Nom de plume: Rivrdog

MSNBC comes through

This blog doesn't give props often to MSNBC, for the obvious reason, but they deserve them for warning us of these new TVs.

Sort of brings back the old nickname for the TV, "one-eyed monster", doesn't it?

H/T to the Country Gal

The small businessman's Evensong

"Now I lay me down to sleep,

I've sold enough to pay for the Keep,

Should I die before I wake,

I pray (why the Hell didn't I finish that bottle of  '03 Ravenswood Sonoma Valley Cabernet)

It's been a good day for WillBoat.

Goodnight Chet, Goodnight Ed, Goodnight, World (and back when those words were uttered on NBC every night, it WAS a Good Night, because USAF General (CinC SAC) Curtis LeMay and his successors saw to it, and stalwart men held the thin nuke line, but it was good enough to keep the USA safe, and still would be (had not Bill Clinton closed out SAC). I was on that thin nuke line late in those days, and I'm proud to have done my part.

"Payola" 2

Most folks are not old enough to remember the original "payola" scandal. The word Payola came from "pay to play" + the maker of the-then most popular jukebox, "Rockola". Aside from home vinyl records (45 and 33 rpm, with still quite a few 78s left over), you listened on (non-stereo) radio, played records (only stereo if you were a rich kid), or dumped quarters into Rockolas to hear music. That was the music I grew up with. In that era, a pay-for-play system (Payola) first started with the jukeboxes (every cafe, restaurant and bar which wanted the under 25-crowd's money had to have a Rockola), then spread to the radio stations. If you were a new musical group starting out and you wanted to actually rise up the charts and sell vinyl, you paid to have your music played. The scandal around the pay-to-play system grew until Congress held hearings, and banned the practice.

Payola tried to make a comeback amongst the gangsta rappers of the '90s, but when they started shooting at each other, it got too visible and that practice stopped.

Now it's back, and in the worst knock of the late Steve Jobs' Apple, Inc, it's all about an I-phone and I-pad app. While you are watching the TeeVee, you have your smartass Apple gadget sitting nearby, with the Viggle app running. It listens to the sound from your speakers, and determines what you are watching, then keeps track of how many minutes you've watched. You are "rewarded" for installing the app and using it, at the rate of two reward "points" for each minute watched. After you have watched 62 hours of TeeVee and used the app to monitor it, you are sent a $5 Burger King certificate.

OK, I promised I won't go all health-nut on you, suffice it to say that those who would get excited about being rewarded with free fast fatfood will be indirectly deciding what the rest of us will watch, and that's a bad, culture-busting (waistline-busting and pall-bearer busting) idea. Just how many Ruben Studdards does the entertainment industry need?

An even worse idea is that the entertainment moguls would allow this system to install itself in their empires. I don't give a fig about "American Idol", because, despite the fact that the yearly winners have mostly had good voices, none of them sing the kind of music I like to hear. None of them.

This new system is Payola all over again, pure and simple, this time a bit different, putting the keys to music success in the hands of the fast fatfood generation, and that's a BAD thing.

PDX-xtra: The Flea Party declares war

This ayem, whilst the Oregonian was delivering it's daily fishwrap with it's lead editorial warning the Flea Party that they'd made their point, now it was time to leave, the scruffians attacked.

Suprise attack, masked individual (more on the masks in a moment), flung a bucket of poo onto the Courthouse front door and fled. Cops there within seconds, couldn't find him, probably because all he had to do to escape was cross the street and disappear into the camp, from whence the poo came (obvious, it has a dyed deodorizer in it which is used in the too-few loos at the pigsty).

Okayyyy, so the Flea Party goes to war. When they went to war, they went right to NBC (Nuke-Bio-Chem) Warfare. They chose Biological warfare, and if we are going to have a measured response in kind, which is certainly called for, let's put a decent face on it and leave radiation out, going to Chemical Warfare to dislodge the filthy mob. CS or CN (Cry Sooner or Cry Now) are the choices in tear gas. There's also pepper spray, which doesn't count in the chemical arsenal, but it's available.

No need for a 0330 Charge of the Riot Brigade such as the Oakland, CA po-po used. Just surround the camp and prevent ingress of supplies and re-inforcements. Turn off the water at the street (you don't want them cleaning their faces when the gas goes in). Tell them all to leave, now, and no one leaving by a time certain will be detained (but photograph and identify EVERYONE leaving, no masks. That's allowable as part of a Field Interrogation, permitted in such circumstances. Most will probably leave, and only the hard core which wants to fight will remain.

