- Aaaand the feud between Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino
continues. Even on Christmas, when peace and goodwill toward men are supposed
to carry the day, the rocky relationship between the two filmmakers is anything
but peaceful or kind. Lee, who has previously ripped Tarantino for what he
viewed as excessive use of the n-word in Tarantino’s 1997 movie “Jackie Brown,”
now has a beef with his new movie, “Django Unchained.” The way Lee sees it,
the slavery-themed flick trivializes what African-Americans went through when
they were first brought to America. "I can't speak on it 'cause I'm not gonna see
it," Lee said of the movie. "All I'm going to say is that it's
disrespectful to my ancestors." He then added a few thoughts via Twitter,
writing, "American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It
Was A Holocaust.My Ancestors Are Slaves. Stolen From Africa. I Will Honor Them."
He was unclear how or when he would honor his ancestors, or maybe not seeing
the movie is how he plans to honor them, but either way he and Tarantino should
get in the same room and work out their differences. Back in 1997, Lee zeroed
in on “Jackie Brown” and vented about the offensive language used in the film. "I
have a definite problem with Quentin Tarantino's excessive use of the n-word.
And let the record state that I never said that he cannot use that word—I've
used that word in many of my films—but I think something is wrong with
him," Lee said at the time. His words might ring a little truer if Lee
himself had made a good movie any time in the past decade……..
- Has the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints adopted a
new policy relating to alcohol? The house (of worship) that Mitt Romney built
(with help from Joseph Smith) has long been known to prohibit the use of alcohol
among its members, but that makes the case of U.S. Sen. Michael Crapo, R-Idaho,
all the more curious. Crapo (whose name should be spelled Crap-O after this) was
arrested early Sunday morning in Alexandria, Va., and charged with driving
under the influence, according to the town's police department. Alexandria police
spokesman Jody Donaldson confirmed that Crapo was arrested by an officer at
12:45 a.m. ET after the officer noticed Crapo's vehicle running a red light.
"Sen. Crapo was identified as the driver and arrested after failing
several field sobriety tests," Donaldson said in a statement. "He was
taken into custody without incident and transported to the Alexandria Adult
Detention Center where he was released on a $1,000 unsecured bond." Rather
than follow the traditional politician’s playbook and attempt to fabricate an
elaborate lie to deny his crime, Crapo mostly owned his actions, even if he did
duck cameras and microphones by issuing a written statement through his office
Sunday, saying: "I am deeply sorry for the actions that resulted in this
circumstance. I made a mistake for which I apologize to my family, my Idaho
constituents and any others who have put their trust in me. I accept total
responsibility and will deal with whatever penalty comes my way in this matter.”
According to Donaldson Crapo's blood alcohol level was .110 at the time of his
arrest, well above the legal limit of .08 in Virginia. In light of this
incident, maybe it’s time for the senator to change his official biography on congress.gov
from listing his religion as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints –
Alcoholic Wing………
- Maybe on Christmas, the outright hostility and hatred
that has permeated the past three-plus months of NHL labor talks will simmer
down…..or not. The league and NHL Players’ Association are seemingly no closer
to a new labor deal than they were when the lockout began on Sept. 15, with no
meetings scheduled in the next few days and more than half of the season now
canceled. NHL
commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Don Fehr are doing their
part to ensure that no hockey is played any time soon and Bettman’s efforts on
behalf of the owners have not gone unnoticed by players around the league. With
the NHL on the verge of losing an entire season for the second time in eight
years, Washington Capitals veterans Jason Chimera and Brooks Laich took time
out of their busy holiday schedules to rip the commissioner for her overall
ineptitude. “This is all part of Gary Bettman’s book,” Chimera said Friday. “He
seems to be bent on ruining the game. If that’s what he’s out to do he’s sure
doing a good job of it. It’s disappointing. We’re willing to get a deal done
and try to sit down and talk with no pre-conditions and they don’t want to
