The Vietnam War Will Have to Wait Awhile Longer

To say that Ken Burns's documentary on The Vietnam War was a lost opportunity is to be kind.

Say what you want about Oliver North, but his critique here is sound;

It’s sad, but I’ve come to accept that the real story of the heroic American GIs in Vietnam may never be told. Like too many others, Ken Burns portrays the young Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines of the Vietnam War as pot-smoking, drug-addicted, hippie marauders.

Those with whom I served were anything but. They did not commit the atrocities alleged in the unforgivable lies John Kerry described to a congressional committee so prominently featured by Mr. Burns. The troops my brother and I were blessed to lead were honorable, heroic and tenacious. They were patriotic, proud of their service, and true to their God and our country.

To depict them otherwise, as Ken Burns does, is an egregious disservice to them, the families of the fallen and to history. But his treatment of my fellow Vietnam War veterans is just the start.

Next North shifts his fire rightly to what was done by Burns to Nixon.

Contrary to the film’s portrayal, Nixon had a complicated strategy to achieve “Peace with Honor.” His goal was to train and equip the South Vietnamese military to defend their own country in a process he called “Vietnamization” and thereby – withdraw American troops.

President Nixon succeeded in isolating the North Vietnamese diplomatically and negotiated a peace agreement that preserved the right of the people of South Vietnam to determine their own political future. Imperfect as the Saigon government was, by 1973 the South Vietnamese had many well-trained troops and units that fought well and were proud to be our allies. This intricate and sophisticated approach took shape over four wartime years but receives only superficial mention in Mr. Burns’ production.
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By the time President Nixon resigned office on August 9, 1974, the Vietnam War was all but won and the South Vietnamese were confident of securing a permanent victory. But in December 1974 – three months after President Nixon departed the White House – a vengeful, Democrat-dominated Congress cut off all aid to South Vietnam.

It was a devastating blow for those to whom President Nixon had promised – not U.S. troops – but steadfast military, economic and diplomatic support. As chronicled in memoirs written afterwards in Hanoi, Moscow and Beijing, the communists celebrated. The ignominious end came with a full-scale North Vietnamese invasion five months later.

Despite the war’s tragic conclusion – and the trauma that continues to afflict our country – there is little in the Burns so-called documentary about the courage, patriotism and dedication of the U.S. troops who fought honorably, bravely, and the despicable way in which we were “welcomed” home.

This sticks.

Though Ken Burns and his collaborators claim otherwise, the real heroes of “The Vietnam War” were not U.S. protestors, but the troops my brother and I led. They fought valiantly for our country and the president who brought us home.

Since meeting President Nixon in the 1980s, I have always remembered how he understood the incredible sacrifice of American blood in the battlefields of Vietnam. He was dedicated to ending the war the right way and committed to sustaining American honor. He kept his promise to bring us home.

Ken Burns failed to keep his promise to tell all sides about the long and difficult war in Vietnam. Mr. Burns, like John Kerry, has committed a grave injustice to those of us who fought there.

So, the Vietnam Era veterans will have to wait longer for a truly fair telling on the national stage.

Congrats Brian, your daughter is doing pr0n

Standard Kristen Warning for the below.

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Perhaps it is just me.

The late Patrick Swayze said once in an interview I saw a long time ago, something to the effect, "If you let it, this town will turn you in to a whore." If you have HBO, you may have seen a perfect example of that last night.

I don't watch, "Girls" on a regular basis (I know, shocking) though I have sat through a couple of episodes in the last few years just to see what was going on. Meh.

Anyway, I'm going upstairs to change after a long walk with the dogs and turn the TV on, and it comes to the last channel that was watched, HBO. I'm too lazy to change the channel, so let it run. About 30-seconds in, after a short while seeing Lena Dunham's stupid arm tattoo filling up half the screen, the scene shifts.

There is it - Brian Williams 26-yr old daughter doing soft pr0n. Call it what you want, but that is exactly what it was. It was totally unnecessary to the story line, I guess, but that is not the point. It was put in there for one reason - so people would talk about it, raise ratings, and try to keep a show's relevancy as we all tire of it all.

Well, Allison - you just let a peddler of highly questionable rape accusations make a whore out of you.

I'll let Kat Rosenfield of MTV (of course) outline it for you.

By now, you’ve probably heard about the infamous “Girls” season opener scene in which Marnie’s (Allison Williams) butt gets vigorously motorboated by Desi (Ebon Moss-Bachrach.)

