Coss

Being deprived of western culture here in the Glorious People's Republic, I watch a lot of movies, most from Hollywood.

And after a while, you get to see that 'mericans cannot enjoy themselves, without a good shoot up (by good, I mean over the top, excessive, prolonged weapons usage, that makes arms dealers everywhere very happy).

Even though I am not a Middle Easterner, Hispanic traveling to Miami or African-American wearing a baseball cap backward, does my reading of the above post, indicate that I am a threat, inside or out?

I get the feeling that if Hollywood can make a movie about something, America will try to bring such to reality...

Quartet - very good - no violence - gentle charm and humour.

At a home for retired musicians, the annual concert to celebrate Verdi's birthday is disrupted by the arrival of Jean, an eternal diva and the former wife of one of the residents.

Director:

Dustin Hoffman

Writers:

Ronald Harwood (play), Ronald Harwood(screenplay)

Stars:

Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly et al

Or...

When the lead actor is a tough guy, he can always park in front of city hall or where ever.

or...

When they need to be seen going into a place, they park the car 50 metres away then run into the building.

or...

If they are following someone or trying to sneak up on someone at night, they leave the headlights on...

and... the car's windows are always open

and when the hero has been beaten to within an inch of his life, he leaps up good as new and performs a series of Olympic like feats...

Aaahhh, I could go on....

Sex and Fury, from the "Pinky Violence Collection". A Japanese movie with English subs. You could call it porn but there's no genitals on view and there is a huge amount of story (plot). They still get in a bit of whipping and Japanese rope bondage though. This predates Tarantino, it could have been one of his influences (he was 10 in '73). It does suffer from the - 15 people attacking one person dance, where 14 people dance around fancifully whilst the hero/ine deals with them one at a time. Other than that, an entertaining flick.

Silver Linings Playbook - extremely well shot, acted, written etc - but hollywood chick psycobabble.

Hescher - quite disturbing in it's execution - but more psycobabble.

3:10 to Yuma - not bad, a good western.

Gran Torino - excellent - Clint Eastwood, Hmong refugees in the good 'ol USA - a very good movie.

London Boulevard - very good also - british gangsters.

My upgraded internet security:

In Saudi, and two neighbouring countries (I forget the names) famous for this:

They have banned this:

maybe protesters will start using this:

Be careful what you buy.

 

http://www.amazon.co...iews/B000KKNQBK

That is the funniest thing I've read in years, laughing in tears I was. I particularly like this paragraph:

I took off from the deckchair like Usain Bolt out of the TV adverts. Within 12 seconds, the bathroom was filled with steamy fetid barse broth, and I had the clock weights, biffin's-bridge and Sherriff's badge under ice-cold running water at the tap end of the bath. This did not please the missus, as she was relaxing in there at the time surrounded by floating petals and candles, although she did say that the sight of my ringpiece flashing like a brake light was impressive, and she was pleased to see that my arse barnacles had all but disappeared.

 

...his trying to draft Trump into running a few years ago but to be fair, I don't think anyone really knew how crazy Trump was or had become.

No claiming presience or anything, but trump has always looked like a nutter to me.

Is that Hilary on the right?

"derelicts, psychopaths, deviants, preverts, bumbs, idiots, short changers, and the cheap fat balding unshaven punters."

Hey!, I shave!

Do its eyes following you when you move?

It must close it's eyes when it knows someone is looking. It just looks like an ordinary coconut tree when someone's looking.

My coconut tree just moved again, about a metre to the left.

Yes I was wondering how many 82 yr old Australian Entertainers there were in Berkshire.

"Money spent violating the basic human rights of Palestinians could be spent in America violating the basic human rights of Americans."

and the word Palestinians ay be substituted for any Nationality du jour, of your choice.

Hear Hear!

"The DHS has purchased over 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition over the past year – enough to wage a 20 year plus war."

No wonder the gun lobby is worried about the government attacking it's citizens. DHS - Department of Homeland Security - unless they think 1.6.billion Mexicans and Canadians are gonna need to be shot, who are they arming against.

Mind you, from news footage, it seems it takes the average perpetrator, 20 cops each firing 50 rounds, to get shot.

So at that ratio it's only 1.6 Million people they're worried about...

Apart from Jeb ( a good hillbilly name ) is every male in this family called George? Probably makes their names easy to remember.

