SPOILER ALERT-for The Bachelorette episode aired 6/25/12.
Even though Bachelorette Emily claims that she wants to keep Ricki in the background and away from all this attention, it seems like at least once an episode we see Ricky in some capacity.
Now I don't have a problem with this. I don't think Ricki being around is a problem, either for the audience or for Ricki.
It's just that Emily states so often that she doesn't want Ricki around while all this is going on and yet Ricki always seems to be around.
I'm jus' sayin'.
On the episode aired 6/11/12 the whole kid thing got a little obnoxious.
First, Emily talks a lot about finding a father, both a father for more children Emily would like to have and, of course, a father figure for Ricki. One of the contenders said something to the effect that Ricki was part of Emily's "baggage" and no, that wasn't very nice.
It's a true statement but it's not nice to say it.
Because Ricki, as adorable as she might be, is a sort of "baggage" that Emily brings to a relationship. Hey, that's the way of the world. Man got kids from first marriage, she's got kids from prior relationship...it's a kind of emotional "baggage".
The problem is baggage is not a nice term to refer to children, who are only little human beings who didn't ask to be here. The term baggage seems to indicate some kind of excess luggage that isn't really needed and of course that's not the case.
But again, it is the way sometimes people talk when getting all down and honest.
It was contender Kalon who referred to Ricki as baggage and goodness the entire episode revolved around this incident, leading to lots of cussing, sudden and angry rejections, distrust, tears, sobs and tantrums.
Jef is third from left. Note fabulous hair.
Ok Emily, we get it. It was wrong for Kalon to call your child baggage but Kalon was always a bit of a goof. Goodness the man made his arrival on the first episode of Emily's season from a helicopter!
The drama was a nice diversion, however and things got serious again.
On the episode aired 6/18/12, the group went to Croatia. I must assume that the production company gets big discounts for going to some out of the way place like Croatia.
This episode ended oddly, with Emily unable to eliminate one of the two left after giving the rest roses during the Rose ceremony.
Emily had a one on one date with Travis and Ryan. Travis got sent home, Ryan got rose on his date.
Which left seven contenders on an episode which should have culled down the competition to six.
The six left were:
Arie, Chris, Doug, Jef, John, Sean.
At the end of this episode I was left with the distinct feeling this would wind down to two contenders: Jef and Sean.
Jef's got the best hairstyle of any bachelor contender….ever. I thought this deserved mentioning.
Emily seems to be very fond of Sean and let's never forget that Sean was the choice of her friends on the date when all the guys met and answered questions posed by Emily's friends.
On the episode that aired on 6/25/12 there was a weird incident involving Sean. All of a sudden Sean decided, late in the evening and after Emily returned from a one on one date with another contender, Sean gets it in his head that he has to see Emily.
The show airs a scene that has Sean looking allegedly over the city of Prague until he eventually finds Emily walking down an alleyway.
How likely is that scenario?
I suspect that Emily summoned Sean because, well she wanted to see him. Those contenders can't just go willy-nilly looking up the Bachelor(ette) on a whom.
On the 6/25/12-both Doug and John were sent home and there was much angst. Doug steals an inartful kiss from Emily but alas, it was too late.
Emily kept Chris but I sure don't know why. The guy seems like a nut to me and Emily doesn't seem to much like him.
Jef, of the fabulous hairstyle, is entirely too young and Arie...well Emily likes how he kisses so he might still be in there.
It's down to Arie and Sean as the top two is my prediction and I think Sean will win hands down.
Below other posts on this Blog about Bachelorette Emily.
Warning- POSSIBLE SPOILER INFORMATION ON NEXT FOOD NETWORK STAR EPISODE AIRED 6/24/12.
I really do understand that camera challenges are important, that how a cook speaks to the camera, ie the viewers, matters when considering who to make the Next Food Network Star.
But goodness when a viewer tuned in to that sob fest episode aired on 6/24/12 I wasn't sure whether I was watching Oprah Winfrey or The Next Food Network Star.
Emily, cute Emily, with her white eyeglasses, ribboned red lips and curved eyeliner, Emily, who could pass for Betty Boop, spent the whole program sobbing and telling us viewers that she couldn't talk about her life, she just couldn't.
The idea was for the remaining contenders to prepare "one bite" of some dish that would encapsulate their food style and all that they are.
That's a very tall order for just one bite of food.
There was also a 90 second camera challenge that would have the contenders "delving deeper" into just who they are.
So okay, when a fellow cooks up a batch of steamed crabs we expect him to be from Baltimore or somewhere near the Chesapeake Bay. I get that the background of the cook speaks volumes of their expertise. I would look wary at a batch of crabs steamed up by a cook whose roots are in Texas or some such.
But I really don't need to know whether their parents were divorced or if the kids bullied them or when they lost their virginity.
It never was explained why Emily got all choked up over a command to reveal more of her background. All yon viewer knew is the thought of doing so caused her tears and sobs.
Goodness, why?
One contender did go into some long story about being set up by a group of friends who never showed up for an event as promised. I thought it was a real dumb story for a cooking contest contender to tell and it's not like this sad little snippet of her life created the beginning of a great casserole or anything. The moral of the story was something to the effect that she moved on and stayed brave and remained true to truth, justice and the American way.
Emily did get sent home as her camera time didn't quite do what the judges wanted. She was a cutie but damn her, I want to hear about how Mom used to call her names!
The week before this most recent episode sent cute Linkie packing. Linkie attempted to make some kind of churro for her team's kiosk in a food court challenge but it turned out a mess.
This was an interesting episode but dear Lord, who came up with that idea of forcing the contenders to add chopped liver to their kiosk offerings? That was so dumb and really took the charm out of that episode.
For now, look for Martie to go home soon because she keeps messing up. This pas week she came back big but my experience that comes the time for someone to go they somehow, some way, get a big week before the axe falls.
Justin still seems to be the contender to beat for Food Network Star 2012, lip gloss and all. Although that "bite" of his of stuffed dates, duck and bonito flakes sounded too bizarre to contemplate.
