- Don’t challenge Syrian President Bashar Assad when it comes to oppression, y’all. When it comes to holding down his people, this guy is world-class and telling him he cannot continue to oppress his people with tanks and guns forever is simply an open challenge to do exactly that. That warning was issued to Assad Monday by Turkey right around the time Syrian soldiers opened fire on at least two buses carrying Turkish citizens, witnesses and officials said. That display came one day after Syrian security forces killed at least 13 people during raids in central Syria, drawing swift condemnation from human rights groups and foreign governments alike. The attacks on the buses, which wounded two people, took place in the flashpoint city of Homs and appeared to be retaliation for Turkey's mounting criticism of Assad. The embattled dictator is presiding over a brutal military crackdown on an 8-month-old uprising against his rule has killed nearly 4,000 people. That led to strong words of condemnation from Turkey on Monday. "You can only continue with tanks and guns to a certain point, the day will come when you will go," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared during a speech at an international religion conference in Istanbul. "Sooner or later, the oppressed will win." Erdogan has become extremely snippy and talkative on the subject of the bloodshed in Syria, saying last week the world must urgently "hear the screams" from Syria and do something to stop the bloodshed. Turkey has done its part in some sense by allowing Syrian refugees and military defectors to take refuge on its soil and Syria's political opposition to use Turkey as a place to meet and organize. Assad is become increasingly isolated as the saga drags on and his ouster would mean the end of a family dynasty that has ruled Syria for four decades. One of the drivers involved in the bus attack, Erhan Surmeli, said he was taking 25 butchers back to Turkey from Saudi Arabia following the Muslim festival of Eid Al-Adha, known as the feast of sacrifice. "We had stopped at a checkpoint," Surmeli explained. "Syrian soldiers emerged from behind sandbags and cursed Erdogan when we told them we were Turks. Then they suddenly opened fire at the bus." In a harrowing escape, Surmeli’s bus crossed into Turkey with at least one smashed window, as shown in a video aired by the Turkish Dogan news agency. Passengers also reported being fired upon by men in a red car driving alongside the bus. The incident should come as no surprise to anyone who has paid even casual attention to the crisis in Syria over the course of this year. Violence has steadily escalated in recent months, especially now that army defectors who sided with the revolt have grown bolder in recent weeks and begun fighting back against regime forces and even attacking military bases. A legit civil war seems well within reason and Assad’s defiance isn't making matters any calmer. His regime’s decision to ban most foreign journalists from entering Syria and prevent reporters from moving freely in the country is adding to the pandemonium and sooner or later, the lid is really going to blow………….
- Details about blockbuster movies in the production process are one of the entertainment industry’s most valuable commodities. When the director of such a film offers any nuggets about the plot of direction of his or her upcoming film, the masses listen with rapt attention. The Dark Knight Rises director Christopher Nolan spilled a few tidbits of intelligence about the much-anticipated next installment of the über-successful Batman franchise. With speculation at a fever pitch, Nolan teased a few details about when the movie will take place. He explained that it will be set several years after the last one. “We left him in a very precarious place. Perhaps surprisingly for some people, our story picks up quite a bit later, eight years after The Dark Knight. So he's an older Bruce Wayne; he's not in a great state. The Dark Knight ended with Batman riding off into the night after being branded an outlaw,” the director said. Nolan also shared some information about the film’s main villain Bane, played by Tom Hardy. "With Bane, we’re looking to give Batman a challenge he hasn’t had before. With our choice of villain and with our choice of story we’re testing Batman both physically a well as mentally," Nolan stated. “He's a big dude who’s incredibly clinical, in the fact that he has a result-based and oriented fighting style. It’s not about fighting. It’s about carnage. The style is heavy-handed, heavy-footed, it's nasty.
