Mr. Balloon Man

Hey - Mr. Balloon Man - if you are going to create this fake news story about your son being carried away in a weather balloon just for the media attention - don't ask your six year old son to lie for you. Six year olds are not great at lying. In the video below, you don't do really well at lying either. Wolf Blitzer is like Santa or a Rabbi - you can't lie to Wolf.
I am attaching a snippet of the interview below:


I am glad that the little boy is alright and that he actually wasn't in the basket of that weather balloon. Yesterday, every time I heard or saw the phrase "balloon boy," I kept picturing George Costanza and the Bubble Boy from the Seinfeld show. By the way, George Costanza is a much better liar than the Dad in this news story. Remember what George said, "it's not lying if you believe that it is true." Maybe you should have taken George's advice, Mr. Balloon Man. Well, anyway, here is the Seinfeld clip:

Huffington Post and Green Acres

The picture of Vice President Biden posted above, is plastered on the Huffington Post Website this morning. The accompanying story is Arianna Huffington's take on why she feels that VP Biden should resign. The reason for this resignation, she believes, is Biden's conflicting view with President Obama on sending more troops in Afghanistan. He is a short excerpt from her post:

Well, how about making the mea culpa unnecessary? Instead of saving it for the book, how about future author Biden unfetter his conscience in real time -- when it can actually do some good? If Biden truly believes that what we're doing in Afghanistan is not in the best interests of our national security -- and what issue is more important than that? -- it's simply not enough to claim retroactive righteousness in his memoirs.

I don't think that Vice President Biden should resign. To me, that is Obama's main point in supporting a Lincoln-esque - "Team of Rivals" - type of approach. If everyone agrees with the president and just says, "yes" - you end up with what we had for the previous 8 years.

Now that the mature, political stuff is out of the way, I have to move on to the more immature matter at hand. As un-PC as it is, whenever I see Arianna Huffington on television, I immediately think of Green Acres. Why Green Acres? I think of Green Acres because Arianna Huffington's way of speaking reminds me of Eva Gabor's style. I grew up in the 60's and 70's, and Green Acres - as silly as it was - was part of my childhood. I know that Arianna Huffington is brilliant and one of the most influential females in the political writing world today - but I can't help myself. Take a look for yourself, and see if I don't speak the truth. Video snippets of both Arianna and Eva are linked below:

Elizabeth Cheney and Michael Moore

I don't know about you, but I feel that Elizabeth Cheney's (Dick Cheney's daughter) group - Keep America Safe - seems to be borrowing a little bit from Michael Moore. Take a look at their website's video below, and see what you think. Don't the implications seem to mirror those from Moore's Farenheit 911? The link to the NPR story regarding the Keep America Safe group is here:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/s/#2ZlhP4/www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2009/10/cheney_obama_keep_america_safe.html?ft=1&f=103943429/stumblethru:undefined

As NPR writes, Elizabeth Cheney's group says it aims to "provide information for concerned Americans about critical national security issues." Her co-founders are conservative commentator William Kristol and Debra Burlingame, sister of an American Airlines pilot who was killed on 9/11. Burlingame is co-founder of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America.

Carly Simon and Starbucks

Ok, it seems that over the past year or so, that neither Starbucks or Carly Simon have been doing that great. Who I am to judge? I know, I asked myself that too. But lets face it, Carly hasn't been on the top of the charts for years now, and Starbucks is losing business to Dunkin Donuts. So, what do you do when two brands are struggling - you team up. I don't think that sounds like a good idea either - but Carly Simon did. Now she is suing Starbucks, saying that terrible sales of her latest album, This Kind of Love, was a result of Starbucks (music label - Hear Music) mismanagement. The link for the NYT article is below:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/arts/music/12simon.html

Well, however the legal aspects work out, I prefer to look back to a time when both Carly Simon and Starbucks were more cool - or hot I guess. Here are a couple of videos below:

Wilson, Obama, and the Nobel Peace Prize

President Obama was awakened today to learn that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize. Congratulations are in order. The conservatives are already mocking this decision; good thing that Chicago was not picked as the next city for the Olympics, or it would have definitely pushed the Republicans over the edge (not that far of a reach, in my estimation).

Well - one question that naturally arises, is who was the last sitting US President to win the Nobel Peace Prize? I checked, and it was President Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Wilson was chosen for his work in the development of the League of Nations. Interestingly, and also ironic, is that Woodrow Wilson was not a supporter of equal rights for blacks; that is putting it mildly, actually. His record on race relations was not very good. You know what they say - "karma is a bitch." Well, anyway, here is a snippet (no sound) of Woodrow Wilson in the White House in 1917 (see video below). The sheep on the front lawn are real.

President Obama and HRC

This is the big story posted on the website of the HRC - the Human Rights Campaign:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, announced today that President Barack Obama will deliver the keynote address at the 13th Annual National Dinner on Saturday, October 10th, in Washington, D.C. U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy will also present the first-ever Edward M. Kennedy National Leadership Award to Judy and Dennis Shepard. The award is named in honor of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), a champion in the fight for LGBT equality.

The 2008 video below is a snippet of President Obama (before he was President) talking with Rick Warren at Saddleback Church regarding his views on gay marriage. He explains that he supports civil unions, but defines marriage as a sacred union between a man and a woman. Wonder how this will play out on the 10th? What is about people that they are OK with gay couples doing the sad stuff (visiting each other in hospitals), but not in the fun stuff - like having a wedding?

Vanessa Redgrave and Israel

Vanessa Redgrave's recent backhanded support of Israel regarding the Toronto Film Festival's decision to showcase the films of Tel Aviv, reminds me of her Academy Award appearance back in 1978. Below is the link to the recent article, as well as the snippet from the Oscars:

http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/20721/vanessa-redgrave-slams-israeli-film-boycott