Below all links to Food Network Star on THIS Blog.
Goodness I'm having a helluva time keeping up with these folks on "Love in the Wild".
It does seem only fair that NBC have some sort of love type show. ABC has The Bachelor(ette) and also The Bachelor Pad. CBS has "Big Brother", okay, not exactly a love type of show but it's happened.
So NBC comes up with the concept that forget silly one-on-one and group dates as featured on "The Bachelor(ette) and comes up with a way for couples to meet that will have them undergoing huge challenges. If love was to ever bloom, surely it would be under the pressure of a challenge met, conquered and won.
Or will it?
The series began with seven men and seven women. Seems logical enough.
Out of nowhere, seven more male contenders are brought in. Trios, two guys and one girl, would now complete the task at hand.
This trio concept did tend to put the kobosh on any budding romances, as one might imagine.
The show gives better sleeping quarters for the winners of the challenge and it goes downhill from there. The very last contenders in the challenge sleep in some kind of awful lean-to type of thing guaranteed to be uncomfortable and annoy. The winners sleep in something called the oasis, a very luxurious suite if one can imagine.
As to how the couples actually "sleep" in their quarters, well there are quick scenes of the duos in bed together and in this past week's episode there was an outright charge that certain couples had "been intimate". What else could that mean?
On the episode following the introduction of the new male contenders, suddenly comes six new female contenders!
Indeed now there were trios of two girls and one guy and by this time I don't know who had been with who or who was with who now.
For at the couple's ceremony it was mass confusion as the guy had a chance to pick either his "old" partner from the prior week (and remember that SHE picked HIM over another guy the prior week) or he could pick the "new" partner.
And some of these guys did drop their partners from the prior week and hey, if I was the new gal in town I'd be darn leery of a fellow who could drop me so fast which is what "he" did to the girl who'd chosen him just the week prior.
Some would say, correctly, that there's only been three episode by this point, hardly time for any great love affair to blossom.
They do all their socializing on "Love in the Wild" around the swimming pool. At this point the couples can separate and talk with others of the opposite sex. Appraisals are done, I'm sure, hearts are changed. The disenchanted contenders find a replacement and hope that they will have a chance at the couple's ceremony.
The couple's ceremony is where the drama comes to a climax. The challenge's first place winners each get to keep their partners of the moment or either can pick another partner from the gathered couples. Should they choose another partner those so chosen can NOT refuse.
After that the couples do this sort of choosing but only have the "unmatched" group or a member of another team who came in lower than them. The one so chosen this way does NOT have to accept the offer of joining up with those looking to switch their current partners.
It's a scenario replete with lots of hurt feelings and drama and it is one of the more intriguing parts of the show.
For now, Michelle of the big boobs seems to be making it well with Ben.
Jesse and Ali seem to be at odds.
The rest of the teams are at various stages in a relationship but nobody's yet proposed marriage to anybody.
Ali and Jesse came in first so they got to switch partners. To everyone's surprise, Ali chose Ben and Ben, per the rules, could not refuse. Ben was very happy with Michelle.
Ben and Michelle Once Such a Budding Love Now Apart
Jesse chose Michelle as a partner.
Ryan and Jenna chose to stay together. They seem to really like each other.
Yanina chose to stay with Ken and they too seem happy together.
For now the couples are:
Jesse/ Michelle
Ben/ Ali
Ryan/ Jenna
Chase/ Summer
Ken /Yanina
All I can do is smile at both the real and the concept of Fox's two new romance shows. Both of these shows have their productive tongues firmly in their cheeks and it is all in fun.
"Take Me Out"is hosted by George Lopez, a host who does rather have fun with the concept.
30 females stand behind a podium that is equipped with a light. All lights are on at the first of three rounds when a male descends the ramp and is introduced to the waiting females.
At this point lights might go out because some of the females might be turned off by the fellow's looks first thing and consider not going beyond that sticking point.
Few of the lights go out, not surprisingly as the fellow making the introduction is almost always a handsome specimen of the human species. Some might call it vain and shallow to turn off the light just because you don't like someone's looks but who are we kidding here? The very FIRST decision most of us make upon seeing a member of the opposite sex is based on looks.
On a second round the male provides a video tape of himself, illustrating his likes/dislikes/passions and all that is pertinent to his royal self.
At this point lights start to go dim or as George Lopez puts it "If he doesn't excite, turn out the light".
A recent contender was a rabid roller skater and upon this announcement many lights went out. Either the ladies didn't roller skate all that well or they weren't all that impressed by a big hunk who thinks roller skating is the cat's meow.
On the third and final round, the women can ask the fellow their own questions. Based on his answers, more lights might go out.
At some point there might be four or five lights still on. The bachelor contender then has his choice of the ladies with their lights still on.
There are times when NO lights are on. I got to laugh when the song "All By Myself" is cued and played, again, the tongue In the cheek is such a hoot.
It's a fun show that works okay as a TV show. First, those ladies and the men who go on this show are probably okay with themselves. There aren't a lot of ugly fat females behind those podiums and the fellows coming down the ramp usually have lots of hair and many muscles.
When you've got a bunch of pretty people playing this sort of game it can be fun. A situation like this that has the less attractive, older, geeky or very shy mixed in the midst could be painful as normal people don't like to watch other people get hurt.
I don't know that this show has any kind of major staying power as at some point the charm will go stale. But it's fun for now and could be the key to a summer full of fun.
Immediately following this show, Fox has another gem of a show that too is good for smiles and very revealing of the conditions and standards of human attraction.
The show is "The Choice"and it's got a cool premise.
Four guys sit in chairs designed roughly after the singing competition show "The Voice". Get it….The Choice….The Voice.
Cat Deely is the show's host and she does a good job of keeping the pace brisk, the morale bright and fun.
Also kind of copied from The Voice, the notion is that the fellows will pick their female choice based solely on the sound of her voice.
Heh.
Nothing could be further from the truth. But again it's a tongue-in-cheek play on some of these ersatz serious competition shows and the Bachelor(ette) type of romance reality show.
