2012 Oscar Baffler

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This morning they announced all the nominees for the 2012 Academy Awards.  All the expected actor, actress (both supporting and leading), director, and picture names came up, as one might expect.  With all the other awards shows, that precede the Oscars, there usually are no noticeable surprises when they read off the list of nominees.  Occasionally, there might be a glaring omission.  A well reviewed movie, with an A-list director and/or cast, that somehow doesn’t make the cut.  But this time, in the Best Picture category, there was a glaring addition.

Somehow, the movie Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close received a Best Picture nod!  From what I’ve heard and read, there were no outright pans or slams of this movie, but merely tepid reviews.  Roger Ebert gave it a 2 and ½ out of 4 stars, and used the word “contrivance” in describing it.  Leonard Maltin also said the story was “contrived”.  Rex Reed called it “labored and muddled” and even used adjectives like preposterous and manipulation in describing the story.  Tim Lammers – I’ve never heard of this reviewer before – gave it a 2 and ½ out of 4 stars, and even the website Rotten Tomatoes gave it only a 5.8 out of a possible 10.  By all accounts, this is the most wishy-washy reviewed movie ever, to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.  So, why put it up for consideration?

It does have an extremely likeable cast, in Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock (arguably America’s Cinematic Sweethearts), John Goodman, Zoe Caldwell and Max von Sydow.  And, apparently a strong performance by newcomer Thomas Horn, as the young son searching for some meaning in his father’s (Tom Hanks) death, at the World Trade Center, on 9/11/2001.  But, only Max von Sydow is nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category.  From what I’ve seen, it received no other nominations.  So, what gives?

The movie doesn’t seem to have any kind of political message.  There’s no controversy, or anything.  And 9/11 is still a very controversial subject, both here and especially abroad, despite the Story Closed attitude, that both the US government and the dutiful corporate media show it.  Could it be that the movie’s blandness fits in with the Let’s get on with it attitude that so many want for the issue?  I don’t know.  I haven’t seen it.  And, based upon the true reviews, the ones that came out prior to this unexpected nomination, it’s unlikely that I will watch it.  Nothing personal.  I’m a fan of all the major actors in it.  It just seems to be a very non-compelling movie.

The movie’s nomination is the surprise of the awards season.  At best, it’s just a puzzling little oddity.  At worst, the “contrivance” and “manipulation” of the situation make it more than a little suspicious.

Keep thinking, friends.

YUR

Related articles

• Oscar nominations 2012: What do you think? (pbpulse.com)
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: Another Disappointment (news.moviefone.com)
• Oscars 2012: Biggest Snubs and Surprises…Starting With Bridesmaids (eonline.com)
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (carlosdev.wordpress.com)

The S & P Downgrade “Game”

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AKA:  JUST MORE WALL STREET SHENANIGANS!

Hopefully, you haven’t been running around with your hair on fire, screaming THE SKY IS FALLING, THE SKY IS FALLING!!!  Because, guess what?  It ain’t!  Standard and Poors is just another Wall Street “institution” that says, and does, what it wants to, in order to suit their own – and certain benefactors’ – needs. 

A great article on AlterNet explains:

“Most people believe that the ratings agencies base their analyses on some set of cold, objective criteria, but that’s not the case.  A group of Wall Street analysts . . . get together and discuss various factors, including, in this case, the political scene, and come to a consensus.”

And, that:  “According to a Senate investigation concluded earlier this year — a probe that was greeted with a collective “ho-hum” by the corporate media — S&P and Moody’s, another leading agency, “issued the AAA ratings that made … mortgage backed securities … seem like safe investments, helped build an active market for those securities, and then, beginning in July 2007, downgraded the vast majority of those AAA ratings to junk status.” And when they did, it “precipitated the collapse of the [mortgage-backed securities] markets and, perhaps more than any other single event, triggered the financial crisis.”

So, some of the same guys who told all of us that everything was A-Okay with those (questionably) mortgage backed “securities” – because it benefited their golf buddies – are now telling us that The U.S. might not be able to meet it’s future obligations???  They have already proven to be un-objective, untrustworthy charlatans, but most of us were unaware of the Senate investigation’s findings.  And, our collective memories are so short these days, that even those of us who were in the know have either forgiven or forgotten.

This is all politically motivated by the big HAVES, at the expense of the rest of us, the have NOTS.  But, I think that all of you are better off getting the full benefit of the article by . . . reading the article. 

So, here it is: 

http://www.alternet.org/story/151935/standard_and_poor%27s%3A_just_more_corrupt_wall_street_insiders_waging_class_war_on_america?page=1

Don’t knee jerk.  You’ll only regret it, while someone – who was already much better off than you – laughs all the way to the bank!

