What is the price of a virtual hug?
If we can trust the campaign to raise $150,000 to complete production on Katherine Heigl's latest film, "Jenny's Wedding", a virtual hug is worth $10. Oh, and that $10 will buy you a thank you on the film's Facebook page. Seems like a good deal for ten bucks. For $75, you will get a signed copy of the screenplay, signed by its writer/director.
Typical fare for a campaign on Indiegogo.com, so why is it that this particular campaign troubles me? Because of a little badge on the campaign's page. A badge that seems to indicate that this campaign is being run by a nonprofit. That the website has verified that this fundraising campaign is funding the operation of a nonprofit.
I have trouble with the concept of a nonprofit making movies, where the goal is to distribute them commercially. It doesn't make sense. I tried searching the web to see what nonprofit might be hooked up with the production company making this film, without success. Maybe there is a nonprofit connected with this. But I don't think there is.
* * *
The litany of promises broken by President Barrack Obama continues. He made a commitment to elevate more career diplomats into positions as ambassador. Yet the record shows that the percentage of ambassadors he has appointed who are NOT career diplomats (meaning they were big campaign fund raisers) is higher than either of his presidential predecessors.
Now he's nominated Colleen Bell to be our nation's ambassador to Hungary. I do note that she studied political science and economics in college, and has been very active in philanthropic endeavors. She was also a delegate to the 2012 Democratic National Convention.
However, none of that seems to qualify her to be our nation's ambassador to any nation. Nor does her background as a producer of "The Bold and the Beautiful", a daytime soap opera. The answers she gave at her confirmation hearing showed ignorance of the nation she is about to be our representative in. Then again, she was no different than some of the other nominees whose were facing Senate confirmation.
Personally, I don't care if a president wants to be foolish enough to choose people as ambassadors based on their ability to raise campaign funds rather than their qualifications to do the job. It's his call to select ambassadors. But don't make a promise and then not keep it. Keep the promise or don't make it.
Besides, April Glaspie was a career diplomat when she was appointed as our ambassador to Iraq and many hold her at least partially responsible for saying things that appeared to give Saddam Hussein tacit approval to invade Kuwait without fear of U. S. reprisal.
Broken promises have a major impact on credibility. "Most transparent administration in history" and "if you like your healthcare, you can keep it" are things that will be a good portion of President Obama's legacy.
* * *
Let me borrow a word from the father of Bryan Stow. Cretins. That's how he labeled the two men who had just pleaded guilty to charges in the case. One of the two cretins will spend four years in state prison and the other was sentenced to eight years in state prison. Both face much longer sentences in the federal court system for being felons in possession of firearms.
That doesn't change the fact that their sentences in this case are ridiculous. Four and eight years for causing a man, his wife and their children a lifetime of heartache. Estimates are that it will cost $35 million to provide the round-the-clock care Bryan Stow needs now. Even after the family prevails in a civil action against these two men, their earnings behind bars and when they are released from prison sometime late in the next decade won't come close to covering that cost.
Would it have been just if the two were ordered to become full-time caretakers for their victim? Or for some other person requiring that level of care, so as to preclude Bryan Stow from having to see his attackers; and other caretakers would be freed up to care for Stow. A lifetime of caring for the cause of their criminal act might just give criminals pause to consider the consequences of their actions.
I do not believe in mandatory minimum sentencing, as long as we keep a close eye on the judiciary to ensure that those who sit on the bench are able to properly dispense justice. I'd just be a lot happier if these two cretins would never again see the light of day.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
It was awesome that after years of facetiously answering movie trivia questions with "Plan Nine from Outer Space", it was finally the right answer to a trivia question last night.
Also have to give props to the inventive folks who used the team name "Ray Rice's Fiancee is a Knock-Out" at last night's trivia session.
I'm really glad I don't follow the wife of Jason Biggs on Twitter after reading she tweeted a photo of the placenta from the birth of her newborn baby. Placenta photos need not be shared.
It isn't surprising that Anne Hathaway lied about knowing how to ride a horse when she was auditioning for "Brokeback Mountain"...not impugning her honesty, just nothing that actors will do everything and anything to get a role they want. Mark Metcalfe did the same thing when trying to get the role in "Animal House."
