The heart of “Brave”

Saw the newest Pixar movie, Brave yesterday afternoon in a theater stuffed to the rafters. While not my favorite Pixar movie of all time, it ranks up there with the best. An excellent film full of howling laughs, edge of your seat action, drama, lovely animated scenery that made me feel I was back in Scotland, and an important moral to the story -

“you must be brave enough to follow your fate.”

The best and most important aspect of the film was the two strong central characters were both women. Both Merida and her mother, the Queen are excellent characters who carry the storyline on their own. They are the heart and soul of the picture.

Most of the men in the movie are rather comical, except Merida’s father. One the three suitors for Merida even vaguely resembled a Middle Ages’ Napoleon Dynamite.

All in all, an enjoyable film that was worth every penny. One caution, small children may get frightened by some of the battle scenes, so use good judgment. Lastly, it is very nice to see Pixar back at the top of its game. Kudos on a terrific film.

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Scenes from Michigan’s vagina support rally

Here are some of my photos taken last night at the Michigan rally in support of vaginas held at the steps of the State Capitol in downtown Lansing. At least 5,000 people attended in support of Women’s Rights.

Sheroes of the day – Rep. Barbara Byrum and Rep. Lisa Brown

“Vagina Monologues” being presented

Under a beautiful June evening sky.

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Michigan vagina rally

Photo of portion of the crowd in front of the state capitol in Lansing.

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Michigan vagina rally

I am currently attending the Rally for Vaginas at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing. This is easily the largest crowd I have seen at a capitol rally with at least 5,000 women and men of all ages attending.

The rally is in response to the overtly prudish and arrogant actions of the conservative, male dominated state house of representatives where the leader censured two female representatives last week. More will be posted tomorrow.

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More musings

• What exactly is a wild goose chase? Is it like a greased pig contest?
• If we are so free and have so many liberties in the United States, then why can’t a female state legislator in Michigan say the word “vagina” without be censored by her conservative male counterparts?
• It is unfortunate that the parents of some conservative pundits and politicians didn’t do a better job of practicing birth control.
• If a cow can jump over the moon, why isn’t that factoid listed in the Guinness Book of World Records?
• If several states, including Michigan have towns named Climax, do you ever wonder which one came first? : )

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GOP legislative “house’shit and ‘man’ure (NSFW)

I was totally disgusted yesterday by the puritanical and prudish actions of the male-dominated Michigan House leadership for silencing two female legislators. As the War on Women has been raging for nearly two years, Representative Lisa Brown (no relation) expressed satirical appreciation to all those legislators who were “concerned about her vagina.” She was silenced for that statement.

Representative Brown

Meanwhile, Representative Barb Byrum was silenced for protesting that she was not being allowed to speak on another bill. Once again those stalwarts of liberty and freedom proceeded to silence her as well. My, how Kabul on the Grand River is so delightfully charming and civil in June.

Representative Byrum

I don’t know about you folks, but the actions of these right-wing GOP (a.k.a. Grand Old Pricks) zealots in the Michigan House is getting out of hand.

I am also curious why these women were silenced when earlier this year Representative Rick Jones was not  for using the word “hooker” to describe a female public relations executive. Oops, I forgot. He’s a man, so stupid, idiotic, prudish, puritanical, asinine, and archaic rules written by other egotistical, etc. men do not apply to him.

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Ya get what ya vote for

Earlier this week, House Republicans blocked a Democrat proposal to require equal pay for women for equal work. This represents yet another attack on women by the right.

So folks, we have an election coming up later this year. If you are a male or female supporter of women’s rights and for equal pay for equal work, then I hope you choose to vote for those candidates who also support these issues. Otherwise, ya get what ya voted for.

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A few predictions

Making predictions on future events and trends can be risky, as more often than not you are likely to be wrong. But, there are a few items I think are worth noting. So here goes:

• Brazil, not India will be the next superpower after China and the first in the Southern Hemisphere.
• Sadly, I think parts of Europe may be headed for possible open warfare – not over political ideologies, but between the haves and the have-nots. If the USA is not careful, it may be going down that same path.
• The Basque and Catalonia regions of Spain will successfully separate into independent nations as a result of the economic upheaval.
• Canadian banks will become among the world’s largest and most influential as they avoided the pitfalls of the housing bubble.
• The Republican Party will split in two within five years.
• Poland will become an economic powerhouse as the link between Germany and Russia.
• America’s first woman President will be elected in 2016.

