Brutally Honest Rant - 08/30/06

Brutally Honest Audio Rant: End-Of-August Ramblings
Audio Transcripts
08/30/06

[Start Program]

(Computer – Introduction)
(Music intro – "American Idiot Remix" – by Green Day and David Matthews 2)

Good evening, and welcome to this week’s Brutally Honest Rant. I’m David Matthews 2, writer of the weekly online column Brutally Honest.

Well here it is the end of August… Labor Day weekend is coming up, and I’ve got quite a few things to talk about, so let’s just get on with it.

We’re into the first anniversary of the Hurricane Katrina Fiasco. This wasn’t just a disaster. The hurricane itself and what it did to the Gulf Region was the disaster. What happened afterwards was the FIASCO.

Now some of you are wondering just why President George W. Bush is making REPEATED trips to the New Orleans area, especially now, and why the Imperium ass-kissers and the talk show hosts – both liberal AND conservative-leaning – are making so much fuss and putting so much spin on this, right? I know I was wondering it for a while.

But then the answer hit me. The reason why Bush Junior is putting so much emphasis on Katrina is because not only did HE screw up on it, but HE KNOWS that he screwed up on it!

Human nature is a wonderful little thing. If you screw up on something, and you KNOW that you screwed up on it, then you’re going to do everything possible to reverse it and to BEG for forgiveness. Human nature says that you will overcompensate for any revealed deficiency.

Now to be fair, there was plenty of blame to go around with Katrina. The levies in New Orleans were flawed to begin with, but nobody really cared because the system that was supposed to safeguard it and inspect them was so corrupt and so inept that they cared more about spending four hours at lunch than to doing their jobs. Do the governor and the mayor deserve some of the responsibility for this fiasco? Absolutely!

But there was more to the destruction than JUST New Orleans. The disaster itself also affected one of America’s key oil depots – Port Fourchon – as well as severing the two key pipelines that provided oil to both the Northeast and Southeastern parts of the United States! We had gas outages and gas prices through the roof, which were already unreasonable to begin with. That was certainly a NATIONAL issue and it pretty much got ignored until after the FIASCO was well underway and there were nationwide gas outages and instances of price gouging.

There was a lot about this thing that was just a HUGE fuster-cluck, and it was all being played out on national television, on cable news channels 24 hours a day, and people were looking for leadership, and you had FEEBLE-FEMA director Michael Brown drowning in bureaucratic horsecrap. Things weren’t working. And the President of the United States spent that time being more concerned about going to fundraisers and avoiding any contact with Cindy Sheehan than in doing his job! This guy should have cut his vacation short and flown back to the White House BEFORE the hurricane got near Louisiana. Instead, he first does a fly-over three days later, looking out over the devastation absolutely disconnected to the stuff going on below him, and then SEVERAL DAYS LATER he actually shows up with the needed support and that’s when he realizes that he REALLY SCREWED UP!

So yeah, Junior needs to make it up to these people. It’s sheer guilt. I mean this thing really cost him what credibility he had left in the eyes of many Americans, and they certainly didn’t buy serving Brown up as the scapegoat.

And now, of course, talk about ANOTHER hurricane coming near Florida… more panic… more fear… and more concerns that the federal government wouldn’t be able to handle this one. Riiiight. You know what? Given the guilt trip being put on the Imperium by the media right now, these guys would send everything they have just to take on a mild drizzle if it was spun just right. And that’s what Tropical Storm Ernesto is right now. A mild drizzle.

Speaking of gas prices, you notice they’re going down? Yeah, I was taken a bit by surprise on that one as well. But there’s only one reason why that’s happening, and no it’s NOT because "they’re switching to the fall blends"! That excuse would have applied AFTER Labor Day anyway.

Let’s get brutally honest here… the only reason why gas prices are going down now is because enough of the great unwashed FINALLY got the frigging message! The prices got high enough for people to cut back on their driving, PLUS some folks have been paying attention to the economy and where it’s heading. The oil companies don’t want you to stop driving, especially going into the Labor Day weekend, so they’re lowering the prices to convince you to drive even more. My guess is that you’ll see gas prices creep back up after Labor Day. And again they’ll chalk it up to Iran or some other Middle East crisis.

Hey, speaking of Iran, how about the flake factor with the leadership over there, huh? So the president of Iran – who may or may not have been one of the original terrorists who took Americans hostage in 1979 – wants a DEBATE with Bush Junior? Yeah, right! I can see that happening… right after I see Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sitting down with Junior and eating a huge pork sandwich. Iran is basically looking for something that it doesn’t have, nor has it ever earned… respect. All it has right now is oil and a pissed-off attitude... oh and a few billion that they’re spending on terrorist groups like Hezbollah.

Now, do you know what would REALLY put the Middle East in its place? What would REALLY force these mullahs and sheiks to clean up their act? Having Ford, General Motors, and Dahmler-Chryster all announcing that they have started mass-production on all-electric vehicles and that they would be made available for under $10,000 a piece. The technology EXISTS, people! General Motors had these vehicles OUT ON THE ROADS as part of a test program!

Now you put those cars out and you sell them for under $10-grand and you’ll see the price of oil drop, you’ll see the price at the pump drop, and you’ll see a lot of the crap going on in the Middle East come to a quick END! The demented troll in North Korea wouldn’t be so flippant, Mahmoud wouldn’t be as arrogant, Venezuela’s demented leader would shut the hell up, and guess what? The automakers would be RUSHING for jobs because we’d all be replacing our gas-chuggers for the electric models! And guess what that spells? Economic recovery! And we need one right now if we want to stave off the bad times that are less than two years away from happening.

But I guess that would make too much sense, wouldn’t it?

Okay, one more issue, and you know I gotta talk about this guy…

John Mark Karr!

Boy oh boy did this guy pull a fast one on the media!

Now folks, I had my suspicions on this guy the moment I first heard about his claim that he was the one that kidnapped and killed JonBenet Ramsey ten years ago. I’m sorry, but you don’t come out of the blue from halfway around the world to say that you were the one responsible for the biggest media circus right after the Olympic Park Bombing.

And then when he changed his story, that’s when I knew he was a fake. First he said that he drugged her, then when the evidence said she wasn’t drugged he changed his story and said that he DIDN’T drug her. Come on folks! That should have been a big red flag right then and there that we were getting played!

Oh but the media didn’t care! Why should they? Facts don’t matter! HYPE matters! SPIN matters! HYSTERIA matters! And they were hell-bound to see this loser brought over to the United States, giving us the ongoing play-by-play of every single detail this guy did at the airport, on his first-class flight over, what he ate at taxpayer expense, his arrival, his transportation, and then finally his incarceration.

And all the while these jackals were spinning this belief that THEY GOT HIM! They got the bad guy! The case is closed! We have him! Poor Patsy Ramsey can rest in peace somewhere in the great beyond knowing that WE GOT THE BAD GUY! He confessed! He confessed on camera! He’s GUILTY! We have him! There’s no need for a trial! There’s no need for any other evidence! HE’S GUILTY! We, the all-powerful, ever-knowing, all-judging, egotistical MEDIA have so decreed! So let it be videotaped, so shall it be done!

And then, of course, the REAL evidence came out. DNA proved that this guy didn’t do it. He was a faker. He was a fraud. This guy would have confessed to doing ANYTHING if it got him out of police custody in Thailand! He would have confessed to being the shooter on the grassy knoll in Dallas of 1963. He would have confessed to being the guy who kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby, generations before he was even BORN! He was in trouble, and he gambled that this one unsolved media hysteria would be his ticket home.

And it worked! The media bought the whole scam! The taxpayers of Boulder, Colorado, paid for his extradition, and then he let the criminal justice system do its work to let him off.

Well… not completely. This creepy-looking jerk still has to answer for the kiddy-porn charges in California. Plus his days of working with children are pretty much over now because even if he doesn’t get convicted, nobody in their right mind will EVER hire him as a tutor or teacher or to be anywhere NEAR children.

So now the Boulder prosecutors are trying to DEFEND their decision to bring this guy over on what was essentially a pig-in-a-poke trick. Why did they bring this guy over on such WEAK evidence? Why put him up on a FIRST CLASS ticket at TAXPAYER expense?