Why is it that firefighters and police officers are going to get more of their pensions than other city workers in Detroit's bankruptcy resolution plan?
Did the frat-boys at Ole Miss have prank or bigotry in mind?
It is very cool that President Obama will award 24 men (or their surviving family members) the Medal of Honor. But the idiots who are trying to say that this is a move to pander to politics, you're wrong. The review that led to these awards started in 2002 when the President was then a Illinois State Senator.
Did Tara Lapinski and Johnny Weir really need to take eight suitcases to Sochi?
Why are books related to Anne Frank being vandalized in libraries in Japan?
It's great that the waitress at a restaurant wouldn't take a reward for finding a patron's wad of cash ($6,500) but maybe the patron should have gone to buy the motorcycle before stopping to eat; after taking the money out of the bank.
See how Dominos means it when they say "hand-tossed" pizza: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpSszDFcPhk&list=UUQEJkpPXrAkPzeJoNa3x0yA&feature=c4-overview
Tomorrow is February 22nd, and would have been President George Washington's 282nd birthday. Did you know that adjusted for inflation, Washington's net worth would be $500 million? He was the richest president to date.
Unless Lisa Kudrow signed a contract that gave her former manager 5% of everything she received from work she did while he represented her, she shouldn't have to pay him a dime. She didn't and she shouldn't.
Calderon should resign from the State Senate. Or in the alternative, take a leave of absence until his trial is over.
* * *
February 21st in History:
362 – Athanasius returns to Alexandria.
1245 – Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after confessing to torture and forgery.
1440 – The Prussian Confederation is formed.
1543 – Battle of Wayna Daga – A combined army of Ethiopian and Portuguese troops defeats a Muslim army led by Ahmed Gragn.
1613 – Mikhail I is unanimously elected Tsar by a national assembly, beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia.
1804 – The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales.
1808 – Without a previous declaration of war, Russian troops cross the border to Sweden at Abborfors in eastern Finland, thus beginning the Finnish war, in which Sweden will lose the eastern half of the country (i.e. Finland) to Russia.
1828 – Initial issue of the Cherokee Phoenix is the first periodical to use the Cherokee syllabary invented by Sequoyah.
1842 – John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.
1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Valverde is fought near Fort Craig in New Mexico Territory.
1874 – The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first edition.
1878 – The first telephone book is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
1885 – The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
1913 – Ioannina is incorporated into the Greek state after the Balkan Wars.
1916 – World War I: In France, the Battle of Verdun begins.
1918 – The last Carolina Parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.
1919 – German socialist Kurt Eisner is assassinated. His death results in the establishment of the Bavarian Soviet Republic and parliament and government fleeing Munich, Germany.
1921 – Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country's first constitution.
1921 – Rezā Shāh takes control of Tehran during a successful coup
1925 – The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
1937 – The League of Nations bans foreign national "volunteers" in the Spanish Civil War.
1945 – World War II: Japanese Kamikaze planes sink the escort carrier USS Bismarck Sea and damage the USS Saratoga.
1947 – In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.
1948 – NASCAR is incorporated.
1952 – The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to "set the people free".
1952 – The Bengali Language Movement protests occur at the University of Dhaka in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
1958 – The peace symbol, commissioned by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom.
1965 – Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.
1970 – Swissair Flight 330: A mid-air bomb explosion and subsequent crash kills 38 passengers and nine crew members near Zürich, Switzerland.
1971 – The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
1972 – President Richard Nixon visits the People's Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations.
1972 – The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
1973 – Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 jet killing 108.
1974 – The last Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal pursuant to a truce with Egypt.
1975 – Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.
1986 – The Legend of Zelda, the first game of The Legend of Zelda series, was released in Japan on the Famicom Disk System.
1995 – Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
2013 – Two bomb blasts in Hyderabad, India, kill at least 17 people and injure more than 100 others.
