Holy Book Burning Threats, 9/11 Reminders, Sarah Palin Supporters and "Mr. Unpopular"!!!
I'm a day late with this week's blog because of good reasons. I'm still studying and working on a student film I wrote about last week that will be finished in a couple of days and I have my fingers crossed while hoping I'm selected to participate in a small studio film I'm seriously being considered for. Last night, I was put through some lengthy scene work I knew I would be doing and some that I didn't know I would be doing during what is known as a "callback" audition for the role of a small town sheriff in, "The Princess and The Pony".
And tomorrow afternoon at 4-5 Pacific Time, big time actor, writer, producer, Harold Sylvester and I will again be hosting the "PM Show, Weekend Edition" on CRN which is heard all over the world and can be found by clicking on www.CRNTalk.com CRN owner Mike Horn will be in Napa, California trying to convince the wine people to spend some advertising dollars on CRN while Mike (his ownself) figures to be drinking a lot of their wine while listening to Harold and me and hoping we don't whacha call "discourage" these prospective sponsors.
Well, if they're interested in hearing what a lot of people are talking about, they don't figure to be discouraged at all. And if you're a first time listener tomorrow, there will be times when you'll understand what I mean when I state this little rhyme; "Scott and Harold sittin' in a tree, A-R-G-U-I-N-G!"
Okay....Time for some serious stuff....
The Wannabe Holy Book Burning Preacher:
We've all heard about this guy, right? Pastor Terry Jones. Small church in a small Florida town. 50 worshipers. Most of the time, closer to 30 worshipers. This church is a nondemoninational church and Pastor Jones let everyone know that to help commemorate 9/11, which is this Saturday, Pastor Jones planned to burn some Koran's which means he would be burning Muslim Holy Books. In fact, Pastor Jones was encouraging people to bring Muslim Holy Books and he'd be happy to burn those as well. In other words, the more the merrier.
Wellll....If the good Pastor was looking for some attention, he got it. General David Patraeus, the biggest General of them all, said (in essence), "Yo, Pastor! Are you NUTS? You start burnin' those books and a bunch of my soldiers are gonna get killed by some angry deeply religious Muslims!"
President Obama weighed in with some of the same sentiments. As did Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. And a whole lot of preachers including Franklin Graham who, not long ago, because of some things HE said about Muslims, was disinvited from a fancy dinner.
I mean, all kinds of people popped up out of the woodwork to announce their objections to these book burnings because our country doesn't do or condone things like that. Heck, even Sarah Palin called it, "insensitive and an unnecessary provocation....much like building a mosque at ground zero."
Way to get that sarcasm in there, Mama Grizzly!
Shortly after I began writing this blog, I found out that Pastor Jones has changed his mind and he will NOT burn Muslim Holy Books this Saturday or any other time. He says he's sensitive to the concerns of what General Petraeus said and what other important people said as well.
WELL!!! Excuse me for being my normal contrarian self, buuuut....
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't we have a lot of deeply religious people in America? Religious people who big time believe what is written in their Holy Books?
What happens here when (for example) someone burns an American Bible in this country or in another country? Pretty much nothing, right? We have a lot of people who claim to be big time patriots in this country. What happens here when (for example) someone burns our flag in this country or in another country. Shoot, we've been told that right after the word got out about the Florida Pastor saying he was going to do some Koran burning, a bunch of people in Afghanistan and other Muslim countries burned a sizeable number of American flags. And our response was, what?
We did nothing, folks. And I don't expect us to do anything! And neither do most of you.
But a bunch of so-called peace loving Muslims want to KILL AMERICANS because some Florida small town preacher was talking about burning Muslim holy books?
Somebody want to tell me again about how these Muslim holy books stress PEACE?!?
Just askin', folks. Just askin'.
And General Petraeus? I know you're considered to be our big deal General and all, but General, aren't you where you are with a mission to beat the enemy? And if the enemy climbs out of their caves and holes and starts shooting and blowing things up because of some small town preacher makin' noise about burnin' some so-called "holy books", what's your response supposed to BE, General?
