Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Liberty

Big Brother backs off in England. We'll see if this is just an end run, but it sounds good.

Baseball

It WAS a strike! But the point is well taken. A very good baseball story from Slate.

Food

Damn, I hope my wife doesn't read this. I'll never hear the end of it.

The Jihad

It seems a strange matter to dig in on, but France has p'd off the Jihadis with a hardline stance against the burka. Multi-culturalism gets awful confusing at times.

Robert Samuelson

The Newsweek scribe says Obama's financial reforms miss the mark. How does this guy keep his job at the administration's favorite news magazine?

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Chavez

Throwing gas on the fire in Honduras.

They're here!

The pre-season college football mags are out in force and The Sporting News's NFL book is also on the stands. I picked one up yesterday.

More on Korda's book

My Sunday column was inspired by reading "With Wings Like Eagles" by Michael Korda. Here's a few more observations about the book, which I highly recommend.
1. Korda gives credit to Neville Chamberlain and Stanley Baldwin, Churchill's much maligned predecessors, for their underappreciated but invaluable support for the pre-war air defense buildup. Korda gives some credit for this to a powerful piece of fiction, HG Wells's "The Shape of Things to Come," which his father and uncle had adapted into a very successful, powerful film only a few years earlier. The radar warning network they helped fund, though it still had any technical kinks, was vital to air defense.
2. Korda delivers sound assessments of the various aircraft used by both nations. He details their strengths and weaknesses and shows how those attributes shaped the battle. Popular history has dubbed the Spitfire THE British combat plane, but Korda points out that more British pilots actually flew the sturdier Hawker Hurricane. He writes about the development of these aircraft.
3. Korda examines fighter boss Dowding's reluctance to take on the Germans out over the Channel and his tactic of attacking in small fighter groups, avoiding a massed frre-for-all type battle. WhY.
First, the British ability to retrieve pilots lost at seas was far inferior to the Germans, who gave their pilots inflatable rafts and clorful clothing designed to help them if they went inthe drink. The Brits came up short in both regards and Dowding wanted to minimize the loss of trained, experienced airman. The nation could build planes quickly. It could not build good pilots as fast. As for avoiding "Big Wing" style attacks, again Dowding was concerned with stretching his resources out for as long as possible while steadily punishing the Luftwaffe. While the Germans sought the knockout punch, Dowding was content to jab and move and to live to fight again.
4. Dowding also insisted his pilots avoid one-on-one dogfighting and concentrate on knocking out German bombers. This was unpopular with many pilots but Dowding wanted to kill German airman and rob the Luftwaffe of its experienced crews and costlier airplanes.
In the end, his strategy paid off as Hitler and Goering quickly lost patience due to the heavy casualties being inflicted.
5. Korda delves deeply into the internal politics of the British government and the military. Dowding is the star of the story, a fact grudgingly acknowledged by even Churchill, but he is also a doomed figure thanks to his enormous talent for making enemies in high places. It's a fascinating personal story meshed beautifully into Korda's first-rate work.

Your Sunday free tune

John Hiatt is very good. Crossing Muddy Water.

Feeling better?

There's been a burst of pretty good reporting on medical-related quackery of late. Here's a brief post about Zicam, which comes in the wake of a solid AP piece on the same subject. AP has been doing an irregular series on "non traditional medicines" and Newsweek recently did a very good cover story on some of the humbuggery spread via Oprah. Here's a good reaction piece to the Newsweek effort.
None of this stuff has been as bad as that terrible series Channel 9 (Chattanooga) did awhile back about "brain cancer" in Dalton. Someone should have been fired for putting that crap on the air. Then again, much of what passes for health reporting is badly, badly done.

