White House Telegraphics the Punch on Syria: What if Syria sinks Our Ship?

This article on Obama's potential Syrian adventure is priceless.

Having leaked to the world, and thus to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a detailed briefing of the coming U.S. air attack on Syria — (1) the source (offshore warships and perhaps a bomber or two), (2) the weapon (cruise missiles), (3) the duration (two or three days), (4) the purpose (punishment, not “regime change”) — perhaps we should be publishing the exact time the bombs will fall, lest we disrupt dinner in Damascus.

I wonder what would happen if Syria started firing ship-killer missiles that they got from Russia at those warships? If Assad sinks one of them you figure it would kill 300 sailors and the US would have to escalate the war. If Obama doesn't do so then he would be in serious trouble. Those are the kind of complexities that will happen if we do some feckless missile firing and then running away.

Liberal Commentator from Slate Says Obama is a Bad Person for Going to Private School

It is funny when liberals accidentally indict their beloved President when they criticize parents that send their kids to private school.

You are a bad person if you send your children to private school. Not bad like murderer bad—but bad like ruining-one-of-our-nation’s-most-essential-institutions-in-order-to-get-what’s-best-for-your-kid bad. So, pretty bad.

I guess Obama needs to feel bad that he went to one of the best schools in the state of Hawaii i.e. Punahou. I mean his grandparents could have sent him to Farrington where he would have gotten a true public school education. This woman Allison Benedikt would have loved it if that happened and he would not have been the bad person that he is today according to her twisted logic.

However, there might be a pretty decent chance that young Barry Soetoro would not have gone to Occidental, Columbia and then to Harvard if he went to Farrington. Only 47% of kids coming out of Farrington went to college with the majority of them going to 2 year colleges. That is if he was one of the 65% that actually graduated from that high school. With his nearly daily drug use it would have been very easy for Soetoto to drop out and smoke pot and sell drugs full time. I'm sure quite a few conservatives would have loved for that particular thing to happen.  

RadioShack’s Revival Plan Sounds Pretty Dumb

Well I still won't be tempted to go there but I just have to say that this idea won't have me rushing back.

Magnacca’s solution is “Let’s Play!” a business plan designed to make the retailer “a neighborhood technology playground.” Prototype stores have a cleaner look, a change from the tangled collection of cables, cords, adapters, and batteries that most customers associate with RadioShack. Shoppers can connect their iPhones to a wall of speakers for test drives, while sensors on the gear selected call up information on a screen above. Five such stores reimagined for upscale, high-traffic areas such as Manhattan’s Upper West Side are already open; 15 more are scheduled to open by the holiday shopping season. The company plans another 2,000 less-slick store redos (without speaker walls and interactive features), starting in the New York area, New Jersey, and Texas.

Why would you test drive your IPhone with some speakers and have some sensors call up information on some screen? It doesn't seem like something that I need to rush out and do. I guess it would be nice if you are in the market for an IPhone speaker but the idea of connecting my phone to some communal outlet just makes me leery. 

Shailene Woodley Makes her Own Toothpaste and Cheese?

It seems refreshing to see a young actress take this road instead of going the way of conspicuous consumption.

"I think everything about my lifestyle is fairly alternative," Woodley revealed. "I gather my own spring water from mountains every month. I go to a farm to get my food."

And don't expect the 21-year-old to rely on a fancy chef to whip up her organic goods into a healthy meal for her. On the contrary, the Golden Globe nominated actress is very hands-on when it comes to stocking her home with all the essentials.

"I make everything from my own toothpaste to my own body lotions and face oils. I could go on for hours," she says. "I make my own medicines; I don't get those from doctors. I make my own cheese and forage wild foods and identify wild plants."

Hmm, I wonder if more Americans will follower her lead. It would make for a much more self sufficient nation for the Zombie Apocalypse/Kaiju destroy the cities/world-wide blackout/the Rapture/Killer Tomatos attack.

