
I know someone who can literally consume a pot of coffee before bedtime and sleep like a baby.
I can’t do that, so I don’t drink coffee before bedtime because of the caffeine. Drink decaf, you say? What’s the point of drinking coffee?

© 2007 Rich Luongo

THE ART AND MYSTERY OF COLONIAL BEER BREWING IN CAMDEN

2006-10-11T16:08:00.000-07:00

By Hoag Levins

CAMDEN, N.J. -- If you're a home brewer or otherwise fascinated with the legend and lore of beer making, last Saturday was your kind of day at the Camden County Historical Society.
The side yard of the Society's Pomona Hall mansion was turned into an 18th-century brew house, where beer historian Richard Wagner stoked the fire beneath a boiling copper kettle, sloshed water back and forth with a huge, hand-carved wooden baler and raked a porridge-thick wort of malted barley in a barrel-stave tub as he demonstrating the making of the colonial era's favorite drink.
1750's brewer
A bear of a man with hair to his shoulder blades, the 54-year-old Hatboro, Pa., resident was dressed in garb that would have been worn by a typical 1750s itinerant brew master -- a craftsman whose horse and wagon carted a mini-brewery from farm to farm.
"In the Colonial era, a normal family would have gathered for breakfast and all of them -- children included -- would have routinely received beer to drink," said Mr. Wagner, who has spent 25 years researching the history and technology of brewing. "They drank beer like we drink water or coffee, and there are a number of reasons for that."
Mr. Wagner, who has been doing his historical brewing demonstrations since 1993, has previously been featured in WHYY's documentary "Workshop of the World" that tracked the evolution of the region's major industries, including Philadelphia's famed early breweries.
Handmade wooden equipment
All his brewing equipment -- except for the hammered cooper kettle -- was made of hand-carved wood. "I worked with a cooper for eight months to make everything just as it would have been made back then. We carved the ladles from naturally-occurring tree burls and, during the winter, I'm always studying my firewood to find pieces shaped just right for certain implements," he said.
Mr. Wagner's Saturday appearance was part of a one-day Historical Society event that also included hearth cook Mercy Ingraham of the Historic Foodways Society of the Delaware Valley who gave presentations about early tavern life and cooking in Pomona Hall's large 18th-century kitchen.
"As part of our effort to bring local history to life, this one was really close to home for us," said Society executive director Linda R. Gentry. "The Cooper families that lived here in Pomona Hall during the 1700s were typical of southern New Jersey plantation owners and maintained their own brew house here. Today we're actually doing the same thing they did, right where they did it."
But the event concept was not without some controversy, according to Society president Richard Pillatt. "After we announced it earlier this summer, I was in a nearby restaurant eavesdropping on some people who were discussing our publicity, and one of them asked the other, 'what does BEER really have to do with history?' Well, in terms of daily life in 18th-century Camden County, one word easily answers that question: 'Everything,' I said. Beer played a central role in the social, economic and political life of almost all our regional ancestors. It provided daily nutritional sustenance, it was made from the crops that they grew and bought and sold in huge quantities, and it was the key lubricant in the networks of local taverns that were the culture's primary social and political venues."
Benjamin Franklin
"The era's sense of the stuff was summed up by Benjamin Franklin, who wrote in his famed almanac that 'Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy,'" said Mr. Pillatt.
In his own presentations throughout the day, Mr. Wagner concurred. "Making your own beer was the norm back then," he said. Most women had to know how to make beer because it was just expected that every wife would feed her family with nourishing beer. This was as important a domestic craft as cooking soup, tending a kitchen garden or spinning yarn."
The historical record indicates that from their earliest days at the beginning of the 17th century, avid beer makers populated European settlements along both sides of the Delaware River. In the 1670s, when English Quaker John Fenwick arrived to take possession of a land grant and start the town of Salem, N.J., along the lower Delaware, he wrote that the his fellow settlers quickly "busied themselves in erecting breweries for manufacturing beer for common drink."
And when William Penn landed to establish his own new town of Philadelphia in 1682, one of his earliest acts was to appoint the settlement's first brewster. A few years later, he built his own brew house at his Pennsbury Manor, twenty miles upriver, and wrote, "Our beer was mostly made from molasses which was well boyld, with Sassafras or Pine infused into it."
Regional industry
By the 1700s, beer brewing and the growing of barley and hops required for the process were major regional industries. Commercial notices in Benjamin Franklin's and other newspapers indicate that aside from using locally grown hops, Philadelphia brewers had to import them from distant cities as well. For instance, The Pennsylvania Gazette reported that during the year 1791, Philadelphia merchants took delivery of a total of 20 tons of hops from vessels inbound from Boston alone.
Hops are a flowering vine whose fruit resembles tiny, soft green pinecones. Each contains a sticky yellow resin-like substance that has been used as a preservative and flavoring in the brewing process for nearly a thousand years. The plant grows astoundingly fast, as demonstrated by the Historical Society's own hops garden. Planted with seedlings in the early spring in anticipation of this event, the vines had, by last weekend, completely enveloped 10-foot-tall trellises.
"Our idea was that visitors who came to this historical brew fest would encounter everything the Coopers experienced when they made beer here 250 years ago," said Ms. Gentry. "So, today, we're urging our visitors to touch the vines and see real hops growing and then walk to the other end of Pomona Hall to grab a handful of dried hops from one of the burlap bags of hops and barley that Mr. Wagner is using."
Hops sleeping pillows
Inside the mansion, Ms. Ingraham was also giving a presentation about hops to a crowd gathered in the sprawling kitchen. Standing close to a roaring fire in a stone hearth as large a modern garage door opening, she held up a curl of green vine and explained that centuries ago, farmers noticed that laborers who harvested hops all day often became calm and sleepy during the work. And because it was believed that hops had sedating or sleep-inducing qualities, 17th and 18th-century insomniacs often stuffed their pillows with hops flowers to hasten their own slumber.
Ms. Ingraham pointed out that the growing of hops, gathering of barley and making of beer were serious business for tavern owners as well as families in general back then. "People knew from hard experience that water was not safe to drink. They didn't understand sanitation principles and had no knowledge of germ theory or the causes of the diseases that killed so many of them at a young age. But they did know that when you drank beer instead of water, you didn't get sick. As we can see from Mr. Wagner's demonstration, the brewing of beer from hops and barley as well as the brewing of cider from fermented apples used a boiling process and laced the beverages with alcohol -- both things that protected against the growth and spread of harmful microorganisms."
Timers and thermometers?
Back in the side yard, Mr. Wagner was tending his mash and being peppered with questions from the audience, whose members included a number of home brewers. Several bent down to quizzically inspect the wooden-stave gear up close. Others wanted to know where his timers and thermometers were.
"I don't used modern instruments to measure anything," he explained, holding up his wrist to emphasize that he didn't even wear a watch. "Everything is based on the way things look or feel at certain stages. I watch until the water is just about to boil in the kettle and that's when I add it to the mash. I time things by using the movement of the sun -- 15 degrees an hour."
"Or, after you've boiled the wort for two or three hours, you have to let it cool down until it's 'blood warm' before you put the yeast in -- that's a rough estimate of body temperature. So, everything about the old-time process involves estimates and observations based on experience rather than instrumentation."
"The home brewers who come to watch me during these demonstrations are people who are using the most up-to-date equipment available and, beyond that, many of them have their PCs hooked up to various parts of their brewing system to exactly control everything. When these guys see me, they tend to be flabbergasted that I can use this old-time stuff to actually turn out drinkable beer."
How does it taste?
And just how does his beer taste? Well, because the full process requires the finished brew to sit for about six weeks, we didn't get to taste any of Saturday's batch. But audience members wanted to know how it would compare to commercial beer and whether the taste Mr. Wagner achieved would have been the same as that of brewers of centuries ago.
"Well, that depends on how much of a purist you want to be," he said. "The varieties of barlies available today are different then they were back then. But what I try to do is use a recipe that is comparable -- with the materials I have to work with today -- to what they would have done back there. The real big difference is pure yeast culture. After Pasteur and other scientists became aware of microorganisms, they were able to adapt scientific techniques to creating a pure yeast culture -- yeast is a fungus. But before that, our ancestors didn't know if yeast was animal, mineral or vegetable. They did know that when they threw this stuff they called "God is good" into a fermenter, you had this lively reaction that was magical. But they had no idea why or how it happened. Brewing for them was truly an art and a mystery."
"So, the real difference is that with a pure yeast culture, I get a better tasting beer than they ever would have gotten," Mr. Wagner said. "They had to use their yeast over and over again and didn't have the same kind of sanitation we have today, so they would have gotten all kinds of off flavors compared to what I get today."
"I do everything I can do in the traditional way that colonial people would have done it but I don't intentionally make the beer bad," he said. "The truth is, if modern people could somewhow taste the beer that was actually made back then, we'd probably all spit it out."

All Rights Reserved © 2006, Hoag Levins

International Picture of the Year -- First Place

2006-10-06T16:45:00.000-07:00

Todd Heisler The Rocky Mountain News
When 2nd Lt. James Cathey's body arrived at the Reno Airport, Marines climbed into the cargo hold of the plane and draped the flag over his casket as passengers watched the family gather on the tarmac.
During the arrival of another Marine's casket last year at Denver International Airport, Major Steve Beck described the scene as so powerful: "See the people in the windows? They sat right there in the plane, watching those Marines. You gotta wonder what's going through their minds, knowing that they're on the plane that brought him home," he said "They will remember being on that plane for the rest of their lives. They're going to remember bringing that Marine home. And they should."

International Picture of the Year -- Second Place

2006-10-06T16:40:00.000-07:00

Todd Heisler The Rocky Mountain News
The night before the burial of her husband's body, Katherine Cathey refused to leave the casket, asking to sleep next to his body for the last time. The Marines made a bed for her, tucking in the sheets below the flag. Before she fell asleep, she opened her laptop computer and played songs that reminded her of 'Cat,' and one of the Marines asked if she wanted them to continue standing watch as she slept. "I think it would be kind of nice if you kept doing it," she said. "I think that's what he would have wanted."

Italian-Americans: Maligned, But Who Cares?

2006-10-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

Each month, each week – each day, for that matter – is set aside to commemorate an event or philosophy. Most of the time several events are celebrated on the same day. There’s a book out there, somewhere, that lists all these celebrations but it’s not conclusive because new ones are added literally every day.

