Dark Angel (1990)

It is December in Houston and the CD player in a Mercedes goes haywire.  Fiddling with it, the driver loses control of his car and crashes into a Christmas tree lot.  He climbs out of the car and suddenly it explodes!  Rising from the flaming wreckage is a giant of a man with pale eyes.  "I come in peace!"

Detective Jack Caine (Dolph Lundgren) is in a car outside a club.  He's listening to a conversation his partner, Ray Turner, is having with a drug dealer.  This is a sting.  However, he spots two armed hooligans heading to a nearby liquor store.  Crap!  Leaving his car, he engages the hooligans and saves the lives of several customers and the cashier.  Unfortunately, that coincided with the drug dealer revealing that he knows Ray is a cop.  By the time Jack gets there, Ray has been killed.  However, a bunch of goons are also dead by having their throats cut.  Something's amiss.

The captain is absolutely furious at Jack and insists he take vacation time.  That is instantly rescinded when the FBI ask to work with Jack on the case.  Jack is given an FBI partner, Special Agent Smith (Brian Benben), a full of himself twerp.  Jack and Smith soon discover that some giant of a man is injecting drugs into random people and then extracting endorfins from their brains.  What craziness is this?  Yes, the villain is a space alien who is synthesizing the most valuable drug in the universe.  Another giant alien shows up and tries to kill the galactic drug lord.

Here is a buddy cop movie with a Predator II vibe.  That's interesting since this was released a couple months before Predator II.  Dolph's flat acting really works for his character.  He's unphased.  The contrast between him and Benben is great.  6 foot 5 Dolph positively dwarfs 5 foot 6 Benben, which is hilarious.  That Special Agent Smith tries to make up for this by Bogarting the big alien gun was also great.  Though he starts as an ass, Smith is a good ally and a fun character by the climax.  Betsy Brantley is just okay as Jack's love interest.  For efficiency sake, she is also the coroner.  There was less chemistry between Lundgren and Brantley than between Lundgren and Benben.

The movie is full of car chases, explosions, gun fights, explosions, martial arts, explosions, and running.  Hey, this is just what I wanted to see.  Top notch B Movie nonsense.  Good popcorn fun!

Why Write an Essay?

I have spent years writing on a variety of topics and posting that here or my previous blog.  Mostly, this is for my own edification; I have limited readership.  With that in mind, has it just been a waste of my time?  Could I have spent all those hours doing something more productive?  Then again, this YouTuber argues that I'm using the best learning tool in history.

Yes, it is a great way to learn.  I have found that my recall on the subjects where I have written is much better than those where I have not.  From experience, I'd have to say that Python Programmer is absolutely correct.  Write essays to learn.  Recommended. 

Why Not Switch Again?

Donald Trump spent most of the last year attacking President Biden and his handling of the country.  Part of a campaign is defining your opponent and outlining how you would do things differently.  When Biden withdrew from the race, all the effort spent defining the opposition went away.  It was no longer important.  Biden's not the nominee.  Flush all that opposition research and campaign strategy.  A fresh nominee, largely untouched by Trump's long campaign against her predecessor, suddenly surged in the polls.  Where Biden was headed toward almost certain defeat, VP Harris is currently polling in the toss-up range.  Dumping Biden was strategic brilliance by the Democrats.  That astonishingly early presidential debate now looks like a Democratic ploy to sink Biden rather than inform the public.

It has been less than three weeks, and the Harris-Walz Campaign has stalled.  It's still in toss-up territory, but the Republican criticisms are sticking.  Walz may not have been the best choice for VP.  Harris is dodging the press, not having done an interview since her ascension to the top spot on the ballot.  What if she starts sinking?  She was such a weak candidate in 2020 that she withdrew from the campaign before the voting even began.  She is not a strong nominee and is only doing as well as she is because she's not Biden.  What if she is just a place holder, another false nominee for the Republicans to waste their ammunition on?

Are Joe Biden's delegates committed to Harris?  When the Democratic Convention convenes and the delegates vote, what is to stop them from picking someone else?  We are in uncharted waters with this nomination.  Do the rules say that the VP nominee automatically gets the delegates if the Presidential nominee drops out?  If not, it could be a free for all.  Here is another opportunity to dump a candidate that the Republicans have spent a month attacking.  A new nominee would clean the slate yet again.  With the election then less than 3 months away, the Republicans would have to once again adapt their strategy while the Democrats have been attacking the same person all along.

I think it is 50-50 that the Democrats choose a different nominee at the convention.  They need someone with less baggage than either Kamala Harris (Willie Brown's most favored mistress) or Tim Walz (the Afghanistan veteran who didn't go to Afghanistan).

Joe Rogan: Burn the Boats

Oddly enough, I have never listened to the Joe Rogan Podcast except for snippets found on YouTube with the guest du jour.  Mostly, that involves him asking some basic question and the guest greatly expanding on the topic.  I used to watch NewsRadio (1995-1999) in which he was a one of the regular cast.  That was back when he had hair.  Anyway, I was folding clothes and turned on the TV.  I needed something that was more listening than watching and this looked like just the thing.

Joe is very animated and frequently turns up the volume.  He's no Sam Kinison, but I was reminded of him occasionally.  Many of his bits focused on current political topics.  He riffed on COVID, which is on brand for him.  Prior to COVID, he viewed vaccines as a modern miracle but afterwards he has his doubts.  So many doubts.  He covered the Trans debate, suggesting that extra words were needed.  An off-road vehicle is still a vehicle but it has extra functions.  He didn't offer a word.  He talked about his days on Fear Factor, why aliens always use the anal probe (this is on brand for his character from NewsRadio), and his life in Texas - most memorably his love for Buc-ees!  Speaking of Texas, I was startled to see that the show was at the Majestic Theater in San Antonio!  Cool.