Look, there’s no great secret behind it, and so far I’m the only one with the balls to tell it like it is! The reason why the Boulder prosecutors sent John Mark Karr over here on taxpayer expense is because THEY KNEW that they weren’t calling the shots on this media circus! They weren’t the ringleaders of this fiasco; they were the lion-tamers! If they didn’t bring this guy over, then the media would have been CRUCIFYING them for not doing their jobs! They were damned no matter WHAT they did, so they played their role as lion-tamers and they did their jobs.

And now people are wondering what to do to make up the money wasted on this farce! Well I’ll tell you what… I know EXACTLY who should pick up the tab for this! Boulder officials should send a bill over to NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, the Associated Press, Reuters, Fox News, and of course to John Mark Karr and the people who were willing to shell out big bucks for the rights to his story. They profited from this fiasco. They milked it for all it’s worth. They’re STILL milking it for all that it is worth; so LET THEM pay for his first class transcontinental ticket and his first class meal. Then maybe the next time the media won’t be so damned pompous and trying cases before they even appear in court.

(Computer – some stuff that you’ll have to listen to)
(Fade Music In – "Mythodea" by Vangelis)

There’s one little question that I want you folks to ask yourself when the media goes on these hysterical tears… What IS NOT getting reported? Or what is getting UNDER-reported? You see, every time the media over-hypes an issue, it’s usually to hide something else that is going on.

And this past weekend there were a few things that went under-reported. A bill that would require all federal contractors to be identified when they receive federal funds got placed on a "secret hold" in the US Senate. Rumor has it that the "secret person" blocking that is none other than Alaska’s Senator Ted Stevens, who threw a temper tantrum about his goldbricking "bridge to nowhere". We have Hezbollah refusing to honor their part of the cease-fire against Israel, and Israel has no reason to hold up to their end right now. We have the Federalist Christian Censors looking to retry past complaints at the behest of the freedom-hating moralists. Oh, and we have BP – part of Big Oil – facing possible CRIMINAL charges for price-fixing.

All of these little things that are going under-reported because the air-fluffed media is too busy getting us concerned about John Mark Karr, and whether or not Bush Junior REMEMBERS what he didn’t do about New Orleans. And all of these things have a much BIGGER importance on our lives.

Oh, don’t worry folks, the media will be going back to kissing White House ass in about a week. After all, it’s five years since 9/11. It’s time for our regular dosage of Orwellian fear-mongering, and the media benefited from the aftermath of this tragedy just as much as the neo-cons did. Just remember to keep an eye out on what else is going on during all of this reminiscing.

(Pause)

Brutally Honest is a Get Brutal production, all opinions expressed are those of the commentator, and may or may not be shared by the online provider. This is David Matthews 2 saying good night, and I’ll speak with you soon!

(Fade out)
(Computer – Ending/"End of Recording")

[End of program]
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Jefferson vs. Hannity

The quotes are true. Unfortunately so is the mindless dumbass who doesn't believe in a word Jefferson says.

Another one that says it all...

I'm on a roll with these things.

By the way, can anyone imagine what the spin would have been when President Thomas Jefferson pardoned everyone convicted of violating the Alien and Sedition Acts? Do you think that former President John Adams and his supporters would have simply sat back and let it stand? Hell no! They were challenging Jefferson's sense of patriotism back then as well!

Pluto - What the Frell?

Okay, so amidst the FAILED prediction of the fear-mongers that the Apocalypse was going to start his Tuesday and the NEWSGASM about the JonBenet fiasco, scientists have declared that Pluto, the outermost planet in our solar system, is no longer a "planet". It has been officially re-categorized as a "dwarf planet". I guess that also takes out 2003 UB313, which would have also been the 10^th planet.Now you would THINK that there would be MORE IMPORTANT things to discuss concerning science, wouldn’t you?

Things like… oh, I don’t know…. How about coming up with more reasons to keep the origins of the universe in the school textbooks? The theocrats are hell-bent on declaring science to be a religion in and of itself and these eggheads are debating about whether PLUTO should be a planet in the solar system!

How about pushing for NASA to do their jobs and fix the Hubble Space Telescope so you guys can DO more research? Or did you forget about that little detail?

Tell you what, we’ll forget about Pluto if you eggheads will actually exert some political gravitational influence instead of letting OUR intellectual dark matter get sucked into the inescapable black hole of Christian moralism. Does that sound plausible to you?

Brutally Honest Rant - 08/23/06

Brutally Honest Audio Rant: Lieberman the Spoiler?
Audio Transcripts
08/23/06

[Start Program]

(Computer – Introduction)
(Music intro – "American Idiot Remix" – by Green Day and David Matthews 2)

Good evening, and welcome to this week’s Brutally Honest Rant. I’m David Matthews 2, writer of the weekly online column Brutally Honest.

Okay folks, in case you haven’t figured it out yet, I have a HUGE streak of Schadenfreude when it comes to politicians!

I’m serious! I take GREAT pleasure in watching these self-righteous people squirm.

And this 2006 mid-term election season has already downed several key politicians, so of course I’m in a really chipper mood so far.

You probably heard about Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney of Georgia, who hit a cop and got away with it. Well the good news is that the voters in her district decided that they had enough of her antics and they voted her out in the primary run-off… for the second time this decade.

Ralph Reed, formerly of the Christian Coalition, also lost his bid for the Lieutenant Governor nomination, and again, I really enjoyed his downfall. Even if he’s never indicted for his role in the Jack Abramoff scams, that albatross will weigh on him for the next few years.

Speaking of the Abramoff scams, Tom DeLay, the "HAMMER", the grand thug of the House of Representatives, dropped out of Congress, but the Republicans can’t take his name off the ballot because of the asinine rules that THEY THEMSELVES drew up for Texas! Now they don’t have a Republican on the ballot for November! I LOVE IT! Hey, you know, Tom, THIS is what happens when you and your friends try to remake Texas politics in your own image. Remember that little thing called the RULE OF LAW? You used to make such a stink about it ten years ago. Well now the stink is on you, and BOY does it REEK!

Well that brings us to the one politician who got voted out of office that the cons and neo-cons really didn’t want out… Senator Joe Lieberman.

You remember Joe, don’t you? He was on Al Gore’s presidential ticket in 2000. Whined a lot about family values and wanted to put the Entertainment Industry and the First Amendment on trial.

Joe is what we call a DINO. That’s a Democrat In Name Only. Some folks like to call that a "blue dog Democrat" because Joe’s the kind of Democrat that used to define that party about fifty or so years ago. You don’t have too many of them left in the DNC, but they do exist. That’s a part of that "big tent" idea that the Republicans love to preach about but couldn’t even begin to practice if their lives depended on it.

Well Joe also lost his primary election a few weeks ago. He got beaten by a guy named Ned Lamont. Now for folks like Cynthia McKinney, who couldn’t get a job without the DNC, that would be it. Game over. But not Joe! No, Joe is still fighting to keep his job, and he plans on running as an independent to stay in power.

The funny part is that he STILL considers himself a Democrat, even though his own party is asking him to step aside, and even though what he is doing will harm his party.

Now if you’re wondering why Lieberman is getting thrown under the bus, I want you to go back in time two years to when you had ANOTHER blue-dog Democrat with a beef against the party. Another US Senator by the name of Zell Miller. Remember him? Zell was SO passionately against the Democratic choice for president that he actually went over to the Republican National Convention, and in a Prime-Time address to the party and to the nation, he BLASTED the Democrats – his own party – for their stances and on their candidate. And that one stunt not only helped the GOP keep the White House in 2004, but it also helped to solidify the GOP control in Congress.

Now the DNC couldn’t go after Zell. He was leaving Washington anyway, by his own choice. But now, two years later, when the Democrats are in a position to take over Congress again, they have ANOTHER blue dog Democrat who is incredibly buddy-buddy with the Bush Imperium. I mean we’re talking KISSING close! I mean close enough to you have to wonder if a tongue was involved! We’re going into "don’t ask, don’t tell" territory here folks. Do you REALLY think that the Dems would let that stand?

