Cranky T-Rex's Blog

The Avengers is quite frankly the most fun I have had in a theater in quite some time.  Not since Scott Pilgrim vs. The World can I recall myself grinning throughout an entire movie or legitimately bursting out in outright laughter.  Sure I've had some chuckles and some smirks, some "heh"s where one could tell laughter was more or less required, even the occasional "ohh that's awesome", but nothing approaching the genuine inner-child feelings invoked by The Avengers . It is the epitome of the good summer blockbuster.  Unlike the heady Dark Knight franchise, The Avengers doesn't cover itself in layers of grit and darkness in an attempt to take place in the real world.  It starts in the realm of fantasy and stays there, allowing for a much more natural suspension of disbelief and lighter tone in general.  On the flip side, it doesn't suffer from the frenetic editing or rampant stupid contrivances that infects fluff like Star Trek (2009) and the T...

The President's campaign has created  The Life of Julia  to tell the tale of a woman's life as it is affected by his policies.  Here is the story of Julianne, the conservative alternative to Julia. The Life of Julianne 3 Years Old Julianne's parents read to her every night.  They take time to play games with her that teach her how to count and how to solve problems. When they enroll her in kindergarten she's ready to learn and succeed. 17 Years Old Julianne excels in school thanks to her parents' active involvement in her life. Her mother is a stay at home mom that carefully monitors Julianne's homework and grades throughout her scholastic tenure. Her father takes practice SAT tests with her and encourages her to work hard. 18 Years Old Julianne's parents have put part of their yearly salary towards a college fund for her ever since she was born. They also encouraged her to get a part-time job in high school and required her to contribute pa...

On Friday I went to the movie theater for the first time in several months to take in Act of Valor , a movie about and starring active duty Navy SEALs. I wasn't really planning on reviewing it formally like this, but I find the reactions I have seen to the movie quite interesting and wanted to weigh in from a different perspective. This review may or may not contain spoilers so consider that the requisite warning. See, on the Left, people hate the movie for not having whining crybaby SEALs who aren't sure of their orders because they're coming from corrupt commanders who are using the SEALs to do all manner of horrible things in the name of making money and increasing their personal power. They want their morally ambiguous, maybe-the-bad-guy-isn't-really-bad-and-we're-not-really-good, convoluted plot with conflicted characters and all of that nonsense. They're also incredibly offended by the "jingoism" and overly pro-military nature of this kind of mov...

Herman Cain's campaign has officially been suspended, following a month-long odyssey of twists and turns. Just before that odyssey began I had publicly endorsed Herman Cain on The Not Ed Morrissey Show. I argued he was the only candidate in the race far enough outside the political thought process to have a shot at actually attacking the problems in Washington in a substantive way. I still believe that much, at least, to be true. I don't know if the sexual harassment allegations against him are true. I don't know if he was prepared to be the President of the United States (or if it's even possible to be prepared for that job.) I don't know if he could beat Barack Obama. But he was my only hope in the GOP field, and it saddens me to see him go, especially this way. Now, to be clear, much of what happened to Herman Cain was of his own making. No rational assessment of his candidacy can claim otherwise. His inconsistency of message between himself and staffers (Mark Bl...

It's rare lately that a subject in the news gets under my skin so much that I feel the need to stop and write a post about it, which is one of the reasons this blog has been so quiet. However, what has taken place over the past few days forces me to blog. You see, all of the hateful rhetoric is making me write this post. I simply have no will of my own to resist it. I have been inflamed and incited to the point of having to share my insight on this matter. The crazy left-wing bloggers, politicians, and columnists who continue to churn up hatred of anyone with whom they disagree by trying to tie them to the shooting in Arizona despite a total preponderance of evidence to the contrary have pushed me right over the edge into a psychopathic rage requiring that I spew forth dialogue uncontrollably. I must attack these people and attack them until their ideas are totally dead. They've placed targets on themselves, and I'm totally unable to resist taking aim and firing away with e...

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 ...