Yet another television ad to toss on the ever-growing pile of ones I hate.  The newest one to join the ranks is the Obama Presidential Coin Collection.  This has nothing to do with politics, but just being plain shady on the parts of the sellers, and how gullible the consumer can be.

If you haven’t seen this commercial yet, former talk show host Montel Williams talks to you about how you can commemorate the election of Obama to the office of President of the United States by buying commemorative coins that documents different times in his life.  There is a quarter for Illinois for where he was senator, a quarter for Hawaii where he was born, and there are also a Washington Dollar and a Kennedy Half Dollar.  Each comes with a full-color image on it corresponding to the coin, and you will also receive a certificate of authenticity (CoA) for each.  As a bonus, you also get a display to place the four coins in.

So, in other words, you are paying $19.95 for $2 worth of coins some yahoo has put colored stickers on, and then he’ll give you CoAs saying, “Hey, yep, these are the coins I put the colored stickers on!”

I always love these coin and money deals you see on TV, like the one to mark the anniversary of 9/11 that had the pop-up twin towers on it.  True class.  I think this one hits a new low, though.  It’s four colored stickers on some normal coins!  I tell ya what, if you want to pay me $19.95 for $2 worth of coins with some worthless stickers on them, I’ll sit here and make them all dang day long for you.

So here are my proposed coin series you will soon be able to order

• Great Moments in Web 2.0 – Who can forget classic sites like Muxtape or Global Pandora?  Sites that lasted but like a blip in a moment of time will have their logos lovingly reproduced on these commemorative coins.  Never will we forget how Global Pandora brought music to the masses of the world, and now you can make sure even your grandchildren will remember!
• New Coke Remembered – New Coke was built to take over the world, but, alas, it never did, and was eventually usurped by its predecessor, Classic Coke.  Remember the packing of all the various New Coke containers such as the 12 oz can and the 2 liter bottle!

You get the idea… anything silly I can put on a quarter sized decal, I’m doin’ it!

If you have ever been tempted to order crap fine products such as these, please don’t.  All you end up doing is making me weep for humanity, and you end up with $2 in change after the decals finally fall off one day due to what is probably substandard glue.

In case you were wondering, I am intentionally not linking to their website, but you can find it without much effort… but please don’t.

The National Film Preservation Board has made their annual announcement of which films are being added to The National Film Registry.

For those unfamiliar with the project, each year up to 25 films are selected for preservation in the Library of Congress.  Each film must be at least 10-years-old, they do not have to be feature length, and they do not have to have received a theatrical release.

This year’s list includes:

1) The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
2) Deliverance (1972)
3) Disneyland Dream (1956)
4) A Face in the Crowd (1957)
5) Flower Drum Song (1961)
6) Foolish Wives (1922)
7) Free Radicals (1979)
8) Hallelujah (1929)
9) In Cold Blood (1967)
10) The Invisible Man (1933)
11) Johnny Guitar (1954)
12) The Killers (1946)
13) The March (1964)
14) No Lies (1973)
15) On the Bowery (1957)
16) One Week (1920)
17) The Pawnbroker (1965)
18) The Perils of Pauline (1914)
19) Sergeant York (1941)
20) The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
21) So’s Your Old Man (1926)
22) George Stevens WW2 Footage (1943-46)
23) The Terminator (1984)
24) Water and Power (1989)
25) White Fawn’s Devotion (1910)

As usual there are several in here I have never heard of, and only one that immediately leaps out at me as a “What the…” and that is The Terminator.

While a film like Deliverence has had a left a lasting impression on our collective sub-conscience, what did The Terminator do beyond giving us the saying, “I’ll be back”?  While some of these are clearly added for reasons such as age, advancements in story telling and film making, I can’t for the life of me think of what this movie contributed to the world.  I could even see Terminator 2: Judgement Day for the T-1000 liquid effects before I could see the original being worthy.  The charter for the National Film Preservation Board defines eligible films as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant films”… again, huh?

You can also check out the additions for 2006 and 2007.

Poor, Oprah. She just can’t pick a book, can she?

Remember when Oprah got duped by James Frey, author of A Million Little Pieces?  She was steadfastly behind this book about a man’s trials with drug addiction, even making it one of her precious “Oprah’s Book Club” choices.  Then it came to light that he had made the vast majority of it up.  She had him come back on the show and chastised him for fooling her and the readers.

Think she will do the same with Herman Rosenblat?

