Red Tails - The Star Wars Version

My daughter was home from college this weekend.  We took in "Red Tails" tonight.  As I said on Twitter "It was um, "Lucaesque"

Such a darn shame because this is a great story and could have been a great movie.  It's the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, African American pilots during World War II. George  Apparently HBO has made a really good movie--Tuskegee Airmen.  Rent that instead of wasting your time on this one. 

Unless you actually liked the storyline and dialogue of the last Star Wars Movies.  Because this is just as bad.  My daughter says the acting is terrible but I think the problem is bad dialogue that no amount of acting talent can fix.  

SPOILER ALERT (although you can see this coming from a mile away)

This is how it ended for us.  Final big fire fight  (In typical Star Wars fashion, there are loud flashy air fights) and the big bad German pilot (complete with a scar on his face) woodenly intones "Die you foolish African".  So when one of the guys who you knew was going to die because his Italian girlfriend who can't even speak English and he can't speak Italian has agreed to marry him...finally gets shot and is dying and dying and dying and telling his buddy he's dying (in the cockpit while flying of course) I couldn't help it - I leaned over to my daughter and whispered "DIE YOU FOOLISH AFRICAN!" and we both giggled and laughed as his plane went down.  Probably not the reaction Lucas was going for.

I'm giving it a thumbs down.

A True Gentleman

If last night during the State of the Union Address you saw a lone Republican standing during parts of President Obama's speech, it was not because he suddenly had Democrat leanings.  He was Representative Jeff Flake of Arizona's sixth district.  He had the privilege of sitting next to Gabby Giffords.  And every time she tried to stand up and cheer the president, he helped her up, rising himself.   Now that is a true gentelman.

Friday Five -Movies

 RevGalBlogPals has a relatively easy assignment - Movies

1. At home or at a theater?

I don't get out to the theater much, but I do love the whole going to the movies experience.  I love the previews (although not this new nasty practice of showing commercials.  Really I pay $10 and still have to watch commercials?), I love the large screen, the sound, the other people.  A movie in the theater is always better than it really is. 

But there is much to be said to snuggling under the covers on a snowy Saturday to watch an old movie at home.

2. With whom? 

I always enjoyed taking my kids to the movies.  But I don't mind going to see a movie alone.  I think going to see a movie is a bad first date.  First date you should go to dinner together so you can talk and get to know each other better.  Also nowadays all the movies have sex scenes and I find it excruciatingly awkward to watch an explicit sex scene on a first date.  Can't help thinking "sure hope he doesn't think I'll be doing that for him later..."

3. Movie you look forward to seeing?

I always think I want to see more movies than I actually get out to see.  Wanted to take the kids to see War Horse on Christmas, but all the dinky theaters around here were showing was Alvin and the Chipmunks.  And I'm torn because the idea of using horses in battle makes me so upset.

4. Movie you like to see repeatedly?

There are seasonal movies that must be seen a certain time of the year.  Must watch the Charleton Heston "Ten Commandments" during Holy Week. (I keep threatening to play a drinking game - chug every time someone moans "Moses Moses")  Must watch "Elf" around Christmas.  It used to be "It's a Wonderful Life" but I kind of got my fill of that for a while. 

5. Food with a movie?  Popcorn with butter and salt.  Junior mints that I try to buy somewhere else for 1/4 the price.  The mints are good to offset the salty popcorn then I don't have to drink as much and then I don't have to get up and go to the bathroom as many times during the movie. 

It's Not Really About Forgiveness

I didn't really pay much attention when the hullabaloo first began over outgoing Mississippi Governor Haily Barbour's pardons.  I began to pay attention when I heard his defense that the convicted murderers he pardoned had committed "crimes of passion".  It was disturbing to learn that Mississippi has a history of tolerance for "crimes of passion."  That's often code for "He killed his wife and she probably deserved it".  It was a little disturbing to learn 8 of these men murdered their wives.  

I didn't have much luck finding out how many of those pardoned were women.  There was a wealthy woman who killed two doctors while driving drunk.

