It’s not easy for me to control my outrage at stupidity and hypocrisy.  I try to be politically correct, I try so hard.  But, it’s just not worth it.  Sometimes you just have to fight fire with fire.  You have to stand up to stupid.  Because when it goes ignored by the majority, it grows!  It becomes huge!  And, before you know it, the stupid has grown so much that it cries out for it’s own political party.  It’s wants to be treated as an equal.  Good people, don’t know how to react to that so they just continue to accept it and shake their heads.  I will no longer do that.  Stupid needs to be pointed out.  And, if you’re one of the stupid.  Please just give me a minute or two here and reading what I have to say, and you still think I am wrong, that’s ok.  Some people are just born stupid, it’s not your fault.  Just accept your stupidness and let those smarter than you speak and shut the fuck up already.  Oh, and please stop breeding.

I have been a republican most of my life.  I have been proud of that fact.  I always believed that we should be speak softly but carry a big stick.  I believe that we should lead the world by example.  It is never our place to tell anyone else how to live.  I still believe these things deeply.  However, over the past decade or so my party changed.  It became hateful and ruled by fear.  I understood the change but I was still ashamed by it.

The right wing, conservative, christian crazy people somehow took control of the party.  Lies slowly became the truth to them.  They stopped listening.  All they could see was fear and hate and the started shitting on everything this country holds dear. They took away our rights one by one in the name of national security.  They tortured people in the name of national security and they lied constantly through the whole process.  They lied so much and with such sincerity that people just started to believe it.

I voted for Bush Jr. the first time.  I had always voted republican.  I supported Bush.  I believed in him and when my liberal friends whined about the things he was doing I would defend him. This went on for the first few years of his presidency.  But, it was getting more and more difficult to defend him because even I was starting to question what the fuck he was doing.

When a man I had a utmost respect for, Colin Powell sat before the UN and held up a small vial and said just that much anthrax could hundreds of thousands of people I believed him.  When he went step by step and pointed out how Iraq was developing WMD’s, I believed him.  We had to attack him.  I was already sold on it actually.  I believed in the UN resolutions against Iraq that promised an attack if he failed to comply with those resolutions.  Clinton had let him slide on that for too long.  And, now Iraq is making WMD’s and supporting the terrorists of 9/11.  Well, enough was enough, he had to go, war was the rally cry and supported it completely.

Then something happened.  There was no WMD’s.  There was no ties to 9/11 terrorists until we went to war with Iraq.  It all had been lies!  Bush and Powell lied to our faces.  They used fear and intimidation to go to war and it worked perfectly.  I became ashamed that I was lied to like that.

Now, let me say, I know politicians lie.  The best you can do is vote is for the one that you think is lying to you the least and hope for the best.  I am realist, I understand that.  However, when you attack a country first, and your sole reasoning is based on a lie, well, that’s not only over the line, it’s criminal. After that I could no longer vote for Bush.

It didn’t matter though.  Bush won a second term to complete amazement.   It was no secret that he lied.  Not enough people cared.  Fear is a powerful motivator and when you party is telling to be afraid, no matter how many times they lied to you, they might be telling the truth this time so it’s better to be safe than sorry.  I get it now.  I am still ashamed of those who voted a second time for him.  But, I get it.

Even though Bush said that the hunt for Osama was no longer his number one priority he still won?  He lied, he waged an unjust war, supported torture and still he won?  Never underestimate fear as a motivator and always look twice at whoever is promoting it.

The Bush era finally came to an end with a historic election.  Americans were so fed up with the worst economy since the great depression that they not only voted for a liberal democrat, he was liberal and black!  If I was shocked a democrat won I was happily beside myself when it was a black man very little experience.  For the first time since Reagan was president I was proud of my country!  Sure I was always proud to be an American no president made me truly proud and hopeful since Reagan.

Change was theme and President Obama tried.  I mean, this president has been disrespected since the campaign trail and it only got worse after he won.   During the campaign they tried to tie him to domestic terrorism, hoping the key word terrorist would be enough to scare off voters.  The used his middle name in a bigoted attempt to scare off voters.  Republicans tried to say he wasn’t a christian, he was a Muslim. They even went as far as to claim that he wasn’t  born in the US.

Let’s talk about that for a minute if you don’t mind.  He had a copy of birth certificate posted on his website pretty much the whole campaign.  Republicans still claimed he wasn’t a natural born citizen.  The proof was there and they still didn’t believe it!  How fucking dense can some people be?  Even after proving the long form birth certificate, it wasn’t enough.  That was faked to they said.  Really?

I remember surfing YouTube.  There were hundreds of links to videos claiming to have audio or video proof that Obama wasn’t a natural born citizen.  So, you watch the video and every single was the same bullshit.  It was some dumbass saying that his video had been removed by YouTube or the government but in the actual video Obama said during a debate years earlier while running for the senate that he could never be president because he wasn’t born in the US.  Here’s the thing about that. It never happened!  Not only could never find that video or that audio, no one supposedly involved in the debate came forward.  No transcripts, no audio, no video ever came out.  Now really, if you’re so stupid that you still believe that.   How do you explain that?  Wouldn’t his losing opponent come forward?  Someone who was there?  Hundreds of video cameras, a televised debate and no one has a copy?  Really?  Well, the answer is simple, it never happened you morons!  Those involved said it didn’t happen.  So it never happened.  It was just lie told by an idiot that got repeated, and repeated until in some folks eyes, it became the truth.

The economy over the past 22 months or so steadily increased.  Fact!  It can not be denied.  Obama ended the war in Iraq his first term.  McCain said it couldn’t be done safely.  Obama did it.  Fact!  The terrorist, Muslim Obama gave the order to raid a small compound to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden.  Fact!

None of this is good enough for the republicans.  Bush couldn’t fix the economy, he couldn’t capture or kill Osama given at least opportunities that I am aware.  Instead he let him slide.  You can’t rule by fear if you catch the boogyman can you.  So he never went after Osama.

President Obama has done more in his first term to heal this country and it’s relations with the rest of the world than Bush Jr. did in two terms. Fact!  If you think differently, you’re an idiot.  But, don’t take my word for it.  As your friends to be honest with you and if they’re really your friends, they will tell you you’re an idiot.  And if you don’t trust my facts, look them up!  But, try legitimate news sources.