—   YUR

Related articles

• S&P’s History of Relentless Political Advocacy (news.firedoglake.com)

Big Jumble News!

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For some of you – who CAN be bothered reading the Comments section – this may already be *old* news.  But, for the rest of you, dig what one of the Jumble creators, and current Uncle Rave visitor/fan, Jeff Knurek, has imparted upon us:

Dear Uncle Rave and Jumblers…
We have some BIG news for all of you. We are sad to announce that long time Jumble co-creator, Mike Argirion, will be retiring. His last Daily Jumble will be February 26th. We wish Mike LAL HET SEBT!
With that announcement, we welcome Master Puzzle creator, David L. Hoyt, who will take the torch and along with puzzle partner, Jeff Knurek (me),and will be creating the Jumble puzzles that you all play and love. David and Jeff’s first Daily puzzle will run Feb. 28th. Please take a good look at it, for it stars Jeff, David and some other puzzle guy that some of you may recognize.
David and I have been puzzle partners for 8 years now and together are the two most syndicated puzzle creators in the world. (Sounds impressive!) The Jumble will only change for the better. We hope to remove archaic words from the word list. We also hope to challenge and entertain you with fresh new puns and fun cartoons filled with clues, special guests (David, myself and more) and things that make David and I giggle. We promise to try to use quotation marks when and where they are necessary, but will still look here to see when we goofed. I certainly have appreciated Uncle Rave’s descriptions and discussions on the Jumble (for the past three years of lurking) and look forward to the future. Keep up the great work and thank you so much for Jumbling. It’s going to get real fun!
LAL ET SEBT,
LUJBEM FEJF

Soave!

YUR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPs9WMWlbaU

The Media’s Denial

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Jared Loughner is a mentally disturbed individual.  There seems to be a consensus on that point.  But the questions of why Gabby Giffords, and why now, seem to be less important to our national corporate media.  To the extent that they’re bending over backwards trying to downplay, dismiss, and even deny that cause and effect might have come into play.

On the Today Show, Monday morning, after showing the clip of Pima County Sheriff  Clarence Dupnik voicing his opinion that “The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous”, Matt Lauer took exception to these words and said that he didn’t think there was any cause and effect here.  This saddened and angered me, because before even knowing what might have been Jared’s motivation we’re being told that there is no cause and effect.  He (Jared) was/is just a paranoid nut-job.  End of story.  And then, seconds later, the lovely and lanky Ann Curry is fawning all over Matt Lauer, agreeing with him.  Meredith and Al also nodding their heads in approval.  What was up with that?  Is Matt Lauer THAT powerful that he can’t be disagreed with?   Or . . . did this directive come down from the head honchos at GE, and were they all just playing their parts?  At least Charlie Rose raised his eyebrows and questioned the assertions of Ezra Klein, who also said that there was no cause and effect.  And, even Diane Sawyer asking Sheriff Dupnik, in disbelief, “That it is somehow linked???”  Why is there so much resistance to to a very plausible possibility?  Dupnik didn’t name any names, or cite any specific rhetoric.  But boy, was there ever swift condemnation of his words.  And where did this come from?  From the right-wing pundits, whose very bread and butter is vitriolic rhetoric.  Now, the sheriff is forced to respond to the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sara Palin, because they are threatened by his opinion.

The corporate media loves the tawdry, tragic and sensationalistic.  That’s what grabs the attention.  That’s what sells.  Careful contemplation, as to what are the underlying causes, is besides the point to them.  With the Jared Loughner case I’ve even heard some reporters say: We may never know.  Really?  Is the guy dead?  Did the police cut his tongue out?  Why deny cause and effect?  And why set up the premise that ‘we may never know’ what his motivation was?  They will milk the story for all that it’s worth, without really telling us anything new or substantive.  They need to be ready to jump onto the next shocker of the moment.  What seems to matter most to the corporate media is the hype, the sincerity (acting job) of its anchor people, and – bottom line – the ratings.

None of us live in a vacuum. To a large extent, we are all products of our environment.  This is true of the sane, and the not so sane. When the Glenn Becks of this country say that “Barack Obama has a deep-seated hatred for white people” and that he’s a “racist”, or the Bill O’Reillys and Sean Hannitys keep saying President Obama is a “socialist”, it resonates with all sorts of people.  When Sara Palin puts out her Congressional map with gun-sight cross-hairs on certain districts, and says things like “don’t retreat, reload” most people pick up on the shooting references . . . one way or another.  The sane, but gullible, eat it up and regurgitate it.  Who knows what kind of catalyst these words of violence and hatred might be to the not so sane!  We do know that this very kind of rhetoric has inspired some to kill abortion doctors over the years.  So, why be so dismissive, of the effects that words of hate might have, in this instance?

