2012: The Movie, Not Sarah Palin

Sine he retired, the gg has been going to the movies fairly frequently. Before that, I rarely had the time. Any movie I watched was from home on DVD. Today, I was in Houston and had the chance to view the eagerly anticipated movie "2012" at Cinemark. No, it is not about Sarah Palin (although, being a disaster movie, one might say the two do have much in common). The gg is a long- time fan of disaster movies, going all the way back to the first of that genre, "Airport". I'll say unhesitatingly that "2012" is the absolute best I've ever seen. It puts all the others to shame, though I'd be the first to acknowledge the distinct advantage given it by virtue of all the modern advancements in visual graphics, etc. I won't reveal any of the story line but will leave that to the readers to see for themselves. Now you might have the impression that seeing this movie made me happy. Well, not quite, and here's why: advertised to begin at 12:00 noon, it didn't get underway until about 12:20 what with all the commercials and previews of future movies, some of them not scheduled until next summer. I could have spent that 20 minutes having a good lunch. Instead, I was stuck with my junior size bag of popcorn and a small coke which, even at the middle of the day, and with my senior discount, came to a whopping and ridiculous $8.00. Had "2012" not turned out to be the blockbuster it was, the gg would have left the theater in a really, really grouchy mood. As it was, I left only partially so.

Can Texas secede from Rick Perry?

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I would just as soon not have to post on political issues. Problem is, the gg's governor, Rick Perry, continues to be an endless source of good material. Last week, governor Rick went ballistic on various proposals that would use Presidio, Texas as a sort of way station for the assembling and deportation of illegal immigrants caught crossing the border at other locations. Presidio was proposed for this purpose in order to prevent immigrants who otherwise would have been deported at the other border points where they had illegally entered in the first place from simply turning right around and re-crossing the border into the U.S. at that same point. Taking them to a central point like Presidio and deporting them from there would make it much less likely that they would attempt to re-enter the U.S. But Rick would have none of it. Sound hypocritical? Well...duh? No one in America has railed against illegal immigrants more stridently than Rick Perry. Yet,when a program surfaces that would deport at least some of them, the governor is opposed. The gg thinks Rick would like to have it both ways--on the one hand, he wants to be able to don his camoflauge pants and baseball cap and talk macho at tea party events across Texas (this, mind you, from someone who used to be a college cheerleader) about the evils of illegal immigration, but on the other hand he wants to preserve the dirty little secret that is well known in this state. What is that dirty little secret? Well, forget all that braggadacio from governor Perry about how well the Texas economy is doing despite the national recession. (It's actually true, but don't think for a minute it has anything to do with Rick Perry--in Texas, the governor has very little power to influence anything, much less the economy.) The dirty little secret is that the Texas economy is driven by small businesses whose success is dependent on the steady stream of cheap labor provided by illegal immigration. These days, governor Rick (the Breck boy?) will say and do most anything to keep the Breck girl, Kay Bailey Hutchison, from making inroads into conservative turf in Texas. Knowing that, the gg tries to ignore most of his rants and ravings. But some of them, including this latest, makes me so grouchy I wish my great state could secede from him.