I do know who he did not pardon.  He did not pardon Jamie and Gladys Scott, two sisters who were paroled last year on the condition that Gladys donate a kidney to Jamie. 

Jamie and Gladys Scott were serving LIFE sentences for being in the same car with some teenaged boys who robbed someone for $11.  The boys who actually did the robbery only served a couple of months in jail.  

Barbour defended his pardons by saying "You do not want to take away hope and the opportunity for a second chance, particularly when you see what our religion says," he said.

Second chances for wife killers - but not these women?  I call bullshit.  A lot of these so called "crimes of passion" are no better than the "honour killings" that we claim to be so outraged about when committed by people of a different culture and religion.  And it was an honour killing that Jesus stopped when he turned away the powerful men who sought to stone the woman caught in adultery.  To invoke Jesus to excuse and pardon honor killing is  a travesty. 

No doubt there is politics involved in these pardons as in all pardons.  But there's an ugly undercurrent of sexism and misogyny going on here too, wrapped up in Christian smugness and fake piety.  Like I said, I call bullshit.

What am I Missing Here?

I don't like Suze Orman.  Mostly because she is from the Dr. Phil "I won't help you until I've totally humiliated you and made sure you realize what a stupid piece of sh*t  you are" school of "self help" (which isn't self help at all) television.   I also don't like that she's always calling her viewers "Girlfriend"   Girlfriend, I am not your girlfriend.  I don't like her because she perpetuates the stereotype that all women are idiots when it comes to money and if it wasn't for her we would all be in the poorhouse.

Now I don't like her because I think maybe she's proving that we are all idiots.  She's hawking  her own pre-paid credit card that is the greatest card ever, if she does say so herself.   Its so wonderful because she's made a deal with one of the credit reporting agencies to report your usage of this card and maybe someday it will improve your credit score.

Um. No.  It won't.  Because a pre-paid credit card is not credit.  You can't miss a payment.   You can't screw it up.  So you can't prove that you can handle credit because it's um, NOT CREDIT!

Am I the only one that sees this?  I've heard this woman interviewed by half a dozen people on this and NOBODY has asked her about this little detail.  What am I missing?

Meat Loaf!

I remember the first time I went grocery shopping after both of my kids were away at school.  I wandered aimlessly down the aisles thinking "That's what Isaac likes, I don't want that.  What DO I like?"  It was so odd to shop only for myself.  And then I saw the ground pork.  MEATLOAF.  I hadn't made it since my husband died because my kids won't eat it. 

I love my meatloaf.  And it doesn't go bad because I have it cold for sandwiches the next few days.  I once had a roommate who claimed she couldn't stand meatloaf until she tried mine and then she ate practically the whole thing.

I can get my daughter to eat my meatballs, which don't tell anyone...are the same thing only in balls rather than a loaf.

• I lb. ground beef
• 1 lb. ground pork
• 1 egg, beaten
• ¼ cup grated onion
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp Penzeys Barbeque of the Americas
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1 tbs honey
• ¼ cup ketchup
• ¼ cup Buffalo wing sauce

Mix ground beef and pork, onion, spices, sugar, salt & Pepper, egg, bread crumbs and ½ cup tomato sauce together in a large bowl. Yes, with your hands.  Form it into a loaf and put in a pan.

Mix tomato sauce, ketchup, honey and wing sauce.  Pour over loaf. 

Bake it for an hour or a little more at 375.

That's all there is to it.  This is comfort food, Baby!

More Wild Life in My Back yard

Looked out my window today and saw this:

Then I realized there were two of them

 I love my zoom

Then I went outside and got closer.  

A little too close.  She flew off

"We, O Church, owe it to Margaret and yes, to Ben, to ponder this more deeply"

 Margaret Kritsch Anderson, a 34 year old Park Ranger at Mount Rainier and mother of a 3 year old and 1 year old was shot and killed in the line of duty by a troubled veteran.  She was a friend of ELCA Campus Pastor Jayne Thompson.  You need to read what she has to say on The Lutheran Blog.  Margaret.  That's all.