Guess what Joe? As far as the Democratic Party is concerned, you’re name is now Zell, and they get to do to you what they couldn’t do with him.

So now we have what is essentially a three-man race. You have Ned Lamont for the Dems, you have the no-name token Republican, and you have Joe "Zig-Zag Zell" Lieberman as the spoiler.

And I don’t know who to feel sorry for the most!

On one hand you have the GOP… they’re torn between voting for their token nominee to help lessen the threat of a Democrat takeover and backing the solidly conservative incumbent who’s buddy-buddy with the Bush Imperium who just happens to be a Democrat-yet-not-a-Democrat.

Then you have the Democrats, who got rid of Joe in the primary, and who have really run out of patience with the DINOS. They see their chances of keeping a Democrat in that Senate seat splintered by Joe’s continued desire to run as a renegade Democrat, which they believe will SUCK votes away from their chosen candidate and instead let the no-name token Republican get a chance at winning.

And then you got "poor Joe". The man who has to literally DESTROY the Democratic Party just to prove that HE was right and that THEY were wrong. And by "they", I don’t just mean the party players and the party bosses… I mean the very Democratic voters in Connecticut that bothered to take the time to show up at the polls in the first place and actually VOTED for Ned Lamont over him! Joe Lieberman is gambling that these same voters either won’t show up in November, or that the true bulk of the electorate who DO show up for these things actually support him.

Aw hell, let’s get brutally honest here… I’m not sorry for ANY of them! Not in the least! I’m laughing my ASS off over this turn of events!

If Joe Lieberman gets re-elected as an independent, it would be a huge kick in the nuts for both Democrats AND Republicans. It would send a message through both halves of the two-party duopoly that they don’t want to hear… namely, that if you’re popular enough then YOU DON’T NEED either party to get elected! Now that is a DEVASTATING message to these two parties because it means they have to clean up their act and figure out who the hell they REALLY represent.

I think it’s great! I think it’s about time that this happened!

Joe Lieberman is a true political spoiler now. He’s not just running as a renegade, he’s actually running IN DEFIANCE of the very voters that said in the primary that they don’t want him in Washington anymore!

Think of the sheer GALL involved with that kind of action! The pure ARROGANCE to believe that YOU know more about what’s best for your voters than the voters themselves! That’s the arrogance of Congress, and Joe Lieberman has it coming out of his EARS! That just shows you what kind of a person he really is underneath that dull whiny exterior.

A truly humble man wouldn’t do that. A truly humble man wouldn’t presume to know better than the voters that put him in office in the first place. A truly humble man would accept the primary decision, admit that the voters have spoken, and either backed the guy who beat him or else simply fade away into obscurity.

But then again, I don’t think that a truly humble man wouldn’t get ahead in politics. Not in today’s political environment, anyway.

(Computer – some interesting clips that you have to hear to appreciate)
(Fade Music In – "Mythodea" by Vangelis)

The most common sin in politics is that of hubris. Now once upon a time the act of committing hubris was considered to be a serious offense. Indeed, in the days of Aristotle, it was actually a CRIMINAL offense, similar in scope to a physical assault.

Unfortunately in today’s over-encroachment of moralistic and theocratic mentalities, not to mention the gross abuse of fear mongering from a certain political segment that we won’t mention here, hubristic actions are treated more as virtues than vices. As a government official, whether elected or appointed, you are EXPECTED to know more than your average citizen, and certain idiots actually EXPECT politicians to do everything on their behalf. And I mean everything almost up to picking their noses and wiping their asses.

It is understandable, then, to have those same politicians arrogantly believe that they can do no wrong; that they can be convicted of no crime; and that the voters wouldn’t know how to tie their shoes without a government program to do it for them.

It’s understandable… but it is still not acceptable. Nor should it EVER be.

In fact I would love to bring back the days to when hubris was a criminal offense. I think that would keep a lot of politicians honest… not to mention a few ministers, a couple of news anchors, and a few dozen special interest groups.

(Pause)

Brutally Honest is a Get Brutal production, all opinions expressed are those of the commentator, and may or may not be shared by the online provider. This is David Matthews 2 saying good night, and I’ll speak with you soon!

(Fade out)
(Computer – Ending/"End of Recording")

[End of program]
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Rudy Park: that is just SO true!

Yes, it's gone too far, and yes someone needs to get slapped upside the head over it.

This says it all...

All the news this past weekend can be summed up with one image. This one.
I think I've come up with a new term...

Newsgasm: the collective self-gratification of every news agency when they all beat the same issue to death over and over again until they are completely spent and we the general public can no longer watch television, listen to the radio, or read a newspaper without feeling the need for a shower.

What do you think?

What if 9/11 Never Happened?

Came across an interesting series of "what if" stories about what the world would be like if 9/11 never happened.

Here’s the link for you to check it out yourself.

I found some of the articles too unrealistic, though. Gas would be at $20 a gallon? No, I’m sorry, but I don’t think that would have been the case. We still would have had to deal with hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the runaway oil prices probably would still be a problem. You wouldn’t recognize New York? Again, no, I don’t think so. I think if anything that Thug Giuliani would have been seen in the proper light. There wouldn’t be any presidential aspirations from him. He wouldn’t have been canonized as the "savior" of New York. He would have simply vanished into obscurity where he belonged.

Someone was saying that RoboBore would have been president. No, I’m sorry, but Robobore wouldn’t have had a chance in 2004. John Kerry probably would have won in 2004, but not RoboBore, and it probably would have been another Florida-style squeaker in Ohio.

We still would have had to deal with a financial recession from 2001. We still would have had to deal with Enron and WorldCom. We still would have had to deal with North Korea’s deception regarding nuclear weapons.

In fact, I’ll probably end up doing my own "alternate history" rant in the next few weeks, so I’ll just leave it here with the link and ask that you check out the stories and keep an open mind and let me know what you think of it all.

Brutally Honest Rant - 08/16/06

Brutally Honest Audio Rant: It’s Stupid People Season!
Audio Transcripts
08/16/06

[Start Program]

(Computer – Introduction)
(Music intro – "American Idiot Remix" – by Green Day and David Matthews 2)

Good evening, and welcome to this week’s Brutally Honest Rant. I’m David Matthews 2, writer of the weekly online column Brutally Honest.

Hey folks, I don’t know if it has already hit you yet, but we are in yet another season of stupidity!

That’s right, folks! It’s STUPID PEOPLE SEASON again!

Now I know some of you are saying to yourselves "what the hell are you talking about, David? There are stupid people ALL of the time! EVERY day is Stupid People Season!"

Not so, my friends!

Yes, our cups doth overflow with the stupidity of our neighbors, and even of ourselves, but THIS particular time of the year – the period before Labor Day until just about mid-October – we have stupidity coming in on MULTIPLE levels! And two of these levels involve the start of the new school year.

So let’s go over some of the key ones…

First we have the "precious parents".

These are the people who feel that they HAVE to drive their precious little tax deductions to school every morning. It doesn’t happen ALL YEAR, mind you… the bulk of it just happens for those first few weeks of school until the parent gets used to letting their kids take the bus.

Now if you’re in a rural area then it’s really not too much of a problem. But, folks, I live and work in a major metropolitan city. And ever since I STARTED working in the Metro Atlanta area back in 1994, I have known that when you put all of those "precious parents" out on the road at the same time that IT WILL screw up traffic; even if you’re nowhere NEAR a school. And it’s even worse if your commute IS near a school! You put those "precious parents" in with the normal work commute and you have TROUBLE!

Here’s the problem: this is essentially the whole rush hour for your area – all three or four hours worth of congestion and aggravation and bad drivers – compressed into one area and all within a one-hour timeframe. THAT is what the typical "back-to-school" rush is about! It’s about large volumes of idiot parents putting an unrealistic burden on the roads just for their own sense of satisfaction.

