Movie Review: Race to Witch Mountain

"Race to Witch Mountain" is not a remake of the 1975 Disney film "Escape to Witch Mountain". Instead, it's an entirely different story, with Witch Mountain as a common theme. My younger brother was a big fan of "Escape to Witch Mountain" when we were kids, so I got to watch that movie several times. I was excited to see "Race to Witch Mountain" to see where this movie would go in 2009.

"Race to Witch Mountain" is an action-packed, family adventure film. Dwayne Johnson (a.k.a. The Rock) stars as Jack Bruno, a former criminal turned cab driver, trying to make an honest living. Jack's life takes a surprising turn when 2 teenage siblings get into his cab and ask him to drive them into the middle of the Nevada desert. The siblings turn out to be aliens, who are being pursued by US Government agents and an alien assassin. Jack helps the kids escape these agents in a desperate attempt to get valuable data back to their home world, all in an effort to stop an alien invasion of earth.

I really liked this movie. It's a 4 star movie. I've liked Dwayne Johnson in every movie he's been in that I've seen. He'll never be an Oscar winning actor, but he makes a good action hero, and he's definitely a better actor than wrestler. The 2 teenagers in the movie, do a good job with their oddball rolls. Rounding out the cast was an entertaining appearance by Garry Marshall.

This movie is rated PG, and I think it's ok for kids about 8 years and older. I think the action is too intense for younger kids, plus there's a fair amount of suspense, which is hard for younger kids to take.

The Emperor

A few nights ago, I heard someone refer to Barack Obama as Emperor Obama. This has become a common thing I've heard as Obama continues to make moves that will lead to a bigger federal government controlling more of our lives.

This got me thinking about the most famous emperor of all...Emperor Palpatine, who ruled a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. As I thought about it, I thought a lot of "Phantom Menace", "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith", and surprisingly, I found several parallels between Emperor Palpatine's rise to power and President Obama's rise to power.

-Palpatine was preceded by Chancellor Valorum, who was a good man, but largely ineffective due to constant attacks from his opposition. Obama was preceded by George W. Bush, who is a good man, but was largely ineffective due to constant attacks from his opposition.

-Palpatine rose to the Chancellor's spot, not because of who he was, but because of sympathy generated by the plight of Naboo during "Phantom Menace". Obama rose to the Presidency, not because of who he is, but because his teleprompter was better than John McCain's teleprompter.

-Palpatine used a series of galactic crises to gather more power for himself and his executive office. Obama has used the economic crisis to take over 2 auto companies, control the banking industry and appoint approximately 3 dozen czars, gathering more power for himself and the executive branch.

-Palpatine paid lip service to democracy, while orchestrating it's downfall. Obama pays lip service to democracy, while pushing a socialist agenda.

-Palpatine had Darth Maul and then Count Dooku as his apprentice, willing to do his bidding without question. Obama has Joe Biden...which is sort of the same, right?

Look, I'm not saying Obama is going to start wearing black robes and shooting lightning from his fingers. I'm not saying he is going to orchestrate a reorganization of our democracy into an empire. But, if Sean Hannity eventually becomes liberal, becomes Obama's right hand man, and is then confined to a black suit that makes him talk like James Earl Jones, you can't say I didn't warn you about all this.

Indoctrination 101

We are homeschoolers. And today, more than most other days, I was glad of that. Why you may ask? Well, I learned today that President Obama is planning an address to all public school children on September 8th.

One of the conspiracy theories that abounds amongst conservatives, and frankly the liberals don't do much to dispel, is that the public schools are one of the biggest tools the liberals use to get their ideology across. It's hard to dispute, when you consider teachers overwhelmingly support democratic policies, but that's not the subject of this blog. However, when I heard about Obama's upcoming speech, I thought "well, I'm sure glad we homeschool".

Then I read that the Department of Education has put together special teaching suggestions for teachers to use to help their students prior to and after Obama's speech. Perhaps the most offensive of these suggestions is for K-6th graders to "write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals."