Over the years, Mr. Rosenblat has become famous for his tale of how he met his future wife while he was at Schlieben, a sub-division of the Nazi Buchenwald concentration camp.  The story goes that Mr. Rosenblat met a young Jewish girl, Roma Radzicki, who lived near the camp, but her family was posing as Christians, when she approached the fence one day.  Over the next few months she passed food to him through the fence, but they lost contact when he was moved to another camp.

Then in 1957, Mr. Rosenblat was set up on a blind date in Coney Island, NY, and he recognized the girl immediately to be the girl that passed him food years before.  They married not long after that, and have now been together for 50 years.

Ms. Winfrey has referred to as “the single greatest love story … we’ve ever told on the air.”  The problem is that it has now been revealed to be a hoax.

Due to the popularity of the story, it was due to be published as a book entitled Angel at the Fence: The True Story of a Love that Survived in February by Berkley Books.  The book has now been canceled and a demand has been made for Mr. Rosenblat to return his advance.  However, the $25 million dollar movie that is slated to be made of the story is still going forward as they had planned to fictionalize large portions of it.

According to Times Online, the story was revealed as a hoax by Ben Helfgott, a former Schlieben inmate, in the New Republic magazine.  He says that the story is a complete fabrication, and other experts on Schlieben have said the story was impossible because where Mr. Rosenblat says this all took place would have put him right next to the SS barracks.

Mr. Rosenblat is quoted as saying:

I wanted to bring happiness to people.  I brought hope to a lot of people. My motivation was to make good in this world.

That is all well and good, but perhaps you shouldn’t have told people it was true?  He continued to report this story to be true for years, and through two appearances on the Oprah show.  He had ample oppurtunity to tell people it was made up, and people would have probably still enjoyed it, but instead he continued the lie, and was happy to make money off of it.  That is where he sunk himself.

According to a story by the Associated Press, publishers admit they are not fact checking books because of the volume of releases each year, and it would simply cost them too much to check each one.  To that I say, “tough luck.”  Since when has checking facts become too much of a hassle?  Are publishers now saying that the truth no longer matters?  “Well, it looks sorta true… good enough.”

And what of Oprah?  Has she not learned her lesson?  Should she not be looking to check facts after that whole Frey debacle?  What is that old saying again?  “Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me”?  Well, guess what, Oprah… shame on you.

This whole thing is sickening.  It plays on people’s guilt about the Holocaust, it plays to people who are desperate for stories that show love can survive anything, and it just stinks in general that someone could lie for years and feel that is perfectly okay.

Is it April yet?

One of my guiltiest television pleasures is the Discovery Channel series Deadliest Catch.  As I’ve discussed before, I have no clue what really drives these men to do this insanely dangerous job, but to be honest I don’t really care as they keep doing it.  And the season 5 premiere in April just can’t come soon enough.

For those unfamiliar with the show, it follows the King Crab and Opilio Crab fishing seasons in the Bering Sea off of Alaska.  While it doesn’t sound that dangerous at first blush, you will change your opinion quickly after just a few minutes of this show.  It is considered one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, and it not uncommon for one or more ships to sink each year.  According to the official blog of Deadliest Catch season 5, a cod fishing ship, the Katami, was lost in the same area as the crab fishers with 4 survivors and 5 fisherman losing their lives back in October.

Yesterday I was mentioning to my family that I wondered how the new season was shaping up, and which ships and captains were out this year.  As curiosity got the better of me, I decided to snoop around the Web to see what I could find out.  Luckily on December 23rd, the official blog anticipated my curiosity and posted about the ships being in for the holidays, but with no hints as to which ships are out there this year.

So, being a nosey person, I decided to search some more and located the official websites of some of the ships.

Cornelia Marie – They were out fishing for sure, but no mention if Capt. Phil Harris had returned after his health problems last year.  As he is still pictured on the front page, I am suspecting he is back.

Early Dawn – There is next to no information on this boat, or Capt. Rick Fehst.

North American – Season 4 was the first season for this ship, and its captain, Sten Skaar.  Their site has very little information, and I really couldn’t guess either direction if this boat is even fishing, let alone on the show this year.

Northwestern – Their site really doesn’t spell out that they are out there, but seeing as Sig Hansen and Edgar Hansen have somewhat become the poster boys for the show, along with their ship, it is doubtful that they wouldn’t be out there.

The Wizard – Captained by Keith Colburn, their website doesn’t seem to be updated very often, so no clue if they are even out fishing.

Time Bandit – Andy Hillstrand and Johnathon Hillstrand co-captain this ship, and while the site states they are in port for the holidays, no clue if they are on the show this season.  As Discovery Channel just showed a video on their site of the bothers promoting the show, I think this is another safe assumption they are on this year.

