Category Archives: Uncategorized

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The Hobbit

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Last night I took a couple of my boys to go see the Midnight Showing of THE HOBBIT.

This is a movie that I’ve been waiting for since I was a child.  I don’t remember when I first read it… exactly… but I remember that I was very young.  Before my family moved to Tacoma, I had already read it.  I remember living in Tacoma, going to church the first time and meeting the other kids… and I remember going home and opening The Hobbit again and started reading it for the second time.  I was… what 10?  Maybe?  I’ve read The Hobbit many times since. And The Lord of the Rings.
I’ve always enjoyed the cheesy, upbeat cartoon version too.  But The Hobbit has always been one of my very favorite stories.
So I went to the theater with much expectation.
I was delighted.
Peter Jackson took a great deal of care in making this movie… Bringing in bits of Tolkien Lore that might not have been in The Hobbit, but are mentioned in passing in other books.  Including The Necromancer.  Which was done in a fantastic way that I really liked, showing Radagast The Brown, and giving him a bit of a bigger role in the story.    On a side note, for the next movie, I really hope Peter Jackson throws in Beorn.  A little known character that wasn’t in the Cartoon and largely forgotten… a man that can change into a Bear.  Werewolf style.  Beorn fights in the Battle of Five Armies after the defeat of Smaug.
While I hate dragons… Smaug has always been the model Dragon.  He is intelligent, can communicate, but in the end he is a huge freaking monster that causes massive amounts of destruction on an industrial scale.  A monster, treated as a monster.  So far, the glimpses of Smaug, show that this is a Dragon done right.  And not completely freaking wrong… like some other movies.  Smaug is to Dragon what Bram Stoker’s Dracula is to Vampires.  They way they should be.  The set pattern.

The Hobbit has a lot of Levity.  Lighthearted moments throughout.  This is keeping with the Lord of the Rings precedent of showing Dwarves to be hard core Badasses, and funny at the same time.  In the story, all the Dwarves get caught up in snares all the time… you can’t have a pack of badass Axe wielding warriors getting clobbered all the time without some humor.  Tolkien didn’t write them out to be clowns though, and Peter Jackson found a balance.  The Dwarves were very well done.
Also done well were the Trolls.  Better than I had imagined them.

Peter Jackson… Thank you.  After waiting for this movie for so long… You are doing it right.

There are a couple things that I can pick on.  First, is the characterization of Radagast.  Bird nest in his hair, poop running down the side of his face… that was nasty and unnecessary.   Making him slightly touched though, explains why he was not used more in LOTR by Peter Jackson or Tolkien.  The dog sled chase with the rabbits and wargs was kinda stupid, and I didn’t care for that.
The other thing I didn’t like was the use the Giants.  While it was mentioned in The Hobbits that Stone-Giants were throwing rocks at each other for sport – across the valley – it’s not intended by Tolkien that they were made of Stone.  Or that they were the size of mountains.  Or that they were killing each other.  That’s not how I nor the Author imagined them.  Gandalf suggested to the Dwarves that they find a friendly giant to help them… but this isn’t possible considering Peter Jackson’s vision of them.  Small matter though, Giants.

 

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School Shootings

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Once again we see the Failure that is the Gun Free Zone.  Historically this concept has been proven time and time again that it doesn’t work.  Even in places were access to guns is limited, we see a report of a madman in China that used a knife to slash 22 children.

What we need is an Active Defense Measure.  We need our schools and other institutions to have people on staff at all times that are Trained and Armed.
We can not Educate our Children if we can not Protect our Children.

But this is not going to happen.  As a result of this new school shooting, you will be able to see a massive sweep to outlaw semi-automatic rifles, ban handguns, do everything they can to crush our ability to stand up to a tyrannical government or defend our homes.  This is the beginning of the end for American Liberty.

What the response should be, is that Every Responsible Adult be encouraged to pack a gun for defense and have access to a rifle.  Evil is not stopped by giving in to it or running away from it… and what we have seen today is truly Evil.  Evil that ran unchecked.