Let Freedom Ring--and the Cash Register along with it

The gg really hates to post on politics, but today I was out in the car and made the mistake of tuning in briefly to the Sean Hannity show. If there is anything or anyone who can make me grouchy, it's Sean Hannity. The guy could deliver a simple weather report and just the sound of his voice would drive my grouch meter to never before experienced heights. Today, of course, Sean was focused on the Ft. Hood killings and the shooter Hasan. No need to wait for the facts--Sean has already labeled Hasan a "terrorist," so terrorist it is. But what really got my blood percolating through the old veins was that Sean proceeded to blame Obama for this dreadful act. Never mind reports that the FBI knew about Hasan as early as 2007 and that most of the communications with the Muslim cleric took place during 2008 (i.e. when Obama was still a U.S. Senator and one George W. Bush was President)--it's still Obama's fault pure and simple. The gg has no water to carry for Barack Obama. I like some of the things he has done and is doing, and I don't like some other things he has done and is doing. I suspect it will continue that way for me. I felt the same way about Presidents Bush, Clinton, George Herbert Walker Bush, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. Barack Obama was elected as our President by a fairly significant margin. Contrary to his predecessor, he won not only the electoral vote but the popular vote as well. (One can only imagine what Hannity would be saying if Obama had had to resort to the Supreme Court to make him President.) The point is that elections have consequences and the consequence of the 2008 presidential election is that Barack Obama is now the President of the United States and, as such, deserves at least some modicum of respect (at least the same amount as Sean insisted was due to George W. Bush). Today, President Obama went to Fort Hood,visited with the families of the slain and wounded soldiers and delivered a fine speech at the memorial service for the soldiers. Had he not done that, Sean would have excoriated him unmercifully (which he proceeded to do anyway). In his speech, the President promised that justice would be meted out to the perpetrator, in the President's words "in this life and in the next life." The President spoke words with which all Americans should have been able to agee, notwithstanding their grievances--some petty and some real--with the President on other matters. But not Sean Hannity. No, something inside of Sean insists that, 24-7, he must loyally deceive, mislead, misrepresent, lie and hate this President and anyone else who doesn't share the Hannity world view. Sean and others like him talk a lot about rights and freedom. When it comes to the rights of others, they have a history of insisting that with every right and freedom comes a corresponding responsibility. Except that, in their own case, they don't seem to live by that mantra. If they did, they would realize that their right and freedom to go on the radio every day and spew forth their hate and intolerance would get them imprisoned in many other countries, and even beheaded in some. So you would think that in exchange for this unique right and freedom they have they would at least be humbled enough to see fit to exercise the responsibility to tell the whole truth, to not mislead and deceive their audience, to not lie and to not incite hatred (among other things). So on this day-- even if only this day--I held out some hope that even Sean Hannity could find common ground with President Obama's remarks at Fort Hood. But again, I came away disappointed. To his unsuspecting audience (and I believe most of them truly are unsuspecting), he led them to believe that everything known about the perpetrator Hasan came to light since Obama has been President and that Obama alone is responsibe for the political correctness that caused it to be suppressed. (But one shouldn't be surprised by this tactic. After all, to hear Sean tell it, the bank bailouts were begun by Obama,not Bush). You have to wonder about the psyche of a guy who makes his living (and a damn good one at that)deceiving, misleading, misrepresenting and lying on the radio and on TV every day and night (at least Rush doesn't have a nightly TV show). How do you live with yourself? Sean likes his callers to refer to him as a "great American." He may well be one. But in the gg's book, a "great American" is not someone who despises everthing there is about the President of the United States--yes, HIS President--and is not someone who resorts to lies, deceit, innuendo and misrepresentation to undermine him at every turn. "Great Un-American" would be a more accurate moniker for Sean. Frankly, I've grown weary of all this right-left, red state-blue state divide in our country. Sean plays that for all it's worth, but I think it's driving us into a hell-hole. Now that I've said all that you probably think I'm no longer grouchy. You would be wrong. But I do feel much better, thank you.

If they want you to take the same pill twice, why do they give you so many to begin with?

The gg knows he's a tad behind in his posting schedule, but I've been a bit under the weather the past week. But not to worry, being sick affords lots of opportunities for grouchiness. For starters, there's that small print on the pill bottles. It seems to me that with an aging population, most prescriptions these days are written for us geezers, the age group most likely to be visually challenged to begin with. And yet the pharmacists seem to be in a race to see who can use the smallest font on their pill bottle instructions. When I was finally able to make out the fine print on my latest pill bottle, I found these instructions to be amusing enough to at least offset some of my grouchiness: "Take one pill twice daily." I don't know about the rest of you, but that sounds like a dang good trick to me. I guess one best leave it to the good old imagination to figure out the best (only?) way to take that pill once, retrieve it and swallow it again later in the day. And then finally there is the problem with opening the pill bottle. I usually keep a set of tools and a blow torch handy for opening cans, jars, etc. around my house and now it looks like I'm going to have to use the full arsenal to open my pill bottles. All of this because some low-life nincompoop decided some years ago it would be cool to spike a bottle of Tylenol on the drugstore shelf. This was enough to send my blood pressure and grouch meter skyrocketing again simultaneously.