The month of October is set aside as Italian-American Heritage Month. It has been for
years. And with all the hoopla associated with it and press releases issued and all the stories printed in papers and magazines and all the TV spots that are aired about
the event…wait a minute. None of this occurs. Nobody seems to care about Italian-American Heritage Month.

And why not? Some 30 million people in this country are ethnic Italians, either whole or in part. Why are we ignored?

Well, we’re not, really, thanks to The Sopranos on HBO and the Gotti “reality” show on A&E. Many non-Italian (and, frankly, even some Italians) see these shows as representative of Italian-American life.

But let’s look at the facts of what Italians have contributed to this country and brought to our culture, without mentioning the obvious: Columbus, Vespucci, pizza, spaghetti, etc.

A huge literary figure died last year of cancer of the throat. He wrote scores of books and helped forge what we now call the police procedural novel. His name was Ed McBain who produced 55 books of the 87th Precinct gang (the last was published two months after his death).

His legal name was Evan Hunter and wrote The Blackboard Jungle under that name along with many others and other books under other pseudonyms. McBain? Hunter? What does that have to do with Italian-American Heritage Month?

His real name was Salvatore Lombino of New York.

Walter Lantz, creator of the Woody Woodpecker cartoon, was born Lanza in New Rochelle N.Y., and young Angelo Siciliano had sand kicked in his face on a Coney Island beach and the legend of “Charles Atlas” was born.

American born A.P. Giannini, founder of the Bank of America in California, loaned money to a young Walt Disney in 1927 for Steamboat Willie, the cartoon that introduced Mickey Mouse.

Alphonse D’Abruzzo was born in 1936 and later rose to fame as Alan Alda in the M*A*S*H TV series. His father was the actor Robert Alda.

John Basilone of Raritan, N.J. – called a one-man army by Gen. Douglas MacArthur - was the only man in U.S. history to receive the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross for valor during World War II. He was killed during the landing at Iwo Jima.

Composer Harry Warren (born Salvatore Guaragna) of Brooklyn was known as “Mr. Hollywood Musical.” He wrote, among other songs, “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” “Lullaby of Broadway,” and “You Must’ve Been a Beautiful Baby.”

And let’s not forget, Chef Boy-Ar-Dee - Hector Boiardi.

I could go on and on. But you get my drift. There are a lot more stories about Italian-American contributions to this country than body-counts and indictments. If the powers-that-be in the entertainment field would only realize this and make films and TV shows about real Italian-Americans, everybody would be better off.

But a bullet to the back of the head and throwing the body off a pier is better for the ratings and bottom line than showing how Italian-Americans really live, like everybody else.

© 2006, Rich Luongo

A great cheesesteak

2006-09-28T17:02:00.000-07:00

There's a little place in Central Jersey called Phat Frank's and it specializes in Philly Cheesesteaks and pizza, all kinds of pizza with an extensive menu that includes great Italian dinners and snacks and antipasto and 2-foot cheesesteaks and original Buffalo Wings and stuffed baked potatoes -- the potatoes are the ones that you don't find in supermarkets. They're huge. And the desserts are to die for, most of which are homemade.

And where is this little piece of culinary heaven? It's in Neptune near Asbury Park. They come from all over the region to eat there (Phat Frank's delivers in the Asbury Park/Neptune area) and they handle the hunger needs of nearby offices and industrial areas and medical facilities.

The owners are Frank and Jennie. And why am I mentioning Phat Frank's? Well, Jennie is my daughter and Frank is her husband, my son-in-law, and there is also Frank III, my 4-year-old grandson. You should always help family. Without family you have nothing.

So, give them a ring at 1-732-776-5678 and try their specialties.

You can't find what you want? They'll make it for you.

Buon appetito.

Back in the closet, McGreevey

2006-09-24T09:49:00.000-07:00

I'm sick and tired of hearing about Jim McGreevey and how hard it was being a gay man while pretending to be straight and the pain he's gone through and blah, blah, blah.

Bullshit. McGreevey was close to being indicted along with his cronies for their misdeeds while in office and before he led the state. Face it. He was a lousy governor and he knew he was in over his head and everybody else knew it. He couldn't even run Woodbridge Township as mayor let alone the state. So he put up the smoke screen about being gay.

He didn't resign because he was gay. He resigned because he was on the way out anway. Look at Barney Frank, a man who has been a congressman in Massachusettes since 1981. He keeps getting elected. He's openly gay; it has never hurt his political career.

So what does little McGreevey do? (He's a little guy, way less than average height). Like all felons -- real and those with potential -- he writes a book. He's making the talk show circuit (he was interviewed on Logo, the gay channel on cable) and was on Larry King's show on CNN. And what does McGreevey, that piece of crap, do? He has his live-in partner come on the King show and they both lock-lips in front of millions of people.

Now I don't know what this excuse of a man -- gay or otherwise -- is trying to do. Lesbian couples have been on talk shows and heterosexual couples appear together and they never go after one another's uvulas on the air. They might give a peck on the check or on the lips...that's it.

I think McGreevey is trying to prove to the gay community that he really is gay. Not being gay I don't really know what the reaction towards his "coming out" is. Being straight all I can see is some middle-aged man who cheated on his wife and on the voters making a fool of himself.

And I hope his fucking book goes right down the tubes or, if it is a bestseller, his soon-to-be-ex-wife goes after the royalities with a vengeance.

Now you know why New Jersey is the laughing stock of the country with a former governor like that, although the current one is no walk-in-the-park, either. We'll go after him later.

© 2006, Rich Luongo

I'm a Trekker and proud of it!

2006-09-08T21:14:00.000-07:00

Don't call me a Trekkie. I'm a Trekker. What's the difference? A Trekkie is one of those who goes to the conventions dressed up like a Star Trek character and eats and drinks Star Trek who knows the dialogue of just about every episode of the original series and who usually disdains all the spin-offs.

A Trekker is somebody who enjoys the original Star Trek shows and the clones, who enjoys the acting and the writing and the Star Trek philosophy. In other words, a Trekker is a fan only but not a FANATIC!!!!

Capt. James T. Kirk and Company hit the airwaves for the first
time today, Sept. 8, 1966. The show bombed, really, and three years into its five-year mission "to seek out new worlds," the rug was pulled out from under the crew of the USS Enterprise by NBC and were sent into TV oblivion.

Or so everyone thought. The Trekkies wouldn't let that happen and thanks to their enthusiasm and their conventions, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager (with the first female captain), and Enterprise (the story leading up to Kirk and Crew), were born, including an animated version in the 1970s.

Now, there are no new shows on the air. But all the series, including the original one and its offspring, can be seen just about any time of the day or night on broadcast and cable TV anywhere in the world.

Ironically, a show NBC couldn't stand (the great minds at the network even had the original bridge destroyed it could've found a home at the Smithsonian), has never been off the TV screen in 40 years, thanks to rerun syndication.

And thanks to the Trekkies and, of course, the Trekkers.

Jersey peaches...best in the country

2006-09-02T10:52:00.000-07:00

You bite into one, the juice running down your chin and onto your fingers, and you savor the succulent flavor, the sweetness and tartness all in one taste.

What am I talking about? Why, Jersey peaches, the best in the country. California's okay and so's Georgia's but the peaches grown in the Garden State are second to none. Because of the shortened growing season, New Jersey is often third in the nation in peach production. California - because of its year-round temperate climate - is number one. Georgia is second most of the time but sometimes it comes in third behind New Jersey.

Why are Jersey peaches so good? It could be the soil and the amount of rain we get and the minimum use of persticides. What I don't understand, though, is why local supermarkets sell Jersey Peaches at exorbitant prices, and I mean at $1.69 and up. That's outrageous. Before the growing season really gets in shape in New Jersey, other peaches are sold in supermarkets from California and "the South," hardly mentioning where in the South, at around $1.99 a pound. This is hard to believe that imported peaches - which, this year, sucked - are sold for only 30 cents more than our own precious Jersey peaches.

Well, at around this time of year I have a friend of friend who gets me cases of fresh Jersey Peaches - those that are sold on the roadside stands - for $8...for nearly 50 pounds!!!! 50 pounds for $8!!! I get a case twice a summer.

Obviously 100 pounds of peaches are too much to eat for my family so I give some away and I make cakes and breads and pies and put them on ice cream and on pancakes...I go to hell with myself with peaches. I'll take several peaches - and they are large - and cut them up with blueberries - another New Jersey crop - and strawberries and other fruits and eat them as a fruit salad, the best you could ever eat, all pure and fresh and good for you while tasting great!

Towards the end of the growing season you can get freestone peaches. What does that mean? Well, this variety can be divided cleanly in half simply by grasping one peach at the top and at the bottom and pulling it apart. It pulls away freely from the beet-red stone, or pit. Freestone. Excellent peach.

Remember what I say: Jersey Peaches, the best in the country, despite the hype from the La La State and from the land of the peanut.

World's most beautiful

2006-08-07T11:38:00.000-07:00

I would say, without fear of contradiction, that Italian is by far the most beautiful language in the world. Well-spoken and well-phrased, it flows from the mouth like music and envelopes you in tranquility with the fluidity of its nuances.

French is too nasal, German is, well, German. Russian is often harsh. Japanese, too militarisitc. Chinese, very sing-songy yet still pleasing to the ear. Spanish (very similar to Italian), too many S's. It would be advantageous for you to have a speeh inpediment in order to master the Castilian Spanish dialect which is considered the official language of Spain although 90 percent of the Spanish-speaking world does not speak Castilian.

Italian is the language of love and music. In fact the commands written on sheet music are most often written in Italian: lento (slowly), rapido, allegro (fast), coda (finale) to name a few commands.

We also mustn't forget that Italians invented opera. What would be more fitting for such a beautiful creation but to be rendered in the world's most beautiful language? I've experienced German opera (give me a break), French opera (pleasant but not Italian), and English, which really doesn't do anything for me or true operatic afficianodoes. No. Opera must be expesrienced in Italian, its true Muse.

There is a fascination with the Italian language and its people in this country. We’re maligned by Hollywood and by the mainstream media and often are the brunt of jokes. But I wonder if this is because these jokesters find Italians and their language funny or do they have a respect for us that comes out as humor. I don’t know. I can only hope.

But in the meantime the language, or parts of it, pops up in advertising, as names of automobiles, for instance (the Quattro or the Firenze). On the retail front, most new restaurants opening each year, serve Italian cuisine, either exclusively or as integral parts of their menus. Many years ago, I was told that seven out of every ten restaurants opened annually were Italian. I don’t know how true that was then or is today but there are a lot of Italian restaurants.

