Nah, I'm just kiddin'! Hi to all of my old readers (both of you) and welcome to any new ones who stumbled across my blog by mistake. I'm your host, the Grand Owl. For super old schoolers, I wrote the daily "IHOD" back in college on Angelfire (where you too can create your own website with enough pop-ups to take down a mainframe) and the creatively titled "Grand Owl's Blog" here on Blog Spot last year. But, I'm back under my old website's name "AOwL.com" (as Hammer might say, "Please Time Warner, don't sue me").
I would like to say that I was inspired to write again as a counter-point to my friend's conservative blog, but lets face it, I got a hard-on from reading The Washingtonienne and the people must hear of my randy and explicit sex life. Here are the tawdry details in chronological order:
- Ummm well, there was this one time when I was really drunk and well... she didn't look so fat at the time...
- Umm, well I was totally wasted and... Hey, I thought she looked like a chick!
- This one time, at band camp...
Whew, feels so good to get that off my chest. Now, on with the blog!
"Why John Kerry's a Nazi Who Wants to Eat Your Children", presented commercial-free by the Sinclair Broadcast Group
Next Thursday night on our local WB affiliate here in the Tampa Bay area, WTTA - Channel 38, they will present a special titled "The Point: Stolen Honor". The highlight of this "news special" will be a 42-minute documentary called "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal" which spotlights John Kerry's role in the anti-war movement following his tour in Vietnam. More specifically, his testimony in front of a Congressional committee where he spoke of war atrocities committed against the Vietnamese people and the affect that testimony had on prisoners of war being held overseas.
Where, oh where to start. Lets first start with Sinclair, the owners of 62 television stations throughout the country. The chain of stations, through their nightly newscasts called NewsCentral which blend a mix of local news stories and a national news show, has been pushing a conservative agenda since the broadcasts began airing earlier this year. Now, I'm not going to blast the newscasts even though they're extremely poor production-wise (you can learn more about current news in the community by putting your ear close to the ground like an Indian searching for buffalo), and focus on their nightly editorials called "The Point" and hosted by Sinclair Broadcasting vice president Mark Hyman. This one minute segment alone makes Fox News look like a puppet of the liberal left-wing media. For two weeks in September, "The Point" turned into a John Kerry slam session while all but beatifying the current administration. During the summer, the Sinclair Group wanted to make a statement against all of the bad press coming from Iraq by sending a correspondent to report on "good things". While the insurgency, and American casualties, grew in the region we got happy reports on new Iraqi currency without Saddam's face on it. In May, Sinclair barred their ABC affiliates from broadcasting a special edition of Nightline in which host Ted Koppel read the names of American casualties in Iraq. At the time, the same Mark Hyman told the PBS show Newshour that "...political speech disguised as news content is not the way to serve the public good." In a public statement, Sinclair asks why Koppel would choose "...to read the names of the 523 troops killed in combat in Iraq, rather than the thousands of private citizens killed in terrorist attacks since and including the events of September 11th, 2001" (can't speak to terrorist attacks worldwide, but as to September 11th ABC News has, on at least two occasions, gone through the names of those killed; once in a special the week following the attacks and again during a first anniversary ceremony).
But we can't ponder on the past unless it's over thirty years old, and Sinclair hopes to do just that with this special. I can't comment on the special's content because, frankly, I haven't seen this film. But I can only imagine the content from this quote on the official website (linked above):
"This man committed an act of treason. He lied, he besmirched our name and he did it for self-interest." - George Day
Yeah, a Yale-educated and decorated war veteran had to perjure himself in front of Congress in order to make a name for himself in this country. That's always a great way for a kid to start a career as a LAWYER!!! And it's not like these statements were taken in the 70's where much of the atrocities that occurred in Vietnam were still veiled in secrecy by the Pentagon, but have been recorded within the last year by some of those behind the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign (who, as we've already learned, are not a very credible group). It's tantamount to blaming a corporate whistle-blower for exposing the wrongs done by his organization.
So, in the end what we've got is a media organization run by supporters of the administration airing a film produced by supporters of the president being aired in prime-time in an attempt to be passed off as "journalism". And they honestly think that they're fooling someone. Proof on how media consolidation works for us, the American citizen, and not corporate interests.
For the transcript of Kerry's testimony to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations from April, 1971, it's available on the National Review's website.
Movie Reviews
Yeah, way to transition. Go from slamming the man to movie reviews. This week I have two great DVDs to review:
Bad Santa - B+
Probably should have waited a couple more months for this film, part Frank Capra and part Kevin Smith (who I'll get to in a second); Bad Santa features Billy Bob Thorton as a mall Santa who uses his position to rob his employers blind on Christmas Eve. Of course, this is a feel-good Christmas flick, and the moral lesson is provided by a small boy who adopts Thorton's Santa (and not the other way around) and instills him with the spirit of the season. For me, this film is saved by the fact that it is the antithesis of the lame, sappy Christmas movie while still getting you to the same place in the end. Definitely recommended... but I'd probably wait until after Thanksgiving to get in the proper mood.
Jersey Girl - A-
What Bad Santa does for the sappy Christmas movie, Jersey Girl does for the lame "over-worked dad who learns to appreciate the joys of parenting" genre. Yes, Jersey Girl was part two of the Bennifer double-feature that included Gigli, but don't cast blame on this film for the sins of the father. First, what hopefully is common knowledge by now, J-Lo's performance is cut short when, at about the fifteen minute mark, she dies abruptly following child birth. Instead, the cute chick role for this movie falls to Arwen herself, Liv Tyler who's cast as a grad student who becomes enamored with Affleck's "hard-working dad who'll do anything for his daughter" schtick (I need to get me one of those). Anyways, for those of you who appreciated Adam Sandler's turn at being less goofy in Punch-Drunk Love, you have to support Kevin Smith's attempt at a great movie with the bare minimum of "dick and fart jokes." Jay & Silent Bob make only a brief appearance before the movie starts to introduce the View Askew Productions logo. For those who have stayed away from Kevin Smith films for fear of seeing a woman suck-off 37 guys or a gypsy with three nipples, I encourage you to try this film out for a view into his warped sense of humor while keeping your Puritan sensibilities. For the Smith fans who skipped this film because you miss Jay & Silent Bob, Affleck's relationship with his father (played by George Carlin) is almost a PG-13 version of his relationship with Jason Lee's character Banky from Chasing Amy which makes it worth seeing right there. And for those of you who call Smith a corporate sell-out for making this crap, well first off he'd agree with you, and second off you're just a lame douchebag who should get a life. (I go from intelligent political conversation to talking about dick and fart jokes and calling people douchebags... I tell you, this blog will have it all!)
Random Thoughts
- Normally, this section has random things that come to my mind in passing, but I don't have anything worth noting right now. I will probably post a Presidential Debate commentary later today or tomorrow after I get a chance to either listen to it or watch the recording I got off of CNN last night. I'm sorry, but when West Virginia's playing UConn from Storrs, you gotta watch!
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