Enough Already!

I was watching the news tonight, and an ad ran urging voters to call their congressman and let him or her know what they think of the proposed mosque at ground zero in New York City. I wish this issue would just go away. It's nothing more than a distraction from the real mess we are in. So, in the interest of making it go away, here's my quick take on the issue.

1) The Imam and his followers have every right to build the mosque there. It is private property, so as long as New York City zoning laws allow it, they can build there.

2) The people who are opposed to this have every right to question the wisdom of building a mosque at that location. I have found myself asking, "why that site?" With the public so opposed to this, it seems a little like this Imam and his group are flipping the proverbial bird at the public.

3) The Republicans who are clamoring for the Federal Government to step in and do something are hypocrites. You are either for limited government or you aren't. You can't pick and choose...limited government comes with trade-offs, and this would be one of them.

4) The Democrats who are screaming "religious freedom" are hypocrites. When is the last time any democratic politician came to the aid of a Christian or Jewish group? Most of the time they want to shut Christians up. Democrats don't care one lick about religious freedom, unless it helps them look more "worldly" and accomplishes some dreamed up goal of making radical Muslims like us.

That's it, that's the issue. Now, let New York City figure it out so the rest of us can get back to the important issues, like out of control government spending and grand abuses of power by our Federal government.

Movie Review: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Life is funny sometimes. I was really excited about "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" earlier this summer, but then it was getting such low ratings on Rotten Tomatoes that I decided to skip it. Then last week, fellow blogger and movie lover Nuke went to see it with his kids and he loved it. So, armed with this new piece of information, my excitement for this play on the Disney classic was renewed, and today, my oldest son and I saw it.

"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" is loosely based on Disney's Fantasia...in fact they even pay homage to the "cleaning scene" in this movie. Nicholas Cage stars as Balthazar Blake, one of 3 apprentices of Merlin. Blake is charged with finding Merlin's successor. In Dave Stutle (Jay Baruchel), Balthazar believes he has found that successor. It's up to Balthazar and Dave to stop the evil Horvath (Alfred Molina) from raising Morgana Le Fay and destroying the world as we know it.

This movie was just about perfect. It was really funny, had some good action and effects, and even worked in a pseudo love story. I've really gone back and forth on whether this is a 4 or 5 star movie, but I finally settled on 4.4ish. It wasn't quite 5 star worthy, but it was really good. It's the rare movie, lately, where I've found Nicholas Cage to be not annoying. I really like Alfred Molina as Horvath, and Jay Baruchel is the perfect nerd turned hero. I think the only reason I didn't go 5 stars with this is I wanted a little more, and then there was that cleaning scene which was just silly.

On the 9 year old front, my son said it's his new favorite movie. At PG, I think it's appropriate for most kids, probably 8 and older. There are a few scary parts that I think would prevent some younger kids from seeing it. Overall though, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" is a really good movie and one that we will add to our family's DVD collection soon.