Perhaps there is a connection between the beautiful Italian language and the beautiful, tasty, and healthy Italian fare.

© 2006, Rich Luongo

Much maligned Gibson

2006-08-01T13:34:00.000-07:00

Without sounding like a bigot myself, I wonder if all this commotion over what Mel Gibson said or didn't say would have carried this far if some of the major Hollywood studios didn't have Jews in prominent positions?

The furor over his alleged comments is gaining momentum by the likes of Barbara Walters who says she will no longer see anymore of his movies or even interview him. That's gotta really hurt, like stepping barefooted on a marshmallow.

Walt Disney Studios has canceled a Holocaust TV mini-series it had planned to do with Gibson.

But how far would this much ado about nothing have gone if Gibson made comments about Hispanics? It would have caused a greater furor than his alleged anti-Semitic remarks, you can count on that. The Hispanic community has better PR.

By the way if comments had been made about the Italians, nothing - absolutely nothing - would have been said by anyone despite the fact some of your biggest producers and directors and actors in Hollywood are Italian. Most people would laugh about it. Italians...the last ethnic group you can malign and get away with it.

Gibson, you got my backing, whatever it's worth. Clear up your drinking problem. Keep making your pictures and go back to acting. We miss you.

The crucifixion of Mel Gibson

2006-07-31T18:29:00.000-07:00

I suppose Mel Gibson has to crucify himself in the same way the Messiah was crucified in order to placate the professional Jews who do not accept his apology for allegedly making anti-Semitic remarks when arrested for drunk driving last week in Malibu.

Supposedly when the cops stopped him he said, "Fucking Jews. The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world."

This only reignites the charges against Gibson - a devout Roman Catholic in the old tradition: Latin Mass, etc. - that his unbelievably graphic 2004 film, The Passion of the Christ, fanned the flames that the Jews killed Jesus Christ.

In his statement of apology, Gibson said, "After drinking alcohol on Thursday night, I did a number of things that were very wrong and for which I am ashamed....I apologize to anyone who I have offended. Also, I take this opportunity to apologize to the deputies involved for my belligerent behavior."

Gibson has had a history of alcoholism throughout his adult life and has admitted he has been trying to kick the habit and is now taking steps to do that, although he didn't specify what.

Despite his apologies, Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, noted that Gibson's response was "unremorseful and insufficient" and his comments reveal "his true self. It's not a proper apology because it does not go to the essence of his bigotry and his anti-Semitism."

I suppose if Gibson had slit his wrists on television that would go to the "essence of his bigotry."

"We would hope that Hollywood now would realize the bigot in their midst and that they will distance themselves from this anti-Semite," Foxman added.

Right.

The money-hungry movie executives are going to distance themselves from Gibson whose Passion movie has grossed some $700 million worldwide and still counting. I doubt it. Many other movie producers and directors and stars have been involved in scandals throughout the years, many worse than Gibson's, and are still going strong.

The public will decide whether or not Gibson will survive in the industry. I hope he does. He's a fine actor and director.

The Jersey Shore?...you gotta be kidding

2006-07-29T21:03:00.000-07:00

I don't know how it is elsewhere but most of the towns along the Jersey Shore charge a daily fee to get onto the beach or a season ticket for individuals or families. In other words, the God-given sand and surf is prohibited to those people who want to stay cool but don't have as much as $7 for the daily fee.

Those two-bit towns that die 10 months out of the year because they have nothing else except a shoreline and are too fucking lazy or stupid to encourage a year-round industry of some sort other than beach tourism, charge exorbitant amounts of money for people to go onto patches of sand that the towns don't own so the elected assholes can reap a windfall two-and-a-half months out of the year.

Most of these towns also remove their parking meters during the fall and winter but return them after Memorial Day and charge about 25 cents for 20 minutes - depends on the town - and the meter maids stand in doorways of businesses waiting for the red violation flags to go up. They then spring into action and write $25 parking tickets.

I hate the fucking Jersey Shore. The only decent place is Cape May where the beaches are free. Of course, they perform the same scam with the parking meters but Cape May long ago transformed itself into a Victorian village and has activities all year round centered around the town's Victorian theme and architecture.

Cape May's the place to go. Avoid the rest of the Jersey Shore at all costs.

All about censorship

2006-07-28T11:09:00.000-07:00

The Federal Censorship Commission (FCC) — uh, isn’t that its name? — is handing down edicts reminiscent of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Communist China, and any other two-bit dictatorship you can think of to affect our communications system, most notably broadcast TV and radio along with a bill to be introduced that will also include cable.

This I find intolerable. Cable is not on the public airwaves. I pay money for my cable service, therefore, it is a private accommodation, not subject to any interference by Bible-thumping assholes in the FCC or in our government.

Our esteemed President — who doubts evolution is factual (you can see where he’s coming from) — recently signed a bill setting rather unclear federal rules for broadcast TV that could literally force PBS stations to dump some of its programs — some of which use what is often referred to as “indecent” language (indecent to whom?) — to avoid paying exorbitant, confiscatory fines.

"The fines now would put stations out of business, and we cannot allow that to happen," according to PBS President Paula Kerger. The new PBS head made these statements to members of the Television Critics Association.

"We need to do a better job in letting the American people know that this is not just about Janet Jackson," she said. "This is about filmmakers that have powerful stories that now are not being allowed to tell those stories on public television or broadcast television."

If your remember Jackson’s boob appeared briefly during a 2004 Super Bowl half-time show and people — apparently those who have never seen a tit — reacted defiantly: the end of the world as we know it is nigh and our children are doomed because they saw Jackson’s titty. In the meantime, Americans were and are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan without a whimper from these sanctimonious sons-of-bitches whose only concern is Janet Jackson exposed one of her mammaries.

At this printing, PBS had planned to file arguments in support of a Northern California public TV station that’s appealing a fine of $15,000 imposed by the religious bigots at the FCC for showing an episode of Martin Scorsese's music documentary The Blues which used profanity. One fucking viewer from that station in California complained and now the small outlet — not PBS — is liable for the fine. This single viewer lives in a closet or cave or somewhere because he or she (probably she) never heard any of these fucking, cocksucking, motherfucking words. (Should I add some more?)

Now, Ken Burns wants to run his World War II PBS documentary The War with interviews from veterans and others and — My God!!!! — they will be using profanity!!! I suppose these vets, part of the Greatest Generation, when facing the enemy and when they were shot at, cried out, “Jeepers, you nasty people, stop shooting at me. You might hit me.” More than likely the comment went this way, “You fucking Nazi pricks, I’m gonna ream your goddamned asses.”

Republican do-gooder Tom Osborne of Nebraska and Democratic do-gooder Dan Lipinski of Illinois introduced a bill — the Family Choice Act —that would give cablecasters choice of content regulation.

Because V-chips are ineffective, they contend, especially when a second or third TV set have no chips, the bill would give the FCC Gestapo power to regulate cable content in various ways which are really irrelevant since legally the FCC cannot interfere in cable. It is private, the programs go through a cable (thus the name) and not over the public airwaves. Any effort to regular the cable industry is ludicrous and would probably be overturned by the courts.

I have a solution to this whole mess: GET RID OF THE FCC!!!! It is outdated and is run by religious fanatics who want to clamp their morality on the rest of us. TV programming will succeed or fail according to market dictates, not through edicts issued by the Federal Censorship Commission.

King Jon and his budget

2006-07-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

Over the years I’ve dealt with politicians — both personally and as an editor — I have always been amazed at how child-like they can be. Most of them figuratively will hold their breath until they can get what they want. Just about all of them will act like toddlers in a sandbox…mine is bigger than yours or I’ll show you mine if you show me yours or I’ll take my bat and ball and go home.

Thus, we have Jon Corzine, the new, already despised governor of New Jersey. With any justice, he’ll be a one-term governor.

He’s in the middle of tug-of-war over the new budget with the State Legislature — arguably the most corrupt legislature in the country. He wants his budget passed that contains all kinds of cuts, plus it includes the addition of an extra point on the state’s 6 percent sales tax to be used to pay down the deficit, and the Legislature wants its version passed without a sales-tax increase and with less cuts.

So, king-of-the-sandbox Corzine says all non-essential state personnel will not be allowed to work as of July 5. That means all the inspectors at the casinos won’t be on the job, thus shutting down Atlantic City and its gambling houses which bring in about $1 million a day in taxes to the state, and all state historic sites and parks will be shut down because all state employees will not be allowed to work.

Why? King Jon wants to twist the balls of the legislators until he gets what he wants. It’s either his way or no way. Sounds rather Nazi-like, doesn’t it?

In the meantime, the state’s economy — already in jeopardy with more than a billion-dollar deficit — will be hurt even more when $1 million a day is not forthcoming and all the revenue generated by the state’s attractions are missing.

And don’t forget road projects, which must be suspended because there will be no state inspectors on duty, and those workers who are not state employees will not be able to work because our asshole governor wants to show his prick is bigger than the state’s.

Corzine wants it his way, and fuck the state workers and the citizens. Thank the Almightily I did not vote for that power-hungry cretin. And all of you Democrats who voted for the party choice, I hope you’re satisfied with what you’ve done to the state.

He tried to take make our service stations self-service. That didn’t work and he didn’t go through with the proposal. Unless he’s a complete fool, he will not go through with his threat on July 5.

Part A goes into Part B

2006-02-21T16:28:00.000-08:00

We are all supposed to applaud the “breakthrough” film, Brokeback Mountain. We are supposed to look at it as a work of art.

But what is it? It’s a modern day Western about two gay cowboys. The subject was touched upon years ago in Midnight Cowboy, and done better with taste.

We are supposed to hail that film as a film that will usher in similar same-sex love stories.

In other words the subject will be shoved down our throats if that film makes it big at the Academy Awards.

Well, I’m told, it won’t be shoved down anyone’s throat. Just don’t see the movie if you disagree with it. But if it does runaway with the awards at the Oscars, then other films about gay and lesbian love will be made and “shoved down our throats” as alternate lifestyles.

And I will resent that because they are not alternate lifestyles…they are abominations and do not represent the vast majority (95 percent, perhaps?) of the people in the world who are straight. It is not a style that someone chooses. It chooses you, so let’s not make something that is a biological deviant as an alternate lifestyle.

Let’s not shove it down our throats. We already have series on TVs glorifying the gay life as another “family” life. Let’s knock it off. Family life is a man and a woman and children. (Part A fits into Part B to produce Part C; A does not fit into A and B doesn’t fit into B. That’s the way nature made it. Got a problem? Take it up with her.)