Moss-Bachrach already confirmed to MTV News that the scene was 100% legitimate face-to-butt contact

It is all rather sad. Allison could have said no - but I guess peer pressure is what it is. Even more sad, if she looked to her parents to help, she got the opposite:

...how Allison’s father, news anchor Brian Williams, handled seeing it onscreen.
...
“She’s always been an actress,” Williams said. “For us, watching her is the family occupation and everybody has to remember it’s acting, no animals were harmed during the filming, and ideally nobody gets hurt.”

Ummm ... Brian. That wasn't acting. That was pr0n. 

How's mom?

Allison Williams mentions that not only were her parents proud supporters of her big butt-eating moment, but that her mom was a chief strategist when it came to rigging a bit of costumery between the actress’s cheeks, so that her co-star’s time in there would be as comfortable as possible.

“I’d get a call from my mom and she’d be like, ‘Maybe if you took a thong and cut it away from the sides but you stuck it on in the front and the back it could work,’” Williams said. “I was like, ‘Mom, I like your thinking.’ Just your regular dinner conversation! We’re changing as a family; it’s lovely.”

Of course, Allison is not a whore. She is simply a young lady who is trying to make her way in a tough business, surrounded by people who have no real care for her, but only what they can make off of her.

She allowed herself to be used by sociopaths;

Ebon Moss-Bachrach
I hope this is okay to say, but honestly I think this scene comes about by Lena saying, “How can I put Allison through the ringer?" "How can I tighten the screws on Allison?” I think Lena gets a kick out of that, Lena does.
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Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner
JK: When we were shooting that, I said I thought we had done all of the funny, crazy sex we could do, but … Part of that was improv on Ebon’s part, and we died laughing.
LD: Allison was a good sport.
JK: She was game — a down girl. She’s a serious actress and she takes it all seriously. She was brilliant.
LD: Let me tell you this, when someone puts their face in your butt, whether there’s a barrier or not, their face is still in your butt. And she handled that with aplomb.
JK: Even when someone you love puts their face in your butt, it might be weird!
...
Alex Karpovsky
Yeah! Let’s do it! Let’s go there! Let’s explore all the cavities. Yeah, 2015 is the Butt Year. There is some type of sexual revolution happening, and maybe that’s one of the cliffs or peaks that we need to begin to incorporate into our societal representation of this revolution, specifically in television. This could be the year of the anus.

Like I said; pr0n.

As we do often in life, she found herself at a professional pivot point. I would offer that she did not choose well.

She's an adult, her call - but I don't think it is anything someone should see and say, "Hey, I wish my daughter was a quasi-famous actress to a small segment of the population."

If that is what an Ivy League education and a career in show business gets you before you even reach the age Morrison and Hendrix assumed room temperature - then no thank you. I will continue to keep my family out of it.

Maybe it is just me. I don't think so. Below is just about top right 1/4 of what you saw. It is far enough down that you don't have to scroll.

You've been warned, but I can't/won't show her naked from the waist down, and the fully naked guy behind her. 

Just be happy I don't show a gif of when he wiped his face before he ... well ... like I said; its pr0n.

Sad, but again - maybe I'm' the problem here.

Wait ... those who know me well know I am no prude. If the below gif is not enough to make my point - click here to see the full thing.

If you want to see the mindset that thinks this is just dandy - then read this. 

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Wait. This is just way too depressing. I can't do this to my readers. Let me see what I have here .... something to leave you dragging for the rest of the day ... something from the Salamander mix tape ... oh, here we go.

Diversity Thursday

Deep down, even you last starry-eyed believers in the electric steamboat of diversity have to admit - there are a lot of people who owe their living to keeping racial relations tense, to promoting sectarianism and division - to keeping us culturally backward.

You can use all those words, or you can just call them what they are - bigots. Poster child this week, well ... you know. Via Doyle Murphy at NYDN;

Spike Lee has plenty of love for Brooklyn — just not the hipsters and gentrifiers.
(Spike Lee) laid into an audience member on Tuesday night, who suggested during Lee's speech at Pratt Institute there were benefits of gentrification.

"Let me just kill you right now," said Lee, who then went into a rant about the gentrification that has changed his home borough.

"Have you seen Fort Greene Park in the morning?" Lee yelled into the microphone Tuesday during his expletive-laced, 90-minute Black History Month speech. "It's like the m-----f-----g Westminster dog show."

He blasted what he calls the "Christopher Columbus syndrome" of neighborhoods "discovered" by wealthy gentrifiers — a scourge that's allowed real estate agents and "m----f-----g hipsters" to change even the names of neighborhoods like the South Bronx to SoBro or Bushwick to East Williamsburg. “These Williamsburg m-----f-----s are changing the names,” said Lee.

The number of black homeowners who invested in tough neighborhoods decades ago and now stand to make money is small, Lee said, and it wasn't until whites moved in that city schools, policing and garbage pickup improved.

