The SoapBoxers

Here is another in a series of movie reviews. Since the Oscars were handed out Sunday night, reviewing a relatively minor movie seemed appropriate. This week, the topic is “Parental Guidance”. The basic story is a set of grandparents are asked to watch their grand children for a week while their daughter spends some alone time with her husband. The grand parents, Billy Crystal and Bette Midler, are not the favored grandparents. Their only child, Marisa Tomei, does not trust them to take care of her children in the correct way, since they did such a bad job with her.

Marisa’s character has bought into all of the most modern fads in child rearing; no sugar, no direct confrontation, no winners or losers. Her parents are much more conventional. The movie explores the absurdities of the modern method and the conflict of old school versus new age. It also deals with adults addressing their own relationship issues using children as the mode of communication.

The kids carry most of the movie, but Billy Crystal has finally gotten back to the rapid fire delivery that made him a success in the eighties and nineties. Bette Midler is just wonderful, as she is in almost every role that she has ever played. Bette and the character whom she plays, help Billy and his character in every way except final enlightenment. That comes from the kids, and the son in law, Tom Everett Scott.

The film is enjoyable throughout. Many of the scenes are formula, but they work. It is an uplifting storey, the type that we all need to see from time to time. It has already finished its pass through the major theaters, but it is showing in the discount cinemas and will be on video soon. It is worth the time to watch.

Super Bowl XLVII is now in the history books. It was the story of two halves. In the first half, the Baltimore Ravens simply out classed the San Francisco 49ers. It was 21-6 at half time and looked to be out of control. A half time of Beyoncé interrupted the action, but Baltimore followed up by returning the second half kick off 108 yards for a touch down, 28-6.

Then everything changed. First, the lights went out in Georgia, sorry, in the Super Dome. Actually just half of the lights went out. When the lights came back on, the 49ers came on, 17 un-answered points, 28-23. Baltimore got a field goal, but San Fran continued the come back with a touch down, but missed the 2 point conversion, 31-29. But that was all she wrote. Baltimore got another field goal and gave up a safety with only 4 seconds to go. Final score 34-31 with Baltimore winning their second Super Bowl.

Had San Francisco succeeded in their come back from 22 point behind, it would have been a super bowl record. No team has recovered from more than a 10 point deficit. The result was a very exciting game after an apparent blow out beginning.

The MVP of the game was Joe Flacco, the Baltimore Ravens quarterback. Although he played well, I would have bestowed the award on either Ed Reed, the Ravens Safety, or Jacoby Jones, the Ravens return specialist, who kept the Ravens in good field position and scored on his own. What is most important is that this win was an entire team effort by the Baltimore Ravens. Congratulations to the Baltimore Ravens and all of their fans

Peter Jackson has released the first of three films based on The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. He is cashing in on his success with the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Many people are questioning how he can make three movies from one book when he made three movies from six books (three volumes of two books each). This has a simple answer, because he wants to.

If you are a purist, you will not like this movie. If you did not like Lord of the Rings, you will not like this movie. If you liked Lord of the Rings, but do not like humor in this setting, you will not like this movie. If however, you are willing to accept Jackson’s interpretation of the book and understand that the book was written as a children’s story as opposed to the Lord of the Rings which is a young adult story, you will like the movie.

Like Jackson’s other efforts, the scenery is spectacular, the characters are unique and the story is well told. He has added characters and developed back story into the main plot. He has altered character development and situations both as artistic license and to make it something that can be shown on a movie screen. There are just some things that can be written that cannot be translated into film.

In my opinion, the characters of Bilbo and Gollum are portrayed spectacularly well. The characters of the Dwarves who are actually developed (there are 13 of them) deviate from the book, but not necessarily in a bad way. In the book, many of the dwarves are not sympathetic to others, while they are much more humane in the movie.

The comic relief is almost too much. In the Lord of the Rings, Merry and Pippin provide breaks in an otherwise depressing series of events. In The Hobbit, the serious events provide breaks from the comic relief. Again this is acceptable as this is a children’s story.

