Some Thoughts For Tuesday

A guy in the US has began a class action lawsuit against the high price of movie snacks. The movie people argue that high concession costs are what keep ticket prices low. Is over 10 dollars a ticket (more for the privilege of 3-D) really a LOW price? I only got to the discount last run movie theatre. Those places only charge 3 dollars a ticket for a movie only a couple of weeks old. I can handle that.

This whole story reminds me of the death of the video stores who refused to grow with the times. The music industry is on the verge of a monumental shift in their business model as is the movie industry - accept change or die.

Once 3-D comes to the home, all bets are off. What we want these days are choices, choices to reward movies we like and punish the garbage that we don't by taking our dollars elsewhere. I still don't understand why first run movies can't be ordered up on the television on the very weekend they premiere. Do we really need traditional movie theatres anymore in these days of multiple media delivery systems.

Then 'The Lorax' has a $70 million opening weekend and everything I would like to see changed about the movies falls to shit.

Pat Robinson blames people for building their double-wides where tornadoes happen. Also people aren't praying enough to cause God to intervene and save those people who stupidly but accurately placed their dwelling exactly where the random storm was going to go. I really can't argue with this kind of logic. You hillbillies AREN'T praying enough for Pat Robinson. Maybe if you send that prick more of your donations, he will let you storm victims off the hook.

It doesn't surprise me one bit that all the republicans are rallying around Rush Limbaugh for his hateful comments in the past week. Instead of making this human anal sore apologize like a man, they choose to use the tired excuse "well the other side does it too" like there is some kind of moral equivalency between the right/left rhetoric. There is not.

Did anyone really expect Rush to NOT use this moment as another excuse to attack the other side and distract everyone from the clown show that is the Republican primary. If he was really a hero for the right he would do more to build people on his side up rather than trying to pull his enemies down. That strategy is doomed to fail. I am happy to see some kind of sponsor backlash but this incident will in no way cost Rush his job. I don't want to see him fired. He is the best recruitment the progressive movement has ever had.

Now lets look at how the President has reacted to this story. This is an adult response that shows compassion - something Limbaugh will never have.

President Obama, meanwhile, took time today to address the Limbaugh hullabaloo, saying his remarks “don’t have any place in the public discourse.” He explained that he phoned Sandra Fluke because he was reminded of his daughters, “and one of the things I want them to do as they get older is to engage in issues they care about, even ones I may not agree with them on.”

“I do not want them attacked or called horrible names because they are being good citizens, and I wanted Sandra to know that I thought her parents should be proud of her,” he continued. “And that we want to send a message to all of our young people that being part of a democracy involves argument and disagreements and debate, and we want you to be engaged, and there’s a way to do it that doesn’t involve you being demeaned and insulted, particularly when you are a private citizen.”

I have been rewriting my feelings on this whole Limbaugh distraction for days now but can't seem to come up with anything but bitter outrage towards him and all the other cowards in the Republican Party who have chosen to blame the other side without first even recognizing that what was said to Sandra Fluke was so totally over the line.

This is what is wrong the America - it's not the people like the President who is trying to improve the lives of others - it's the amoral bomb throwers and their idiot supporters that bring the level of discussion to the point that if you can't win your argument with facts and logic, personal attacks on the POWERLESS is all you have left.

There is no room for compromise, nor has their been for nearly four years now. I just wish people would stand up and demand better. I fear that President Obama's reelection will only make things worse as those on the Right really become fearful of their lost 'America'. Will those on the Right be there to re-assure their base or will they only further exploit their fears for political gains? It doesn't take an expert to answer that question.