Author Archives: balladeer

balladeer's avatar

About balladeer

I am passionately interested in college sports, ancient Greek comedies, bad/weird movies, mythology, the American Revolution, Puck Magazine, World War I, U.S. Presidential history, silent movies, the English Civil War, epic, lyric and comic poetry, U.S. Supreme Court history, the Revolutions of 1848, the Philippine War and old pulp heroes like The Moon Man, Pilot G8, Silver John and The Rio Kid.

DEMOCRATS AND THE NEW YORK TIMES SHOCKED TO LEARN THAT LEGAL IMMIGRANTS OPPOSE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

latinos-for-trump-4-came-here-legallyBalladeer’s Blog has often covered former Democrats like myself who left the Democrat Party because of how out of touch they are with the real world.

The polls that Democrats, Carlos Slim’s New York Times and Left-Wing Archie Bunkers from the 1960s generation live by showed that LEGAL immigrants were crucial in defeating the attempt to extend Illegal Immigrant Colonies  – propagandistically called “Sanctuary Cities” by Democrats and La Raza (Racists Without Borders) to Maryland.

Democrats are such condescending fools that they were ESPECIALLY stunned that LEGAL Hispanic Immigrants overwhelmingly opposed Illegal Immigrant Colonies. Last year’s election results still haven’t sunk in to the snobbish, pompous Democrats and their virtual House Organ the New York Times.  

latinos-for-trump-3Stephen Crowder had a terrific look at this. The link is below but first some excerpts:  

“Democrats have gone all in as the party of illegal immigrants. You know who has an issue with that? Legal immigrants … ”

“It bears repeating because many a leftist twit conflates illegal immigrants with legal immigrants. But as this story shows, ’tis not so.” (Note from Balladeer: I’m sure we’ve all gotten plenty of laughs from the grand and pompous way that Democrats love to say “We are a nation of immigrants,” conveniently forgetting the difference between legal and illegal immigration.) “

“The New York Times is shocked and appalled that folks with different racial backgrounds, hailing from different countries, aren’t rubber-stamping the idea of “All people welcome here with nary a process.” This erroneous liberal thought process is likely due to an expectation that all brown people believe whatever a Democrat tells them. Which, dare I say it, is a teensy bit racist. But hey, I’m not here to insinuate.”

latinos-for-trump-2Cluelessly expressing their exasperation with LEGAL Hispanic Immigrants the New York Times continued in this same condescending vein: “Their objections stunned Democratic supporters of sanctuary here and helped bring about the bill’s demise in March. A similar proposal for the state collapsed this month in the Maryland Senate, where Democrats also hold a two-to-one advantage. Some of the same immigrants spoke out against it.”

And the crowning stupidity from Carlos Slim’s Times:

“The failure of the sanctuary bills in Maryland reveals a potentially troublesome fissure for Democrats as they rush to defy Mr. Trump. Their party has staked out an activist position built around protecting undocumented immigrants. But it is one that has alienated many who might have been expected to support it.” ONLY AMERICAN LIBERAL MORONS WOULD EXPECT  THEM TO SUPPORT IT! Continue reading

13 Comments

Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

COLLEGE BASEBALL: USCAA WORLD SERIES TEAMS FOR 2017

Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at the TEN teams playing for the College Baseball National Championship this year in the USCAA (United States Collegiate Athletic Association). The College of St Joseph’s (sic) are the Defending Champions.

Cincinatti Clermont Cougars logo bigger***

TOP SEED

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI AT CLERMONT

Team Name – COUGARS 

College of St Josephs Vermont Fighting Saints***

SECOND SEED

COLLEGE OF SAINT JOSEPH’S (sic)

Team Name – FIGHTING SAINTS

Wright State Lake Campus Lakers***

THIRD SEED

WRIGHT STATE AT THE LAKE CAMPUS 

Team Name – LAKERS

newportnewsapprentice-school-builder***

FOURTH SEED

NEWPORT NEWS APPRENTICE SCHOOL

Team Name – BUILDERS

Cleary University Cougars***

FIFTH SEED

CLEARY UNIVERSITY

Team Name – PROWLING COUGARS Continue reading

6 Comments

Filed under College Baseball

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! LOVE, GEORGE (1973): MOVIE REVIEW

Despite the movie poster's warning this flick won't even untie your shoelaces. HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! LOVE, GEORGE (1973) – Category: Bad movie elevated by kitsch value in the casting.