Ian McKellen is by far the best part of the movie as he portrays Gandalf the Grey again. It almost seems he was born to play this part. Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee and Hugo Weaving return in their previous roles as Galadriel, Saruman, and Elrond. Although Elrond is in the book, the others are not, again this is part of Jackson’s effort to bring the back story to the foreground.

Elijah Wood and Ian Holm return with cameos as Frodo and an old Bilbo to bring everyone back to middle earth. Martin Freeman plays the young Bilbo, but Richard Armitage as Thoren Oakenshield is by far the star of this movie. The actor and the character take center stage from early in the film to the closing credits.

All in all, this is a good film. If you fall into any of the “will not like” categories I listed in the first paragraph, wait for it to come out on video, but I still recommend it even for you. If you do not fall into the “will not like” categories, this is one movie that falls into worth the full price at the theatre.

Some states have have are making written driver’s license exams only available in English. This is clearly a method to deny licenses to illegal aliens. However, the advocates of this change often insist that this is a safety issue, and is unrelated to immigration. So let’s set aside the immigration issue and answer the basic question: must someone be fluent in English to be a safe driver?

The first thing we should do is look at the actual street signs you encounter over the course of a day. Some of them have no words at all and other signs have obvious visual clues. If you see an octagonal red sign, you don’t need to see the writing on the sign to know that this is a stop sign. Exclude street signs for a moment and count the number of different words you encounter. It’s a tiny subset of the English language.

Why are we excluding street signs? Because it’s not actually necessary to understand a street sign. You simply need to recognize the name. If I was in Paris looking for Rue Montorgueil, I wouldn’t need to understand what those words mean – I’d simply need to look for those words on a street sign.

Rue Montorgueil or Main street, it makes no difference. Comprehension is not required; only the ability to match a pattern.

So now we have this relative handful of important words. I could take someone who speak Spanish, French, or Italian and explain the concepts to them in their native language. After this lesson, they would know how to react to these signs.

So I would argue that the English fluency necessary to be a safe driver is relatively low. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to many people, as many of us probably know some functionally illiterate people who are able to drive without significant issues. Likewise, I’m sure that I could learn and understand Mexico’s traffic signs well enough to drive there, even though I know only a few words in Spanish.

Could I pass a Spanish language test on Mexico’s driving laws, though? Of course not. The level of fluency necessary to understand the test would be far higher than the level necessary to understand the signs. If I wanted to, I could create a test on your state’s driving laws that the vast majority of people would fail. I’d test simple concepts, but use words that very few people know.

The key takeaway here? A large vocabulary does not equal a better understanding of the laws.

There is actually a danger to denying licenses. If you look through the crime logs in your city, you’ll likely see a number of people cited for driving without a license. Lack of a license does not prevent many people from driving. However, it DOES prevent them from getting insurance – so they become uninsured drivers.

The Pro Bowl is the all star game for professional football. This year, the National Football Conference won in pretty convincing fashion. This is interesting since they were missing more of their selected players than the American Football Conference. This year they are back in Hawaii rather than in the Super Bowl venue, but again this year, the game is between the championship games and the Super Bowl. The commissioner made a not so veiled threat the if the game was not played up to NFL standards, the game would be deleted from the schedule. This was due to the lack luster effort the last two years (55-41 and 59-41).

The change in location in 2010 (2009 season) to the Super Bowl venue and the move to before the Super Bowl were both moves by the commissioner to make it a better game. Let’s face it, the game has suffered from both of these moves. The game is supposed to be a reward for players who are recognized for their performance and it is a reward for fans to see their players one last time this season. By moving the venue, the reward for the players was reduced. By moving the date, the reward for the fans has been removed.

Here are the negatives; players from the Super Bowl teams are not there. Fans of the non-Super Bowl teams really have nothing left after this week end. Sure, true football fans will watch the Super Bowl, along with many people who only tune in for the final game, but there is really nothing for most of the fans.

The other change that the commissioner made to the Pro Bowl was to try to give it meaning. The conference that wins is considered the home team in the Super Bowl the next year. This does not actually mean much, but it does define who chooses what uniforms they wear (in general home is dark and away is light) and who calls the coin toss. There is no advantage statistically for home team or coin toss since it is played on a neutral field. This is still the most useful change the commissioner made and the only one I don’t think should be reversed.

