Gen. Stanley McChrystal

If George Bush was President, I wouldn't be hearing all variety of talkers from the Right make excuses for Gen. Stanley McChrystal's comments. They'd be foaming at the mouth and calling for his destruction.
I'm not smearing all. Some are rather consistent.
Sure, nearly all are agreeing, if not grudgingly, that his removal was justified. But the overall tone is definitely different from what I was expecting.

The whole mess is unfortunate for the nation on a few levels.
But I don't know what misfortune is greater: That a man with a career as stellar as McChrystal's could be so careless with his professionalism, or that a man as careless as McChrystal could have had such a stellar career.

"America". Define this word.

(I'm just interested in what other people think.)

Winter's Bone

For those who do not know me: It's not likely that I would pass on a movie set and filmed in the Ozarks, so this one was a 'must see'.

Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) is a 17yr old mountain girl on a quest to find her not-good-for-much meth-cooking father, who put the family's cabin and land up for bond during his latest drug arrest. He's now gone missing, and she's got to find him, lest her little brother and sister and crazy-whacked emotionally comatose mother are cast out into woods.

Along the way she struggles to act as mother, protector and provider to her siblings, while enduring a life of crushing hillbilly poverty.

A little at a time, at threat to her own life, she begins to pull the loose ends together, grabbing clues where she can, dealing with some dangerous folks in an outlaw community where everybody knows something, nobody knows anything, talking is forbidden, and you best not ask.
She's determined, a survivor above anything else, who won't take heed or back down when she hits another dead end.

• The film is strikingly real in it's realism. There are no overdone settings. It's as if they filmed within the actual homesteads of real Ozark rural dwellers. You can't fake what this camera saw. The clutter, the dust, and the grime. It's too subtle to be any other way.

• Panoramic/scenery shots are not included. The Ozarks are known for their beauty, but none of this is included. It's not part of the story. Instead the camera films in close, capturing the people and dialogue, warts and all, in such an intimate way that draws the viewer into the drama, instead of as a spectator. It is as your own eye would see and focus on if you were there in the room, and not peeking through the window.

• The gun culture is on full unabashed display, with zero swagger. Nobody is walking around with a .45, or wielding an AK-47. Firearms are tools of survival first. And is why everybody is not far from a shotgun or squirrel rifle. It's real, and not 'movie-like'.

• There are no teeth-deficient "Deliverance"-types. No cliched presentations of what Hollywood thinks a hillbilly is, how they dress, or how they talk.

• My favorite scene: Ree is teaching her siblings how to prepare the squirrels they just caught... in graphic detail. The camera gets in close. I've cleaned enough squirrels to tell you... these were real squirrels, freshly dead, with real guts and intestines spilling out around that knife.

• Jennifer Lawrence is a very attractive young lady playing the lead. Yet, all of these good-looking looks are overlooked if not completely ignored. The story is the story, and this mission is never forgotten. She's also on camera for nearly every minute, and does such a fine job. Once again, it's the subtleties. The lack of obvious 'acting' that makes her role here so good. She is the character, and not playing the character. Very natural.

I don't recommend this one for everybody. Some movies are designed to entertain, while others tell a story using the artistic medium. This is of the latter. It may be the best film, from an artistic merit, that I'll see this year... and I've still got six months to go.

Maybe even two years.

Winter's Bone, official site Check it out.

And They Just Might Name An Ice Cream After Him

Link

An American construction worker detained in Pakistan while on a solo mission to kill Osama bin Laden claimed on Wednesday that he was obeying an order from God to avenge the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, said Pakistani security officials...

Gary Brooks Faulkner said God revealed the order in one of his dreams, prompting him to travel to Pakistan in search of al-Qaida's leader, said two security officials, one of whom is part of a team of investigators questioning the American...

Catching bin Laden was 50-year-old Faulkner's passion, his brother Scott Faulkner said.

A devout Christian with a prison record, Faulkner has been to Pakistan at least six times, learned some of the local language, and even grew a long beard to blend in, relatives and acquaintances said.

"Our military has not been able to track Osama down yet. It's been 10 years," Scott Faulkner told reporters in Denver.

"It's easier as a civilian, dressed in the local dress, to infiltrate the inside, the local people, gain their confidence and get information and intel that you couldn't get as an American soldier, Navy SEAL, whoever you might be."...

So, this guy thinks disguising himself as Jerry Garcia will get him to where he wants to go.
He's not really that far out as our Special Forces teams also forego shaving and hygiene when deploying to Afghanistan.

But seriously, this Gary Faulkner guy cannot be allowed to continue on his plan.
Can you imagine the egg-on-face of three previous administrations after untold thousands of Special Ops, drone strikes, year-long deployments for our military, and xillions of dollars fail to accomplish what one man, on a mission from God, might do?

Our governement could never live that down.

Now I'm thinkin... Who says 'drones' need to fly? or that Special Ops need be all that specialized? This guy may have the stones to go where he wants, and we already know he's crazy enough to try.
Personally, if I were calling this one, I'd shove a Lojack up his backside and send him on his way, guided by God as he says.

And why not? We've tried everything else.

Nature Is A Mother

Mission Viejo is a city located at the southern end of Orange County. A little on the upscale side, it was carved out of hillsides and part of the plan included green belts, lots of park lands, and all that other greenish nature stuff city people like when they can afford to pay for it.

For years, I've read about city council meetings attended by angry residents demanding coyote control. These people don't seem to understand that when you live surrounded by nature, nature has a habit of appearing in your backyard to make a meal out of your family pet.

Years, and years... pet owners crying. Do something! Do something!
Stupid people. I actually knew one woman who, now get this...
bought bags of dog food to throw over the fence into the canyon behind her home. Why? To keep the 'yotes out of her yard.
She didn't think it was funny when I suggested it might be more effective if she threw her (latest)dog,(latest)cat, and her pet bunny over the fence instead, and never replaced them.

I'm not sure if the city ever got their coyote problem(?) under control, but apparently in at least neighborhood the coyotes need to be brought back because now Mission Viejo officials have given the go ahead to a homeowners association in a gated community here to control its rabbit population by shooting the animals with pellet guns.

When will they learn?

Now would be a good time to get a little creative and submit a claim for losses from the oil spill.

Jobs American (Kids) Won't Do (But Should)

Department of Education officials are investigating after students at a Bronx school claimed they were forced to clean toilets as a punishment.

Some students at In-Tech Academy in Kingsbridge say they were assigned janitorial duties as part of their detention as recently as last week.

"After school the principal came in with the inspector lady and she was like 'Oh, everyone has to pitch in and clean the toilets and stuff.' So we was cleaning them and we had to clean around them and nasty, it was just mad nasty," said one student.

"Like that's not cool, like making kids clean toilets like that's not how that should go," said another student.

The DOE says if the allegations are true, appropriate action will be taken.

The text is the link.

If you ask me, it's a not a good sign when unruly teenagers are not expected to clean up their own crap.
Why not, is that supposed to be the wetback's job?
If you ask me, a spoiled generation of kids are the ruin of a great people.
Next time, give them toothbrushes.
And no texting allowed til the job is finished.

A beneficial side effect... maybe the lavs at this high school will stay a little cleaner from here on.