Memorial Day

I have a Memorial Day tradition, known as AMC.  That's right.  I wake up and watch war movies all day.  Why?  Movies touch the heart.  They help us to understand the emotion, the sacrifice, of those who we are supposed to be remembering.

Therefore, I'm making a list of suggestions.

Great Escape
The Great Raid
U-571
HBO miniseries Band of Brothers
Sand of Iwo Jima
Tora! Tora! Tora!
Midway
We Were Soldiers
The Longest Day
Bridge over the River Kwai

You may not like war movies.  That's ok.  Watch them anyway.  Watch and remember.  I think they've earned it.

Court Jester

I cannot stand Joe Biden.  He's an idiot.  He's like the Court Jester of the Obama Administration.  Except he's not funny, even if he is a fool.

Joe Biden has been attacking all these "greedy rich people," like Mitt Romney.  Romney released his tax return.  He gives more than 10% of his income to charity.

Biden released his tax returns.  He gave a little over 1% to charity.  Who's the greedy rich person?

Please Mr. President, get a new running mate.

Predator Drones

Have you heard this story?  Congress authorized the use of eight Predator Drones to be used for border patrol, to keep people crossing illegally from our northern and southern borders.  But already they've been used in two separate instances within the United States to follow US citizens.  Patriot Act?  Not enough.  Listen in on our phone calls?  Not enough.  Tracking your web searches?  Not enough.  GPS in your car, phone, tablet, etc. to track your movements?  Not enough.  Creating a watch list of people who are a part of organizations, like Caribou lodge, Boy Scouts, and churches?  Not enough.  Now we have unmanned aircraft designed to hunt our nations enemies like a hawk hunts a rat now being used to hunt us.

Someone once said that security and freedom were antonyms.  Our founders gave up their security to chase freedom.  Now we give up freedom to chase security.  All the while we become less safe, especially from ourselves.

Political Ponderings

I think our culture is becoming more and more fed up with politics.  It seems like the bell curve (with most of the people in the middle) is inverting, with more and more people going to extremes.  Among these extremes, politicians seem to talk like they're in the middle, and move toward the extremes. 

Most people are so fed up that I'm predicting a lower voter turn out this year, especially among young adults.  I'm also beginning to suspect that people want to be seen as outsiders, so they flop from one extreme to another.  In other words, people seem to be against whoever the incumbent is.  People want change, and don't care what that change is.  It's sickening to me that people don't have any foundation to stand on anymore.

And that is my random thought of the day.

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE

In this post I'm going to review the movie "The Avengers."

BEST MOVIE EVER. OF ALL TIME.

How's that?

HULK SMASH box-office debut records.

I tried to see a 2:40 2D. It was sold out a half hour before. So were the next two. There were a few tickets for a 3:20 3D, so I saw that. That was the most crowded theater I've ever been in. And everyone loved it.

It was funny. Like really funny. Like worthy of the Avengers funny (they are really funny in the comics). People laughed. Sometimes a line was so funny, you missed the next 2 or 3 lines because you were still laughing.

People would also clap at many parts. But one character got cheers. Iron Man has become insanely popular. Captain America is the hero's hero. But people cheered the Hulk.

Most movies I walk out of thinking, "I didn't like this" or "I would have done that differently." I walked out of Avengers thinking "I want to see that again" and "I have a new favorite movie." I grew up on Marvel Cartoons (Batman too, but I like Marvels better). I totally was nerding out for this movie. And I was not disappointed. And that never happens for a movie that I'm that hyped up for. It was just great.