talk. If they set agendas, we’re done. We’ve got to start talking. We’re still
not that far apart. It’s just a matter of getting it done. We want to sit down
and they don’t want to meet at this point.” The only point in the negotiation
process where any actual progress seemed to occur was in early December, but
the ground gained at that point dissolved into thin air when Bettman accused
Fehr of sabotaging the negotiations by making additional demands on a
take-it-or-leave-it offer. Laich was a little more subtle about bashing
Bettman, but still fired off a verbal salvo of his own at the commish. “Our
guys really care about the game and it’s unfortunate we feel we’re not getting
the same passion back from the other side,” he said. “I hope they know
something we don’t because I think we’re doing tremendous damage to the game
and I don’t see any positive effect of what we’re doing right now.” With
accusations flying in both directions as the owners work equally hard to
villify Fehr, the holidays seem poised to come and go with no deal, putting
what little remains of the 2012-13 season closer and closer to the edge of the
NHL’s own fiscal cliff………
- Boy, that escalated quickly. Kenya's volatile coastal Tana Delta region
saw its streets run red with a lot of blood over the weekend as raiders killed
villagers and burnt homes in an early morning attack in that left 28 people
dead. Police said the raid appeared to have been a revenge attack stemming from
recent clashes between farmers from the Pokomo tribe and semi-nomadic Orma
tribesmen. The two tribes have battled for decades over access to grazing,
farmland and water in the coastal region and a series of violent clashes in the
region earlier this year left more than 100 people dead. Robert Kitur, Coast
Region deputy police chief, reported that the Orma villagers appeared to have
been prepared for the attack, perhaps leading to a smaller number of casualties
this time around. "About 150 Pokomo raiders attacked Kipao village, which
is inhabited by the Ormas early Friday, but the Ormas appeared to have been
aware and were prepared,” Kitur said. "A confrontation ensued and as
result 19 Ormas and 9 Pokomos were killed." Maybe this is the under-informed
perspective of an outside, but this feels like a situation where someone needs
to step in and find a way to work out ownership to the region’s natural
resources because without such a deal, the Pokomo tribe and Orma seem headed
toward a bloody, interminable war of attrition that ends with many people from
both sides dead and that prized land of no use to those individuals……..
- SpaceX is moving forward in its pursuit of the top spot in the race for
control of space travel amongst private contractors and developing reusable
launch vehicles is the latest step in the process. Officially known as Space
Exploration Technologies Corp., the company released a video Monday showing the
test flight of its Grasshopper rocket, which took off and hovered 12 stories
off the ground. The test flight for the rocket took place Dec. 17 at SpaceX's
rocket development facility in McGregor, Tex. and was considered a success
after t he rocket rose 131 feet, hovered and landed safely on the pad using
closed loop thrust vector and throttle control. While the entire test lasted
just 29 seconds, it showed that SpaceX is moving forward with the development
of a reusable rocket, which the company has described as a way to significantly
reduce launch costs. Other attempts to develop reusable rockets have failed,
further underscoring just how much of an advantage SpaceX would have if it can
master the concept. Founder Elon Musk, who also created PayPal, has expressed a
dream of sending people to Mars to establish human colonies, so maybe his
rockets could stop off at the moon on their way there to drop travelers off at
Newt Gingrich’s moon colony. Musk envisions a world where in the Red Planet's
new inhabitants can travel back and forth because their new home and their
former home planet. To get there, they may travel on the Grasshopper, which stands
10 stories tall and consists of the company's Falcon 9 rocket first stage, a
SpaceX Merlin 1D engine, four steel landing legs with hydraulic dampers and a
steel support structure. Its Dec. 17 flight was a vast improvement over the
Grasshopper's previous flight tests, including two tests that saw it rise six,
then 17 feet, and hover only briefly. SpaceX said it plans to gradually
increase the level of sophistication in the testing process and eventually
build the Grasshopper to a space-ready state of performance………
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