I do not know what criteria the commissioner will use to determine the continuance of the Pro Bowl in the future. I would like to think that he realizes just how important this game is to players and fans, even if it is not the hard fought battle of a regular season game. Congratulations to all of the players selected, especially those who were enjoying their first times. Here is hoping that we get to see this celebration for years to come.

Manti Te’o

Last week I was going to write this, but with the Lance Armstrong story breaking, and being a cancer survivor myself, that story took precedence over the big news story that was simply a made up one.

Oh yes…then there is Manti Te’o.

Teo’s story is already added some phraseology to the ever changing slang dictionary we utilize in American culture. We have arguably the largest hoax in the history of college athletics in what I am and others like to refer to as Te’ogate. This is now better known now as a “catfishing” scheme.

For those who have been hiding under a rock (much like an actual catfish would) the term Catfishing is based on the title of the 2010 documentary Catfish — which is also the name of an MTV show that is based on the movie. The purpose of the show is to expose actual hoaxes that take place on line. Although I have never watched the show personally, I have to believe ratings after this past week are now at an all-time high.

So, the story basically goes like this – Star Football player from close knit family rises to success, leads the team that you either love or hate (Notre Dame) and is mentioned in the Heisman trophy talk. He has the perfect on-line relationship with a girl, life is good, then he loses his beloved grandmother and girlfriend almost simultaneously. He manages to overcome this great tragedy and continue to play out the remainder of the season and lead the Fighting Irish to an undefeated record in the regular season, despite all of these off the field events.

What is most amazing to me about the entire Te’o situation is that you would have figured in South Bend, someone would have done some homework on this a little more once the stories came out.

If this would have occurred in my beloved Lincoln, Nebraska, the home of the Huskers, it would have been the biggest news story of the year. Now mind you there is little to no crime in Lincoln, and it is a college community. So if you have the star football player, lose his beloved grandmother, as well as a girlfriend to a disease such as cancer in the span of a mere few to 48 hours (depends on what report you DO believe) one would think that the newspapers, radio personalities, and local news stations would be asking a lot of questions. They would be asking for comments from the family, ask to speak to the mom and dad of the deceased girlfriend, get reactions from friends and acquaintances.

This is what happens when a non-major news event happens in this sound-byte hungry town, at least when a football player is involved.

The biggest irony in this entire situation is that the media is asking all of the questions now. What did Te’o really know? Was he victim or willing participant? They produce various copies of interviews, stories that we now know were made up including his parents indicating they met the young lady. The timelines seem to crisscross all over the place – which in turn just creates more questions.

So how did this go so unnoticed for so long? Why were NONE of these questions asked earlier, how could so many media faces miss the easy questions that needed to be asked or at least investigated.

Now the journalists pile on and raise all of their questions because this story has turned bizarre, and makes for just as good if not better news than if the original story would have in fact all been true.

Lest we forget it was these same major news and sports broadcasting stations – national journalists that all added and put this tragic tale of woe on a pedestal for all to hear and read.

Shame on all of you…..

Next time check your basic facts. Last time I checked that is something they taught you in Journalism 101…

At the end of the day we were not duped by Manti Te’o or the ‘catfishing scheme. No, instead the American public believes what they were told to believe.

And as a parting shot – – fellow lemmings, remember to do your homework. After all, it is what you tell your kids every night when they come home from school.

Joe Cool is headed to the Super Bowl.

So the Super Bowl is set. The Harbaugh brothers will face off in New Orleans in two weeks. My prediction of Atlanta vs Houston was completely wrong. The majority of the sports talk community was only half right, predicting a New England San Francisco match up.

Let’s review the story lines beyond the sibling rivalry. This will be the sixth trip to the big game by San Francisco. It has been a long time since the Montana – Rice and Young-Rice days. There will be many hours of radio dedicated to comparing and contrasting the current version of the 49ers with the historical version. The Ravens have also been a long time away from the Super Bowl, but they do have a connection. Ray Lewis was there for the first on and will play his last game as a Raven in the Super Bowl again.