Give that hard core their fight, show them the riot batons and demonstrate their use. Forget all the glitzy projectile weapons. On this one, let's use knuckles and sticks. Arrest everyone. Charge everyone with the maximum crimes which can be charged, Riot (C-Felony) and Criminal Mischief 1 (C-Felony). Extract cash bail, since all the scruffians are a Flight Risk.

The press MUST be invited to film the entire operation. It is IMPERATIVE that the cops use only that level of force which is sufficient to gain compliance to arrest. Show the faces of the arrested on Cable Access TeeVee, and show the video of the arrest procedures. Invite the press to accompany the clean-up crews in the twin parks, so as to give the taxpayers an idea of the damage which the Flea party "occupation" has caused.

Trials and sentencing. The trials shouldn't take long, the charges of Riot and Criminal Mischief are proven by video of the arrests in the damaged area, and there's little defense to be offered to those charges. A plea of Rioting while Stupid doesn't get you off, boneheads. Everyone sentenced must have monetary damages to pay, no letting anyone off on an excuse of "indigency". Community Service in the clean-up and re-planting of the parks might be in order, but for the obstructionists, and there will be a few, State Prison is appropriate upon conviction of those felonies. If they think that the Flea Party camp was ugly, wait until they get a glimpse of life inside the Walls.

Next, add up the total costs, then file a civil lawsuit against all the arrestees to recover the damages and the costs of everything. File that lawsuit immediately, since it can have a bearing on release agreements, etc.

Then start the recall petition against Hizzoner. He went on a ChiCom-paid boondoggle to China while his city center was under attack. Desertion in the face of the enemy is NEVER to be tolerated in the leadership.

OK, about those masks. A little history, Students. Where do you see terrorists mask up, strike the first blows when there is an accord to avoid conflict in place, and use a weapon of mass destruction in that first-strike attack?

Let's see, the PaleSwinian and other Islamist terrorists do that, various Marxists have done that ("Shining Path", or the Tamil Tigers come to mind). Yep, this group has, at it's hard core, trained terrorists. The eco-terrorists Earth First! and the Animal/Earth Liberation Fronts also mask up and strike first.

And YOU thought it was all about financial inequity?

Silly you.

The "General Assembly" of the Flea Party gets a challenge

I'm only following the Flea Party's antics insofar as they affect Stumptown, my home environment, so I can't tell you if the other Flea Party "occupiers without occupations" are similarly disposed, but of late, the press hereabouts has been treated to pronouncements from the local Flea Party's "General Assembly".

Yep, they have modeled themselves after that other grand rabble out in New Yawk Citeh, the Younighted Nations. Well, they have stolen the name of one of the UN's governing bodies, anyway.

So, the matter of damage to the parks where they are illegally encamped came up at Shitty City Hall over the weekend, and the Parks commissioner, Nick Fish, was so moved to send the Flea Party a bill for damage (so far) of $19,000 or so, served upon the encamped group.

The reply of the Flea Party to the bill? Yes, they DID reply, a strategic error on their part, since they are supposed to be soooooo unlike governments and corporations, and in doing so, they admitted being a party to the City's claim against them. They said they "would probably" pay "some portion" of the damages. It appears that the General Assembly discussed this (for about 3 hours) the other night. Interesting that they only do their group discussions at night, and that it's never been photographed, other than some harangue between anarchists which I saw on the telly last week. Don't our TeeVee stations possess low-light cameras?

Anyway, the existance of the General Assembly of the Flea Party means that the group can't claim that they are a unorganized mob of like-minded folks anymore, so, Portland, let's send more messages to the General Assembly.

Here's MY message: my little political outfit, Common Sense Gresham, has as much standing as the Flea Party, so I issue a challenge to the General Assembly. Send your best dissembler Assembly-person out to the community Media place in Gresham, and my gracious  TeeVee producer, who is also the Factor of the Gresham Tea Party, will arrange to tape a debate between the Flea Party and Common Sense Gresham. If you like, we'll have stakes: Media will arrange a panel of Judges to determine a winner, and the loser will support the winner's cause after debate.

Simple enough challenge, eh?

The question at debate is: Resolved: both living and protesting life in the USA requires working through the System. Common Sense Gresham will defend the System, the Flea Party will defend countering the System.

What say you, good Assemblers?

