Cranky T-Rex's Blog

I've certainly been away from blogging for several months, but one story has so thoroughly baffled me that I feel compelled to discuss it, particularly in light of all of the changes that have occurred in the United States over the past few years. And that is this one: The Director of the upcoming Captain America film has decided their Captain America will not be a "flag waver." Let's demonstrate how infuriatingly stupid that statement is with an image: Not a Flag Waver Here is a character whose name is Captain America , whose uniform and shield are essentially American flags, and who started his career by punching out Adolph Hitler and other Nazis. Please explain to me how it is possible for this character NOT to be a flag waver. Every time he moves his shield around, he will be waving the flag. Now, a number of superheroes back in the day were walking talking American propaganda machines. Superman used to stand for "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" a...

The Crane Technique Most people remember Mr. Miyagi for his famous "wax on, wax off" training method, but the Karate master gave Daniel-san lots of sage wisdom about all facets of life in The Karate Kid, including one gem that has particular relevance to yesterday's Health Care Summit. You see Daniel was always in a rush to learn, and even though he had barely grasped the basics of how to throw a punch, Daniel immediately asked to be taught the advanced Crane technique when he saw Mr. Miyagi performing it on the beach. In response, Mr. Miyagi chuckled and admonished him, "First learn stand, then learn fly. Nature rule Daniel-san, not mine." Like Daniel, President Obama and the Democrats are perpetually in a rush to do everything, and they always want to do the biggest thing they can. Yesterday at the Health Care Summit, the President once again reiterated his resistance to smaller and more incremental steps towards health care reform by saying, "baby steps ...

There's a classic episode of Star Trek: The Next Generati on in which Captain Picard is captured by the Cardassians in an attempt to glean information about Federation defense plans. Picard is given over to Gul Madred, played by David Warner, who proceeds to torture the good captain in every way imaginable (waterboarding is curiously left out) including inserting a device into Picard that can instantly cause pain and continue to do so for prolonged periods of time. The hallmark of the repeated tortures is the test Gul Madred uses to determine if Picard has finally submitted. Madred has placed above and behind him, four spotlights. He turns them on, and then he asks Picard the simple question of "how many lights do you see?" Picard naturally counts four, only to be rebuked by Gul Madred that there are, in fact, five lights. This exchange is repeated a number of times over several days, and when Picard disagrees, Madred inflicts pain on Picard, even leaving the pain device ...