What is the last movie you saw? and rate it.

[Sancho]

Mile, Mile And A Half

Best film I've watched in a long, long time.

Although it is not really a movie, and it's not really a documentary either. It's just sort of a story.

It's the story of a group of friends hiking the John Muir Trail, which runs approximately 200 miles from Yosemite to Mount Whitney. One of them does still photography, one does motion pictures, one does panoramic photos, one does sound. Along the way, one guy drops out, but several others join in. The scenery is gorgeous, but the story really becomes more about life on the trail, the people they meet, the experiences they have, the stories everybody shares.

I think avid hikers as well as folks who never leave the city would enjoy the film.

I Netflixed it

[Emil Miller]

Not exactly a movie but an interesting little item from Youtube.

Fascinating to see Dick Cheney's 1994 view of what an attack on Iraq would do.

http://youtu.be/TC3tINgWfQE


9/10

[YesNo]

Not exactly a movie but an interesting little item from Youtube.

Fascinating to see Dick Cheney's 1994 view of what an attack on Iraq would do.

http://youtu.be/TC3tINgWfQE


9/10

Enjoyable documentary, if that is what one calls these things. It confirmed my worst suspicions.

From a human nature perspective, there is that cute brunette in a white dress around 30 seconds in saying, "Airstrikes. Bomb them, bombing them again and again" (if I got the quote right).

[Emil Miller]

Enjoyable documentary, if that is what one calls these things. It confirmed my worst suspicions.

From a human nature perspective, there is that cute brunette in a white dress around 30 seconds in saying, "Airstrikes. Bomb them, bombing them again and again" (if I got the quote right).

Having an interest in geo-politics, the events as described in this 'conspiracy theory' pretty much match the conclusion that I have come to. Having been forced off the 'Gold standard' under President Nixon, the cards are now beginning to stack up against the 'Oil standard' and, facing economic Armageddon, one wonders what the US will do in the event of a dollar collapse.

[YesNo]

I figure we're headed for a deflation, but I know jack about economics. I also found that Seventh Veil movie on YouTube, but I haven't had time to watch it.

[Emil Miller]

Anatole Litvak's screen version of Terence Rattigan's famous play was unfortunately filmed in Eastman colour when both the subject matter and settings would have been better in black and white. This resulted in very muddy colours and poor definition but Vivien Leigh and Kenneth More are good as the wife of a High Court judge, sympathetically played by Emlyn Williams, who leaves him for a former fighter pilot whose free-wheeling and hard drinking lifestyle is the opposite of the stolid sobriety of the judge. This is a recipe for disaster, for the failure of her efforts to reform her lover eventually leads to attempted suicide. Her situation is redeemed by Eric Portman's wisely pragmatic ex-doctor who has been struck off the register for some unexplained medical misdemeanor and the film ends intriguingly with the departure but possible return of the Kenneth More character.

7/10

[Sancho]

Not exactly a movie but an interesting little item from Youtube.

Fascinating to see Dick Cheney's 1994 view of what an attack on Iraq would do.

http://youtu.be/TC3tINgWfQE


9/10

Ha! Well there's 22 minutes I'll never get back. And I feel stupider for having sat through the whole thing. I wouldn't exactly call that YouTube video a "documentary". In my opinion it didn't rise to that level. I don't even think it rose to the level of a compelling "conspiracy theory." In fact most 3rd grade science projects have more academic rigor than did that film.

What I'd call that piece is - commie propaganda. The film maker has a fundamental problem with inductive reasoning and evidently a profound misunderstanding of global markets, the Fed's monetary policy - and of currency in general. The dollar didn't go from a "gold-backed currency to an oil-backed currency" - the dollar went from a currency in specie (gold) to a fiat currency (backed by the full faith of U.S. government). The U.S. dollar is the dominant international reserve currency precisely because of its stability and liquidity. Markets decide what currency they'd prefer to do business with, and right now it's primarily the dollar.

One day that will change, probably gradually as happened in the middle of the last century when the preferred international reserve currency went from the pound sterling to the dollar, but certain events could drive a change quite rapidly - the Fed losing its sh*t and starting to print money willy-nilly, or the U.S. government defaulting on its debt. Neither is likely, in the near future anyway.

So what about changing the dollar back to the gold standard? I'm no monetary-policy expert either, but when the vast majority of serious economists consider that crazy talk, I'll throw in with them rather than the You-tube experts. Intuitively it seems to me that a currency backed by jewelry is a bad idea.

Hey, here's one I Netflixed:

The Unknown Known

It's about the political life Donald Rumsfeld, essentially a no-holds-barred interview by Errol Morris where he tries to hold the former Secretary of Defense accountable for the missteps and mistakes during the George W. Bush administration. It's a fascinating look into the way his mind works. He doesn't dodge any questions except the last one. Morris asks, "One last question - why'd you agree to this interview?" Rumsfeld smiles and replies, "I have no idea."

[Emil Miller]

Ha! Well there's 22 minutes I'll never get back. And I feel stupider for having sat through the whole thing. I wouldn't exactly call that YouTube video a "documentary". In my opinion it didn't rise to that level. I don't even think it rose to the level of a compelling "conspiracy theory." In fact most 3rd grade science projects have more academic rigor than did that film.