FEDs Step Back from Marijuana Prohibition: Kicks it Back to the States

It seems that the FEDs are perfectly okay with states legalizing pot use.

Despite 75 years of federal marijuana prohibition, the Justice Department said Thursday that states can let people use the drug, license people to grow it and even allow adults to stroll into stores and buy it — as long as the weed is kept away from kids, the black market and federal property.

In a sweeping new policy statement prompted by pot legalization votes in Washington and Colorado last fall, the department gave the green light to states to adopt tight regulatory schemes to oversee the medical and recreational marijuana industries burgeoning across the country.

This is quite a victory for states rights. I'm pretty sure Hawaii will now move forward with their legalization attempts since it is a serious cash crop over here. I mean just taxing large growers will be a huge windfall for the state.  

Looks Like We Are On Our Own in Syria: Brits Back Out

It seems Obama is going to have to channel some GW Bush because it seems that he has no friends left if he tries to bomb Syria.

British lawmakers rejected their government's call for punitive military strikes against the chemical-armed Syrian regime, leaving the United States to act alone.

Before and after the shock House of Commons vote to defy Prime Minister David Cameron's bid to win support for military intervention, the White House said America was ready to take unilateral action.

I wonder where all the liberals are hiding that railed against Bush taking unilateral action in Iraq? 

Aaron Rodgers Burger Needs to Be Banned by the Geneva Convention

I think forcing someone to eat this awful mess should be a crime against humanity.

It contains bacon, peanut butter, swiss havarti, avocado, pickles, jalapeno, crispy fried onion rings, mayo and ranch. First of all bacon, peanut butter, and onion rings at the same time sounds stomach churning. You have oily deep fried stuff mixed with peanut butter melted by the heat of the other ingredients. Then you add jalapenos, havarti and ranch dressing and you have to go the Hague for restitution.

Manziel Gets a Wrist Slap: Half Game Suspension

Well it seems that Rice will only have to face Johnny Football in the second half of Texas A&Ms season opener.

It reportedly took six hours of interviewing Manziel on Sunday for the NCAA and school to determine that he will sit out, at most, two hours of football. And thus concludes what will go down as the most overblown college football story of 2013.

Half a game. Against Rice. Not quite worth all the hot air devoted to the investigation over the last couple of weeks. 

I wonder if this means that Manziel actually did get some cashola for his autograph or not? It seems that A&M is not admitting guilt:

When the first guy with the news is A&M mouthpiece Billy Luicci of TexAgs.com, you know where it came from. The same story then was repeated to other media outlets as well. The immediate spin from "sources" (read: A&M) to ESPN and others is that the NCAA "acknowledged Manziel did not receive money for signing autographs."

If that is true why is A&M accepting a suspension? I guess he just signed the autographs and some other guy sold them later on. For whatever reason an NCAA player needs to make sure his autograph is not sold while he is still playing. Maybe Johnny Football should put an RFID tag on each piece of memorabilia to track its movement until he has left college. The NCAA is such a joke organization.

Miley Cyrus and Kanye Skipped VMA Afterparty to "Lay Down Remix"

This has to be the most innuendo filled article I have seen in a while.

"He was in a creative mood," the source says of the impromptu late-night recording session. "You know 'Ye: He does everything last minute and just decided to capture their energy and record right after the show. They decided that night."

The source notes that in addition to Cyrus' "Black Skinhead" verse, the pair "messed around with other tracks," some of which may appear on the 20-year-old pop star's new record. (The Disney alum announced earlier this month that her fourth album, Bangerz, would be released on Oct. 4.)

Mmm hmmm, this reminds me of this Monty Python skit:

Strange Bedfellows: If We Attack Syria the US Will Team Up with Al-Quida?

It seems we will have some weird-assed allies if we go into Syria.

In a mark of the complexities of the region, Assad faces not just retribution from neighbouring countries and the West but from al Qaeda. The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) said it was launching an operation called "Volcano of Revenge" that would strike Syrian security forces in Damascus.