Directed by THE Darren McGavin and featuring his wife Kathie Browne in a small role, this hilariously bizarre film is also known as Run, Stranger, Run. “Run, Potential Viewer, Run” would be a more appropriate title. 

Happy Mother’s Day Love, George  (henceforth HMDLG) is often described as a psycho-sexual thriller but actually it is nothing more than a melodramatic soap opera with a few murders and VERY few scenes of blood and gore. Those blood and gore scenes are so over-the-top they are completely at odds with the low-key, almost made-for-tv mildness of the rest of the movie.

This was a theatrical release but is so subdued and slow-paced it seems like a telefilm. You and your friends can keep yourselves entertained making jokes about the recognizable cast members to kill time since the first murder doesn’t happen until we’re more than an hour into this flick.

Ron Howard IS Johnny, a teenager who has come to town to discover who his birth parents are but who mostly just stands around staring at people and ESPECIALLY at houses. He seems completely taken aback that the townspeople find this somewhat creepy. Johnny is intrigued by the rash of missing persons plaguing the small town and feels they are connected to the secret of his past. Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under Bad and weird movies

MANTIS 2: NIGHT OF THE SWORDSMAN

FOR PART 1 OF BALLADEER’S BLOG’S EXAMINATION OF MARVEL’S SUPERHEROINE MANTIS CLICK HERE  With Marvel Comics characters basically being Pop Culture Deities these days I’m approaching this topic the way I approach neglected mythological epics.

Mantis Night of SwordsmanTHE AVENGERS Volume 1, Number 114 (August 1973)  Night of the Swordsman

Before diving in, just contemplate the original publication date of this issue. FORTY-FOUR YEARS AGO!

If you went back 44 years before August of 1973 superhero comic books didn’t even exist yet. Just let that sink in for a moment.  

Cast of Characters:

Mantis 3MANTIS: When researching these old stories I’ve come to really “marvel” at Marvel Comics’ writers’ knack for handling long-term episodic storylines. In my opinion they handled it better than many writers of serialized science fiction and horror television series’ of today. Maintaining multiple threads of a long-running narrative is a specialized type of pulp fiction writing and 1970s Marvel Comics are excellent examples of the craft.  

The enigmatic seeds being planted in this issue regarding the brand new character Mantis and the long-established figure the Swordsman will bear fruit over the course of YEARS, culminating in what is remembered as the Celestial Madonna Saga. But a maddening one month wait between episodes makes today’s one week or so between tv episodes look pretty brief.   

Getting back to MANTIS – She was one of the many superheroines introduced by Marvel in the 1970s. This issue of The Avengers was the first appearance in action of this Eurasian beauty who was part Vietnamese and part ? for now.

Mantis’ mutant powers included empathy so advanced it was akin to telepathy at times. Physically she employed a brand of “super kung-fu” like DC’s superhero the Karate Kid. In this debut appearance, for instance she defeats THOR AND CAPTAIN AMERICA in battle. Yep.

The enigmatic hints about Mantis’ potential were nicely done and seem to have partially inspired Chris Claremont’s later handling of Marvel Woman/ Jean Grey’s slow evolution into Phoenix and then Dark Phoenix over at The Uncanny X-Men.

SwordsmanTHE SWORDSMAN: Hawkeye’s trainer and mentor when they both traveled the circus and carnival circuit in their pre-supervillain turned hero days. Unlike Hawkeye, however, the Swordsman was an actual villain, not merely misunderstood like his protégé.

Way back in Avengers’ #19 and 20 he pretended to join the team but was really infiltrating them as an agent of the supervillain the Mandarin. (The real one, not the comic-relief impersonator from the third Iron Man movie.) The Mandarin was the man who – using alien Makluan technology – upgraded the Swordsman’s regular sword into its unbreakable state. He also outfitted it with the ability to shoot electric rays, fire rays and power blasts. That weaponry was controlled by buttons on the hilt of the sword.

