Oscar night open thread. Update!

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Tonight is the night of the Academy awards, or as my daughter says "The best night of the whole year!"

I thought since she will be calling me all night to yell about her favorite movies not getting the Oscar I would provide all of you a similar venue to express your confusions, frustrations, or joy at the winners.

Here is the list of nominees for those of who are not movie addicts like my daughter and I.

1. Best picture: "Amour," "Argo," "Beasts of the Southern Wild," "Django Unchained," "Les Misérables," "Life of Pi," "Lincoln," "Silver Linings Playbook," "Zero Dark Thirty." 

2. Actor: Bradley Cooper, "Silver Linings Playbook"; Daniel Day-Lewis, "Lincoln"; Hugh Jackman, "Les Misérables"; Joaquin Phoenix, "The Master"; Denzel Washington, "Flight." 

3. Actress: Jessica Chastain, "Zero Dark Thirty"; Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook"; Emmanuelle Riva, "Amour"; Quvenzhané Wallis, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"; Naomi Watts, "The Impossible." 

4. Supporting actor: Alan Arkin, "Argo"; Robert De Niro, "Silver Linings Playbook"; Philip Seymour Hoffman, "The Master"; Tommy Lee Jones, "Lincoln"; Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained." 

5. Supporting actress: Amy Adams, "The Master"; Sally Field, "Lincoln"; Anne Hathaway, "Les Misérables"; Helen Hunt, "The Sessions"; Jacki Weaver, "Silver Linings Playbook." 

6. Directing: Michael Haneke, "Amour"; Benh Zeitlin, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"; Ang Lee, "Life of Pi"; Steven Spielberg, "Lincoln"; David O. Russell, "Silver Linings Playbook." (There are more nominees at the link,)

I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I have only seen a few of these movies, since my usual movie fare involves car chases, things that go bum pin the night, and superheroes.

However I have seen "Lincoln," "Les Miserables," and "Life of Pi" so I am not completely in the dark.

Since I have seen so few I really cannot make much of a prediction as to who might, or might not, win.

But I will say that for Best Picture Lincoln" has set a ridiculously high bar for others to reach in order to take that prize away from Spielberg.

So go ahead put on your best party dress. open that special bottle of champagne, and let's enjoy a night of star studded movie magic.

Wait, is Seth MacFarlane really the host?



Oh well forget the champagne and party dress, I think a bottle of room temperature Miller Lite and comfy pajamas will suffice.

Let the festivities begin!

Update: Jennifer Lawrence on her way to receive her best actress Oscar.

Don't worry she recovered well.

This young woman is going to be a huge star in the very near future.

Four year old finds father's gun with predictable, and heartbreaking, result.

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Courtesy of Raw Story:

 A 4-year-old boy in Houston died early Sunday morning after finding his father’s handgun and shooting himself in the stomach. 

Houston Police Sgt. Harris told KTRK that 4-year-old Jaiden Pratt’s weekend with his father, 23-year-old Marquez Pratt, ended in tragedy. The father and son had gone to sleep on the couch. After waking up, Jaiden picked up the gun and accidentally fired a round into his own stomach. 

Paramedics tried to revive child, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. 

“This is not a case of a responsible homeowner having a weapon for protection,” Harris said. 

According to the Houston Chronicle, the serial number of the handgun was listed as stolen. Marquez Pratt was expected to face charges resulting from drugs and several weapons found in the home.

Of course the 2nd Amendment crowd will point out that this was a stolen gun and therefore gun laws that affect the ability of law abiding citizens to purchase and own firearms would have little effect. But I disagree.

You see I think that once you go through a background check and take possession of a firearm it is your responsibility, until you have either sold it in lawful manner (Complete with insisting that the purchaser have the gun registered in their name) or until you die.

In other words EVERY crime or accident that occurs with the weapons stolen out of your house, if it is discovered that you did not do EVERYTHING in your power to keep that from happening, should open you up to both criminal and civil legal proceedings.

No more of this, "Well officer that gun was stolen out of my house so I am not responsible for how it was used." If you are responsible enough to own a weapon, then by the gods you should be responsible enough to maintain control over that weapon.

I can guarantee you that if we had laws like that on the books there would be a HELL of a lot less guns sold, and a a whole HELL of a lot fewer guns stolen. Which also means less crime, and fewer terrible accidents like this one.

Michelle Obama steals the show at last night's Academy Awards celebration. Conservatives pissy as usual.

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I am sorry about showing you a video that comes from Glenn Beck's lunatic Right Wing website The Blaze, but sadly that was the best video I could find of the event.