Assad has said for years that Al-Quida terrorists were lining up against him and he was right. The whole idea of the US lobbing cruise missiles while Al-Quida is detonating suicide car bombs should make you sick. I'm sure Al-Quida would love to get in on the fight so that they can grab some chemical weapons while US bombs rain down.

IRS Finally Approves Penalties for Not Buying Insurance

Well it seems like it might be fairly steep to not have insurance for any length of time.

If individuals choose not to carry insurance, they are subject to a penalty, starting at $95 per person per year or 1 percent of income in 2014, whichever is greater, and eventually reaching $695 per person or 2.5 percent of income by 2016.

It is not bad at first but it gets worse and worse as the years pass. This is especially bad if employers start cutting their employees health insurance to save money. It will be interesting to see what kind of insurance you can get off of the Obamacare exchanges.

Also I wonder how long you have to have insurance in order to avoid this penalty? You could buy health insurance for a month and then cancel it and say you have had it for the entire year. I wonder how the IRS will figure out how long you have had your insurance and when you have cancelled it.

Syria Re-crosses the Redline: Kerry Admits that Assad Gassed His People

I'm sure America is going to do exactly nothing but use stern words and "condemn with the strongest possible terms."

"The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity. By any standard, it is inexcusable and — despite the excuses and equivocations that some have manufactured — it is undeniable," said Kerry, the highest-ranking U.S. official to confirm the attack in the Damascus suburbs that activists say killed hundreds of people.

"This international norm cannot be violated without consequences," he added.

My guess is we will lob some cruise missiles and call it a day. Obama does not have the stones to commit actual forces especially when Syria has state-of-the-art Russian anti-aircraft missiles. If we get an F-22 shot down and they parade our airman around the square Obama would enter Carter territory.

Ballmer to Leave Microsoft: Getting out While the Getting is Good

Well, there was a so-called Ballmer Bounce when he announced his early retirement. On of the worst CEO of modern times pretty much did this with one of the largest companies in the US.

After 33 years at Microsoft (MSFT), the last 13 spent as CEO, Steve Ballmer is surely due the quintessential gold watch for his dedicated service to the company. And yet, in announcing his plan to step down in the next twelve months, the 57 year old outgoing executive is more likely to receive a ration of ridicule for leading the world's largest software company essentially nowhere during his tenure, having inherited a $50 stock in January 2000 that is trading at $35 today.

Yup 13 years at the helm and the stock is down during that period. This is after growing and bringing in cash nearly every year. Now the company is facing all sorts of competition from nearly every corner and their main business of Windows and Office is slowly dying. I mean personal computer sales are nosediving and that is pretty much their cash cow for decades. The guy that replaces him has quite a tall order fixing 13 years of mismanagement and stupidity.

Ron Paul Loves Gold: His Portfolio is a Non-Diversified Mess

Well it is always fun to see the portfolios of various powerful political figures and laugh heartily at how poor their allocation is. But Ron Paul is just hilariously bad.

Paul's investment portfolio is dedicated almost solely to hard assets, with 64 percent in gold and silver miners, 21 percent in real estate and 15 percent in cash, according to an analysis from the StreetAuthority blog.

The other 1 percent? An allocation to stocks, but on the short side in a bet against the equity markets.
(Read more: Why Detroit is good for gold: Ron Paul )

His top five stock allocations are to Goldcorp (Toronto Stock Exchange: G-CA), Barrick Gold (Toronto Stock Exchange: ABX-CA), Newmont Mining (NEM), Silver Wheaton (Toronto Stock Exchange: SLW-CA) and Kinross Gold (Toronto Stock Exchange: K-CA). 