General, my little pea-brain mind tells ME that small town preacher just made your job easier! Now do what your supposed to do and DESTROY the enemy!!! Or are you "All hat and no cattle"?!?
OTHER STUFF:
In last week's blog, I criticized Sarah Palin for being (in my view) "A Quitter".
And I have found out that when you bring up the subject of Sarah Palin, you all of a sudden have a bunch of new readers. Most of them defending her and a few of them telling me to ignore her, stop writing about her and one day we'll all forget about her.
Well, I'm here to tell you there are a heck of a lot of people who really like Sarah Palin and all of you who wrote to me know that I responded back to you which is something that surprised a lot of you. Welcome to our little blog, folks. I mean it when I say at the end of each blog that I will respond to you. Every one of you. And as a young 24-year old female Tax Specialist in Richmond, Virginia now knows, I'll talk to you, too. For more than an hour and a half on the phone.
"Mr. Unpopular":
That's the headline of a 3-page special report about President Obama in the September 13 issue of "Newsweek".
Yes, we all know that his approval numbers are down and we also know that in this time frame of the Clinton and Reagan "first terms", Obama's approval numbers are a little higher than Clinton's and Reagan's numbers were.
We also know that Reagan and Clinton went on to become the most popular presidential figures in our lifetime and there aren't too many people (now) who think there's a chance in hell of that happening to Obama.
What happened and why do so many people think this guy gives new meaning to the word, "unqualified"?
Great question and I don't have the definitive answer to that question. He's the first Democrat I've ever voted for. I still have hope for President Obama, but I also understand why a lot of people are bailing out on him. And no, not because of the idiotic nonsense out there about him supposedly not being "eligible" to be President of the United States because of the birther crowd and the rumors about him being a Muslim.
He promised to get us out of two wars and to find Osama bin Laden. Well, he has partially gotten us out of one war, has increased the number of our troops in the other war and still no Osama bin Laden.
He seems to have focused on "big ticket" items like health care, energy, etc. Ambitious projects all, but we Americans need jobs. And he seems to have come up with next to nothing to tackle that problem. Yes, he inherited a mess. But after a while, blaming Bush gets old.
He has also been victimized by distractions. Distractions like the mosque business in New York and the Muslim book burning business in Florida. These and other distractions are things that his advisors should have told him to basically ignore until a lot more Americans are bringing a paycheck home again.
Does this mean I think the man I voted for will be a one-term President of the United States? Well, unless he soon convinces the majority of Americans that he IS presidential material again, my answer to that question is an unqualified, yes!
Rahm Emanuel:
And speaking of President Obama....Will his Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, leave the White House so he can run for Mayor of Chicago?
ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:
A film I saw on cable and two films that are in your Cineplex now.
A 1989 film I had never seen is now on the Encore circuit and I loved it. "Casualties of War" is a film that was directed by Brian De Palma and it features a lot of fine actors playing soldiers in Vietnam. Sean Penn plays the baddest of the bad soldiers and Michael J. Fox plays the good soldier in a film that is based on a true story involving rape and murder. We all know how good an actor Sean Penn is, but watching Michael J. Fox in this film reminds me of how good he was before he was struck by this terrible disease he now has to live with.
"The American" is currently being shown in a Cineplex near you. It stars George Clooney, unless you live in Italy, Clooney is the only actor in the film that you've ever heard of and the reviews have been whacha call, "mixed". According to the L.A. Times, most people polled who saw the film gave it an "F". And now a whole lot of people are wondering why so many people like George Clooney but hate his movies?
I think I know the answer to that question. Most folks want Clooney to (always) play the character they believe he was born to play; And that's our new Cary Grant.
I get that thinking, but I also respectfully disagree with that "F" rating a lot of people gave "The American" after they saw it.
I will admit that during the first few minutes of "The American", I, under my breath, said, "Uh, oh!" because I thought this might be an Art House film I wouldn't like.