Both of the teams are undefeated in the Super Bowl with San Francisco posting five wins and Baltimore posting one. With a win, San Francisco fans will start talking about how they are the best. They will tie the Pittsburgh Steelers with six wins, but will claim superiority based on being undefeated. They made same claims when they were tied with Pittsburgh and Dallas for five wins even though those teams had made it to more Super Bowls. Well each fan base can claim as they please. Using that logic, with a win, the Ravens will jump ahead of the 49ers in the list of winners, being undefeated with two wins.

These two teams represent some of the best offense and defense available in the league. Pure offense did not drive the participants this year, nor did pure defense. Overall, my evaluation is that these two teams are very evenly matched. This should be a very good, hard played, close game. Even if you are not a fan of either team, even if you are not a typical professional football fan, you are very likely going to be one of the millions of viewers or at least participate in a Super Bowl party. You have two weeks to plan. Party responsibly, and enjoy the game.

I’m a mom. I have four boys. I grew up in a small town in West Central Iowa. I knew people who had guns. I know people who have guns. I know people who hunt and target shoot. I’ve even been to a range a time or two.

My husband served in the Reserves and served a tour in Iraq. It was strange for me to see him holding a gun and our oldest son (two at the time) was very intrigued by it, although he never saw his dad fire it.

But I never thought about owning a firearm myself. That is, until recently.

People have been giving me a hard time about me going out and getting my Permit to Carry a Weapon, issued by my County Sheriff office. But more people are proud of me for taking the initiative to exercise my Second Amendment rights. Those who question me for “running out and buying guns” have asked me “why now?” My answer? Why not?

If it wasn’t now, when? Would you have an issue with it if I had taken the course and got the permit two years ago, two months ago, two weeks ago? Sure the recent political climate has had something to do with it. And yes, I have no intention on carrying it around my children. But it’s good to know I have it to protect myself and my family.

Just recently, a work at home mom (like myself) had to protect herself and her children from an intruder who used a crowbar to break into her house, break through two locked doors in the home, chasing after her and her kids. She defended herself and her children. You can see the report here.

My main reason to exercise my second amendment rights is to protect myself and my kids. It’s not that I’m afraid of “King George”, but I am irritated that our Government doesn’t seem to understand where the true power lies. I do not need to be held accountable to President Obama, My Senators or Congressmen. They are held accountable to me. To us. To “We the People.” And it seems many of our Representatives have forgotten that, or just choose to ignore it.

Part of me wonders what part of “shall not be infringed” is so hard to understand.

If you don’t want to own a firearm, fine. Don’t. But it is my right.

The part that is so frustrating to me about this whole debate is that this is “for the children.” And yes, what happened at Sandy Hook shook America. It scared me. My son is the same age as many of the children killed. As Aristotle said, “The law is reason, free from passion.” I fear we’re allowing those in charge to use passion to change laws.

If it was really all about the children, we’re failing them. We’re failing them to respect life, in all of its forms. Until we teach our children that life is precious, we’ve failed. My children’s life is precious to me. All of my children, including the child I was told I should abort because, at the time, my husband and I weren’t married. This child is the same age as those at Sandy Hook. So how is his life valuable now, but not 7 years ago? It just doesn’t make sense.

Until we teach our children to fully respect human life, the whole gun debate is trivial.

Sweating now? Wait until the lawsuits come, Lance.

The big news of Monday was Lance Armstrong sitting down, meeting with Oprah, and once and for all admitting that he did in fact use performance enhancing drugs.

Journalists from a variety of types and outlets of media, be it sports talk – writers- columnists – bloggers or reporters all seem to have their opinion. I personally cannot think of another situation where there are so many angles to the story, and so many arguments to make. Depending on your point of view and your opinion of Lance Armstrong, you have a bunch of facts that can support your argument and that can justify your thoughts and feelings.

That is what makes this story so very unique.

Many people will forget that Armstrong was once a relatively unknown cyclist. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer at the age of 25 – being a world-class athlete he ignored the early signs and by the time it was “diagnosed” his cancer had spread to his abdomen his lungs and even his brain.