In short, I think Cornelia Marie, Northwestern, The Wizard and Time Bandit are safe bets for season 5, while Early Dawn and North American are up in the air.  My biggest question is if Phil is back on the Cornelia Marie, but I have a feeling there is really nothing that would stop him from fishing.

If you have never watched the show, give it a try.  It is oddly engrossing to watch these men battling the elements, the crabs and, at times, each other.  And for those of us who are already addicted to the show… is it April yet?

UPDATE: See information on Deadliest Catch Season 5 Adds A New Boat

UPDATE 03/24/09: The Deadliest Catch Season 5 Premiere Announced

UPDATE 02/10/10: Capt. Phil Harris of the Cornelia Marie has passed away

There are some news stories that are so shocking you just can’t even begin to comprehend them for a few days until after they happen. The story of Bruce Pardo is one of those stories.

According to The New York Times, Mr. Pardo arrived at the home of James and Alicia Ortega in Covina, CA just shortly before midnight on Wednesday the 24th.  He was dressed as Santa Claus so that people attending a Christmas Eve party would think he was a hired entertainer for the children.  Immediately upon entering the home, he pulled out a semi-automatic pistol and shot an 8-year-old girl in the face, and another girl in the back.  He then proceeded in to the living room and continued his shooting spree before eventually using a gas powered canister of accelerant to set the home on fire.

The immediate death toll stood at 8, but according to The Inquisitr, that has now risen to 9.

Mr. Pardo was later discovered dead in his car some distance away from the massacre site, apparently the victim of a self-inflicted gun shot.  His original plan, gathered from evidence in his car, had been to flee to Canada, but after he sustained third degree burns in the fire, it appears he opted to take his own life.

Good riddance.

This entire incident was the result of a nasty divorce the 45-year-old Mr. Pardo was going through with his wife, Sylvia.  He apparently had gone to the party as she was attending, and, for reasons unknown, decided that any one else that was at the party was fair game for his rage against this lone individual.  What possible motivation he could have had for shooting children is totally lost on me.

It appears that both the 8-year-old girl and the older child have both survived.  Who exactly did pass away has not yet been released with the exception of Mr. Pardo.  Part of this is due to the fact that some of the bodies are so badly burned that they will have to be identified via dental records.

As a parting shot, it would seem this “man”, and I use the term loosely, had also rigged his car with a pipe bomb, but luckily no police were injured when it detonated.

When I first read about this incident, I was stunned beyond belief.  What could possibly motivate any individual to carry out such a plan? I don’t care how bad your divorce is going, you certainly never have a right to resort to violence to take out your ex spouse, and you have even less sanity if you decide to take out innocent bystanders. And children? How does any one point a gun at a child’s face and shoot them at point blank range?

If there is a Hell, I certainly hope that there is a specific section set aside for people such as this.

My deepest condolonces go out to all of the families touched by this evil, evil act.

It’s episode 23… Scattercast is facing life without college!

- I finally checked out another podcast, Smodcast… I’m not doing so bad!

- Christmas Eve… more holidays need an “Eve”.

- Christmas shopping reflections.

- Digg annoys me and is an enigma.

Here’s

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for those who wish to download it, subscribe to Scattercast via iTunes.

Considering my recent rant against Christmas sweaters, some how this story from Pete Cashmore at Mashable seems like some sort of cosmic justice against me.  Office Max has jumped on the Christmas sweater bandwagon and produced a web site called My Christmas Sweater that will let you make as an atrocious Christmas sweater as you’d like.

I tried to keep mine at least somewhat tasteful, but I had to include a red pompomed reindeer over the left nipple per the comments on the last article I did.

Merry Christmas to all my readers.

What in the world is wrong with Fred Phelps?

For those unfamiliar with Phelps, he is the head of the Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, KS.  They are best known for their protests at the funerals of soldiers saying that all their deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq are the fault of the United States acceptance of homosexuality.  He has also been known to blame natural disasters on the same “problem”.

Well, it seems Mr. Phelps has now moved on to blaming things on Santa.  The economy?  Santa’s fault.  Dead soldiers?  Yep, Santa. To get this point across to the masses, the church wanted to post a sign detailing all of this in the Washington state capitol. (The SpokesmanReview has the story, but requires paid registration) Steve Valandra, a spokesman for Washington’s Department of General Administration, when e-mailed the text said, “Holy cow. I guess we’ll consider it like all the other requests.”