But suddenly, I was riveted. And I stayed riveted. I also liked the eye candy provided by the actress who played the hooker that the Clooney character"falls for".
"The American" cost only 20 million to make so this is a film that will definitely make money, but above and beyond that, I simply say that if you like this blog, I think you'll like this film. In fact, you might even love it.
"Machete" is also being shown in a Cineplex near you. As you have probably heard, "Machete" is a film that is very sympathetic towards illegal immigrants. In fact, the afternoon I saw the film, I wondered if the audience consisted of me and every illegal immigrant in the San Fernando Valley.
You have also probably heard that Lindsay Lohan is seen topless in this film.
For a lot of guys, that's probably a good reason to buy a ticket and I don't exclude myself from that crowd, but the actor who darn near steals this film is Robert DeNiro. I mean, his anti-illegal immigrant politician character is an absolute hoot. But DeNiro isn't the only scene stealing character in this film. Don Johnson has his moments. So does Jeff Fahey. And Michelle Rodriguez (lookin' finer than fine, girl!) along with Jessica Alba. Cheech Marin does a good turn playing a 2-shotgun toting priest, a couple of other babes are easy on the eyes, I think every actor in the film is given at least one line that's funny or memorable and then there's.....Danny Trejo. You've seen this fine actor in a lot of films, but I believe this is the first mainstream film that he has been the lead actor in and he flat out OWNS his role!
For a fun experience at the Cineplex, I strongly recommend, "Machete".
QUESTIONS AND OR COMMENTS?
Write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will respond to you as soon as possible. Don't write to the blog because there's no way for me to know your email address so I won't be able to repond to you. Again. Write to scottstjames@sbcglobal.net
THE NEXT BLOG?
Barring unforseen circumstances which led to this blog being written a day late, I'm hoping to post next week's blog late Wednesday night, September 15 or early Thursday morning, September 16.
In closing, the NFL season begins tonight, let's all pause for a few seconds on 9/11, I hope that you and yours have a great weekend and if you get a chance, please check out the radio show I'll be doing with Harold Sylvester on CRN tomorrow afternoon, 4-5, Pacific Time. You can hear us by clicking onto www.CRNTalk.com
And tomorrow afternoon at 4-5 Pacific Time, big time actor, writer, producer, Harold Sylvester and I will again be hosting the "PM Show, Weekend Edition" on CRN which is heard all over the world and can be found by clicking on www.CRNTalk.com CRN owner Mike Horn will be in Napa, California trying to convince the wine people to spend some advertising dollars on CRN while Mike (his ownself) figures to be drinking a lot of their wine while listening to Harold and me and hoping we don't whacha call "discourage" these prospective sponsors.
Well, if they're interested in hearing what a lot of people are talking about, they don't figure to be discouraged at all. And if you're a first time listener tomorrow, there will be times when you'll understand what I mean when I state this little rhyme; "Scott and Harold sittin' in a tree, A-R-G-U-I-N-G!"
Okay....Time for some serious stuff....
The Wannabe Holy Book Burning Preacher:
We've all heard about this guy, right? Pastor Terry Jones. Small church in a small Florida town. 50 worshipers. Most of the time, closer to 30 worshipers. This church is a nondemoninational church and Pastor Jones let everyone know that to help commemorate 9/11, which is this Saturday, Pastor Jones planned to burn some Koran's which means he would be burning Muslim Holy Books. In fact, Pastor Jones was encouraging people to bring Muslim Holy Books and he'd be happy to burn those as well. In other words, the more the merrier.
Wellll....If the good Pastor was looking for some attention, he got it. General David Patraeus, the biggest General of them all, said (in essence), "Yo, Pastor! Are you NUTS? You start burnin' those books and a bunch of my soldiers are gonna get killed by some angry deeply religious Muslims!"
President Obama weighed in with some of the same sentiments. As did Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. And a whole lot of preachers including Franklin Graham who, not long ago, because of some things HE said about Muslims, was disinvited from a fancy dinner.