Famous Folk Born on February 21st:
Peter III of Russia
Carl Czerny
General Korechika Anami (War Minister of Japan in 1945, he opposed surrendering until the Emperor ordered the surrender)
Andres Segovia
Anais Nin
Alexei Kosygin
Carmine Galante
Robert Mugabe
Sam Peckinpah (directed one of the best "final shootouts" ever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJMxGFco57Y)
Erma Bombeck
Hubert Givenchy
Nina Simone (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfJRX-8SXOs)
Barbara Jordan
David Geffen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsVam3J_mmo#aid=P-fwx4czhSo is the first single released on his label, Geffen Records)
Tyne Daly (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBssszRwwsE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAlmEUFRaEA)
Anthony Daniels (he's the priest in this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEfXfR-rpfk looks different without his See Threepio costume)
Alan Rickman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t22jjX0--u4)
Vince Welnick
Christine Ebersole
William Peterson
Kelsey Grammer
Mary Chapin Carpenter (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TCMpA5TfHc)
William Baldwin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt5HMpIA2qY)
Jane Tomlinson
Jennifer Love Hewitt (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLgfEilskfc)
Melanie Laurent (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL7W6FV7UP0)
Ellen Page (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMGBvPXnhn4)
* * *
In honor of Tyne Daly's birthday, "The Enforcer" is the source for today's movie quotes:
[Callaghan learns he is being transferred to Personnel]
Harry Callahan: Personnel? That's for assholes!
Capt McKay: I was in Personnel for ten years.
Harry Callahan: Yeah.
#2
Autopsy Surgeon: [checkiing the brain] Son of a bitch, Harry... look at this!
Harry Callahan: What?
Autopsy Surgeon: It's the damndest thing I ever saw... what it says right here... 'eat at Luigi's
#3
Lt. Dobbs: Are you finished with the questioning, Callahan?
Harry Callahan: Hypothetical situation, huh? All right, I'm standing on the street corner, and Mrs. Grey there comes up and propositions me. She says if I come home with her, for $5 she'll put on an exhibition with a Shetland pony...
Mrs. Grey: If this is your idea of humor, Inspector...
Lt. Dobbs: All right, what are you trying to do here, Callahan?
Harry Callahan: I'm just trying to find out if anybody in this room knows what the hell law is being broken, besides cruelty to animals.
#4
Lt. Al Bressler: [Harrys playing pool when Bressler and KcKay approach him about the case] No. We play as a team.
Harry Callahan: As I remember, the last time we played as a team I got the cue stuck in my ass.
Typical fare for a campaign on Indiegogo.com, so why is it that this particular campaign troubles me? Because of a little badge on the campaign's page. A badge that seems to indicate that this campaign is being run by a nonprofit. That the website has verified that this fundraising campaign is funding the operation of a nonprofit.
I have trouble with the concept of a nonprofit making movies, where the goal is to distribute them commercially. It doesn't make sense. I tried searching the web to see what nonprofit might be hooked up with the production company making this film, without success. Maybe there is a nonprofit connected with this. But I don't think there is.
* * *
The litany of promises broken by President Barrack Obama continues. He made a commitment to elevate more career diplomats into positions as ambassador. Yet the record shows that the percentage of ambassadors he has appointed who are NOT career diplomats (meaning they were big campaign fund raisers) is higher than either of his presidential predecessors.
Now he's nominated Colleen Bell to be our nation's ambassador to Hungary. I do note that she studied political science and economics in college, and has been very active in philanthropic endeavors. She was also a delegate to the 2012 Democratic National Convention.
However, none of that seems to qualify her to be our nation's ambassador to any nation. Nor does her background as a producer of "The Bold and the Beautiful", a daytime soap opera. The answers she gave at her confirmation hearing showed ignorance of the nation she is about to be our representative in. Then again, she was no different than some of the other nominees whose were facing Senate confirmation.
Personally, I don't care if a president wants to be foolish enough to choose people as ambassadors based on their ability to raise campaign funds rather than their qualifications to do the job. It's his call to select ambassadors. But don't make a promise and then not keep it. Keep the promise or don't make it.
Besides, April Glaspie was a career diplomat when she was appointed as our ambassador to Iraq and many hold her at least partially responsible for saying things that appeared to give Saddam Hussein tacit approval to invade Kuwait without fear of U. S. reprisal.
Broken promises have a major impact on credibility. "Most transparent administration in history" and "if you like your healthcare, you can keep it" are things that will be a good portion of President Obama's legacy.