You can see the whole poster here, but I’ve reprinted the text below.  You can also sing it to the tune of “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” as demonstrated by a video the church made, which I refuse to link to, but you can find it if you insist.

Santa Claus Will Take You To Hell!

You’d Better Watch Out Get Ready To Cry
You’d Better Go Hide I’m Telling You Why
Cuz Santa Claus Will Take You To Hell

He Is Your Favorite Idol You Worship At His Feet
But When You Stand Before Your God
He Won’t Help You Take The Heat

So Get This Fact Straight You’re Feelin’ God’s Hate
Santa’s To Blame For The Economy’s Fate
Santa Claus Will Take You To Hell

Don’t Leave Your Kids With This Red Fright
Just Like The Priests He’ll Rape ‘Em At Night
Oh Santa Claus Will Take You To Hell

You Tell The Children He Is Real
You Know That’s Just A Lie
To Justify Your Own Vile Sins
That’s The Only Reason Why

So Get This Fact Straight That You’re Feelin’ God’s Hate
Santa’s To Blame For The Dead Soldier’s Fate
Santa Claus Will Take You To Hell!

While I am all for religious freedom, and these people have every right to say whatever they like, you have to seriously wonder what is wrong with them?  Sure the world is messed up, but blaming Santa for the world’s woes?  I guess maybe the homosexuals have been cleared now?  They are somehow now blameless for the deaths of the soldiers, it’s all Santa’s fault!  Good to know.

Comparing him to child molesters?  Saying he will take you to Hell?  What in the world did Santa ever do to these people?

Some of the stories I find online just make my brain hurt.

Every December 23rd brings the most magical of holidays… Festivus!

As I always say when I discuss this, I never thought much of the television series Seinfeld, but I do thank them for giving us the concept of Festivus.  Sure I don’t think any of us need to go through the “Airing of Grievances” (that’s what Thanksgiving dinner is for) or the “Feats of Strength”, but it still makes a nice concept of families spending a holiday together without all of the trappings we have added on to the existing ones.

I have already shared many of my thoughts about this pseudo-holiday in my Festivus 2006 and Festivus 2007 posts, and they all still hold true.  As I only got to begin my Christmas shopping this past weekend, and the UPS man brought me an arm load of Amazon packages today, I realized, yet again, just how silly this whole gift giving thing has gotten around Christmas.  I am sure next year I will repeat the majority of it, and I will kick myself again, but every December 23rd I can smile and think of a happier and simplier version of the winter holidays.

Happy Festivus everyone!

The economy is hitting every one hard, and police budgets are not immune either.

In the past 24 hours I have heard two odd stories of how different police departments are handling budget problems.  The first came from the infamous “M”, famed around this blog for the World’s Longest Dark Knight Review, who is currently haunting the streets of Gotham New York City.  It seems that the police have increased patrols to seemingly focus on motor vehicle violations in an effort to issue more tickets.  She told me a tale of someone she knew who got pulled over for one thing, told to move over to a specific spot on the side and was issued a second ticket for parking in a no parking area.  This person will fight the second ticket as he was ordered to move there, but that still just shows how desperate they are for income.

The second story I learned about at lunch today as I dined with a friend of mine.  After he gave me my weekly ribbing about salad bar etiquette, I was telling him about what M had told me.  He informed me of a story from St. Louis about how much their police department was spending on badges for their top officers.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch had broken a story about how the St. Louis police department had just spent $1,987 each on five badges.  The new badges were for a chief badge, two assistant chief badges and two lieutenant colonel badges.  These new works of art were purchased from Stange Co., of Maryland Heights which is known for making jewlery for third-world governments up to Queen Elizabeth II.  These new badges cost 100 times that of a rank-and-file patrol officer in St. Louis as their badges cost $19.75.

In all fairness to the new police chief, Daniel Isom, the badges were ordered before he took office, and he agrees the spending is outrageous.  Of course, these new badges are a bargain compared to the $5,900 his predecessor, Joe Mokwa, spent on solid gold badges.

The owner of the jewlery company tried to defend the cost saying that he was sure that the Police Chief of Los Angeles probably spends more.  The newspaper called the LA police chiefs office and found his badge cost $61.  The St. Louis jewler was concerned with how shabby his badge must be at that price.

We are hearing endless stories of how taxes will be raised in states all across this country to help with budget short falls, and then you see stories like this that make you wonder how long the common person will have to pay for the stupidity of those people who are partially responsible for the mess we’re in.  I am always reminded of the Kevin Kline movie Dave where a man impersonates the President after he has a stroke, and when the budget spins out of control, he calls in his best friend, an every day accountant, to look at the governments books and cut the budget to save some programs.

