UPDATE :: Alligators and Girls

Retrieved by Pat Darnell  |  April 21, 2012  |  Bryan TX  |  Source Unknown

[Picture Source Unknown]
Caption:
"And of course, we all remember how much Jenny loved her pet alligator Steve, who sadly is also now no longer with us."

________________Reference
http://www.facebook.com/SNN.AMERICA

MooPig's Furlough Department :: "Furlough This"

Precedent of Government going Postal
Duplicitous merging of articles by Pat Darnell   |  Oct 6, 2013   |  Bryan TX

" ... A HuffPost/YouGov poll released Saturday shows that both parties are facing blame for the government shutdown, which stretched into its fifth day. According to the survey, 25 percent of Americans see Republicans and Democrats as being equally at fault. On party lines, 36 percent point a finger squarely at Republicans and 33 percent place more blame on President Barack Obama and the Democrats. ( Chris Gentilviso. Posted: 10/05/2013 | Updated: 10/05/2013. LINK) ... "

You gotta love Huff Post... eh? I think one day they will be a great network, as long as they provide lots of graphics like they do. House Republicans are standing against poor working people and standing for plutocratic corporations and transnationals. President Obama stands for anything that can keep him from being assassinated.
[PHOTO's LINK]

Furloughed Worker Protests
Furloughed federal employes march in front of a shuttered Independence Hall at Independence National Historical Park Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Social Security Administration
A man peers through a window as people came and went from the Social Security Administration Card Center building after being turned away for certain services due to the partial government shutdown, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013 in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/The Star Tribune, Elizabeth Flores)

Bureau Of Land Management
U.S. Post Office letter carrier Jacob Ribald peeks into the window of the Bureau of Land Management office on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013 in Las Cruces, N.M. "I have a lot of mail for them," said Ribald, "at least I tried, right?" The door is locked and a sign is posted saying that the site is closed because of the government shutdown. (AP Photo/The Las Cruces Sun-News, Robin Zielinski )

Note: "AFGE"
Web definitions
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is an American labor union representing over 600,000 employees of the federal government, about 5,000 employees of the District of Columbia, and a few hundred private sector employees, mostly in and around federal facilities. ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFGE ...

“Significant amounts of work that should be reserved for federal employee performance are now performed by contractors because the current definition of inherently governmental is narrow, unclear, and unenforced,” said Mark Whetstone, President of the AFGE National Citizenship and Immigration Services Council. “In striving to retain in their agencies important and sensitive functions, some managers have tried to compensate for the narrowness of the existing definition by employing weaker designations—closely associated with inherently governmental, critical, core, etc.—to protect from outsourcing pressures functions that may not meet the statutory definition but should still be performed in-house. However, these efforts have left the definition even more unclear. And, of course, even a robust and crystal-clear definition is meaningless if it is not enforced. (AFGE, Christina Erling. May 20, 2010. LINK)”

CONCLUSION
Enemies of the USA attack from within our government and from outside it. Anyone who thinks they can do better somewhere else should go there. I think that Washington DC has become indefensible, and it is a great risk to have all the federal government in one place so close to the coast. Therefore the federal government should be housed in a metal building somewhere in Utah. And all the officials should attend by video conference. They could just ride around in automobiles tricked out for transmitting and receiving and attend mobile-like with the Speaker of the House actually a 'Bot -- Speaker of the House-bot ...

SUMMARY
Plutocrats close down the US government and all its contractors for no apparent reason. But it is interesting watching the developments from this shutdown. For instance, the George W Bush library is closed to all its one visitor and three workers. Now that is a total shame.



________________________Reference
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/05/government-shutdown-blame-poll_n_4045780.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFGE
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/05/jim-mcdermott-gop-shutdown_n_4049873.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/04/dennis-ross-cr-obamacare_n_4046284.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/05/dennis-ross-government-shutdown_n_4050231.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037
http://www.afge.org/?PressReleaseID=1163

MooPig Movie Reviews :: "ARGO"

Dedicated to Jonathon Winters*
Treatment by Pat Darnell and Belinda Bingemeister  | Apr 12, 2013 | Bryan TX

Are you a Wheel Watcher? You know, when the contestant spins the Wheel of Fortune and has some good luck, and then spins and lands on Bankrupt? That is a good metaphor for the lack of credibility in ARGO, the movie. Since the debut, actual participant former Canadian ambassador, Ken Taylor, has come out with the real story.

However, if wheel watching makes you tense, you will probably experience fibrillation during ARGO, the movie. In real life and in the movie the solution to rescuing six of would be hostages throws out Occam's Razor that says the simplest answer is often correct. As one skeptic derisively observes, "Mendez’s plan comes from the long-standing 'so crazy it just might work' school of problem-solving."

[Picture above LINK] These are the real persons who were rescued, meeting with Jimmy Carter.