The males looking to make a fine Choice change every week. They are always persons of some celebrity. Former American Idol Taylor Hicks was a recent contender along with Jersey Shore's "The Situation".
The females are not celebrities but believe they are all very beautiful . A female comes on the stage to face the backs of the males who will be making their big Choice. At first she gives an introduction, her name….and in 15 seconds she must describe herself enough to entice those fellows to turn their chair around, thereby "choosing" her.
IF more than one fellow turns around during a female's 15 sec presentation then SHE gets to pick the male of her choice.
When all four of the celebrated males on the stage get three ladies as their first choices, the drama goes to a higher level. The three females of his choice then will face the male who chose them and engages in another 15 second round where they ask and received questions and answers from each other.
Some more drama as the first female of three is eliminated, then the second, leaving the final winner of a date with the celebrated male who chose her.
Every week the description of the prior show's dates and how they went is presented. This is an interesting part of the show but if the viewer missed the prior week's show the names and faces might not mean much. Viewers invest their attention more in things they've watched or read about.
So far there've been more dates by those who met on The Choice and sometimes it is readily pointed out that after the first date the male and female in question have agreed not to date again. We must assume the date didn't go all that well.
I suppose somewhere down the road there might be a wedding, maybe a mention in the National Enquirer, for couples who meet on this show.
For now, both of these Fox offerings are clever and do not take themselves all that serious. It's a refreshing change.
Both of these shows air on Fox, Thursday night...Take ME Out at 9 pm, The Choice at 9:30 pm.
Click here to go to this Blog's main menu and see what other TV series we're covering.
The five finalists for ABC's new foray into the world of competitive reality musical shows, Duets-
are:
J Rome
John G
Bridget
Olivia
Jason
They also finished in the order above.
Intriguingly, every one of the Duet partners, which would be John Legend, Robin Thicke, Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer Nettles, have at least one contender left, with Thicke having two in the finals.
I do firmly believe that this was pre-arranged as how boring would it be to be a great singer like one of those four and not have a horse in the race once the pack heads towards the finish line?
At any rate, America can now join in on the voting and I wonder how this contest will shake out. Though, ahem, I've no doubt of the winner. See the clip below.
Indeed it is J Rome, who has consistently finished in first place at the vote of the "superstars", the vote decided based on that night's performance(s).
First, to the parents of J Rome….that is just the dumbest name, just so dumb, it's almost a form of child abuse. I retract my smirk if this name change was an effect by J Rome hisself, I suppose that's possible.
Now that J Rome might be off into a world of music and a career in same (please bear in mind that winners of musical competitive reality shows are a dime a dozen nowadays) I suppose it could be clever. But whoever named him the ridiculous J Rome didn't know that upon his birth.
Which is not to say that J Rome isn't a very personable and talented fellow. No, not at all. J Rome has consistently performed well, he's young, he's got a lusty voice with a large range, he should win this competition.
My favorite is Bridget. Here's a young woman who has a nice voice, a great stage presence, who's attractive, dresses well and has a mega-watt smile.
All along J Rome's been coming in first. It will be interesting to see how the competition shuffles up now that America gets in on the act.
As for the concept of the show Duets itself, considered in conjunction with the total of all music competitive reality shows such as American Idol, The X Factor, The Voice….it's okay.
The proviso here is that Duets is a musical competitive reality show based on the talent and popularity of the dueting partners. Not that there's anything wrong with this and for sure the four used this first season are top notch.
This show serves as a vehicle for those superstars to show their stuff, let's not pretend different. It's also, especially at the beginning, very long and can get a bit tiresome. I quite enjoy all four of these superstars and I still think one hour is plenty. Two hours in a row of anybody constantly singing can get stale.
We'll be following this show closely at this point
I read this entire book and I read it thoughtfully, slowly and with great concentration.
For I've lived through all the events/incidents/occasions that Cheney mentioned in the book and I wanted to savor and learn how it all came down from the INSIDE.
First, some overall impressions of the book, some generalizations.
Note that the book is co-authored by Cheney's daughter, Elizabeth. I suspect that Liz was correcting her father's harsher words, softening his assessments, re-writing his edgy narratives of events.
If not than Dick Cheney is a bigger wuss that I would have ever suspected.
Perhaps I've been reading too much Ann Coulter. Perhaps I've been hanging around too many tea party types. Perhaps my tongue is too sharp and my keyboard even sharper.
For Dick Cheney is entirely too kind in recounting his stories of the many assholes who've crossed his path through the years.
During the lead-up to the Iraq war, for example, a supreme asshole, Brent Scowcroft:
"On invading Iraq, former National Security Advisor, Brent Scowcroft, argued it was unlikely that Saddam would provide WMD to terrorists, overlooking the fact that Iraq had already provided safe haven, training, and material support to terrorists. Brent went on to argue that we could rely on the UNSecurity Council and international inspections to contain the threat posed by Saddam
Come on. First, did Scowcroft really believe that claptrap above? The UN Security Council would contain the threat posed by Saddam? The same security council which had issued 15+ votes to do something about Saddam but never did? A point Cheney does not hesitate to point out but he does it entirely too kindly. It was an astonishingly dumb thing to say in front of the world yet Cheney goes into some sob story about respecting the guy, how he was stuck in a pre-9-11 mindset.
Bullshit. Brent Scowcroft was an asshole, full of himself and I suspect he was pocketing some foreign funds.
Dick Cheney walks entirely too softly around the jerks in his surround.
Consider this summary of the worst president ever before Barack Obama:
"My biggest frustration with President Carter arose while I was serving as secretary of defense. President George H.W. Bush and Secretary of State James Baker were working to get U.N. Security Council approval of a resolution authorizing the use of force to eject the Iraqis from Kuwait in 1990-1991, We found out that former President Carter was actively lobbying against the U.S. position. He had contacted heads of government with seats on the Security Council and urged them to oppose our resolution. His intervention was ineffective-and also totally inappropriate for a former president."
