Let's turn them all into milk and water misses and milksops...

"Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor."
-- Truman Capote
"Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure."
-- George Eliot
"Success is somebody else's failure."
-- Ursula K. Le Guin

I guess turning our kids into weenies is a gift that we have given to the global community. *SIGH* I expect better than this from England...

The article I linked to is worth the read just for the aerobic exercise your heart will feel from your blood pumping with outrage :) It seems that a bunch of idiot savant teachers from the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) in England have come up with the BRILLIANT (definitely not in the Guinness sense) idea of banning the word "fail" from use in classrooms and, get this, replacing it with the phrase "deferred success". According to the brainiac think tank, this will help avoid demoralizing pupils. Did you know telling a student they failed could put them off learning for life? Egads! It sounds like they have some deferred brain cells! ... deferred ... so, their success is going to be deferred until when? Who knows, since the poor sap doesn't even know that he screwed up.

What happened to the salad days of pushing our kids to earn gold stars and candybars? Growing up, we all had the reward system. You excel, you get stuff. You feel good. Everyone wanted to do well and be as smart as they could be. They wanted to be successful. Now in schools, the smart kids get screwed because classrooms need to stay in check with the slower/less bright kids.

Pray that your bright kid has a fabulous teacher, like the Flame of Cheshire, who covertly encourages and nurtures her kids to excel. Otherwise, they are going to be bored and will be running in neutral for a long while.

Dumbing down America is turning in to dumbing down the World.

Stay cool and safe and read a damn book with your kid while you are at it. Somebody has to pump up their brains!

There goes another fantasy, right down the drain...

"Demented! Yes, the strain was too much for him. Typical of the male sex, no stamina!"
Miss Courtney in "Mind Your Language"
"Big deal! You got the endurance of a corpse."
Hector in "Girlfight"

I am sure you all have heard how actor Colin Farrell is suing Former Flame for Allegedly Trying to Distribute Sex Tape. As you also may remember from a previous post, I think that Colin is pretty hot... *SIGH* ... this is why on the surface the story didn't bother me, but when you actually read about the suit, there is a bit of fact that just ruins my lust for the handsome Irish Rover...

Farrell, 29, accuses Nicole Narain of trying to distribute the tape through an intermediary. The two had an intimate relationship 2 1/2 years ago and both agreed that the 15-minute tape that shows the couple having sex would be jointly owned by them and would remain private, according to the suit.

A 15 minute tape?! It took only 15 minutes? Colin... you disappoint me :(

Stay cool and safe ... and Colin starting thinking of football or cricket will you? The ladies will thank you!

Oh My Stars! Columbia TriStar/Sony is Screwing Us!

"Try to control your temper. Remember, 'Peace on earth, goodwill to men' includes witches."
-- Samantha Stephens
"Do not help the quick moneymakers who have delusions about taking possession of classics by smearing them with paint."
-- Frank Capra
"It's not color, it's like pouring 40 tablespoons of sugar water over a roast."
-- John Huston

So, I have finally gotten over my rage at the atrocity the Prince Consort and I experienced on June 25th. As you may or may not know, we are Classic TV and Movie junkies. We turn our noses up in the air to full-screen (the dreaded pan and scan) and demand versions of movies and TV shows in their original form. Where movies are concerned we demand wide-screen and if that means letterbox on our Wega, then so be it. Nothing less will be tolerated. Entertainment in its original and purist form is the only acceptable mode. *SIGH*...

Well, in thinking about writing this entry, I was going to lambaste Best Buy, Coconuts, Wal-Mart, and FYE, but upon reflection they are only dupes of the Evil Columbia TriStar/Sony Empire. The only complaint that I do have with these stores is that the people in charge of their DVD sections need to focus in a common sense way on what true collectors want. They need to be advocates. I guarantee their sales will go up. They should work at not being lemmings drawn into the sea of mediocre, dumbdowned, dumbasses who are essentially movie and Classic TV posers. If you come across anyone who purposefully picks a full screen edition of any movie over wide-screen, quickly avert your eyes and say a quick prayer to St. Orson that he intervene and smite the demons that possess their addled body! I am even ashamed to say that I have a family member who is twisted enough to prefer the full-screen over wide-screen. *SOB* It's very trying. The vigil continues daily for her ...*SNIFF*

I can see that I need to get back to the point of my post... Once again, that tangent must be evacuated...

