Grammy's fail

True to form, I did not watch the Grammy Awards this past Sunday.  From what I've read, I don't believe I missed much, except for Daft Punk.  Space suits and helmets - yeah!  Evidently Beyoncé wore lace - who cares?  Not me.  I don't own a single Beyoncé tune.  So I didn't miss that.  The "Same Love" performance probably seemed like a good idea to a few people yet I think it was probably a mistake.  Just because a small number of states (what is it?  12) have legalized same sex marriage doesn't mean the vast majority of the viewing audience really wanted to see 33 couples getting married on live TV.  It makes no difference if some of the couples were straight and some were gay, this is not something the American audience may not be ready to see in Prime Time, so don't shove it down their throats.  then, for some bizarre reason, they included that media whore Madonna.  If I remember correctly, this woman recently exploited her son on Instagram to keep her name in the spotlight - sounded a bit desperate to me.

Going above and beyond

Then there was the faux Beatle reunion.  I had heard rumors this was going to take place and, for a moment, thought of turning on the broadcast just to watch this historic moment.  But then reason took over.  Would I really get a chance to see the two surviving Beatles do a quick medley of three or four of their songs?  Logic dictated otherwise.  Yoko Ono stupidly sold the Beatle catalog for about 400 million.  The stupid woman did not realize the Beatles were not just another boy band so somebody else (maybe Sony?) owns the rights.  This grates Paul to no end.  Besides, Paul is dealing with his own ego, he is Sir Paul McCartney you know, and he is still writing and recording music very few people buy.  So, I suspect when the suggestion was first broached to him about a possible reunion with Ringo, the first thought that went through his pinhead was "hey, I can play one of my new songs."  The idea that the two of them doing a medley of Beatle songs would make history and, most likely, shatter the Twitter universe probably never occurred to him.  Missing Paul McCartney, with his puffy face and puffy hair, and Ringo Starr (looking pretty good for his age) playing McCartney's latest non-hit meant I missed nothing.  This is why I don't waste 3 hours of my life watching the Garmmy's.

Jeremy Bieber - asshole extraordinaire

When I saw Justin Bieber was arrested for  speeding (among other things) I had to laugh.  I laughed even harder when I saw he'd been driving a rented Lamborghini.  With all of his money, he's drag racing a rental.  How stupid.  If you're going to race a car you should at least own the freaking thing and have your mechanics juice it before you drag it.  As soon as I read the article I knew there was going to be very little sympathy drifting his way, some criticism, a smidgen of concern, but overwhelming those were the jokes.  Bieber has become a punch line.    He has become a joke.  Instead of laughing with him, people are laughing at him.  Someone should have told him that it's bad to have people laughing at you.  Give me a break, who in their right mind would want to be thought of as a dip shit?  And then I wondered just where his parents were.  Surely they must be voicing some concern about his recent spate of immature behavior.

And then I read that his old man was with him when he got arrested, notice I'm saying 'old man' and not father.  To call someone father is to give them respect, I suspect Bieber's old man is pretty much a losing sack of shit.  When I'd read that Jeremy Bieber was with Justin while he was drinking beer, and smoking pot, and shoving dollar bills down G-strings at a strip club, I began to wonder if 'old man' might not be too kind, perhaps parasite is better word.

Rather then jump to conclusions, I did a little research.  There was always the possibility I might be wrong.  One of the first indicators proving I was most likely correct was the note in Wikipedia describing his father as a 'musician, artist, and actor.'  Those three nouns hint at the fact he probably could not hold down a job.  From what I've read, he left the parenting process up to Justin's mother and grandparents.  Now he's 38 years old and has a son who's rich and famous.  He has a son who is a recording artist and a musician, two things the older Bieber isn't.  Yet, if you do a search on Google images you'll see that Jeremy Bieber looks and dresses like a 38 year old rock star trying to be 19.  he wants to live the sweet life.  And who help set up the road blocks so his son could drag race in a rental car?  Jeremy Bieber.  Justin Bieber may be turning into a joke, but his old man's a freaking asshole.

Nasa gets a Kickstart

Guess what, NASA is going back to work.  This doesn't mean they haven't been putting in some time over the past couple of years putzing around with the International Space Station.  They had, however, put their exploration programs pretty much on hold.  This came as a result of the Augustine Commission's report back in 2009 that the current program was terribly underfunded.  The United States would have to spend trillions of dollars to keep it moving forward.  Do you remember 2009?  Middle of the worst recession in American history?  Given the time it made sense, some what.  The monies which could have been spent on the development of a heavy lift vehicle could be better spent going to General Motors.  Of course there was also the housing market crash, we couldn't let those banking and financial institutions responsible for that shit hole mess to die, we needed to keep them afloat.

In the five years since then the country has pretty much recovered, though not as much as some Republicans would like, and we are in a better financial place.  Hence, in the budget approved and signed by the President, space exploration programs have once again been funded to a tune of over 1 trillions dollars.  Have we finally gotten it right?  Kind of, I think.

I don't think for a second Congress muttered to itself "hey, we got a little spare cash lying around, let's give it to the space program."  No, not at all.  I think what really happened were China and India.  You see about two months ago the Chinese landed a rover on the moon and... it's roving around up there.  Even though the American news media gave it some airplay and most people probably didn't even notice, you can be some pudding head down in Washington said "Holy Shit!"  The next thing you know they'll be sending men there, Chinese Men, and they'll be setting up a Moon Base.  And where are we?  Dicking around with the likes of small minded Ted Cruz.  India has launched a probe to Mars!  I tell people that and their response is almost universal disbelief.  "India?" they ask.  Yeah, they are more then just a Call Center for American Companies.  So, Congress and the government really had no choice, it was either kickstart the program with a big boot, or sit back and eat dust.