Do you really believe him?

2006-01-25T09:07:00.000-08:00

You can tell Osama bin Lobotomy is running scared. He wants a truce because we’re knocking the shit out of his terrorists (oops!, insurgents). He calls it for the good of everyone, actually for himself and his murderers. We’re hurting him and hurting him badly.

It doesn’t make any difference now why we went to Iraq. We’re there now and we’re causing damage to those murdering bastards.

Then Osama goes on to say that they haven’t attacked us since 9/11 because they’re planning something big. It had nothing to do with our heightened security.
Bullshit.

He’s not dealing with some Third World nation. He’s dealing with the most powerful nation in the history of the world. And we have our defenses up. That’s why they haven’t done anything since 9/11. They can’t.

And they won’t do anything in London anymore, either. The security is up there, too.
Spain, of course, won’t have any problems. The yellow regime capitulated and gave into the terrorists. That country also has the largest Muslim population outside of the Middle East.
Pity on them.
And France, too. They won’t do shit, either, to help the cause of freedom. They also have a large Muslim population.
Pity on them, too.
It’s up to the really free world – led by the U.S.A and England – to carry on the righteous cause of freedom. The rest of the world will fall into line and kiss our asses after we’ve crushed the insurgents.

Aren't we all redundant?

2005-11-30T11:55:00.000-08:00

For some strange reason we are a nation that likes redundancies. We have to explain things twice because, apparently, once is not enough.

Let’s take a phrase from the advertising dictionary, which is full of redundancies. When an advertiser wants to give something away, he always talks about a “free gift.” Not a plain old gift but a “free gift.”

Well, by definition a gift is free. If it’s not free, then it’s not a gift. But it was established a long time ago that if you insert the word “free” in your advertising, the sucker, uh, customer would be more prone to partake of the offer knowing that if he or she didn’t buy he or she would still get something for nothing, in this case a gift. Free. Without charge.

The dictionary describes a gift as something given voluntarily without compensation. Ergo, free.

This is the same idea as $1.99, not $2.00 but $1.99. Tax adds 6 percent but the original cost is still under $2. It’s a psychological thing started by J.C. Penney. People would travel that extra mile to save a penny. (By the way, there is no penny in the American monetary system; it’s a cent.)

Then we have our last will and testament. This is a legal term but the words mean the same thing. It’s your last hurrah, it’s your last chance to sock it to Cousin Leo or to give your favorite aunt something enduring, money, probably or that piece of jewelry she always liked.

But lawyers have got to make sure everybody knows what’s happening. Thus, last will and testament. And what is testament defined as?...It’s a written document disposing your property after death…a will. And what is a will?...The dictionary says it’s the same thing, a legal document that disposes of a person’s property after death. In order words, your last will and testament.

But as nature will often provide things in pairs: two arms, two ears, two legs, two kidneys, etc., the legal system provides two terms for the same thing.

Lawyers; you gotta love ’em.

During the hot summer months there is a phrase that makes the rounds at the Shore, in shopping malls, anywhere where people congregate and want something cool and refreshing. And what is that phrase?...Water ice.

Now, on the surface there would seem to be nothing wrong with that but what other ingredient produces ice that humans can consume? It’s only water. We can’t eat dry ice, that’s a certainty. So offering water ice to parched patrons may sound refreshing but it’s a redundancy.

Originally the phrase Italian water ice was used, then was changed to simply Italian ice, then later water ice. There is a small difference between the two concoctions but not that much. Both are made with water, though.

Some places use the word “ices” to promote their confections which is fine and a better description of the product.

Whatever it’s called, though, it’s cold and refreshing and hits the spot. I don’t think there would be much of a market for lemon dry ice.

Lights, camera...truth

2005-11-17T00:59:00.000-08:00

Hollywood has produced some great movies over the years, movies we – as Americans – can be proud of as representative of our culture and way of life.

But sometimes these movie moguls lean so much to the left that they often fall into the hole they’ve dug for themselves.

It’s a well documented fact that the leftists in Hollywood hate what we’re doing in Iraq. This has come out in print, in movies (Fahrenheit 911), and on TV talk shows. This philosophy can only hurt our military in Iraq. Thank goodness the same climate doesn’t exist now as it did in the Vietnam Era when returning soldiers were spat upon and called baby killers. Our military personnel today are treated as returning warriors doing a job to bring democracy to a part of the world that has traditionally held its people back and minimized any freedoms that may exist.

If we have done nothing at all in Iraq we have allowed women to be free and to exist as human beings, and we brought a taste of self-government to the Iraqis. The Hollywood types don’t acknowledge this. They only see us as conquerors and invaders.

These Hollywood types (most of whom couldn’t survive working in a McDonald’s) also pooh-poohed the first free elections held in Iraq last January and every election since then. They don’t see these as victories for the Iraqi people and for our participation in that part of the world.

In this climate you cannot expect any objective film to be made about the Iraqi conflict. Since 9/11 nothing has been produced about what has been going on in the Middle East nor about the World Trade Center tragedy nor about the firefighters who heroically did their jobs to bring out the survivors and the bodies from the Twin Tower rubble. The only thing that was produced was that fiasco called Fahrenheit 9/11.

But allegorical movies have been produced condemning what we’ve been doing.

War of the Worlds, for instance, shows the American military (the Martians) randomly attacking the Iraqis (Americans in the movie), and this was admitted by David Koepp, the scriptwriter.

And don’t forget Tom Cruise - who’s an expert on psychiatry and knows more than psychiatrists - stars in the film. Could you not expect him to star in such a venture? I don’t think so.

And criticism of President Bush and his administration are part of the last three Star Wars films. George Lucas, the creator of the Star Wars series, admitted at the Cannes Film Festival this year, that Darth Vader’s rise to power and the growth of the empire in the series was an attempt to show Americans that our freedoms are bring diminished under Bush. Obviously not enough since Lucas was free to say what he did.

Where are the stories coming out of Hollywood about the positive things being done in Iraq by Americans? Where are the stories about how the insurgents (journal-ese for terrorists) are systemically killing Iraqis civilians, including scores of children? Where are the stories of how we are repairing the infrastructure for the Iraqi people but how many repair jobs are being damaged by the terrorists?

Where are these stories?

Let’s see stories about the firefighters, the police officers, civilians who traveled hundreds of miles to help at Ground Zero on 9/11. Let’s see stories of the good we are doing.

Apparently the pinko leftists in Hollywood can find no good at all in America and in their fellow Americans.

'The reason for the season'

2005-11-15T20:51:00.000-08:00

This is called the “holiday season,” and when someone I don’t know – a store clerk, for instance – wishes me “Happy Holidays,” I ask, “Which holiday?” There is only one specific holiday I celebrate this time of year, not all of them. So which holiday are these store clerks and telephone solicitors and other people who wear plastic smiles and pretend to like us are referring to?

The major holiday from Thanksgiving Day to Dec. 25 is Christmas. There is no other holiday during that time period of any significance. Hanukkah? Possibly, but it’s not major. Ramadan? Hardly. The African-American celebration of Kwanzaa? Give me a break.

No,

the holiday season refers to Christmas and only Christmas and has always referred to Christmas.

But political correctness says we have to say “Happy Holidays” instead of Merry Christmas or Happy Christmas. We might offend a minority of people who don’t celebrate Christmas or who don’t believe in Jesus Christ or the Christmas story. And we must not also offend the atheists – God love ’em - who don’t believe in shit.

When I was growing up it was only Christmas at this time of year. And the season started after Thanksgiving and only after Thanksgiving. Now, Christmas merchandise is in the stores before Labor Day. And don’t forget that mockery put together by the whores known as ad people called “Christmas in July.”

There’s a lot of money to be made at Christmas – we all know that – and those purveyors of all things that glitter around the Yule, decided to make hay with other holidays. So they threw in Hanukkah, which is not a real gift-giving occasion like Christmas, along with greeting cards, and Kwanzaa, which starts on Dec. 26 and celebrates the harvest, also with its own cards.

Actually, Kwanzaa was started in the 1960s to counteract the “white man’s” Christmas and Hanukkah. Not true? Then why is it celebrated during the Christmas season and why does it go on for a week – emulating Hanukkah - and why does it use a menorah, the same as the Jews use for Hanukkah? Granted, Kwanzaa’s menorah holds seven candles, not eight like the Jewish one, but it’s still a menorah.

But Christmas can’t be mentioned in any public celebration as the “reason for the season,” as it’s often said. It must be the “holiday season” only. Strangely, all the music and virtually all the decorations at these celebrations refer to Christmas. They never play Hanukkah songs or Kwanzaa songs.

Must be a reason. Anybody know the reason?

Because they don’t have any songs! Thousands of songs have been written about Christmas over the centuries and they’re still being sung and will continue to be sung despite all this crap and nonsense about political correctness.

The only political correctness that is fair is to acknowledge the existence of Christmas as the main celebration during this “holiday season.”
All else are johnnies-come-lately and will always be.

The chicken or the egg...which came first?

2005-11-06T14:48:00.000-08:00

There is that age-old question: what came first, the chicken or the egg? Let me rephrase it somewhat for our modern society: what comes first, a pedophile or a priest? Does the Catholic Church attract pedophiles or does the celibacy create pedophiles?

It's being revealed almost every month that priests in just about every major diocese in this country have molested boys. These boys, now men, came forward to tell all. Most hadn't surface earlier because of the shame and, believe it or not, they still considered themselves good Catholics. But the shame of what had occurred decades earlier still weighed heavily on them.

Unfortunately, many of the priests who have been accused are old, infirmed, or dead and beyond prosecution primarily because the statute of limitation has expired on these illegal sex acts. A handful, however, have gone to jail over the years. Although those who have not been brought to justice are beyond secular law, they can't escape their ultimate punishment. (Guess they forgot the Commandment, "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery.")

The biggest crime has been committed by the Church hierarchy. When news of certain molestations surfaced those priests accused of the crime were simply shuffled about by bishops and archbishops without any punishment or reprimands. And often these priests were sent to other assignments were they again came into contact with young boys, proving once again the priesthood is an "old boys club" and always will be. Until that philosophy ends you will never see women priests.

There is nothing in Church Law that addresses pedophilia. There is no way of dealing with it internally except to reassign the priests or to overlook it.

