Here’s a look at two of the most recent. For newbies, I had been a Democrat for much of my life until Obama’s disastrous and damaging presidency helped motivate me to become an Independent Voter. His callous, clueless, comfortable and uncaring supporters helped, too. I distrust both the Democrats and the Republicans. Trump is a de facto Third Party President.
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Filed under humor, LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
DAY ONE: GAME ONE – The 10th seeded MISSISSIPPI UNIVERSITY FOR WOMEN OWLS (co-ed despite the name) faced off with the 9 seeds – the FLORIDA NATIONAL UNIVERSITY CONQUISTADORS, with both teams making their first appearance in the USCAA World Series.
By the 2nd Inning the Owls held a 3-0 lead but the Conquistadors cut that to 3-1 in the 3rd. The 4th Inning saw Florida National University explode for SIX runs, taking a 7-4 lead after MUW’s at-bats. The Owls made it a 7-6 game in the 5th before the Conquistadors extended their lead to 9-6 in the 6th Inning. Four runs for MUW in the 7th gave them a 10-9 victory for Pitcher Eiland Cleckler, nickname: “That’s Not A Typo!” Continue reading
Filed under College Baseball
May 20th will mark another celebration of International Everybody Draw Muhammad Day! The woman who founded it – Molly Norris – has been in hiding for years because of the Muslim fanatics trying to kill her. But hey, cowardly comedians continue to act like they’re “cutting edge” for going after Christians.
I’m an atheist and there’s no denying that if I wrote something about Jesus having sex with farm animals and corpses that would NO LONGER be daring. Christians have become the cultural “safe targets” so only the most gutless of hypocrites still think they’re being courageous by taking them on and watching them howl.
The truly untamed beast in the world’s religions is the superstitious savagery called Islam. Muslim fascists kill people simply for drawing pictures they don’t like. In the past there were plenty of depictions of Muhammad in Western art because non-Muslims sure as hell shouldn’t be bound by the rules of a religion they don’t belong to. Only recently has there been an obsession with making it taboo to draw the insane, blood-soaked child rapist who founded Islam. I can’t draw so I’m limited to showing the drawings of others.
Those of us taking on Islam are fully aware that if the Muslim fanatics who threaten us DO succeed in killing us the world is full of cowards who will claim our deaths are our own fault. We don’t care. I don’t follow ANY religion and I will not live according to the rules of the most homophobic, misogynistic and otherwise intolerant religion in the world right now.
If you disagree with the spirit of this cartoon you’re clearly too weak-minded to handle freedom of expression.
WE ARE NEVER GOING TO STOP WITH THE PICTURES OF MUHAMMAD. Well, at least people with a backbone won’t. The weak and the cowardly will happily pretend they’re being “culturally sensitive” by shying away from Muhammad pictures. Then they’ll make a few Jesus jokes to pretend they ARE NOT afraid of religious fanatics.
This man put it best:
“Once they started killing people for drawing Mohammed it became necessary for everyone to draw Mohammed – to show that there are too many to kill, and thus to teach Islam that, whatever its own proscriptions, they do not and will never apply to non-believers. Once you make drawing Mohammed a capital crime, it is necessary to make drawing Mohammed so universal that it’s no crime at all. If you claim the right to kill because you’re offended, then it is necessary to offend you all the time – until you accept the messy norms of pluralistic societies.” Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
BOWLING GREEN BRACKET
Top Seed: UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND ARTS OF OKLAHOMA DROVERS
2. CAMPBELLSVILLE UNIVERSITY TIGERS ### 3. REINHARDT UNIVERSITY EAGLES (Should be the Rottweilers) ### 4. BELLEVUE UNIVERSITY BRUINS ### 5. MIDLAND UNIVERSITY WARRIORS ###
HATTIESBURG BRACKET
Top Seed: SAINT THOMAS (FL) UNIVERSITY BOBCATS
2. WESTMONT COLLEGE WARRIORS (Should be the Guardians) ### 3. INDIANA UNIVERSITY SOUTHEAST GRENADIERS ### 4. LSU-SHREVEPORT PILOTS (Riverboat Pilots) ### 5. WILLIAM CAREY UNIVERSITY CRUSADERS ###
KINGSPORT BRACKET
Top Seed: SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY FIRE
2. TENNESSEE WESLEYAN COLLEGE BULLDOGS ### 3. MADONNA UNIVERSITY CRUSADERS ### 4. CLARKE UNIVERSITY CRUSADERS ### 5. TRINITY CHRISTIAN COLLEGE TROLLS ### Continue reading
Filed under College Baseball
Here at Balladeer’s Blog I write plenty of items about myths from around the world. I often mention that my blog posts about figures from the American West are along the same lines to me since I think the exaggerated tales of whatever their real-life stories were originate the same way that many religious fables do: the usual human tendency toward superstition and embellishment.
Dystopian literature is similar but instead of embellishing figures and events from the past this type of fiction involves taking contemporary problems and/ or trends and extrapolating them into larger than life menaces in the near or far future.
Soylent Green did it with overpopulation and food shortages, One Blade of Grass did it with environmental issues and Orwell’s 1984 did it with totalitarian political forces which still threaten to use his nightmarish novel as their road map. Countless other examples could be cited.
THE TECHNO-TYRANTS OF SILICON VALLEY – The modern-day versions of the disgusting old Robber Barons might well be the corporate fascists aka techno-fascists in assorted tech industries, not just regarding Silicon Valley but also privacy-violating rich pigs at Facebook and elsewhere.