Frustration? Cheney only felt "frustration" as a former president goes behind his back, stabbing not only the sitting and elected president (bearing in mind that Carter was summarily UNELECTED like no president before) in the back, but betraying the United States of America?
I should think Cheney would have been red, hot, livid, throwing things angry.
It's like throughout the book and let me now say that I understand that people like Dick Cheney have to be nice, have to effect a sort of parlor politeness in order to be part of the political society in which he consorts. Cheney's daughter, Liz, has a bright future in front of her and, of course, it wouldn't do for Dick Cheney to go damning unkindly those with whom she might have to work.
I really do understand this.
But I was frustrated by how Cheney kept providing kind excuses for all the screw-ups around him.
On his famous energy study:
"all we were doing was creating a real political headache for ourselves by refusing to give them up. But I believed something larger was at stake: the power of the presidency and the ability of the president and vice president to carry out their constitutional duties.."
It's that old Republican lack of gonads again. Cheney cites numerous instances of this peculiar place of nothingness between many Republican male legs and I recall the story of Cheney's energy meetings he references above.
I recall it was the foaming Democrats who carried on about the VP interviewing various players in the energy market and how those silly left wing dolts tried to make it sound like something dirty and nefarious was afoot when Cheney was trying to formulate an energy policy and was, duh, talking to all involved in the production of energy. Yet many of the "staff" (this has Karl Rove, a fellow filled with air between the legs, written all over it) wanted Cheney to release the names of who he was talking to.
There are many instances of this malady that seems to affect so many Republicans up there in D.C. The longer they've been in D.C., the greater the viewing range between their emasculated legs. Cheney told his stories, he didn't avoid any subject, but he was nice and provided "nice" reasons for truly absurd and cowardly behavior. Let me assure that many of those anecdotes Cheney recites involved President George W. Bush.
He treats President Bush very kindly but if one could truly read between his polite lines, it does appear that very often, particularly toward the end of the Bush/Cheney term, Bush and Cheney were seldom on the same page. In fact, one thing Cheney does NOT discuss in his book is the Valerie Plame joke. His Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby was found guilty of some lame crime and I'm quite sure this angered Cheney to no end. Cheney did mention Scooter quite a bit in the book; it was obvious he liked and was fond of his colleague. I think Cheney's not mentioning this incident speaks volumes. I'd even go out on a limb and daresay I bet it cause George W. and Cheney to be very cold to each other post-administration. I know I'd be furious at what happened to Scooter Libby and the cowardice of George W. for allowing such an injustice to happen. My suspicion is that Dick Cheney too is a principled man and he would never have allowed such a thing to happen to, say, a Karl Rove.
But I speculate.
Cheney deals with his personal issues handily, not dwelling on them but putting it out there. On the lesbianism of his daughter he tells the story of them two sitting alone when she tells her father about her homosexuality. Cheney says he told his daughter he just wanted her to be happy and I'm reading and thinking….seriously, that's all there was to it?
Yes it speaks well for Dick Cheney that he wants his lesbian daughter to be happy. Of course he would want that. But it was mentioned in a sentence then it was over?
Same thing with his famous shooting incident and his military service, or lack of. Cheney spends no more than a paragraph on any of these incidents.
Not that he lies, I hasten to insert. Not that the verbiage seems to try to avoid it. It's just kind of sudden, swift and short. If someone were to say to me "what more do you want, Pat", I'd have to say nothing, Cheney covered it well.
I sometimes forget that I'm out here in la-la land where every MSNBC hate-monger spends many hours hating and despising Dick Cheney, where CNN pundits rant on about this crazy VP who shoots people and holds secret meetings, where the Mainstream media launches into screeds on the evil that is Bush and Cheney and the man gently sums it up in a paragraph and damn, it almost seems like an anti-climax.
There was one big surprise to me in this book, one person that Dick Cheney seems to so dislike, even in this very nice and kindly memoir of his time in the public eye.
Condoleezza Rice.
By Dick Cheney she was a real dim bulb.
Color me shocked.
To all the world Condi seemed to be so bright, so intelligent, why I recall a time of serious talk of her being a Republican presidential nominee.
Dick Cheney doesn't seem to think highly of her. You'll have to read the book to find out why but Cheney makes a good case.
I consider "In My Time" to be about as fair and honest a political memoir as any ever written. Don't go expecting diatribes and rants about the really awful people, even the Democrats. Cheney doesn't even write bad about Al Gore and what a zero-burger that guy is.
I did so enjoy this read as it all happened "in my time" which means I am almost as old as Dick Cheney.
I was going to begin this national political post with a happening and astute editorial about my theory of Romney should he govern like a RINO (Republican in Name Only). But later on this.
This week President Obama claimed executive privilege as pertains to the Justice Department known as Fast & Furious.
I've kept up with this debacle of our dysfunctional justice department closely and folks, this is not your mother's Watergate.
First of all, Watergate was a nothing-burger of a story but it happened in an era when the only access to mass coverage was the lying Lamestream. Even if you disagree and consider Watergate to have been one of the major scandals of our time, there's no denying one pertinent fact: NOBODY DIED DURING WATERGATE!
Because one American border guard died during Fast and Furious and some 200 plus Mexicans lost their lives, all by guns shipped to Mexico drug lords from our own justice department.
They had a plan. Like every plan this administration hatches, it was hare-brained. Remember please that Eric Holder, the WORST Attorney General this country has ever had, was the guy who was going to bring all the inmates at Camp Gitmo up to New York to try them in an American court. Even the Democrats howled and caterwauled over that not-so-brilliant idea. Not that the fact that the law firm Holder is affiliated with represented alleged terrorists captured by our military had anything to do with that attempt, perish the thought.
The idea was for guns to be shipped by the Bureau of Tobacco,Firearms, etc. and arrangements to be made to deliver them to Mexican drug cartels. This concept was began, in a fashion, under the W. Bush justice department, then called "Wide Receiver". It was a way to track Mexican drug gangs that were buying American guns to keep in their dangerous business. Under Dubya, guns were offered for sale to Mexican drug gangs. Once a representative of a drug lord showed up to pick up the guns, a sting was made. It also was intended to capture American gun dealers selling guns to Mexicans. Wide Receiver was a sting operation co-ordinated with Mexico and the whole thing was stopped once it was determined the whole thing was too dangerous and with too many loopholes that tracking it was not worth the results.