Bachmann = un-funny

So, Michele Bachmann decided to crack wise with Herman Cain's "9-9-9" economic reform plan last night, pointing out that if you turn "9-9-9" upside-down, you get a "6-6-6" plan, the whole joke meaning to continue the idiotic focus on Christian lore and legend, none of which has any place at a Presidential debate.

Ho-ho, not funny.

Is this funny? Turn Bachmann upside-down and you get a rain-gage of unknown capacity (you'll have to ask her hubby how much that rain-gage holds).

Not funny, either, was it?

GOP, let's keep the debate focused on things which our Constitution says are mandates of Presidential leadership. Let's hear something from the RNC, which should have had enough of the "I'm a better Christian" crap by now. I want the RNC to firmly remind candidates that they are there to run for the office, not for elder of the Church.

Prohibition, and the lesson NOT learned from it

I watched the decent historical documentary (first part) that Ken Burns put together for PBS. No, I am not such a fanatic that I won't watch anything on that propaganda arm of the Left, especially when it comes to Burns' work. I like his films.

The anti-alcohol movements in the USA had two main divisions, those run by the early temperance preachers and women (who promoted women's suffrage at the same time), and those run by the group that followed where the women had failed, the "Anti-Saloon League".

First, the women. After a shaky start to the movement, one woman rescued it from obscurity by taking the long view. That was Mary Hanchett Hunt, who decided to get the Nation's children indoctrinated towards prohibition in the public school systems. At the time, involvement with basic education was the biggest female opportunity outside the home. Hunt realized that if she and her teacher cohorts could raise a generation of kids to despise alcohol, she would have won, and made a great stride for women. She came very close to succeeding, and her organizational skills to require teaching alcohol abstinence in the schools, and to use "junk science" to promote her message, has outlived her, now jumped forward four generations to the present and the environmental movement.

In this first-of-three parts, Burns looked at the rise of the anti-alcohol sentiment across our historical perspective. The rise of the "dry" movement (the final version of the anti-alcohol mindset) and it's ability to gain power, the mechanics of which I had not fully understood before now, required a brilliant political organizer to give it teeth. That man, Wayne Bidwell Wheeler, was a "behind the scenes" type of wheeler-dealer, but he was damn effective, going after the political opposition to the Eighteenth Amendment a man at a time until he had eliminated it by getting all of it defeated at the polls.

Today, we see the very same educational and political methods used again, to support another misguided effort, that of "earth-first".

Our kids are now REQUIRED to be taught that man is killing the planet, and our politicians on the Left have to swear fealty to belief in the junk-science theories of anthropogenic global warming, or risk being ostracized by their own political gurus. The environmental movement was hijacked by the Socialists from it's beginnings in the late Sixties, and it's only real political purpose today has nothing to do with saving the planet, it is a pure wealth-redistribution scheme from the get-go. Real nature conservation, supposedly the original purpose of the movement, gets short shrift from the Socialists.

Yep, those who fail to understand the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it. Sir Winston Churchill said that, along with others, and I repeat it from time to time, because it is the most accurate maxim I can find.

I wonder how many others will see this valuable parallel from the failure of Prohibition to the present-day Green movement? What's more, I'd wager that even Ken Burns didn't see that this parallel would be drawn, or he might not have done the work to teach the lessons of Prohibition in such outstanding historical detail.

Oscar Night

Here's the long and short of it: the long - the show is waaaaay too long. Cut out the Red Carpet crap and take the hook to anyone who speaks more than 2 minutes, and I might watch again.

The short of it: unless my guest wants to watch it, there won't be a TV in THIS house tuned in, even if I have to watch a Dirty Jobs re-run, and it's the one about scut work on a pig farm (did that in my yute, once).

The reloading bench is waaaaay more fun.

Rivrdog, TV Critic

In this article, Yahoo entertainment news details the new fall lineup for See BS-TV.

Some would say that your blogger has no business even TRYING to be a TV Critic, because I watch so little network prime-time TV. I watch re-runs of "Law and Order" fairly often, but that is the ONLY dramatic series I have followed, in DECADES. I just like the way it's written. I've tried to watch "NCIS", but can't, because it bears little resemblance to anything that actually happens in the military. I watch a little "reality" TV, but not much, because all "reality TV" is, is regular TV with untrained actors on an insufficient budget. I watched a lot of "Star Trek", but gave up when "DS-9" went away.

So, I am a TV critic by way of being a defender of our culture, the culture that says you read/view material primarily to be taught, and secondarily to be entertained. "Law and Order" does a good job of teaching how the criminal justice works a step at a time, and how without sharp people doing dull detail work, there wouldn't BE a criminal justice system.

