Spaghetti Western Supreme. With Parmesan cheese. It came out after Clint Eastwood's "Fistful of Dollars" and clearly borrowed from that flick. It has some top flight actors, Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, and Jason Robards. It has pretty much every cliche there ever was. It moves incredibly slowly. In the final showdown gunfight between Fonda and Bronson, it takes a good five minutes of flashbacks and closeups before they draw the six guns. It takes Fonda another five minutes of writhing to die after Bronson plugs him. Plot is confusing. New bad guys keep turning up, dressed just like the bad guys that just got gunned down, are they returned from the dead or what? We keep encountering scenes of massive violence AFTER it has been done and no clue as to who did it.
Claudia Cardinale is knock out cute, even fully dressed is high Victorian style. The guys are all super scruffy and unshaven, it's hard to visualize any chick wanting to come within fifty feet of any of them.
This flick has it's fans on the 'Net who call it the best Western ever made. I don't agree. High Noon it ain't.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Primary Day, Poll Standing
It's primary day in New Hampshire. This is the real state primary where we pick candidates for every office except the presidency. Polls open at 8 in Franconia. The alarm clock sounded at 7. I had time to make a thermos of coffee, put the sign poles in the car, put on Smart wool socks and a sweater, and drive to the polls. Fall is coming, it got down close to freezing last night. It was still well below 60 at 8 AM and the warm clothing felt good.
At 8 AM we had me, the Cumbee's and one lone democrat who I don't know, standing outside town hall. We had a decent flow of voters in the morning. Not bad for a primary, even in a presidential year. I took a mid day break and plan to go back and cover the evening rush.
In actual fact, we ought to hold the primary earlier. Primary winners have too little time to campaign and mend fences with the losers before the election hits.
At 8 AM we had me, the Cumbee's and one lone democrat who I don't know, standing outside town hall. We had a decent flow of voters in the morning. Not bad for a primary, even in a presidential year. I took a mid day break and plan to go back and cover the evening rush.
In actual fact, we ought to hold the primary earlier. Primary winners have too little time to campaign and mend fences with the losers before the election hits.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Get the Economy growing again
A short list of things that could be done immediately.
1. Start building the Keystone XL pipeline. Running pipe from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico is a big project that will employ a lot of people, use a lot supplies, and keep a lot of heavy machinery gainfully employed. Once operational, it will lower fuel prices, and attract new industry. And it's all privately funded.
2. Repeal Obamacare. Employers have no idea how expensive new employees health care will be, so they don't hire.
3. Abolish the SEC. It was created after Great Depression 1.0 to prevent a recurrence of same. It has obviously failed, we have Great Depression 2.0, so what ever the SEC has been doing all these years didn't work. But they do make it harder to do business. So get rid of 'em.
4. Approve drilling permits, in the Gulf, in ANWR, off the Atlantic coast, off the Pacific coast, everywhere.
5. Abolish CAFE. There is plenty of market pressure on Detroit to raise fuel economy. We don't need laws. Plus the latest 55 mpg requirements are fantasy, no car can do that well. Either the Feds will give selected (UAW and democrat) companies a waiver, or everyone will drive used cars, like in Cuba.
6. Pass a tax law that runs for at least five years. Taxes are a major cost of businesses. Unless business knows what the tax rate is going to be into the future, they don't know if the business will make money. If they don't know that it will make money, they don't start that business.
Romney might do some of these things. Obama won't.
1. Start building the Keystone XL pipeline. Running pipe from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico is a big project that will employ a lot of people, use a lot supplies, and keep a lot of heavy machinery gainfully employed. Once operational, it will lower fuel prices, and attract new industry. And it's all privately funded.
2. Repeal Obamacare. Employers have no idea how expensive new employees health care will be, so they don't hire.
3. Abolish the SEC. It was created after Great Depression 1.0 to prevent a recurrence of same. It has obviously failed, we have Great Depression 2.0, so what ever the SEC has been doing all these years didn't work. But they do make it harder to do business. So get rid of 'em.
4. Approve drilling permits, in the Gulf, in ANWR, off the Atlantic coast, off the Pacific coast, everywhere.
5. Abolish CAFE. There is plenty of market pressure on Detroit to raise fuel economy. We don't need laws. Plus the latest 55 mpg requirements are fantasy, no car can do that well. Either the Feds will give selected (UAW and democrat) companies a waiver, or everyone will drive used cars, like in Cuba.