* * *
Let me borrow a word from the father of Bryan Stow. Cretins. That's how he labeled the two men who had just pleaded guilty to charges in the case. One of the two cretins will spend four years in state prison and the other was sentenced to eight years in state prison. Both face much longer sentences in the federal court system for being felons in possession of firearms.
That doesn't change the fact that their sentences in this case are ridiculous. Four and eight years for causing a man, his wife and their children a lifetime of heartache. Estimates are that it will cost $35 million to provide the round-the-clock care Bryan Stow needs now. Even after the family prevails in a civil action against these two men, their earnings behind bars and when they are released from prison sometime late in the next decade won't come close to covering that cost.
Would it have been just if the two were ordered to become full-time caretakers for their victim? Or for some other person requiring that level of care, so as to preclude Bryan Stow from having to see his attackers; and other caretakers would be freed up to care for Stow. A lifetime of caring for the cause of their criminal act might just give criminals pause to consider the consequences of their actions.
I do not believe in mandatory minimum sentencing, as long as we keep a close eye on the judiciary to ensure that those who sit on the bench are able to properly dispense justice. I'd just be a lot happier if these two cretins would never again see the light of day.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
It was awesome that after years of facetiously answering movie trivia questions with "Plan Nine from Outer Space", it was finally the right answer to a trivia question last night.
Also have to give props to the inventive folks who used the team name "Ray Rice's Fiancee is a Knock-Out" at last night's trivia session.
I'm really glad I don't follow the wife of Jason Biggs on Twitter after reading she tweeted a photo of the placenta from the birth of her newborn baby. Placenta photos need not be shared.
It isn't surprising that Anne Hathaway lied about knowing how to ride a horse when she was auditioning for "Brokeback Mountain"...not impugning her honesty, just nothing that actors will do everything and anything to get a role they want. Mark Metcalfe did the same thing when trying to get the role in "Animal House."
Why is it that firefighters and police officers are going to get more of their pensions than other city workers in Detroit's bankruptcy resolution plan?
Did the frat-boys at Ole Miss have prank or bigotry in mind?
It is very cool that President Obama will award 24 men (or their surviving family members) the Medal of Honor. But the idiots who are trying to say that this is a move to pander to politics, you're wrong. The review that led to these awards started in 2002 when the President was then a Illinois State Senator.
Did Tara Lapinski and Johnny Weir really need to take eight suitcases to Sochi?
Why are books related to Anne Frank being vandalized in libraries in Japan?
It's great that the waitress at a restaurant wouldn't take a reward for finding a patron's wad of cash ($6,500) but maybe the patron should have gone to buy the motorcycle before stopping to eat; after taking the money out of the bank.
See how Dominos means it when they say "hand-tossed" pizza: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpSszDFcPhk&list=UUQEJkpPXrAkPzeJoNa3x0yA&feature=c4-overview
Tomorrow is February 22nd, and would have been President George Washington's 282nd birthday. Did you know that adjusted for inflation, Washington's net worth would be $500 million? He was the richest president to date.
Unless Lisa Kudrow signed a contract that gave her former manager 5% of everything she received from work she did while he represented her, she shouldn't have to pay him a dime. She didn't and she shouldn't.
Calderon should resign from the State Senate. Or in the alternative, take a leave of absence until his trial is over.
* * *
February 21st in History:
362 – Athanasius returns to Alexandria.
1245 – Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after confessing to torture and forgery.
1440 – The Prussian Confederation is formed.
1543 – Battle of Wayna Daga – A combined army of Ethiopian and Portuguese troops defeats a Muslim army led by Ahmed Gragn.
1613 – Mikhail I is unanimously elected Tsar by a national assembly, beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia.
1804 – The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales.
1808 – Without a previous declaration of war, Russian troops cross the border to Sweden at Abborfors in eastern Finland, thus beginning the Finnish war, in which Sweden will lose the eastern half of the country (i.e. Finland) to Russia.
1828 – Initial issue of the Cherokee Phoenix is the first periodical to use the Cherokee syllabary invented by Sequoyah.
1842 – John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.
1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Valverde is fought near Fort Craig in New Mexico Territory.
