Wanted at the bridge

Reserved tickets last night, best seats in the theater. The bridge is the place to see a movie. Real chairs that don't fold and enough leg room for people to walk by. All the theaters have good sound and when you're tall as more people are these days it matters. With most of the country.. I was going to use some politically correct term but wtf. With all the fat people around it's nice to have the elbow room. The theater is about half full. It's the perfect viewing experience waiting for a great movie to happen. If they didn't sell stale, made in a factory brought in bag popcorn, well I might have had some for old time sake.

I found myself almost immediately wondering if this movie was inspired by a video game. Most recent attempts to converge the finely honed styles of Hollywood with the code driven style of video game developments have left a flat dry taste in the mouth. The intro, without giving anything away was totally cool but in an unfulfilling way. Even if you knew the twist then...
I figured it out early and barely noticed. That sets the tone.

As soon as Angelina hits the screen things change, if for no other reason than you can just look at her. Most of the action was satisfying as she sweeps our hero into the fold and away from evils clutch. Angelina is stunning as ever, but wow she was skinny.

The training was your basic beat the guy till he's tough. Most of it was well done and state of the art. There is nothing to really complain about in this movie, the FX are all solid, but I was never cheering.

Freeman is always a force on stage but I never hated or loved his character. I found myself with no one to really root for or care to much about. At the same time nothing to really care about.

The movie is littered with corpses and brutal depictions of death and none of it had much impact, perhaps a sign of the times.

It was billed as the next matrix, with en emphasis on the effects, but perhaps that was also intended to reference it as an allegory for our times. The basic social comment being we're all blind to the truth of who we are and once we wake up to that truth we will understand that we are powerful.

It was a good movie, perhaps even with it's own message. I liked it and there was a lot of eye candy. But it didn't make me freak out like the Matrix did.

It's always darkest before it's black

"The CIA, as a rule, does not comment on allegations regarding covert operations," CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said in regards to Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist and author Seymour Hersh's allegations on CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" that Congress has authorized up to $400 million to fund the secret campaign, which involves U.S. special operations troops and Iranian dissidents.

He said the program resulted in "a dramatic increase in kinetic events and chaos" inside Iran, including attacks by Kurdish separatists in the country's north and a May attack on a mosque in Shiraz that killed 13 people.

Hersh first gained worldwide recognition in 1969 for exposing the My Lai Massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam War, for which he received the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. His 2004 reports on the US military's mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison gained much attention.

Hersh received the 2004 George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting^[1] given annually by Long Island University to honor contributions to journalistic integrity and investigative reporting. This was his fifth George Polk Award, the first one being a Special Award given to him in 1969.

"They believe that their mission is to make sure that before they get out of office next year, either Iran is attacked or it stops its weapons program," Hersh said. I guess my question is there anyone who doubts they plan on going into Iran before the election?

We have ample forced on two boarders now. We've heard just a little to much about how difficult it would be to take them out to really believe it any more. Israel has completely thrown down the gauntlet. Iran knows it's coming and I can't help but feel a little pain for them.

Muslim, Christian, Jew, the average person just wants to live in a nice place, race a family and not get screwed to hard, and when war comes it's the average person who bears the brunt on both sides.

Iran's parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, warned other countries against moves that would "cost them heavily." In comments that appeared in the semi-official Mehr news agency Sunday, an Iranian general said his troops were digging more than 320,000 graves to bury troops from any invading force with "the respect they deserve."

At a certain point hardliners, regardless of what God they claim to pray to all start sounding the same. The last time I heard anything concrete about Iran's nuclear capability was they were 10 years away.

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The Auction Rate Securities Scam

Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, subpoenaed documents
from some major market participants. Thursday, he released materials
produced by UBS and filed a civil suit against the firm, accusing it of
defrauding investors.

William F. Galvin, subpoenaed documents from some major market participants. Thursday, he
released materials produced by UBS and filed a civil suit against the
firm, accusing it of defrauding investors.

The complaint says UBS misled investors by peddling auction-rate securities
as cash equivalents and ultrasafe. But the suit also asserts that UBS
dumped these securities on individual investors to minimize its own
exposure to the risks inherent in keeping them on its own books.

E-mail messages attached to the Massachusetts
complaint support Mr. Galvin’s accusations in stunning black and white.

The problem UBS faces began in August, when the credit markets seized.
Corporations — which are big buyers of auction-rate securities because
of their slightly-higher-than-money-market yields — were beginning to
sell. New buyers had to be found or UBS, as underwriter and auction
manager, would be stuck with the securities. The firm was going into
shell shock because of losses from subprime mortgages on its books, so
it needed to find a way out of the auction-rate mess.

It's good to hear stories of heros in government fighting for us amid the increasing stories of families ending up on the streets. But as much credit has to go to the people who wrote in and gave him grounds to proceed.

If you feel you have been defrauded you need to act on your own behalf. The few people in positions to help with the will to do so can not proceed unless you tell them what happened. It's not good enough to fill out form letters, tell your story. Perhaps the secretary of your state is a good place to start.

More than a few people suspect that UBS is only the tip of the iceberg as this $300 billion dollar market began to seize after the sub prime bomb and big money pulled out individual investors of both modest and substantial wealth where left holding the bag. The potential for wide spread fraud and the need to investigate may stand as a turning point pivotal for a rebuilding of confidence in this nations money train.

With so many families being destroyed while our government props up the institutions that created the mess. we perhaps have a moral obligation to look as well, because every big brokerage firm that participated in this market is both underwriters of the securities and managers of
the auctions that set their prices.

This is not just about politics and high finances. It's about the untold lives destroyed by a system with no solid foundation and the greed of so few.

Censorship Vernacular and a Parents right to choose

Far removed from the troubles of the world is the sleepy township of Perry. 2002 One of two high schools in the area Perry Meridian High School was recognized as a National Service Learning Leadership School. But on March 24, 2008 the school was embroiled in a quiet controversy when it suspended an English teacher for a year and a half without pay.

According to the schools board the suspension was for insubordination. But the by the teachers account the issues at stake could have broader impact. Connie Heerman, the teacher in question believes the what's at stake is censorship. According to one parent what's at stake is a parents right to choose what is and is not acceptable for there children's development.

The book at the heart of the controversy is The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them. At it's heart it's the inspirational story of how a group of teens seemingly destined to be swallowed up by the inner city are transformed by a journey of expression and communication that transcends the boundaries of class, race, religion and circumstance. But who cares.

What's important about this story is that by Heermans account the school took three months to answer the question can the students be given this book as part of there curriculum. With no answer and a finite amount of class time, Heerman decided to ask the students parents. She sent permissions slip home for 150 students and got 149 resounding YES replies.

It was not until after the books had been distributed to the students that the school asked her to take them back.

Though our strength in the world has diminished as a nation the USA is still a giant. While out national system of education has fallen into what must now be considered it's own local "Dark Age". I am left asking, is this because the people making the decisions can't finish a book in three months? How can it be that hard for a school board to read a book these days.

I don't buy Ms. Heermans tearful plea that she's fighting for the right to learn. I am concerned more about the people who have continued to fail to secure our children's future. For over a decade our nations school systems have been in sharp decline. Perhaps this is a clue as to why.