You can believe, however, that the Democrats are out and about and saying, as I hold my arms high in that manner of a conductor leading the group…."BUSH DID IT"!
Just like the Bush administration operated a homeland security department or exported illegal aliens, the Bush administration ran government operations and the sale of American guns to Mexican drug lords was a problem. The Bush administration had absolutely nothing to do with this current Fast & Furious scheme. Please don't let the liars get away with it.
Fast & Furious was a cockamamie idea hatched by- well hell I'm a Blogger and speculation is my forte-I'm guessing it was something Valerie Jarrett, Obamer himself and probably Eric Holder, who came up with the idea.
See, the communists and liberals-but I repeat myself- do not want Americans to have guns. Citizens with guns are less able to be oppressed by those who want to control than citizens WITH guns. Duh.
The best actions to take away the guns of those rabid Americans involve a good public relations scandal. The attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan was the backdrop of the last great successful attempt to disarm America. John Brady was shot in the head during that incident and America was shocked and horrified.
The Democrats, not a political party known for preserving the constitution and with little common sense, used the public horror to push through the Brady bill, an attempt at gun control that turned the term "assault rifle" into something it's not.
The idea was, using the public relations model, to ship guns to Mexico under the guise of yet another well-intentioned justice department attempt to stop American guns from flowing into Mexico. As these things go in Mexico, sooner or later some bad guys, AND some innocent Mexican citizens, would get killed with these American guns.
That's when NBC would be summoned to capture the tears of the mother sobbing over the loss of her little bambino due to those nasty American guns, why can't America control its guns she screams. Sobs. Drama. Sound and sight bytes.
The communists/liberals, they don't govern by reason. They govern by emotion. Liberals love their emotions and sure enough they'll demand that America control the guns by, well I don't know, they'd come up with some new gambit, maybe require that gun-buying Americans must report to the local gun bureaucracy-much like Monty Python's Bureau of Funny Walks- and show that they still have the gun they bought and it's not in Mexico. See, every obstacle you put up for buying a gun the less Americans will want to bother. Then, boom, the communists/liberals can take over the country without bother of the nastys with guns.
It was modeled roughly after the Wide Receiver idea but with a twist. For once the BATFE arranged for American gun dealers around Arizona to get these allegedly marked guns that would track who got them.
Gun dealers, wanting to stay in business and everything and mostly law-abiding citizens, were getting these guns and noting the serial numbers as required. The dealers were trying to track to whom the guns were sold but BAFTE agents were telling them not to bother, to go ahead and sell the guns to the Mexicans who wanted to buy them.
It was an insane idea, wrought with possible failures. Sure enough a BATFE agent became a whistle-blower, much because of the Arizona gun dealers who didn't want to get into trouble for selling these guns to what they knew were thugs.
Then an American border agent, Brian Terry, was killed by what was determined to be one of those guns used for Fast and Furious.
It was a whistle-blower in the department of justice who brought this matter to the attention of congress. Congress, being an arm of the U.S. government with as much power as the Supreme Court and presidency, acted, in the form of Darrell Issa, chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
He did what he was supposed to do and did not, as is the case with many Republicans who've been in D.C. too long with a concurrent loss of testicular fortitude as the years progress, ignore the tricky issue that would have the New York Times lambasting them for daring to question their hero, Barack Obama.
Eric Holder, that magnificent Attorney General whose first action on the job was to excoriate Americans who had just elected a black president as being too cowardly to discuss race matters, was called before the House oversight committee and he lied like a rug each time he opened his mouth.
The oversight committee, with a Republican majority, threatened to slap Holder with the charge of lying before congress, much like they did with Roger Clemens, not that congress needs to get involved with baseball, dear lord, what with our justice department killing border agents and everything.
So out of the blue, Obama claims executive privilege.
I'll just not go into the legalities of executive privilege save to appeal to the common sense of yon readers. Come on. Congress is asking Eric Holder, the JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, for information. What's this with the President asking for executive privilege?
It's like the cops go to arrest my next door neighbor and I go out and hire a lawyer. On the surface, it has nothing to do with nothing.
Which shocks because the logical conclusion is that the documents congress requests probably contain references to presidential involvement.
I suppose Obama could be claiming executive privilege to protect Eric Holder, goodness, but that's not what executive privilege is all about. Heck, Obama could give anybody executive privilege if the mood suits him using that concept.
This is not Watergate, ladies and gems. It's nowhere near as mild as Watergate. An American died because of Fast & Furious, maybe two as is speculated.
Even the Lamestream media can't ignore this atrocity.
What Will Happen if Romney Governs Like a Rino
I've been speculating right along about Mitt Romney and the problems so many conservative types have with his candidacy.
See, us boobs out here in la-la land who carry this country on our backs, have gotten tired of Republicans we elect who do not represent us. My own former representative in America's House, Mike Castle, is a good example.
Instead of working to present their case, or standing on conservative principles, too many elected Republicans become Democrats light.
We got sick of it here in Delaware and threw Castle out, God bless Sussex county, home of the free, the brave, the neanderthals who dared to toss he who was so deserving of a lifetime of sucking on the public teat without even representing us properly.
We call them RINOs, Republicans in Name Only.
It was a contentious GOP primary battle, featuring Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum. One by one they fell and Mitt Romney is now the likely Republican nominee and now we have no choice but to push his candidacy.
What's our alternative? Obama? Please.
So we bite our fingernails out here in la-la land and believe that here in the swamps of Delaware we are not at all happy about Romney, who instituted a public health insurance mandate if only on a state level, whose record is checkered with very liberal positions, whose known the world over as an expert at flip-flopping.
I predict something and want to record my prediction right here, for posterity, on my own Blog which will probably be disallowed should Obama get re-elected because contrary opinions will likely be outlawed.