No one is saying there is a straight line, from any specific piece of vitriolic and hateful rhetoric, to the actions in Tucson last Saturday.  We don’t know, yet, why Jared Loughner did what he did, and why he targeted Gabby Giffords.  Even if his lawyers go with an insanity defense it’s very likely that we will, eventually, know those whys.  To completely rule out the possibility of some kind of cause and effect, at such an early stage of the story, by our corporate media, is more than irresponsible, it’s downright . . . reprehensible.

YUR

Related Articles

• Heather Robinson: Mental Illness, Not Politics, Was Likely Cause of Loughner’s Rampage (huffingtonpost.com)
• “Comments from Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik via the AP:” and related posts (scaredmonkeys.com)
• Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik is not the anti-Joe Arpaio. (slate.com)
• Arizona Sheriff Slams Right-Wing Media and Gun Laws: “Arizona Victimized by Gun Lobby” … Conservative Media “Make Millions Inflaming Public” (alternet.org)
• ‘Back to basics’ sheriff stirs anger (cnn.com)

My name is Peggy! Yes?!

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From today’s Spam File:

“Good day I was luck to seek your subject in yahoo
your Topics is quality
I obtain much in your theme really thanks very much
btw the theme of you site is really wonderful
where can find it“

(Do y’all think I should accept this, as a legitimate Comment?  Or, should I hold off until he/she completes his/her ESL class???  Ho, ho, ho!!!  You just can’t make this stuff up!  Better luck next time, bucko!)   — YUR

Related Articles

• “Let’s Talk Mad Men” and related posts (forme-foryou.com)

New York Newpapers’ Shame

 

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A truly remarkable – once in a lifetime – event happened yesterday, in the world of Major League Baseball Playoffs.  Roy Halladay pitched a no-hitter.  It has only happened one other time in the history of post-season play.  And that was 54 years ago, when Don Larsen pitched his perfect game, in the World Series, against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

So, you might think that this would would garner all the fanfare and hoopla that this momentous occasion should receive.  Well, apparently NOT in many of the New York area newspapers.  In the New York Daily News, The Journal News (Westchester and Rockland) and The Record (Northern New Jersey) they think the game one victory of the New York Yankees over the Minnesota Twins deserves the bigger headline, and the bigger photo.

Now, I can see being a “Homer”.  I like to root, root, root for the home team as much as the next guy.  But, there is a time and place to set aside such childishness, and to give the proper acclaim to the greater achievement.  These New York area newspapers did their readers a great disservice by stroking the local egos, in favor of true baseball history.  They should be ashamed of themselves.

The Yankees have won 27 World Series titles.  11 of them coming just in the last 54 years.  I have no way of knowing how many individual playoff games they’ve won, but I figure it has to be, at the very least, 350 games.  Maybe more.  They have figuratively owned the Twins, in both the regular season, and in the playoffs, for years.  Was their winning game one, last night, with their 21 game winning ace, C.C. Sabathia, really that big of a deal?  Really???  Isn’t THE most storied team in all of baseball kind of expected to win?

I realize that there are many question marks regarding the balance of their rotation, and they might not get another chance to celebrate, as they are so accustomed to do, but couldn’t these newspapers have shown some journalistic integrity?  I’m not a Phillies fan.  Not by a long shot.  But, I am a baseball fan.  And, I appreciate when a player accomplishes something rare and special.  Roy Halladay pitched a no-hitter in a playoff game.  It was nearly a perfect game.  He walked only one man, and that came on a full count, in the 5th inning.  He also pitched a no-hitter during the regular season, back on May the 29th.  And, that one was a perfect game.  So, Halladay is the first pitcher to throw a regular season AND a post season no-hitter, in the same year.  This is legendary.  This deserves better coverage than what the majority of the New York area newspapers gave it.  What a shame.

Surprisingly, there was a New York newspaper who gave Roy Halladay his due.  And, that was The New York Post!  They celebrated this wondrous, historical moment on both their back page – where you expect sports headlines and photos – AND on their front page.  This is how it should be.  Congratulations to The New York Post.  You guys got it right!

You other guys ought to be ashamed.

YUR

Related Articles

• Philadelphia Phillies Roy Halladay Pitches No Hitter In Opening Game Against the Cincinnati Reds (sugarslam.com)

Prove Ahmadinejad Wrong – How?

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It’s really very simple.  And, it’s something that millions of Americans have been asking for, for a very long time.  Conduct an independent, non-partisan, impartial investigation of the events of 9/11/2001.

They did not treat the World Trade Center, or the Pentagon, or Shanksville PA as they should have – as a CRIME SCENE.  No.  President Bush and Co. decided it was much better to DECLARE WAR on the “systematic use of terror as a policy” in order to forego what is expected in a modern democratic society.

