The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters
Well, you had to know it wouldn’t take long for Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas, naturally) to earn our Daily Douche award. (I can imagine Louie becoming the reigning champion.) So Louie, ever obsessed with illegal aliens, now has a solution for the child refugees fleeing the drug wars in their Central American home countries. Louie thinks we should invade Mexico just like John Pershing did in pursuing Pancho Villa (so successfully).
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For the life of me, I can’t understand this complete aversion to science that is so de rigueur with Republicans, but they sure are riding it for all it’s worth. Most recently we have Kentucky State Senator Brandon Smith denying global warming by claiming that the Earth and Mars have the same temperature. It will come as no surprise when you learn that the good Senator owns a coal company.
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I was thinking about starting this new series, as yesterday seemed to bubble to the surface a rash of people and organizations deserving of the “douche” designation. So the morning started with me thinking about who to feature first, and then a few items down in my Facebook stream, what do I find but an article about Malcom “Mac” Butner the appointed chairman of the Rowan County Housing Authority, and Republican extraordinaire. It seems Mac has been busy on his Facebook wall lately. I’d say it makes him Republican Presidential material.
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You’re likely aware that a number of state laws and constitutional amendments limiting the right so LGBT people to marry, have recently been found to be unconstitutional. The anti-equality pundits then issue their (now pretty standard) press releases denouncing the ruling, and explaining how the judge “found” a non-existent “right to gay marriage” in the U.S. Constitution. I’m here to theorize that one does NOT go to the Constitution to find a right.
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Former dentist, Dr. King Schultz, buys the freedom of a slave, Django, and trains him with the intent to make him his deputy bounty hunter. Instead, he is led to the site of Django’s wife who is under the hands of Calvin Candie, a ruthless plantation owner. This one was OK. We’d both wanted to see it, and it wasn’t a wasted couple of hours, but we’re glad we didn’t pay the full theater price to see it.
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A criminal bides his time at a seedy motel, waiting for his boss after killing several men and making away with a mystery bag.This has a favorite actor of mine John Cusack, and was interesting. Be prepared for lots of intense violence with some comedic moments. This one won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I thought it was OK.
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Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men is an action drama focusing on an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked by FDR with going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners. It would be an impossible mission: with the art trapped behind enemy lines, and with the German army under orders to destroy everything as the Reich fell, how could these guys possibly hope to succeed? It wasn’t terrible, but it was like an attempt at a noble documentary. I think it would have been better as a documentary.
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When former journalist Martin Sixsmith is dismissed from the Labour Party in disgrace, he is at a loss as to what do. That changes when a young Irish woman approaches him about a story of her mother, Philomena, who had her son taken away when she was a teenage inmate of a Catholic convent. Martin arranges a magazine assignment about her search for him that eventually leads to America. Along the way, Martin and Philomena discover as much about each other as about her son’s fate. Furthermore, both find their basic beliefs challenged. Both me and Lay thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It was certainly very sad, and I must admit, it made me angry, but it was a good story well told. You definitely need to watch this movie.
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Follow a week in the life of a young folk singer as he navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961. Guitar in tow, huddled against the unforgiving New York winter, he is struggling to make it as a musician against seemingly insurmountable obstacles — some of them of his own making. I really expected I would enjoy this movie, as did Lay. Unfortunately, I didn’t like it at all.
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In the year 2154, the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth. A man takes on a mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds. We both liked this movie. I might have liked it a little better than Lay. It was actually a bit thoughtful and thought-provoking. Not outstanding, but it was definitely worth watching.
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A con man, Irving Rosenfeld, along with his seductive partner Sydney Prosser, is forced to work for a wild FBI agent, Richie DiMaso, who pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia. We both really wanted to like this movie, but we both hated it. I remember some of the news coverage of the events, and was really disappointed. It just never seem to grab my attention.
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