Now here’s the really STUPID part: not only do these "precious parents" KNOW that they are an undue burden to society, but they do this EVERY SINGLE YEAR! And nobody makes any kind of accommodations about this! There ARE no plans to change this. There ARE no discussions about how to remedy this. There ARE no public service announcements to tell parents to get their heads out of their asses and to stop serving as stupid chauffeurs! NOBODY brings up the fact that the mindless traffic problems and congestion ONLY happen when school is in session! And I’M the only one who seems to notice this! Or at least I’m the only one who is saying it out loud.

Now I’m not saying that the alternative is any better… listen, folks, I went to government schools too, and believe me, I HATED that damned bus! And when the opportunity came for me to not take that stupid thing, I did just that! But my parents also made damned sure that either I did that or I took the bus. They refused to be my personal chauffeur. And THAT is the one thing that parents don’t seem to figure out until about a month into it… EVERY YEAR!

The next level of stupidity in this season is a relatively new one… and it thankfully happens for just one weekend: Labor Day weekend.

Now you’re probably wondering WHERE the stupidity is here for Labor Day, right? Well that is the weekend when we – in general – decide that we NEED TO DO SOMETHING that weekend! It’s a day off from work, it’s a day off from school… or for some parts of the country it’s just before the START of school… and people feel the need to GET OUT and GO someplace! Anyplace! To the park, to the mall, to the beach… anywhere but stay at home!

The stupidity comes when you look at the high price of gasoline! Hey, we have prices either at, over, or hovering near the $3 a gallon range! This is supposed to be a serious inconvenience for people. That’s what they are complaining about, right? Every time you go to the pump and you cuss and you curse about the price that you pay, that’s what you claim. And the higher prices ARE already making their way into the rest of the costs of things like groceries, so the cost of living IS rising!

Now you’re gonna tell me that with the high prices we are paying for these things, that you’re STILL going to pay whatever it takes JUST so you can go out and do stuff on Labor Day? THAT, my friends is stupid. Maybe not as stupid as some of the other things that happen during this season of stupidity, but it is still stupid!

If you really want to give "big oil" a message that you’re tired of high gas prices, then the only way you’re going to do that is if you STAY HOME during holidays like the Labor Day weekend. DON’T go to the park, DON’T go to the beach, DON’T go to relatives, just stay at home, put the Jerry Lewis Telethon on the TV, and RELAX. Because if you use the long weekend as an excuse to drive, then it basically sends a different message to the oil companies… that you’re not getting screwed over ENOUGH.

Remember back in 2000 when gas prices were heading towards the $2 mark? Remember what the air-fluffed ego-driven media said? They said that people could handle $2 a gallon, but NOT $3! Guess what? Now those same air-fluffed egomaniacs are saying that we can EASILY handle $3 a gallon, BUT NOT $4! Now if you buy it, then you’re nothing but a stupid lemming. The only reason why the media is making these claims is to SELL you on the concept of higher gas prices. You’re being conned, and you’re being conned quite well by professional hucksters! If you’re smart, if you actually USE your brain for something other than to vote for American Idol contestants, then you’ll make your stand NOW. If you’re a lemming, though, then you’ll buy it this time and then, in a couple of years down the road, gas prices will be at $5 a gallon and these same ungrateful bastards will start selling you for $6!

Okay, the third wave of stupidity in this Stupid People Season comes from the very "precious" tax deductions who have grown up and are just starting to go to college. This actually happens THREE times a year… now, during Spring Break, and just at the start of the summer vacation.

You know how it’s like, right? Mommy Dearest and Daddy Dearest aren’t around to give them rules and to tell them what to do. They’re on their own, making friends, having a good time, getting a feel of what they can and cannot do. They go to a bar or they go to a party, someone hands them a beer, they’re relaxing, having a good time… and the next thing they know, they’re playing "Jackass" and getting themselves killed for their drunken stupidity!

That’s right folks, this the first time for many of these precious tax deductions to be all by themselves, and they’re bound to make STUPID mistakes that could get them embarrassed, get them hurt, or even get them KILLED. Or, worse, they could get naked for one of those "Girls Gone Wild" or "Guys Gone Wild" videos and then their PARENTS will kill them!

And sometimes these precious tax deductions don’t even WAIT to become adults or are out on their own in college to do stupid things! But the results are ALWAYS the same. The air-fluffed, ego-driven media will hype these STUPID actions up and generate the usual hysteria about the "DANGERS" of these non-children.

Here’s the gist of the hysteria: "YOUR CHILDREN aren’t safe in college! YOUR CHILDREN may get drunk and jump off rooftops! YOUR CHILDREN could go to strange parties, do drugs, get high, get hit by a car. And it’s all the fault of THE COLLEGE! Why? Because THEY ALLOW IT! We need LAWS! We need RULES! We need the colleges and universities and fraternities and sororities to be held responsible for the actions of YOUR CHILDREN!"

There is just one little itty-bitty problem with this hysteria… THESE AREN’T CHILDREN! They’re adults! Or at least they’re supposed to be. You turn 18 and, by law and by custom, you are an ADULT! You can vote, you can go to war and die for your country, you can go to jail for crimes that you commit, you can enter into legal contracts by yourself, you can get married, you can do anything you want to legally except drink alcohol. And that, thanks to this SAME hysteria, is something that you have to wait until you are 21 to do. It sucks, I know, but you can thank those same hysterical bitches and bastards for that little piece of social injustice.

And that little tidbit of knowledge, of course, is intentionally and systematically ignored because it nullifies the hysteria right then and there. That’s why the people behind the hysteria are careful to use the words "YOUR CHILDREN", because they know that parents are really just mindless idiots who will see their precious little tax deductions AS children, no matter how old they really are. That’s where the REAL stupidity comes in!

Let’s get brutally honest here… there are young people who will do young and STUPID things. They will be mindless fools, or just drunken fools, looking for attention and/or acceptance. Sometimes that stupidity will cost them some pride, sometimes it will cost them some innocence, sometimes it will cost them some money, and sometimes it will cost them life and limb. That’s part of becoming an adult. You make decisions and then you accept the responsibilities for those decisions, no matter how smart or stupid they are.

Now if your parents couldn’t teach you that on a one-to-one basis then how the hell can they expect a college or a university to do that for the HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of students? That’s just stupidity on top of stupidity.

Now do you see why I call this the Stupid People Season? And I haven’t even gotten to the start of the fall season on TV and of course "Sweeps Week", which pretty much punctuates this whole season of stupidity!

(Computer – some timely stuff that you gotta hear to appreciate)
(Fade Music In – "The Instinct" by Rare)

If you’re wondering if there is some method to this madness I call the Stupid People Season… well, to some extent there is.

First of all, stupidity and mindless hysteria is encouraged by the air-fluffed media because it keeps the masses hooked on their programs. Remember, "Sweeps Week" wraps up the whole Stupid People Season, and what better way to keep the masses tuned in than to watch young adults playing drunken fools and exhibitionists? Maybe get some teary-eyed parents weeping over the recent and young demise of their precious tax deduction, and eager for fingers to point at and a cause to champion in their blind quest for vengeance?

Second, stupidity breeds conformity and complicity… which fits right into the plans of the people who need the masses as stupid as possible! Because if you’re not capable of doing any thinking on your own, then you need other people to do your thinking FOR you…

And wouldn’t you know it? Those VERY people have an important day just a few weeks after the end of Stupid People Season! You know… that one day in November where you get to decide if they still have a job or not?

You may have heard of these people; they’re called politicians.

Remember: the one thing that is more dangers to a career politician than an ethics investigation is an informed and active elective body. So the dumber you are, the more secure their jobs are.

(Pause)

Brutally Honest is a Get Brutal production, all opinions expressed are those of the commentator, and may or may not be shared by the online provider. This is David Matthews 2 saying good night, and I’ll speak with you soon!

(Fade out)
(Computer – Ending/"End of Recording")

[End of program]
------------------------------

Quick DVD review: V for Vendetta

Okay folks, this is one of the movies I’ve been waiting to see, and I’m glad I saw it.

"There’s something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there?"

Well yes, but you wouldn’t see it quickly. England still goes strong, the cars are still going, the people are still in their homes watching the "Tele", and they’re still going about their daily lives. But THERE IS something wrong with this picture. Curfews and corrupt secret police, censors and totalitarian slogans, church and state merging in… oh, wait, we’re talking England… forget that last part.