The “investigations” – if you can honestly call them that – that they did do were far from independent.  They ignored many questions, and did not adequately answer many others.  And, even these “investigations” were done under duress.

Instead of relying on the hollow rhetoric of Ahmadinejad’s  remarks being “inexcusable”, “offensive”, and “hateful” –  and walking out on his speech in a gesture of mock outrage – why not prove him wrong?

Maybe . . . because they can’t?  It’s more likely that they just can’t afford for him to be proven correct.

—   YUR

Related Articles

• Ahmadinejad defends his comments on 9/11 plot (msnbc.msn.com)

Steven Slater Slam?

Update!  08/13/10:

AS IF yur uncle needed any vindication for writing the truth . . . look who’s (trash)talking Steven Slater now!  None other than the poster-boy for Corporate American Greed . . . Donald J. Trump!  Apparently, he’s slammed Steven Slater as a “horrible” employee.  Big surprise?  Only if you’ve been living under a rock for the last 25 years.  And many/most of the related Google searches are coming up with the word “Wacko”.  Does anyone think that this is just a coincidence?  I think there is a concerted effort here to land some knock-out blows here before this kid even taps gloves.  Fair fight???  Not if they can help it!   —   YUR

It looks like our friends in the Corporate Media have received their marching orders on this guy.  Have you seen how the network “news” is trying to spin this “Flip Out” story, today?  They are bending over backwards in their attempt to stem the tide of this guy’s overnight sensationalism.  And why?  Because actions like his pose a threat to the way corporations control things.  He’s a maverick.  A working man’s counter-culture hero.  They desperately don’t want any copy cats, that is for sure!

Initially, when they reported the story, it was purely a bizarre human interest piece.  Then they HAD to play up the potential for “danger” that he posed by deplpoying the emergency slide.  But, they didn’t really go after him at this point.

But now that his Facebook fan page has more than doubled over night they are starting to go right at him.  They’re “reporting” that passengers are saying that he was the one acting strangely, from the beginning.  And Jeff Rossen, of NBC “News”, is really going out of his way to point out that Steven Slater got into his “boyfriend’s car”.  Wow!  I bet none of you suspected he was gay, did you???

Supposedly, from some accounts, his knock to the head happened either prior to take off, or very early in the flight, and not after it had landed.  Yet, I haven’t heard any of the “reporters” suggest that any of his alleged strange, or bad, behavior could be related to some kind of blow to the head.  You’d think, while not excusing the alleged behavior, but possibly explaining it, that someone might have raised this as a possibility.  (Maybe FOX did!  They’re Fair and Balanced, right?)

This is so pathetic, the way the media toads are trying to take this guy down a peg, or two.  At least his ex-wife, and life-long friend, has come out to support Slater.  She is helping to counter the media slam, by saying how professional and courteous he is, and that he loves his job.  Good for you, girl!

I didn’t really have much of an opinion on this story until I witnessed today’s attempt to take him down.  Then, it just kind of pissed me off.  I don’t like to be spun.  Do you? 

—   Your Uncle Rave 

Happy Birthday, Jerry Houser!

OK!  Maybe NOT the greatest actor in the world, but the guy has certainly carved out a niche for himself in the voice-over industry.  Plus, he was in one of THE greatest sports movies of ALL time:  “Slap Shot”!  (Dave “Killer” Carlson)

He somehow had an early shot, as a toddler, in an episode of “I Married Joan”.  Then had a normal childhood until the age of 18-19 when he landed the role of Oscy in “Summer of ’42”.  After that he’s had very steady work in both the movies and especially in television.  Lacking in leading man looks, he has been *gifted* with a fairly high-pitched voice, which allows him to sound, very convincingly, like the perpetual teenager.  He has also been the voice of one of the Keebler Elves (not Ernie) since 1980.  AND, the lucky stiff got to marry the girl of my  (and millions of other guys) dreams, Marcia Brady!  Not too shabby!

Here’s to you, bro!

Additional birthday wishes go out to Stan Shaw (“The Boys in Company C”) and Eric Laneuville (“The Omega Man”).  Both of these guys ARE very good actors, and have had very steady careers.  They both had some recurring roles on one of my favorite television shows “Hill Street Blues”.  Eric is actually enjoying a second career, and is in great demand, as a television director.

And, how about Chris Cross of Ultravox!?!?  (“Reap the Wild Wind” and “The Voice”)

All these cats are 58 years old today!  I wonder what was going on around Thanksgiving 1951???

YUR

He’s baaa-ack!!!

Tiger says: Lay’s.  Get YOUR Smile On! No One Can (discr-)Eat Just One!