Now, President Obama is fighting for his second term.  He actually has to fight for it.  Really? He’s struggled with name calling, lies, and a total lack of respect from the republicans for the past 4 years and still he managed to get more done in one term than Bush could do in two.  How can it be that he has to fight so hard?  We should be thanking him!  But, no…  Republicans can’t have that.  They continue to lie and idiots continue to believe them.

Even recently, republicans lost it when an add came out for Obama.  It wasn’t Obama’s ad, it was just put together by his party.  Not him and yet republicans say he is gloating over killing Osama.  In my personal opinion, he should gloat.  Maybe if he gloats enough the republicans will finally grasp the big picture here.  Obama gave the order to capture or kill the greatest threat to America since Hitler.  He didn’t gloat about it.  He stood in an empty hallway and and announced on National TV that Osama has been killed.  He didn’t cheer, he didn’t high five anyone or give a thumbs up.  He didn’t jump on a jet, land on a battle cruiser for a photo op and then go on National TV with a banner behind him proclaiming, “Mission Accomplished” to cheers of the military.  No, that was Bush that gloated and gloated.  And sadly, the mission wasn’t accomplished, the war still raged on.  Damn that was a long war, how did that war finally end?  Oh, that’s right Obama ended it.

Now the big issue is same sex marriage.  That’s republicans new mission of fear.  It’s the end of humanity if we allow it!  Really?  Who, a struggling economy.  No one cares, it’s all about gay marriage now.

Now that you’ve accomplished all of this you’re going to want to let people know about it.  How do you go about doing that?  Do you just let your publisher handle it?  Build a website?  What about that Facebook and Twitter stuff?  So many things to think about.  Do you have to do them all?  There’s so many social sites, Google + is growing like mad, is it the new Facebook now?  How can I possibly handle posting on everyone of these sites?  What do I say?  Do I need a website?  Can I build it myself, I don’t want to spend a lot of money on it.  I just got my first book published I am not rich yet, I’m still broke and the rent is late.

Here’s some simple advice for you.  I am gonna speak the truth, it’s going to hurt you but bare with me here.  Take it with a grain of salt think about what I say, follow my advice and you’ll thank me later.  But, why should you listen to me?  It’s a good question and the mere fact that you asked that shows you’re not completely brain dead, there’s hope for you.

I have designed websites for authors for about the past 15 years.  I am not much into it now, there’s really only three authors that even deal with any more and only one of them is actually still writing new books.  The other two, they’ve gone in to that holding pattern of not writing because they aren’t making any money at it.  They both sit and wonder why.  I have told them for years why but they refuse to listen.  They are the author, they know best it would seem.  And yet they still aren’t making any money at writing, haven’t published in a few years but still they know best.  Amazing, how people so literate can be so god damn stupid.

Here’s what you need to do and it’s pretty simple, really.  Get over yourself.  You wrote a book, you didn’t cure cancer.  You battled your demons and you think you’ve won.  You just won a hard battle, you didn’t win the war.  You don’t know everything.  You might even be an idiot.  So stick with what you know, you write books, that’s your thing now.  Do that well and leave the thinking to others.

For example, if you don’t already have a website, you need one.  And, unless you can build a real website yourself, hire someone to do it for you, listen to them and spend some money on it.  Here’s the thing with websites, it’s your home base.  When your name is Googled or you book is Googled, you want that website popping up first.  Not Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble or even your publisher.  You don’t control what these places say about you.  You want that potential reader or fan to see what you want them to see.  If you’re writing hard crime mysteries and you have website filled with pink and blue and pictures of your dog and kids you’ve failed.  No body cares about you and your family, you’re not Dean Koontz or Stephen King yet.  You are selling your books first, you are selling an image, a mood that reflects your book or books.

I was just on Facebook before I started writing this article.  Had no plans to rant today but I see a link to a new book about vampires it sounded cute, Buffy meets the Gilmore Girls.  Never saw the Gilmore Girls but I love Buffy! So I check it out there and there’s this shitty Facebook page for the new book.  It links to a shitty site for the book.  I thought it was a joke at first.  I swear to god my first reaction to the site was, “Hey!  1994 called, it wants its website back!”  I am half tempted to post the link to website.  But, then I see why the site looks like shit.  It’s some lady, she’s gotta be in her late 40′s probably late 50′s or even early 60′s.  She’s sitting in front of a CRT monitor.  I haven’t seen one of those in like 5 years!

So what did that website tell me?  She didn’t care enough to spend any money it.  She didn’t care enough about the appearance of it.  In her typical cheap as fuck author thinking, “A website is a tool to get information across.”  What she doesn’t get is that first impressions matter.  People do judge books by their covers and no one is going to look at that site and buy anything she’s written.  It doesn’t matter that she has some fun and interesting information about her book and self on the website.  It’s presented in a boring cheap looking fashion.  The whole website says, “I am old, I am cheap, and I lack any philosophic depth of any kind.”

You see, even though this author chose to provide good information about the book.  What she didn’t do speaks volumes as my first impressions were that this chick is like a good 15 years or more behind the times.  There is nothing in this book that I am going to find interesting and the only people that are going to buy the book after visiting the website are the 8 other old slow people in the world.  The book is never going to be a best seller unless it’s like an amazingly good read.  And I nothing I have seen about this book says it’s going to be a good read.  It might be cute, it might even be decent but everything about it says cheap.  As if this isn’t a real author, just someone with an internet connection who published their own book.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.  But, look at it this way.  If you had a choice of spending 30k on a car.  Are you going to feel more comfortable buying one from a nice clean dealership that offers a warranty or from some dude with an add in the paper?

Make your readers feel comfortable.  Show them that you are a professional.  You can also tell them all you want but actions speak louder than words.  So show them.  Create a nice clean site that reflects your work.  It’s really that simple.

Now with respect to social media.  Here’s the thing.  You don’t need to be on every single one.  Pick a couple you feel comfortable with.  I tend to go with Facebook and Twitter.  They are the biggest right now so use them as a tool for promotion and fun.  Just make sure that you follow through with these things.  Don’t get a Twitter account and then never tweet a message or just drop one once or twice a week.  With Facebook.  Communicate with the fans.   Don’t just spam what’s new.  Give them hints at what you’re working on.  Answer some questions.  It’s a community, be a part of it and it will grow.