What is messed up is that 64% is in miners who traditionally lag the actual metal itself. If he had 64% in GLD or something then at least he doesn't have to face the vagaries of the miners themselves. If he just had that money in GLD he would have lost only 13% for the year. Instead he gets to eat a 30% loss. What is worse is that the lower gold goes the harder it is on the miners. They have massive capital requirements and if they barely break-even mining the gold they have in reserve they will stop doing it to stabilize prices.

Movie Review: Lee Daniels' The Butler: Watch it On Netflix

I just saw this movie and I have to say that Oprah sure can chew the scenery. Also Lee Daniels does not play the Butler because I had to Google it to see why his name was attached. The movie is basically a retelling of the civil rights movement through the eyes of a butler that served 8 presidents.

For the most part the movie is very open about its view that American is a bad place full of hateful white people but sometimes there are good white people from time to time. The movie traces the life of Cecil who is played by Forest Whitaker in a role that might get him another Oscar. He does it in a very understated manner of a person that wears two masks. One to the people he serves (basically white people) and the other to his family and friends (all black people.) There is only two parts where he loses control and freaks out. In some ways he reminded me of Carson on Downton Abbey. Always in control and always a professional with a good heart and a sense of humor both of which he keeps hidden.

Cecil is raised in near slavery where a white person can kill a black person and there is no repercussions. He even sees the bodies of two lynched guys and knows how bad it is down South and knows he needs to escape. He moves up the ladder like many people in America and goes from picking cotton (where his father is summarily killed by the son of the plantation owner) to being a butler in a southern hotel. He then moves from there to a fancy Washington hotel and then finally moves to the White House after catching the eye of the head of the staff there. It is a very American story of upward movement that is told fairly well for the most part.

As Cecil serves the 8 Presidents in Office his son takes up the banner of Civil Rights through the entire history of the black struggle in America. He is kind of like the Forest Gump of the civil rights movement. He starts off doing the sit-in in segregated lunch counters as a college kid at Fisk. Then he moves on to the Freedom Riders where he is menaced by angry whites who burns their bus. He then is sprayed with a fire hose and attacked by dogs in Bull Connors' Alabama. After that he gets with Martin Luther King and hangs out with him at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis.

There is a nice scene where King actually sticks up for black help and tells the son how important people with his Dad's job is to their movement. The son then joins the Black Panther Party with his girlfriend who sports a giant afro but leaves when he can't bring himself to murder people. Finally, he runs for office in Tennessee and eventually wins. Most of the time he is in conflict with his father and they eventually become estranged when the son does not attend his brothers funeral after the brother is killed in Vietnam. As soon as the son says he was going to join up to protect his country in Vietnam I knew he was doomed.

Oprah does a decent job as Cecil's wife. She is an alcoholic at first that cheats on Cecil with the next door neighbor because Cecil is home late after working in the White House. Oprah does a pretty good job of making herself look unappealing and smokes and drinks throughout the movie with abandon. She has good rapport with Whitaker and their chemistry works on screen. She is pretty much a spectator as various things happen around her.

Finally, the Presidents are played in a series of cameos by various actors. They say a few lines and do a few comical things and that was it. We see LBJ on the toilet, Nixon trying to get black votes and looking creepy, JFK looking Presidential as friend to the black man (there was an interesting scene when Jackie O sat in the White House and wouldn't change out of her blood-soaked clothing,) and finally Reagan (who is played by the British actor that played Severus Snape in Harry Potter) who looks like a decent enough guy that doesn't want to put pressure on South Africa.

One interesting scene during the Reagan-era is where Cecil argues with the guy that hired him for equal pay for the black staff and the guy threatens to fire him. Then Cecil says to take it up with the President if he doesn't want to make the pay even between blacks and whites at the White House. There were some cheers and clapping from the audience after that scene.

However, they stick-it to Reagan right afterward when Cecil is invited to a State Dinner by Nancy. Cecil says that they were invited as a prop and not as a reward for decades of service and is bitter about what happened. They make a point of showing him and his wife as the only black people at the State Dinner and they of course felt powerfully out of place. He then scowls at the young kids who visit the White House who he serves cookies to instead of with a big smile like earlier in the movie. The whole reaction to being invited to the State Dinner rubbed me the wrong way but I guess that is how the character felt.