Oscar nominations - no snubs just sour grapes

The Academy Award nominations were revealed yesterday morning and true to form, for me, I slept in and didn't check them out until yesterday afternoon.  Now, don't get me wrong, I like the Oscars, in fact it is the only award show I ever watch.  It's always interesting to see actually gets nominated.  A lot of people out there don't realize how much money is spent to get an invite to the party, so to speak.  Voting members of the Academy are hit with an avalanche of PR.  Some times it works, some times it doesn't, and when it doesn't one of the first words to be spoken with bitter chagrin is 'snub.'  Every year we hear this whine from stupid people who don't know the definition of the word.  What they really should be saying is "I'm a bad sport and I'm pissed."

Webster defines 'snub' as "to treat with disdain or contempt especially by ignoring."  Notice, the emphasis is on either 'disdain' or 'contempt,' not 'ignore.'  If you think the voting members of the Academy think Tom Hanks is contemptible and that's why they didn't nominate him you've got your head up your ass.   Hollywood loves Tom Hanks, most of his films tend to make money.  They don't look at him disdainfully, they think he's a nice guy.  The simple truth is when the votes were tallied to nominate Best Actors, five other people had more votes then he.  There's no snub there.

The sad truth is most people don't know who the nomination process works.  Here it is simplified:  Actors nominate actors, writers nominate writers, directors nominate directors, and so on and so forth.  Every body gets to vote for the Best Film nomination.  There are a lot of names, the one actors is several pages long.  Everyone who is eligible is on that ballot, even Johnny Depp.  That's right, if you were a voting member of the Academy and you wanted to, you could give Johnny a vote in the Best Actor category for his stunning performance in "The Lone Ranger."  You can be he gave himself a vote.

So when the Nominations are revealed and you hear some one claim to have been snubbed, or people whine that a certain film was snubbed, you have to remember this nothing more then shitty sour grapes.  Remember the shit storm of sour grapes Leonardo Di Caprio threw when he didn't get a nomination for Titanic?  He was so upset at not getting nominated he publicly announced he wasn't going to be attending the ceremony.  Like... did he think they really cared?

Chris Christie - Unelectable

I do have to say a couple of words about the Chris Christie bridge scandal.  I think it's funny.  That' right, funny to the point of almost being hilarious.  This is a man who has strategically been working at changing public opinion, the rumor has it, so he can make a run for the White House in 2016.  All of that hard work fell apart when the news broke that two of his top aides nearly shut down a bridge completely out of petty vindictiveness.  Christie claims to have been unaware, however this is a guy who is about control.  Anyway, it doesn't make much difference.  You can bet that during the Republican Primaries for the 2016 presidential election, if Christie does run, will use this lead pipe scandal in an attempt to beat him senseless.  If he does run, and he does win the nomination, can you just imagine what the negative campaigning will focus on?  He may want their vote, but his image of being able to work both sides of the aisle is beginning to tarnish with Independents.  If they were to vote today, would New Jersey voters re-elect him? 

Vote for me or I'll shut down your bridge!

This whole thing goes back to what a number of people have been talking about since the 2012 election, you know, the one in which Romney lost big time.  The Republicans have an image problem.  This kind of behavior doesn't help their case at all.  People believe Republicans are petty and vindictive, and small minded, and closed minded, that they don't really care about your average American.  On the day they closed down that bridge, they shit on Emergency Responders.  They shit on your every day commuter trying to get either to work or home from work in a timely manner.  Hell, they even shit on Republicans, because you know not everyone crossing that bridge was a Democrat.  These fools who shut down that bridge?  They're not stupid.  They simply believe when they are in charge they can do what they want.  Surprise!  They can't.  Now, because two of his aides did nothing more then be Republican, Christie's political future is in jeopardy, not that he's going to give up on politics, he may just have to come to terms that as a presidential candidate he may now be unelectable.

Shock and denial

Denial is a funny thing and some people do really funny things when in a state of denial.  they twist their logic in such a manner as to make their words and actions make perfect sense.  Some men have a very difficult time with aging and as a result have a mid-life crisis, which is just another name for denial - they're going to do everything possible to prove they're not getting older, at the top of the hill and slipping into that downward slide into old age.  Some women wear Lululemon Yoga Pants even though they've got a fat butt and thunder thighs to try and prove otherwise.  Then there's Aaron Schock, the uber-conservative, anti-gay, GOP senator who just might possibly be gay

 I think this is really funny because he may end up being the poster child for gay denial.  From what I've been reading, his voting record on rights in general, but most importantly on gay rights, has been so extreme, almost like a smoke screen.  You know, the belief that if you throw enough chafe up into the air you will be invisible on everyone's radar screen.  Of course then you end up sitting in a cloud so thick it's visible to the naked eye, which is kind of what Mr. Schock has done.  TMZ reports he's been seen hitting the bars in DC, which is bad for the Illinois Senator - he evidently hasn't realized there is nothing more powerful then gaydar. Every time he gets within several hundred feet of a bar his presence will be known.  He will become more then just a blip on the screen.  And of course he will need to keep denying the truth, over and over again.

More then just a blip on the gaydar

What else can he do.  If his overzealous anti-gay voting record is the result of an uber-conservative's denial of his own sexual orientation, what does that say of him as a human being.  He will shit on anybody and everybody because all will be viewed as threats.  Of course, he can always come to his senses, quit politics, and become a personal trainer.