And use tools like YouTube.  My best author, just turned down a genius idea for promoting his work on YouTube.  I had been after him for months to fund this idea I had.  An idea for some videos that could go viral, at the very least would get his name out there.  He’s a successful author, his publisher keeps paying him to write new books so he’s doing ok.  His book are great.  But, most people I know have never heard of him.  They should know of him.  Hollywood should be churning out his books into movies like mad.  But, they are not.  He’s got a nice website, doesn’t update it as much as I would like but he’s doing ok.  It’s just that he’s reached a plateau.  This is a key place to be because from here it’s so easy to become complacent.  This is what I fear has happened.  He’s never gonna make the best seller list like this.

I recently read The Strain Trilogy by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. It was ok, it wasn’t great. In three medium sized books he didn’t capture half the drama and tension as Max Brooks did in World War Z. It wasn’t as flawlessly written as Z A Recht’s The Morningstar Strain. But, I heard of Del Toro’s trilogy. I saw it on the best seller list. You can search it on YouTube and he has videos for the books like it was a movie. Actual full scenes filmed right from the pages of the book.

His series was good. I would read more by him. But, there are better books out there that didn’t make the bestseller’s list. It’s sad but a little bit of promotion can go a long way. I offered to make some fun videos for my author to promote his book. For dirt cheap I could have done this but he just didn’t get it. I love this damn guy but he’s obviously not ready to take things to the next level. Are you?

If you’re not promoting your book and just expecting the publisher to do it, you are wasting your time. Word of mouth doesn’t just happen. You need to get people talking about it.

And, I have noticed a trend pretty much since 24 first aired.  ABC found some love with Lost and it was game over.  Everyone wanted some stupid show that never ends basically, every damn week is a cliff hanger.  Personally I am ok with this as I don’t watch Network shows when they air.  I wait all season, all damn summer and then by the DVD in the fall when it comes out.

Why do I do this?  A few reasons.  I hate commercials.  Well, not so much that I hate them.  More like there are just too damn many of them every hour.  I was able to tolerate it for most of my life.  Even when the dumb Networks started to copy fucking cable stations having to put their brand name in the corner of the screen. Such a fucking distraction.  I dealt with it.

But then, one night several years ago I actually stopped work, walking away from my PC, took two steps over to my comfy recliner and waited to watch a much hyped episode of NBC’s Law & Order SVU.  All god damn week they had been playing the episode up.  It was going to be better then the second coming of Christ!  So there I sit, the show starts, the stupid logo at the corner of the screen to remind all the stupid people what station they are watching.  I try to ignore it.  So far so good.

Then at the most traumatic point in the show.  You know that point where someone’s life is on the line, it’s life or fucking death and from the bottom left hand corner of the screen taking up close to a full quarter or the fucking screen is some advertisement for a new show!  Are you shitting me?  It wasn’t some scrolling text, no!  It was wavy lines of colors, two dipshit actors who are stars of the show pop up and are smiling at me, reminding me to watch their new show!  After that, I never watched another episode of anything on NBC or any other Network when it originally airs.  If they are going to disrespect me like that, then fuck them.  I will DVR some shit, I will by the rest on DVD but watch their shit fucking live?  Screw that!

But I digress, here’s the deal with what’s wrong now.  It seems that all networks want are fascinating concepts that would make a great mini-series or movie.  But, they don’t want it to be a mini-series or movie, they want this idea to be a TV show.  And, that means one thing!  FAIL!

Was is The Office still on the air?  Easy.  Even though I don’t like the show, I’ve seen like two episodes and I was so bored with it.  But, I get the humor, I get it, I just don’t enjoy it.  I totally see how others do enjoy it.  But, the reason it’s still on the air has nothing to do with how good it is.  It’s because it’s called The Office.  It is sold as a show about some people who work in this office.  It’s simple, it leaves rooms for great characters and that leads hopefully to great stories.  Great characters have to come first.  I don’t care how interesting the story is, if the characters suck the show will die no matter how good the idea of the show is.

Do you remember Cheers, Night Court, both of these shows were going to be cancelled but someone somewhere said, this is a good show, I don’t care if the ratings suck, we’re gonna keep the show, the audience will find the show soon enough.  And, what about these show made them special?  There was no tropical island or some mysterious critical event.  There wasn’t the end of the world as a threat.  It was just some fascinatingly fun people in a bar.  And, the exact same for Night Court except these fun interesting people were in Night Court!  You could go anywhere with ideas like these.  You weren’t limited to a ticking clock.

What got me started on this rant was the preview I saw for a new show on NBC I have no plans to watch.  It’s got a great idea.  And, when I first saw the promo I thought this is gonna be a great little mini-series right here!  Can’t wait to watch it already!  It’s about a guy who has an accident or something, his wife dies in and his son lives.  But, then he falls asleep and wakes up to find that his son had died in the crash but his wife is alive.  Every time he wakes up, he’s in another reality.  Cool!  But, no…  It’s not a mini-series.  They want to milk this great idea in to a TV series.  And, what does that mean?  If we’re lucky it will run for 5 to 7 years and he will never get any better and we won’t get any answers.  Really?

More than likely what is going to happen is that the show will run 5 or 6 episodes, with minimal ratings and be canceled.  Leaving every poor bastard stuck with no resolution.  In the world of Movie and TV, there’s nothing fucking worse than that.  I don’t care if the show is getting cancelled damn it.  If you’re going to cancel it, you have a fucking obligation to the poor bastards that invested all their time in watching your stupid show to at least write one more episode and tie it all up.

And, why would you want to do that?  Let me tell you since you dumb fucking executives are way too fucking stupid to figure it out for yourselves.  Everyone that loved the show is going to buy the DVD, all three of them.  But, if you can offer that DVD with un-aired episodes with a finale.  It’s gold, people that didn’t watch the show will buy the DVD, I will buy the damn DVD. Because millions of people just like me were waiting for the DVD in the first place but it got cancelled and why would we buy it now know that we’re going to be left hanging.

What I won’t do is by some DVD with the episodes that aired even if you offer me a few more that didn’t air.  I want some closure, just suck it up and make one last episode to wrap it up.  I promise you with an ounce or promotion you will make your money back on the DVD.  Honestly, let’s look at how many DVD’s I haven’t bought over the years because the networks were too fucking stupid to make a finale.

