Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Text messages o' domestic abuse, Mexican political lotteries and and a Pee-wee Herman Netflix movie


- Netflix was doing so well. The video streaming service had expanded its offerings to include its own original content and some of those offerings received great reviews. The prospect of a new Pee-wee Herman movie co-produced by Judd Apatow is not likely to be one of those heralded productions. The film, titled “Pee-wee's Big Holiday,” will premiere exclusively on Netflix in all territories in which the streaming service is available. It will bring back noted pedophile and former children’s television star Paul Reubens will return as his alter ego Pee-wee Herman and also serve as a producer alongside Apatow. "As a fan of Pee-wee Herman since he first appeared on The Dating Game, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the brilliant Paul Reubens on this film. It is a dream come true," Apatow said in a release promoting the film. “In Pee-wee's Big Holiday, a fateful meeting with a mysterious stranger inspires Pee-wee Herman to take his first-ever holiday in this epic story of friendship and destiny." Good, but make sure you keep any and all children who appear in the movie away from Herman and never allow him to be alone with any of them at any time….and make sure that freak keeps screaming his Word of the Day at random intervals while talking to inanimate objects that have been given both names and faces. John Lee, behind the camera on numerous episodes of sitcoms “Broad City” and “Inside Amy Schumer,” will direct this farce beginning next month using a script co-written by Reubens and “Arrested Development” scribe Paul Rust. What a dumpster fire of a trip down memory lane this should be……….


- World, Mexico is giving you a road map for how to make people give a damn about your political elections and if you’re smart, you’ll follow it. Even if the reasoning Mexico is using doesn’t apply to many countries, the concept it plans to use to combat its political problems translates. It seems that Mexico’s political parties are worried that the populace is losing faith in their ability to pick candidates who aren't linked to drug cartels, so the National Regeneration Movement party decided to do something about the issue. To restore faith in its transparency and ability to choose candidates without ties to drug gangs, violence or corruption, the party went Powerball. In other words, party officials had some 3,000 vetted hopefuls put their names in a drum and after a few hearty spins, they picked out the names of 200 people who will run as candidates were pulled out at random. This idea will supposedly squash the trend of people with links to cartels getting parties to allow them to run for office in Mexico by promising to pay for their own campaigns. Before you scoff at the notion of a candidate lotto, just know that within the past week, a rival party dropped from its candidates list a woman whose husband is a former mayor who was arrested for allegedly protecting a drug cartel. Yes, picking candidates the same way they pick winning numbers every Thursday night when your grandmother plays Bingo at the local VFW isn't exactly credible or respectable, but if the alternative is a candidate nose-deep in drug money, then maybe a giant Drum O’ Candidates isn’t such an awful plan……….


- Chris Rainey, you have company. Rainey made headlines back in 2010 while a football player at the University of Florida for texting the words, “Time to die, b*tch,” to a woman with whom he had a relationship – while the police were with the woman investigating claims that Rainey had threatened her. Now-former Louisville guard Chris Jones, who was dismissed from the program on Sunday, didn’t go quite as far as Rainey, but he’s the same sort of d-bag who threatens women via text message and it cost him his spot at the university. According to police, Jones sent a threatening text message to a woman with whom he has had a relationship for much of the past year, vowing to "smack TF out of" her, with "TF" interpreted to mean "the f-ck," after she messed up his room on the afternoon of Feb. 17. After the woman reported the text to police, Louisville coach Rick Pitino suspended Jones for the Cardinals' game the next day at Syracuse. Jones was reinstated and scored 17 points in a win over Miami, but was gone again after that and following Louisville's 52-51 victory Monday night at Georgia Tech, Pitino said, “Unfortunately, we've got to move on. They're like your children. You don't like to see anybody be hurt. But there's also accountability and doing the right things. He didn't.” Predictably, the woman decided not to prosecute Jones and instead, he plans to meet with noted basketball player rehabilitator John Lucas to work on his anger management issues. Some time away from the ol’ iPhone might be beneficial as well………. 


- Want to take one of those cool-looking Viking River Cruises through Europe and cruise down the Rhine or the Rhone to see majestic river valleys, historic churches and majestic mountains, but feel like now is not the best time to go trekking across the globe? You should probably get over your fear of leaving the country, but if you can't, Viking has a new, domestic way to charge you a sh*t-ton of money to spend a week or more aboard a boat with hundreds of strangers. The European river cruise company is preparing to launch an American branch of its operations and set sail on the Mississippi River, taking folks from New Orleans north to Memphis, St. Louis and St. Paul, Minnesota, depending on the season. Gov. Bobby Jindal and Viking officials announced that New Orleans will be the first North American home port for the cruise line and a fired-up Jindal – dollar signs dancing in his eyes – proclaimed that will mean hundreds of jobs and a boost to the city's tourism industry. Viking is expected to begin offering cruises from New Orleans in 2017 and in order to make this nautical wet dream a reality, the company plans to build six boats capable of hosting up to 300 passengers for the new American cruises. Until then, it will continue to offer tours in Europe and Asia and seek more venues in which to continue its rapid expansion of recent years. River cruising has also surged of late, possibly because it means people don’t have to ship out to sea on a vessel that is a floating biohazard and possible fire risk and can be much closer to shore should anything go wrong and force them to evacuate rather than face a week or more without working toilets…………

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