Where are the every day accountants?  You are needed more than ever.

According to a quote on IO9 today, Russell T. Davies, the head of the past four seasons of Doctor Who, said the following about Robert Carlyle joining the newest Stargate series, Stargate Universe:

Stargate, can you believe it? That was a surprise. Hasn’t his agent watched it?

All I could say upon reading this was “ouch” and followed that up with “he’s right.”

I’ve enjoyed Mr. Carlyle’s work in movies such as The Full Monty, and I was shocked to hear he was joining the train wreck that is the Stargate franchise system.  While I admit I have watched every episode of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, I alwyas immediately have an urge to cry, and then shower to wash the trash off of myself.

I might not have looked twice at this news if I had not just watched the direct-to-DVD movie Stargate SG-1:The Ark of Truth.  This film represented everything that was wrong with this series in my opinion.  While it was mainly trying to wrap up the on-going Ori storyline, as per their usual stupidity, the writers of the series didn’t know how to move past certain plot points, so they just pile on more enemies for no real reason.  The never-ending threat of the Replicators, metallic creatures that take on many shapes, which had nothing to do with the Ori story, just randomly appeared in this movie to keep half of the main team busy and away from the main fight.  They had no real reason to be in the movie, the aspects of the script could have been handled by the actual threat of the Ori and their followers.

On top of the whole Replicator issue, you have the actual Ark of Truth, an ancient device that, when opened, a light shines on a person and they no longer believe the Ori are gods, cutting off the power that strengthens the false gods.  You’re kidding, right?  A multi-year plot line is wrapped up by the ultimate deus ex machina plot device of a magical box?  That’s the best the writers could come up?  The inclusion of an enemy that had no point being in the movie, and a magical box that cures all… did they write this the night before it had to be handed in?

The television incarnations of the story started in the feature film has always had slightly intriguing characters, but they never know what to do with them.  They also languish in a form of recycled hell where the teams on the show face the same enemies over and over due to the fact they never seem to be able to kill anyone for more than half a season.

So, in short, I have the same question as Mr. Davies in wondering if Mr. Carlyle’s agent watched the show before he signed on.  He is far better actor than this series deserves, and I feel horrible that their absolute drivel will be coming out of his mouth.  I don’t begrudge any actor wanting to pay their bills, I just wish actors would stop appearing in this trainwreck of a series so it would finally be put out to pasture like it deserves.

Apparently it is up to all of us, the viewers, to stop this series machine before it ruins any more careers… and kills more of my brain cells.

I can’t take it any more… Christmas Sweaters must be banned.

While I am certainly no slave to fashion, I can be a bit harsh in sizing up other people that make really atrocious fashion choices.  Like my hatred of Crocs, I think I hate Christmas sweaters with an even larger passion.  The main reason for my hatred spawns from the concept that they are somehow acceptable.  Oh, yes, wearing bejeweled sweaters with a theme is perfectly okay because it’s Christmas, dontcha ya know.

No, it’s not okay, now stop walking around Walmart in them!

Everyone is entitled to their personal choices in fashion, and everyone is entitled to showing their Christmas spirit, but come on folks, these things are just horrid.  Name one other time during the year you would feel it’s okay to wear a sweater with large fake jewels, conchs and what looks to be a knitted mustache? If you answered “never”, like you should have, then why in the world are you wearing them around the holidays?  What is it about the holidays that make people toss any sort of practical fashion sense right out the door.

I think I might even understand this a bit more if people only wore them to Christmas parties, but I see women wearing them at Walmart, while eating at Ruby Tuesday, while pumping their gas and so on and so forth.  In other words, somehow in December it becomes okay to wear ugly sweaters 24/7.

Please stop.  If not for yourself, think of the example you are setting for the future generations of the world.  Do you really want to set bad fashion examples for the young and impressionable minds of this world?  I think the sweater I’ve pictured with this post could possibly turn a person to drugs.  “But, mom, I wanted to see people’s faces melt into conches just like on your sweater!”

Please, can we just give up on the Christmas sweaters in general?

For regular readers of this blog, you may have noticed this post belongs in a brand new category, “Crimes Of Fashion”.  Don’t worry, this won’t happen often, I don’t think I’ve written anything about fashion since my Crocs post in June of 2007, so you know it has to be a pretty heinous fashion crime for me to speak up on it.  So don’t expect me to rant about fashion all of the time, just every, oh, 18-months or so.

So, what say you, is the Christmas sweater a fashion do or don’t?