April 6, 2010

April 3, 2010

  • What’s on the Cards?

    wheel of fortune cake
    This is a picture of a Wheel of Fortune cake. It is not a picture of the iPad or the iPad 3g

    One of my favorite game shows is Wheel of Fortune. I like the show because it’s smart, short and moves fast. You’re always trying to guess the puzzles before the contestants and it isn’t to your detriment to shout out the answer while watching; it’s not like you have any money on the line.

    According to Wikipedia, the wheel itself weighs over 2 tons. You can find lots of information about the show on the web, but there’s one very important question that I can’t find the answer to which bugs me incessantly: what’s on Pat Sajak’s cards?

    This may sound like a simple question at first, but really, I want to know. Do the cards have the solution to the puzzle? Is it just a letter count of letters in the puzzle? Pat, SHOW US YOUR CARDS!.

    Pat-Sajak cards
    No, Pat isn’t holding an iPad 3g

April 2, 2010

April 1, 2010

  • Thoughts on Student Loan Poll

    Rasmussen just released polling data on the new student loan plan. Here’s the money quote:

    Support for direct government involvement in the student loan market is highest among adults ages 18 to 29 and those who earn more than $75,000 per year.

    I’m going to take a stab in the dark here, but my guess is the people who are in favor of the loans will be the ones that benefit the most. The 18-29 demographic has a clear motivation: they are the ones signing up for the student loans. They want the government more involved either because they think that Obama and the Democratic party is the best thing since sliced bread (hey, free money for school!) or because they think that they won’t every have to pay for the loans.

    Those making more than $75,000 are either those who have already made their money and think that they are being altruistic or were born into wealth and don’t want to shoulder the personal cost of higher education. The latter would be specifically true of those who fall into both demographics discussed here.

    Thoughts?

  • Mo Brooks, Supporters Trample the Constitution

    Constitution-Quote

    In his haste to shill for Congressional candidate Morris Brooks, commentator Dale Jackson trampled the Constitution. Jackson, a former solider who took an oath to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States blasted the Les Phillip’s campaign’s staunch position on looking to the Nation’s founding document for answers. Phillip is the only candidate in the AL-5 race that has served in any branch of the military and has repeatedly reaffirmed his oath to the Constitution on the campaign trail.

    Also not an answer to everything… “The Constitution”.

    –Dale Jackson, Commentator

    Oh vey! The Founding Fathers may not have all been county commissioners with $60,000 part-time jobs or radio show commentators, but they were men dedicated to forming a government where the people controlled every level of government. They also saw to it that there was just enough power for the government to be effective without it being dictatorial or oppressive.

    When asked to defend his trashing of our founding document, Jackson made this comment:

    Twitter-roll

    Q: Where is the political center?
    A: “The constitution” What?

    Jackson’s flippant write-off of the law of the land is the same egregious attitude that allowed Obama Democrats to pass a so-called health care reform bill which mandated that every person in the country buy health insurance. It’s this kind of elitism that allows a person to say, “We know better than the people who founded this nation. We have all the answers that you the plebes are too stupid to comprehend.”

    Such arrogance does not reflect well on Congressional Candidate Morris Brooks who has claimed his entire campaign that he is the front runner in this race. If this is his brand of politics, Brooks needs to stay home and continue to make petty little points while forcing business to to purchase healthcare for legal foreign workers, playing minor-league second-fiddle to Obama’s national major-league game .

    We already have a Congressman despised both both sides of the isle. Though the Good Doctor Parker Griffith will look you in the eye and lie, his opportunism is a known quantity. The only leadership Brooks has show is that of substituting his own political agenda for the law. Why else would his supporters so readily trod on the second most sacred document in the world?

    Brooks would do well to distance himself from overzealous supporters like Jackson and issue a statement of condemnation…if, of course, Brooks intends to uphold, defend, protect and abide by the Constitution of the United States.

March 31, 2010

  • Only in Obama’s America

    new emblem
    Only in Obama’s America

  • Motivation

    flowers

    I think I’ve found my motivation for blogging.

    I’ve got a friend that is really down in the dumps. It sucks. They hurt so. I grieve for their grief. I know that pain more than anyone can know.

    And so, I resolve to give them something to read as often as I can until they put their hind feet on high places…

March 27, 2010

  • Notes on a Classic Film

    dial_m_for_murder

    I just watched Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder for the first time and thought I’d give you my impressions while you wait for an Alice in Wonderland review.

    Released in ’54, this film, though dated by an era–but by no means a period piece–remarkably had me on the edge of my seat at a times during the first act. Though it wasn’t on the level of today’s thrillers, the first act built up plenty of suspense. i wanted to know how things would play out but I didn’t want to endure the agony of having to watch good people do bad things. The psychological grip was so strong that i even considered not finishing the film because of the intensity.

    When I got to the intermission (which I found odd, more on that below) I was relieved that there was a release to the tension. The second act was much less intense and faster paced. There was some excitement at the end of the film, wondering who would ultimately take the fall for what.

    An interesting fact about Dial M for Murder is that it was a 3D film. The reason for the intermission is that in order to make the 3D work at the time, you had to run two projectors simultaneously. Because the projectors couldn’t hold the entire film, there was an intermission.

    I don’t know if the negatives have survived or not. What’s interesting is that this film is 56 years old. According to the little featurette about 3D, 3D was heavily used in addition to what we now colloquially call widescreen at the time of the release of this film. Also interesting to note, at the time this film was released, very few theaters chose to show the 3D version because 3D was seen as a fad and people had already tired of the gimmick.

    So we’ve had 3D technology for going on 60+ years and we still have to have glasses at the theater in order to utilize it? Furthermore, we’re just now talking about bringing 3D into the home and actually having a market for it?

    I hope that there is much press over Dial M for Murder as 3D TVs and blu-rays enter the market. I hope that a transfer is done and that this masterpiece finally gets a day in the sun in all of its 3D glory.

March 24, 2010