FlashForward: Really couldn’t wait for the next season so I could start watching it. But it got cancelled. No finale, I didn’t buy the DVD.

Bionic Woman: Man I couldn’t wait for this show. But the ignorant poor excuse for executives over NBC had no concept of DVR and Tivo and ITunes and all the ways people watched this show. But, no finale, no closure, I didn’t buy the DVD.

V: Didn’t buy the DVD.

Miracles: What a great show this was! Well done, well acted, completely believable. And, the network decided to cancel it of course due to poor ratings. But, let me tell you about how these exec’s were so fucking stupid they never gave the show a chance. It airs as I recall, in its time slot once or twice. Then, I believe we went to war in Iraq or something? So, the show was preempted a few weeks, then an episodes airs only to be preempted again by the Superbowl or some other big event. Then they changed nights. No one could find the show. It was never given a chance at all and they cancel it.

Invasion: Pretty fun show, made the mistake of watching a few of the episodes and of course got fucked when it was cancelled. Thanks for that one you dumb fucks!

Surface: Thanks NBC, you moronic bastards! Thanks for making me love Lake Belle! Than you convince her to leave Boston Legal for this hot new show that will rival Lost and then you fucking cancel it! Good job you idiots! Once again you show your blatant stupidity and lack of a fucking backbone.

The list goes on and on.  There’s more shows but I am tired already listing all the money you idiots left on the table. Huge shows, big budgets and you cheap bastards couldn’t come up with one more episode to finish it?  Did any of you even learn anything in business school?  Did you even go?  If you just cancel these shows, you’ve got nothing and what you’ve made is it.  You’re only hope to get any money back is to on the DVD sales.  Now, you want to sll the damn DVD.  Offer the un-aired episodes with a finally and throw some damn special features on it.  At least act like you give a shit about the DVD’s you’re asking us to buy.

I know people that just illegally download TV shows for this very same reason.  They bought TV shows on DVD only to find, there’s no special features?  No closure?  Nothing?   Just the shit you showed on TV and one or two episodes that do nothing but ask more questions and answer nothing?  I don’t blame them one bit.  You don’t deserve their money you cheap bastards.

Now, I will say that there are a lot of TV shows that get cancelled and don’t really need closure. Shows that aren’t serialized of course, there’s no need to give it a finale, I will probably still buy the DVD if I am interested in the show.

The show I was talking about, NBC’s new show is called Awake.  I should go back and it to the list of DVD’s I am not going to buy.  Because, I know what’s gonna happen.  6 episodes tops before people get bored, show canceled, no resolution.  Next fall the DVD comes out with one or two un-aired episodes and almost nobody buys it and the exec’s sit and wonder why.

There’s a shitload of great TV that got cancelled way before their time. We all know that. But, I know these executives aren’t watching the shows, they look at the numbers and they think that’s all there is to it. And, they couldn’t be more fucking wrong. Watch the show first, watch every episode and if you honestly think it deserve to be cancelled than fine, go for it, that’s what your over paid dumb ass gets paid for. But for the love of fucking God…  Please just let them make one last episode if needed to end the series.   This way we all can then buy it and look at it as just a great mini-series. Because if you don’t, you have nothing. The only people that are gonna buy it on DVD are the poor bastards that watched it on TV and really, really loved it. Everyone else is going to ignore it and think, if only they offered the un-aired episodes with a closing and maybe some special features.

So let me explain it to you morons out there. Whoever says numbers don’t lie, when it comes to TV, is an idiot and should be fired on the spot if that is their only reason for wanting to cancel a show. Here’s how it really works. There is so much to watch out there. I fill up my damn DVR in a couple of weeks. Then there’s all the DVD’s I buy of all the shows I didn’t DVR. The point being, ratings mean little at first. If a show is good, the people will find it. And right now, most people I know, never watch or rarely watch new shows for the same reasons I have stated already. It’s best and safest to just wait for the DVD because no one wants to invest their time in a show that is more than likely going to be canceled with no closure. It’s like saying, “Hey you want a baby? Great, you can have one. But, you have to give it up for adoption and never see it again. How’s that for you!” Well, to be honest, that really doesn’t work for me. So, how about you get your heads out of your ass and give us the closure we deserve.

So what are the lessons learned here today?  If you want the next Lost or 24, it’s really easy to do.  You come up with an idea for a show that is about some interesting characters and then put them in some extraordinary situations every week.  But, when you start a show with a premise that is about one thing, you very quickly have no where to go.  And, if you start one of these serialized shows, and your dumb ass decides to cancel it, just give it that one last episode to try to wrap it all up!  Then when you can release it on DVD in the Early spring, Summer or Fall, you can advertise it and sell the un-aired episodes and finale and people will buy it, if you come at it from the mini-series point of view.

Problem solved.

I have never complained that a show was too long.  In my humble opinion they are too short. Now, I don’t really care about every single category. But, lots of people do and I respect that.  And, I like to see what they have to say, there’s something hopeful about seeing the happiness of people getting an award that is pretty much considered the highest honor you can receive in the industry.  To actually be singled out by your peers as the best!  How cool is that.

So here are my suggestions for the Academy.  First and foremost, stop listening to the people complaining.  There is an old saying that the squeaky wheel gets the oil.  Though that may be true.  Life isn’t a bike and a squeaky wheel isn’t an opinion, it’s a fact, a problem in need of a solution.

In reality, people who complain are just that.  They are people who are so unhappy with their own life that they feel it an imperative that they have to infect everyone else with their unhappiness.  Don’t listen to these idiots, they are not the “General Public”.  They are not and have never been the majority.  The majority doesn’t write letters, they don’t complain, they just watch and have fun.

Next, speed up some of the less popular categories.  I have no problem watching them as I have already stated but there is a method to my madness here.  Knock them out quick and make them part of the un-televised portion.  So you can announce them and show some clips from it.

This leads up to the reason why you do that.  This is the biggest entertainment show of the year and there’s very little entertainment any more.  Why aren’t there more scenes from the top nominated films?  Why aren’t we seeing the songs and music being performed?  This is an awards show about fims, so make the show more like a film.  You need a beginning, middle and end to it.  You start out the show getting to know the characters (the movies).  It doesn’t matter if no one has seen the films, that’s the point of the show!  Introduce them the films to be honored, talk about them, show more clips.

