I applied for a promotion not too long ago.  It was the first time I had ever gone for such a large step up inside of an organization and it was brutal.  I interviewed for an hour and a half and it was like being run through the ringer.  I was wiped out for the […]

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 FreeMediaOnline.org, San Francisco, August 21, 2008 — In a move seen as a foreign policy and public diplomacy blunder, in which the Senate staff of Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) is said to be involved,  the Voice of America (VOA), an international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. Government, stopped its radio programs to Russia just 12 days before Moscow launched its military attack […]

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Our friends at the newly relaunched all things soap site SOAPnet asked us to run a giveaway. We decided that was too easy, a competition to find who knows more than our resident Soap Diva Jan, was a better idea! Well there are obviously some folks that know their soaps!
We thank everyone that took part, […]

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Having recently read “Of All Sad Words” which is the latest in the Dan Rhodes series from Bill Crider and a book that I enjoyed very much, it seemed like I should read others. I’d never read Bill Crider before that book and while the TBR pile seems to achieving sentient life status, it still […]

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It is crunch time for the New Zealand government’s proposed emissions trading scheme (ETS), with negotiations reportedly in their final stages and the Green Party publicly asking its supporters whether it should support the bill.
The ETS forms the centrepiece of the government’s climate change policy. Under the scheme, the government would issue permits allowing a […]

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Paul and Nikki are at the bar in Mexico. There is a bad storm. The bartender tells them that maybe Victor brought the boat back in somewhere else because of the storm. He tells them that the cell phone tower got hit by lightning. They must have gotten it fixed because Paul’s phone rings and […]

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Asbestos campaigners are urgings the government in New South Wales to clean up a white asbestos mine in Barraba, which lies abandoned. Officials from the Asbestos Diseases Foundation have said that the mine poses health dangers and hazards, and is asking the government to take urgent action to get it cleaned up.
Left abandoned since […]

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“Damage Control” is the aptly named latest novel in the Arizona Sheriff Joanna Brady series. Much of this novel finds Joanna Brady practicing damage control in one form or another at home and at work.
One of the two central cases in this novel is the aftermath of an elderly couple’s death at the Montezuma Pass […]

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Ecclesiastes 1:9 – “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” This was never so true than when defining human nature. Especially that of High School teens. In the new documentary “AMERICAN TEEN” writer/director Nanette Burstein goes into the heartland of America’s […]

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Tropic Thunder is crude, campy, over the top absurdity. But never before have I laughed so hard at absolute stupidity. This film will offend pretty much everyone at some point, but you will be so busy cracking up that just won’t care. I am not sure who to blame for the foulness and who to […]

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How strong is your faith? I guess a better question might be what do you have faith in and how strong is your faith in that person, place or thing? Faith has been described as “the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot […]

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My favorite thing about Woody Allen movies is that you are never quite sure what you will get. They are predictably unpredictable. What you can certainly count on is a film rooted in its characters. And these characters are usually a blend of Allen’s warped, though at times true, perspective on human nature along with […]

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“Been a long time since I rock and rolled.”
The Rocker is one of those movies that I love the concept of and appreciate simply for the willingness of the main character to lay it all on the line. This is not the sort of film that is meant to be ground breaking in its ideals […]

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“Faris is one funny bunny!”
At first glance The House Bunny may seem like another mindless, teen, college romp for hormone raged adolescents to drool over. And it is. But to be honest, it offers much more below the surface. Written by the same two women who brought us Legally Blonde, The House Bunny is a […]

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So many movies are formulaic.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as all stories must necessarily follow a formula.  Kurt Vonnegut wrote about how every story is made up of a combination of highs and lows, they just start and end at different heights.  What makes a story stand out is doing something new with […]

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Detective Sergeant Ted Stephens isn’t bothered by the heat and humidity of Houston, Texas in the summer of 1969. Known to one and all as “Steve” he is bothered that his Lieutenant is shoving him onto a case assigned to other detectives. Lieutenant Bolce has his reasons and knowing the fact that Detective Wetsel is […]

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I’ve long criticized the Single Motherhood by Choice movement for ignoring the importance of fathers and the two-parent family. Now singer Ricky Martin has decided to have motherless children.
From Ricky Martin Father of Twin Boys Via Surrogate Mother (Associated Press, 8/20/08):
“There won’t be much “livin’ la vida loca” for Ricky Martin these days — […]

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Will Caylee Anthony’s mother, Casey Anthony try running or not? I don’t think I would risk it. I would have to be chained to her personally if it were my money used to bail this habitual liar out of jail.
Before getting to the house Anthony’s brother, Lee Anthony had asked reporters to step away from […]

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I have always considered myself reasonably well read and reasonably well versed in modern history. As soon as I started to read Return To The Middle Kingdom, I realized just how little I really knew about the birth of modern China. We all have seen pictures of the remnants of the great Dynasties that ruled […]

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David Schussler
The new combined shite for brains leadership of Russia has brought international terrorism to an old level. Deciding that he didn’t like the competition and corruption of capitalism and freedom (since he couldn’t control it), Putin and his puppet Medvedev have reverted to the old form of governing that the former Union of Soviet […]

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As the presidential election season continues to mature towards the November general elections there is still a conspicuous silence from the American Catholic Bishops on the direction Catholics in the United States need to consider when casting their ballots. In the past few days both candidates have suggested they would be willing to choose a […]

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Like the “Cone of silence” kerfluffle, I am bemused at the desire of some to denigrate McCain’s “cross in the sand” comment.
Obama’s reply about his religious beliefs was genuine, saying how Jesus’ grace after being born again inspired him to devote his life to helping people by establishing government programs. Many Christians would agree with […]

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I spend a fair amount of my time in Spain these days and when I am there I usually pay for purchases in shops with a credit card - as one does. To protect themselves from fraud many of these shops require a photo identity card to back up the credit card. I use an […]

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Following Russia’s military intervention in Georgia, Chancellor  Angela Merkel’s more than skeptical view of Russian foreign policy is slowly but surely gaining ground over the atmosphere created by her predecessor’s hopes for a special relationship with Moscow.
As her spokesman made clear yesterday, there is still no firm evidence indicating that the promised Russian withdrawal […]

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