"Why," Lee asked, “did it take this great influence of white people to get the schools better?”

I wonder if he knows he sounds just like a segregationist in 1963. Some people just can't take the races mixing. Bad for business; Spike Lee's business.

There is a short news report here, or you can seeis the whole thing.

Eating the Soul of a Child: Part III

It is time, again, to discuss the presence of evil in the hearts of parents. Dakota Fanning is a sad victim of adults whose averice and greed knows no bounds. No new story in Hollywierd - but that doesn't mean you don't take notice. Review Part 1 and Part 2 - then come back to the nightmare today.

Who are these people? The intentional warping of young minds, robbing them of their youth - and for what? Money? Fame? To be invited to the "right" parties - or is it something worse? Something deeper? Something darker? Things we know are true, but cannot make the accusation?

You figure it out. Until then - behold.

A perfume advertisement featuring teen actress Dakota Fanning has been banned on the basis it appeared to ‘sexualise a child’.

The actress is 17, but she looked younger in the magazine ad for ‘Oh Lola!’, where she was sitting on the floor with the perfume bottle between her thighs.

The scent is the creation of U.S fashion designer Marc Jacobs, who said he chose the young actress because she could be a ‘contemporary Lolita’.
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It is clear that Marc Jacobs intended to exploit the fact that Dakota Fanning looks extremely young for her age.

Speaking recently, the designer said the decision had been inspired by her appearance as a 15-year-old punk rock singer in the coming of age film The Runaways.

‘Dakota was in it, and I knew she could be this contemporary Lolita, seductive yet sweet,’ he said.

Lolita featured in the controversial novel by Vladimir Nabokov about a middle-aged man’s sexual obsession for a 12-year-old girl.

In Sal's humble opinion - anyone who buys anything by Marc Jacobs is giving money to a ... well .... like I said; you figure it out.

Oh, that Ghandi

So, you think you know Ghandi?

There was much tut-tn'n recently about lack of historical knowledge. Most of that has to do with the choices we have let our schools make - the other has to do with the fact that as some think The Daily Show is a place to get our news - others think Hollywierd is the place to get our history.

Ghandi is a perfect example. From back in 1983 - read it all. Here is a taste.

As it happens, the government of India openly admits to having provided one-third of the financing of Gandhi out of state funds, straight out of the national treasury—and after close study of the finished product I would not be a bit surprised to hear that it was 100 percent. If Pandit Nehru is portrayed flatteringly in the film, one must remember that Nehru himself took part in the initial story conferences (he originally wanted Gandhi to be played by Alec Guinness) and that his daughter Indira Gandhi is, after all, Prime Minister of India (though no relation to Mohandas Gandhi). The screenplay was checked and rechecked by Indian officials at every stage, often by the Prime Minister herself, with close consultations on plot and even casting. If the movie contains a particularly poisonous portrait of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, the Indian reply, I suppose, would be that if the Pakistanis want an attractive portrayal of Jinnah let them pay for their own movie. A friend of mine, highly sophisticated in political matters but innocent about film-making, declared that Gandhi should be preceded by the legend: The following film is a paid political advertisement by the government of India.

...

I cannot honestly say I had any reasonable expectation that the film would show scenes of Gandhi’s pretty teenage girl followers fighting “hysterically” (the word was used) for the honor of sleeping naked with the Mahatma and cuddling the nude septuagenarian in their arms. (Gandhi was “testing” his vow of chastity in order to gain moral strength for his mighty struggle with Jinnah.) When told there was a man named Freud who said that, despite his declared intention, Gandhi might actually be enjoying the caresses of the naked girls, Gandhi continued, unperturbed. Nor, frankly, did I expect to see Gandhi giving daily enemas to all the young girls in his ashrams (his daily greeting was, “Have you had a good bowel movement this morning, sisters?”), nor see the girls giving him his daily enema. Although Gandhi seems to have written less about home rule for India than he did about enemas, and excrement, and latrine cleaning (“The bathroom is a temple. It should be so clean and inviting that anyone would enjoy eating there”), I confess such scenes might pose problems for a Western director.

Always mistrust what you see delivered through others' filters - question motivations. Seek opposing ideas and points of view. Always search for primary sources.

Hat tip VDH

Achy Breaky Family

If today is "...are we doing our job as men?" day at CDRSalamander - let's go from husbands & co-workers to a father's responsibility.

It was almost three years ago when I first posted about the train-wreck that I saw coming WRT Miley Cyrus. You can review the archive here.

Regardless of what you may think of her father's decisions - this must break your heart. As a father of young women - it does mine.

Blaming publicists and Miley's handlers, Billy Ray gives an anguished interview in GQ's March issue, where he adds he wishes "Hannah Montana" never happened.