As it is right now, it’s possible that by the end of the show a best picture nominee might have only had a clip of it shown once, maybe twice.  People need to care about every film.  When you go to see a movie, in most cases unless it’s a sequel or an adaptation of a book, no one knows the characters before the movie starts.  But, by the end of the film we do care, we can laugh and cry and even have our opinions changed or our thoughts and belief’s questioned.  That is the power of film and it is sadly lost at the Academy Awards because too much time is wasted on glitz and glamour.

The show should start by introducing us to the top 6 or so categories.  Best Film, Actors, Supporting, and Directing.  Picture this, the host does his number. Then he introduces last years winners for best supporting actor and actress.  They talk about this years nominees and what made their performances stand out.  Show clips from the work they are nominated for.  Next you go to best actors with the same format.  The previous years winners come out do the same for this years nominees.  Then the best director comes out, some format, talks about what a director does, why these nominated directors are special and so on, then more and different clips.  This leads into the best picture and have last years winner or winners come out.

This all will take up a good amount of time, 2o minutes, maybe more.  Then you segue with something like, “… But it takes more than just great acting and directing to make a movie, there’s sound and editing, special FX and costumes, set design to night we celebrate them all here!”

So you call out the presenters for the fist category, they step out and take a look at each film and announce the winner.  You knock out a few like this.  By now, we know who and what the top five films are and have announced some winners.  Then we take a look at one of the best pictures.  The director or producer, one of the actors, or all of them talk about the film, what they tried to accomplish with it.  Then some more awards.  Then we talk about the next best film nominee.  And we continue with this format until all the films have been talked about.  By now, even if we haven’t seen a film, we care about it.  We know about what went in to its making the movie.  And, most of all, we know about the movies nominated for best film even if we haven’t seen them.  We have listened to the actors and directors in the films.

Now we’re ready to care about who wins!  Even though we didn’t see The Artist, we know about the people in it, we saw clips, we know the actors, we saw the scenes and listened to those that made the film.  We have an interest in how it does.

I think this is what is missing from the show.

All that changed with George Bush.  I ashamed to admit it but I actually voted him the first time around.  I felt he was getting an unfair shake by the media.  They were making him look like a total idiot.  Damn that liberal media! I spent the next few years defending him on various forums.  I was believing the things he was saying, I was believing the fear and the hype.  I mean, we all had a pretty damn good reason to be afraid. 9-11 was no joke.  That shit freaked me out.

I was getting tired of defending the shit he was doing.  I realized I was making excuses for him and his office.  You see when Bush Jr. wanted to attack Iraq it was first and foremost because they were failing to comply with UN resolutions.  That’s what we were told.  The democrats weren’t jumping on board.  So suddenly, the story changed.  They never talked about the UN resolutions again.  Now, Colin Powell,  a man I had the utmost respect for was sitting before the UN with proof that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.  I was already sold on bombing the shit out of Iraq with the UN resolutions.  That was no lie, we should have bombed them.  But now, WMD’s?!  Holy shit, we need to attack now!  Wait, what’s that?  They are supporting terrorists?  OMG!  What are we waiting for!!!

By the end of Bush’s first term we learned that it was all lie.  Powell had lied to the UN, and to America.  Powell a once hero was disgraced in my eyes.  There was no connection to terrorism.  There were no WMD’s.  Bush just wanted to attack them.  So this country that I love waged an unjust war on a country that did not attack us and they lied their asses off to do it.  It seemed that every time Bush or Cheney opened their mouths another outrageous lie would spew out.

Cut to several years later and through some miracle Obama actually won and as is now our President.  Yes, I voted for him.  No I wasn’t one of his orgasmic supporters.  I didn’t think he was the best thing ever.  It’s just that he was the only one that made sense to me.  I couldn’t vote for Cain.  I think he is a great American, and a hero.  But, I couldn’t get past the fact that he voted with Bush Jr. something like 95% of the time.  The country was facing the worst recession since the depression.  The thought of 4 more years of Bush policies?  No fucking way!

Now, Obama made a lot of promises before he was elected.  He fought the roughest, cruelest campaign I have ever seen.  The republican party was so out of control, I was absolutely sickened by their tactics.  They did every thing they could to scare white America away from voting for him.  They tried to link him to terrorists. They tried to imply he was a secret Muslim.  They even started this crazy campaign that he wasn’t even born citizen of the US.  It was sickening.  I was so ashamed of my party.  I wanted no part of them any more.  They have lost their way and are being controlled now solely by the right wing crazies we all used to just shake our heads at. So I became an Independent.  I couldn’t be a democrat.  I just don’t believe in bigger government.

So where are we at now.  Well there’s those promises Obama made.  Over the past 4 years I have seen him fight tooth and nail against his own dumb ass party and against a republican party that has shown absolutely no respect for the President.  One of them even shouting out, while the President was speaking, calling him a lair.  And, to show how fucking stupid some of these republicans have become,  GOP Rep. Joe Wilson who committed the offense was wrong!  The President wasn’t lying.  To my surprise other republicans came to Obama’s defense and stated that Obama wasn’t lying.  Yet through all of that Obama was able to get some things done he said he would.  He got us the hell out of Iraq, is trying to get us the hell out of Afghanistan and he tried like to hell to get his health care bill passed.  Getting some of it passed but not all of it.

Not to mention, this liberal Muslim crazy man has shown amazing judgment in use of the military.  He has smacked the shit out of Somali Pirates at least twice that I know of.  Oh and he did something Bush refused to do, he found and killed Osama Bin Laden.

So what are the republicans doing now to beat Obama in the presidential race?  Well so far they are torn between three fucking looney extremists!  You got Mitt, he’s the sort of normal one.  That good looking guy that comes at you with a smile just before he stabs you in the back.  There’s Newt Gingrich, a confessed liar and cheater whose history implies that when things get rough, it’s best to cut and swim, just walk away from the problem and pretend it doesn’t exist any more.  Then we got Rick Santorum.  This fucking nutjob is fucking crazy!  He’s against a women’s right to choose in any case even rape!  This fucking loony bastard calls these babies, a gift from god!?  Are you shitting me?  This is what the fucking republicans are coming up with to beat Obama? Oh and to top it all off, all three of these fucking crazy bastards have promised to ban porn.  That alone should make every American stand up and just laugh at these bastards.  They are fucking crazy and if you believe anything these fucking guys are saying than you’re fucking crazy too.  How did it all come to this.  When did crazy become a political voice?  When did politicians start listening to them?  When did the politicians become them?