Chavez

Now targeted, "media terrorism, AKA, press freedom.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

My Sunday column

The Stuka dive bombers that attacked England in the summer of 1940 didn’t have the Jericho Trumpets (sirens) which had terrified thousands of continental Europeans in the earliest days of the German blitzkrieg.
But the Stukas did have 500-pound bombs with which their crews expected to blast England to its knees and quickly end the conflict which later grew into World War II.
Today many people assume that the outcome of the 1939-1945 war was a given, that no matter what the cost, the Allies were destined to win. And in the United States we have an unfortunate tendency to diminish the role played by our allies.
But at the end of the war, no nation stood taller than Winston Churchill’s England. And England’s finest hourly truly came in the summer months of 1940.
Let me set the scene.
The continent was controlled by Germany. The Allies had expected to hold the line in France, much as they had in World War I, while mobilizing their forces as rapidly as possible.
But the inventive German offensive, coupled with a collapse in will of the French government, led to a rapid and stunning victory that chased England completely off the continent. The defeat shocked the fledgling Churchill government and brought about the very real prospect of a German invasion of the British Isles.
At first Hitler proceeded cautiously, apparently in hopes that the British would return to the bargaining table. But as it became increasingly evident that the Churchill government would carry on the war, Hitler made the decision to unleash his vaunted Luftwaffe.
Hitler and Luftwaffe boss Herman Goering devised a plan to destroy British air defenses, thus giving the Germans control of the skies and clearing the way for a cross-channel invasion.
Hitler and Goering were right to launch their air offensive, but among their later errors of judgment was one huge mistake — they underestimated their foe’s willingness and ability to fight.
The ill-prepared British Army had been beaten soundly in France and was last seen desperately fleeing the continent at Dunkirk.
But the Royal Air Force was another matter.
The RAF fighter pilots who took to the skies to battle the Germans were a brave crowd. What’s more, they were well organized and well led. They knew the crucial importance of their task and rose to the occasion in the best tradition of the English fighting man.
“England expects that every man will do his duty,” Admiral Nelson said at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
England asked the same of its flyboys in 1940 and was not disappointed.
It didn’t hurt that the Brits benefited enormously from two technological advantages.
First, the world’s first early warning radar system installed all along the coast, though far from perfected, gave the British a huge tactical boost. Roughly speaking, they knew where and when the German planes would arrive over British soil.
Second, in the Supermarine Spitfire and the Hawker Hurricane the Brits had two lethal fighter planes.
Yet the advantage that mattered most to RAF, according to the fine book “With Wings Like Eagles” by Michael Korda, was the leadership of Air Chief Marshall Hugh Dowding, who did a masterful job of building up the nation’s air defenses in the face of fierce internal politics in the British High Command.
The eccentric Dowding was a “my way or the highway” leader, utterly convinced that his theories on fighting the Germans were the only option for successful defense.
While this attitude eventually ended his career in the service, at the time he was needed most — in those bloody, frightful days of the German Blitz — Dowding’s leadership and tactics proved invaluable.
Time and again the Luftwaffe leadership convinced itself that the RAF was spent, but each time the Brits fought back ferociously. And it was not just pilots in the air. Thousands of military personnel and civilian volunteers — men and women — worked diligently and often heroically in completing the thousand tasks which stitched together led to an improbable and astounding victory.
Due to those efforts, there was no invasion of England. Hitler shelved his plans and fatefully turned his attention to the Russian Bear.
Though still early in the war, Churchill sensed the historic importance of what the RAF had accomplished.
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few,” the British leader said.
Sixty-nine years later, on a beautiful summer day in Dalton, Ga., USA, those fine words still ring gloriously true.

Jimmy Espy is executive editor of The Daily Citizen. He blogs at Espysoutpost.blogspot.com

Warren's World

Lunch with the Sage comes cheaper this year.

Match of the Week

Tajiri vs. Little Guido vs. Super Crazy. Go cats, go!

Gone fishin'

Check out this money making catch of a Great Blue Marlin by a Stockbridge man. Be sure and enlarge the photo for full effect.

Rugby

Down goes Italy. Down goes Italy.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

All Blacks

Another reason to hate the frogs. Not that I needed one.