Think about it. Boys are brainwashed by the Catholic Church to become priests, especially if they attend Catholic schools. The Church expects these adolescents - at the height of their sexuality - to give up their God-given and very natural act of sex to devote themselves for the rest of their lives to the Church and its doctrines.

Celibacy is not mentioned in the Bible. In fact early popes and church officials - even some of Jesus Christ's disciples - were married. But in 1074 Pope Gregory VII decreed that all ordained priests had to pledge celibacy, stating that priests had to "escape from the clutches of their wives," indicating priests were married at the time. The decree also showed how lowly women were looked upon in the Church, despite all references to the Virgin Mary.

In 1095, Pope Urban II had all priests' wives sold as slaves and all their children were simply abandoned. Then in 1123, Pope Calistus II, at the First Lateran Council, declared that existing clerical marriages were now invalid.

There were controversies about marriage and the priesthood nearly from the beginning of the Church and, at one time, priests were forbidden to have sex with their wives before Mass. In fact the sex act itself was declared unclean, which is surprising since that's the only way to propagate the religion. Biting off your nose (or is it penis) to spite your face?

Pedophilia is disgusting no matter who does it. When priests are involved it's abhorrent. And they should be punished for what they've done. If the Church won't do it, the state must. And that goes for the Church leaders who swept everything under the rug. They must also answer in the secular world.

Overturning the celibacy decree is one way of righting this problem. If a priest is married he may not be attracted to young boys. There is no guarantee of this but it is a start. Church leaders must address this problem and allowing priests to marry is one way it can be corrected.

The brain dead terrorists will not win

2005-11-03T19:05:00.000-08:00

The precautions taken at railroad stations in Philadelphia and New York and other cities are designed, as we all know, to thwart any terrorism attempts similar to what happened recently in London.

Some citizens have balked at the bag searches and other “inconveniences” while the majority is praising what is being done to insure our safety.

On the surface some of us might exclaim, “The terrorists have won! They’ve instilled fear in us!”

Both statements are false. They haven’t won and we are not fearful, just cautious. The brain dead terrorists assume the USA and England and other enlightened nations would respond to terrorism the same way those countries where these terrorists have been trained would respond: capitulation out of fear, similar to what happened in Spain.

Instead these imbeciles have made us stronger and have united us to fight them and make them beg for mercy when they’re finally caught.

I must hand it to the English and Italian authorities; they stopped at nothing until they found the people they suspected to be involved with the Underground bombings in London.

The terrorists will not win in this nation. We're not a banana republic. We're not a Third World nation. We are not Middle Eastern. We're Americans, a unique classification of people...the most unique in the history of the world.

We still have a frontier mentally in many respects. A statistic I read somewhere stated there was a firearm in circulation in this country for nearly every man, woman, and child. That makes about 300 million guns in the hands of Americans. How many are illegal, I don’t know. How many are owned by inner-city gangs, I don’t know, but it’s a safe bet most of the weapons are controlled by so-called law-abiding Americans who would not be hesitant to shoot anyone who looked like a terrorist.

That’s why the terrorists will never win. We’re too well-armed. Whether or not that’s a plus is debatable but those who would do us harm should be mindful that the good old boys in this country will not stand by and let them win.

Those who are training the terrorists in the Middle East and elsewhere (although how much training is involved to tell someone to blow himself up to get to heaven?) have underestimated the US government and its people.

These animals will not win. They will not succeed.

The American people will not let them.

A Landrieu-Thompson race

2005-11-01T19:40:00.000-08:00

People keep mentioning Hillary Clinton as the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. God forbid!!!

Anyway, that’s what’s going around.

Personally, I like Mary Landrieu, the senior senator from Louisiana, as the Democratic choice for president. If you must have a woman, and eventually we must, she’s the one.

She is a leader on education and her knowledge of the armed forces and defense issues has earned her the nickname, Military Mary. She’s also made her feelings known on the ineptness of the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina. She speaks her mind and speaks it well.

Now what about the Republican Party? It’s digging its own grave every time the president opens his mouth. And each time one of its own is indicted or put under suspicion for some wrongdoing, the grave is dug deeper and deeper.

I suggest getting a candidate for the Republican nomination that no one would even suspect: Fred Dalton Thompson. He used to be a senator from Tennessee and from what I could ascertain a damned good one. But he didn’t seek a second term because of all the crap that was and is going on.

Thompson now plays the DA on TV’s venerable Law and Order. He was an actor before becoming a senator but he was and is a lawyer.

In 1997, he became Chairman of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, a feat for a junior senator to serve as the head of a major Senate Committee.

Before going to the Senate, Thompson had law offices in Nashville and Washington, D.C. and was Special Counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. He also wrote a book outlining his Watergate experiences, At That Point in Time.

He’s sharp as a tack and intelligent.

A Landrieu and Thompson race?…is it possible? I doubt it.

The same losers and clowns in both parties are going to be forced on the American public again in 2008. And as sheep we will cast our votes for them because…what else can we do?

What a pity. I guess we deserve what we get.

DST: who needs it?...Abolish it

2005-10-30T11:09:00.000-08:00

They tried it once before, back in the ’70s, to help with the energy crisis and it was a horrible failure. I refer to the extension of Daylight Savings Time beyond the last Sunday in October.

A national energy plan that would provide billions of tax subsidies to energy companies also extends DST: it begins three weeks earlier in March and ends the first week of November.

That’s absurd. If anything, DST should be abolished. This World War II measure has outlasted its usefulness.
But not everybody observes DST. Some counties in Indiana, for example, refuse to set their clocks ahead one hour on the first Sunday in April. So, people living in a county with DST would have to set their watches back an hour when they go to work in a county with standard time, then go back to daylight time at the end of the workday. Or they could simply leave their watches at one time standard and be confused.

Ridiculous, isn’t it?

Let’s not forget this is a federal law. States don’t have to observe it. They can do what they want, as Indiana does. And remember, the railroads – the industry that fostered our time zone system so their trains would run on time – are on standard time all year long and they do quite well.

In the 1970s, it was decided to extend DST through the end of November to help with the oil crisis. Remember the so-called “shortage” of gas and oil? Remember when everybody turned down their thermostats and froze in their homes to conserve energy?

The sun set later in the fall evenings, thanks to the extension of DST, but when everybody woke up to go to work and school, it was still dark. The sun didn’t “rise” until after 7 a.m. when the kids were already on the road heading for school. Many youngsters were hit by cars as they walked and there were many, many car accidents.

Almost as quickly as it was enacted, the new DST law was overturned and the current one put into effect.
Today’s rationale in extending DST is that fewer motor vehicle accidents occur when the days are longer (love to see who provided these statistics) and people can play longer outdoors.
That’s fine. That last part has a Norman Rockwell feel to it. The fact remains, however, that a World War II contrivance has been altered to remain part of our lives, the same as excise taxes are still with us. They were enacted to help the war effort. The war’s been over for 60 years. Get rid of the tax and get rid of DST or, at least, leave it alone and let it stay the way it is.

There is also a more practical view of DST: all computers are programmed to change their internal clocks on the first Sunday of April, when DST begins, and the last Sunday in October, when standard time begins. All this goes out the window if the law is changed. However, we can at least manually make the time changes ourselves on our computers, but that’s not easy to do on your cell phone and on most other electronic devices with a clock.

The only saving grace is that those politicians who voted for a change in Daylight Savings Time will also be screwed like the rest of us.

It just keeps going and going and going....

2005-10-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

Like that bunny on the TV commercials, it just keeps "going and going"...the stereotyping, the pigeonholing.

Unflattering portrayals of Italian-Americans and Italians in general continue to make their appearances on commercials pushing everything from pasta sauce (of course) to herbicide to Internet service.

It never stops.

For much of this I blame Italian-Americans themselves. We are not politically-united. Italian-Americans often fight among themselves and will turn a blind eye to stereotyping, sometimes smiling along with non-Italians at the portrayals in order to be accepted. And, frankly, some Italians like the mystic of the "mob"...people re-spect them, they feel.

If we were united, politically, then it would be as politically incorrect to mock Italian-Americans in the same way it is incorrect to mock Afro-Americans, Hispanics, gays. However, unlike other "minorities," Italian-Americans do not band together to fight against inequities. There may be some lip-service, but that's it.

It is true more Italian culture courses and classes on Italian contributions to America and the Italian language itself are being taught in more and more schools, both at the secondary- and at the college-level. Some progress is being made. This is due in large part to various Italian-American organizations such as Order Sons of Italy in America.

Let's look at those commercials.

Last year,, the national Order Sons of Italy in America released a report and survey entitled, Italian-American Stereotypes in U.S. Advertising.

Assisting in the survey were OSIA's Commission for Social Justice -the group's anti-defamation arm - UNICO National, the Italian-American One Voice Coalition, and Italian-American Pride.

The report indicated that a poll of American teens, 13-18, noted that 78 percent of them said Italian-Americans were either criminally active or were blue-color workers.

(The U.S. Census Bureau notes that two-thirds of the 26 million Italian-Americans in this country are in administration, medicine, and law, as well as in other white collar professions. They're also editors and journalists.)

Another poll by Response Analysis Corp. - as revealed in the OSIA survey - showed that 74 percent of adults questioned believed most Italian-Americans were connected in some way to organized crime.

Incidentally, a couple of years ago the U.S. Justice Department indicated that less than .0025 percent of Italians in this country were "connected."

Apparently those adults polled never heard what the Justice Department had said or didn't believe it. Don't confuse us with the facts.

In reference to the commercials, the ad campaigns, says the report, feature unbalanced portrayals of Italian-Americans. Men are uneducated, violent, dishonest and the women are overweight-housewives and grandmothers and always seem to wear black.

And thanks to The Sopranos, commercials with an organized-crime theme are perceived by the general public to be about Italian-Americans even if there is no specific reference.

Now about those commercials (the following are from the report as issued by the OSIA):

*In a beer commercial, dark-skinned men in an Italian restaurant ask one another, "Howya doin'?" and "Didcha take care a dat ting?"

*Vinny and his partner are about to break the bones of someone who owes them money but they can't hurt him because he drinks milk.

*Several matronly women, all dressed in black with their hairs in buns, dance a Tarantella because a new plastic container doesn't stain when they put tomato sauce in it.

*After a student is warned by his teacher in an Internet commercial that he would fail his assignment if it's late, two Sopranos characters appear and threaten the teacher with harm if the kid doesn't get an A.

*In a commercial about cement, the protagonist is given a permanent vacation during a boat-ride with mobsters who use the product to take care of him at sea.