In fact, you could make the case that people like Mark “Skippy” Zuckerberg and his fellow corporate fascists are even worse since I don’t recall bloated rich pigs like E.H. Harriman or Cornelius Vanderbilt trying to police other people’s every thought, word and deed. The invasive and ever-expanding tentacular reach of techno-fascists or in this fictional case Techno-Tyrants would make these villains a very credible threat to political freedom and freedom of expression. Continue reading
Filed under Future History, Neo-Pulp, opinion
It’s Balladeer’s Blog’s semi-annual Mother’s Day post!
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.
Cloris Leachman IS Ronda (no “h”), Johnny’s real mother, as we learn very early in the film. Ronda is in such dire financial straits she had to hock the “h” in her name for rent money. (I’m kidding!) She never speaks to her sister, sleeps with a gigolo passing through town and serves up meals along with expository dialogue. Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies
Balladeer’s Blog’s latest round of Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead features another song about another Patrick McGoohan television series from the 1960s. It’s Johnny Rivers with Secret Agent Man, the theme song to McGoohan’s series Secret Agent.
Filed under opinion
Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the science fiction/ existential drama The Prisoner. For Part One, in which I examined the themes and concepts at play in the series click HERE
Episode Title: THE CHIMES OF BIG BEN. In the ongoing debate about the exact numbering of the 17 episodes of The Prisoner I place this as the 3rd in the series. Any comments that I have regarding the Alternate Chimes of Big Ben will be made in this same post.
Leo McKern makes the first of his three appearances as one of the Village’s rotating series of Number Twos. Despite his villainous role he gets the audience on his side right off the bat. He does that while watching the surveillance video of Number Six as he wakes up for the day and voices his observation that the Prisoner “Can make even the act of putting on a dressing gown seem like a gesture of defiance.”
Leo McKern’s character’s verbal fencing with Patrick McGoohan is as much fun to watch as Columbo’s cat and mouse games with the murderers on his show. (And yes, I know McGoohan was no stranger to Columbo, both the 1970s series and the later revival.)
The part where the Prisoner intentionally adds three lumps of sugar to his tea just because Number Two says his file reflects that he takes NO sugar is particularly enjoyable. It’s also one of those scenes that is not appreciated by people who don’t have a nonconformist bone in their body.
McKern as Number Two also proves to be the most informative of those rotating Village executives. His attempts to persuade our protagonist to just tell the Villagekeepers why he resigned and then join their conspiracy go beyond just admitting that he, too, tried to resist when he was brought to the Village.
Leo makes it clear that the Village represents the model for the Earth of the future as pursued by highly-placed elements from both sides of the Cold War. He paints a picture of inevitability for the Prisoner in hopes that he can make McGoohan cave in while retaining his sense of personal honor. If a Global “Village” is inevitable there’s no shame in surrendering to it. Continue reading
Filed under Forgotten Television, Prisoner (tv series)
FOR PART ONE OF THIS LOOK AT THE KREE-SKRULL WAR (1971-1972) CLICK HERE
THE AVENGERS Volume One, Number 91 (August 1971)
AVENGERS ROSTER: THE WASP (Janet Van Dyne), THE SCARLET WITCH (Wanda), GOLIATH (Clint Barton), QUICKSILVER (Pietro), THE VISION (Not Applicable), YELLOW JACKET (Hank Pym, PhD), CAPTAIN MARVEL (Mar-Vell, Kree Captain)
NOTE: CAPTAIN MARVEL IS THE HERO THAT NICK FURY SUMMONED TO FIGHT THANOS IN THE POST-CREDITS SCENE TO AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR.
In this superhero-crazed world readers have made it clear they want more Marvel items. It’s another warm-weather season of escapist fun with The Kree-Skrull War, the prequel to last year’s Celestial Madonna Saga. I have a soft spot for superhero stories because reading them as a kid served as a gateway to two of my adult passions: mythology and opera.
TAKE ONE GIANT STEP … BACKWARD
Synopsis: We pick up right where we left off last time around. In the northernmost reaches of Alaska a “De-Evolution Zone” is spreading. Every life form in that zone, be it plant, insect or animal, is devolving to what it would have been over a million years ago.
The cause of that De-Evolution Zone is a citadel that is the product of alien Kree technology. Inside the citadel was Ronan the Accuser, who recently usurped the throne of the Kree Empire from the Supreme Intelligence, the Artificial Intelligence who had ruled the Empire for centuries.
The De-Evolution Ray causing the zone was put into use by Ronan the Accuser because he thought (mistakenly, as we’ll learn in a few installments) that this De-‘Vo assault aka Plan Atavus was why the Supreme Intelligence was studying Earth’s evolutionary past when Ronan overthrew him.
The Accuser feels the Supreme Intelligence’s goal was to eliminate Earth and its plethora of super-beings as threats to the Kree Empire by setting back the planet’s evolutionary clock. This will force life to start anew on Earth and hopefully – from the Empire’s point of view – this time less-threatening life-forms will evolve.
Ronan the Accuser has been bragging about his plans to his new captive, Captain Marvel, the traitorous Kree Captain who years earlier sided with Earth against the Empire. On one viewscreen Ronan and Mar-Vell see Rick Jones and three other Avengers – the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and the Vision fighting the enormous Sentry 459 ( a Kree robot) and the enthralled Avenger called Goliath (formerly Hawkeye).
Sentry 459 and the unwilling Goliath are preventing Wanda, Pietro and the Vizh from entering the Citadel and trying to rescue Captain Marvel. Meanwhile on another viewscreen, Ronan and Mar-Vell behold the Avenger called Yellow Jacket – now devolved to cave-man levels – approaching his fallen wife the Wasp, who was just rendered unconscious while fighting the Sentry and Goliath last issue. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
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