Olberman

The Big Goon is so bad on this Michael Jackson coverage its incredible. Doesn't seem at all intersted in anything negative that might have occured during Jackson's lifetime. He keeps talking about this huge crowd at the hospital, BUT it it wasn't a huge crowd. Maybe a couple hundred onlookers. Looks like the same people who showed up at the Robert Blake trial.
He also keeps going about the significance of the body being moved from USC to UCLA, how it says so much about L.A. What the heck?
Olberman is wretched, absolutely wretched, but FOX interviewed that old scammer Uri Geller about his friend Michael and I refuse to listen to Geller on anything.
Olberman just made the point that Jackson is dead and sooner or later we all will be dead. Good thinking Keith. Attaboy!

George Will

On Obama's green obsesssion. The President believe this claptrap and will continue to do so even as reality shows otherwise. His misplaced faith will weaken our economy and leave the world poorer.

Guns

Sotomayor and the Second Amendment. Will the GOP push the issue? Darn right!

Iran

The Butcher is on the scene.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Chavez

More economic insanity. From the BBC.

Sharks

Many species "endangered." From the BBC.

Football

Northwest's Nermin Delic commits to Maryland. He needs to add weight but he's got the frame for it. He may wind up a TE, but I like him at DE. From The Daily Citizen.

Charles Oliver

It couldn't happen here. From The Daily Citizen.

On the border

From Politico, look for a push on immigration reform.

Books

As of this writing I've finished 28 books so far this year.
Very few lemons and several top of the line recommendations.
Best of the bunch was The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley. I've been hearing about Crumley for a year and finally tracked down a few of his books. This one features his great character C.W. Shugrue, one of the toughest, best written characters I've seen in this kind of book. A terrific read.
---
We Pointed Them North by "Teddy Blue" is an ls an old cowboy's recollection of life on the range. Larry McMurtry has raved about this book for years and of course he's right. Lots of great detail about the "real" Wild West.
---
Walking the Dog is another terrific Walter Mosley book. This one features the fascinating Socrates Fortlow, an aging ex-convict who grapples with poverty and violence while at the same time pondering the more philosophical aspects of his existence.
---
The Third Call of Legba and The Devil Will Not Be Mocked are the first two volumes in a five-book collection of the works of the late southern fantasy writer Manly Wade Wellman. Reading them all at one time means some repetitiveness, but for the most part these two collections are fresh and fun. There's a knowing sense of the old rural south here and that's rare to find.
---
I didn't know anything about Jeff Somers before, but his two sci fi novels The Electric Church and The Digital Plague blew me away with their unrelenting pace, brutal violence and sly sense of humor. He's got a new one coming out this summer and it will immediately vault to the top of my to read list.
---
I've read several other really enjoyable books, but these top the list ... so far.

Dalton's own ...

Kyle Wingfield.

Warren's World

It ain't good. The Sage says the economy sux. I guess that razor sharp perception is why he's so rich.The full transcript of the interview.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Hitchens

Big Chris on the insanity of the mullahs. The money line "Also try to bear in mind that one day you will have to face the young Iranian democrats who risked their all in the battle and explain to them just what you were doing when they were being beaten and gassed."

Robert Samuelson

The real Welfare State.

Iran

So, am I being hopelessly optimistic in thinking Mousavi is the point of the spear of a New Iran. Have the years of being away from the center of political life given him a new perspective. Is he a worthy leader of those millions of courageous Iranians who clearly want to see real change in their backward ass country?
Or ... is Charles right?
The Diminuitive One offered today that Mousavi was the face of a potentially potent political bloc determined to take over control of the nation as The Great Leader's health fades. Are they simply the out-of-power gang in a high stakes Iranian power play?
If so, they may come to regret letting the genie out of the bottle. The Iranian people, at least millions of younger Iranians, are intoxicated with the idea that they can make real change happen.
That's a dangerous factor for tyrants and would-be-tyrants to ponder.

Radio loses a great voice

I listened to Neil Rogers for about five years when I lived in Florida. He was great. Acerbic, outspoken and fiercely independent. During that time period the old Miami Dolphin guard Larry Little, an employee of the radio station, brought is pal O.J. Simpson to a station-sponsored event. Rogers went nuclear on Little and the station for letting it happen. It was great radio.
Rogers also loved to tell his conservative Cuban listeners that he was homosexual, which he was, and then listen as they erupted. He was priceless, never more so than when he took the government's side in the Elian Gonzalez mess. Not a popular view in Ol' Miami.
Boortz wishes he was as funny and iconoclastic as Neil Rogers.
Here's the story.

Monday, June 22, 2009

My Sunday column

Former Daily Citizen editor Mark Pace has been eating a lot of cake in recent days. Pace, who was underpaid and overworked here from 1945 until 1982, turned 95 on Saturday.
The day before he was served a lunch in his honor at the offices of The Daily Citizen — virtually the House that Mark Built — and on Saturday he had another tasty dessert served to him by the League of Women Voters.
Don’t be surprised if he eats light on Sunday.
Mark was also honored by the city with a proclamation making June 20, 2009 Mark Pace Day. The document cited his long years of service, his “passion for faith, family, community and journalism,” and his excellent example as a “role model.”
Many of you know Mark and realize what a lasting impact he has made on this community. I joked earlier about him being underpaid for years, but the truth is Mark could have made a lot more money by leaving Dalton for more lucrative territories all those years ago.
But his love for this town and its people wouldn’t let him do it. He chose to stay and raise a fine family here. More than 60 years later, we all still benefit from the day the Florida boy packed his bags and moved north.
---
I am furious that the knuckleheads downtown sponsored a beer tasting festival on Saturday. What were they thinking? How insulting!
How dare they do something like this on a day I have to work.
Most of the proceeds from the festival will go to the Keeping Kids First program.
Of course, the sponsors of the event, the Downtown Dalton Devel-opment Authority, are taking some heat from the usual sources.
They’re setting a bad example for young people.
They are encouraging alcoholism.
They are unleashing hordes of drunk drivers on the roads.
For the record, young people should be taught that consuming alcohol is a personal choice and with it comes certain responsibilities, not the least of which is to obey prohibitions against drunk driving.
Drunk drivers should be arrested.
Young people should be taught that most adults drink reasonably, obeying the pertinent laws and not letting the desire to drink get the best of them. They should also know that some people don’t handle this freedom well and with that decision can come legal and personal woes.
Taking this message to young people will be a lot more effective than turning a bottle of beer into the bogeyman.
---
The next issue of Dalton Magazine should hit the streets in a couple of weeks. With this issue Jamie Jones takes over as editor, a role I filled for approximately two years.
Frankly, I can use the extra time. Between overseeing The Daily Citizen, several special sections and three other magazines (Catoosa Life, Mountain Life and Calhoun Magazine) I was getting a little stressed. As much as I enjoyed being the editor of Dalton Magazine, since taking over from its founder, Terry Connor, there is only so much time in a day.
Jamie Jones is good choice for editor. He’s a lifelong Daltonian and knows the area and its people well. That’s a huge plus.
Jamie is also a good worker and smart fellow. He can be reached at 706-272-7723 and he’d appreciate any story ideas or other suggestions.
Dalton Magazine has been a success story for us.
Terry Connor got it off the ground in good form over four years ago and it has been well supported by the business community. At a time when many newspaper companies were retrenching, we’ve been able to take the Dalton Magazine model into other communities and have found success there as well.
My time as editor was well spent. No matter how much you love the business, there are times when putting out a daily newspaper seems like drudgery. By the time an issue comes out you are already working on the next.
Dalton Magazine is produced in a more leisurely fashion and I actually had time to sit down with each new issue and read it slowly, for pure enjoyment.
Sweet!

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Oh Canada!

The Calgary Herald shreds the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

Reds

Russians bosses unhappy with free expression. Just like the bad old days.

Iran

President Obama isn't the only one hiding out over the situation Iran. Where is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad these days? Are they keeping him out of sight on purpose, not wanting to fan the flames? Obama's response is pathetic, and will only be looked at by the Iranians as cowardly. Even the French and Brits have spoken up. Of course, the Obama True Believers are praising the wisdom of his begrud comments, but were it Bush we know they would be screaming bloody murder. The double standard is not a surprise, but no less appalling.
Obama should be ashamed.

Your free Sunday tune

Steve Earle (again!) does Born on the Mountain with the Del McCoury band.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Movies

The trailer for Zombieland, Woody Harrelson's new zombie flick filmed in Valdosta.