This really irritates me. First...I don't want my kids figuring out what they can do to help this President with his policies. I'm not saying that I wouldn't do a service for my country if asked by my President. But, I would not violate my core beliefs for anyone, nor would I want my kids to ever do that. I want my kids to understand why what this President is attempting to do in this country is wrong, and how they can be part of the democratic process to elect leaders who share their beliefs and will listen to their concerns.

What will happen to kids who are informed enough to write letters objecting to what the Obama is doing? I'm sure some good teachers who can put ideology aside will be ok with this, but others will most certainly not be ok with this. This is a horrible position to put a little kid in, especially if he or she has been raised by parents who didn't vote for Obama and don't support what he is doing.

Second...why does the President have to use the public schools to talk to our kids? Could it be that he wants a captive audience away from the influence of parents? If he really wants to get a message of encouragement to the kids of this country, then get some advertising time during Saturday morning cartoons. Don't go to them when they are stuck in the schools, and their parents aren't there to offer a counter perspective.

Third...this proves that the Department of Education is nearly worthless. Don't they have anything better to do than come up with teaching suggestions in support of an Obama indoctrination speech?

If I were a parent with a kid in the public school system, I would have to think long and hard about whether or not my kids would be going to school on September 8th. The dilemma is...children are sponges, and they soak up whatever they hear, so no matter how well educated they are, something will strike a chord with them...Obama is too good of a speaker to think otherwise. So, as a parent, I would have to be prepared to hear about this, and spend a lot of time explaining why the president was wrong (because he's almost always wrong), and what is correct. Luckily, as a homeschooling family, we don't have that problem.

TV Series Review: Bones, Season 2

A lot of reviews lately...either I'm watching too much TV or nothing interesting is happening. Probably a little of both.

The second season of "Bones" concluded the summer TV series my wife and I were watching. Now school starts and life gets busy again. This season of "Bones" was a little bit of a disappointment for me. For me, the show strayed too far from the cases and became way too focused on the personal lives of the characters. I thought season 1 had a good balance, but season 2 tipped too far in the "character drama" area.

There were a few good episodes, but also several weak episodes. I rate this one as a 3 star season, which is the lowest rating I've ever given a series that I've gotten from Netflix. I think my wife liked it, so eventually we'll probably watch the follow-on seasons.

TV Series Review: Merlin, Season 1

This summer, NBC picked up the British show "Merlin" for a 13 episode summer run. According to Wikipedia, this marked the first time in 30 years that a major network has picked up a British show. I for one, hope that NBC picks up season 2 of Merlin...if they don't, I'll have to get it from Netflix.

"Merlin" is a retelling of the King Arthur story before Merlin and Arthur rose to prominence. Sort of like "Smallville", but with the Arthurian legend rather than Superman. In the show, Merlin comes to Camelot, where King Uther Pendragon has banned the use of magic. Merlin has significant magical abilities, and under the tutelage of the King's Physician, Gaius, begins to grow his magical talents. Of course, he has to hide this from everyone, which is made more difficult by the fact that Merlin is also Prince Arthur's servant.

In the first episode, Merlin learns that his destiny is to help and protect Arthur until he becomes King. This is complicated by the fact that, early on, Merlin and Arthur despise each other. But, as the season progresses, their relationship grows.

"Merlin" is definitely a low budget production. The effects feel like SyFy Channel low budget effects. But, the cast is very good, and the stories are well written. I didn't think there were any particularly weak episodes, and there were several very strong episodes. I went back and forth on a 4 or 5 star rating for this show, so it's probably a 4.5.

Poor Baby Gonna Take His Ball and Go Home

I think Nuke is right, I should quit following sports. As I've stated numerous times, the Denver Broncos are, by far, my favorite sports team. The last 6-7 months haven't been so glorious for us Broncos fans. First, they fell apart and missed the playoffs. Next, Mike Shanahan was fired, ushering in Josh McDaniels as coach. Then star quarterback Jay Cutler got traded after a long feud with Josh McDaniels over reports that the team tried to trade Cutler.