This is a story about the slow creep of totalitarianism. Something that people wouldn’t think happens, and didn’t realize it until it did. This is a story about a young girl named Evey (Natalie Portman) who is caught wandering out after curfew and would have been raped if not for the arrival of a man in a mask. This man, who wears a Guy Fawkes mask, has an incredible grasp of the human language, which is hard to hear BECAUSE he wears a mask. (Moments like this make me glad for subtitles.) But after a lengthy diatribe whereby he uses words that start with the letter "V", we hear that "V" is indeed his name… or at least the only name that we known him as.

We actually see four sides to this story. The first is through Evey’s experience. The second is through the Chief Inspector (Stephen Rea) who is investigating V’s terrorist actions, and discovers what connects him to the totalitarian government that has taken over the country. The third comes from a hidden journal, the fourth is a letter written on toilet paper in a prison cell. They all have a connection, and by the time the story reaches its climax, you will see out how the pieces fit.

Having read the graphic novel that this was based on, I was impressed by how much this movie stayed within the original story, although they had to make some obvious changes to it.

There was just one thing that was really out-of-place here, and that was the music played during the closing credits. Hey, I don’t mind a good song by the Rolling Stones, but putting it right after the ending, it just didn’t seem to fit. You’ve got to see it to know what I mean.

Now I ended up getting the 2-disc Special Edition, with some good bonus features, but sadly they were a bit lacking. The one good bit with the second disc, though, was the Easter Egg, which I won’t tell you what it is or where to find it, but it is good and a bit shocking.

As a freedom-loving individual, I certainly consider this movie to be a must-see, and something that is worth comparing with the current course of events here in America.

ENOUGH with the "Dance" movies!

Okay guys, quick vent... I'm SICK of hearing about YET ANOTHER "dance movie" being promoted as "THE BIGGEST HOTTEST SPICIEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR!"

I'm sick of it! Really and truly SICK OF IT! I'm sick of hearing about them, I'm sick of seeing their commericals, and I'm sick of the different takes on them!

I would say that these were all bad remakes of "Dirty Dancing", but we can go a little bit further than that. You might even say they're "Flashdance" remakes. Or even remakes of "Grease". They're actually just song-and-dance versions of Romeo and Juliet.

Here's the story: street-tough boy meets prim-and-propper girl and are forced to work together because of a contest or a challenge or a bet to take part in some dance activity. They fall in love, they're told it's never meant to be, they're told they're from two different worlds and neither of them can survive the change, they have their big triumphant dance number, everyone cheers, they go off into the sunset together, the end.

There! There's your stupid movie! I just saved you $12!

Oh, it's not the same, you say? Well how about having the boy be an ex-football player, or an ex-hockey player? Maybe the girl can be the street-tough and the boy can be prim-and-propper? Maybe it's 1956 instead of 2006? Or how about 1946? Instead of dancing, how about they do ice skating?

The point is this: rehashing the same theme and the same overall story every year or two years with fresh-faces that barely got out of their zit cream years is nothing more than intellecutal LAZINESS! You're not making a movie, you're overkilling a bunch of songs just to make a bunch of money from bored teens.

And STOP hyping it as "the HOTTEST movie of the year!" You don't get to make that distinction if it's not even in the theaters yet! If I had a dime for every stupid movie that gets marketed before its release as "the hottest movie ever", I'd be able to buy every one of those stupid advertising firms and ship them to Siberia where they belong!

"It's safe to fly!" Uh-huh... right....

Uncle Sam sez:

"Don't worry, it's still safe to fly! Okay, so you will have to give up all fluids whatsoever, and the key remotes to your car, and take off your sneakers, and you'll be searched more times than if you were in a Turkish prison, and we may eventually have you wear nothing but those stupid hospital gowns that don't close in the back, but it's still safe to fly! So PLEASE fly with us! PLEASE! Pretty please? With sugar on top?"

This message is brought to you by...

* the federal government, who is tired of having to bail out the airlines because of religious fanatics and their own misguided sense of fiscal responsibility.

* by big oil, because air travel brings in more money than all the cars stuck on the highway.

* airline unions, because it's the only way to keep their pension plans going.

* and, of course, the airlines themselves, because they gotta keep the money coming in, even as the lunatic fringe continues to make life miserable for everyone.

Brutally Honest Rant - 08/09/06

Brutally Honest Audio Rant: Obsessed With Apocalypse
Audio Transcripts
08/09/06

[Start Program]

(Computer – Introduction)
(Music intro – "American Idiot Remix" – by Green Day and David Matthews 2)

Good evening, and welcome to this week’s Brutally Honest Rant. I’m David Matthews 2, writer of the weekly online column Brutally Honest.

Tonight, as I’m doing this rant, it is August 9^th, 2006.

Something significant happened sixty-one years ago today that probably just went past most Americans. On this date in 1945, the United States of America dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese City of Nagasaki.

Now I’m sure some of you will recall from your history that this wasn’t the FIRST time we dropped an atomic bomb on a foreign nation. No, we first dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6^th, just three days prior to this event. Nagasaki was Japan’s largest southern seaport and one of the key industrial producers for warships and other military equipment. Equipment that would have been used to defend Japan in the event of a planned invasion.

With that one bomb, we turned that city into a graveyard.

The sheer devastation of the bombs was more than enough for the Japanese government to surrender and bring World War II to an end.

That was the last time that a nuclear weapon was ever PHYSICALLY used against another country. But ever since then, the mere THREAT of another nuclear weapon being used caused enough of a scare to last fifty years. We lived in FEAR of nuclear war! We lived with the continual fear that at some point, world affairs could reach a breaking point, a crisis would brew, the dominos would start falling, and then… that’s it!

And it didn’t take too long for us to make nuclear weapons that were even MORE destructive than the ones used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki! So the next time if one were to fall, we wouldn’t even have a graveyard left!

We lived with that fear for fifty years, and certain politicians continued to tweak that fear at every opportunity to REMIND us that, hey, it could all be over in a matter of minutes. And the ONLY thing that would prevent that nightmare from happening is the fact that our government’s leaders (and presumably those in the Soviet Union) don’t want to end it any more than the rest of us do.

Well now the Soviet Union is no more. The Cold War is – in theory anyway – a part of history.

And yet, we’re not feeling any safer now than we were in the 1950’s. In fact, we’re even MORE terrified of something just as bad as all-out global thermonuclear annihilation, if not worse.

We have people wondering if the End of the World is here!

We have outright warfare going on between Israel and terrorist forces in Lebanon that are getting supplies and support from Iran and Syria. This is a conflict that could open up to those two other countries at a moment’s notice. And now, for some strange reason, we have people actually asking if this the event that will spark the infamous final countdown.

And I have to wonder… seriously wonder… if there are people who not only think that we are on the short road to Armageddon, but are HOPING for it… PRAYING for it… and, if at all possible, even trying in their own ways… to ENCOURAGE it!

It certainly would explain for some of the very vocal religious bigotry going on. It would explain why certain groups would REFUSE to call a terrorist act for what it is if it’s being carried out by anyone but Muslims. It would explain the militant overtones of several religious groups. And it explains why the news media is suddenly talking about this military activity between Israel and Lebanon as a WAR when it really is just between Israel and Hezbolah and their suppliers.

Well, okay the last part does work… I mean if we in the United States are in a so-called "WAR" on terrorists, then so can Israel.

But let’s get brutally honest here… I believe that there ARE those in the Christian community that WANT the problems in the Middle East to escalate. I believe that they WANT that all-out holy war that the radical extremists continue to promise. They WANT it… because they believe that it will lead to that promised final war in the Book of Revelation. You know, the one where Jesus comes back, kills all of the non-believers, and then the true believers all go to Heaven and live in peace for ever and ever… THE… END. That’s what they want. They believe that they WANT that final judgement to happen, and not in seven years or a thousand years… but now. Tomorrow. Today, if it’s all possible.

And they’re not the only ones! The Muslims are also getting encouragement from their radical leaders to think that this is their time. They want the final conflict to begin.