Home sweet hoecake all you rounders. Ain't no lie went a court'n, wildwood flower! Cluck old hen hoecake scratching out dough died when I was young Juney bug soldier's joy run hot corn rye whiskey hot corn, shady grove nine-pound hammer. The cuckoo rambling. Work one day rolling down the track buried in the ground peg and awl going to town died when I was young.

Its amazing the amount of public sympathy for Dorner in LA even though he killed innocent people. Part of the reason is the LAPD themselves. They do not have a good reputation in Los Angeles and by extension this includes law enforcement in surrounding areas (LA County sherriffs, Inglewood PD, Santa Monica PD, etc.). They seem to try and outdo each other. Law enforcement in the greater Los Angeles area is a revenue generator. They will write up anyone for the mildest things. What used to be a simple warning years ago is now written up and can cost you time and money.

I recall late at night a cop sitting in the parking lot next to me watching me come out of a 24hr market. Forgot to turn on my headlights when I started my car and instead of reminding me to do it followed me out of the parking lot until I got down the street to stop me and write me a ticket. I was wondering why he was following me out of the parking lot. Was I wrong? Definitely. Was it chicken shit of a cop to do that instead of just telling me before I left the premises? Definitely. Its the kind of thing they do and its often against middle class, no one is immune. They camp out near night club areas and write tickets on weekend nights. They camp out near schools and universitities and do the same. Any and all minor infractions and the city raises the rates on those. I'm not talking $25 bucks or so but its usually closer to $100 and some require a courtroom appearance like speeding or whatever which requires a day off from work.

 

No one has love for the police. They target everyone. They are also known for corruption. The vice, narc squads especially. They will lie for each other in an instant. A few cases of outright lies have been unearthed.

 

Are there some good cops out there? Certainly, the majority are. However the good ones have been given a mandate to write as many tickets as they can to bolster their rating.

 

That said, Dorner is a complete nutcase.

I comment from a position of ignorance - my on the ground experience of the USA, being a week or so in San Francisco with Old Hippy as a tour guide... (Good times)

So I am always amazed at the apparent, over the top, actions of what always seem to be LAPD officers, like the ones who shot up a car containing a woman and her mother, thinking that they were a very big armed black man named Dorner. Many many many bullets, car riddled, other cars, neighboring houses with many bullet holes.... Curiously the women were not too seriously injured and survived.

The international media has fed me imagery, over the years, of scenes of cops, piling on with violence and aggression directed at seemingly passive subjects. A typical scenario is thus: a car chase ends, what looks like 50 police cars pull up and all the officers leap from their cars and pile on top of a single subject, who has thoughtfully laid down on the ground, hands behind his head, submissive. The resultant pile of cops is meantime, trying to pummel him to death, no doubt hitting each other and enraging themselves in the process. This sort of pack behaviour is most often seen in wild hunting dogs in Africa, when tearing apart prey.

People say that this is the few, the exception, but to my mind, it happens enough, to make it to the media often.

On the other side, Fred Reed of Fredoneverything, has a series of "cop columns" here that put this argument into context, the articles are a very good read and give the reader some perspective from the cop's side.

I can say, that the actions of the gun toting citizenry and police of LA as portrayed to me in the media, have put LA way down on my list of places to visit, I just wouldn't feel safe.

"built on the spot where tradition holds the tree from which Jesus' cross was made,"

risibly tenuous

What about a monastery built on the spot where woodcutters habitually took a leak, when cutting down the tree from which Jesus' cross was made, or the hovel in which a blind and crippled peasant passed his days, whilst being totally ignorant of the spot where woodcutters habitually took a leak, when cutting down the tree from which Jesus' cross was made. Surely that'd make a good spot for a monastery...

So some data entry prole got it wrong...

I'm not defending Tobacco, but I would suggest that many who smoke and die from "Tobacco use" related causes, may, as non smokers, have lived another year and died of non "Tobacco use" related causes.

There is a definite bias, to ascribing any health issue, for a smoker as a "Tobacco use" related cause. If I have a heart attack as a smoker, it's because I smoke, If I have one as a non smoker, I have a heart attack.

Just picking holes in someone's logic.

Craigslist sperm donor forced to pay child support to lesbian couple - despite giving up parental rights to the baby BEFORE she was born

 

...

This happened in Scotland too

 

If they're going to allow homosexual couples to raise kids, they should have the same rights - and obligations - as those of middle aged white heterosexual males...