"I hate to say it, but yes, I do. I'd take it back in a second," said Billy Ray, who is divorcing Miley's mother, Tish.

Reflecting on Miley's controversial moments -- including seductive photos on the Internet, pole-dancing at the Teen Choice Awards, and posing for Vanity Fair draped in a sheet -- Cyrus says he should have been more strict, and accuses her handlers for going too far to promote her, and then using him as the fall guy.
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"I'm scared for her. She's got a lot of people around her that's putting her in a great deal of danger. I want to get her sheltered from the storm."

Talking about Miley's 18th birthday party at LA bar Trousdale, he says, "You know why I didn't go? Because they were having it in a bar. It was wrong. It was for 21 years old and up . . . all them people, they all wanted me to fly out so that then when all the bad press came they could say, 'Daddy endorsed this stuff.' I started realizing I'm being used."

Then photos surfaced of Miley smoking the legal herb salvia from a bong. Billy Ray, who gave the interview to GQ's Chris Heath five days after the photos emerged, says he hadn't spoken to Miley since, but confronted one of her handlers: "They told me it was none of my business."

But he admits, "I should have said, 'Enough is enough -- it's getting dangerous and somebody's going to get hurt' . . . Honestly, I didn't know the ball was out of bounds until it was way up in the stands somewhere."

I'm sorry Dad. Everything that happened up to her 18th Birthday is north of 51% your problem. Now that she is 18 - it's hers.

No one is a perfect father - goodness knows I'm not .... so don't beat yourself too much over it - and don't blame others, it will only make your pain worse, and stop you from finding peace.

Hopefully others can learn from this arch - but we will see it again.

I wish you and Miley the best and hope she can find better guidance as an adult, and can find strength and a center. I also wish for you and her to find a path back to each other.

Friends don't let friends put their kids into Hollywierd's cesspool

Tailhook - 19 years on

For a certain generation of officers, your host included, there was one foundation event for many of all designators that shaped the way they looked at leadership - both uniformed and civilian - for their entire career. They learned early that bravery in combat and cowardice in life are not mutually exclusive of each other, and can easily inhabit the same person. They learned that facts were of little importance in the face of a politically driven head wind. They learned that when the going gets tough - the top cover they hoped their senior leadership would provide for them - would fade as fast as the Romanian Army at Stalingrad. They learned not to trust - they learned that they were expendable for the right political price.

Tailhook started in 05 SEP 91. Let's back up a bit and set the stage.

SEPT 91. Look at your calendar. What had just happened? Of course, we had just come back from DESERT STORM.

We came back from DESERT STORM with senior Enlisted and Officer leadership who were junior personnel in Vietnam. Those leaders lived through the smears and lean years of the '70s and early '80s when they were looked upon as damaged goods and their military broken. Though the Reagan buildup helped, the US military was still taking the blame for the '75 Democrat Congressional loss of South Vietnam - and all the cultural smearing that came out of Hollywierd and the press about their generation. They had just regained their honor.

We JOs grew up on that reputation. At DESERT STORM, the US military earned back a level of respect not seen in a quarter century. Remember the parades? Remember the stories? I do.

We were on top of the world, we had gained respect from our countrymen. ENS, LTJG, and LTs walked a little taller and were not shy about telling strangers their profession. We took pride in helping to bring back a little more honor for the senior personnel who carried the load in the starving years.

There were some in the culture who couldn't stand that. They were looking, begging, hoping for any chance to humble those they despised. At the end of DESERT STORM, they also wanted the military's budget funds - and they had agendas to push with a reckless impatience.

So, at Tailhook they had their chance. They took an ember we unknowingly gave them - and in a series of acts that would make any Commissar or Salem Judge proud - conducted a inquisition that would leave lives, careers, and a culture in shambles.

Entire books have been written about Tailhook; a tale of cowardice and abandonment still amazing to behold. By order, squadron patches were changed for even non-tailhook squadrons, Trader Johns became off limits - the CO of the Blue Angles fed to the wolves - Admiral Arthur thrown in the volcano, and even worse; scores of innocent junior officers were threatened, smeared, and had their careers destroyed.

Never in my life did I ever see a case where "May a hundred innocent be killed to prevent one guilty from going free" became more an official policy by small men with great power and unchecked cowardice than I did in the immediate post Tailhook 91 Navy.

Open and official hypocrisy became commonplace with the answer to, "If LT Man is in trouble for X, then why is LT Woman not getting in trouble for doing Y?"

Answer, "Because she is a woman, and even if she was the aggressor and gibbernatched LT Z's ibbywidget in the elevator after she rubbed her nabblequash against his dobberdoddle at the pool - that is OK because she if a female. Now shut up."