There’s a term called SBC… suicide by cop. That’s when you convince the police that you’re going to shoot them, so they shoot and kill you in self-defense so they wouldn’t have to kill themselves instead of facing judgement for their actions.

Well what a lot of people are suffering from is pretty much SBG… suicide by God. They WANT Armageddon to happen because it’s an easier way out of the problems they are dealing with.

You take a look over in the Middle East, and you see an incredible economic gap between the haves and the have-nots. Sure you have rich mullahs and rich oil sheiks. But you also have incredible amounts of poverty there as well. And to keep the people controlled they are not only kept poor, but they are told that it is ALL the fault of the "infidels" that they are this way. They’re told that they were REALLY meant to be rich and successful and rules of the world… if not for these Zionists and their infidel friends. It’s all the fault of "The Great Satan" that they are poor and miserable. (That’s what they call the United States, in case you didn’t know that part.) Oh, but don’t worry… a great war is coming, and if you take part in it, then you will be rewarded in Heaven for committing these horrific sins on Earth.

That’s THEIR sin, folks, and that’s the stain that the Muslim world will have to answer for in the hereafter.

Now take a look at what’s going on here in the United States. We have problems like you wouldn’t believe! The price of gas is going up and up and up… the cost of living is going up… the housing market is starting to take a slump… federal government spends like there is no tomorrow… there’s no accountability in government anymore… I mean, a whole plethora of problems for us to deal with.

Now suppose that you KNEW… not just guessed but KNEW… that you would be dead by the end of the week… let’s say next Friday… would you REALLY be doing the same things that you would normally do if you thought that you were going to live for the next fifty or sixty years? My guess is probably not. You wouldn’t save for retirement, because you’d be dead by next Friday. That’s your retirement right there! You would probably want to do all of the things that you’ve always wanted to do but couldn’t… because it would be wrong, or because you couldn’t afford to, or something like that. Hey, nothing to stop you there, right? You’d tell your boss or your neighbor what you REALLY thought of them. You may even quit your job! I mean, what the hell, you’re not even going to get the last paycheck! You could commit whatever crime you wanted to and know that you’d get away with it, because you’d be DEAD long before the trial even starts!

Sound familiar? Sure! It was the same attitude of the baby boomers of the 1960’s! Free love, free drugs, do whatever you wanted to… not because they thought that they were immortal, but because they believed that the world was going to come to an END by the time they hit 30!

Well guess what? The same mentality applies to the people who are yearning for the Apocalypse.

It’s rather convenient for those in the status quo, because there’s no incentive to clean up government! You don’t have to worry about holding politicians accountable for their actions. You don’t have to worry about the environment. You don’t have to worry about the ozone layer or pollution or running out of oil. You know why? Because we’re in the End Times, baby! Social Security will never go bust because the world won’t make it that long!

If we’re in the End Times, then we don’t have to worry about being NICE to anyone we don’t like! We can be as offensive and bigoted and self-centered and egotistical as we want to! Do you know why? Because we’re right and they’re not. We’re worthy, and they’re not. And when the final battle is played out, we’re going to Heaven, and they’re going to Hell.

That’s the mentality and these folks are sticking to the game plan!

There’s just one little problem… what happens if this ISN’T it? What happens if these AREN’T the End Times?

Boy that would just SUCK, wouldn’t it?

So I guess we need to give the End Times a little nudge, wouldn’t we? Let’s try to intensify the conflict a bit. Let’s burn a copy of the Koran in public! Hey, it’s been done! Let’s piss on Muslim symbols. Let’s call up talk radio and demand that we bomb Mecca and Medina. Let’s try to aggravate whatever conflict is going on right now in the Middle East. Arabs versus Israelis, Pakistan versus India, it doesn’t matter. If we can get them pissed off enough at us, then they can get this all-out holy war going so Jesus can come back and we can have our Apocalypse!

Oh, it’s a great plan! Presuming, of course, that going to war against the entire Arab world is the event that sparks the great Apocalypse. And presuming that the Book of Revelation wasn’t just a wishful fantasy written by a priest in exile just praying for the death of Roman Emperor Nero. You know… NERO… otherwise known in certain code of the time as Mister Six-hundred-and-sixty-six! AND presuming that you DO have that automatic invite, that pre-paid ticket to blissful eternity. I mean that would REALLY SUCK to do all of that stuff and help kick off the end of the world and then find out that you’re not even on the stand-by list for the final judgement!

Scary, isn’t it?

Well folks, I happen to believe that if the humanity does shuffle off this mortal coil all at once, that it’s probably because of our collective incompetence and stupidity, not because God decided to play out some mystical timetable that nobody can figure out unless they’re high on drugs. It’s somewhat insulting to have an all-powerful being spend all of that time and effort to create the universe, create Earth, create all of the plants and animals, create humanity, flood them out, let them rebuild, have them kill his son, use his son’s martyr status as an obsession to remake civilization, watch that society grow and mature… only to have it snuffed out just because Reverend Billy-Ray Dipstick over in Numbnuts, Alabama wants to validate his beliefs so he can score with the church secretary.

Listen, folks, if someone is telling you that they know that humanity’s number is up, then they’re either fools or they’re looking to MAKE us all into fools. History is littered with people who have interpreted and reinterpreted scrolls and visions and tried to trump them up to being the end of days. Guess what happened? They were each proven to be wrong. Coincidence? Hardly!

(Computer – nice mix… gotta hear it)
(Fade Music In – "The Passportal" by Team Sleep)

Listen, folks, I know this sounds strange for me to be the voice of reason when it comes to spiritual matters, but there is one constant theme in Christianity that never really gets mentioned when people talk about "the end times."

The great secret is that Christianity has ALWAYS been told that they are living the end times! Since day one, they were told that they should prepare for the judgement that follows in the hereafter.

Now the name of the game is NOT to try to figure out when the end game will be played, because nobody really knows when that will happen! Unlike the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, there won’t be any warning beforehand. If it does happen, it’s going to take everyone by surprise. If you really want to guarantee your spot, then don’t worry about WHEN it will happen. Worry instead about actually LIVING the word, not preaching about it and trying to impose it on everyone else. That way you won’t have to worry about whether or not you’re on the short list to eternal bliss… because guess what? Even if the world doesn’t come to an end in your generation, you’d be doing society a favor by DEMONSTRATING your beliefs instead of just TELLING people about them.

(Pause)

Brutally Honest is a Get Brutal production, all opinions expressed are those of the commentator, and may or may not be shared by the online provider. This is David Matthews 2 saying good night, and I’ll speak with you soon!

(Fade out)
(Computer – Ending/"End of Recording")

[End of program]
------------------------------

Poor Cynthia!

This is my quick tribute to Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney of Georgia... who lost her job for a SECOND time and can't even take defeat graciously anymore. She couldn't even show up for her own concession speech without getting the police called to break up a fight. You know, when they say "going down swinging", I don't think it was meant to be taken LITERALLY!

---

Poor Cynthia: She may actually have to remember how to work for a living now!

Poor Cynthia: Now all of those years of seniority will be gone. Oh, wait a minute, she doesn't have seniority in the House anymore. She lost that when she got voted out the first time in 2002. Oh well, no big loss.

Poor Cynthia: I guess her own party really DOES know who she is!

Poor Cynthia: I guess her pushy punch-happy aide will have to go back to being a police officer. Oh, wait a minute, he never WAS a police officer, was he? Oh well, no big loss.

Poor Cynthia: She won't have that prime camera spot for the next State of the Union speech! How will she spend her January nights without deciding what to wear so she'd look good when she steals a handshake from the President for the media?

Poor Cynthia: I guess the GOP will have to find another Democrat to use as their poster child.

Poor Cynthia: I guess the Capital Hill police will have to take down all of those pictures of her, because they won't have to know in advance who she is!

Poor Cynthia: Now she won't be able to escape prosecution the next time she punches a cop!

Poor Cynthia: She wouldn't have been in trouble if she just blamed it all on alcohol like Mel Gibson did.

Poor Cynthia: Now WSB and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution will have to go back to picking on disgraced convicted criminals like former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell!

Poor Cynthia: And Neal Boortz was just STARTING to like her!