The extremes of the good and bad of the rise and fall of Lance Armstrong also make this a matchless story.

Everyone is very familiar with the Livestrong Foundation. Armstrong took his fame and popularity and worked to turn it into a juggernaut of fund-raising for cancer research. To date over 470 million dollars have been raised via the Livestrong Foundation.

Aside from the money aspect of the foundation – – There is also the emotional aspect. People purchase bracelets, form prayer chains, do other local activities to raise cancer awareness. Think of how many of the yellow wristbands you have owned or how many you have seen in your daily activities in the last decade.

There is no doubt that what is has done in the field of cancer awareness is truly remarkable.

On the other hand, he had denied all cries of cheating outrage against him. His has defended it vehemently with the very fabric of his being. He has gone on countless talk shows over the years, written books, been deposed numerous times and had no less than 10 lawsuits in various European countries against his naysayers.

But there are two incidents that in particular that stand out to me.

First – Betsy and Frank Andreus. Frank was a former teammate of Lance Armstrong, and he and his wife testified under oath that they had witnessed Armstrong tell medical staff in 1996 that he as using various performance enhancing substances.

Shortly after this testimony Armstrong proclaimed in a television interview that they were simply just “vindictive, bitter, vengeful and jealous.”

Shortly thereafter the Andreus’s received an “anonymous” voicemail from “someone” that is assumed to be associated with Armstrong.

“I hope somebody breaks a baseball bat over your head. I also hope that one day you have adversity in your life and you have some type of tragedy that will … definitely make an impact on you.”

The second incident that makes me cringe involves Emma O’Reily. She was employed by the USPS cycling team to give massages…and apparently smuggle drugs across country boarders to supply the various riders on the team. Roughly 10 years ago she made various statements and told repeated stories of doping and her role in PED drug smuggling.

Armstrong responds by taking her to court in England, suing her for libel and slander for way more money than is even remotely close to her total net worth, and defends himself by saying you can’t trust the statements of a drunken prostitute

Wow.

But these are the stories that are usually forgotten. These are the little people who have been squished along the way in the wake of Armstrong Immortality.

Thursday night he goes in front of the most popular talk show person of our time, Oprah Winfrey, for an “exclusive interview”. I am curious to see how pointed some the questions might be, but I have a suspicion that this will be a lay-up of an interview. Pretty bubble gum…Oprah is Oprah, we aren’t talking about Dan Rather here.

I am sure the TV ratings will be high.

Wonder if somewhere Greg LeMond will be tuning in.

Until next time, Stay Classy Plano Texas.

And we are down to four. My predictions from a couple of weeks ago are debunked. I think I shall continue to write and work as an engineer rather than trust in my gambling acumen or my sports genius. I had predicted that the Atlanta Falcons would face the Houston Texans in the Super Bowl with the Texans taking home the Lombardi Trophy. The Texans fell to the New England Patriots. The Baltimore Ravens beat the Denver Broncos in a shootout to continue the Ray Lewis retirement tour. The Atlanta Falcons held on against the Seattle Seahawks to at least keep that half of my prediction valid while the San Francisco 49ers beat the Green Bay Packers to earn the other spot in the NFC championship.

This weekend, the games averaged 64 points with the least points by a singe team being 28 points. The highest scoring game (SF-GB) had 76 points. What does all of this scoring mean? At the very least, the rules that have been changes to promote more offense has definitely paid off for the league. The interpretation of the rules has also helped. Very seldom does an offensive face mask penalty get called except on linemen. Offensive pass interference also seems to be a penalty that is destine to be remembered only in history.

Next week should be a pair of good games. Baltimore, Atlanta and San Francisco are trying to break back through to the Super Bowl. New England is trying to get back to make up from the loss last year. Thing of the eventual match ups in the Super Bowl, any of them should be exciting. The San Francisco – Baltimore match up would match up brothers as the head coaches. Personally, I would prefer to see a Baltimore – Atlanta match up primarily because San Fran and New England have already been to the big game so often. It is still too early to plan the decorations for your Super Bowl party, but it is time to send out your invitations and make plans for food.