SO... the Prince Consort and I were all excited to purchase the first season of Bewitched on DVD. We love the show and it must be a part of our ever growing Classic TV collection. As you may know, the first season of Bewitched was made in black and white. These of course are my favorite episodes. There is something about b&w that I adore. I don't know if it is the nostalgia that it brings or if it is the crisp, shadowy film that just seems to have more depth. TV in b&w looks like it is shot better and has a more artistic direction if you ask me.

The Prince and I knew ahead of time that Columbia TriStar/Sony, henceforth known as Satan's Whoremaster, was going to put out, not only the original, pristine black and white version, but also a bastardized colorized version, that would probably blind those who watch it, due to the heresy of it all... We were prepared to not even glance at the colorized version for fear of being turned into a pillar of salt, so we slealthily turned down the new arrivals row at Best Buy, our current crack house, and ... *DRAMATIC PAUSE*... *GULP*, there were nary a b&w version to be had. We both got our hyperventilating breaths under control and asked a sales person where the b&w version was located, thinking that it was just in another section. We were told that there were no b&w version in store, but they were chockful of them at bestbuy.com. I said, "So you don't have them", which the Best Buy Mensa employee said, "Yes we do, they are on-line." I thought, "If I wanted to order the G-D DVD on-line, I would get it somewhere cheaper than bestbuy.com"... I pointed out that I was in the store, so I wanted to purchase in-store... After much verbal tag, I did get the employee to agree that Best Buy did not have them in stock in the store. *GGRR* My mind was reeling... I was furious. How DARE Best Buy take my buying decision away! This is the sort of crap that the ACLU should be focusing on! I went to the manager to share my outrage with him and explain that a real classic TV collector, like myself, who is willing to constantly drop boat loads of money in their store should be sucked up to and accommodated. He was all... "Of course... I understand... yadda, yadda.." This did not assuage my feeling of being violated!

Now the Prince and I were on a quest. By hook or by crook, we were getting this damn DVD. We proceeded to FYE, Coconuts, and Wal-Mart. NONE OF THEM HAD THE BLACK AND WHITE VERSION... Now, I am about to have the biggest conniption that I have ever had. Once we were home and the Prince had doused his ears that I had set on fire with my ranting, I was prepared to go to the Sony site and let them know how these stores were screwing with me and not making their black and white version available. I had visions of Columbia TriStar/Sony, the strong, fierce advocate for Classic TV crushing all those stores that refused to stock in-house the fabulous black and white first season of the perfection that was Bewitched, but I was to be sliced in two by Satan's Whoremaster, for I found that Sony has a store website that one can purchase the DVDs and when I did a search for Bewitched, only the colorized version appeared in the search results. This just topped it. The injustice... the cruelty of it all!....

Aw Jeez...I just tried to recreate my search, so that you all could share in my outrage, but they even laugh at me now... They must have been inundated with complaints, because now when you go through the steps I did on that fateful day, you get to the black and white version. *GGRR*

Well that has certainly taken the wind out of my sails... Well... now I am going to sulk... but remember, they are bastards! They are pushing the colorized version and they must stop!!! "Black and White or Fight!"

Stay cool and safe... and may they have to put every colorized version in the bargain bin and still not break even...

They will not win...

