TV Series Review: "Warehouse 13", Season 2

My wife and I finished watching season 2 of "Warehouse 13" last night. "Warehouse 13" is a SyFy series about 2 secret service agents, Pete Lattimer and Myka Bearing, who work for a secret government warehouse in South Dakota, collecting dangerous supernatural artifacts and storing them away from the public. Being from South Dakota originally, I do have to comment that there isn't really a town name Univille located in the badlands near a secret government warehouse...that we know of anyway...

I liked season 2 better than season 1. I give it 4.5 stars...I really wish Netflix would embrace the half star concept. This season was very funny, and the rest of the cast got more involved, making for some exciting episodes. There were some good guest stars along the way as well.

I'm just really impressed with the way SyFy keeps rolling out great TV shows. I hope they keep it up for a long time and I'm already looking forward to season 3 of "Warehouse 13".

Movie Reviews

"Clash of the Titans": If you recall, several months ago, I posted that the preview for the remake of "Clash of the Titans" was the proper way to do a preview. It's too bad the makers of this movie didn't follow through on the movie. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad flick, but it's too short on the story. I really enjoy Greek Mythology, and this movie sort of glosses over that in favor of another battle scene or some cool special effect. It's as if they ran out of money with all the special effects and had to cut the movie 45 minutes short.

Overall, I give this one 3 stars.


"Despicable Me": We went to "Despicable Me" as a family at the cheap theater last night. Another ok movie that just fell short of being really good. There are quite a few laughs sprinkled throughout, but for me the story fell short of matching the feel good nature of the Pixar films, and "How To Train Your Dragon." My wife and kids on the other hand were rolling with laughter and loved the movie, so perhaps I was just in the wrong mood.

Another 3 star flick.

Just a Slip?

Last weekend, the Commander-in-Chief, using the Teleprompter-in-Chief, was speaking to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, when he quoted the following from the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.".

So, what's the problem with that? Well, the actual words that Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration are, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Yes, he left out "by their Creator." Not surprisingly, the Drive-By media is ignoring this slip, but the Conservative Blogs have picked up on it. See what we wouldn't know without blogs? Imagine if George W. Bush would have made such a slip...all we'd hear about is what an idiot he is, but the Bamster screws up, and the media is silent.

Pundits have posed 2 possible theories on this. The first is that it was a mistake by the Teleprompter-In-Chief and Obama wasn't quick enough to catch it. The second, and more plausible, is that Obama's speech writer intentionally left it out so as not to offend Americans who don't believe in God. Notice that neither of these options actually blames Obama.

I'm going to propose a 3rd theory. I'm going to propose that this was an intentional omission by a man who believes that all rights come from the government and not our Creator. This is a man, who by his actions and words obviously has a god complex, and believes that the government he currently runs, should be the central force in our lives. Furthermore, I believe he doesn't agree with the Founders on much. I think that President Obama believes that the Founders gave us too much freedom and limited the power of the Federal Government too much, so I think part of him wants to change the words of the Founders, or the meaning of those words, to suit his purposes whenever he can.

And, to think, Obama would have gotten away with it too, if not for those meddling right-wing blogs and their ability to remember the actual text of the Declaration of Independence.

Movie Review: "Kick-Ass"

This is going to be a shortish movie review. I was really intrigued by "Kick-Ass" but never went in the theaters, and frankly, now that I've seen it, I'm really glad I didn't spend theater bucks to see this movie. It's not bad, but it's just not great either. It's maybe a 3 star film, but possibly 2.5.

What really surprised me was how violent it was. I was expecting a sort of updated "Mystery Men", but that's not what this movie is. Instead, it's almost 2 movies that eventually cross paths. There's the somehwat humorous story line involving the hero, Kick-Ass and then a much darker story line involving Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage) and Hit Girl. They cross a few times and then finally big time at the end.

There are some humorous parts in this movie, but overall it came up short of being what I would classify as an absolute must see. You might like it, you might not, I guess it's up to you if you want to watch it.

Quick Lasagna Recipe

I'm not at the point yet in my cooking where I can make up my own recipes, but I am at the point where I can take a recipe and adapt it to our family's pallet, or at least to fit what my wife and I like. My kids are picky eaters, so I never know what they are going to like.

Tonight, that was the case with the Not-sagna Pasta Toss Recipe from Rachel Ray. We have tried this a couple of times before and we found it average. However, over the past year or so I have managed to adapt a marinara sauce recipe from Tyler Florence that we now really like. I can't find the link to the Tyler Florence original, but I like my adaptation better, so I'll give you that recipe.

Ok, so here is the quick lasagna I made tonight, using the concepts I learned from Rachel Ray's recipe.

Marinara Sauce:

Ingredients:
1 28 oz. can crushed Italian style tomatoes
1 small yellow onion
4-6 cloves of garlic (depending on how much you like garlic)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1/2 tablespoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 Bay Leaves
Salt and Pepper to taste

Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Heat the onions and garlic with the olive oil until the onions become translucent looking. Add the tomatoes, oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, sugar and bay leaves and let simmer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Brown some Italian Sausage and after the marinara has simmered for 15-20 minutes add the browned Italian Sausage. Continue to stir and let simmer for another 10-15 minutes.