I mean, all kinds of people popped up out of the woodwork to announce their objections to these book burnings because our country doesn't do or condone things like that. Heck, even Sarah Palin called it, "insensitive and an unnecessary provocation....much like building a mosque at ground zero."
Way to get that sarcasm in there, Mama Grizzly!
Shortly after I began writing this blog, I found out that Pastor Jones has changed his mind and he will NOT burn Muslim Holy Books this Saturday or any other time. He says he's sensitive to the concerns of what General Petraeus said and what other important people said as well.
WELL!!! Excuse me for being my normal contrarian self, buuuut....
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't we have a lot of deeply religious people in America? Religious people who big time believe what is written in their Holy Books?
What happens here when (for example) someone burns an American Bible in this country or in another country? Pretty much nothing, right? We have a lot of people who claim to be big time patriots in this country. What happens here when (for example) someone burns our flag in this country or in another country. Shoot, we've been told that right after the word got out about the Florida Pastor saying he was going to do some Koran burning, a bunch of people in Afghanistan and other Muslim countries burned a sizeable number of American flags. And our response was, what?
We did nothing, folks. And I don't expect us to do anything! And neither do most of you.
But a bunch of so-called peace loving Muslims want to KILL AMERICANS because some Florida small town preacher was talking about burning Muslim holy books?
Somebody want to tell me again about how these Muslim holy books stress PEACE?!?
Just askin', folks. Just askin'.
And General Petraeus? I know you're considered to be our big deal General and all, but General, aren't you where you are with a mission to beat the enemy? And if the enemy climbs out of their caves and holes and starts shooting and blowing things up because of some small town preacher makin' noise about burnin' some so-called "holy books", what's your response supposed to BE, General?
General, my little pea-brain mind tells ME that small town preacher just made your job easier! Now do what your supposed to do and DESTROY the enemy!!! Or are you "All hat and no cattle"?!?
OTHER STUFF:
In last week's blog, I criticized Sarah Palin for being (in my view) "A Quitter".
And I have found out that when you bring up the subject of Sarah Palin, you all of a sudden have a bunch of new readers. Most of them defending her and a few of them telling me to ignore her, stop writing about her and one day we'll all forget about her.
Well, I'm here to tell you there are a heck of a lot of people who really like Sarah Palin and all of you who wrote to me know that I responded back to you which is something that surprised a lot of you. Welcome to our little blog, folks. I mean it when I say at the end of each blog that I will respond to you. Every one of you. And as a young 24-year old female Tax Specialist in Richmond, Virginia now knows, I'll talk to you, too. For more than an hour and a half on the phone.
"Mr. Unpopular":
That's the headline of a 3-page special report about President Obama in the September 13 issue of "Newsweek".
Yes, we all know that his approval numbers are down and we also know that in this time frame of the Clinton and Reagan "first terms", Obama's approval numbers are a little higher than Clinton's and Reagan's numbers were.
We also know that Reagan and Clinton went on to become the most popular presidential figures in our lifetime and there aren't too many people (now) who think there's a chance in hell of that happening to Obama.
What happened and why do so many people think this guy gives new meaning to the word, "unqualified"?
Great question and I don't have the definitive answer to that question. He's the first Democrat I've ever voted for. I still have hope for President Obama, but I also understand why a lot of people are bailing out on him. And no, not because of the idiotic nonsense out there about him supposedly not being "eligible" to be President of the United States because of the birther crowd and the rumors about him being a Muslim.
He promised to get us out of two wars and to find Osama bin Laden. Well, he has partially gotten us out of one war, has increased the number of our troops in the other war and still no Osama bin Laden.
He seems to have focused on "big ticket" items like health care, energy, etc. Ambitious projects all, but we Americans need jobs. And he seems to have come up with next to nothing to tackle that problem. Yes, he inherited a mess. But after a while, blaming Bush gets old.