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The pungent odor of GOP brain farts

Oh, isn’t it quaint how republicans and fiscal conservatives so conveniently forget which party is principally responsible for the national debt. Being an election year, the pungent odor of hot air being expelled by them reeks across he airwaves on a daily basis.

Guess what? The national debt skyrocketed during Ronald Reagan’s presidency and ballooned again under ‘ol Dubya’s eight year reign. If the GOP is/was so concerned about budget deficits, then where the hell was their song and dance at those times? Check out this truth-revealing weblink to a chat showing how much each president has contributed to the national debt during their term. A brief summary is provided below.

• Carter: +41%
• Reagan: +189%
• Bush I: +55.6%
• Clinton: +36%
• Bush II: +89%
• Obama: +41%

The clearest and easiest way to reduce the budget deficit is to address the biggest piece of the pie – THE $1.3 TRILLION DEFENSE BUDGET, duh!  But, oh no, we can’t touch that sacred cow, despite the fact that the Defense Secretary does not what some of the programs being proposed by the right-wing.

Political brain farts are nothing new. They just tend to be stinkier and fouler these days due to the blatant flip-flopping and bold-faced lies being told, particularly by the right. Hopefully, the majority of the American public can smell rats when their catch a whiff of their aromatic b.s.

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A dose of sad sixties sitcom sexism

One of my all-time favorite television shows is the Dick Van Dyke Show. It aired in the early to mid-1960s and won many Emmy Awards. One of the reasons I like the show, aside from it being very funny, is the show was trendsetting for its day. It was one of the first television shows to include a professional working woman as a principal character - Sally Rogers who was played by Rose Marie. I also felt the lead characters had great working, family, and personal relationships.

However, last night I was watching a rerun of the Dick Van Dyke Show on Me-TV and was quite disappointed by the tenor of the episode. In the show, the young son of Rob Petrie (Dick Van Dyke) and Laura Petrie (Mary Tyler Moore) was to sing in a school play. Unfortunately for Rob, the day before the play, his boss Alan Brady (Carl Reiner) asked him to travel to Washington to hear a singer they were considering for appearing on the fictional Alan Brady Show.

The episode centered around Rob Petrie’s guilt over disappointing his boss and seeing the play or disappointing his wife and son by going to Washington. What troubled me was the fact that he accused his wife of treating him like a puppet by expecting him to always be there, meanwhile there was no similar reference to his employer treating him like a puppet by expecting him to change his plans at the drop of a hat. There was a particularly uncomfortable scene where Rob’s supervisor Mel, played by Richard Deacon, described how he had told his wife they were not going dancing one evening because he had work to do. To the show’s credit, several of the characters expressed their contempt for his actions and attitude. In a later troubling scene, Rob Petrie even had the gall to reference the old “love, honor, and obey” portion of then-common marriage vows to his wife Laura,

As the episode was concluding I was desperately hoping Rob would apologize to Laura for his actions and statements. Instead, we got a tirade of how he was in the right on an airplane full of men returning to New York City and a capitulation from his wife Laura for getting mad at him in the first place. All this despite the fact that the trip was a complete and utter waste of time because the singer had laryngitis and could not perform.

From time to time in my own career I have had to make tough decisions between family and work responsibilities. Several decades ago. it was necessary for me to tell an employer I would not agree to travel to meetings four nights a week, because I wanted to see my three sons group up and not just hear about their activities and accomplishments. By doing that, I essentially ended my career with that particular employer. In my mind, being there is part of parenthood and despite some corporate attitudes to the contrary, is light years more important than any business activity.

To a certain extent, the current vogue of setting televisions series like Mad Men and Pan Am in the 1950s and 60s, almost seems to be a tacit desire on the part of some to reestablish the sexist morals of the past.  If that is the case, I find that reason to be a disgusting premise. Who needs a whole new generation thinking and acting in such an arcane manner?

So, the Dick Van Dyke Show is no longer brightly shining atop my pedestal of television icons. That does not mean I will never watch the show again. It just means the show has fallen a couple of notches. Great entertainment and funny yes – perfect, no.

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