Movie Review: Terminator: Salvation

On to something more fun, after all these dire political blogs lately. Last night, I watched "Terminator: Salvation" on a friends home theater system. I am not the biggest fan of the "Terminator" franchise, but I enjoy the movies. They've all been 3-4 star movies, and "Salvation" continues that, rating 4 stars.

Christian Bale takes the role of John Connor in this movie. I like Bale a lot, so that was a plus for me. "Salvation" is set in the year 2018, and the few remaining humans are waging a losing battle against Skynet and the Terminators. Connor is not yet the supreme leader of the resistance, but is sort of an inspirational leader to everyone, making regular radio broadcasts to spur on the troops, so to speak. I enjoyed seeing Connor all grown up and in control. I always found it hard to believe from prior movies that he was ever going to be humanity's last hope.

Where "Salvation" falls short is the plot. There wasn't really much of one, and frankly it didn't really seems like anyone was really trying. Very few of the actors demonstrated any emotional range, other than sadness and rage. But, for an action junkie, that's ok. For me, the battle scenes and special effects made up for the relatively simple plot. It also didn't hurt that I was watching it on a 110 inch screen with 7.1 surround sound and Blu-Ray picture quality.

If you like action and you like the "Terminator" franchise, I think you will enjoy "Terminator: Salvation" at some level.

Ideology Rules the Day

Given that the health care debacle now seems to be all but a done deal, I think it's time I make my predictions for the repercussions of the Democrats putting political ideology ahead of the American people. And don't let the supposed "concessions" in the Senate fool you, this is all about the liberal/socialist ideology. The left wants a single payer health system for this country, but they figured out they can't get it all at once, so they've decided to start taking "small" steps. As I've stated before on this blog, if this really was about reforming health care there are many steps that could be taken that would get bipartisan support.

Anyway, here's my predictions of what the fallout of this will be:

1) The Republicans will take control of at least part of the Congress in 2010. The American public does not want this, and they've said so in countless polls. Strangely enough, when Bush wanted to reform social security, the Democrats used polls showing that the American people were against his reform plans to stop that plan. But now, the will of the American people doesn't matter to the Democrats.

2) Some in the far left will sit out 2010. The not so big secret is far left wackos like Howard Dean don't like the current plan either. For them, it doesn't punish the rich, greedy insurance companies quickly enough, and it doesn't provide enough government control of the health care industry.

3) The tax increases in this bill will stop any economic recovery, and unemployment will continue at 10% or higher for the foreseeable future. Anyone with half a brain knows you don't raise taxes during an economic downturn. But the 60 democrat senators who are voting for this are all demonstrating they don't have half a brain.

4) Obama's approval will continue to plummet. He's out of touch if he thinks this is what our country needs right now. We need to get people back to work, we need to get Americans innovating again. We don't need another federal handout and more taxes. It's the economy, stupid!

5) The deficit will increase once the expenses of this plan hit. Remember, the taxes start now, but the benefits don't start until 2013 (coincidentally after the 2012 elections.)

6) By 2028, we will have a single payer health care system.

I believe this is yet another step in forever changing our country for the worse, and it makes me terribly sad. I honestly, hope I am only correct about numbers 1, 2 and sort of 4, but mostly 1 and 2. However, I fear I will be right on all 6 predictions.

See, I'm not Crazy!

Here's documented proof that I'm not a lunatic. The latest Battleground Poll finds 63% of Americans consider themselves "very conservative" or "somewhat conservative", while only 37% of the country consider themselves "something else."

Those who have read this blog for a while will recall that I am naturally distrusting of polls, but this one seems to make sense. The battleground polling is developed by a team of Republican and Democrat pollsters who have to agree on the questions. Further, this specific "ideology" question has yielded very consistent results dating back to 2002.

I often wonder if I'm nuts, because if I watch the media or almost anything from Hollywood, or listen to what the majority of politicians say, I would have to believe that most of the country is liberal. However, in my daily life, I meet very few hardcore liberals. Most people I meet are at least fiscally conservative, and a large percentage are also socially conservative. So, my real life experience was conflicting with what I see from the media and others. This poll validates that what I experience in my daily life is the real truth of our country.

Well, why did Obama and the Democrats win then? I'll cite the old adage..."it's the economy, stupid!" It took a while for this to set in, but look at recent history. Every time this country is in an economic funk, the party in power loses their power.

This is why Obama's approval is tanking. There is 10% unemployment right now, and all Obama and the Democrats can talk about is Health Care reform. The American people don't care about health care reform when they are unemployed or living with significantly less than they did 2-3 years ago.

Hopefully one of the political parties will see this battleground poll and realize the American people are clamoring for strong, conservative leadership. Hopefully in 2010 one party will run as a conservative party that is going to reform the Federal Government, cut spending, reduce the deficit and get out of the way of the American people so that we can get ourselves out of this economic malaise. If one party can do that, they will win in a landslide.

A Very Special New Blog to Follow!

Attention Readers! I've just added a new blog to my "Blogs I Follow" list. This great new blog comes from my son David. It's the blog titled "It's David's World". I hope you enjoy reading it. Please feel free to leave him comments.

President's Say the Darndest Things

Well, President Obama is at it again. This time he is insulting Wall Street "fat cats." In a CBS interview, President Obama said, "I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street."

But that wasn't it, then he went on to say (sarcastically I might add), "They're still puzzled why it is that people are mad at the banks. Well, let's see. You guys are drawing down 10, 20 million dollar bonuses after America went through the worst economic year... in decades and you guys caused the problem. These same banks who benefited from taxpayer assistance who are fighting tooth and nail with their lobbyists... up on Capitol Hill, fighting against financial regulatory control."

Okay, 4 points on this.

1) Please, give the man a teleprompter. I mean, come on! That last sentence sounded like Ricky Gervais in "Night at the Museum."

2) President Obama is obviously out of touch, because other than a handful of liberals, people aren't mad at the banks and financial institutions. They are mad at the government. That's why Obama's Real Clear Politics approval rating is now 48%. But it gets better, because Congress comes in at 28.8% approval.

3) Why didn't he run for office to help "fat cat bankers?" Aren't they Americans too? Don't they have the same rights as other, non-fat cat Americans? Isn't he President of all Americans, both fat cat and non-fat cat?

4) President Obama seems to be making a pattern of insulting various groups of Americans. First it was police, when he said that the police "acted stupidly" in arresting Skip Gates. Then it was doctors when he inferred that doctors sometimes perform unnecessary tonsillectomies, just for the money. And now, he's attacking Wall Street types as "fat cats" (not to mention insulting cats).

This insulting of segments of the American people has to stop! This may sit well with his base, but it doesn't fly with most Americans. The President can't say these types of things...sorry, he has to have more tact than that. Talk show hosts can say those types of things. James Carville can say those types of things. The President cannot. He is the leader of the free world, and he is the caretaker of an office that only 42 others have held (for extra credit, which President served twice, as the 22nd and 24th President). The President has to be above it. Who's next? Librarians? Crossing Guards?

The bottom line is the statement Obama made to CBS sounded more childish than Presidential. The President should stop behaving like an angry liberal talk show host and start acting like the President of the United States.