Mark Steyn

Neutrality is no option in Iran.

Sweet revenge

All Blacks whup stinking France. It wasn't pretty, but it is beautiful.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Rugby

All Blacks seek revenge (and more) against the stinking French today.

Movies

This one looks pretty cool. Dead Snow. You can't go wrong with Nazi zombies.

George Will

Clearing away the smoke on federal tobacco policy.

Mark Steyn

Why the fascists are winning in Europe?

Match of the week

Freebirds vs Bruiser Brody and Kevin Von Erich. Fromthe old Sportatorium.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Movies


Blood of the Zombies
(1961) is the fourth worst thing to happen to the city of New Orleans.
The first three are:
1. Hurricane Katrina
2. The Great Yellow Fever Outbreak
3. Harry Connick Jr.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Eats

The LA Times talks barbecue.

Lashing Letterman

OK, Dave was wrong and all and deserves a Todd Palin-left hook to the snoot. However, Gov. Palin is milking this to the nth degree.. I wonder if is she was holding a big American flag while uttering this drivel. Let's move on.

Michael Totten

Lots more from Iran via Commentary.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Iran

Michael Ledeen offers his thoughts.

Back home

In Summerville Da Judge is angry.

MMA

Cain Velasquez stood out in Cologne.

The border

US, Mexico agree to to facilitate travel and trade.

Health care

Reliable Robert Samuelson calls the Obama health care "reform" what it is ... a sham.

The corruption busters

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin didn't waste much time cashing in on a little insider knowledge.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Music

The Boss at Bonnaroo.

All Blacks

The club is struggling and shaken after a tough loss to the stinking French.

My Sunday column

My Floridaze

Desperately tired I recently took a badly needed vacation, from which I came back seven days later even more tired and with a lot less money in the bank.
That said, it was a good time.

The trip down
We made our annual jaunt to gorgeous St. George Island in Apalachicola Bay last week.
I have been going to St. George Island for two decades. It is a wonderful place to visit, but it’s what my cousin Joe would have described as “a fer piece down the road.”
And now that I am hauling a chatty-four year old along, the trip seems to have lengthened by a few thousand miles. I knew it was going to be a long day when the precious little tyke inquired — about four miles south of Calhoun — “Daddy, are we almost there yet?”
We were not and we still weren’t at Cartersville when she asked again, or at Marietta or Jonesboro or Griffin or in Tifton where I — accidentally, of course — almost left her at a McDonald’s.

On the island
We hit the beach in all of our albino glory on Saturday. My daughter and I were sitting in the sand when I pointed to the southeast — in the general direction of southwest Florida, and explained that way, way in that direction is where Mommy and Daddy used to live. Then I pointed southwest and said that way, way in that direction was Mexico.
Not missing a beat my daughter replied, “And that’s where Speedy Gonzalez lives!”
I love that kid!
I was determined not to blister on this trip, and spent much of my vacation slathering on various sunscreen concoctions.
I also wore a lot of clothes to the beach. I looked more like a knight preparing for a joust than someone about to go swimming.
Of course, I got blistered anyway. Somehow my elbows got scorched. My elbows?
On Tuesday, six of us went out with Capt. Charlie Logue for a half-day of fishing. The first lunker I snagged was a 16-pound (give or take) Amberjack. I hooked him solidly and then held on for dear life as that devil fish slung me around the boat for a painful 10 minutes.
My blistered elbows screamed in outrage as the battle seesawed.
Once, needing some relief, I tucked the bottom of the rod between my legs and under a secure piece of metal. Or so I thought. The devil fish dove, the rod jerked upward, the metal didn’t hold and I screamed out unpleasantries in notes not heard since the heyday of Leo Sayer.
After landing the great beast, which went on to claim Best Catch of the Day Honors, I quickly handed off the rod to a fellow fishermen and collapsed in a pile like one of the 300 Spartans.
However, in the end I won.
The Amerberjack may have delivered a fearsome blow to my ... pride ... but over the next few days, I ate him.