After his betrayal of the Avengers at the behest of the Mandarin the Swordsman  was an active supervillain in the Marvel Universe, often clashing with the Avengers as part of the Lethal Legion and as a semi-regular foe of Captain America. Most recently the Swordsman had fought alongside the Avengers in the 100th issue anniversary special to help them save the Earth and Asgard from the Greek god of war Ares.       

The current members of the Avengers at this time were: THOR, IRON MAN, CAPTAIN AMERICA, THE SCARLET WITCH, THE BLACK PANTHER and THE VISION. Since they’ve become household names thanks to the Avengers movies there’s no need to reintroduce them here. Time to give a synopsis of this issue’s story:  Continue reading

40 Comments

Filed under Superheroes

ADAM ANT: VIVE LE ROCK

Adam Ant 3“UP AND AT ‘EM, ADAM ANT!” … Had to be said. Balladeer’s Blog continues with its “Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead” policy with another quick treat from the neglected Adam Ant (Stuart Leslie Goddard).

So, enjoy Eine Kleine Antmusic. Well, no, it’s not Adam’s hit Antmusic but I’ve been dying to use that lame joke ever since last week’s blog post Goody Two Shoes

Anyway, it’s the Adam Ant song Vive Le Rock:

 

6 Comments

Filed under opinion

COLLEGE BASEBALL PLAYOFF TEAMS: NAIA

southeastern university fireHATTIESBURG BRACKET

Top Seed: SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY FIRE   

2. TEXAS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY RAMS   ###    3. WILLIAM CAREY UNIVERSITY CRUSADERS   ###    4. LYON COLLEGE SCOTS   ###    5. LSU-ALEXANDRIA GENERALS   ###    

Northwestern Ohio RacersLIMA BRACKET

Top Seed: UNIVERSITY OF NORTHWESTERN OHIO RACERS

2. MIDDLE GEORGIA STATE KNIGHTS   ###    3. HOPE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY ROYALS   ###    4. MID-AMERICA NAZARENE UNIVERSITY PIONEERS   ###    5. MIDWAY UNIVERSITY EAGLES   (First Appearance In The NAIA Baseball Playoffs)   ###    Continue reading

16 Comments

Filed under College Baseball

ANTI-TRUMP MANIACS ARE AS FUNNY AS EVER!

Comey cartoonIt’s so cute when Democrats pretend they actually care about healthcare for the poor and the working class and about governmental integrity. It’s as much fun as watching a bad movie to watch the DemoKKKrats’ phony outrage over getting rid of the disaster called Obamacare (As I mentioned a few days ago the hypocritical Democrats never cared about the poor people suffering and dying under Obamacare).  

Even more hilarious is the ridiculous back and forth the Democrats keep going through over former FBI Director Jim Comey. The inimitable Mark Steyn ridiculed DemCorp’s hypocrisy masterfully:

“Comey’s not going to charge Hillary? What a stand-up guy! The very model of a dedicated public servant!

“Comey’s re-opened the Hillary investigation? What a partisan hack! He’s just thrown the election to Trump! This is literally a police state!

“Comey’s investigating Trump’s ties to Russia? Thank God! This career civil servant is all that stands between us and that fascist dictator!

“Comey’s fingering Huma Abedin for forwarding emails to Carlos Danger? God, this Trump stooge won’t let up, will he?

“Trump’s fired Comey? How dare he? This is a crisis for the integrity of our institutions…

“Not surprisingly it’s hard for these poor folk to keep up – to the point where Stephen Colbert had to rebuke his audience for cheering his announcement that Comey had been fired. ” (Click the link.)

That last part’s not a joke, by the way. The relentlessly unfunny Colbert was visibly upset that his audience of stooges thought that – since the Democrats have been blaming Comey for Hillary’s loss – they should cheer his firing! They forgot that the increasingly insane American Left MUST interpret every move President Trump makes as if it qualifies as an impeachable offense.

You can’t make this stuff up! Trump is so good at playing the Establishment’s Outrage Machine like a violin he should REHIRE Comey tomorrow just for laughs. Continue reading

10 Comments

Filed under humor, LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

COOLEST WNBA TEAM NAMES

With the WNBA season coming up what better time for a look at the coolest team names in the league’s history. This list will include franchises that folded along with teams that are still active.