Note: This marinara sauce is on the savory side with a little heat, not much, but a little. Cut back on the red pepper and pepper if you prefer a sweeter sauce. You can also leave out some of the oregano.

Noodles:

Ingredients:
13.25 oz box of rotini noodles (though any short noodle would work)
1 and 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

Boil the pasta in salted water until the noodles are al dente. Drain the noodles but save 1/2 - 2/3 cup of the salted pasta water. In a mixing bowl, mix the ricotta cheese and mozzarella cheese with the pasta water. Add the pasta and stir to combine.

Combine the noodle/cheese mixture with 3/4 of the marinara sauce/Italian Sausage mixture. Mix thoroughly and then top with the remaining sauce/sausage. Serve with Parmesan cheese on top.

I served this with some Parmesan Garlic Bread. Basically any type of french bread, butter it, top it with Garlic Powder, Italian Seasoning and fresh grated Parmesan Cheese. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees then broil it for 2-3 minutes. Very good, very easy.

This whole meal took me about 45 minutes to make tonight...much better than the 2-3 hours it takes me to make real lasagna. This had much of the goodness of lasagna without all the work. If your family likes lasagna, I really think you'll like this recipe.

A Double Review

"Eureka, Season 4": I decided to do a 2 series review because both of these great series are on season 4...so if you haven't watched seasons 1-3 you probably don't care much about season 4. "Eureka" season 4 continues the goodness of the first 3 seasons, though for a while I was concerned. The writers made a pretty substantial change this season, and I wasn't sure how it would play out. But, in the end, I really liked it, as I have really liked the 3 prior seasons of this SyFy show. Sheriff Jack Carter continues to be one of my favorite characters on TV. This is another 5 star series...maybe trending towards 4.5.

"Psych", Season 4: I'm not sure why this picture didn't turn out the same size as the picture for "Eureka." Anyway, I've said it before and I'll say it again. "Psych" is the best show on television, and it continues to be through season 4. Our heroes, Shawn and Gus are back for more crime solving hilarity with Shawn's dad, Detectives Lassiter and O'Hara and Police Chief Vick. The writing for this show is some of the most original out there.

For 3 seasons, the writers of this show have had a very reliable formula consisting of a murder, wise-cracking crime solving from the Shawn, the ultra observant fake psychic, and usually some last minute mentoring from Shawn's dad that helps Shawn tie it all together. Well, in season 4, they buck that formula in a couple of episodes, and it worked in all but one case.

This show is great...5 stars. With guest stars like Cary Elwes, Judd Nelson, Jeri Ryan and Ally Sheedy, how can it not be great. Also, you have to listen for the references to "The Mentalist", which is CBS's attempt at a serious version of "Psych". I'm going to be DVR'ing as many of the season 5 episodes as I can in preparation for the final 7 episodes of season 5 which start in November. Hopefully over the next 2 months I can see the first 9 episodes of season 5 which I missed while watching season 4, because, well, I love this show.

The Most Divisive Figure in America

President Obama is the most divisive figure in America. Add that title to the list of other names I have called him. For all his critics who claimed that George W. Bush divided Americans, you never heard him attack Democrats and other segments of Americans the way Obama did today and frankly has done throughout his short but disastrous presidency. Obama's entire strategy seems to be focused on pitting the poor versus the rich in this country and then painting the Republicans as the party of the rich. Here are a couple of examples from a speech our President (yes he is President of all of us, even though he doesn't act like it) made today:

"With all the other budgetary pressures we have — with all the Republicans' talk about wanting to shrink the deficit — they would have us borrow $700 billion over the next ten years to give a tax cut of about $100,000 to folks who are already millionaires."

"Keep in mind wealthy Americans are just about the only folks who saw their incomes rise when Republicans were in charge."

In those two quotes, we see everything that is wrong with this President. For one, it's obvious he despises people who got rich off of anything other than politics. He can't despise people who got rich off of politics because he and his wife, and most of the professional politicians in the democratic party got rich that way. Secondly, he is not even willing to consider Republican ideas. I'm a Republican, and I'll freely admit that not all of our ideas are perfect, but neither are the ideas of Democrats. The balance is somewhere in the middle, leaning towards the right if you ask me. Obama doesn't see it this way, and he makes that obvious every time he talks and every time he refuses to negotiate with Republicans.

Contrast that with George W. Bush, who Democrats claimed was the most divisive President in history. Bush went out of his way to work with Democrats on just about every issue. He worked with Senator Kennedy to write the "No Child Left Behind" policy on education and then stood by it when the Democrats blamed it's failure on him. He always acted like he was President of all of us, even when those on the left called him everything from Hitler to Satan. George W. Bush understood the responsibility of his Office meant he had to be somewhat above the fray of everyday politics. George W. Bush was a class act compared to the spoiled brat we have as a President right now.

I didn't agree with everything George W. Bush did his last 4 years, but I sure miss him now. America needs new ideas and bold leadership to reduce the debt and get people back to work. All we get from President Obama is the same tired Democrat rhetoric that the Democrats have been spouting for the last 50 years. The people who voted for Obama because he was new and different have gotten nothing more than a hack democratic politician who happens to read a teleprompter well, and now with 10% unemployment and no relief in sight, we are experiencing the repercussions of those votes.