Coming home

He was sitting in the corner of a fast food restaurant in Tallahassee, the American city most likely to be confused with Calcutta
He was a disgustingly fit looking young man, wearing bicycling togs and scribbling away furiously in what looked like a diary.
It was.
His name was Chris and he was on a quest.
Chris was from America’s heartland, Springfield, Mo., but his imagination and determination were taking him far from home, in this case on a solo 3,200-mile trip from Key West to San Francisco.
Why?
Why the heck not!
Much like Blanche DuBois, Chris said he was relying on the kindness of strangers. At meal times he would pull off the road, go in a restaurant, tell the manager what he was doing and ask for a “courtesy meal.”
So far, he said, he hadn’t been refused.
Chris was friendly, soft spoken and generous in answering questions he had already fielded repeatedly. He also smelled like a goat.
We shook hands. I wished him well and slipped him $10 for supper.
God loves a rover and so do I.

Michael Totten

A solid grab bag from Iran.

Cool stuff

I remember some of these products. Fun stuff.

Hitchens

Big Chris savages the Iranian shamocracy.

Movies

A quick look at the three Netflix pix I took to Florida last week.
Zack and Miri Make a Porno is pretty typical Kevin Smith stuff. That means it's tasteless, raunchy and sometimes very funny. Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks star as longtime pals who decide to film a porno movie together because they are desperate for cash. Of course they fall in love. It's exactly what you expect, an uneasy mix of cloying romance and grotesque comedy.
---
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans is the third in the series and a prequel, setting up the mythology of the later films. Kate Beckinsale is replaced by Rona Mitra. Overall it's well made. It looks good and the action unfolds efficiently. Unfortunately, there's nothing in the picture that stands out. Bill Nighy is the best thing as the vampire king, but even his scenery chewing can't lift this one above the mundane.
---
The best of my vacation flix was Cadillac Records, a retelling of the founding of Chess Records. Adrien Brody plays Leonard Chess, the white man who brought such blues icons as Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and Howling Wolf to worldwide fame.
The tumultuous early days of the Chicago-based label are captured nicely here as Chess and label star Muddy Waters vault to prominence. The music is terrific, particularly the pulsing electrified harmonica work of the great Little Walter. I wish they had done more with Howling Wolf, the surly tough guy who rivaled Muddy Waters in more ways than one.
More than a few cliches are hit along the way, but Cadillac Records is a good introduction to the Golden Age of American blues.
---
Cadillac Records B
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans C
Zack and Miri - C

Your Sunday free tune

Alejandro Escovedo does Sister Lost Soul. Be patient with the band intros.

Movies

Casting underway for Burrough's John Carter film.I have no idea who this actor is but I love the idea of a John Carter of Mars movie. I always liked that series much more than Burroughs's Tarzan stories. (I liked the Pellucidar stories best).

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Iran

A hot time in the old town tonight.

Mark Steyn

Retreat into apathy. From NRO.

MMA

Rich Franklin gets a big win.

Just in time for Father's Day.

Hannah and her dad. This is how you want your kid to feel about you. (Thanks to Matt Hamilton for reminding me about this one.)

The economy

What stimulus? Badly conceived, badly designed and badly executed, the stimulus bill is a gigantic flop. Sure, jobs will be created in the Obama-approved realms. But jobs will also disappear in the less politically connected sectors.

Oh Canada!

A rowdy roundup from Up North, where freedom of speech is under direct assault by a pack of government-teat sucking knuckleheads plucked from the pages of an Evelyn Waugh novel. Starring the irrepressible Ezra Levant as The Hero.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Medical humbuggery

That crap doesn't work. But government keeps on spending $ to figure it out.

Victor Davis Hanson

Cowardly Letterman.

NBA 2

Jordan Brenner has an excellent article in the current issue of ESPN the Magazine. Among other things he looks at the tendency of fans to overrate late season and playoff performances by certain players and he also challenges the currently popular idea that you have to have three great players to win a championship.

NBA

Bill Walton just said on Mike and Mike that Dwight Howard has one of "the 15 greatest bodies in NBA history."
Apparently Bill keeps a detailed file on the league's "best bodies."
(I wondered what it would take to get me to post on the NBA.)