I don’t want to tell anyone who to vote for this November.  All I ask is that is that you question everything you read about politics.  Look I am just some guy sitting at his computer ranting.  I don’t claim to have all the answers here.  I can at times be wrong.  But, I at least question things. I ask you to do the same.  Don’t read what I have said and believe it.  Look it up.  When Obama says something, look it up!  Is he telling the truth?  And check more than one source.  And get opinions from different news sources.  By that I mean, don’t look up something a candidate said on FOX News and then look it up on some other conservative website.   Of course they are going to both confirm or deny.  The same with some of the more liberal media sources.  See what they have to say about the same thing, and try to hard to find independent news sources.

The news is hard come by today because FOX News and MSNBC don’t really report the news.  Most of their shows are not news, they are opinion.  Just as this blog is an opinion.  Just because they are talking about the news doesn’t mean what they say is fact.  In fact FOX News is so bad, they actually went to court and won their case that allows them to basically lie about anything they want.  Seriously look it up!  So remember most of these networks do not report the news they respond to it with opinion made to sound like the news.  For example.  A reporter would state what happened, who, what, where, why and when.  ”At 4:30 pm a man attacked and bit a dog.” That’s news.  ”At 4:30 pm a crazy man bit a dog.”  That is opinion.  We don’t know the guy is crazy? Just because he sounds crazy because he bit a dog doesn’t mean he’a crazy.  He could have been starving, maybe he hadn’t had a meal in days and he had no choice but to eat a dog?

Ban porn, are you kidding me. OMG, republicans, get out of my life.  Get out of my bedroom!

Nope as it turns it, the article is about some girl who made a joke.  Really?  Our lives have become easy and simple that all people have to protest about now is a fucking joke?  This is the big moral problem?  It was joke?  That’s all.  Sure it was in bad taste, that’s what makes it funnier to some people.  And, what was this girls big joke?  Did she make a joke threatening to kill Chris?  Did she make a joke threatening to kill Rihanna?  Did she make a joke about both and throw in wanting to kick puppies?  Nope, she just said, “I’d let Chris Brown beat me any time.”  I get it, it was cute, it was a little funny.  It was a joke.  If you don’t like it, don’t fucking laugh at it.  But for gods’ sake don’t bitch slap the women telling it.

I am reminded of a time several years ago.  My mother had this Toyota Rav4.  It was really old.  The rear door was actually a door and not a tailgate and window.  So it opened out like a door and the little min-hydraulics that should hold it open had long since stopped working.  In Southern California, in the small city of Rialto when it gets windy, it’s no joke.  My mother had just been shopping and was bringing in the groceries.  She opened the back door of the Rav4 and started to grab some bags.  The wind blows, the door sings shut and slams into her eye.  She gets this horrible bruise.

I get a call from mother telling me about it and how now my father doesn’t want to go anywhere with her until it heals so people don’t think he’s beating her.  I explain that I don’t blame him and we laugh about it.

A few days later my mom calls again, she wants to go shopping, I need to pick up some things so I think, cool, I will go with her.  I drive over to her house and pick her up.  As soon as she walks out of the house I see that black eye.  I think shit!  Now everyone is going to think I beat her!

Sure enough everyone is looking at me as I walk with my mother through the store.  By the time we get to the checkout stand I can’t stand it any longer.  I had asked her a question, I don’t recall what it was.  Something like, “Didn’t you get chips?”  She nods her head “No” and I shout back, “Women!  Don’t make me tell you again!”  We both just start laughing and I am sure everyone else had no idea what just happened. But, we just laughed and laughed.  it was a joke.  We weren’t condoning anything, it was just a joke.  It wasn’t a comment on society or a support of violence against women.

Some jokes are just so wrong they are funny.  I believe there is a fine line between what is funny and what is not.  However, I don’t think anyone person should be left as judge, jury and joke police.  There are a lot of people in this world that I don’t think are funny.

Few comedians were as bad as one of my all time favorites, Sam Kinison.  For Christmas one year I got this Sam Kinison DVD set. It had three of his biggest stand up events.  A ton of special features by family and friends.  At the time I had gotten this, it had been about six months since I had a break up with women that I loved dearly.  She broke my heart, cheated on me, was an alcoholic and she was married.  The relationship was doomed from the start.  But, you can’t help who you love.  I hadn’t smiled much in that six months since I left her.  But, that Christmas Eve, I got home and put on that DVD.  His first special, the best one.  I hadn’t heard it in years and I never laughed so hard in my life.  It was such a release.  His comedy was so wrong but damn it, he was funny.  I was in tears laughing so hard.

The other two stand up specials on the disks weren’t that funny to me.  Even with my anything goes sense of humor, I found it to be not so much funny as just mean spirited.  That kinda humor, I don’t like.  I am not sure what makes one joke about some kinda abuse funny and another mean spirited.  So, for me, I don’t analyze it much. I personally feel the intent behind a joke is what makes it funny.  It can be “racist” or “sexist” as long as the intent behind it I feel isn’t racist or mean spirited.  For example, one of my favorite jokes is about Helen Keller.  ”Why couldn’t Helen Keller Drive?  Because she’s a woman!”  Now, I think women can drive just fine.  But, there is a stereo-type about them being bad drivers.  I get it!  Now, that same joke could be told by someone who really believes all women are bad drivers. Someone who really hates women, he could tell the joke and it changes the whole thing.  It would go from being funny and absurd to not so much a joke but a social commentary on a woman’s ability to drive.

So for the most part, I don’t try to over analyze jokes, if it makes me laugh than it’s funny, if it doesn’t than it’s not.  However, if I don’t laugh at it, I don’t go shouting to the world about how said comedian isn’t funny and mean spirited.

I just find it sad that in this day and age the best some idiots can come up with is to use a joke to bring attention to their cause.  Shame on them.  Their actions are disgusting.  There’s a difference between telling a joke about domestic violence and actually beating the shit out of a women.  And, if you’re too stupid to see that, then obviously you’ve never had the shit beat out of you by some dude.  Or, you have, and in that case, you really are an idiot because you actually think a bad joke is just as bad as domestic violence.