Comets

Comets

12. HOUSTON COMETS

Established: 1997

Comment: The Comets were one of the Original Eight WNBA franchises and were the league’s very first dynasty. The Comets won the WNBA championship for the first four years of the league’s existence. To put that in perspective not even the NBA’s Jordan/Pippin Bulls or Kobe/Shaq Lakers were able to win four titles in a row.

*

Sparks

Sparks

11. LOS ANGELES SPARKS

Established: 1997

Comment: Another Original Eight franchise, the Sparks labored in the shadow of the Houston Comets for years. In 2001 the Sparks seized the opportunity to unseat the Comets as Western Conference Champions and went on to win the 2001 and 2002 WNBA titles. High-profile University of Tennessee player Candace Parker joined the Sparks for the 2008 season. Continue reading

10 Comments

Filed under Cool names and cool logos

THE MAN FROM SATURN (1890): ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION

SaturnTHE MAN FROM SATURN (1890) – By an unknown author. This work also appeared under the title Willmoth the Wanderer, a cutesy reference to the classic Melmoth the Wanderer. A young, unnamed American encounters Willmoth, a male humanoid who states he is from the planet Saturn and is hundreds of thousands of years old.

Willmoth begins the tale of how he came to be stranded on Earth long ago. He was born and raised in the Saturnian city called Eathman, which he describes as a happy socialist state which survives due to the absolute honesty of its citizens. Eathman is an isolated city-state and its perfection has meant that the inhabitants have never undertaken expeditions to see what the rest of Saturn is like, despite their futuristic technology. (Odd.)

The women outnumber the men 20 to 1 in Eathman so all of the men have multiple mates, which I’m guessing explains the lack of interest in exploration, though the author never goes there. Willmoth’s tutor back then was a famous astronomer named Elwer. One day Elwer shows Willmoth a flying machine he has invented, a device which uses hot-air to rise and propellers for directional flight. 

Using the flying machine Elwer and Willmoth set out to address their civilization’s deficiency of knowledge about the rest of Saturn. The pair encounter and catalogue many and varied life-forms, ending with their extended stay with the Ground-Dwellers, humanoids who live in networks of underground caverns. Willmoth falls in love with Zea, a beautiful female Ground-Dweller who befriends the explorers.  Continue reading

18 Comments

Filed under Ancient Science Fiction

EVEN MORE MOCK TRUMP HEADLINES

Before ObamacareFIFTY PERCENT OF ALL CAR ACCIDENTS ARE CAUSED BY DONALD TRUMP’S NEGLIGENCE. THE OTHER FIFTY PERCENT HE CAUSES INTENTIONALLY!

DEMOCRATS INSIST TRUMP SHOULD BE IMPEACHED FOR DOING WHAT ALL PREVIOUS PRESIDENTS HAVE DONE!

SHOCKING POLL REVEALS THAT PEOPLE WHO HATED TRUMP YESTERDAY STILL HATE HIM TODAY!

obama obamacare jokeDEMOCRATS PROCLAIM “IF YOU’RE NOT WITH US, YOU’RE AGAINST US!”

DEMOCRATS FOLLOW THAT PROCLAMATION UP BY SAYING “PEOPLE SHOULD BE MADE TO AGREE … WITH US, THAT IS. ALL THE TIME. IF THEY KNOW WHAT’S GOOD FOR THEM”

SO THIS IS HOW LIBERTY DIES … AT THE HANDS OF FASCIST MOBS WHO REFUSE TO ACCEPT FACTS

Obamacare corpseAMERICAN COMEDIANS LOSE ABILITY TO BE FUNNY – INSIST ALL PUNCHLINES TO ALL JOKES MUST EXPRESS RABID HATRED OF TRUMP. OR YOU’LL NEVER WORK AGAIN.

DEMOCRATS DEFIANTLY BOAST “THE PEOPLE WHO DIED UNDER OBAMACARE MEAN NOTHING TO US! WE CAN’T EXPLOIT THEIR DEATHS!” 

PAUL KRUGMAN BLAMES HIS SMALL PENIS ON TRUMP Continue reading

6 Comments

Filed under humor, LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion