SON OF THE SHEIK (1926) RUDOLPH VALENTINO’S LAST FILM

THE SON OF THE SHEIK (1926) – Having had more flops than hits in recent years, Valentino jumped at the chance to try reviving his box office mojo by playing both father and son in this sequel to his mammoth hit The Sheik

Agnes Ayres returned as the Sheik’s wife Diane, and in old age makeup she and Rudy reprised their roles from the 1921 film. Via split-screen technology, Valentino’s aged Sheik interacted with his son, also named Ahmed.

The younger Ahmed falls in love with a dancing girl named Yasmin (Vilma Banky), who acts as the honeypot to lure wealthy suckers into her father’s web of con artist scams. The attraction is mutual, and Ahmed and Yasmin begin regular rendezvous at desert ruins near the city of Touggort, where she dances and her father’s gang pulls off their cons. Continue reading

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ALL COLLEGE BASKETBALL CHAMPIONS FOR 2026

One last acknowledgement of the champions in all 14 divisions of college basketball covered here at Balladeer’s Blog.

NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) 

National Champions – FREED-HARDEMAN UNIVERSITY LIONS 

Runners-Up – Langston University Lions

2025 Champions – College of Idaho Coyotes 

NCCAA (National Christian College Athletic Association) DIVISION ONE

National Champions – LANCASTER BIBLE COLLEGE CHARGERS

Runners-Up – Columbia International University Rams

2025 Champions – Nelson American Indian University Warriors Continue reading

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NEWS ROUNDUP: APRIL TWENTY-SECOND

The latest current events roundup from Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog.

EVEN THE DEMOCRATS AT 60 MINUTES NOW ADMIT IRAN HAD ENRICHED ENOUGH URANIUM FOR TEN NUCLEAR BOMBS BEFORE PRESIDENT TRUMP’S STRIKES TO STOP THEM. More HERE. As usual, the fact that Trump was RIGHT YET AGAIN emerges long after Democrat propagandists’ lies have traveled the globe. 

DEMOCRAT PLAN FOR GERRYMANDERING WINS IN VIRGINIA. Republicans reduced to just ONE district ahead of the November elections. Virginia now sure to be a one-party state like California as Democrats wanted it more.  MEANWHILE, VIRGINIA’S ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CRIME WAVE CONTINUES.

“I … HELD MY SON WHILE HE BLED TO DEATH” SAYS MOTHER OF TWELVE-YEAR-OLD WHO WAS KILLED BY AN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ALONG WITH HIS NINE-YEAR-OLD FRIEND. Democrats’ love of illegal immigration enables such deaths every single day.

AND YET ANOTHER BIDEN-RELEASED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ARRESTED FOR MURDER – THIS TIME BY SLEDGEHAMMER

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT PLEADS GUILTY TO INCESTUOUSLY IMPREGNATING TWELVE-YEAR-OLD AFTER REPEATED RAPES. Democrats forever champion such perpetrators.

 

REPUBLICAN BRANDON GILL BLASTS DEMOCRAT HANK JOHNSON (who idiotically was once afraid the island of Guam could “tip over” if you’ll recall) FOR HIS CALLOUSNESS TOWARD LOVED ONES OF THE VICTIMS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT MURDERERS.

LATEST EXPOSE OF HOW THE BIDEN REGIME’S BORDER POLICY AIDED CHILD TRAFFICKING. More of the horrors Biden and Harris enabled HERE.  

CORRUPT DEMOCRAT FUND-RAISING ORGANIZATION ACTBLUE STILL UNDER INVESTIGATION AS EMPLOYEES PLEAD THE FIFTH. Probe of illegal contributions and cover-up continues.

SCANDAL-RIDDEN DEMOCRAT CONGRESSWOMAN CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK RESIGNS JUST BEFORE THE ETHICS HEARING AGAINST HER CAN BEGIN. Continue reading

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SCARTICIA (1971-1975) BAD MOVIE HOSTESS

SCARTICIA – From 1971 to 1975 Annette Stutzman starred as the witch Scarticia, hostess of Horrible Movie late Saturday nights on WAPT-TV in Jackson, MS.  Stutzman also worked as the personal secretary of the station manager.

Scarticia, the Mistress of the Night, would welcome her viewers every week with the words “Greetings, animals” and close each show by saying “Pleasant nightmares.” The witch’s main sidekick to abuse was her gravedigger Scoop Gravely, played by famous local DJ Ed Hobgood (lower right).

Filling in for Scoop from time to time was Dr. Choke Throttle, a vampire mad scientist played by Marvin Gardens, who also worked on the show’s set, did Scarticia’s makeup and served as cameraman. As usual, the can’t-miss format of Bad Movies presented by a sarcastic host or hostess and their sidekicks became a hit.

Soon, Jackson, MS teens and 20-somethings began holding Horrible Movie viewing parties on Saturday nights. Inevitably, hundreds of fan letters began pouring in every week.

Part of what made Scarticia and company stand out was the way they made many of their Host Segments as parodies of the iconic program Dark Shadows. What comedies like Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and Soap were to traditional soap operas, those Horrible Movie sketches were to the Gothic horror soap with Barnabas Collins, etc.    Continue reading

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FORGOTTEN TELEVISION: PAT MORITA AS OHARA (1987-1988)

OHARA (1987-1988) – In this 1-hour detective show’s case “Ohara” is NOT O’Hara and is instead a Japanese-American cop played by the venerable Pat Morita, who also co-created the program. During its run Ohara went through THREE changes of format, starting out with a very innovative approach before poor ratings prompted desperate network scrambling for tired old approaches.

The first name of Morita’s character was never revealed on the show, and he was basically a “gimmick” character. Ohara was a Los Angeles police detective who initially worked without a partner and preferred meditation and soft-spoken interrogations to the cliched Tough Cop techniques. Our hero often cooked Japanese meals for guests to his home, incorporating Pat Morita’s own culinary enthusiasms into the show. Continue reading

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INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS (1973) BAD MOVIE REVIEW

INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS (1973) – Category: More weird than bad, but with a classic premise and execution  

This little honey (sorry) is the perfect example of why I prefer bad movies from the 1980s and earlier: because back then they played them straight and weren’t constantly making self-aware jokes to the audience. If this movie had been made more recently it would have been INTENTIONALLY cheesy and goofy, like the Killer Condom flicks or the Gingerdead Man movies.

Invasion of the Bee Girls plays like a sexploitation version of The X-Files long before that show was on the air. The hero of the movie is a State Department investigator played by cult figure William Smith, known from the tv series Laredo and from countless exploitation flicks like Black Samson to the “Hell’s Angels Fighting the Vietnam War” biker movie The Losers. The film’s screenwriter was THE Nicholas Meyer of Star Trek II and The Seven Percent Solution fame. Herb “The Worm Eaters” Robbins also shows up onscreen.

William Smith’s character, Neil Agar, is sent to California to investigate why a scientist involved in top secret government research dropped dead under suspicious circumstances – he died of apparent sexual exhaustion and people nearby swear they heard a sound like bees buzzing at Continue reading

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APRIL TWENTIETH NEWS ROUNDUP

Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog has another current events roundup from an America where ignorant, uninformed, and emotionally unstable anti-Trump zealots are so clueless that they actually believe Democrat ads claiming that redistricting (which began after the 1790 census) – later renamed Gerrymandering after Elbridge Gerry in 1812 – “Began with Trump.”

     Facts mean absolutely nothing to people whose minds are addled by Trump Derangement Syndrome.

COURT AGAIN RULES THAT PRESIDENT TRUMP’S WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM PROJECT CAN CONTINUE. Remember, the fact that Trump pauses when lower courts rule against him, waiting to hear from a higher court IS ALWAYS PROOF THAT HE IS NOT “A DICTATOR” OR A “KING” LIKE HIS UNHINGED CRITICS PRETEND. 

DEMOCRAT PARTY

DEMOCRAT CONGRESSMAN ADAM SMITH CALLS OUT THAT INCREASINGLY DERANGED PARTY FOR “MOVING AWAY FROM FUNDAMENTAL SUPPORT FOR THE UNITED STATES.” No kidding. Democrats are basically telling Iran’s current regime that if they keep fighting the U.S. through the midterm elections in November that they might take Congress and destroy Trump for them. 

BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S. – CHRISTIAN TURNER – PRAISES TRUMP FOR GETTING EUROPEAN MEMBERS OF NATO TO PAY MORE THAN THEY HAVE BEEN.

HANNAH ANDERSON CALLS OUT DEMOCRATS FOR ATTACKING PRESIDENT TRUMP OVER ENDING ILLEGAL ACCESS TO TAXPAYER FUNDS BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. This after years of Democrats lying that illegal immigrants don’t get government benefits. 

AND YET ANOTHER ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CHARGED WITH KILLING A MAN AND LEAVING HIS WIFE IN CRITICAL CONDITION. “If it saves even one life” isn’t it worth it to enforce our immigration laws?

TRUMP’S POLICIES IN WASHINGTON DC REDUCE ITS HOMICIDE RATE BY FIFTY-TWO PERCENT.

WASHINGTON DC’s POLICE UNION CHAIRMAN ARRESTED FOR CHILD SEX CRIMES. Democrats, can you please leave children alone?. Continue reading

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THE ORPHIC ARGONAUTICA: PART FIVE

Balladeer’s Blog continues examining this Orphic variation of the Quest for the Golden Fleece. PART ONE HERE. PART TWO HERE. PART THREE HERE. PART FOUR HERE

Having obtained the Golden Fleece, Jason, Orpheus and the rest of the Argonauts fled Colchis immediately on board the Argo. King Aeetes’ daughter Medea fled with them because she fell in love with Jason and defied her father to enable the theft of the Golden Fleece.   

Medea took her brother Absyrtus along and as their father Aeetes’ and his crew were about to overtake the Argo at sea, the dark sorceress Medea murdered Absyrtus, chopped his body into several pieces and scattered those pieces on the waves.

King Aeetes had to break off pursuit so he and his crew could fish up the various fragments of his son’s corpse for proper funeral rites.

NOTE: Though some versions of this epic have the people called the Minyae transform the floating remains into the two Absyrtides Islands, this Orphic variation presents the dismemberment and gathering of body parts as an allegory for the saga of Zagreus tinged with Osiris parallels.

     In Orphism, Zagreus is the supreme deity and combines aspects of Dionysus and Zeus. I will explore the concept in more depth as I delve more thoroughly into Orphism in the future. Continue reading

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FLASHBACK: SOME OF 2020’s ANTI-TRUMP LIES AND HYSTERIA

The bizarre anti-Donald Trump hysteria continues to be as absurd as the 1980s “Satanic Panic” was. As does anti-Trump psychopaths’ willingness to root for the Iranian regime despite it being at least as bad as deranged war criminal Vlad Putin is.

From January 14th, 202o – EVEN HUFFINGTON POST’S AND NEW YORK MAGAZINE’S YASHAR ALI POINTS OUT “DEMOCRATS ARE SIDING WITH IRAN’S MULLAHS AGAINST FREEDOM-FIGHTING IRANIANS OUT OF SPITE”. Just like they’re doing here in 2026.

From January 9th, 2020 – MAAJID NAWAZ BLASTS DEMOCRATS AND OTHERS FOR SIDING WITH QASSEM SOLEIMANI AND IGNORING HIS ATROCITIES.    From January 6th, 2020 – AMERICA’S DEMOCRATS MOURN QASSEM SOLEIMANI. If a Democrat president had killed him and not Trump, Democrats would be praising the strike on him.

From February 3rd, 2020 – UKRAINIAN PROSECUTOR AGAIN SPEAKS OUT ON HOW THEN-VICE-PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN GOT HIM FIRED FOR INVESTIGATING HIS SON HUNTER BIDEN’S INFLUENCE-PEDDLING SCHEME IN UKRAINE. If you recall, Trump’s investigating Biden Crime Family corruption in Ukraine was why panicked Democrats tried impeaching Trump during his first term. 

From March 23rd, 2020 – DEMOCRATS BLOCK CORONAVIRUS RELIEF PACKAGE TO SPITE TRUMP WHILE IGNORING SUFFERERS. Yes, Democrats even hindered anti-Covid efforts just because Trump was in the White House. Continue reading

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AIHEC CHAMPIONSHIP AND NJCAA1 SEMIFINALS

AMERICAN INDIAN HIGHER EDUCATION CONSORTIUM

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – The defending champs – the NORTHWEST INDIAN COLLEGE EAGLES – squared off against the STONE CHILD COLLEGE BEAR PAWS. NWIC may be establishing a dynasty. The Eagles dominated thoroughly on both sides of the ball from start to finish and when the dust finally settled, they had defeated the Bear Paws 90-64.

NJCAA DIVISION ONE

FIRST SEMIFINAL – The COLLEGE OF SOUTHERN IDAHO GOLDEN EAGLES played the GULF COAST STATE COMMODORES in this game. The Golden Eagles clung to a 38-36 edge come Halftime. After the break, CSI outscored the Commodores 44-34 to win out 82-70. Jalen Lyn led Southern Idaho with 24 points. Continue reading

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