The print ads are no batter than their TV counterparts. For example:

*In a pasta bowl ad, the voice over says, "If you eat an -------- pasta bowl, don't be surprised ifa youa starta talking likea this afterwards."

*Another print ad shows dark - skinned butchers glaring at the camera, with sausages and a salami hanging behind them. The ad reads, "We asked these butchers what they thought of our new meat sauce. They beat us up."

*A pizza ad, which features a man dressed in the latest "mobster" chic, notes, "Stay home with da family." A coupon is included for the pizza known as "the mob pleaser."

You must get my drift, right?

Enough, already.

Stop the unfair taxes

2005-10-27T12:18:00.000-07:00

We are always bitching about taxes: too high, doesn't make sense, and so on. But how about unfair taxes (as if there are fair taxes)?

Whenever we make a claim on our insurance - house, supplemental health - or if you win a settlement in court, you never pay a tax on the money you get. It's yours, free and clear. That probably explains why people like to sue; there's no penalty if you win.

Then why in God's name do we have to pay tax on unemployment benefits, disability benefits, or even Social Security benefits? You can thank Jimmy Carter for that because prior to his presidency we never paid tax on any of that. Now, all of a sudden, they're all income.

Bullshit.

Premiums are deducted from our paychecks for disability and unemployment insurance (notice that word?). When we make a claim on that insurance we receive money in the same way we receive money from home, car, or health insurance, none of which is taxed. Then why do we have to pay taxes on unemployment and disability payments?

(For those of you who live in the 45 unenlightened states that have no disability provisions for its workers, New Jersey and four other states have disability insurance with premiums taken out of paychecks for workers. If they are temporarily disabled for any reason - accident, hospitalization - they can receive a weekly check for a period of time until they're back on their feet. The amount of money often equals unemployment benefits.)

As far as Social Security is concerned: why should taxes be paid on those payments? They amount to nothing as it is; why take money away from those who really need it ? Taxes should be eliminated from Social Security benefits. Again government sticks its filthy hand into people's lives. Leave Social Security alone. Leave unemployment alone. Hands off disability payments.

Where are the politicians with the balls to address these issues? Why aren't some devoted to stopping these unnecessary and hurtful taxes?

I'm waiting for them to speak up. What the hell are they waiting for?

Look after our diabetic school children

2005-10-26T15:51:00.000-07:00

Are we living in the 21st century or the 12th century? Are we supposed to care for those who need our help or do we simply cast them aside because it might cost too much money to take care of them?

I’m not talking about the tainted philosophy of euthanasia or sending off our elderly to nursing homes because they’ve become burdens or removing a feeding tube so a person can theoretically die with “dignity” by starving to death.

No. I’m referring to school children with diabetes who must regulate themselves every single day and take insulin. Some children (and some adults) with Type 2 also take insulin to help regulate their sugar levels.

Type 2 is the most common form of diabetes and those with it usually regulate themselves with diet, medication, and exercise.

The pancreas makes insulin but it’s not distributed properly to the organs.

Type 1 is not as common, although most children afflicted with diabetes are Type 1, and they must take insulin to live. The pancreas in these children makes very little or no insulin.

Fine. We know a little something about diabetes (but it’s a more complicated disease than that). However, apparently school officials in California know nothing about diabetes, that’s why they’re being sued by four elementary school-age kids and the American Diabetes Association.

They’re seeking class action relief in the U.S. District Court for northern California against the state’s schools superintendent, the department of education, members of the state school board, the San Ramon Valley Unified School District, the Fremont Unified School District, and their respective schools superintendents and boards of trustees.

The lawsuit is asking the court to compel the school officials to comply with federal law by providing the assistance that California students with diabetes require to manage their diabetes during the school day.

In their complaint the students and the ADA allege that state and the local districts are violating a section of the Rehabilitation Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and applicable federal regulations.

They contend the officials failed to look out for the health and safety of their students in classes K-12 who have diabetes by not providing insulin administration, blood glucose monitoring, and proper care in emergency situations, among other diabetes care.

The plaintiffs noted that the state education department and the San Ramon Valley and Fremont school districts, along with other districts across the state, allegedly refused to assign school personnel to students to help with the injection of insulin as prescribed by their doctors, despite the fact personnel can be trained to do so.

Let’s face it. Except, perhaps for the lower grades, most kids with diabetes can administer themselves but they’re not allowed to take medication in California or even in New Jersey without supervision from the school nurse.

In New Jersey not every school has a nurse. The one who works for a district goes from school to school on certain days. Well, diabetic youngsters can’t wait for the nurse to show up. They need their shots everyday.

I agree with the ADA. Let a responsible adult administer the shots or medication. Diabetes is not a cold that can be taken care of with a cough drop (which is not allowed to be taken in any school in this state without a nurse’s supervision if the word “medicated” appears on the box).

Take care of our diabetic children. Don’t wait for a lawsuit to force you to do that.

The world's oldest profession

2005-10-23T14:08:00.000-07:00

New Jersey is a contradiction among states. We have lots of political corruption, lots of toxic waste dumps, organized crime bosses call the Garden State home, and we're the only state in the country where each of our 21 counties is considered a metropolitan area by the U.S. government.

And our governor is the most powerful. He can make appointments without confirmation and he rules without a lieutenant governor.

There will be a gubernatorial election in a couple of weeks and two candidates -- Republican Forrester and Democrat Corzine -- are vying for votes in what's turning out to be the nastiest, filthiest governor's race in years.

These multi-millionaires are spending millions of their own funds to get a job that pays a paltry sum in comparison to what their campaigns are costing.

Instead of hitting the issues in this disgusting campaign, both are telling the voters how rotten they are. They're not explaining how they will handle issues and they're not telling voters what's good about this state.

Their only concern is to sling mud laced with acid and razor blades and fuck the voters. We are all imbeciles anyway and we'll believe anything a politician tells us.

Those days are dying and these two businessmen don't see the handwriting on the wall. They want the governor's job because of the power it holds and to pay back debts to those who are going out of their way to help the candidates.

Oh, sure, when one of these clowns is elected he will do a few things perceived to be good. All window dressing in an attempt to get re-elected and to keep his party in a good light.

Remember this, though, politics is the real oldest profession, only when you get screwed by them there is no pleasure at all.

Do you really own anything?--Think again

2005-10-18T16:09:00.000-07:00

Do you really own anything? I mean, do you really own anything of extreme value that you can call your own? I'm not referring to jewelry or your TV set. It's your car or your home I'm alluding to.

Do you own your car? I don't think so. If it's brand new and cost $30,000 or $40,000 or more, you don't own it because you financed it. Few people can afford to buy a new car these days for cash.

So for the next 60 months you're shelling out payments in the neighborhood of $450 a month ( depending on how much you put down) for a piece of metal and plastic you tell everybody you own.

But you don't. The finance company does. Do you possess the title? No you don't. The finance company does. Miss a couple of payments and you'll really see who owns that shiny trophy on wheels.

And you have faithfully made the payments - not always on time - but you haven't missed any until the 60th payment. You lose your job or you get sick and the 60th and last payment is late. And you get letters and phone calls and that finance company will repo your car for missing the last payment.

You shelled out $450 a month for 59 months but you can't make the last payment and they take your car.

Still going to tell people you own your car?

Take your house. The deed has your name on it. You pay the mortgage and taxes and insurance. The house and property are yours despite the fact you have a mortgage.

But the deed says you and nobody else owns everything, however, except for the sidewalk and that piece of grass that goes from the sidewalk to the street. They're owned by the town but you have to maintain them. Why? It's the LAW, which didn't come down the mountain with Moses but it's still the LAW!!!

The sidewalk cracks, you have to replace it...not the town...YOU!! The grass grows and you have to mow it. The snow falls and you have to shovel. But if you want to get rid of a nuisance tree on that small plot of land, you can't touch it because you don't own the tree. The town does and the politicians aren't going to remove it, despite the fact it's diseased.

If you decide not to shovel and not cut the grass, you'll be cited and fined. You don't own the plot of land or the sidewalk, but you had better maintain them.

All this proves that all politicians are assholes and we're jerks for allowing them to get away with what they do. Ownership means nothing to these creeps. Remember, politician is a 10-letter four-letter word.

Eminent domain is another issue many politicians are pushing. I'll tackle that later.

Journalism is great...if you get out of it in time

2005-10-12T13:54:00.000-07:00

Our esteemed government is telling us the job market is better and more jobs are being created and more and more people are working. That might be true if you want a job where the most important thing you have to say to a customer is, "Would you like fries with that?"

The really good positions, the high paying ones, are few and far in between and many of them are being "out-sourced," a fancy business term indicating that the jobs aren't here anymore but in India and Pakistan and places in Africa...anywhere except in the good old USA. Why? Well,

the greedy, money-hungry corporations are trying to save money for their stockholders (some of whom have been out-sourced themselves) by sending those high-paying jobs to third world countries where they won't have to pay foreign workers as much as Americans.

Stick it to this country and to its people. While making us unemployed these corporations are fattening their bottom lines but I wonder, if enough Americans are out-sourced, how will we buy the products that are being made in third world countries so corporate bottom lines will grow?

I recently tried to make reservations for an overnight stay in a hotel in North Jersey - Best Western - and was given the central registration desk. I couldn't place the accent of the young woman I was talking to so I asked her where I was calling. She said, the Philippines. I had to call about 10,000 miles across the world to make reservations for a hotel in New Jersey some 100 miles north of my home!

Some computer companies used tech people in Asia to answer your questions when you call.

Customer service departments for American companies are setting up shop all over the Far East and Asia...to save money.

I'm not an economist, so maybe I have it all wrong as far as why corporations do what they do. I'm just a journalist who, incidentally, lost his job - not to out-sourcing - but to a corporate shake-up by a young punk executive who decided he really didn't want people over the age of 30 or who had too many years with the corporation. The bastard is intimidated by experience.

Anyway, not to sound bitter, let me just note that journalism in general is a non-growth industry for the 21st century. It's trying everything in its power to remain solvent. In many cases, it's not succeeding.

People today can get their news on the TV, radio, Internet, even on their cell phones, 24/7. Why bother with a paper? It's cumbersome and you get ink all over your fingers. True, but you can't take a computer monitor in the bathroom with you and read the news while you're on the crapper. You can with a newspaper.

Newspapers, particularly community papers - weeklies and small dailies - publish the details of your hometown, which the bigger dailies cannot do simply due to the nature of the beast. There is a need for small, community papers. Always will be.