You had to be a JO to see the zoo like we did. I still look back in amazement how it all came down. All to serve a socio-political purpose - one that I supported at the time. To this day, it makes me ill knowing that so much damage was done just so something could happen a few years earlier than it would anyway - and it formed habits on evaluation and waivers that is still killing/endangering Sailors. Let's look at the IG report from the year after.

The Tailhook Association is a private organization composed of active duty, retired, and reserve Navy and Marine Corps aviators. It also includes defense contractors and others associated with naval aviation. At the 1991 [*pg 1082] convention, more than five thousand members attended, including several senior leaders of the Navy. The Secretary of the Navy and Chief of Naval Operations were present, as well as twenty-nine other active duty admirals, two active duty Marine Corps generals, three Navy Reserve admirals, and many other retired flag officers.

Navy Lt. Paula Coughlin attended the convention, and she complained that she had been physically and sexually assaulted by a group of drunken aviators in a "gauntlet" formed in the hotel corridor. What followed included investigations -- and investigations of the investigations -- that concluded that the Armed Forces had overlooked the need to establish a clear criminal consequence for engaging in sexual harassment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. In the end, no one was criminally charged for misconduct in the Tailhook events.

4. While many of the officers interviewed may be telling the truth, it is reasonable and logical to conclude that some have not told the truth, especially since the investigation specifically identified 25 victims. Your options with regard to this group of officers are limited by the lack of focus of the investigations in this area, as well as by the fundamental right against self-incrimination. The investigators were completely unable to identify any members of this group who lied regarding their involvement or recollection of events. It is my opinion that any further interviews or investigation of these individuals would be unproductive and lead to the same result.

Interesting view and attitude towards your officers, no? Interesting assumption and spin, no?

8. In summary, it is important to note that the Naval Investigative Service expended over 22,000 manhours of effort and while the Inspector General spent a lesser amount, he also utilized a large portion of his assets to conduct what amounts to a very thorough, well-disciplined investigation. There was probably an element of reluctance on the part of some individuals to come forward with information relevant to the investigations for various reasons, including an effort to avoid self-incrimination. Because of this, further investigation by NIS an the IG is unlikely to be productive. There is enough information in the reports on a significant number of cases that have been sent to the chain of command for appropriate disciplinary or administrative action. Inquiries by the chain of command into these cases may well result in further leads for investigation at that level.

Here is something that still sticks in my craw. This is the SECNAV at the time playing CYA.

5. At no time while I was at Tailhook 91 did I visit or spend any time in any of the various suites on the third floor of the hotel. The closest I came to any of the suites, to the best of my recollection, was on one occasion, shortly after I had arrived in the patio area, when I walked over to the poolside entrance to one of the suites which bordered on the patio area to get something to drink. At the poolside entrance to this suite was a large container of beverages. I took a can of beer from the container and immediately returned to the area on the patio where I had been. I do not recall speaking to anyone while I was in the area of the entrance to the suite, although I may have.

6. Neither during those few moments when I approached that one suite to obtain a drink, nor at any other time that evening, did I observe any inappropriate or offensive conduct.


[signed]
H. Lawrence Garrett, III

I know Junior Officers who careers were destroyed for doing less. Funny - I wonder if Garrett was given the same assumption as we saw in para 4 quoted above?

If you want to know what formed the attitude of some of your Gen-X officers, you can start there. Sad thing is, it could have only happened that way pre-internet, pre-email, pre-cell phone cameras. Now days - the truth would have come out. The Left and the media would not have had free range to misrepresent and smear without time-critical counter-fire.

I wonder - those who did the IG and those who hid from hard questions pi55ing in their SDBs in the corner just so they might get another star - are they proud of what they did? Do they feel honor in their actions? Was the price right?

Good people in hard times can make bad decisions. I shouldn't be that harsh on those in the DC storm that took place after Tailhook 91 - but I am going to let my words stand. For me, it's personal. It was a formative event for me.

It was also a national disgrace what they did; what we did; who we did not stand up for.

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UPDATE: Here is a good, though not perfect, Wall of Shame and Honor.

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UPDATE II - Electric Boogaloo: From the early-90s JOPA team ... more Tailhook '91 patches! A little something for those who took nothing away from Tailhook but a ruined career.

Miley Cyrus - just about lost ...

We've covered her long, slow decent into the sadly predictable path that the late Patrick Swayze warned about: if you don't watch out - Hollywood will turn you into a whore.

If you want to see something sad - see what they have a 16-yr old and a 17-yr old doing.

Another reason why I would never suggest to any parent to wish fame on their child.

BTW - this all goes on her father BTW. I hope he enjoys the money.

Female USNA grads .....

I'z like 'em.