We can only hope their arithmetic is better than their grammar

The gg has spent today dealing with some IRS forms. That's always a sure-fire way to make a grouch even grouchier. But there was a particular statement on one of the forms that got my attention and actually made me chuckle. It read like this: "I understand that both myself and my spouse must sign below." Since your gg is a purist when it comes to use of the King's English, I knew I had my posting for today. One can only hope that the person at IRS who penned that sentence is not also responsible for the arithmetic involved in handling our tax returns.

While I'm on the subject of the IRS, here's something else that peeves me. Have you ever had the experience of trying to fold and shove a fistfull of forms into one of the teeny-weeny letter-size envelopes the IRS provides in its mailings? Surely you know what I'm talking about. I had that experience today. After much frustration (and, of course, grouching), I finally wound up throwing their envelope away and using an oversize envelope of my own. If that's not frustrating, the gg doesn't know what is.

And in addition to providing us with large enough envelopes to hold all the forms, etc. they insist we send them, don't you think the least they could do is to pay the postage. Think about it--we pay them all that money (up to 39% of our income in some cases) and they make us pay the postage for the privilege of sending it to them. Now I'm really grouchy. So grouchy that I'm thinking about running for Congress on that platform alone.

Next thing you know they'll offer oil changes

Today, I went into a Walgreen's to by some Advil. I wandered up and down, back and forth, from aisle to aisle looking at shelves stocked with toys, hardware, auto parts and even groceries. Finally I found the pain relievers on a shelf in the far end of the store. After that, I had intended to self-test my blood pressure at one of those machines they have in the store but I was so grouchy by then I figured my blood pressure reading would have caused the machine to explode. Remember when drug stores were just that--drug stores? When that was all they sold? Oh, maybe you could buy a greeting card, a package of gum and a box of chocolates, or other "notions" as they called them back then. But everything else was drugs. Today, it's like drugs are an afterthought. The drugstore has become a toy store, hardware store,grocery store and photo studio all rolled into one. And it seems the two biggest chains--Walgreen's and CVS--are in a fight to the finish to show which can be the least like a drugstore. I say a plague on both their houses--I'll start buying my Advil at Jiffy-Lube!

Rush Limbaugh IS O.J. Simpson

The gg rarely listens to Rush Limbaugh but today I needed some entertainment while driving so I tuned in to the El-Rushbo to find him playing tapes from a speech given by the long-since defamed Jeremiah Wright, President Obama's former long-time pastor. He even re-played the same tapes that were used to try to tie Obama to Pastor Wright in last year's presidential campaign. Today Rush tried again to tie the two together, but it was what he said at the end of his tape-playing that made me really grouchy. (Don't be misled, fellow geezeres: I was as appalled by the rantings of Jeremiah Wright as anyone, just not sure you can rightfully hang that around Obama.) Rush said: "My friends, this proves that Barack Obama IS Jeremiah Wright!" He then went to a commercial and lo and behold he ran an ad from one of his sponsors known as "Legal Zoom". Ironically, Legal Zoom was founded by the famed criminal defense attorney, Robert Shapiro, who just so happens to be the same Robert Shapiro who ran O.J. Simpson's defense team. So if President Obama IS Jeremiah Wright vicariously by virtue of their association, as Rush said today,then that must also mean that Rush Limbaugh IS O.J. Simpson vicariously by virtue of Rush's association with Robert Shapiro, O.J.'s attorney. Just a thought.