I've put this off for far too long

Allow me to steal a quote from General Douglas MacArthur:

"people of the blogosphere, I have returned."

Sorry for the lack of postings, but once again, life has other plans for me. Damn.

Anyway, I am safe and my family's house is one piece. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the thousands of San Diegans who have lost their homes to these destructive wildfires. Here's the updates i've kept about the fires over at Newshounds's Off-Topic Corner.

As in all tragedies such as these, you have stories of people in the community lending a helping hand, and you have stores that make you want to get violent over the lack of humanity in people. Here's the good, the bad, and the ugly stories that came out of the Wildfires 2007.

The Good: Regardless of what you think of the Spanos Family, here they did good work, by giving $1 million to the Fire Relief Fund.

Alex and Dean Spanos announced today a commitment of $1 million to aid victims of San Diego County’s wildfires and also to support the community’s firefighting efforts. The Spanos family made a similar donation of $1 million to the Chargers Fire Relief Fund following the destructive wildfires that ravaged San Diego in 2003.

“I can’t believe this is happening to our community again,” said Chargers President Dean Spanos. “But no matter how bad it gets, the people of San Diego always find a way to pull together during hard times, and that makes us all so proud to live here and be part of this community.

You also had members of the Chargers football club who helped out the evacuees at Qualcomm Stadium.

As is custom during the season, Chargers players had the day off Tuesday, but like usual, a few of them chose to dedicate their free time to helping others.

Safety Clinton Hart spent most of his day at Qualcomm Stadium where thousands of people have made temporary homes while wildfires continue to sweep through San Diego County. Hart helped distribute food, water and supplies to those supplanted from their homes. He also dished out smiles and hugs and signed countless autographs.

“It was good to see people keeping their chins up and staying positive through a tough time,” Hart said. “I wanted to go down there and encourage people. I spent a lot of time talking to people who were away from the crowds and hanging out by themselves. I had some really good conversations.”

Hart also spent several hours at Qualcomm Stadium Monday night. He was so encouraged by the hundreds of fellow volunteers that gave their time to helping others that he decided to go back Tuesday.

Most importantly, I would like to thank all the firefighters who have worked tirelessly to save as many homes as possible. You guys put yourselves on the front lines while putting your own lives at risk. Thank you for all that you have done.

The Bad: Unfortunately, there are some people who just don't have any humanity whatsoever, as is the case with the anonymous asshole who started the Santiago Fire up in the O.C.

One of the larger fires in Southern California was deliberately started by someone with apparent knowledge of arson, a fire official said Thursday.

The Santiago Fire in Orange County was started in two places along a little-traveled road, according to Chief Chip Prather of the county's fire authority.

The fire, which has burned more than 25,000 acres, was started in brush just off Santiago Canyon Road, not close to homes. It spread rapidly, indicating the arsonist had some knowledge of winds and other factors.

"It is a confirmed arson. There was evidence found at the scene. That is the purpose of our early declaration of it being an arson-caused fire," Prather said. He would not describe the evidence.

To the jerkoff who did this, let me say this: enjoy Hell. You've earned a one-way ticket.

As I have learned though the Virgina Tech Massacre, some right-wing clowns don't know when to keep their fucking mouths closed during a time of tragedy. Insert radio talk show host Glenn Beck as a candidate for Asshole of the Year with these idiotic comments.

I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today.

There's a name for people who act like this during troubling times like what San Diego County - and most of Southern California for that matter - went through: selfish, mean-spirited pricks.

That's all i've got for now.

Rush Limbaugh is an innocent bystander! And those who exposed him are just trying to silence him!

Here's a nice case of right wing lunacy to begin the month of October: all of us are now aware of how conservative radio talk show host/drug addict/America's no. 1 doucebag Rush Limbaugh stepped in it - again.

LIMBAUGH: Another Mike, this one in Olympia, Washington. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER 2: Hi Rush, thanks for taking my call.

LIMBAUGH: You bet.

CALLER 2: I have a retort to Mike in Chicago, because I am a serving American military, in the Army. I've been serving for 14 years, very proudly.

LIMBAUGH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER 2: And, you know, I'm one of the few that joined the Army to serve my country, I'm proud to say, not for the money or anything like that. What I would like to retort to is that, if we pull -- what these people don't understand is if we pull out of Iraq right now, which is about impossible because of all the stuff that's over there, it'd take us at least a year to pull everything back out of Iraq, then Iraq itself would collapse, and we'd have to go right back over there within a year or so. And --

LIMBAUGH: There's a lot more than that that they don't understand. They can't even -- if -- the next guy that calls here, I'm gonna ask him: Why should we pull -- what is the imperative for pulling out? What's in it for the United States to pull out? They can't -- I don't think they have an answer for that other than, "Well, we just gotta bring the troops home."

CALLER 2: Yeah, and, you know what --

LIMBAUGH: "Save the -- keep the troops safe" or whatever. I -- it's not possible, intellectually, to follow these people.

CALLER 2: No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.

LIMBAUGH: The phony soldiers.