Here is the text of her speech:

“Welcome to the White House, everyone. I am so honored to help introduce this year’s nominees for best picture, and to help celebrate the movies that lift our spirits, broaden our minds, and transport us to places we have never imagined…“These 9 movies took us back in time and all around the world. They made us laugh, they made us weep, and they made us grip our arm rests just a little tighter. They taught us that love can endure against all odds, and transform our lives in the most surprising ways. And they reminded us that we can overcome any obstacle if we dig deep enough and fight hard enough and find the courage to believe in ourselves. These lessons apply to all of us no matter who we are, or what we look like, or who we love…”

Of course the First Lady's appearance did not sit too well with the conservatives who have already started to bitch about it.

First this from the same website from which I got this video:

Oh My God: The Academy actually drafts First Lady Michelle Obama to help present Best Picture from presumably the White House? So unnecessary and inappropriate to inject politics into the Oscars yet again. Hollywood will get pilloried by conservative pundits tomorrow. I don’t understand this very obvious attempt to turn off right-leaning audiences. Clearly the studios only want to sell their movies to half of America.

Yes because as we know the Obama's are only the President and First Lady for half of the American people, right?

But wait, there's more: 

Has a First Lady ever intruded on Oscar night in such fashion? My memory says no, but it's possible this isn't the first time. It is, however, typical of a White House operation that excels in glamour over substance, that feels compelled to enter every public space from sporting events to late night shows to even the biggest night of the year for Hollywood. 

Yes, the Obamas owe Tinsel Town plenty for all their support - financial and promotional - during the 2012 election. But there's simply no reason for Michelle Obama to be given the biggest assignment on Oscar night. 

Conservative viewers, if there were any left by the time the show wrapped, will not soon forget this.

And of course the Washington Post weighed in as well:

It is not enough that President Obama pops up at every sporting event in the nation. Now the first lady feels entitled, with military personnel as props, to intrude on other forms of entertaining (this time for the benefit of the Hollywood glitterati who so lavishly paid for her husband’s election). I’m sure the left will holler that once again conservatives are being grouchy and have it in for the Obamas. Seriously, if they really had their president’s interests at heart, they’d steer away from encouraging these celebrity appearances. It makes both the president and the first lady seem small and grasping. In this case, it was just downright weird.

You know considering the fact that three of the nine nominees for Best Picture had overtly political themes (Lincoln, Argo, and Zero Dark Thirty) it seemed to me oddly fitting that the First Lady be the one to hand out the award. And like, am sure, most Americans I really enjoyed seeing Michelle Obama participate.

However with that being said, the fact that it ticks the Righties off so much just makes her appearance at the awards even more awesome.

Let's face it, both this President and his First Lady are going to be a hard act to follow. Especially for any uptight, repressed conservatives that might want to hold those positions in the future.

Update: By the way it looks like Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence has a message for those Right Wing critics of the First Lady's presentation.

 You know I am liking this young woman more and more every day.

By the way speaking of awards, the Oscars weren't the only big trophies given out yesterday. "Big" being a relative term.

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Here is a picture of the Toad holding his trophy for coming in fifth place in the Iron Dog, that was found on Chuck Heath Jr's Facebook page.

Apparently the fifth place win came not only with that nifty little trophy, but also $10,000.

But before Todd had a chance to blow it all on prostitutes and Viagra, his wife stepped in and announced to the world (Or at least the morons who still follow her on Facebook) that Todd was giving the money to a charity that reinforces her Right Wing credibility.

From Palin's Facebook page:

Todd's race winnings are donated to The Chris Kyle Memorial Fund. For the kids and me, we're proud of our Iron Dogger, especially his dedication to family and freedom. 

- Sarah Palin

Damn and this is the first money Todd has earned on his own in months! Oh well, I am sure Palin made it up to him by letting him hold the balls that she ripped off of him yeas ago and keeps in that little purse she carries.

"Here Todd, touch them. Remember what it was like to be a real man? Well, now you can just hand them back and get those thoughts right out of your head. Cause your ass belongs to me!"

Study finds that most mass shootings target women and families, and are perpetrated by men with legally purchased weapons.

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Courtesy of Alternet:

A new analysis of 56 mass shootings across America since 2009 finds women and family members are the most frequent victims, and that the shooter almost always acquired his guns legally, in cases where the gun source is known. 

“In at least 32 of the cases (57 percent), the shooter killed a current or former spouse or intimate partner or other family member, and at least eight of those shooters had a prior domestic violence charge,” the Mayors Against Illegal Guns report on mass shootings said, suggesting that the problem of gun violence is far more related to violence against women in homes than rampages in public settings such as schools and theaters. 