Back to the article. Shields Up, I am going to fling some feces.

"New dramas include "Blue Bloods," with Selleck and Donnie Wahlbergplaying members of a multigenerational family of New York cops, and the comedy-tinged "The Defenders," starring Jim Belushi and Jerry O'Donnell as two colorful Las Vegas attorneys"

OK, 30 years ago, Tom Selleck was a hunk. 30 years ago, I weighed 160#, could run a 10K in 48 minutes and pass an astronaut physical. Times change, so do actors. Has Selleck held on to his charm? We'll see. I rate this one "possibly watchable", due only to Selleck, not the so-so acting talent of Wahlberg. In the other one, Jim Belushi has good comedic talent, is a passable actor, but who the Hell is Jerry O'Donnell? I've never seen any of his stuff, and apparently the Internet hasn't seen much of it either, other than a NSFW video that lurks under the name of "Piranha" and a '97 flick, "Hideous". A comedy/legal drama? That's only pushing the envelope after the envelope has already been pushed into the garbage can. I rate the possibilities here as Potential Bomb, but not the kind of bomb as in, "you 'da BOMB, baby".

"A new romantic comedy, "Mike & Molly," highlights a working-class couple who meet through Overeaters Anonymous. Starring Billy Gardell and Melissa McCarthy, the series comes from red-hot producerChuck Lorre ("The Big Bang Theory" and "Two and a Half Men")."

Disgust Warning! A sitcom about two hetero fatties and their combined blubber? This is an obvious attempt to steal some viewers from "The Biggest Loser", another huge waste of time (but, an excellent indicator of just how far the culture has sunk). BOMB from the start, I don't care how successful the Producer is (Producers are just beancounters, anyway).

"Finally, Shatner stars in his first sitcom whose title alone is sure to be noticed. Called something akin to "(Bleep) ... My Dad Says," it focuses on Shatner's character as an opinionated dad whose rants find their way into the public sphere when his son posts them on a Twitteraccount read by millions."

Really, William Shatner as an opinionated dad? How stereotypical. Shatner has the talent to carry this one off though, merely because he does the classic Opinionated White Guy to a "T". He's the modern-day Jackie Gleason in this department. I rate this one a Probable Success, and will at least watch the pilot. I've watched a few Boston Legal shows, and find myself idling along, waiting for Shatner to come onscene and say something pithy.

Well now, multiply this by 4 and you have the reason I don't watch much network TV. To get me back in front of the Tube every evening, the networks will have to put serious drama on, some classic drama on, some decent movies on, and more blockbuster dramatic series. Shitcanning all their news departments would be a good idea as well, I can get everything I REALLY need off of the Internet.  

News Helicopters

Ah, yes, the ubiquitous eyes in the sky. If you live in a large enough city, you probably have major-network TV stations. If you have those stations, you probably have news helicopters.

I have no clue how many of them there are in the country, but Portland, OR is about the 20th-largest city in size (Metro region) at about 1.2 million people, and we have 5 of them which I know about, one for each major network, and the ABC affiliate has two.

Most of these choppers are modern, turbine driven models, the Hughes 500-series predominating. Most are equipped with a gyro-stabilized "chin" camera with a VERY good zoom lens on it. They do marvelous work from 3,000-5,000 feet above ground level, and the pictures we get on our HD sets are very high quality.

On to commercial videography.

If you've ever hung with news crews, and as a patrol cop that happened to me a lot, you know that the camera people are ALWAYS shooting footage. Stock footage, file footage, practice footage as well as the actual news footage which will be shown. I doubt if it is any different with the news choppers. If I were operating one, I would probably run the camera most of the time, with the lens generally aimed at some item of interest: the airport, freeways, the river, whatever I happened to be flying near. Again, it's a matter of practice to be able to train and elevate that camera and get it properly focused, AND fly the bird, and there are no simulators, so the practice has to be done in a real news chopper.

The zinger.

What happens to all that footage taken from on high? Does it just get erased, or does it all get stored? Hard drive space is very cheap now, with a terabyte costing less than $100 bucks.

The what-ifs.

What if there was a geo-stamping program for that digital footage? So that the area being focused on could be identified with coordinates? What if all those geostamps could be organized onto a spreadsheet, giving a reference to a particular set of coordinates? That's basically how Google Earth works, so the technology is out there. What if the Government was interested in that footage to compile it, maybe only interested in certain coordinates of persons and places they would like to have more information on? Could they get it from the TV stations?

I see a danger here. Do you?