Movies

This is the kind of story - rampaging crocodile hunting down a group of dumb but attractive humans -- Sci Fi Channel has done to death, and usually badly.
But "Black Water" is many notches above that made-for-TV dreck.
The cast includes -- never mind, you don't know any of them, they're from Australia or New Zealand -- but is good.
A trio -- two women and a man --is vacationing in some southern hemisphere backwoods. They go on a fishing trip in with a shady looking guide who takes them into crocodile-free waters ... supposedly. Guess what? There's a croc there after all and he's big, smart, nasty and hungry.
The cast gets whittled down as you surely expected, but the story is told with patience and a solid feel for human behavior. Suspense is built nicely and the direction is crisp and assured.
It's a stripped down story told in a stripped down manner.
Solidly done. Good B-movie stuff.

Chavez

Hugo 1, Coke 0 The drink of running dog capitalists?

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Edumacation

Newsweek says these are the top public schools in Georgia.

SEC football

Paul Finebaum on coaches, recruiting and name calling.

Movies

100 great movie lines in 200 seconds. Believe it!

Reds

No shilly shallying from these guys. North Korea cuts to the chase. We will blow YOU up!

Red State Update

'Words is for talkin'

Match of the week

Dusty vs. Abdullah in Japan. No style points awarded in this one but a good brawl between two of the great brawlers in the business. I miss these days.

Newspaperin'

The Globe. Maybe when they shut the paper down, the union will start it's on ... but I doubt it.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Europe

Remember when Britain's Labour leadership had Obama-like hubris? Now the party is in collapse. A lesson here? And it's not just the Brits. The Left takes a whuppin'

Bob Barr

Bob Barr on the Middle East. From the AJC.

Reds

When will we blow North Korea up? Then again, maybe there is something else we can do. You tell me. Bill Powell at Time reports the story.

Politics

Larry Summers penchant for reason seems to be angering his cohorts at Obama Central. Let's hope so. Something needs to slow down this juggernaut of economic foolishness. The GOP ain't doing it. From the NY Times.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Chavez

Hugo should come work for the Obama Administration.

Bloggin' politics

The top 100 political blogs.

D-Day

A revisionist look at the French reception and other aspects.

Guns

NRA appeals gun ban to top court.

Great words

Reagan's speech at Normandy In his recent Obama is God outburst, Evan Thomas said Reagan at Normandy was all about America. Thomas is either ignorant or a liar, as this speech proves. Reagan cited the Canadians, the Poles, the Brits, the Scots and others in his remarks.

Mark Steyn

One way multiculturalism will destroy the West. From NRO.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Your Sunday free tune

Just got back from a week on the beach. Reading. Eating. Fishing. Swimming. Boozing. Snoozing. A good time. Sing me back there, Jimmy Buffet. (From back when I was a lot thinner and he had more hair.)

Movies

On Curb Your Enthusiasm Larry David pretended to make a movie with Martin Scorsese. Now he's in a Woody Allen picture for real. The article is from Newsweek and Obama isn't even mentioned. Wow!

Newsweek does theology

I can't say this is a surprise, but Newsweek's Evan Thomas sees something omnipotent in Obama. Damn, this magazine is hurtling into the abyss faster than Amy Winehouse. Pathetic.

Words!

My man Harlan Ellison tells it like it is about Hollywood and the pillaging of writers. The old boy can still summon the heat.

Economy

Canadians trade tit for a tat. Obama's campaign blustering started this mess.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Reds

Chavez's opponents have a tendency to get arrested.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Koko Taylor, RIP

The Queen of the Blues has passed away. Wang Dang Doodle with Little walter.

Braves

Nate McLouth was Pirates' best player. Pittsburgh fans have to be sick this stuff. They had this guy signed to a very modest deal for 3 more years and still didn't want to pay him. I used to work for the people who own the team. Believe me, CHEAP is the key word to them.

Braves

Mark Bradley on the Glavine deal. A good column but I still think money had a lot to do with the decision, especially since they were adding McLouth's pay. I hope Glavine wins 6-8 for someone this year.