What I'd call that piece is - commie propaganda. The film maker has a fundamental problem with inductive reasoning and evidently a profound misunderstanding of global markets, the Fed's monetary policy - and of currency in general. The dollar didn't go from a "gold-backed currency to an oil-backed currency" - the dollar went from a currency in specie (gold) to a fiat currency (backed by the full faith of U.S. government). The U.S. dollar is the dominant international reserve currency precisely because of its stability and liquidity. Markets decide what currency they'd prefer to do business with, and right now it's primarily the dollar.

One day that will change, probably gradually as happened in the middle of the last century when the preferred international reserve currency went from the pound sterling to the dollar, but certain events could drive a change quite rapidly - the Fed losing its sh*t and starting to print money willy-nilly, or the U.S. government defaulting on its debt. Neither is likely, in the near future anyway.

So what about changing the dollar back to the gold standard? I'm no monetary-policy expert either, but when the vast majority of serious economists consider that crazy talk, I'll throw in with them rather than the You-tube experts. Intuitively it seems to me that a currency backed by jewelry is a bad idea.

Hey, here's one I Netflixed:

The Unknown Known

It's about the political life Donald Rumsfeld, essentially a no-holds-barred interview by Errol Morris where he tries to hold the former Secretary of Defense accountable for the missteps and mistakes during the George W. Bush administration. It's a fascinating look into the way his mind works. He doesn't dodge any questions except the last one. Morris asks, "One last question - why'd you agree to this interview?" Rumsfeld smiles and replies, "I have no idea."

Well You tube is admttedly often highly suspect in its political/economic videos but even before watching this one I, like many others, had been asking why the US and its allies were so intent on getting rid of Saddam Hussein, Muahmar Gadaffi and Bashar al-Assad and turning the Middle East into hornets nest in the process. There has to be a reason and Donald's 'Stuff Happens' doesn't quite cut it.

[Sancho]

Been asking that question myself. But let me add a few of names to that trifecta of brotherly love you've got there: Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, The Ayatollah Khomeini, Fidel Castro, Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler...I'm sure there're more. Oh yeah, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Jefferson Davis, Antonio López de Santa Anna, and of course George III.

I do agree with what Howard Zinn said in that clip, something like - watch governments closely, listen to what they say, and watch what they do. But I'm not yet cynical enough to believe that the United States' recent foreign adventures where all planned out as some shady international economic deal. And an internet video that chops up sound bites of Alan Greenspan, Richard Nixon, Dick Cheney, and Fox News (P'Tooey); and then forms a general conclusion as to a grand plan behind U.S. foreign policy is a good example of horribly flawed inductive reasoning and, well, commie propaganda.

Anyway the big question that's been weighing on my mind lately is - what's going to happen when Rick Perry is elected President of the United States? You know, he's from TEXAS.

[Emil Miller]

Anyway the big question that's been weighing on my mind lately is - what's going to happen when Rick Perry is elected President of the United States? You know, he's from TEXAS.

Surely the question is 'if' rather than 'when' but, assuming that he gets to the White House, how about secession?

[Emil Miller]

With a cast of top class actors of the period, this thriller opens with a cleverly planned murder of an arms dealer by his wife and her lover. It then falls apart with the killer trapped in a lift while his car is stolen and used in the random killing of two German tourists. It was much admired in its day, but with a plot full of holes, Louis Malle's directorial debut is nothing to write home about even though the Paris locations are, as always, very watchable.

http://youtu.be/sjURPebrbrY

[YesNo]

My wife and I watched Blended last night: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blended/ Initially, the dialog seemed goofy, but that was before we finished our bottles of Dragon's Milk: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/335/5428/. After the stout, the dialog was great. I was looking forward to a nice comedy like 50 First Dates from Barrymore and Sandlers and, with the help of the beer, they delivered.

Score:10/10

[Sancho]

Surely the question is 'if' rather than 'when' but, assuming that he gets to the White House, how about secession?

Oh no, it's when. Just ask Governor Perry. He'll tell ya. Definitely when. Boy Howdy. But what happens then? My guess is we'll all be packing heat and wearing those pointy toed cowboy boots that can smash a cockroach in a corner.

Braveheart 8/10

It just seemed appropriate with all this talk of secession (on both sides of the pond). I'm afraid though this time over here if Perry is elected, it'll be North that secedes. In fact, it's probable that everybody except TEXAS secedes.

[YesNo]

I don't normally watch the news. I didn't know Scotland wanted to secede from the UK until I read about it in one of Biggus' poems. But I think he's right. The other parts of the UK should vote on whether they want to let Scotland stay.

And now I hear that Texas just might want to secede or the rest of us might want to secede from Texas and I think to myself if a state can avoid its share of the US national debt by seceding from the union, that might be a good move unless the remaining states don't ultimately plan to pay it back anyway.

At the library I found out that Joan Rivers died and so I checked out "Don't Start With Me". She was 78 when she made this movie, three years ago, and I don't know where she got the energy and the jokes were crude and funny, just what I expected.

Score: 10/10 and I wasn't even drinking.

[Emil Miller]

Oh no, it's when. Just ask Governor Perry. He'll tell ya. Definitely when. Boy Howdy. But what happens then? My guess is we'll all be packing heat and wearing those pointy toed cowboy boots that can smash a cockroach in a corner.

Braveheart 8/10

It just seemed appropriate with all this talk of secession (on both sides of the pond). I'm afraid though this time over here if Perry is elected, it'll be North that secedes. In fact, it's probable that everybody except TEXAS secedes.

That might be construed as having an anti-Texan bias. After all, I seem to recall that the present incumbent's predecessor came from Texas and his oratory will go down in history like that of Demosthenes and Cicero....but not for the same reason.