The point to all of this is that for the most part, a joke is

 just a joke.  It’s the wrongness of jokes that usually makes them funny.  When ”Henny” Youngman joked, “Take my wife, PLEASE!”  It was just a joke, he really didn’t want you to take his wife. He loved his wife and they stayed married till her death.  When Ralph Kramden joked, “To the Moon Alice!”  He wasn’t really going to beat his wife.  It was just a joke by a fictional character on an old TV show.  These are
classics of comedy here and what Sarah did is no different!  So get off her back you moronic, hypocritical idiots!

Most of you are nothing but attention whores and I refer specifically to Dana Edell, the Executive Director of SPARK and Jennifer Pozner the director of the media analysis group, Women in Media &
News.  Your comments on the topic are shallow and self-serving.  You should however be proud of your attention whore status.  I guess if a man abuses a women mentally or physically it’s a problem.  But, when you two attacked Sarah and the others who made similar comments, it’s all good.  You’re hypocrites and so much worse than just a bad joke, because you actually meant the shit you said.

Discovery Channel and Animal Planet are two of my most favorite stations. ” Dirty Jobs”, “Animal Cops”, “Mythbusters”, “Man, Woman, Wild”, “Deadliest Catch” and even “Bear Grylls”. Some fun, entertaining shows and most of them are most of important of all, educational.  Then there’s the total crap shows, Finding Bigfoot, Lost Tapes and a few others. Shows with so much potential but are ruined with misinformation and stupidity.

Now, I will admit that as bad as Lost Tapes is, I totally enjoy the show.  I know it’s fake, I know these aren’t real videos of real peoples last moments.  I get it.  However, people are for the most total morons and believe everything they see when it’s presented as a truth.  I assure you that there are a lot of people that watch Lost Tapes and believe it’s all real, I have met them.

I was in Laughlin maybe a year ago.  Sitting as usual at my black jack table  when two young Latino guys also at my table were talking to a third guy who was talking to the dealer about Vampires.  Now, it wasn’t a deep conversation.  It was actually just small talk about the Vampire Diaries I believe.  I was too busy unsuccessfully counting cards to pay much attention when one of the Latino kids says, “No man, Vampires are real! I saw it on Animal Planet, yo!”  His friend then jumps in and says something like, I saw this special, they found these tapes yo.  This family was terrorized by this monster vampire!”

I understand that Animal Planet implies the show is a complete fake by saying that the show is inspired the thought that such animal do exist.  But, they have got to understand, stupid don’t get that.  Hell, I didn’t get it at first either.  I watched the first episode and was blown away, I thought, “How in the hell did I never hear of this chick on a boat?”  I immediately went online and found so many others looking for answers as well.  After finding forum after forum with the topic, I found one that said it never happened.  It explained the myth and I was pissed!  How Animal Planet put out this war of the worlds type bullshit?  Then I saw another episode again and I paid more attention to the opening, “Inspired by the possibilities that animals like this exist.” Now I just think it’s a fun, entertaining show.  I just wish they’d make it more clear to us idiots that the show is just for fun.

Finding Bigfoot.  This takes stupidity and ignorance to a whole new level. Matt Moneymaker scares me. He can’t be as big of an idiot in real as he appears on the show. In every single episode this guy makes the most outrageous claims based on hearsay, conjecture and “eye witness reports”, oh and of course the occasional footprint. He really needs to learn about the scientific method. Now, I don’t claim to be a scientist but at least I have a the vaguest idea of how to research, document and conduct experiments. I know enough to know that just because you don’t have an answer for something doesn’t mean it’s Bigfoot.

This moron, just wants to believe in the creature so bad that he has lost all objectivity. This is how pretty much every show goes. Matt and his team show up and talk to some witnesses. Immediately Matt is convinced there is a Bigfoot out there. Next they take the witness out to the field and they get the big man Bobo to run, jump, skip or crawl in some manner that the “eye witness” saw the Bigfoot move. When Bobo can’t match it, Matt declares that it’s obviously a Bigfoot. If Bobo can match it, Matt pretty much ignores it and continues on until he gets to something that they can’t explain and then will declare that it’s a Bigfoot.

I would so love to go along with these people for a few trips if anything to add some objectivity to the show. The “scientist” on the show Ranae Holland never seems to get her objections listened to. Maybe the just edit them out? But, I can’t believe someone with a science researchers background like her’s isn’t laughing at him non-stop for Matt’s outrageous claims.

This show has so many possibilities but Matt’s total ignorance of science is just so laughable it makes the show a total joke. I want to like it, I want to believe in Bigfoot. I want to believe the possibility of that and so much more. But, I am not going to jump on the “It’s a Squatch!” Bandwagon based on the evidence presented in this show because Matt righteously announces that everything he hears is proof!

It doesn’t matter what the kids were protesting.  It doesn’t matter if they right or wrong in their ideology.  It doesn’t matter if I think they are just dumb college kids.  It doesn’t matter if I am wrong about them.  The only thing that matters in this case is did the cop, Lieutenant John Pike or one of the other officers give a lawful order to  disperse.  If so, then the police were completely justified in their use of pepper spray.  End of story.

I will be the first to agree that it looks bad.  I don’t see that it looks violent in any way but I agree it really doesn’t look good at all.  But, cops have the unfortunate job of having to do ugly things every day.  Cops are a like nature.  People want to see them as some cosmic force of just and good.  They are not, they can not be and never will be. They have to uphold stupid laws written stupid moronic liberals and just flat out borderline retarded conservatives.

It is impossible to enforce any law in a peaceful and beautiful way if someone wants to resist it.  It’s always going to get ugly.  Hence they are like nature.  People have this unreal of view nature. People will look at a lioness and her cubs playing in a majestic looking all natural field and find it beautiful.  Nature at it’s best.  But, the same hypicrate will turn their head in disgust when said lioness and her cute cubs are covered in blood as they rip apart eat beautiful gazelle alive.

Do you remember the 60′s?  I was only alive for the last year of them.  So I don’t actually remember them but I do know a little about them.  I remember seeing kids protesting in college and being beaten brutally because they failed to disperse.  And, at that time, cops didn’t have much in the way of crowd control.  Things like this just weren’t expected on a school campus.  They didn’t have mace, hell I don’t even think it was invented until 1965.  I am sure it wasn’t used on the force until the very late 60′s and even though I would imagine it was only used by the larger agencies, LA, NY but most smaller city and sheriff’s departments I am sure couldn’t afford it until the mid to late 70′s.  But, my point here is.  Mace and Pepper Spray are used now as a non-lethal and non-violent solution to crowd control.

