New restaurant opened in the Rio complex. Red Canyon Grill. Grill fare. Nice atmosphere, nice decor. An interesting gas fire was burning in front of the entrance.
Seating took about 30 minutes on a Monday night. The place was packed.
Decent Beer and wine selection.
The lovely Dorene ordered the grilled vegatble platter, which was extremely tasty.
My crabcake sandwitch was also very good.
Overall it was a pleasant experience.
Prices were a bit on the high side, but probably not high for the zip code.
The Newsweek apology that never was. On May 15th Newsweek issued a retraction that was a week too late. The rag published an articile accusing interogators of flushing a Koran down the toilet. This caused rioting in Afghanistan and Iraq that directly led to deaths of at least 15 people and hundreds injured. Newsweek retracted only after trying at first to blame the US Government for not thoroughly reading their preliminary fact check with the Pentagon. This kind of irresponsible journalism seems to be the norm, but there seem to be 280 million consumers willing to pay to read this hearthearted attempt at reporting the news.
The following is from a comment on a friend's blog http://dcampbell7.typepad.com/campbells_corner / , I made on the subject a month ago, before Axiom Kuebler was in full swing:
The US government is not in the business of censoring media, so they are not reading Newsweek each and every day to see what half-baked rumors and speculation is being put into print.
Newsweek has the full obligation to verify its stories and sources before they go to press. They got it wrong. Time for Newsweek to be grow up and admit they made a mistake.
I feel this mistake points to a much bigger problem in the media today. They continually report items that aren't confirmed but sound plausible before they can be verified in an effort to be first. This is irresponsible and blurs the line between objectivity and hidden agendas.
Beyond that, why would Newsweek report such an item willy-nilly. There is a school of thought that says releasing that story served no one but Newsweek's ratings. I am not sure I agree with it, but before I would release an explosive story like that, I would be sure of covering my butt.
Newsweek was wrong. The media immediately circled their wagons around Newsweek, instead of applying the same investigative journalism techniques against one of their own.
When did it become a positive value in journalism to deflect blame for your own mistakes onto the victim of your hatchet job. If that victim were any citizen instead of the US Government this would be a slam dunk case of libel.
By Rene's other half.
They say power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Let's not allow this ego trip to get out of hand my darling. Much like glory, all power is fleeting.
Perhaps we should examime the root source of this desire for power and control.
Thomas Jefferson stated, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." It is my obligation as a member of this great society that I remain vigilant in rooting out oppression from any source.
Absolute Power! What is absolute power? Is it the ability to destroy the world with the push of a button? Or having the ultimate contro to influence the behavior of others and their emotions? Or is absolute power being able to alter the course of events with a single word or action? Assuming that all of the above answer the question, what is absolute power? We must ask ourselves what drives people to want absolute power? Is it self-satisfaction? Financial gain? Is it sheer greed? Or is it simply the individual desire to achieve total dominance over a given set of circumstances? Absolute power may be considered to be the abuse of power delegated to a person or country. A person’s desire to achieve absolute power can result in such an obsession that it can transform the individual to become ruthless, and determined to obtain the highest point of power by whatever means necessary.
It was only two hundred years ago that some very brave people, in their protest of absolute power and tyranny were forced to take up arms to remove their country from the yoke of that opression. It was a struggle they didn't believe they could win, but their belief in freedom and liberty drove them to face those impossible odds. When you travel through those quaint little towns on the Eastern seaboard that state they were the Capitol of the United States for a day, it was not some publicity tour or campaign trail that caused this. It was this fragile government running one step ahead of the British Redcoats who were to hang them if caught.
Their victory was not purchased cheaply. The price was high in blood and destruction and the struggle took years, but they persevered. Perhaps the greatest contribution of Western Society is this concept of individual liberty. It is through this value that all other societal advances have ridden upon.
It is because of this idea of liberty that our agressive and and expanding government has not seized absolute power. It is because of this individual liberty that our volunteer soldiers and sailors are willing to stand in Iraq and Afghanistan and protect people they don't know from the zealots who would take this newly imported liberty from those just released.
I have total power. People who dont already know this are either not worthy of such information or are soon to discover the frightening reality of this truth. I am a galactic master. Minions, find your pathetic place at my feet, not too close to me, and await further instruction.
The White Stripes, Get Behind me Satan, 3 out of 5
Bought the new White Stripes CD, "get behind me satan". I can't decide if it is great or just mediocre. It is certainly a departure from White Blood Cells and Elephant. They are experimenting with all types of musical styles which is quite interesting, but for me, what really drew me in to the White Stripes was their unique sound. Nothing on this album strikes me as an out and out hit. I guess Jack White should be allowed some latitude for experimentation.
Revenge of the Sith 2 out of 5 by Peter Kuebler
We did it. We sold out. We paid George Lucas 12 dollars to see his most predictable and anticipated Stars Wars installment. Our first film of the summer 2005 Blockbuster season.
Visual - Visually the film is stunning. The man is a master of creating a spectacle of effects on screen. There is so much going on at times you wish you could slow down the film to take in all the visual effects.
Story/Plot - Someone needs to steal Lucas' pen. The man cannot write. He cannot write dialog, he cannot write plots, he just cannot and should not. I will give him credit for having the vision so long ago to write his outline for what became, Episode IV, A New Hope. But that is all.
Direction - I don't know who to be more annoyed with the director for getting nothing out of his actors, or the actors for giving nothing. This was just a plodding movie with cut scenes of amazing visual stuff.
Acting - Where do I begin... I don't care how many people tell me Natalie Portman is intelligent, she stinks on ice. Hayden Christensen, what a putz. This guy's can only handle acting two emotions, which are whining and brooding. Suddenly Keanu Reeves looks like Sir Alec Guiness against this clown. With these two acting choices Lucas may have broken the back of his beloved franchise. The finest acting in this plodding behemoth of a movie has to be from the little green muppet Yoda.
My advice, wait for it on video. If you can't. Make sure it is a matinee.
One interesting item I discovered about the Star Wars saga, is that Lucas did not direct my favorite film, "The Empire Strikes Back". This was a deal Lucas had to work out with Fox Studios to make sure he got funding for the movie.
It was directed by Irvin Kershner. An old Hollywood studio director, who certainly knew how to keep a plot movie.
More on the acting. The first movies were not triumphs of acting either, but there was enough talent there to draw you in and care about the characters. Perhaps the first ones were so compelling because of the talent of Harrison Ford who stole the spotlight each and every time he had a scene.
Personally I wanted Hayden to put on the Vadar mask so that I know longer had to hear him cry.