And finally...

Poor Cynthia: I guess she'll have to blame Canada for her loss too. She's blamed everything and everyone else except for herself and her own ego, and she can't do that, can she?

Quick thoughts on quick primary elections

Good news folks! Cynthia McKinney just got FIRED again by the voters! The infamous Congresswoman from District 4 in Georgia, the one who can’t follow security protocols, just LOST her run-off primary election!

This is the SECOND time that McKinney lost in a primary because of the STUPID things that she did. Previously she lost her job to Denise Majette in 2002 because she accused the White House of actually KNOWING that 9/11 was going to happen and then letting it happen to help out their friends. She finally got her job back in 2004 – only because Majette made an equally STUPID move on her part and tried to run for the Senate – and she couldn’t go through even one term without getting into trouble.

Here’s a quick message to Ms. McKinney: if there ever happens to be a next time that the people of Georgia are STUPID enough to put you back into office, do yourself a favor and leave the "do you know who I am" attitude at home. You might actually keep your job long enough to enjoy it.

Also Joseph Lieberman just lost his primary run in Connecticut. This man is pretty much a DINO in Washington. That’s "Democrat In Name Only". He has more in common with the Bush Imperium than with anything that the Democrats have planned.

By the way, riddle me this: why is it that Republican In Name Only are vilified by the conservatives, but Democrats In Name Only are welcomed with open arms? Hypocrisy, my friends; pure hypocrisy! There’s no other way to explain it.

Oh, but don’t worry, Joe won’t let it end that quickly. He’s promising to run as an independent, which is sort of redundant, because that’s what he was pretty much doing these past few years anyway.

Fed on hold - ABOUT TIME!

Well the Federal Reserve Commission did what was probably the smartest thing they could in the past year: they STOPPED raising interest rates!

Every quarter for the past 17 quarters, the Fed has raised interest rates ¼ of a percent. Now originally this was done because the Fed had slashed rates down to almost zero to try to offset the inevitable recession of 2001. (A recession that I WARNED people was going to happen, but nobody listen to me!) Then, once the economy started picking up again, the Fed began its rate increase ever so slowly to not ruin the recovery.

But for the past year, the Federal Reserve Commission has noticed some serious problems with the economy. Energy costs have been skyrocketing… wasteful spending is up… debt is up… big companies are announcing layoffs… all of the indicators that a pending recession or depression are starting to fall into place. And what did Alan Greenspan, the longtime Federal Reserve Chairman, do? He went before Congress and WARNED them about it, but then continued to raise rates. The Fed basically continued to feed the very problem that they were warning about!

Well now the Fed has decided to let the rates stand. They feel that the economy has “slowed down enough” to keep the rates as they are.

Well it’s ABOUT FRIGGING TIME!

Listen, folks, we’ve got some serious problems with the economy, and they’re not going to go away quickly. High energy costs eat into the overhead costs of business. Those big layoffs announced by companies won’t kick in for a couple of years. Then combine those things with the expiring tax cuts – which Congress refuses to make permanent – and you have a recipe for another serious economic problem starting around 2008.

The Fed shouldn’t worry about the slowing of growth, because it was ALREADY happening! The economy needs time to sit still for a while and try to gain some ground, because it was being bled to death by the double-shot of energy costs and interest rate hikes.

The Fed needs to take some time off. Leave rates alone for the next six months or so and let consumers try to hold their ground. It’s not going to hold off the coming economic problems, but it will help consumers get some footing when it DOES happen.

Now, do you know what WILL fix the problem? Enacting the Fair Tax!

Quick rant: STUPID Television News DITZ!

Okay folks, quick rant… I’m cutting through with the TV channels while I’m doing dinner and I catch the local Fox-affiliate news teaser who wraps up her news tease this way…

"And WHEN will the rain end? Find out tonight at 10!"

WHEN will it end? You stupid DITZ! Why the hell are you asking when it will END? You should be asking whether it would be sticking around for a little while longer!

Listen, folks, we’ve just spent a couple of weeks with nothing but unbearably HOT summer weather! We’re talking SCORCHING heat! The kind of heat that taxes electrical grids. The kind of heat the puts people in the HOSPITAL! The kind of heat that pushes air conditioners to the breaking point.

WE NEED THE RAIN! We need the rain to break the heat wave! We need the water to replenish the stuff that was maliciously drained from Lake Lanier a few months ago! Am I getting through here?

And this news DITZ wants to ask when will it END? PLEASE!

Okay, in all fairness, the ditz in front of the camera is probably just a paid parrot, mindlessly droning on what some stupid copywriter put on the teleprompter, and no doubt having it rain will put a crimp on their Saturday night plans. Well too bad, you nameless study-at-home journalist minor, you gotta deal with wet weather! Suck it up and be thankful that we HAVE this respite from record high temperatures and scorching heat indexes. Less heat means less of a demand on our energy, which means less we have to pay the electric company. And maybe you’ll remember that little tidbit when you’re brainstorming for the next news teaser!

Brutally Honest Rant - 08/02/06

Brutally Honest Audio Rant: Another Celeb Rant
Audio Transcripts
08/02/06

[Start Program]

(Computer – Introduction)
(Music intro – "American Idiot Remix" – by Green Day and David Matthews 2)

Good evening, and welcome to this week’s Brutally Honest Rant. I’m David Matthews 2, writer of the weekly online column Brutally Honest.

Okay folks, I know I’ve talked about this over and over again, but it’s time for me to rip a new one about these overhyped celebrities!

You know… it’s one thing to have celebrities be known for the stuff that they do. You know… the movies or TV programs that they appear in or the albums that they crank out. But lately we have celebrities being known for the stuff that they do AS celebrities.

Okay, part of it we can blame solely on the air-fluffed ego-driven ratings-hungry members of the media. Between the hired stalkers they call the Paparazzi and syndicated TV shows like "Entertainment Tonight", the media has concocted this idea that the performers or entertainers or social nobodies (i.e. Paris Hilton) are not only more important than not just the stuff that they crank out, but that they are even more important than the REAL news of the world!

So now we have female celebrities whose pregnancies are being treated by the press like they’re bearing the next messiah. We have pop star relationships that are so badly overhyped that their very names are morphed into one nickname (i.e. "Bennifer" and "TomKat"). Their wedding ceremonies have to be done in secret or else the media comes storming in like the Airborne Calvary from "Apocalypse Now", complete with the "Ride of the Valkyries" music. The details of their divorces are made known before the ink dries on the signatures.

And WE know all of this stuff before the press releases even come out! I don’t know who handles media relations, but they probably got their start at the White House given all of the LEAKS that go on!

And all of this stuff is encouraging and generating diva-like behavior that just makes me sick to my stomach! So if I gotta talk about it, then I’m gonna call it like I see it!

We have Jessica Alba bitching and crying and threatening lawsuits because a CLOTHED photo of her showed up on the cover of Playboy Magazine! Hey Jessica, get a life! This is the same magazine that interviewed world leaders, sports figures, businessmen, and Rush Limbaugh. Why is it that you can pose for FHM and Maxim showing LESS than what was shown in Playboy and you don’t throw a fit? One thing’s for certain… when Jessica’s career is relegated to C-movie obscurity in the next few years, she won’t be able to turn to Playboy to give her "sex symbol" image a boost.

Speaking of Playboy, I’m getting tired of hearing about female celebrities BOASTING how they turned down multi-million-dollar offers to show skin in the house that Hef built. If I had a dime for every female celeb that SHOULD have posed for Playboy since the magazine’s debut but didn’t, I could pay off the national debt all by myself! If you want to pose, then pose… not because the magazine offered you mad money but because you WANT to show off your body.

Publicly boasting about turning down this kind of a deal is not being moral. It’s basically being a tease. And you can only tease people once or twice before you lose any kind of credibility.

Here’s a great example… we have overhyped rumors of Natalie Portman getting naked in movies and then turning out to be huge disappointments. First it was in "Closer" and now with this movie called "Goya’s Ghost". Hey Natalie, either strip or don’t, but stop letting your spin doctors tease it! Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, we stop showing up at the box office. Fool us three times and it’s goodbye video rentals! Get the picture?