The metro dailies: The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Los Angeles Times, and most other large papers are all in trouble. Circulation is down. People are not reading papers the way they used to.

That's why the news business, especially the print version, is in trouble and will be for the foreseeable future. It is not the industry to get into. It's one to avoid. There is no future for most people in journalism.

When I taught the subject at a local college I couldn't in good conscience tell my students to actively pursue a journalism career. I had suggested they get on a paper for three or four years, learn to write and write well and get the hell and head for a writing career where you could make money, such as PR or advertising or even magazine writing. Hemingway once said that newspaper writing is good...if you get out of it in time. And he did.

I never got out of it in time. But I know how to write.

Can I recall my vote for Bush?

2005-10-10T19:36:00.000-07:00

We can't comprehend the loss of some 30,000 people to the earthquake in South Asia nor the leveling of villages. Hurricane Katrina - as horrendous as it was - pales in comparison to the loss of life and property.

And we commend President Bush for going to the aid of India and Pakistan with money and other help.

Strange, though, it took him less than 24 hours to respond to this tragedy and almost four days to respond to Katrina.

Where are his loyalties, America or South Asia? Why did it take him and other officials in the federal government and state government so long to get off the stick and help Americans?

Maybe Bush has concluded, since his approval ratings are so low anyway and he can't get elected again, screw the American people...he'll do what he wants.

Doesn't sound like the George Bush I voted for. Yes...I voted for him.

Is it possible to recall my vote?

No rush to judgment

2005-10-08T19:37:00.000-07:00

In keeping with the Columbus Day spirit, let's look at the Spaniards and what they did to the New World.

Many Hispanic groups in this country have called Chris Columbus (Cristoforo Colombo, to those in the know) a mean and ruthless son-of-a-bitch, who helped to slaughter the Native Americans and made them virtual slaves in their own land.

Let's look at the facts, people. Thanks to the explorer Cortes of Spain, the Aztec Indians - with a civilization that was more advanced than some European nations - were slaughter because Cortes said they practiced a Satanic religion. And there were some 15 million Aztec when this European invader landed with his solders.

Emperor Montezuma was killed when the Aztecs tried to rise against the Spanish. Who killed him is only speculation but there is a lot of theories that Cortes killed him.

Let's not rush to judgment. Columbus was not a mass executioner the way the Spaniards were.

Chris Columbus...quite a guy

2005-10-08T10:48:00.000-07:00

Poor Chris Columbus. He's still being maligned. Let's face it, he did help to put the New World on the map and started the process to make the USA the greatest nation in the history of the world.

True, others from Europe were here before him. There are paleontological and archaeological evidence to prove this. But nobody knew about this until we - the heirs to Columbus' foresight - unearthed these remains.

He's been called everything from a tyrant to a racist to a warmonger to an idiot. Give me a break. He was far from that.

He was an adventurer who thought he had a way to get to the Far East in a shorter span of time.

Unknown to him and to others there was a big landmass that prevented that.

He did believe the world was round.

And contrary to prior thought most of the educated people in his time also believed the world was round.

He was hoping to find the shorter route to save everybody money. That's why he was financed.

And if he treated the natives in the new land harshly - whom he called Indians because he firmly believed, up until he died a broken man, that he had found another route to India - all conquerors at that time treated the vanquished harshly, the way they're treated today, but he wasn't the sadist today's critics are calling him.

And who are his critics? Various minority groups who have their own agendas and are looking for any excuse to brand the European settlers as racists.

Well, they're full of crap.

They're the same ones who said Cleopatra was black, only she wasn't. Apart from being ugly, she was a Greek, pure blood. Don't forget, the Greeks ran Egypt for a long time and she was the last of the Greek rulers.

Anyway, many chicken shit school administrators and corporate executives - to keep pace with that farce known as Political Correctness - are not recognizing Columbus Day as a holiday - we musn't offend the minorities - and are not closing their offices or their schools on his day. Even some banks stay open that day and you know banks look for the least excuse to close.

Columbus is getting the shaft despite the fact if it wasn't for him, there would be no New World.

So screw everybody. Happy Columbus Day!

Great job, New York

2005-10-07T16:15:00.000-07:00

The feds are downplaying the threat to the New York City subway system. City officials, however, are taking it very seriously. So seriously, in fact, city police arrested three people in a plot to plant 19 bombs throughout the system. A fourth guy may or may not exist but they're looking.

How can any governmental entity treat with disdain a possible threat to a transportation system that shuttles 4.5 million people a day throughout the city? -- 4.5 million people, an astronomical number.

I'll put my money on New York's investigative teams and its 40,000-person police department - which is larger than the standing armies of most small countries - over the elitist FBI. I'll put my money on NYC's SWAT teams and its special units. In fact, I'll entrust my well-being with New York any day than with Homeland Security and the federal government in particular. Katrina and Rita rest my case.

Keep up the good work, New York...protect and serve our nation.

Let's here it for the Italians!!!!!

2005-10-04T00:05:00.000-07:00

The month of October is set aside as Italian-American Heritage Month. It has been for years. And with all the hoopla associated with it and press releases issued and all the stories printed in papers and magazines and all the TV spots that are aired about the event…wait a minute. None of this occurs. Nobody seems to care about Italian-American Heritage Month.

And why not? Some 30 million people in this country are ethnic Italians, either whole or in part. Why are we ignored?

Well, we’re not, really, thanks to The Sopranos on HBO and the Gotti “reality” show on A&E. Many non-Italian (and, frankly, even some Italians) see these shows are representative of Italian-American life.

But let’s look at the facts of what Italians have contributed to this country and brought to our culture, without mentioning the obvious: Columbus, Vespucci, pizza, spaghetti, etc.

A huge literary figure died in July of cancer of the throat. He wrote scores of books and helped forge what we now call the police procedural novel. His name was Ed McBain who produced 55 books of the 87th Precinct gang (the last was published two months after his death).

His legal name was Evan Hunter and wrote The Blackboard Jungle under that name along with many others and other books under other pseudonyms. McBain? Hunter? What does that have to do with Italian-American Heritage Month?

His real name was Salvatore Lombino of New York.

Walter Lantz, creator of the Woody Woodpecker cartoon, was born Lanza in New Rochelle N.Y., and young Angelo Siciliano had sand kicked in his face on a Coney Island beach and the legend of “Charles Atlas” was born.

American born A.P. Giannini, founder of the Bank of America in California, loaned money to a young Walt Disney in 1927 for Steamboat Willie, the cartoon that introduced Mickey Mouse.

Alphonse D’Abruzzo was born in 1936 and later rose to fame as Alan Alda in the M*A*S*H TV series.

John Basilone of Raritan, N.J. – called a one-man army by Gen. Douglas MacArthur - was the only man in U.S. history to receive the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross for valor during World War II. He was killed during the landing at Iwo Jima.

Composer Harry Warren (born Salvatore Guaragna) of Brooklyn was known as “Mr. Hollywood Musical.” He wrote, among other songs, “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” “Lullaby of Broadway,” and “You Must’ve Been a Beautiful Baby.”

And let’s not forget, Chef Boy-Ar-Dee - Hector Boiardi.

I could go on and on. But you get my drift. There are a lot more stories about Italian-American contributions to this country than body-counts and indictments. If the powers-that-be in the entertainment field would only realize this and make films and TV shows about real Italian-Americans, everybody would be better off.

But a bullet to the back of the head and throwing the body off a pier is better for the ratings and bottom line than showing how Italian-Americans really live, like everybody else.

knowitall

Let's get ready and march

2005-10-03T21:07:00.000-07:00

You sometimes wonder if advertising people really know what they're doing, if they're not stealing their big salaries.

Nissan has a new TV commercial pushing its full-size trucks. A whole line of them is marching down the road as proud as can be to the tune of the "Colonel Bogey March," the theme song of the World War II movie, Bridge Over the River Kwai. It was about a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp and how they treated their prisoners. Great theme song for a Japanese carmaker.

Wonder if any heads are going to roll.

knowitall

It's only a movie, people, A MOVIE!!!!!

2005-09-29T11:39:00.000-07:00

These days everybody is so sensitive. Don't say that or do that or imply that because you might insult a certain segment of the population. Take Jodie Foster's new film, Flightplan. It's a thriller where Foster awakes from a nap on this new two-story airplane to find her daughter missing. Well, a flight attendant and air marshals are depicted as terrorists. And the cabin crew is shown as evil-doers and airheads.

Well, the flight attendants' union has objected to this film, as if this objection will make Disney - producer of the movie - pull its multi-million-dollar epic from distribution. It ain't going to work.

The other flight attendants in the movie, said a union press releases, are depicted as "rude, unhelpful, and uncaring." The president of the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) International lamented, "This depiction of flight attendants is an outrage. Flight attendants continue to be the first line of defense on an aircraft and put their lives on the line day after day for the safety of passengers."

We understand this and laud the work of flight attendants. But how come

flight attendants and U.S. marshals are suddenly sacrosanct and can't be touched in a work of fiction?

Police officers, who are definitely the first-line of defense, are often shown to be arrogant and untrustworthy and crooked in some TV shows and in movies, yet there are few protests by the public or any union. Why? Because people know this is fiction and the few who are bad in real life make up such a small percentage of law enforcement that it's not even worth talking about.

These comments about flight attendants are knee-jerk reactions towards 9/11 and towards possible future terrorist attacks.

But get off it, union people; this is only a work of fiction, and from what I've seen of the trailers and read of the reviews, a good piece of fiction.

And I intend to put down my ten bucks and see the film.

The union wants its members and those of its sister unions to boycott the film. Good luck.

Disney grossed $25 million on its first weekend of the film and said its only intention was to create "a great action thriller" and not to demean flight attendants.

I'm not in love with Disney but I believe them. We have to stop being so sensitive. This political correctness crap is ruining this country and trying to limit our free speech and expression and restricting what we can write or film.

knowitall

Global warming?...Global scam

2005-09-28T16:42:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of doomsayers out there. Remember Y2K and what was going to happen to our exalted way of life once midnight 2000 came around?

Something did happen. Niente. Nothing. Garbage. Planes didn't fall from sky, patients didn't kick the bucket in hospitals, traffic lights didn't extinguish causing massive pileups on the highways.

In other words, the "experts" were wrong, as they are wont to be.

The experts know little, when you get down to it. Look at DDT, for example. You could actually eat the stuff and not die but the do-gooders said the chemical was dangerous and killing people, get rid of it. So we did. Now malaria, for example, which was on its way out thanks to DDT, is on a resurgence.