Our prayers are with the families of the dead and injured…

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The Top 5 Women

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Evil Jim and I were joking about our Top Five’s on Facebook.  I said that Christina Hendricks was my #3.  We joked about them, and then I decided to go ahead and do a Top Five list.  Now, these may not be the most beautiful women in the world… but they just do it for me.  I’ll watch them in any movie.

1.  Jennifer Connelly.  I fell in love with her way back when the movie “Labyrinth” came out.
2.  Tabrett Bethell.  Her character “Cara” in “The Legend of the Seeker”.
3.  Christina Hendricks.  “Yosafbridge” from Firefly.  Mad Men.  Redheaded, full figured, no appologies.  The phrase “Special Hell” pretty much defines her.
4.  Jennifer Love Hewitt.  Soft and feminine, but with a strong character.  Just watch Ghost Whisperer.
5.  Monica Bellucci.  The goddess from Italy.  Need I say more?

 

Military, Uncategorized

West Point Drama

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West Point Cadet, only 5 months from Graduation, quits because West Point has too much Religion.
I smell some serious bullshit here.
Let’s read the Article… West Point is a tough school… people wash out all the time. This kid is just pissed he couldn’t hack it and is making a stink. West Point is a fantastic asset to our Nation, and this snot nosed brat wants to take it down? Not going to happen. Ah, there it is… He was denied a Commission. Mental Health issues? Obviously. So, there is no beef here. He’s quitting because there is too much religion, not that he wasn’t going to become an Officer. Yeah. That’s it.
5 Months away from Graduation too. That shows a drastic lacking in strategic thought. All that money for his education – WASTED. He could have graduated, Commission or not, few men get to put GRADUATED WEST POINT on their resume. Going out like he did – I’m very pleased this person did not get a Commission. He’s shown a very large hole in his character where Honor would be. The Religion thing is just an excuse, and not a very valid one at that. Thank GOD he will not be a Leader.

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Bob Costas is an idiot

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I wasn’t going to talk about that Sportscaster idiot, Bob Costas.  But he said something else that just about lit me on fire.
“Young men can’t own guns without something bad happening.”
Bob, you are a dunderhead and you can shut your manpleaser now.  Around here, all the young men own guns.  No, I don’t mean some… I mean damn near all the young men around here own guns.  Plural… more than one gun.  Lots of guns.  They buy guns all the time.  I live in an area with what is probably the highest concentration of privately owned guns in the entire world.  There is little else to do out here in Vernalstan.  Your options are Shooting, Off Roading, Drinking, and Fooling around with girls.  Or there is usually a combination of those options to some extent, but being a good community with good kids out here, the drinking is very much minimized compared to other places. So that leaves a lot of Guns, Trucks, and Girls.   Not a bad mix, in my opinion.
The kids around here are smart, they do things, they make things happen.  They work.  And they play.  I like that a 17 year old kid can come in and talk about Exterior and Terminal Ballistics of a .270 WSM and compare it to a 7mm Remington Magnum and pontificated which is more ideal on Elk verses Mule Deer.  And he will have the photos to prove he knows what he’s talking about here.  This is their culture.  This is our culture.  This is who we are here.  We have offroad capable vehicles and we have guns.  Some are more city oriented with their flat brimmed caps that I don’t understand, but they grew up hunting.  Others are cowboys right off the ranch.  Even the Video Game Playing Nerds around here have a nice AR-15 and a 9mm Semi Automatic of some sort and love to pop Tannerite when their new game mod is downloading.

Bad things, according to that slackbrained Sportscaster, should be happening all the time.  But they don’t.  Not around here.  The big difference here verses, oh, say, any city with a Democratic Governance, is EDUCATION.  Our kids around here know guns.  So they are not dangerous with guns.  In other places, guns remain a fascination and mystery because they are not taught.  Rifle Marksmanship used to be taught in Schools.  This is no longer the case.  Since Firearms are no longer taught in schools, bad things have happened.  The solution is more education, more access to firearms, more training, and more range time for all the kids.

Bob… Go back to talking about guys playing with their balls.  Leave our Guns and our Freedom alone.