Finally, the end of the movie we see Cecil waiting to vote for Obama (they went to the polling place 5 times to make sure they had the right place) and being shocked that a black man will not just be serving in the Oval Office but actually sitting behind the desk. Obama of course calls on Cecil to meet him and I bet the producers and Oprah hoped like hell to get him in the movie to play himself.

I was actually waiting for Obama to pop up like he seems to do all the time but I guess since he wasn't campaigning anymore he didn't find it appropriate. Or maybe Michelle just hates Oprah too much to have her husband be in her movie.

In any case I would have liked to see a meeting between Cecil and Obama as a nice bookend to the movie. You would start it with two black guys getting lynched and then you end it with two black guys shaking hands, one of which, is the most powerful man on the planet. I guess that would have been one of the few times I actually wanted to see Obama outside of the political arena.

Verdict: Watch it on Netflix but maybe see the actual history of the Civil Rights era on a documentary first.

Movie Review: Kick-Ass 2: Verdict: Redbox It

Well I saw Kick-Ass 2 the other day and I have to say that it really was not as good as the first one. The first one was a real surprise hit that snuck up on me. I didn't rush out to see it and ended up catching it on Netflix after it had debuted. I just couldn't get over how dorky his costume was and it just looked like yet another super-hero spoof so I missed its initial run. However, when I finally got to see it I saw that it had a great take on a super-hero as a regular person and had a pretty good dynamic.

However, the sequel was just not as good as the first one. The basis of the story is that the son of the bad-guy from the first one who played the Red Mist is now the main villain who now calls himself the Motherfucker. He forms a super-villain team from a bunch of mob guys to go after Kick-ass. Pretty standard faire as super hero movies go.

Kick-ass also joins his own super hero group formed by born-again Christian named Captain Stars-and-Stripes, who used to be a mob killer played by Jim Carrey. You really could have gotten a half-dozen different actors to play this roll and Carrey was pretty nondescript in it. He had a few good lines but nothing to write home about.

Kick-ass tries the entire movie to get Hit Girl to join him but her guardian who was her dead fathers partner on the police force makes her give up the mask. The movie is pretty much about people giving up being a hero for various parts of the movie and denying what "their real face is." It was told much better in Spider-man 2 with more pathos and depth.

In any case the action was pretty cool and there were a few places where I laughed out loud as a good super-hero satire should do. It was nice to see the 16 year old Hit Girl beat the crap out of a bunch of people and also show her softer side when she is victimized by the "Mean Girls" at her high school. I think Chloe Grace Moretz could become a female action star if she plays things right. Maybe a female version of Jason Bourne would be an interesting direction or even her as Supergirl would not be too much of a stretch. However, she has a weird upper lip that distracted me some of the time. It looked collagen injected but it is hard to tell. Hopefully, the producers didn't let a 16 year old girl pump a bunch of collagen into her lips but you never know.

In any case this movie was decent enough but just nothing special in terms of super-hero movies. It sets up a third movie at the end but it getting trounced by Lee Daniels The Butler does not bode well for it. However, that might be an artifact of scheduling. If they had it later in the year it probably would have done well but I think audiences are sick of yet another group of people shooting guns and running around.

Verdict: Redbox it if you like pop-corn action with a super-hero chaser.

Tim Tebows Time in the NFL is almost Over

Well it seems that his career is almost at an end according to this.

He completed just one of seven passes for a loss of one yard, and had one interception on a badly overthrown pass. He was sacked twice on his first nine plays. But the lefty who has trouble reading defenses and zipping passes did what he does best, running six times for 30 yards.

A week earlier, in his debut, he was a bit better — 4 for 12 for 55 yards with four runs for 31 yards in a 31-22 win over the Philadelphia Eagles.