He has also been victimized by distractions. Distractions like the mosque business in New York and the Muslim book burning business in Florida. These and other distractions are things that his advisors should have told him to basically ignore until a lot more Americans are bringing a paycheck home again.
Does this mean I think the man I voted for will be a one-term President of the United States? Well, unless he soon convinces the majority of Americans that he IS presidential material again, my answer to that question is an unqualified, yes!
Rahm Emanuel:
And speaking of President Obama....Will his Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, leave the White House so he can run for Mayor of Chicago?
ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:
A film I saw on cable and two films that are in your Cineplex now.
A 1989 film I had never seen is now on the Encore circuit and I loved it. "Casualties of War" is a film that was directed by Brian De Palma and it features a lot of fine actors playing soldiers in Vietnam. Sean Penn plays the baddest of the bad soldiers and Michael J. Fox plays the good soldier in a film that is based on a true story involving rape and murder. We all know how good an actor Sean Penn is, but watching Michael J. Fox in this film reminds me of how good he was before he was struck by this terrible disease he now has to live with.
"The American" is currently being shown in a Cineplex near you. It stars George Clooney, unless you live in Italy, Clooney is the only actor in the film that you've ever heard of and the reviews have been whacha call, "mixed". According to the L.A. Times, most people polled who saw the film gave it an "F". And now a whole lot of people are wondering why so many people like George Clooney but hate his movies?
I think I know the answer to that question. Most folks want Clooney to (always) play the character they believe he was born to play; And that's our new Cary Grant.
I get that thinking, but I also respectfully disagree with that "F" rating a lot of people gave "The American" after they saw it.
I will admit that during the first few minutes of "The American", I, under my breath, said, "Uh, oh!" because I thought this might be an Art House film I wouldn't like.
But suddenly, I was riveted. And I stayed riveted. I also liked the eye candy provided by the actress who played the hooker that the Clooney character"falls for".
"The American" cost only 20 million to make so this is a film that will definitely make money, but above and beyond that, I simply say that if you like this blog, I think you'll like this film. In fact, you might even love it.
"Machete" is also being shown in a Cineplex near you. As you have probably heard, "Machete" is a film that is very sympathetic towards illegal immigrants. In fact, the afternoon I saw the film, I wondered if the audience consisted of me and every illegal immigrant in the San Fernando Valley.
You have also probably heard that Lindsay Lohan is seen topless in this film.
For a lot of guys, that's probably a good reason to buy a ticket and I don't exclude myself from that crowd, but the actor who darn near steals this film is Robert DeNiro. I mean, his anti-illegal immigrant politician character is an absolute hoot. But DeNiro isn't the only scene stealing character in this film. Don Johnson has his moments. So does Jeff Fahey. And Michelle Rodriguez (lookin' finer than fine, girl!) along with Jessica Alba. Cheech Marin does a good turn playing a 2-shotgun toting priest, a couple of other babes are easy on the eyes, I think every actor in the film is given at least one line that's funny or memorable and then there's.....Danny Trejo. You've seen this fine actor in a lot of films, but I believe this is the first mainstream film that he has been the lead actor in and he flat out OWNS his role!
For a fun experience at the Cineplex, I strongly recommend, "Machete".
QUESTIONS AND OR COMMENTS?
Write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will respond to you as soon as possible. Don't write to the blog because there's no way for me to know your email address so I won't be able to repond to you. Again. Write to scottstjames@sbcglobal.net
THE NEXT BLOG?
Barring unforseen circumstances which led to this blog being written a day late, I'm hoping to post next week's blog late Wednesday night, September 15 or early Thursday morning, September 16.
In closing, the NFL season begins tonight, let's all pause for a few seconds on 9/11, I hope that you and yours have a great weekend and if you get a chance, please check out the radio show I'll be doing with Harold Sylvester on CRN tomorrow afternoon, 4-5, Pacific Time. You can hear us by clicking onto www.CRNTalk.com
posted by Scott St. James at 1:59 PM
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