[Picture below LINK] "When the movie was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, the former ambassador, Ken Taylor, wasn't invited, even though he was in Toronto at the time."

" ... Ken Taylor, still fit, fashionable and unflappable at 77, understands full well that Argo is Hollywood, not history. (Jim Coyle Feature Writer, Published on Sun Oct 07 2012. LINK) ... "

'Argo': Former ambassador Ken Taylor sets the record straight | Toronto Star: "In Tehran, moreover, Mendez “was totally in our hands,” Taylor said. His involvement over his weekend in Tehran was “not much . . . just some visa stamps. Ottawa had provided everything else.” In fact, the CIA almost scuppered the plan by making passport notations that used the wrong Iranian calendar and would have essentially had the Americans leaving the country before they arrived. Canadian official Roger Lucy, who spoke Farsi, spotted the error. Otherwise, Taylor said, “that would have been game over.”"

'via Blog this'

Confused yet? We are. How does a well documented, November 4, 1979, Iranian revolution reaching its boiling point, militants storming the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage, become a thriller with Ben Affleck, John Goodman, and Alan Arkin?

That is easy: it's not the story, it's how you tell the story that counts. "ARGO is a rollicking yarn, easily the most cohesive and technically accomplished of Affleck's three films so far, but a part of me wishes the director hadn't cast himself in the lead role ..." says Dana Stevens from Slate.

Which brings us to John Goodman playing comic relief. John Goodman's character teams up with Alan Arkin's character, to shamooz Hollywood movie establishment with a bogus movie project. As if it were business as usual, all the pieces fall into place, and ARGO is born.

Belinda Bingemeister, our Editor of MooPig Movie Reviews and Tubes, told us her purged view of the flick. "You see, guys, we never get to know the real characters -- the hostages. We forget them as soon as the last frame blips out."

That brings to mind several issues in today's movie making by actor/directors. First, as much as we can't name the hostages, we know all about Ben Affleck's character, Tony Mendez. We can still see his face when we close our eyes. John Goodman and Alan Arkin are pretty steadfast in our cerebrals too. There is almost no mention of Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor, the real life headpin of the operation. But sure enough we have plenty of silhouette close ups of Ben Affleck, and repeatable one liners he so cutely delivers.

Second, this is opposed to the character Affleck is supposed to play. Tony Mendez is a CIA shadow person, best known for his anonymity, and ability to blend in. Instead we get the heavy hand of the actor/director throwing himself in every scene, like the egomaniac millionaire celebrity we suspect Affleck to be. Whoops.

And third, think about this: how many movies today are based on the movie industry, show business, or writing? Are they real industries, or just make believe like cinema itself? That brings us to our synopsis ten words or less, of Affleck's ARGO:

A group of veteran actors satirize the movie industry.

... So, it is a Mad Mad Mad Mad world after all.



_______________________Reference
*Jonathan Winters, Unpredictable Comic and Master of Improvisation, Dies at 87.

Jonathan Winters on the set of “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” in 1962.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2012/10/07/argo_former_ambassador_ken_taylor_sets_the_record_straight.html
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/10/argo_hostage_story_mark_lijek_s_true_account_of_fleeing_iran.html
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2012/10/argo_reviewed_director_ben_affleck_s_iran_hostage_crisis_drama_is_his_best.html

Moopig's Brands Department :: "On Becoming a Punch Line"

Snipped by Pat Darnell | Jan 11, 2013 | Bryan TX

[Picture LINK] PHOTO from July 24, 2007, 5:15 PM EST. The Associated Press

We break in on the stream-of-conscious of a reporter on the set of a movie The Canyons, directed by Paul Schrader. It co-stars Lindsay Lohan.

MooPig in its quest to dispel bombast in this world, makes a point to intercede in Lohan's career right now. You see, Timmy, people who make movies invariably go for the celebrity fatale to augment the movies' pull on the paying public. It is a test of brazenness to catch a celeb' in an upswing or a downswing, and keep that intensity going on the film.

Director Paul Schrader is no fool, as we see in the following narrative :

 Here Is What Happens When You Cast Lindsay Lohan in Your Movie - NYTimes.com: "“The script has to be multi-charactered, relationship-based, full of sharp dialogue, set in contemporary locations and have a certain outré value. Cinema for the post-theatrical era. We could attract interesting actors and create a profile for the film via social media. It would be something that we own.” (STEPHEN RODRICK. Published: January 10, 2013. HERE) ... "

Read entire Article HERE ::

¶ Like Schrader, Ellis was at a crossroads. After his early successes, “Less Than Zero” and “American Psycho,” Ellis’s books hadn’t sold as well, and tired of the novel as an art form, he moved to L.A., looking to break into movies. But nothing had gone into production recently, and he was itching to get something made. He went to work on the script while Pope strategized.

