Chinese Oil

China wants to buy Unocal. What's the problem. We're a greedy bunch. We'll sell you anything if the price is right, including our future.... our security. We've already sold Congress.

The Supreme Court's Decision today

The Supreme Court says it's o.k. for a local government to take your house and give your land to a private developer. I guess they're interpreting a different Constitution from that I thought we had. And "had" is what we'll be!!

Bush and Vietnam

I love it!!! A few years back, the old retired military farts were up in arms. It was because of a story on a neocon web site that quoted anonymous sources who said that Clinton was going to take a Navy ship to Vietnam and while there, order the Vietnamese flag to be flown above ours. Oh, the invective flowed greater than the Colorado had Hoover Dam burst. Never mind the story was probably made up. Never mind that the White House and the Navy both said there was no request from the White House to take a Navy ship anywhere. And never mind the fact that diplomacy is fraught with symbolism and what would be the symbolism of a U.S. president taking a warship into a country that was a former enemy. Clinton was denounced to be as bad as Hanoi Jane! Now, Bush hosts the president of Vietnam in the White House. And the retired military folks? Nary a peep!

Flix Facts

O.K. folks, I'm really sick of hearing which movie is number one at the box office this week. With very few exceptions, it usually is the movie that was released this week. Of course, it's going to have higher attendance than a flick that been around for a week or more. Strange thing about people who go to the movies regularly. They go to see the latest film. Ergo the numbers will be higher! And the amount of money a film earns?! What was the price of a ticket for "Gone With The Wind"? It certainly wasn't $12 a pop! Obviously a film selling a half million tickets at $10 each ($5 million) does better than a film selling five million tickets at 50 cents each ($2.5 million). Let's compare the NUMBER of tickets sold; not the amount earned.

Deep Throat

The buzz on the box and in print these past few days has been the revelation that W. Mark Felt was Deep Throat of the Watergate era. It's an interesting tid-bit for historians but not - IMHO - worthy of the hours of blather. Of course, it's just another example of the news media talking to the news media (and the news junkies). Hey, folks, there is real news to cover out there.... and I don't mean the car accident in Broken Bum, Idaho, that makes headlines on the 24-hour news cable networks either. Watergate resulted in a flurry of youngsters wanting to be Bernstein/Woodward and the shorthand naming of every real or perceived inappropriate action by some government official as being "something"-gate. The soul of the whole matter is that fortunately two enterprising reporters --- and many others --- were able to shine a light on the creepy crawlers of a corrupt and imperial administration. And times have changed, how????!!!!