Oceans 13

It is Sunday morning. I have taken my exercise walk. It is humid this morning and the real feel temperature will be 105 around noontime. On my walk I thought about last night and I am embarrassed that a man of my age would fall for the latest hype, glitz and glamour of Hollywood. I went to see "Oceans 13," the Clooney, Pitt, Damon, etc. sequel to the sequel. What a farce. What a waste. Better I stayed home and washed my socks. (That's a question the CIA asks applicants: would you rather go to a party or stay home and wash your socks?) No one in the film ever breaks a sweat. Geppetto, of Pinochhio fame, could have made wooden dummies for this film. Al Pacino is the bad guy, Willie Bank. He screwed a friend of the Danny Oceans' (Clooney) gang. There is something about men who "shook Sinatra's hand" are not supposed to screw each other. What passes for action is a bunch of guys sitting and standing around talking about taking "revenge" on Pacino (who in any other crime scenario would have shot the lot of them.) Julia Roberts (congratulations on the new baby) is to be admired for having the good sense to stay out of this "Oceans" film. She was in the two earlier films. Ellen Barkin, a one-time sex pot in films and on TV, sadly comes across as a post menopausal broad with large mammilla and she gets turned on because Matt Damon has some scent around his neck. It is hard to believe Barkin and Damon (think mother and son) in a sex scene. The music is good, "Lara's Theme" is part of it. The best, however, is the ending when we hear Sinatra sing "This Town."

Patriotism and getting the message across

Two lawyers for the ACLU, Steven Watt and Ben Wizner, write in a letter in The Wall Street Journal (June 19, 2007, pg A15) that "defending human rights...is not an act of disloyalty in a nation committed to the rule of law" and that recent Supreme Court decisions squarely repudiate the government's position in three 'war on terror' cases. These are not cases involving mere legal technicalities but violations of American core values, according to the writers.

Americans are pre-occupied with salesmanship. Case in point. Gen. David Petraeus, the Army's top man in Iraq, says that sending military officers to civilian universities for Ph.D study opens their mind to four or five sides of an argument. A retired Lt. Colonel says anything beyond a Masters degree risks hurting an officer's battlefield judgement. He says such training led another Lt. Colonel to leave out of a counterinsurgency manual what he felt was an effective tactic: strapping dead insurgents to the front of tanks for locals to see.

# of book readers declining?

Has anyone but me noticed that Time and Newsweek do not regularly have a "Books" section any longer? Both mags review movies and have something called "Culture." I am not sure exactly when "Books" officially disapppeared but after searching several back issues of the two magazines its disappearance is obvious. Perhaps my not missing "Books" earlier exemplifies why it is missing. According to a recent article I read, many daily newspapers have also cut back on the space they devote to book reviews, especially in their Sunday editions. Does this mean the number of book readers is declining? Are TV, CDs and DVDs eclipsing the printed word? I hope not.

Al is on the job

The Paris Hilton saga gets more bizarre. This week, the Rev. Al Sharpton will meet with the sheriff, (who released Paris to home confinement for some unexplained medical reason before she was ordered back to jail by the sentencing judge,) to insure that all prisoners - not just the rich, but the poor, the wretched refuse and the tempest-tost - will get the same consideration if they suffer from unexplained medical problems. Only in America! Ain't this a great country?

Back in the slammer again

Remember Gene Autry's theme song, "Back in the saddle again"? The judge who sentenced Paris Hilton to jail originally must have been humming that as he ordered her back to jail - overturning a decision by the sheriff's office to let her serve her sentence at home. Following my blog item on her release from jail, I heard from four readers to wit:

Money talks in America

I for one am so relieved that poor Paris will do the rest of her time from home. I understand that shecould not even use a face moisturizer during her confinement. Perish the thought.

PLUS--they gave her a whole day off her time for Sunday, when she arrived just before midnight, and yesterday, when she left just after midnight!! So after spending 3 days in the slammer, she gets credit for having served 5. Yikes! Preferential treatment, who would have thought?!

It’s been standard knowledge for many years with working people that the law is made for the poor. Very few rich serve time and if they do, it’s in a luxury prison such as one at Elgin AFB and another one I know of in Louisville, Ky. They have them all over where the VIP's go. I hope the Judge tomorrow makes her serve her time. Otherwise, if I am ever sentenced I will tell them I may not be as rich but I'm a much better person than the tramp called Paris and want the same sentence she got.

California - A Soft Touch

So Paris Hilton, celebrity prisoner of the week, has been released to home confinement after only a couple of days in the lockup in Southern California. Reports are she cried her heart out all the time she was in her 8 x 10 cell, (with commode and sink.) I worked for six years in the South Carolina Department of Corrections and crying never got an inmate a release nor anything else.

Gone with the wind

The storm during the night of June 2, 2007 took this branch off a neighbor's tree (Bradford Pear) and brought it down on mail and paper boxes on the roadside. The good neighbors, Randy and Judy Burbage, have already cleared the road.