Us Tea Party types, we're still out here. We carry the country on our backs and we watch this election shape up with wary eyes. We will be watching Romney as he governs and we're not going to accept this reaching-across-the-aisle silly Maverick type mentality.
For lo these past few years there's been mentioned the formation of a third party but wiser heads prevailed. A third party, say, hmmm, The Tea Party, would only siphon off voters from the Republicans and would likely not change the dynamic of the RINOs who want cocktail party invites and nice mentions in the press, conservative citizens be damned.
I really think that if Romney starts reaching across the aisle, making ridiculous deals with the Democrats, oh...something like the stupid No Child Left Behind Act, well hey, Romney's got four years to govern.
If he reverts back to typical RINO behavior, you know that behavior perpetuated by Mumbles McConnell and dear lord that awful last Republican candidate John McCain, I believe that across the nations, in bastions such as Sussex county Delaware , disgruntled Republicans will begin to form a third party.
I believe this.
Because at some point you got to face facts. And the facts are we've got a political class in this country and RINOs are stellar members.
America doesn't have kings and elected politicians have no inborn right to keep their office.
God Bless America and its citizens. Because we will have four years to form our new party and hey, let the RINOs have their own party, good luck and God bless.
To those disturbed by Romney's candidacy and his history of being a RINO, take some cheer. We'll have plenty of time and we'll put an end to this political class.
Hell's Kitchen on Fox began its tenth season this early June.
Ten seasons! That's very long for a reality series and it boggles the mind that a reality cooking show with the same plot and dynamic has survived for ten years. I am to understand that Fox has renewed Hell's Kitchen for another two years.
Hell's Kitchen was nominated for a People's Choice award for best reality series.
Just damn.
No WAIT!
I've been watching too much Hell's kitchen.
Because that's all the man does is cuss and the contenders do their share of cussing. But contenders come and go while Gordon Ramsay is always on the job.
Below, a synopsis of a Hell's Kitchen episode:
Contenders drug out of bed, told to report to kitchen.
Ramsay gives them a personal challenge, usually based on some kind of guest star, maybe grill an item if Bobby Flay were the guest.
While the contenders are prepping the dish, Ramsay talks to them. If he doesn't like something they're doing, he cusses. If he finds something bad in the final product he cusses. If the contender is too slow or dumb, he cusses.
Then comes the dinner service in Hell's Kitchen. I know there is an area of New York called Hell's Kitchen. I do think there is a restaurant called Hell's Kitchen but I think it's in Los Angeles.
The contenders are usually divided into teams, a red team and a blue team. Each team is responsible for providing a dinner service for Hell's Kitchen, usually different halves of the entire restaurant.
A meal comes out too late….Ramsay cusses.
A scallop is too tough...Ramsay cusses.
Meat is overcooked...Ramsay cusses.
Meat is undercooked...Ramsay cusses.
A contender doesn't clean the work space...Ramsay cusses.
When the meal service is done, Ramsay cusses.
When the contenders complain about other contenders, Ramsay cusses.
And so yon ladies and gems, that's how each and every Hell's Kitchen show goes, it never varies, the amount of cussing is way beyond anything normal people do.
I will not watch Hell's Kitchen ever again. I love cooking reality shows, but I've had enough cussing to last a lifetime.
My advice is for yon reader to watch Hell's Kitchen if yon reader really likes cussing.
So while Bachelorette Emily is picking and choosing from a bevy of handsome dudes, NBC begins its romance/finding true love show "Love in the Wild". It's a combination Bachelor Pad and Survivor and it's a bit of a hoot. Not sure if I'll follow it all that closely but judging by the first episode it might be worth watching.
This is only the second year for this show and there's been a few changes. The hostess with the biggest boobs in an exotic setting Jenny McCarthy is the show's hostess.
The series has an interesting method of coupling contenders up. The premiere episode had an especially intriguing method.
Seven females were introduced. Seven males were introduced. The females chose their male partners for the first challenge. Then, to everyone's surprise, seven more males entered the scene. The females again had to pick a male partner. The result was seven females each partnered with two males.
Then comes the challenge and there are many facets to the challenge. In this challenge the goal was to find three conch shells. In order to do so, supplies were dropped out of a helicopter into the ever-present beautiful blue ocean.
The challenge begins and one member of the trio must swim out and retrieve the packet of supplies.
Each packet of supplies included directions and items to aid in the challenge. Much of the show has the viewers watching the trios fulfill the items in the challenge. One part of the challenge had the female of the team dropping down into a snake pit.
Right there I'm stopped in shock. Now what they were showing on TV was a whole bunch of vicious snakes, many of them upright, weaving and showing mouths and scary fangs.
So okay, what's the catch here? Have all the snakes had their poison sacks removed? Or are all the snakes non-poisonous and just look nasty?
Come on, surely….SURELY they wouldn't have the contenders drop into a pit filled with poisonous snakes?
Well yeah, that's what was shown on the camera. Those females were lowered into the pit by her two male partners and she had to dig in the sand, sand covered with a bunch of nasty, threatening snakes mind you, for a conch shell.
The rules had the winning team would stay in luxurious accommodations. The second, third and fourth stayed in nice accommodations. Fifth and sixth place would be staying in "rugged" conditions. Jenny says she could not even describe the accommodations for the trio coming in last place.
And indeed the trios who came in the first four places stayed in perfectly nice cabins or in the case of the winner, a grand luxury suite. Contender Summer and her two male partners came in first place.
Fifth and six place stayed in small tents. It was a tight fit and certainly would be considered rugged. The loser, contender Ali, has to sleep in some kind of lean-to type of thing that was horrible, as was the intent.
The contenders then spend time mingling and getting to know each other. They gather and converse at the show's poolside and viewers get to see the flirtations, the various attractions. In solo camera vignettes, the contenders would reveal their sentiments about other opposite-sex contenders and their own partners during the challenge.
As with most of these romance shows, there is always a finale, a culmination that would have various contenders picking, choosing and/ore rejecting each other.
This episode had the female of each trio choose one of her two team mates to keep and to reject the other. The rejected fellow had to go and stand in the "unmatched" section. Summer, the winner, was the only one who could choose any fellow in the room. She did not have to choose a partner for the next challenge from her own trio.
It begins to be like a game of ring around the rosey as men are rejected, sent to the reject pool, chosen by another female contender.
In the end seven male-female teams emerged, ready for the next challenge and getting to know each other under extreme conditions that, as the theory goes, reveals personal flaws quicker and clearer than a more mundane date would.
In the first episode with seven firm female and male contenders then established, things got serious.
The couples now were:
Ali/Chase
Summer/Tim
Cina/Jason
Shauna/Ryan
Tara/Jesse
Jenny and Ben
Yanina/Ken
The challenge was kind of fun to watch, as they all are. There was jumping into lagoons from extremely high cliffs, catching birds with a makeshift net, and reading maps in the pouring rain.
First place-Ali.
Last place-Jenny.
At the couples ceremony two were sent home.
We'll be watching this series and posting regular updates so check in.
Love in the Wild can be viewed on NBC on Tuesday nights at 9pm.
Click here to go to this Blog's main menu and see what other TV series we're covering.
Warm up the tubas and bring out the drums. It's time for another Delaware post, this from an insider into the world of Delaware politics. Who would be…..ME!
Let's begin with the mention that the Sheriff issue continues on and the legislators are determined to get their way. The Sussex county council has fired one of Sheriff Christopher's deputies and is refusing to allow him to hire a replacement for one deputy who left.
The council is exercising its hold on the purse and it's a good strategy, of sorts. EXCEPT there are three out of the total of five council people up for election this year. ALL three now have challengers.
And I should know. I am the campaign finance chair for two of them.
Don Ayotte running to unseat Joan Deaver
Maybe the challengers won't win, it's not easy to unseat an established incumbent. But Sussex county is angry at this council's rather cavalier manner in flipping the citizens the bird over their duly elected Sheriff. If nothing else, having to actually compete in an election should sober them up, get them out into the world to hear the concerns of those they represent, show them that citizens CAN challenge them, that they do not OWN their position.
A detailed, and longish, post about the Sheriff can be read here:
One of the bigger issues of this day, and an issue always on the docket in Sussex county it would seem, involves setting caps and/or requiring justifications for increases in lot rent by owners of manufactured housing parks.
Okay, let's discuss.
A person invests their money in a large swath of land and proceeds to design its use for the renting of individual plots to allow owners of manufactured homes to settle on. The manufactured home park owner is responsible for providing water, septic and other utility access. Snow removal, trash pickup and other services must be provided. Some sort of guard/safety service must be provided, the park should be kept clean, often a community meeting place or swimming pool is provided to the manufactured home owners.
It's really a bad idea for anybody to put their manufactured home on land owned by someone else. This is especially dumb in that Sussex county has a very liberal land use policy and most places allow manufactured homes to be put on plots of land. But those living in manufactured housing often aren't the richest in the surround. Purchase of a plot of land beyond the manufactured home is often not in the budget.
It begins with a modest monthly fee. I worked for an owner of manufactured home parks and at that time, some ten years ago, monthly fees ran around $300 a month. These lot rental fees vary based on amenities offered, location and such, of course.
As salaries for the security guards, as costs for maintaining the grounds, as fees for trash pickup and snow removal increase from year to year, so must the lot fee the owners must charge.
In due course you have a scenario where a little old lady cannot afford her monthly lot fee (or so she says). The situation becomes sticky. Manufactured houses aren't that easy to move even though the concept is that they are movable. Even if moving the manufactured house was possible, where to move it to? The purchase of a private lot on which to place the manufactured home is almost always out of the question. Moving the manufactured home to another park probably won't solve anything. Costs are costs. It costs a certain amount to keep a manufactured housing park working and in shape and monthly lot fees vary little from park to park.
Enter the MHA, also known as the Manufactured Housing Association, mostly a bunch of crybaby communists who found a perfect vehicle to fundamentally transform America as we know it.
So park owners are suddenly the bad guys, how dare they deem to make a profit on grandma who must eat cat food for the cost of the monthly lot fee.
Every year since I've been living in Sussex county there's been an uproar over these manufactured homes. Currently there is an existing fund, contributed into by both the residents and the owner of a manufactured home park. This fund is meant to be used as a means of financial assistance should a manufactured home resident have to be re-located for the very real inability to pay the monthly rental fee.
There's all kinds of rules about who gets this financial assistance, as well as limits to be paid based on the age and condition of the manufactured home.
But the MHA, God bless their dark communist souls, want manufactured home park owners to be tortured, burned at the stake and be forced to provide their land free of charge to the owners of the manufactured homes living on their land.
If a restaurant owner raises the price of hamburger you don't have a bunch of Hamburger Eaters of America demanding relief from the cost of their favored food. IF the grocer charges more for his potatoes, the communists aren't boo-hooing on the TV that they must eat cat food for the potatoes denied them.
Owning a manufactured housing community is a business is what I'm saying here. And while the communists argue that since the manufactured housing residents are in a bit of a bind in that it's not so simple for them to up and move should the monthly lot fee go up beyond their ability to pay, this is nowhere near the reality of it.
Because running a manufactured home park is a business, the owner gains nothing if he prices his residents out of existence. What the communists in the MHA argue is nowhere near what happens in reality.
The reality is that few manufactured housing residents get in so far over their heads they are in danger of being thrown out alongside a country back road. The reality is that manufactured housing park owners work with residents who are in financial straits because it does them little good to throw out a resident, perhaps getting no rent as opposed to less rent than needed. The reality is that the manufactured housing association isn't out there fighting to save those soon to cast aside with no place to live. There is already a law to help those few and far between manufactured housing residents in that situation.
The reality is that the communists in the manufactured housing association just want to control how much a private business person charges for their goods and the restauranteur or grocer or even the private school isn't subject to government control and do not forget, ever, that this silly proposed law requiring manufactured housing park owners to justify their rate increases is nothing but an attempt to insert more socialism into our society.
And just what happens when the manufactured housing park owner gets fed up and the land is sold to, oh I dunno, somebody planning to build a mall on the property? This is exactly the result when un-intelligent people allow control of free market pricing.
Senate bill 205 would have the owners of manufactured housing parks have to justify when their annual rates exceed a threshold. In this case the bill wants justification if the increase goes over the annual CPI-U of the prior year. A panel of "experts" (ie political friends of those currently holding office and a few of the communists in the MHA) would oversee this justification and decide if the proposed lot increase is justified.
Seriously, is this where we want this country to go?
Again, bearing in mind that the uniqueness of this situation is that sometimes a manufactured housing resident gets into a situation where he or she cannot afford lot rent. More often than not the individual cannot afford the lot rent at all, not any minor increase. Whatever, there is already a law in place, already a fund in place, to help these people. Further, like the apartment complex resident suddenly without a place to live for want of rent money, we do have social service departments to deal with this situation.
Do not be fooled by the communists who find an inch and demand millions of miles. Call your representative and tell them to vote AGAINST this bill 205.
Elections, Primaries, and Such
Who in the world is Alex Pires and what the hell is his story?
Alex Pires
I understand that Pires is part-owner of several businesses in the area, including Jimmy's Grill and the Rusty Rudder. He is indeed an upstanding resident of this shore area and goodness knows we've got no great love for Tom Carper.
For Alex Pires is running against Tom Carper. Carper is a Democrat and has been around since Christ was a kid. Carper is a Democrat. Pires is NOT a Republican. There is already a Republican running against Carper. His name is Kevin Wade and while the Delaware Republican party is a bit fractured at times, Wade is respected and supported by Delaware Republicans up and down the coast.
Pires is running against Carper as an Independent and there's the puzzle.
Logic has it that the candidacy of Pires will likely take votes away from Wade and in the end, actually HELP Tom Carper.
Even more intriguing, even surprising, heck a bit amusing, are the interviews Pires gave after his announcement.
I paraphrase "We got the goods on Tom Carper. He's as corrupt as any politician in the senate and we're going to throw everything we know out there."
I did, of course, sit up straight and smile at these words. A politico who's been living on the government teat for all of his life as has Carper (and rumor has it that he's not, ahem, the sharpest knife in the drawer) does have a tendency to slide into side wheeling and dealing that flirts with impropriety if not outright illegal. We need to purge these ingrained politicos out of congress and I'm with Pires.
Kevin Wade
Even odder, Pires' few campaign commercials exhort listeners to vote for him or even vote for his "opponent", Kevin Wade.
Damn. How many political commercials urge viewers/listeners to vote for their opponent?
I suspect that Pires doesn't want to win this election. I think he's using the cover of an actual political campaign, however unlikely it would be for him to get elected, to get out some damning information he's got on Carper. Maybe it wouldn't be fitting for the Republican candidate to put it out there though I admit I can't imagine why not. Maybe Pires is working with Wade to spread the dirt and in the end the goal is to get Wade elected.
Sounds far-fetched and maybe it is. But it's certainly adding some sparkle to yet another boring Delaware senatorial election to elect either a Biden or a Carper.
Three of the Sussex county council people are up for election this year: Mike Vincent, Sam Wilson and Joan Deaver. All three of them have Republican opponents taking them on. Deaver is the only Democrat of the five members of the county council. She's being challenged by Don Ayotte. Sam Wilson is being challenged by John Christensen. I am the campaign treasurer for Ayotte and Christensen.
There once was a time when the Sussex county council was revered locally, the body being very representative of the conservative Sussex county citizenry.
The sheriff issue has somehow changed former conservative council people to suddenly up and take command of the very offices us citizens elect. There's only one thing to do when you're abjectly opposed to the guys holding the elected position.
RUN AGAINST THEM.
Eric Bodenweiser has announced his candidacy against Joe Booth for the Delaware senatorial position of the 19th district. Joe Booth too was once a fine fellow who represented his citizens, which includes me, very well. Then Joe Booth got a job with Sussex Tech watching the grass grow and as conservatives across the fruited plains gripe, suddenly they become RINOS, thye reach ac ross the aisle as they slap those who elected them, they consider the elected position rightfully theirs and any happening do-nothing jobs that come along become their rightful prizes of the office they hold.
It's going to be an interesting year here in the swamps of Delaware. It's not easy to beat an incumbent but Bodenweiser only lost by 120 last time he challenged Booth. It's not unheard of and the natives are restless.
RINOs and moderate Republicans might just get booted out along with their liberal Democratic buddies.
Finally, heh, speaking of elections….it would seem that every Republican ED and RD (electoral district and representative district) committee member in the Republican party is now up for re-election. This is due to the re-districting of Sussex county in the 2010 elections.
Folks have been moving into our wonderful paradise of Sussex county in droves, many from New Jersey and Merryland to avoid their prohibitive taxes. Sussex county now has one new state Senator and new state Representative. There is a 6th senatoral district and a 20th representative district.
Even all the Sussex County Republican party executive committee must go for re-election.
It's a hoot. Below the announcement should any of yon reader want to seek a position. Take your choice, they're all up for grabs.
Just a reminder that June 25th, 2012 at 12 noon is the last date to file for any of the positions (3 tier election) for the Sussex County Executive Committee. The Secretary will be at headquarters until 12 noon on June 25th to receive the filing forms for all the open positions.
The election will take place July 9, 2012 at the Cheer Center, Georgetown, DE. (More information on Elections will be forwarded at a later date).
If you are interested in running for any of the positions please file with the Secretary before the date stated above. I am enclosing the same form that is offered on the Sussex GOP web site that can be used to be sent to the Secretary via e-mail or by Postal Service. All the information on how and where to file is on the form.
Please remember this is a very crucial year for us Republicans in DE to have a well filled Executive Committee and in that way we can help our candidates to win the elections. Please take a few minutes to fill out the enclosed form and send it to the county Secretary, Carol Bodine, winning elections for our candidates will be our reward.
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