The study also found that in the cases where the source of the guns was known, almost all were acquired legally: only two examples were given of mass killings with a stolen or illegal gun. That finding runs counter to the gun lobby’s oft-cited rhetoric that only criminals abuse guns. 

“We had sufficient evidence to judge whether the shooter was a prohibited gun possessor in 42 of the 56 incidents,” the report said, referring to laws barring ex-felons, mentally ill people, drug addicts and other categories of people from owning guns. “Of those 42 incidents, 15 (36 percent) involved a prohibited possessor and 27 (64 percent) did not.”

You know personally I already knew this to be true but it is good to see it backed up with data.

Now the only question is can we get it out to the public at large, and help to change the debate that has for too long been shaped by the NRA and other 2nd Amendment fetishists?

Today's example of a man with an arsenal of weapons making death threats comes to you courtesy of Detroit, Michigan.

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Courtesy of Raw Story:

A convicted felon and alleged neo-Nazi amassed 40,000 rounds of ammunition and planned to kill black and Jewish community leaders in Detroit as part of a “hit list,” WXYZ-TV reported on Thursday. 

Federal authorities said this week that a search of 47-year-old federal suspect Richard Schmidt’s home revealed the list and apparent plans to kill Scott Kaufman, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, and Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). 

“You have to realize it is the world we live in,” said Kaufman after being notified of the list. “There are people who don’t like us and would just as soon have us not exist, but you can’t dwell on it.” 

According to NBC News, Schmidt was indicted in January 2013 on federal charges of possessing firearms, ammunition and body armor, all of which violated his parole. Schmidt was released from prison in 2003, after 13 years of incarceration in Ohio following a homicide conviction for shooting and killing a man during a traffic stop. Schmidt also wounded two others during that attack. 

Investigators then found 18 weapons inside Schmidt’s home in Ohio in December 2012, including various types of shotguns and high-caliber rifles, including two different AR-15 assault weapons. 

U.S. Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach, who represents Ohio’s northern district, said investigators have concluded that Schmidt acquired his arsenal at gun shows or via private firearms sales, which currently do not require a background check. 

Someone tell me again how background checks are unnecessary and infringe on a citizen's 2nd Amendments rights? I NEVER tire of hearing that one.

By the way in response those who complain that I never post any stories of regular Americans protecting their homes from criminals with their guns, let me provide you with this shinning example from Holt, Michigan:

When deputies arrived at a house here for a reported home invasion, the suspected intruder was lying just inside the front door, handcuffed, with multiple bullet wounds to his torso.



There you have it. A man breaks into a woman's house to rob her and she fill him full of lead just like our pioneer forebears woulda done. See? Dammit sometimes a woman NEEDS a gun handy when bad guys show up unexpectedly.

Wait, there seems to be more to the story. 

The likely reason for the home invasion: 57 marijuana plants of varying size growing in the basement, Wriggelsworth said. 

"That person went there because he knew what was going on (in the house)," the sheriff said.

Oooohhh!  Apparently the woman, and her man, had been selling drugs out of the house for some time, and had attracted a rather unsavory element to the neighborhood.

So not so much a case of an innocent woman at home protecting her family, and more an episode of "Breaking Bad: Before the Meth."

Pro-wrestlers break character in order to lecture Glenn Beck. Oh you HAVE to see this!

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So the other day I wrote a post about some pro-wrestlers that were doing this anti-immigrations, racist, teabagger shtick and how upset the Right Wing were about it.

Well with people poking fun at the Teabaggers you know Glenn Beck cannot keep his mouth shut about it. So he responded, and during that response he referred to them as "stupid wrestling people."

Which is kind of amazing considering the incredibly low IQ's it must take to be a regular Glenn Beck listener.

Beck's characterization of the wrestling audience as "stupid" really pissed them off to the point that the two character actors portraying the wrestler and his manager actually broke character to tell Beck off.

Courtesy of Mediaite:

“We aren’t in the political business, or the immigration business. We are in the entertainment business,” Keown said. He went on to attack Beck directly for failing to give his audience credit when it comes to the general understanding that pro-wrestling is fake. “Many of your followers are WWE fans and they understand the difference between reality and entertainment,” he added. “Are you out of touch with your audience Glenn? Or are you just a ‘stupid political commentator?’”

I find this kind amazing as these people NEVER break character, for any reason. And I mean never! (Think Stephen Colbert on steroids.)

So you know they were REALLY ticked off at Beck.  Plus they essentially made the same argument that I made in my post, which is that the demographic of the Tea Party and pro-Wrestling are pretty much identical, and therefore so is Beck's audience.

So now we have professional actors saying that their audience is smart enough to know that what they do is only acting. Which then kind of begs the question, is Glenn Beck's audience smart enough to know that HE is only acting as well?