Yes - that Julia Lillis, United States Naval Academy Class of 2001 methinks. Funniest SWO I've ever seen - and easy on the eyes.

She's no dummy either, graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy with a B.S. in Naval Architecture, and then after graduation, she attended The Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA, where she earned an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering. I like her day job too.

Been a fan of hers for a long time - not just because of her work - but the fact she gives back. Thought I would post this here as I just realized - I never shared her with ya'll before.

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UPDATE: Via Sid in comments a 2007 video that proves one thing - methinks she would have made a great Engineering Duty Officer.


A Math Problem

Julia Lillis | MySpace Video

How Hollywierd sees you

This has all the classic ingredients of a "military/USA bad" smear job.



Rajiv Chandrasekaran, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Wh0ring out your daughter

As a father of girls "of a certain age" - I have to deal with all things Miley Cyrus.

So, once again, thanks to the dysfunctional Cyrus family I have had another teaching moment.

As a society, we cannot complain about our children's lack of a childhood, STDs and pregnancy among the very young, ped0phi1ia and kiddpr0n and everything else that goes along with it when we sexualize our young at such an early age .... and especially those younger kids look up to.

What we have here is something that is much different than we had with the younger Spears girl that was two kids making the mistakes clueless kids have been making for thousands of years.

No, this is all about the adults. From her parents to her agent and all involved in the production.

Hollywood will turn you into a wh0re. I come back again to Patrick Swayze who once said something to the effect, "This town will turn anyone into a whore if you let them."

Sad in so many ways. Classic case of a few willing to sell their soul for money now.

The kids are alright - it is the adults who are sick. I'm with the girl on the right; her facial expression says it all.

My eldest calls those "booty shorts." We called them Daisy Dukes ... and yes, I see 12yr old girls with them all the time. That doesn't mean it is good for the girls or the culture - some may think it is not big deal, but I guess that is one opinion from those who probably don't have kids. Watch the below and tell me if you want your children to do that in front of millions of adult men.

My girls are not impressed. That, of course, makes me proud of them - today they both of them said they like Selena Gomez better anyway. Good girls.

Red Dawn reboot?

If it comes out the way the first two seasons of Battlestar Galactica did - then all will be well.

A rather thorough review of the script and video can be seen at Cinema Suicide. It will be (maybe) directed by Dan Bradley of Quantum of Solace and The Bourne Ultimatum fame - so there is hope. Can they match the casting of the first one though?

For you fans of The Long Game; one guess who the bad guys are? Sounds like a little EMP action in the script too.

If it gets a lefty Hollyweird smearing then once again, someone will have stolen a bit of my youth. That is my worry.

I would offer something free to the director. Free of charge now; I am willing to chair a "bu11sh1t check" of the script for obvious military impossibilities that ruin so many films. For a quick plug at the end of the credits for our blogs, I am sure John, Greyhawk, Matt, Lex, URR, and myself would be happy to ensure that the film isn't laughed at by those in uniform.

Oh, and can we get a cool hat or sump'n too?

Hat tip Jonah.

Horse soldiers on the way ...

Remember the lament that went out from here in JAN 05?

It has been a concern of mine for awhile that Hollywierd has not made any effort to tell the story of this Global War. From early on there have been many opportunities, heck the cavalry charge in the start of the Afghanistan operation would make a great movie.

...and again in JUL 05?

Hollywierd continues to demonstrate its hate of America as we are almost 4 yrs post-9/11 and there have been NO major efforts to make a film of any substance about the war from a major movie house. The mounted cavalry charge with B-52s early on in OEF, I though would be a no-brainer. I was there for the planning. I have inside (very funny) UNCLAS info for them direct from C5F briefings about saddles, horses, etc. Email me. Make a movie. Funny, inspiring, motivation, patriotic. Did I mention it had a cavalry charge by US Soldiers? Rumors from 2002 ... then ... nothing. Sigh. Sometimes.....

Well hot, fracking d@mn.

Doug Stanton's upcoming book Horse Soldiers is coming to the big screen at the hands of uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney, which just recently acquired the screen rights. The story revolves around a band of elite Special Forces and CIA operatives who secretly invaded Afghanistan post-9/11 on horseback and helped Afghan fighters capture the city of Mazar-i-Sharif and topple the Taliban. In Horse Soldiers, the operatives helped orchestrate the invasion by bribing local warlords and using high-tech communications to coordinate the assault and equip the Afghan soldiers. They also held off an ambush during the surrender of hundreds of Taliban troops. Scribner will publish the book in May. Stanton previously wrote In Harm's Way, the story of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis during WWII. Warner Bros. was at one point developing a big screen adaptation. Bruckheimer has G-Force and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time on the horizon

Oh Shipmate ... don't be a tool. You know the book is always better than the movie.