Now there's this...Pro Bowl wide receiver Brandon Marshall has been suspended for conduct detrimental to the team. Marshall is upset because his buddy Jay Cutler is gone, and because he wants a new contract, even though he has 2 years left on his current contract.

A little history on the petulant Mr. Marshall. He was a very gifted receiver in college, but dropped to the 4th round in the draft because he was viewed as immature and high risk. In his 2nd and 3rd seasons, Marshall caught over 100 passes in each season, making the Pro Bowl last year. However, his play on the field was often overshadowed by his off the field problems. Marshall was arrested multiple times, and injured himself while "rough-housing" with his brother. The NFL even suspended Marshall at the beginning of 2008 under its conduct policy.

So, I say let him sit!!! He is more trouble than he's worth. He has proven that he is a "me first" player. Never was this more evident than last season when he caught a game winning touchdown, and was going to celebrate by putting on black gloves to symbolize his joy over Barack Obama's victory in the election (should have been a clue right there if you ask me). Luckily his more mature teammates stepped in and stopped him...he would have gotten a 15 yard penalty for excessive celebration had he completed the stupid act.

Brandon Marshall is a prima donna, plain and simple. He thinks he's better than he is, and is acting like a big baby. I think the Broncos should sit him, with pay, for the entire season. Right now, the Broncos are planning to bring him back on September 6th. I hope they change their minds and he misses serious time. Football is the biggest team sport there is, and there is no room for selfish divas on any team, let alone my favorite team.

Politics of Distraction

Today, the Obama administration announced that it would investigate the CIA for "harsh interrogation" techniques during the War on Terror. This came approximately 2 months or so (don't quote me on that time frame) after President Obama said that he wouldn't investigate CIA interrogation techniques, because he "wanted to look forward rather than backward". But, as Rush Limbaugh says, everything Obama says has an expiration date, and that date came today for the CIA.

Supporters of Obama will claim that the President didn't want to do this, but he had no choice, because the law is the law, and if there is a chance that laws were broken, it must be investigated. These same supporters will claim that Obama knows this will hurt him politically, but he is doing what he has to do.

To that, I say, what a bunch of bull honkey!!!

This is nothing more than Obama's latest attempt to distract us on the right from the real failures that are going on in his Presidency, while bolstering his support amongst the Bush haters that voted for him. His hope is that this will distract those of us on the right from what he's attempting to do with health care and cap and trade. He wants us focused on trumped up issues, rather than real problems. The recent protests of the right against Obama-care have shown that we can still influence our Representatives in Congress, to the point where even some Democrats are now saying that Health Care Reform likely won't happen this year.

Meanwhile, this is having an effect on Obama supporters already. Today at work, a coworker told me all about how the law is the law and Obama is doing what he has to do...at the expense of his approval rating. He told me that, none of the media pundits think that Obama should do this at this point, but that he has to. I could hear the admiration in his voice. The Bush haters are getting what they want...an investigation into something that went on during the Bush era. Meanwhile, those who think Obama is a moderate are bolstered. They are buying the media spin that Obama is doing something that will likely hurt his approval rating because it's the right thing to do.

To this, I ask, why wasn't it the right thing to do 2 months ago? Why didn't he feel he needed to look into potentially broken laws 2 months ago? To answer this, we have to understand the man. Obama is all about spin. He spun a lot during the election to convince people that he was different. The truth is, he's no different than any other politician, using political tricks and gamesmanship rather than focusing on real issues. Add this to the fact that he's already proven that he isn't the moderate he claimed to be during the election, and a lot of Obama voters must be realizing they were lied to.

The only reason for this timing is to distract us from the real issues!! But we're learning that Obama has no substance, and if he can't fool us, he can't get what he wants. A lot of people were fooled during the election, but some of those people are wising up. We can't let him distract us now. We need to stay on this and stop Obamacare from happening. We need to keep Cap and Trade from happening. We need to keep communicating with our Representatives to make sure they understand how we feel about the issues. We have the power to do this, but we have to stay vigilant and keep our eyes on the REAL issues.