Take global warming.

It's not happening, at least not by us. The seas aren't rising and the glaciers aren't melting. In fact the glaciers in Greenland are increasing in size.

We are contributing some changes in temperature just because we have the civilization that we have but not to change the makeup of this planet. Admittedly the temperatures in our cities are higher on average than in the country, maybe a couple of degrees Celsius. Asphalt, concrete, metal help to retain the heat. Since the countryside has more trees than buildings, the temperature stays cooler there.

This planet experiences climate changes periodically, every few thousand years. Another ice age is on its way. That's been said for years. We have nothing to do with it.

What about the horrendous hurricanes we've been having? Caused by global warming?

There were 22 hurricanes one year back in the 1930s, long before the scam-infested concept of global warming ever showed its ugly head.

Katrina and Rita were horrible storms, but not out of the ordinary. There have been predictions that the Gulf Coast would get hit by a mighty hurricane some day. And it did, only it was two within a month of each another.

A hundred years earlier a hurricane hit Galveston that wiped out nearly 12,000 people. Where was the global warming?

When L.A. final gets by "The Big One," will global warming be responsible? Some jerk with 17 letters after his name will be interviewed by the mainstream press and say, yes, global warming did and we caused global warming. He'll be all on CNN and MSNBC and the major networks to condemn our wastefulness.

Remember that hole in the ozone layer?

Whatever happened to it? It was reportedly the size of the continental United States. It had been rarely reported in the press that such a hole happens periodically in the ozone layer and as mysteriously as it appears it always goes away. Not good copy. Scrap the hole in the ozone layer.

Global warming is a myth created by people with agendas, many of which are known only to them.

knowitall

Intelligent design is religion, not science

2005-09-27T12:28:00.000-07:00

What's all this crap going on with intelligent design? It's religion masquerading as science. I'm not against religion, far from it, but

don't have a bunch of do-gooders try to pawn off a religious concept as science.

Eleven parents in a little town outside of Harrisburg, Pa. have sued their school board for dropping intelligent design into the ninth-grade science curriculum. They want it stopped, now. For first time in some 80 years, evolution is butting up against creationism or intelligent design. A 21^st century Monkey Trial.

Intelligent design says that organisms are so complex there must be a higher intelligence running things - a divine person, God, although proponents won't go that far. Evolution is not the way for all living creatures, they say. It's wrong.

Give me a break, you fools.

Who says evolution isn't intelligent design? Who says evolutioin is not complex? Who says everything that has occurred in the development of our bodieds and our environment is not part of an intelligent design?

These pseudo theologians are running around as scientists, saying evolution is wrong. Mainstream science has rejected intelligent design as not being based on fact.

It's a religion.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in its dubious wisdom, years banned religion and prayer in schools. The atheists in this country won. So that small school district in Pennsylvania is attempting to bring back religion. Unfortunately, it won't work.

Intelligent design is religion.

knowitall

Finally, Dad is treated as an adult

2005-09-26T09:14:00.000-07:00

Television commercials bother me…not all of them (a few are very creative) but there are some that are really irritating. They tend to talk down to you (always have) and treat everybody with the same disdain.

There are also those that maintain certain ideas that are treated as absolutes; weight, for instance. One commercial about a weight-loss system features a TV celebrity who dropped a few pounds and got into a size four dress from a whopping, sideshow-size of 10.

Give me a break, as that TV commentator would say.

A 10 is a horrendous size that necessitates a radical weight-loss program to get down to an anemic-looking four? That attitude just helps to foster the philosophy that very thin is good. True, we’re gaining weight in this country. Obesity is a problem, granted, but a size 10? Many women lose weight to get down to that size. In fact, the average American woman is between a size 12 and 14 and happy with it.

If the TV commercial stressed that this woman went from a size 22 to a 10, then that would be worth touting. But a 10 to a 4…?

And what about those commercials where every wife and husband is named “Honey” and each child is named “Kid”? Are the writers at a loss as to what to name their characters? Sure, we’ll call our spouses “Honey” on occasion but we’ll also use his or her given name more. And our children have names, unlike those in the commercials.

We mustn’t forget the fact that husbands, for the most part, are treated as idiots in TV commercials. The wives are financial experts along with an expertise in carpentry and plumbing and…you name it. Of course, many women do have knowledge of these fields, but so do their husbands. These poor souls, for the most part, know nothing about life and marriage and about soap and water and food and coffee and…it goes on. Occasionally, the old man will open his mouth to say something clever but then will look warily at his wife, ready for a reprimand. Some people might cynically say that “art” is duplicating reality. I don’t think so.

I did see a couple of commercials recently where the father is portrayed as a living, breathing human being with compassion who gives out fatherly advice. He’s shown as a real person, a man, a father, not a cardboard character, not a joke.

In one commercial the father is sitting by the coffee table in the living room making a peanut butter sandwich. His little daughter comes over, sits by him, and asks why he’s folding his bread in half. He said that his father did it and he wanted to do everything his father did.

“That’s silly,” the girl said and turns her back on him to fold her bread in half. The father just smiles and chuckles.

In another commercial a little boy is lying on top of his father on the sofa and the boy is listening to his father’s heart and he wanted to know what that was and the father said his heart was talking. Then the little boy hears a gurgling sound and his father said his stomach was talking, too. It was a cereal commercial, but who cares? The father was shown as an adult.

One of the best commercials I’ve seen where the father is star is one where his daughter is getting married and every time he sees her in the wedding dress, he remembers her as a little girl of about 6 who would run to him calling, “Daddy!” When he dances with her at the reception the camera sees him with his little girl, not his grown-up daughter. If a commercial could be moving, this one was.

There’s hope yet for Madison Avenue.

knowitall

Get rid of half the administrative staff

2005-09-25T15:59:00.000-07:00

I live in a small town, about 4,500 people. There has been no population increase to speak of in the 20 years I've been there. We have one school, pre-kindergarten to the ninth grade. After that, the kids go to a high school in another town that costs us about $10,000 a year for each student as tuition.

Fine. Wonderful. But our one-school has two top administrators: the superintendent (who's in charge of the district - one school) and the principal who lords over that single school. What I can't understand is why we need two administrators plus their assistants plus their individual staffs to run one school.

Is the job of administering the school so overwhelming you need two people?

I don't think so. It's a plum and the taxpayers in our town are footing the bill for this extravagance. Average property taxes are about $4,500 a year (that's, coincidentally, a buck for each person in town) with two-thirds of those taxes going to a bloated school budget.

Last April the electorate voted down the school budget. Our esteemed council decided there was nothing to be cut in the budget. In New Jersey, voters cast ballots for or against the school budget and the town fathers or mothers, depending on your view, decide what can be cut or - as in our case - cannot be cut and that's the budget the board sends to the county and state.

The council - all honorable people, all Democrats, none of whom are ever challenged at electiontime - said, screw the people, let's continue taxing them beyond their capacity

In fact, the mayor at the council meeting after the school budget was turned over to the board of education unaltered, alluded to the fact that he urged those in town who didn't like what was going and had no children, to sell their homes to people with kids so the school district could be fed fresh fodder.

Well, the mayor is a piece of work and worthy of his own column. Let's just say that my community wants to get the "old timers" out, specifically those with no kids in the school system who bitch and moan about taxes.

Let's get back to those two school administrators. Between them they take down nearly $200,000 a year in pay. I'm not even counting what their staffs get. I suggest you fire one, along with his staff, and pay the remaining one a few extra dollars to be a supervising principal. Since he's only one man he'll need only one staff. That'll help the tax burden tremendously.

I propose that

if you eliminated about fifty percent of the school district's administrative staff you'd never tell the difference in the district's operation.

Leave the teachers alone. They're the ones who do the important work, tending to the children. Get rid of some of the hierarchy. They are a drain on the taxpayers.

knowitall

Screw the do-gooders...coffee's just fine

2005-09-25T15:50:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s finally in: coffee’s good for you. For today. Who knows about next month or next year? But for now, coffee’s a good guy. So have your cappuccino and double lattè and regular cup of joe. Scientists say you can’t go wrong.

It’s seems coffee contains antioxidant that might help prevent cancer. It contains the most of any drink or food with tea coming in second.

Of course, there are disclaimers by the anti-coffee lobby that can’t find anything good in coffee, noting that coffee contains caffeine (decaf also has antioxidant in it) and hundreds of chemicals that may or may not be good for you…nobody knows. So they say eat fruits and vegetables instead for their antioxidant powers.

That’s fine. But how about drinking a cup of coffee with a bowl of strawberries or a banana or an apple? Can’t hurt.

It seems there are groups out there watching over us and telling us what to eat or drink. I don’t mean medical outfits but self-styled do-gooders who have no medical background but might’ve read a book once on nutrition and are suddenly "experts" who are telling us what's good for us and how to live.

Remember how bad bacon was? Now it’s not that bad. And remember the hoopla over butter vs. margarine? Well, butter ain’t that bad either but now margarine leaves a lot to be desired. It’s loaded with chemicals and dyes. At least butter is natural.

Remember how they used to tell you that charcoal food was bad for you? Not so anymore. It does have some redeeming qualities.

And bread and pasta and carbs in general were all no-nos. Not true. There are bad carbs and good carbs. The anti-carb crowd has been saying all carbohydrates were bad. Again, not true. There are good carbs like whole grains that are beneficial and bad carbs such as refined sugar that are not. The body doesn’t process bad carbs as well and as efficiently as good carbs.

So eat whole grains. Stay away from candy bars and doughnuts and brownies…in other words, all the good stuff.

Do you sometimes get the impression that do-gooders go around condemning things that people like because they’re good and they don’t want people to have them? Because the majority of people might like something, does that make it bad simply because everybody likes it? I don’t think so.

Coffee is the number one beverage and the number one exported item in the world. Even England drinks more coffee than tea and that country popularized tea-time.

There’s nothing wrong with coffee or even tea, which has its share of chemicals and caffeine. Coffee should be consumed in moderation, though, as with anything else. Moderation is fine. Going overboard is not. One or two cups of coffee a day is fine. A couple of pots may not be, but is it? Is it really that bad? Is an overabundance of coffee really harmful?

I know someone who can literally consume a pot of coffee before bedtime and sleep like a baby.

I can’t do that, so I don’t drink coffee before bedtime because of the caffeine. Drink decaf, you say? What’s the point of drinking coffee?

knowitall