The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters
Riggan Thomas, once known quite well to movie theater goers as an iconic super hero called “The Birdman” had recently turned down a third installment of the franchise. Now washed up, he attempts to reinvent himself as a director by staging a new retelling of a classic Broadway dramatic play called “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”. We saw this last weekend, and it was an interesting movie..
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This was a very interesting documentary filmed in Angola Prison in Louisiana. It was released in 2011, and is the story of reforms which helped take Angola Prison off the top slot and the most violent prison in the U.S. The Warden came to realize that he a large number of inmates serving sentences of life without parole, and older inmates with sentences so long, they would most likely die in prison. Actor Forest Whitaker narrates the story of a group of inmate volunteers who staff their own hospice inside a maximum security prison in Louisiana where the average sentence is more than 90 years.
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In America, we define ourselves in the superlative: we are the biggest, strongest, fastest country in the world. Is it any wonder that so many of our heroes are on performance enhancing drugs? Director Christopher Bell explores America’s win-at-all-cost culture by examining how his two brothers became members of the steroid-subculture in an effort to realize their American dream.
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As part of the first wave in the War on Terror, First Lieutenant Mike Scotti (awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with Combat “V”) served on the front lines during the 21 day advance to Baghdad. His experiences in Afghanistan as well as Iraq put him face to face with the sobering realities of war on a daily basis. Severe Clear offers an unflinching look at life on the battlefield through the eyes of someone who was there.
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One of the hosts of perhaps the funniest show on any medium, Tom Magliozzi, of Car Talk on National Public Radio (NPR) died earlier this week from complications associate with Alzheimer’s Disease. I was fortunate to come across National Public Radio very many years ago, somewhere around the early ’80s. Tom and his brother Ray had done a car repair call in show on the Boston NPR station for about 10 years, and then I first them as they started doing a brief regular segment on NPR’s Weekend Edition each week. The show went on NPR nationally in 1987 and was on Saturday mornings.
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It is incredible that even the folks in Texas keep electing Louie to the U.S. House. The guy is truly beyond absurd nearly every time he opens his mouth, and he’s been opening his mouth again with some strange word salad about gays in the military, the Greeks, and massages. As usual, Stephen Colbert sends up the crazy as only he can.
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This movie could have been entitled, “how to chair a board meeting” or “how not to chair a board meeting” – given that the outcome of the meeting was the “final solution”. Gen. Heidrich with consummate skill and care manipulated the gathered Nazi hierarchy to the pre-arranged and pre-destined solution to the Jewish question. The historical recreation of the 1942 Wannsee Conference, in which Nazi and SS leaders gathered in a Berlin suburb to discuss the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”. Lead by SS-General Reinhard Heydrich, this group of high ranking German officials came to the historic and far reaching decision that the Jews of Europe were to be exterminated in what would come to be known as the Holocaust.
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On the occasion of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne reports that his wife, Amy, has gone missing. Under pressure from the police and a growing media frenzy, Nick’s portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble. Soon his lies, deceits and strange behavior have everyone asking the same dark question: Did Nick Dunne kill his wife? This one deserves the hype. Me and Lay went to watch this one last night at the AMC Theater in Brandon.
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Let it not be said that I won’t recognize when someone realizes they were wrong, and changes their direction. Chief District Court Judge Jim Roberson released a statement late Friday saying that all magistrates must comply with the law and perform same-sex marriages. You may remember that I’d written an article here at Deep Something about the issues with some North Carolina Magistrates thinking the Evangelical Christians have special rights when it comes to performing government duties. At first Judge Roberson was trying to give some out for those magistrates without creating an inconvenience for LGBT couples. I appreciate his interests here, but the government can give NO quarter to discrimination by government officials.
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Unfortunately there are some magistrates in North Carolina who don’t understand about doing their jobs. a magistrate judge in Pasquotank County on Monday refused to marry two men, citing religious objections. Some magistrates in Alamance County also said they wouldn’t marry gay couples. I am flummoxed by Chief District Court Judge Jim Roberson of Alamance County who said that some of the 11 magistrates under his supervision didn’t want to officiate same-sex marriage ceremonies. “As a team, we’re going to abide by the law,” Roberson told the Times-News of Burlington. “Some of our magistrates have concerns based on their faiths and religious beliefs. I completely respect that. Other magistrates do not.” What kind or moronic, bigoted bullshit is that?
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We LGBT people have lots of power. Have you all noticed that? We can bring about fires, floods, hurricanes, and even, according to Jerry Falwell, the 9/11 terrorist attacks. We, LGBT people, have managed to turn Uhmerika into a dictatorship ruled by a bunch of people in black robes. Well, not it turns out, we are now able to bring about Ebola. At least that’s what Ron Baity of the Berean Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
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