Entertaining?  Yes.  Funny?  Yeah.  Profane?  Oh, indeed, yes.  This is not a show for kids.  Certainly not for all audiences.

UK in Flames

Three British girls were killed by an immigrant and the dam burst.  The UK has been flooded with immigrants who are not assimilating, and the ruling class has accused the native population of bigotry for voicing any opposition to the continued immigration.  In fact, one of the most strident voices against this, Tommy Robinson, has been jailed for his reporting on sexual predators who happen to be of Pakistani descent.  The message is clear: shut up while your betters change the demographics of England.  All the votes that have sought to stem this tide of immigration have been ignored by both the Torries and Labor.  Muslims dance in the streets with knives and sabers while the police arrest a girl for observing that a police officer looked like a lesbian.  You see, it would look racist to enforce the law on immigrants, so the police are extra harsh on whites to make up for it.

The incompatibility of the recent immigrants with the longstanding British culture is beyond obvious. Much of Europe is committing cultural suicide by importing cultures that their ancestors fought tooth and nail to keep out of Europe.  Europe abandoned Christianity and thought it would end religious clashes.  No, it was more akin to unilateral disarmament.  The other side is still committed to its religion, and you will be assimilated to it!

In the last 2 decades, nearly 100 British citizens have been killed by Muslims while no Muslims have been killed by native British.  Of course, Prime Minister Starmer has promised to protect the Muslims.  Short of civil war, much of Europe is toast.  The votes have proved repeatedly meaningless and the government, despite promises to cut back on immigration, have more often allowed it to accelerate.  Luckily, the British have disarmed the citizens, so there is little risk to the government.

Correction: The 17-year-old killer was born in the UK, but his parents are apparently immigrants.  It was widely believed he was an immigrant during the riots/protests.  As the killer is still a minor, details are being withheld, thus the confusion.  Is he Muslim?  I can find no news reporting one way or another.

Who is African-American?

George Stephanopoulos grilled Byron Donalds (R-Florida) about Trump's questioning of Kamala Harris' racial identity.  Snopes confirms that the Associate Press (AP) listed her Indian heritage in the headline when she became a Senator in 2016 but her Black heritage when she became the VP candidate in 2020.  By merely pointing out this change in reporting, Stephanopoulos accused Donalds (who is black) of a slur.  Really?  Generally, this should be irrelevant.  However, it brings up the race card, which Democrats - like Stephanopoulos - love to play.

On CNN, there was a clip of black men in a barbershop questioning Kamala's heritage.  At best, they are ambivalent on the topic.  Why is that?  Let's talk about who is African-American?

Elon Musk grew up in South Africa and emigrated to the United States.  He has since become a naturalized citizen.  Ergo, he is African by birth and American by citizenship.  However, no one would seriously call him African-American.  So, what is African-American?  The term was popularized by Jesse Jackson in the 1980s and became an alternative for black.  What did it denote?  An African-American was both black and the descendant of slaves in the United States.  With that as a definition, Elon Musk meets neither requirement.  Vice President Kamala Harris qualifies on one factor but not the other.  Her father was born and raised in Jamaica and her mother in India.  Harris cannot trace her ancestry back to slaves in the United States.  This is why her racial identity is questioned.

This same issue applied to President Obama.  His father was Kenyan, and thus had no ties to the black community in America.  His mother was Caucasian from Kansas.  He grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia, giving him none of the 'black' experience in America.

The reason why the United States adopted affirmative action was to redress the years of slavery and Jim Crow.  Why would anyone who migrated to the United States after the repeal of Jim Crow be included in the affirmative action?  Neither Obama nor Harris' ancestors suffered from these and that sets them apart from most African-Americans.

Only a Patsy?

The crazy stories about the assassination attempt on Trump are rolling now.  There is a video that shows the would-be assassin working his way across the roof.  It was filmed by someone behind Trump.  At one point, though very grainy, the figure suddenly vanished.  The commenter claims that was when Crooks was killed, before he even aimed his rifle.  Ergo, his only purpose was to distract from the real shooter while never actually firing himself.  Right.  Another post claims to show a bullet flying in the opposite direction, missing Trump shortly before the bullet that hit him.  Okay.  So, that would be our third shooter?  How many incompetent shooters were there?  I can accept that one guy was a bad shot.  I cannot accept that he was just a patsy for another shooter who was an equally bad shot.  Wait, there's more.  It is claimed that someone shorted Truth Social stock the day before Trump was shot.  Had he been killed, that person would have made a fortune when Truth Social stock price crashed.  Coincidence?  The poster thinks not.  Then there is the oddity that CNN was broadcasting this particular rally.  CNN hasn't regularly broadcast Trump's rallies, but this one in Butler merited coverage.  Coincidence?  Again, the poster thinks not.

Absolutely everything is suspicious and the web of conspiracy theories is growing bigger by the day.  What seems outlandish today will probably look tame a month from now.  Image how many iPhone videos of this event are just waiting to be reviewed.  Abraham Zapruder happened to be filming when JFK was shot and his film has been analyzed frame by frame ever since.  Now we have hundreds of Zapruders with their portable video cameras.  The madness has only just begun.