We have Eva Longoria being overhyped for no reason whatsoever. Hey Eva, you’re part of a five-actress TV series. Stop pretending that you’re the end-all-be-all for the show! And by the way, you’re not there to be the THINKING part of the quintet! You’re the eye-candy. You were brought in as the eye-candy, and you KNEW going into it that you would be the eye-candy, so stop complaining that you’re being treated as the eye-candy. You want serious? Leave the show and do some tearjerker movies for Lifetime. You won’t get the attention that you’re getting now, but you will get that respect that you’re looking for.

And of course that’s part of the problem right there. Attention and respect are on the opposite sides of the spectrum. The people who have properly EARNED respect usually don’t do the things that bring attention to themselves. So you have a choice. Either you can get attention OR you can earn respect, but you really can’t do both at the same time.

And now we have Lindsey Lohan getting in trouble with studio executives for her repeated absences from the latest movie she’s in.

The executives at Morgan Creek Productions recently sent Lindsey a personal memo basically telling her to get her act together or else she would be sued for breach of contract. The folks at The Smoking Gun came across this memo and gladly shared this with the rest of the world.

Of course Lindesy’s people (i.e. her mom) are outraged over this. She’s 19! She’s young! She’s acting under unbearable conditions! It’s hot as hell out there on the set!

You know, when I was 19, I worked my ass off doing security work for a company that literally had me running ragged across New Hampshire. I would work 16-to-23-hour days, operating on maybe an hour’s sleep before having to get dressed again and hitting the road for the next security assignments. Made quite a bit of coin from those three months of work, mostly from all of that overtime that I had to put in during the 6 or 7 days a week because I really was in demand. I worked in hot and humid conditions, I developed a nasty allergic reaction to the guard uniforms, and I was crossing union picket lines to do my job! I literally put my life on the line!

Now, do you know what I was told when I talked about the lack of sleep or rest? "You’re 19! You’re young! You’re flexible! You can adapt!"

Well guess what Lindsey? You’re 19! You’re young! You’re flexible! You can adapt!

Now how long has Lindsey Lohan been doing movies? She was doing movies long before she developed boobs! You would think that someone that experienced around a movie set would know about showing up on time and fulfilling their contractual obligations, wouldn’t you? There is a time for work and there is a time for play, and part of actually BEING an adult means knowing the difference between those two times. They know when one stops and when the other one begins. And while work CAN be fun at times, at the end of the day it’s still WORK.

And by the way, Ms. Lohan needs to remember that there’s a young actress and singer by the name of JoJo who bears a striking resemblance to her. I can’t say this about too many other actresses, but given the right hair dye, Lindsey can find herself replaced very easily.

That public memo was basically a warning for Lindsey to get her act together, and I think that plenty of so-called "celebrities" need to get a letter just like that one!

Let’s get brutally honest here… I am SICK AND TIRED of hearing about divas! Do you know what a diva means to this commentator? It means that there’s a person who has their head up their own ass for WAY too long and they need to rejoin the rest of the universe.

And it’s not hard to see why that is happening. You have people who are surrounded by ass-kissers who tell them how GREAT they are! They can’t do anything wrong! Their crap don’t smell! They can’t make mistakes. And if they say or do anything that MIGHT be perceived as wrong, then they’re told that it’s really not THEIR fault and that it can all be fixed. All they have to do is smile and bat their eyes and put on a cute face and all is forgiven. Or shed a tear or two and blame it all on the media and eventually the masses will buy it and then it is back to business as usual.

Hey, I’m not laying it all down on just the women here… Mel Gibson just stepped into some SERIOUS horsecrap when he got busted for drunk driving last week! Basically when the cops pulled him over, he was going on and on with anti-Semitic remarks about how "the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world" and asking the officer if he was "a Jew".

Say it with me boys and girls: OOPS!

Remember when Gibson had to explain how his work in "The Passion of the Christ" was not anti-Semitic? You have to wonder, now, if he was really being on the level about that.

Of course it’s easy to excuse people for their drunken behavior. People have been doing that since they found out how to get drunk. And I know that it is a load of BULL! I know from experience that you’re actually seeing the REAL side of people when they’re intoxicated. You’re seeing who they REALLY are, stripped away of all of their inhibitions and pretenses. This is why we get rip-roaring drunk when we’re young and then do really stupid things. We want the excuse. We want to be able to say "that wasn’t me, that was the alcohol talking" and have our friends and relatives buy it so we can go back to lying to them about our true selves for the rest of the time. The downside, of course, is that getting drunk also screws up other parts of the brain, which only serves to further justify the excuse… but that’s all that it is, folks; it is an EXCUSE!

Now I don’t have a problem with Mel Gibson being anti-Semitic if he’s HONEST with himself about it. That’s not the "celebrity" thing to do, of course, but it is the RIGHT thing to do! And isn’t Mel Gibson, the DARLING of the conservative circles, supposed be the icon of all that is good and RIGHT in this world?

And of course Gibson was quick to proclaim, "that wasn’t me, that was the alcohol talking," and to blame it all on his "problem". Typical weasel excuse! It doesn’t matter if you’re in Los Angeles or Washington… a weasel excuse is still a WEASEL EXCUSE!

Why is it that when a housewife like Andrea Yates drowns her five children one at a time and is declared not guilty by reason of insanity, that it’s an outrage and a miscarriage of justice; but when Mel Gibson poses a threat to society in general by driving drunk and then spews enough anti-Semitism to be put on a terrorist watch list, that it’s not HIS fault because he has "a problem"? That’s hypocritical BULL and we all know it!

Of course as the conservatives love to say, there are consequences to what you say. And I can see his words coming back to haunt him for the next few years. I don’t think that too many studios will be willing to give him work, either as a director or as an actor. That’s what happens when you bite the hand that employs you.

Let’s put it this way: Mel Gibson has about as much of a chance of getting work in Hollywood now as the Dixie Chicks have in getting invited to perform for President Bush.

Does he have a problem? You bet he does! And it’s not alcohol. His best bet right now is to do the time for his DUI charge… don’t get a deal, don’t beg for the mercy of the court, just plead guilty and take the full punishment, including JAIL time. Then when he gets out of jail, he should go back to working on his little church, sit off the royalty checks he gets from his movies, maybe write a book or two about his life, and then spend the next five years doing some SERIOUS penance with the Jewish community. Again, it’s not the "celebrity" thing to do, but it is the RIGHT thing to do!

And Lindsey Lohan wonders why she got a letter telling her to get her act together! I think that she should count her blessings that someone in Hollywood even gives enough of a care to do that!

(Computer – some timely things that you need to hear to appreciate)
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You know, I can understand why people feel the need for mindless entertainment. I mean, the world’s pretty messed up as it is. We need some sort of release from the frustrations of life… especially with all of the crap going on today!

But at the same time, the world of Hollywood shouldn’t be a substitute for dealing with the things going on in the here and now! We have PROBLEMS to be dealt with, and they’re not going to be dealt with if we continually fob it all off on special interest groups and our elected gangs of grifters and shysters just so we don’t miss another night of whatever reality TV show is popular! Obsessing about whether or not another female celeb either hooked up or got knocked up will not help put pressure on the White House to come up with a realistic energy policy, or to get Congress to lay off the wasteful spending! Although the special interest groups are sure as hell getting rich off our misguided fixations!

Hollywood is about image and storytelling. They can’t even be honest with themselves about how much money they bring in, and that is supposedly more important than every actor and actress that ever set foot in a studio! Neither true-blue liberals nor diehard conservatives would call THAT to be acceptable examples for society!

And that’s really the point.

At the end of the day, the people responsible for image and storytelling are just human beings. They’re not gods. They’re not even close to being perfect. They’re entertainers. And when their own personal lives are more interesting than the stuff that they put out, then that doesn’t mean that it’s time to focus on their personal lives as a source of entertainment…

It means that they’re failures as entertainers.

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Brutally Honest is a Get Brutal production, all opinions expressed are those of the commentator, and may or may not be shared by the online provider. This is David Matthews 2 saying good night, and I’ll speak with you soon!

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