"Fixing oil disaster my responsibility"

So says President Obama. I haven't been following this oil spill that carefully until recently, as BP did a good job getting everyone to believe that they would handle the situation. It is funny in the story the President claims the Federal Govt was in control of stopping the leak from the beginning but this is the first I have heard about them really taking the reigns.

I give the President a lot of credit here. He has nothing to gain at this moment for taking responsibility of this problem (see George Bush after hurrican Katrina) and with elections looming I am very much surprised that he is putting himself out on this limb. Especially considering that this such unprecedented territory and no clear answer for stopping this problem seem clear. I understand the need for off shore drilling, and as we can now see it is responsible for millions of gallons of oil each year, however I would have hoped the Federal regulators and the big oil companies would have a few better contingency plans in place in case something like this ever happened. It is a disaster and they are hard to plan for, but when you send huge oil rigs down thousands of feet to drill for oil in locations that man cannot get to, you have to think that at some point it could all go wrong. At this point I am all for sending Bruce Willis and his team of renegade down there to fix this problem. Hopefully the President can figure out a way to stop this, because it sure as hell seems like BP has screwed the pooch so far on this. I realize that is probably unfair to say, because of the complexity of this problem, but fuck big oil, take some of that money you are making and build a god damn underwater space station around this fucking leak. I don't know the answer but you figure the people that know how and have the resources to drill that deep could come up with a better idea than dropping a huge water balloon down there. Guess I am just going to have to deal with incredible high shrimp prices this summer! Fuck!

I Wouldn't Say Regret,...But Hot Diggity!!!

Once upon a time when I was a Junior in high school I had a principle that urged me to apply at a bunch of different schools because he thought a change of scenery might do me well. One of the schools I applied and later got accepted to was ASU. I am pretty sure any body that is willing to spend on out of state tuition and meets the requirements can get into ASU as it is the biggest University in the country, but I was very intrigued by the warm weather and the prospects of spending 4 years in Tempe. I decided to go to Milwaukee and although I loved my time there, still am very close with a lot of people I met there, and probably wouldn't have a child had I not went there. I still come across links like this and wonder what I was thinking not heading west for a few years. Nothing like some Pac 10 poon! LINKAGE

I Always Root For The Bad Guy

Maybe thats why I love this mash-up.

Gandolf Sings Fresh Prince

You will probably only appreciate this if you can appreciate the epic LOTR. This guys impersonation is spot on.

All About Keeping Children Safe

Pretty funny link. Safety Tips for Kids

Milwaukee Readers, Ever Been to Massive Records???

This place sounds like they have a pretty good music selection, I am hoping someone can verify this...

Movie Review: Iron Man 2

My last few movie reviews have been of small budget films. This one, not so much. Iron Man 2 is your typical summer blockbuster, heavy on movie stars and action, light on story and captivating characters. However there is something about this film that made it work despite all of its flaws.

First things first, its time to put Robert Downy Jr on the short list of best actors out there. He really is terrific as Billionaire Tony Stark. I think I enjoy him outside of the Iron Man suit more than I do while he is actually Iron Man. He is just a likable character despite his flaws as a human being. Debuting in this film is another billionaire weapons maker, by the name of Justin Hammer, played by Sam Rockwell. Rockwell has been one of my favorites ever since Green Mile and Confessions of a Danngerous mind, he probably does the best job acting as anyone in this film, and he brings some much needed comic relief as a villain in this role. Hammer basically wants to be the next Tony Stark and has the means to do so however, he doesn't have the smarts. Unfortunately this is where the likable characters end. I was worried about Mickey Rourke as the main villain, and he just didn't work for me. I don't know if it was the Russian accent, or the idea that he is supposed to be a genius physicist that I didn't like, but something about that character was off. I guess they felt the need to cast Don Cheadle instead of Terrance Howard as Iron Man's sidekick, War Machine. I love Cheadle in pretty much everything he does, but he doesn't add anything Howard could not. Personally I liked Howard better in the role and with both Howard and Cheadle, I found it hard to buy the friendship between they and the Robert Downey Jr. Scarlett Johansson is probably the hottest woman on the planet, so I never mind her being in any film, but in this movie she seemed out of place. I enjoyed some of the flirting done between her and Robert Downey Jr, but I never really felt that she added anything to the movie besides being eye candy. If you saw the previews than you know the Samuel L Jackson is also has a small part in this film which is good, because he really didn't belong in any of it.

I blame most of the problems with the characters on the bad script. I don't want to spoil this terrible plot but basically Iron Man has to fight a bunch of guys in Iron Man suits, which are created by the son of a Russian Scientist who helped create the reactor needed to power the Iron Man suit. Since apparently the only place you can build one of these reactors is in a dingy basement someplace. I my main problem is not that the story is predictable or that the premise of these monumental discoveries comes so easily, but more so that they didn't build a conflict worth caring about. Not once during this movie did I feel like the antagonist had the upper hand for a second. I have ripped the Christopher Nolan Batman movies for some of its flaws, but at least the story in both films was compelling in where the super hero is really the worlds only hope to stop the evil villain. After all that is basically the way every comic book reads. Iron Man 2 falls far short of creating any story lines that are not only believable, but also creating a tension between the protagonist and the antagonist.

What saved this film for me, was just the overall style and look of this film. The technology that is portrayed is a really cool vision of the future. Pretty much everything I loved about the first film I loved about this film. Tony Stark is a cool likable guy that creates some really cool toys to play with. The action scenes were all done very well, and surprisingly the music of ACDC does add to the feel of this movie. Despite the flaws with characters or story, not once in the movie was i getting bored. Iron Man does not break any ground in the comic book genre, but it will entertain you. I think that is exactly what I look for in my summer blockbusters, and this is really one of the few that I think will be worth seeing.

Thank You Bobby Cocks!

Long time Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox, was being honored for 50 years in baseball. Unfortunately it didn't go quite as planned.

File This Under, Totally and Completely Badass

A British army sniper killed two Taliban machine gunners from over a mile and half away. The incredible story can be found here. Rightfully so this is a record for the longest distance kill shot ever reported. Oh yeah and he killed two guys. God bless our armed forces as they are the most skilled killing machines ever known. Even though he is a Brit, I feel safer knowing their are guys like this defending our country.

Humpday: Christina Hendricks

These photos are from a gallery that can be found here. Hat tip to Prust for sending the link. Busty is back in a big way!