The book is out and ready. Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan.

Hat tip Dennis.

Pirates, Politics, & 'pologies: Part 2

Changing course a bit from Part 1 - I wanted to take just a little time to talk about one more thing that bounced around my head while I was off the grid. Some things that burned through from the few minutes of news I saw on background TV.

Let's review a bit though. The Democrat Party has the Executive Branch. They have the House and the Senate. They have the majority of State Governors. The 4th Estate is designed, by their definition, to keep the politicians honest and provide a check on power - I guess.

That isn't what I saw.

I was reminded how I got to where I am now; where I now get almost all my news from the internet and/or newspapers/magazines. It didn't start that way - I was raised a news junkie.

I grew up watching CBS News. 6pm local followed by national, every night. What a geek I was at 12, yelling at the TV with my Dad. That ended in '88 when Dan Rather ambushed Bush 41. I shifted my flag to ABC until about halfway through the Clinton Administration when they just would not engage. I then shifted to NBC until, well, they just lost my interest. By '98 I was watching, no longer at 6pm, NewsHour on PBS of all places and as I did through all this time - I always checked in with CNN Headline News. By the time 2000 came by though - I couldn't take that anymore there either. I left CNN and PBS. I just could not find something that would give me both sides of the story.

So there I was watching the TV in the background earlier this month when this goofy ABC news show is on and all they want to talk was Carl Rove and his response to the VP. Zip, zero, nada discussion of the validity of the VP's statement or the issue at hand - just attacking Carl Rove for being there absorbing O2.

Next time MSNBC is on and they are talking about the federal spending orgy and all they can do is attack SC Gov. Mark Sanford. No discussion of the issues at hand, just attacking the man non-stop. That is what bloggers, ahem, do - not what our betters in the MSM are supposed to do.

Then there was the whole teabagg'n thing. Pathetic. The only thing that made watching the mindless partisanship worthwhile was seeing Anderson Cooper kind-of come out of the closet. How do you know it is hard to talk Andy? Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Seriously. Here we are - where is the check on power?

Judging from the adds, Hollywood isn't much better. The only political adds I saw - in an incredibly short time nonetheless, were for Frost Nixon and W.

It was just plain other-worldly to see such a non-stop stream from one side.

President Obama has no excuse for not getting done what he wants to get done. I don't think we have ever seen a President and his Party have such a tailwind before.

The intertubes are about it to get alternative opinions and ideas out there - and to check power - I guess.

Get involved.

Get out your checkbook. Vote. No one is going to watch out for you but you.

Because I am a geek

Also because I am mad that such cool things couldn't be made in the early '80s when they were needed, by me at least, the most.

Also because except for the coup attempt episodes; the balance of season 3 and almost all of season 4 of BSG has been a huge heart-ache for me as it has just been wrong.

Also because the only other show worth a pair - RescueMe - has gone all twoofer.

BEHOLD A JUST WORLD

Find your inner geek here.

Mike vs. Mike

I would rather see a cage match, but this will do - via MichaelYon-Online.

During my trip to Washington, D.C., I had a chance to catch up on some matters neglected while I was overseas. My attorney may have to file a lawsuit against Mr. Michael Moore. In May we contacted Mr. Moore, through his counsel, about Mr. Moore’s unauthorized use of my work on his website. He did not respond. My attorney has written again. If Mr. Moore and his counsel continue to ignore our correspondence, we will proceed with a lawsuit.

This lawsuit, though, should not be a distraction from combat reporting; the proceedings should be easy and require almost zero hands-on work from me. But it will be potentially costly. I’ve never sued anyone in my life. Looks like Mr. Moore might be the first. I told one very important person recently about the possible upcoming lawsuit and he said something like, “Someone should drive a stake through that guy’s heart.” It won’t be that bad, but copyright cases are interesting and we have to deal with them often. If you want to help me as I both prepare to return overseas and take on this lawsuit with Mr. Michael Moore, please hit the PayPal button. This lawsuit could be expensive for Mr. Moore, as well. My attorney advises that our position is strong. It is senseless for Mr. Moore to ignore this matter.

Throw a few dimes in.

Big Hollywood

If you haven't had a chance, head on over to Breitbart's new blog - Big Hollywood.

There is more to Hollywood than Hollyweird. There are some men and women of the right and libertarian right there - in addition to and eclectic mix of others. Good stuff.

My favorite post so far is from Representative Thaddeus G. McCotter (R-MI). Not a Hollywood type I know, but unquestionably part of the eclectic future of the right.

Blocking 'The Path to 911'

There is a lot the world doesn't know about the Clintons and how they operation. My guess, most don't want to know. Website for the movie here, and a nice summary from Politico.