¶ Schrader could talk a good game, but it was Pope who would have to implement the plan. Pope suggested making “The Canyons” the most open film ever. There would be daily Facebook updates, and the cast would be made up entirely of actors selected from audition tapes sent to the movie’s Web site. "

[Picture LINK]

'via Blog this'

" ... Pope argued that this populist approach could be applied to financing as well. He explained Kickstarter to Schrader: all they had to do was come up with some good prizes, and kids of all ages would pledge money online to be associated with artist outlaws like Schrader and Ellis. Soon, the film was offering donors a Schrader script-critique for $5,001 and a week working out with Ellis and his trainer for $3,000. In a month, they raised more than $150,000.

" ... Pope reached out to Lohan. Ellis was skeptical, afraid of the melodrama Lohan would bring to the project. But Pope and Schrader reminded Ellis of what he said in an essay for The Daily Beast the previous year: “Do [Americans] really want manners? Civility? Empire courtesy? No. They want reality, no matter how crazy the celeb who brings it on has become.”

" ... Lohan. The first child of a drug-abusing, felonious stock trader and a failed dancer, Lohan survived her Long Island childhood, moved to Hollywood and became America’s newest sweetheart with winning turns in “The Parent Trap” and “Mean Girls.” She cut an album that went platinum. In 2006, she was the best thing in Robert Altman’s “Prairie Home Companion.” The future was hers to write.

" ... Then­­ — as the voice-over in an “E! True Hollywood Story” would put it — it all fell apart. Big-budget films need insurance in case an actress dies or becomes incapacitated and can’t go on with a role. Lohan’s misadventures made her uninsurable, her work dried up and she settled in as a generation’s snarky punch line.

[ ... ]

" ... Lindsay Lohan posing nude in Playboy? If I want to see naked, overpaid, crackheads with daddy issues I'll just go buy Penthouse!
Q: How bad is Lindsay Lohan's meltdown?
A: So bad Al Gore is making a documentary about it! ... "

[ ... ]

And that is why we keep hearing about Lindsay Lohan, the incurable, in everyday media ... because she is fostered along by directors and leeches who would make a buck at her disdain.

[Picture LINK]

" ... NEW YORK – Lindsay Lohan’s antics made gossip headlines time and time again in 2012. But it seems her stint working on “The Canyons” this summer was such a catastrophe that even the New York Times couldn’t resist taking an in-depth look at the train wreck that is Lindsay Lohan. Times contributor Stephen Rodrick delves into Lohan’s days filming the Bret Eaton Ellis flick, alleging the actress’ time was filled with drinking and driving, pill popping and random disappearances. ... "

Lindsay Lohan is 26 years old, born in 1986. We are curious when she will sing happy birthday to Prince William.

________________________Reference
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/magazine/here-is-what-happens-when-you-cast-lindsay-lohan-in-your-movie.html?pagewanted=all&src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB#h[]
http://www.jokes4us.com/celebrityjokes/lindsaylohanjokes.html
http://mindyourownreality.blogspot.com/2007/09/follow-up-you-see-timmy.html
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/01/11/lindsay-lohan-was-drinking-and-driving-popping-pills-during-canyons-filming/#ixzz2HlWfOldK
http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/entertainment/2012/10/12/lovely-talented-lindsay-lohan/?intcmp=related#slide=1
http://amygrindhouse.com/lindsay-lohan-custody-handcuffed-no-bail.html

MooPig's "Just In Case You Were Interested" Department

Do You Have Your Tickets Yet?
Retrieved by Pat Darnell | Dec 18, 2011 | Bryan TX

LSU versus Alabama

*

2012 BCS National Championship Game Tickets
Mon 01/09/2012 7:30 PM CST
Mercedes Benz Superdome
New Orleans, LA Sell

*

*

*

Priced from: $1,269.00 USD
2,472 tickets left

[PHoto LINK]

___________Reference
http://www.stubhub.com/bcs-national-championship-game-tickets/2012-bcs-national-championship-game-1-9-2012-1757749/
http://www.stubhub.com/lsu-football-tickets/?gcid=C12289x461&keyword=LSU+Tigers+Football
http://www.inquisitr.com/165142/lsu-to-rematch-alabama-for-national-championship/

*

*

*

Best Yet Article Found :: 4 Fez, "You'll be my Day and Night"

Retrieved by Pat Darnell [HERE]

March 11, 2009; TATA says: "... I happen to love the fez, though I have no cultural attachment to it and it doesn't amplify my already ample beauty. Which is ample."

[ ... ]

"For a party, years ago, I cut up my hat to make a pattern. I then wrote instructions for a friend in Wisconsin whose access to paper fezzes was spotty at best. Some sacrifices must be made! ..." [Read on HERE]

TATA !! Did you just say a "friend in Wisconsin... ??" Wow: We truly identify with that sentiment. We love it ...