"I know that you personally do not fear giving up your own life in order to take others -- that is why you are so dangerous... But I know you fear that you may fail in your long-term objective to destroy our free society. Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail."
-- Ken Livingstone, London Mayor
"It is important however that those engaged in terrorism realise that our determination to defend our values and our way of life is greater than their determination to cause death and destruction to innocent people in a desire to impose extremism on the world."
-- Tony Blair
"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."
-- Winston Churchill

Today really sucked for Great Britain. Once again, they showed their backbone and have gone on with their day. I don't think we in the U.S. really understand what it is like living with a very real, imminent threat of terrorism on a daily basis. We experienced 9/11, but I don't think it can be compared to what Great Britain has suffered during their long history. To England, I wonder if it seems like just another day. Having to live with the threat of IRA terrorism for eons and having experienced destruction before, during, and after the Blitz must have given them a lovely and admirable stiff upper lip.

In watching the news, everyone seemed so calm. I have such admiration and sympathy for their plight. I think that the Prince Consort and I have actually taken the underground at King's Crossing and Russell Square. Quite unsettling. Even back then in 2000, all the tube stations had several Bobbies and they were vigilant. I imagine after 9/11 and Madrid, their vigilance was cranked up a notch. Well, I imagine it will get even more cranked.

I wonder if the terrorist will ever get it. They will never win. We are tough and love our freedom too much. As Winnie said: "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." Give it up, you misogynistist demon bastards...

Our thoughts and prayers are with British. Thank you for being such a friend to us here in the States. Now it is our turn to return the favor. God Bless!

Stay cool and safe!

Happy Independence Day!

"I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation."
-- Mikhail Bakunin
"[The Declaration of Independence] meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, which should be familiar to all, and revered by all; constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence, and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people of all colors everywhere."
-- Abraham Lincoln
"I was born on July 4, 1776, and the Declaration of Independence is my birth certificate. The bloodlines of the world run in my veins, because I offered freedom to the oppressed. I am many things, and many people. I am the nation.

I am 213 million living souls—and the ghost of millions who have lived and died for me.

I am Nathan Hale and Paul Revere. I stood at Lexington and fired the shot heard around the world. I am Washington, Jefferson and Patrick Henry. I am John Paul Jones, the Green Mountain Boys and Davy Crockett. I am Lee and Grant and Abe Lincoln.

I remember the Alamo, the Maine and Pearl Harbor. When freedom called I answered and stayed until it was over, over there. I left my heroic dead in Flanders Fields, on the rock of Corregidor, on the bleak slopes of Korea and in the steaming jungle of Vietnam.

I am the Brooklyn Bridge, the wheat lands of Kansas and the granite hills of Vermont. I am the coalfields of the Virginias and Pennsylvania, the fertile lands of the West, the Golden Gate and the Grand Canyon. I am Independence Hall, the Monitor and the Merrimac.

I am big. I sprawl from the Atlantic to the Pacific … my arms reach out to embrace Alaska and Hawaii … 3 million square miles throbbing with industry. I am more than 5 million farms. I am forest, field, mountain and desert. I am quiet villages—and cities that never sleep.

You can look at me and see Ben Franklin walking down the streets of Philadelphia with his breadloaf under his arm. You can see Betsy Ross with her needle. You can see the lights of Christmas, and hear the strains of “Auld Lang Syne” as the calendar turns.

I am Babe Ruth and the World Series. I am 110,000 schools and colleges, and 330,000 churches where my people worship God as they think best. I am a ballot dropped in a box, the roar of a crowd in a stadium and the voice of a choir in a cathedral. I am an editorial in a newspaper and a letter to a Congressman.

I am Eli Whitney and Stephen Foster. I am Tom Edison, Albert Einstein and Billy Graham. I am Horace Greeley, Will Rogers and the Wright brothers. I am George Washington Carver, Jonas Salk, and Martin Luther King.

I am Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Walt Whitman and Thomas Paine.

Yes, I am the nation, and these are the things that I am. I was conceived in freedom and, God willing, in freedom I will spend the rest of my days.

May I possess always the integrity, the courage and the strength to keep myself unshackled, to remain a citadel of freedom and a beacon of hope to the world.

This is my wish, my goal, my prayer in this year of 1976—two hundred years after I was born."
-- OTTO WHITTAKER, “I Am the Nation”