1874 – The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first edition.
1878 – The first telephone book is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
1885 – The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
1913 – Ioannina is incorporated into the Greek state after the Balkan Wars.
1916 – World War I: In France, the Battle of Verdun begins.
1918 – The last Carolina Parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.
1919 – German socialist Kurt Eisner is assassinated. His death results in the establishment of the Bavarian Soviet Republic and parliament and government fleeing Munich, Germany.
1921 – Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country's first constitution.
1921 – Rezā Shāh takes control of Tehran during a successful coup
1925 – The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
1937 – The League of Nations bans foreign national "volunteers" in the Spanish Civil War.
1945 – World War II: Japanese Kamikaze planes sink the escort carrier USS Bismarck Sea and damage the USS Saratoga.
1947 – In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.
1948 – NASCAR is incorporated.
1952 – The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to "set the people free".
1952 – The Bengali Language Movement protests occur at the University of Dhaka in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
1958 – The peace symbol, commissioned by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom.
1965 – Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.
1970 – Swissair Flight 330: A mid-air bomb explosion and subsequent crash kills 38 passengers and nine crew members near Zürich, Switzerland.
1971 – The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
1972 – President Richard Nixon visits the People's Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations.
1972 – The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
1973 – Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 jet killing 108.
1974 – The last Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal pursuant to a truce with Egypt.
1975 – Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.
1986 – The Legend of Zelda, the first game of The Legend of Zelda series, was released in Japan on the Famicom Disk System.
1995 – Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
2013 – Two bomb blasts in Hyderabad, India, kill at least 17 people and injure more than 100 others.
Famous Folk Born on February 21st:
Peter III of Russia
Carl Czerny
General Korechika Anami (War Minister of Japan in 1945, he opposed surrendering until the Emperor ordered the surrender)
Andres Segovia
Anais Nin
Alexei Kosygin
Carmine Galante
Robert Mugabe
Sam Peckinpah (directed one of the best "final shootouts" ever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJMxGFco57Y)
Erma Bombeck
Hubert Givenchy
Nina Simone (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfJRX-8SXOs)
Barbara Jordan
David Geffen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsVam3J_mmo#aid=P-fwx4czhSo is the first single released on his label, Geffen Records)
Tyne Daly (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBssszRwwsE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAlmEUFRaEA)
Anthony Daniels (he's the priest in this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEfXfR-rpfk looks different without his See Threepio costume)
Alan Rickman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t22jjX0--u4)
Vince Welnick
Christine Ebersole
William Peterson
Kelsey Grammer
Mary Chapin Carpenter (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TCMpA5TfHc)
William Baldwin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt5HMpIA2qY)
Jane Tomlinson
Jennifer Love Hewitt (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLgfEilskfc)
Melanie Laurent (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL7W6FV7UP0)
Ellen Page (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMGBvPXnhn4)
* * *
In honor of Tyne Daly's birthday, "The Enforcer" is the source for today's movie quotes:
[Callaghan learns he is being transferred to Personnel]
Harry Callahan: Personnel? That's for assholes!
Capt McKay: I was in Personnel for ten years.
Harry Callahan: Yeah.
#2
Autopsy Surgeon: [checkiing the brain] Son of a bitch, Harry... look at this!
Harry Callahan: What?
Autopsy Surgeon: It's the damndest thing I ever saw... what it says right here... 'eat at Luigi's
#3
Lt. Dobbs: Are you finished with the questioning, Callahan?
Harry Callahan: Hypothetical situation, huh? All right, I'm standing on the street corner, and Mrs. Grey there comes up and propositions me. She says if I come home with her, for $5 she'll put on an exhibition with a Shetland pony...
Mrs. Grey: If this is your idea of humor, Inspector...
Lt. Dobbs: All right, what are you trying to do here, Callahan?
Harry Callahan: I'm just trying to find out if anybody in this room knows what the hell law is being broken, besides cruelty to animals.
#4
Lt. Al Bressler: [Harrys playing pool when Bressler and KcKay approach him about the case] No. We play as a team.
Harry Callahan: As I remember, the last time we played as a team I got the cue stuck in my ass.
posted by me at 9:45 AM
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