Over the past few years, perhaps no film controversy has inspired more outrage from conservatives than the Walt Disney Company’s handling of the ambitious 2006 miniseries “The Path to 9/11.” In the wake of Michael Moore’s 2004 anti-Bush documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11” and the 2003 CBS biopic “The Reagans,” the Disney censorship fiasco has been a frequent bone of contention on right-wing blogs, AM talk radio and other media outlets. In addition to making cuts in its ABC-TV telefilm after complaints from political forces, the company also shelved plans for a subsequent DVD release.

The miniseries, a $40 million dramatization of events leading up to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was set for its network debut when several members of President Bill Clinton’s administration, including former National Ssecurity Adviser Sandy Berger and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, insisted that several scenes were inaccurate or fictitious, and Clinton himself demanded the program be corrected or pulled. Five Democratic senators even sent a letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger that appeared to threaten the company’s broadcast license over the issue. Edits were made, a disclaimer was added and the two-parter ran as originally scheduled, but there has never been a repeat showing and a DVD has never been released.

Saturday Movie Stop: An American Carol

Conservative Hollywood? Yep, it is out there trying to survive the ongoing purges by the Stalinist Left. See this interview with Jon Voight for what we are talking about. To see the intellectual courage of Voight - read here what he put out about Sen. Obama (D-IL). Talk about calling in fire on your own position - and BZ to him for doing it.

Our old friend David Zucker (of Naked Gun et al fame) is on point along with the few well outlined in this bit from The Weekly Standard.

Los Angeles
For anyone who has ever been on a movie set, the commotion inside Warner Brothers Studio 15 will be familiar: serious-faced actors and actresses quietly rehearsing their lines; the director of photography huddled with his assistants around two high-definition screens inside a small black tent reviewing the last scenes; extras lounging around the set trying both to stay out of the way and to get noticed; carpenters busily working to construct the set for the next scene; a frazzled first assistant director guzzling Red Bull and yelling instructions to anyone who will listen.

"Rolling," he shouts.

Others throughout the cavernous studio echo his call.

"Rolling! Quiet please!"

David Zucker is sitting in a high-backed director's chair with his name on it. (I'd always assumed they were just used for effect in movies, but here one was.) Zucker is looking at a monitor showing the inside of an empty New York City subway station. It's actually just a set--a stunning replica of a subway station--and it sits 15 feet to Zucker's right.

The first assistant director breaks the silence.

"Action!"

The set jumps to life. Two young men--both terrorists--enter the station. They are surprised to see a security checkpoint manned by two NYPD officers. "I'll need to see your bag, please," says one of the officers. The lead terrorist glances nervously at his friend and swings his backpack down from his shoulder to present it to the cops. Just as the officer pulls on the zipper, however, a small army of ACLU lawyers
marches up to the policemen with a stop-search order. The cops look at each other and shrug their shoulders. "This says we can't search their bags."

The young men are relieved. They smile fiendishly as they walk toward the crowded platform. As the lead terrorist once again slips the backpack over his shoulder, he mutters his appreciation.

"Thank Allah for the ACLU."

Zucker's latest movie, An American Carol, is unlike anything that has ever come out of Hollywood. It is a frontal attack on the excesses of the American left from several prominent members of a growing class of Hollywood conservatives. Until now, conservatives in Hollywood have always been too few and too worried about a backlash to do anything serious to challenge the left-wing status quo.
...
Jon Voight plays George Washington. Dennis Hopper makes an appearance as a judge who defends his courthouse by gunning down ACLU lawyers trying to take down the Ten Commandments. James Woods plays Michael Malone's agent. And Kelsey Grammer plays General George S. Patton, Malone's guide to American history and the mouthpiece of the film's writers.

Though nothing yet, the website for the movie is here, and a soon to be parody of MoveOn.org here.

DB Sweeney: on the right team

It is easy, very easy, to throw stones at the lack of support of the military and the goofy cr@p that 21st Century tinsel town produces - but there are good people out there when you dig around some. DB Sweeney is one of them.

Check out the 17 JUL PodCast from the DennisMillerRadioShow like I did and hear what he is doing for the military and giving everyone a sneak-peek at his movie, Two Tickets to Paradise gratis. Good interview over at DirtyHarry'sPlace (Part 1 and Part 2)

Here's the trailer - or you could just buy it from Amazon. It's a buddies-on-a-road-trip comedy/adventure that features Ed Harris, Moira Kelly, John McGinley and, of course, Sweeney himself. The payoff for the trio of buddies is two free tickets to a Super Bowl in Miami. Just two. Dude flick.



Here's LBG's clip. BZ DB.