” Hardy’s character will have a mask which provides him with gas that allows him to survive a painful injury that he sustains during the film, Nolan also revealed. Speaking about the role, Hardy said, “Anything from small-joint manipulation to crushing skulls, crushing rib cages, stamping on shins and knees and necks and collarbones and snapping heads off and tearing his fists through chests and ripping out spinal columns. He’s a terrorist in mentality as well as brutal action.” It all sounds pretty good and Nolan has shown with his first two runs at directing Batman movies that he is extremely capable, so The Dark Knight Rises should be more of the same when it opens in July of next year…………
- Samsung is attempting something new, different and potentially stupid to promote the price of its Chromebook Series 5 computer. While cutting the price is always nice, the company's New York City Samsung Experience center located near Columbus Circle in midtown Manhattan is also loaning the netbooks out for a free, seven-day trial. Samsung has re-done the front of its store to look like a more colorful version of Apple's Genius Bar support center in its retail stores and at this new stop, customers can log on to a Chromebook, check email (as long as they use Gmail) and get a feel for the machine by using it for a few minutes. Armed with a government-issued ID and a credit card (preferably your own), you can “check out” a Chromebook Series 5 equipped with Verizon 3G, Wi-Fi and a nice laptop bag in which to tote the Chromebook around. The credit card is obviously to ensure that a person doesn’t just walk away with a netbook and not return it. Anyone who does will be charged $449. Once users have their loaner Chromebook registered in their name, they receive an email asking to schedule a "Get to Know Your Chromebook" session, where a representative walks them through how to best use and operate the computer. For those who despise people and prefer as little direct interaction with them as possible (living in Manhattan may not be wise for these people) there is the alternative of a handy support page that takes them through some of the important things to know about Chromebook. If at the end of the week a person decides not to keep the computer or only borrowed it because their own computer was in for repairs somewhere else and they needed a fill-in lapper, they are then asked questions about their experience with the Chromebook, such as what they liked and didn’t like about it and whether they would buy one or recommend it to a friend. Once the computer is returned, customers will receive an email confirming its receipt by the store and assuring them that they will not be charged $449. The current price for the Wi-Fi only version of the Chromebook Series 5 is $349 as opposed to $449 for 3G+Wi-Fi. For those outside the greater Manhattan area……too freaking bad…………..
- Newt Gingrich may be something of a longshot to win the Republican presidential nomination and become America’s next Commander in Chief, but the man named after an ugly lizard has at least one great idea. For too long, children in America have gotten a free ride. Their food, lodging, clothing and education are paid for and what do they contribute? Temper tantrums, sagged pants, attitude and angst? Not good enough, all Americans under the age of 18, not good enough. Thankfully, candidate Gingrich has an idea and he’s not shy about promoting it. Speaking on Monday at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, the former speaker of the house blasted existing child labor laws and blamed “the core policies of protecting unionization and bureaucratization" for “crippling” children. What would President Newt Gingrich do to fix this? Enact “extraordinarily radical proposals to fundamentally change the culture of poverty in America,” that’s what. Among his ideas would be firing school janitors (a notoriously shifty lot) and paying students to clean schools instead. This would address the inherent problem Gingrich sees with laws that prevent children from working certain jobs before their mid-teens. “It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in, first of all, in child laws, which are truly stupid,” he said. “I tried for years to have a very simple model,” he continued. “Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work, they would have cash, they’d have pride in the schools, they’d begin the process of rising.” Gingrich also fired a few weak shots at Occupy Wall Street protesters, saying they should "get a job" and "take a bath.” But those are tired remarks any arch-conservative kook could offer up. It’s Gingrich’s thoughts on paving the way for American sweatshops where our children can turn out quality clothing and other merchandise for pennies per day that merit attention. "Get any job that teaches you to show up on Monday," he said. "Get any job that teaches you to stay all day even if you’re having a fight with your girlfriend. I mean, the whole process of making work worthwhile is central." Well, let’s not get carried away. Mondays suck and being in a fight with your girlfriend can make it impossible to work, so…………..
- Rex Ryan has spoken, the NFL has responded and now he’s the one being told to shut up. Ryan was the one telling a fan to shut up while exiting the field at halftime during a Week 10 loss to the New England Patriots, but it was commissioner Roger Goodell who had the final word by hitting Ryan with a $75,000 fine Monday. It is one of the largest fines in recent history for a head coach, even if it’s a long way from rivaling the $500,000 fine Goodell hit the opposing coach in that same game, Patriots head man Bill Belichick, with for his role in the illegal videotaping scandal of 2007 -- aka SpyGate. Ryan was engaged by a fan who yelled at him, "Rex, (Bill) Belichick is better than you." He responded, "Shut the f**k up!" The exchange was caught on camera, brought to the commissioner’s attention and bam, there comes the fine. Ryan swallowed the discipline and said the right things for once when asked about the fine. "The commissioner has a tough enough job," Ryan said. "I'm an NFL lifer and I know I represent the NFL and represent the Jets, so I'm accountable for my actions and I will not appeal it. Quite honestly, the man's made a decision, and if his decision is that I should be fined $75,000, then that's the way it is. I just want to get it behind me." Getting the situation behind him is one thing (and a good idea since his team is 5-5, free-falling in the standings and has about a 2 percent chance of making the playoffs at all), but the bombastic FAT man is certain to say something else offensive sooner rather than later and incur another fine from the commish, so really it’s just a matter of which of these situations everyone is talking about. He is, after all, the same guy who showed up at a mixed martial arts event during Super Bowl week in Miami and made an obscene gesture at a fan. He may have apologized the day after his exchange with the fan at the Jets-Patriots game and called Goodell a few days ago to discuss the matter, but there is no way Ryan is changing now or ever and that should be a good thing. Unless his team continues to suck, in which case he simply becomes another underachieving loudmouth who talks to much and produces too little……………
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