Those stats add up to a 0.0 passer rating. It would just be easier to get some rookie from a BCS school that can actually throw down field and be done with it. Tebow might get some reps at fullback but that position is slowly disappearing in the NFL thanks to the read option.

Tebow just can't be good in a read option because you need to throw the ball accurately from time to time so that teams can't just load up for the run. That is what makes Kaepernick and RG3 so effective in running it since they can actually throw a decent spiral and not that wobbly 15-yarder that is all that Tebow is capable of.

Case-in-Point About Why People Are Afraid of Young Black Men: 22 Year Old Aussie Gunned Down Because Teens were "Bored"

This is exactly why people are suspicious and afraid of young black males.

Prosecutors charged 15-year-old James Francis Edwards Jr. and 16-year-old Chancey Allen Luna with first-degree murder on Tuesday. Police say the two killed 22-year-old Christopher Lane on Friday to overcome boredom. Under Oklahoma law, anyone who is 15 or older and facing a first-degree murder charge is automatically tried in adult court.

They pretty much saw the guy run by their house and they piled into a car and drove after him and then shot him in the back. This is what they said to police.

Ford said a 17-year-old defendant, Jones, told officers that the three teenagers were bored and shot Lane for "the fun of it."

Jones said in open court "I pulled the trigger," but the judge directed him to remain quiet, saying Tuesday was not the day to discuss the facts of the case.

"They saw Christopher go by, and one of them said: 'There's our target,'" Ford said. "The boy who has talked to us said, 'We were bored and didn't have anything to do, so we decided to kill somebody.'"

Hell, they didn't even try to rob him. They just shot him in the back and drove off. That has to be one of the most callous things I have heard of in a long time. Thankfully Oklahoma law allows someone that commits a capital crime to be tried as an adult. Although the thought of having to pay to house these psychopaths for the rest of their natural lives really sucks.

Do We Have to See Matt Lauer's Smug Face on Sunday Night Football?

Ugh I hate that NBC can't let a good thing alone. I have dodged the Today show for years in order to avoid Matt Lauer the smug asshole who backstabbed Ann Curry. Now I have to see him on Sunday Night Football?

The video vignettes, which will appear online starting Tuesday and debut on TV this weekend in pre-season football coverage, feature various NBCU celebrities, including Heidi Klum and Howie Mandel (from NBC’s “America’s Got Talent); Joan and Melissa Rivers (from E!’s “Fashion Police”); Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski (from MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”); Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker and Natalie Morales (from NBC’s “Today”) and Ken Jeong (from NBC’s “Community”), all taking part in ersatz try-outs to sing “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night,”which has been the “SNF” theme song since 2006.

I guess I have to switch over to NFL Network whenever there is a commercial break.

Sports Prevents Cable Cord Cutting? Yeah, Pretty Much

That seems to be the case until the FCC steps in.

Surprisingly he doesn't think the answer lies in cutting the cord and using direct viewing via streaming service. The answer, he says, is the long-awaited government intervention in the form of a la cart pricing. That means getting ESPN would mean paying specifically for that service (for which Disney charges affiliates more than $5 a month).

If and when the FCC allows a la cart pricing, the bill will be broken out and customers will be able to see exactly how much they're really paying to support their teams. Unless or until that happens both your cable bill and your urge to cut the cord will only grow.

If they had a la cart pricing I would cancel the vast majority of the channels on cable. The only cable channels I watch are BBC America for Star Trek Next Gen, Cartoon Network for Family Guy reruns, ESPN for SportsCenter/NCAA Football, NFL Network for NFL Football, CNBC for Financial News, and HBO for Sopranos reruns/True Blood/the Newsroom/Girls. 

Of those channels I could stream 3 of those options since Star Trek Next Gen, Family Guy and HBO Go can be watched on my XBox360. So that pretty much leaves ESPN and CNBC as the only things I usually watch. If they had a la cart pricing I would probably have like 15 channels total on my cable box.