6. Pass a tax law that runs for at least five years. Taxes are a major cost of businesses. Unless business knows what the tax rate is going to be into the future, they don't know if the business will make money. If they don't know that it will make money, they don't start that business.
Romney might do some of these things. Obama won't.
The Feds have to approve State Voter ID laws
Dunno how this happened. Running elections used to be a State concern. But the Feds OK'd the New Hampshire voter ID law and rejected Pennsylvania's. We New Hampsters must have some in with the Feds that PA lacks.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Bad ideas never die, Parti Quebecois rises again
Founded in 1968, Parti Quebecois (PQ) has stood for Quebec's secession from Canada and setting itself up as an independent country. They held a referendum in 1980, which failed, and they tried a second time in 1995 which nearly won. Parti Quebecois garnered 49.6% of the vote. Just another fraction of a percent and they would have won, and the separation process would have been launched.
After the 1995 referendum all outside observers (Americans) figured Canada was toast. They expected the PQ to go back, do some more organizing, hold another referendum, and win it. Somehow, that never happened. The third referendum was never held, and the PQ simmered down to being the provincial government of Quebec. Probably the election of Pierre Trudeau to the premiership of Canada had something to do with it. Quebecois figured a premier with a French name couldn't be all bad. Anyhow the Quebec separation issue died down and little has been heard of it since the '90s.
It's back. Quebec held elections and PQ won. Not quite enough to form a pure PQ provincial government, they will have to cut a deal the either the Liberal party or the Coalition Avenir Quebec to form a coalition government. But, it's a big step up for PQ from the last election.
Just to start things off with a bang, a gunman showed up at the PQ victory party and shot two people, one fatally, and set fire to the building. We can expect more fireworks in the future.
Speaking as an American, whose lights are lit by Quebec Hydro, and whose family came from Montreal, I'm not in favor of Quebec separatism.
After the 1995 referendum all outside observers (Americans) figured Canada was toast. They expected the PQ to go back, do some more organizing, hold another referendum, and win it. Somehow, that never happened. The third referendum was never held, and the PQ simmered down to being the provincial government of Quebec. Probably the election of Pierre Trudeau to the premiership of Canada had something to do with it. Quebecois figured a premier with a French name couldn't be all bad. Anyhow the Quebec separation issue died down and little has been heard of it since the '90s.
It's back. Quebec held elections and PQ won. Not quite enough to form a pure PQ provincial government, they will have to cut a deal the either the Liberal party or the Coalition Avenir Quebec to form a coalition government. But, it's a big step up for PQ from the last election.
Just to start things off with a bang, a gunman showed up at the PQ victory party and shot two people, one fatally, and set fire to the building. We can expect more fireworks in the future.
Speaking as an American, whose lights are lit by Quebec Hydro, and whose family came from Montreal, I'm not in favor of Quebec separatism.
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Inglourious Bastids
I skipped this movie when it came out, mostly 'cause of some really dreadful reviews. But it was playing on cable last night and so I watched it. It's a World War II movie, set in occupied France, with a plethora of nasty Nazi's, doing evil, and getting theirs in the end. A bunch of really nasty resistance fighters cum OSS agents who are taking Nazi scalps. A beautiful blond Frenchwoman in the Resistance, who is also Jewish with a mighty score to settle with the Nazis who shot her entire family before her eyes. A lot of of blood, shooting, double crossing, and mutilation, mixed with long and tedious scenes where the point is made in the first 30 seconds, but the scene drags on for 10 minutes of tedium. A thin plot, too improbable to effect that "willing suspension of disbelief"
The critics were right, this is a slasher film. Don't take the children.
The critics were right, this is a slasher film. Don't take the children.
Friday, September 7, 2012
The Rain in Chicago also falls on Teachers
The Chicago Teachers Union is threatening a strike, starting Monday. Just what Mayor Rahm Emmanuel needs to make his day. However, Chicago has only 13.3 students per teacher. Nearly as bad as Spain. Rahm could threaten to lay off half the teachers and still have a student teacher ratio of 27 which is better than it was when I did elementary school.
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