Holy schmoley, Batman: AVATAR rocks the world!

If you haven't seen it, don't miss it. Yes, you'll likely see the plot development a mile away, but the execution is exquisite, the universe created is breathtaking, and the art form of "motion capture" in the 3-D world as we know it has just taken one giant leap into a new dimension -- this is a paradigm shift in the special effects cosmos and motion capture will never be the same. Forget about lame attempts such as Beowulf and the awkward efforts of 3-D to date to master motion capture and make animated humanoids "realistic." To date, their mouths were inadequately made to create the illusion, their eyes could not express emotions, their facial "muscles" all but didn't electronically exist. AVATAR has changed the game, invented all new rules, thrown out the umps and the refs that said it couldn't be done. Find out for yourself!

They just WON'T show me the money...!

A certain bank of our great country sent me a form letter saying "If you're current on your mortgage and have not been late with any payments for 12 months, you can take advantage of mortgage modification to lower your interest rate, especially those homeowners whose houses have dropped significantly in value." HEY! That's me! In my never-ending quest to keep my credit rating healthy (I am such a sucker), I'll go without before I'll be late on my mortgage... I'll skip eating out and pass by that big 'ol flat screen TV on sale or avoid tooling around burning up gas to sightsee, keep my 2005 car in good shape so I don't have to buy a new one and have a car payment, etc. etc. ... You get it.

Well lemme tell ya, kids -- the letter's a great big ol' phoney come-on and in reality, unless you're months BEHIND in your mortgage, no one will actually help you. You pay your bills on time? You struggle to meet that 7% mortgage? Fugheddaboudit, you're penalized and punished and ignored by any and all "help" programs! If you're not a deadbeat, become one quick they tell you slyly ("Now I would NEVER advise you to stop making your mortgage payments, but...."). There's a $2500 commission in it for them if you do fall behind and they get to "modify" your mortgage!

Where's the reward in good citizenship and commited stewardship of your money? Where's the reward in raising financially responsible children and being a strong link in the community chain of supply and demand, paying for goods and services that in turn generate the multilayed income through private citizens and businesses that feeds and houses strata after strata of our society?

When will those of us footing all the bills for those that don't, climb up and scream from the rooftops, I'M MAD AS HECK AND I'M NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANY MORE!!!" I'm getting my ladder out as we speak.

Surrounded by Turkeys ? YIKES !!!

Somebody PUHLEEEEZE roll me over and help me sit up after all the appetizers and crudites, hors d'oeuvres, pate' and cream cheese-scallion balls, followed by the golden browned, gorgeous juicy turkey, herb & veggie stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, quiche lorraine, carrot/turnip souffle, buttered beets, asparagus with hollandaise, oyster dressing, cranberry sauce, heavy cream coleslaw, candied yams in navel oranges, green bean 4-cheese casserole, and pies, pies, pies, etc.

I have to ask though -- where along the line, exactly, did so many Americans lose Thanksgiving's original and fundamental premise? The pilgrims gave thanks to GOD for their blessings and shared their "riches" with the native Americans who helped teach them the tricks of growing corn etc. in their adopted homeland this side of the Big Pond. We joined a hungry crowd partying at a neighbor's home on Thanksgiving and, yes, it was festive and delicious but no one dared "say Grace" or pray over the meal, thanking the ultimate Creator of it all for it all ... Good grief, our Pilgrim forbears would hang their heads in shame.

Screamin' Mimi !

I just don't get it: When you see people smoking, does it make you want to SCREAM "How stupid ARE you?!?!" My mother died young ... alcoholism and cigarettes did her in at the age of 38, ending up with emphysema, bronchitis, cirrhosis of the liver and worse... I was fortunate enough to get a wonderful stepmother but then she too died before her time as a lifelong smoker who ended up with COPD, emphysema, etc. She spent the last two years of her life basically slowly suffocating to death while awake as her ability to breathe lessened and lessened. Hundreds of panic attacks and trips to the emergency room, more and more frequently until she too was gone... Along came the next stepmother, and happily, turned out to be a healthnik who not only keeps herself in good condition but rides herd on my father to keep him on his game, thereby adding no doubt another decade or two to his life.

The point of this tirade is to ask anyone reading this, to help me understand HOW reasonably intelligent people can still pick up a cigarette and inhale that poison into their lungs, seeing the havoc it wreaks on people all around them... people tugging along their "portable" oxygen tanks with tubes in their noses, people sitting on buses or in public places with disgusting wet and plegmy gacking coughs, people with stained fingers and yellow teeth, bad breath, and homes/cars that smell so bad you wonder how they can stand it? Then there are our coworkers: with their hair and clothes reeking of the stink of smoking getting into the elevator on the job after having their "fix" on their break...

On the other hand, we have the most intrusive government in history, forcing us to do myriad things 'for our own good' from wearing seat belts, recycling, contributing to social security and countless other government mandated behaviors required by law, and YET they allow cigarettes to be packaged and sold (and taxed of course) knowing definitively that these products sicken and kill. Is this some sort of devious "culling of the herd" ?

Studies abound about how smokers have higher absenteeism and lower productivity in the workplace, how their exponentially multiplying illnesses as they age tax the health care system and consequently DRIVE UP THE COST of health insurance for the rest of the population. And still, these insidious ciggies are up there on the shelf to be bought in every imaginable location from convenience stores to the grocery stores, and parents are passing along their ADDICTION to their children and family members through second-hand smoke.

I just don't get it... Do you?

Money Makes the World Go 'Round

Life's not exactly a Cabaret these days, but the truism from one of that musical's most memorable songs is burning in my brain nonetheless. I ponder over many a quaint and curious volume of blather from the Internet as well as mainstream media, about the bailouts, the TARP, the rescue programs, grants, ad infinitum ad nauseum, and I still want to know: Why is the simple and most straight forward solution ALWAYS ignored by government? Instead of directly giving banks billions of dollars that they now refuse to lend to needy borrowers or use to offset cashflow cramps from negotiating down burdensome mortgages for those in financial desperation ... WHY didn't the government instead give vouchers to homeowners (American citizens over the age of 21 with social security numbers and a history of filing tax returns) for specific/restricted use only to bring their mortgages current (thereby avoiding all the foreclosures and short sales) and those vouchers then be paid by the government to the banks ... The banks would have STILL received the billions of dollars, but their books would be in the black, the mortgages would be current and the homeowners saved from rack and ruin, by their very own tax dollars doing the trick ....

Same thing with General Motors and the auto industry (is it ME??? Am I the crazy one?): take those billions upon billions of dollars and give, again, the tax-paying American citizens with social security numbers, vouchers good only for use in the purchase of a new American made automobile... The inventory would have FLOWN off the lots, the car manufacturers would have geared up production to all-time historic highs, the car buyers would have reliable transportation that produced American jobs (thereby driving payment of income tax and social security taxes etc.), and, in the end, the auto manufacturers would have been "bailed out" by having their profits soar, the inventories turn like proverbial hotcakes, their rank and file earn a great living, and so on and so on... Even the under-the-radar illegals that live here numbering in the gazillions (or thereabouts) would find a whole new selection of used cars available on those second-hand car lots with low price affordability as that market was infused with serious new inventory as well from the trade-ins!!! Seriously folks, am I the ONLY one who thinks of these things?