Another thing to remember is that resisting arrest in the most peaceful Gandhi of ways, is still resisting arrest.  Cops are trained in use of force tactics.  And at what level to use them.  It all starts with the cops presence and words.  Their presence and a verbal order is the first level.  Some agencies will consider putting hands those resisting and the next step.  This is considered to be grabbing, wrist locks and other simple ways to gain compliance.  The next step would be pepper spray.  If that doesn’t work now we’re talking an actual fight, fist punching, kicking, throws and so on.  If that doesn’t work than, they move on to non-lethal weapons, batons, rubber bullets, things of that nature.  When that fails, out come the guns and the problem is solved. However, the the order doesn’t have to go like that.  Cops, can skip levels if they feel the need.  And, crowd control is one of those times it’s best to skip a level.

But wait?!  Those kids were just sitting down damn it!  They were threatening anyone’s safety!  How can you justify a jump in use of force like that?

Well it’s easy actually.   There’s this thing called mob mentality.  You can take the most calm people on earth and stick them in a crowd and the vast majority of them will follow the crowd no matter what.  All it takes is for one idiot to jump off and start throwing punches and panic can and usually does ensue.  Had those cops started to grab those kids and dragged them outta there first, it’s quite possible one of them would have overreacted and started throwing punches.  If I am bent over grabbing some kid and trying to remove him.  I am now left vulnerable to the rest of the kids.  It just takes one of them to jump up and hit me.  As much as those cops have a responsibility to protecting those kids, their own personal safety is going to come first.  It’s not just the way they are trained, it’s human nature.  Pepper spray was the next logical step.  It’s non-lethal, it doesn’t leave scaring and it keeps the cops from beating the kids and the kids from beating the cops.

Can you just imagine if they had pepper spray in the 60′s?  Instead of kids that refused to follow lawful commands getting the crap beat out of them, a few shots of pepper spray and problem solved.  The world would never have had to seen photos like this…

John Filo's iconic Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Mary Ann Vecchio, a 14-year-old runaway, kneeling in anguish over the body of Jeffrey Miller minutes after he was shot by the Ohio National Guard.

I know I sound like I am having some kinda pout session.  I am not.  I just am bored.  I can’t do anything I want to do, I’m broke, not homeless broke, I mean I can go put gas in my car or get some food.  I just mean, that what I want to do. Go on some long ass drive cross country and see shit, I can’t do.  It costs so much money just to drive.  I want to make some extra money but no one wants to pay me to do what I want to do.  I’ve worked doing things I don’t like to do so and have no plans to do that again.  It’s just not worth it.  Some people think it is, but it’s not.  I have a job, it pays, I am ok with it.  If I am gonna do something for extra money, it’s gonna be something I want to do.  The key to happiness is finding something you want to do and then find a way to get paid to do it.

Anyways, so why rant, no one’s paying me for it.  And since no one’s listening, why bother?  I think that’s my point.  I just need to figure out a way to get people’s attention, and then figure out how to get them to spend money on me.  Then I guess I’d be happy.

Now, if you don’t mind I need to upload a photo or two.  I just upgrades my blog software and uploading images is supposed to be “easier than ever!”  We’ll see about that!

Some women can marry a guy, have a kid, and still make her husband feel like he’s important. Now, men know we’re not important but we’re fragile creatures so it’s awesome when a women can fake that she really gives shit about us after having kids. When they can’t fake it, divorce happens, or the guy stays married, cheats and eventually becomes a serial killer. I did all three. But, that’s another story….

This is about stupid things I’ve done. So back to Jen and I. By this time I wasn’t working any more. I wasn’t cop any more, I hadn’t yet started selling cars. I was depressed, but was too young and stupid to realize it. So I spent months spending every day with the girlfriend. She eventually moved in. She worked I gambled to pay the bills. Really! I actually did ok for a while. But, my luck changed. I could win for anything. Every trip to Laughlin ended in defeat.

We would stay at the Ramada Express. It’s now the called the Tropicana. If we were lucky we’d get the room comp’d and maybe a nice lobster dinner. This one trip, we were broke, had enough for gas money home, not even any food money. So I get this bright idea. I am gonna get our meal for free!

In our room, I break a glass. I take a sliver of the glass with me. I put it in some tissue and into my pocket. We walk across the street to the Colorado Belle. We head upstairs to their diner and order our meal.

I had it all planned out. Towards the end of the meal, I very slyly take the sliver out of the tissue. I poke it in to my lip and gums, enough to make me bleed. I reach for my glass and bring it to my lips and then as the waitress is walking up to the table, I drop the glass on the table and say, “Ouch!” It was very convincing, I didn’t scream it, just said it loud enough that if the waitress wasn’t watching me, she would be now.

She immediately comes over to my table and I say that something cut my lip. I reach to my mouth and between my lip and gums I pull out the tiny glass sliver on my finger. “Is that glass! Did I just cut myself with a broken glass!” The waitress looks horrified and says she’ll come back with the manager.

A few moments later the waitress and manager are back. He’s looking at me suspiciously. I can’t figure out why. I don’t look like a criminal, I was well dressed and my performance was first rate I must say. I keep it up saying things like, “Do I need a shot?” “Our meals are ruined!” The girlfriend got in to it to saying, “I’ve lost my appetite now.”

The manager still looking at me suspiciously and says, “I am very sorry this happened, I can’t imagine how it happened. Sir, do you still have the sliver?” I show it to him on the table in it’s little napkin. He inspects it. He looks confused, then says, “Sir, allow us to comp your meal. But, I just don’t get it.”

I ask him what’s not to get? Glass, cut, blood, it’s pretty simple. Still looking at me. The manager replies, “Well, it’s just that your drinking glass is plastic. We don’t serve any drinks in actually glass. I can’t imagine where it would have come from.

“Well I don’t know where the hell it came from either! But, I do know that I am bleeding and I am not in the habit of spontaneous bleeding! Jen, let’s go!”

We left 5 bucks on the table for the waitress and got the hell out of there before the manager figured it out.

Lesson learned here. When attempting to scam a free meal with the old sliver of glass trick. Make sure the establishment actually has glass in it.