Tuesday, November 03, 2015

Because ... Star Trek, French Johnny Mountain denies global warming and PETA vs. NFL-owned monkeys


- This is never a good press conference for an elected official to be forced into calling. Ocala (Fla.) Mayor Kent Guinn was cruising along, presiding over a relatively insignificant city in the Sunshine State when his world was rocked by hackers associated with the infamous hacker consortium known as Anonymous released a list that included him as a member of the white supremacist group that we all know and hate as the Ku Klux Klan. Guinn, a Republican, was one of several politicians whose names appear on the list and while verifying that list could be a tough challenge, even releasing it in the first place creates enough problems that the mayor felt the need to step to a podium, step in front of the cameras and begin his defense. "I can unequivocally tell you that is an absolute lie," Guinn said of that claim that he rocks a white hood and bedsheet and gathers in the woods with other ignoramuses to validate each other’s socialy stunted views on race and society. Anonymous defended the release of the list in an en effort it dubbed "Operation KKK” through a statement in which it said what many already thought of the KKK: “You are more than extremists. You are more than a hate group. You operate much more like terrorists and you should be recognized as such." Anonymous has made a habit of targeting groups with whom is members disagrees and has taken own several Islamic extremist-linked Twitter and Facebook accounts through “Operation ISIS” or #OpISIS. Taking on the KKK shouldn’t really be necessary in the 21st century, but bigots persist and it’s high time someone did something about it………..


- In Disney’s 1994 animated classic “The Lion King,” Timon the Meerkat asked the very pertinent question, “Who’s the monkey?” In 2015, the animal rights kooks of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are asking not who the monkey is, but who owns the monkey. The PETA ass hats’ concern is that Dallas Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant is the one doing the monkey owning after the troubled wideout posted a photo on Instagram last week introducing the world to "Dallas Bryant," an adorable capuchin monkey. Because everything on social media is scrutinized far too heavily, the post caught PETA’s attention and the group  contacted DeSoto (Tex.) Animal Control to request investigation into Bryant’s “possible illegal possession” of a monkey. “Monkeys belong in the wild—not (for) football players who acquire exotic animals just to make a splash on Instagram, PETA representative Brittany Peet tweeted. The problem is that there is no indication as to whether the monkey actually lives with Bryant, so animal rights groups calling for Dez Bryant to release Dallas Bryant back to the wild may not have two legs and a tail to stand on. They’ll probably be met with the same profanity-laced response that media members received in the locker room after the Dallas Cowboys' loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday when they dared to ask questions as to whether Bryant taunted Seahawks receiver Ricardo Lockette after Lockette was leveled by a vicious block during a kick return. As always, at least all of the drama is about something really important to society and civilization……….


- When, oh when, will TV weathermen learn that their role is getting a good fake tan, overly coiffing their hair, standing in front of a green screen and making marginally accurate forecasts around which losers base their inane small talk in order to feel like they can sufficiently interact with strangers on trains and with co-workers around the water cooler? Not soon enough to help Philippe Verdier. Verdier will henceforth be known as the weatherman for French state television who was fired after releasing and promoting a book ripping politicians, scientists and others for what he calls an exaggerated view of climate change. Yes, it would seem this guy is the first-ever French Republican and while GOP knobs who deny climate change may was to hug him, his bosses did not and his  dismissal from France-2 comes a month before Paris hosts a U.N. conference aimed at the most ambitious worldwide agreement yet to limit global warming. So where does a defrocked weatherman go when he no longer has an outlet for his ignorant views on the air? He posts a video online in which he decries his firing as an attack on media freedom. France Televisions, which owns France-2, doesn’t really need to say anything publicly and so it hasn’t, although the word on the street is that the network believes Verdier had violated ethical rules. But perhaps Verdier’s real crime here is his failure to have a legit weatherman name, like the French equivalent of Johnny Mountain or Dallas Rains or Stormy James. He finally has time to work on such a faux moniker, although finding his next gig might necessitate the Republican Party needs someone to forecast sunny skies for its sh*t storm of a march toward its next presidential nomination……….


- Because…..television. Originality has been dead in Hollywood for so long that it’s no longer worth discussing and everyone has accepted that the only relevant discussion to have is which old, defunct-for-a-reason TV series of movie should be senselessly and lazily revived and turned into a “modern” take on its original premise next. The answer today is “Star Trek,” which will be forging its way into another new frontier in January 2017, when a rebooted take on the iconic sci-fi franchise debuts on CBS’ digital subscription video-streaming service, CBS All Access. To tease dorks and lure them into its online clutches, the network will air a preview broadcast on air, but the first episode and the rest of the series will be available only through the streaming service. This will be the first time “Star Trek” has boldly gone online and this new series will feature new characters traveling to never-seen-before planets. Diehard Star Trek fans can cling to continuity in at least one sense, as Alex Kurtzman, the co-writer and producer of 2009’s feature film “Star Trek” and the 2013 sequel “Star Trek Into Darkness,” will be the executive producer on the series. Bypassing television and going straight to online avenues is a way for CBS to try to latch onto the momentum of outlets such as Netflix and Hulu and a recent Nielsen report shows that traditional TV viewing is down across all age groups except among those age 65 and up. The original “Star Trek” first premiered on NBC on Sept. 8, 1966 and trying to make it relevant in the modern day is a task bigger than and phaser or teleporter can handle……….

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