This all started innocently enough. We watched this really good animal movie (really a kid's movie that adults can enjoy) called "Duma", about a boy needing to return his grown pet cheetah out into the wild. Besides all the kitty-cat cheetah goodness, this movie also features the bush baby, which is one of the cutest things on earth. Still pictures do not do them justice, and what's even more of an injustice is what turns up in internet image searches for "bush baby". YIKES!!
For most of the Rangel family, the hot topic is immigration. The matriarch of the family, Antonia Rangel, said even though she's Catholic and Mexican-American, she decided to vote Republican 15 years ago and hasn't turned back.
"They said, 'What?! You are a Catholic and a Mexican-American and you vote Republican?' I said, 'Yes, because I don't want to stay poor. If that's the party for the poor people, I don't want to stay poor all my life," she said.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. -- Abraham Lincoln
Send a personal invitation from Samuel L. Jackson! Customize an audio greeting from Samuel L and send as e-card or even phone message! It's a hoot! Freak out your kids or parents. ;-)
Weird story of the day:
First Thursday was a nice night out. We spent a good bit of time at Jo's Coffee listening to awesome blues by Gary Primich and Mike Keller. He's a great guitar player, one of my favorites in town. Always a reliable good time. Gary asked me to pass around the tip jar for them. I guess I looked honest and there for the music. [grin] I didn't get the scoop on it* (see below for the scoop), but there was a whole parade of zombies making the rounds. They were bloodied and hungry and calling for brains (typical zombies!). They must be making another zombie movie in Austin. I know some people who have gotten to play zombies in other films, I don't even know the names of them, straight to DVD I'm sure. Looks like fun anyway. I said to Mr. B, "See anyone we know"? Chatted with the guy who turned a school bus into an art/photo gallery, all about remodeling and travelling around in a bus (we used to have an old school bus in the 60s/70s), and Mr. Blueberry won free tickets to Alejandro Escovedo at the Glenn. Thank you again, KGSR! 
Another movie night at church on Friday. It was a showing of "America: Freedom to Fascism" which just left the theatres. Truthfully, quite a few reviews of this that I'd seen had pretty much dismissed it as libertarian evangelism encouraging people to stop paying taxes, so I was ready to write it off as uninteresting. That's not the case, that is deceptive on their part (the critics). I can't believe that those people really watched it. OK, as a movie I would critique it by saying that it was like 2 separate parts: one gritty factual human drama where we are given a certain amount of evidence that, in fact, there is no law requiring people to tax on their wages, and some situations that have arisen with people and the IRS. Simple as that. Fascinating and worthy of much study! If there is such a law, someone should point it out. That would end the controversy. The second part is the frightening paranoid speculation about the World government that may be unstoppable, Real ID and RFID and the implications of all world citizens being in a common ID database, and eventually chipped. When I said paranoid, I didn't mean there was no reason to be afraid. As the saying goes, "Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they aren't out to get you". Anyway, the movie is worth seeing if you can find it. It's always good to check things out for yourself, make up your own mind.
I heard that the sun sinks in the West, so I'm waiting for it by the sink. nyuk, nyuk, nyuk! Hey! I'm here all week. Please tip your service humans. Here's a tip for you... don't bet on the horses. Heyyyy... somebody stop me!
10:10:31
NASYPANY (to floor): Negative. Negative clearance to shoot.… Goddammit!…
FOX: I'm not really worried about code words at this point.
NASYPANY: Fuck the code words. That's perishable information. Negative clearance to fire. ID. Type. Tail.
And speaking of reality, there is a dose of it in this Vanity Fair article (link at top of post) on the release of the NORAD recordings. NORAD's actions have been a part of many of the conspiracy theories (and was indeed mentioned in the film by Alex Jones, although in fairness his film is a couple of years old and now we have some fresh and revealing information to replace what was previously either deception, spin or speculation), and I believe that a few questions have now been answered. The article also comes with sound files.
Heartfelt condolences go out to Ian McLagan after the death of his wife in a car accident. Ian McLagan is one of our local treasures, he was the keyboard guy for Small Faces, then later on Faces with Rod Stewart. He's not retired, far from it. He's playing his butt off in the Austin clubs with Ian McLagan and the Bump Band.
OK, is Mel Gibson finally going to be taken off of his Holy pedestal? Or, sadly, does this latest fiasco exposing sexism and bigotry not make any difference to his followers? Watching and waiting curiously here. ABC has axed the mini-series he was going to be doing on the Holocaust, and who on earth thought he was a good choice for that one? [rolling eyes]