CALLER 2: The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they're willing to sacrifice for their country.

LIMBAUGH: They joined to be in Iraq. They joined --

CALLER 2: A lot of them -- the new kids, yeah.

LIMBAUGH: Well, you know where you're going these days, the last four years, if you signed up. The odds are you're going there or Afghanistan or somewhere.

CALLER 2: Exactly, sir.

Amazing. Veterans of the Iraq War who now choose to speak out against it are being lectured by this gutless coward????? The same man who joined the ranks of other Vietnam era draft dodgers such as Bush Jr., Cheney, and DeLay, by claiming that he had a boil on his ass that prevented him from running??

What's more amazing, or un-amazing, is that the rank-and-file lapdogs, ranging from the GOP blogsites, to the Fox Propaganda Network, are actually defending this idiot's comments, and some of the wingnuts are even blaming........wait for it.......Hillary Clinton and George Soros for Oxycontin's act of random idiocy on the air!

Unfortunately, as folks around the country saw this play out on their television sets and newspapers, few were at all familiar with the organization behind the smear campaigns, or that this same group started the firestorm which ended with radio host Don Imus being terminated by NBC and CBS in April.

Maybe more importantly, even fewer citizens are aware that this organization is linked directly to Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as billionaire leftist George Soros.

It gets even better from here, folks.

CAP is heavily funded by the aforementioned billionaire financier George Soros, and in turn works closely with Media Matters to remove potential roadblocks (like Don Imus) from Hillary Clinton’s path to the White House. According to Bill O’Reilly, some of the money Soros gives to CAP eventually finds its way into the coffers of Media Matters, though Media Matters disputes this................

Is the picture becoming clearer? Hillary and her backers have created an advocacy network whose expressed goal is to take down all of her critics in the media.

In fact, after Imus was fired by NBC and CBS, Media Matters published a 6,000-word article entitled “It’s Not Just Imus,” listing other political enemies of the Clintons such as Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Michael Smerconish, and John Gibson.

Yes, the picture is becoming clearer.........just how is it that the liberals are labeled 'conspiracy theorists' when the nutters on the right are coming up with inane shit like this?

And yet, even with the original recording of the incident and the transcript of the remark, the ever-faithful right-wingers are still in denial about it ever being said, even going as far as to say that poor Rush is being taken out of context!

This kind of insanity really shouldn't be new to me, or to any of the Americans who aren't dumbed-down ditto-heads. Hell, it's the kind of Orwellian-type thinking (up is down, ignorance is strength, etc.) that this country has had to endure ever since the current administration set the standard that anyone who dares disagree with the GOP or the plan of action is either un-American or unpatriotic. i just can't figure out what's more pathetic here - Rush Limbaugh himself, or the shrinking minority of die-hard wingnuts/Bushbots who defend him and easily punish those who exposeed the jackass.

Either way, it's just another episode of the three-ringed freakshow that is the right-wing world.

Summer Nights: The best and the worst of the '07 summer movie season

The Summer Movie Season is sadly at an end. Fall is coming, as are the fall movies and the awards season will soon be in full swing. So let us take a look back at the summer movies that we loved, hated, and enjoyed in the summer of 2007.

Overall best movie: I am giving this honor to Pixar's Ratatouille. In a season full of unoriginality and the onslaught of mediocre sequels, Brad Bird's computer-animated comedy about a rat who uses a garbage boy to become the hot new chef in Paris was not only a breath of fresh air, it is also one of the year's best movies. Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix is runner-up.

Best Comedy: It's the duo of Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen that take the comedy belt. Knocked Up and Superbad were both so outrageously hilarious that they both will share this title. The Simpspons Movie is runner up for it's staying true to it's roots and the satirical wit it brought, along with the slapstick.

Best Summer Sequel: Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix wins by a knockout. Unlike Ram Rami's mediocre Spider-Man 3, Gore Veberinski's bloated Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and the over-familiar Shrek 3, David Yates' take of Harry Potter's fifth year at Hogwarts brings out the best in the series and in it's young actors Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. The Bourne Ultimatum, with it's kick-in-the-jams action and Matt Damon bringing out the best in Jason Bourne, takes second place.

Best Actor: This is a no-brainer........Christopher Mintz-Plasse's gut-bursting performance as Fogell (aka: McLovin) in Superbad

Best Actress: Again, a no-brainer......Angelina Jolie as the wife of murdered journalist Daniel Pearle in A Mighty Heart.

Breakthrough Performance: Three no-brainers in a row! Shia LeBeouf in Transformers and Niki Blonsky for Hairspray take the top honors.

Best Action Movie: Every dog has his day. That's why Michael Bay will get this honor of action movie for Transformers. It's the embodiment of what an summer movie is: big, loud explosions, kick-ass action, and a damn good time that will be had by all. Live Free or Die Hard is the same embodiment and it takes runner-up.

Best Surprise movie: Hairspray. I mean really, did any of you think that a remake of the Broadway play -- plus John Travolta in drag -- would work? Everything from the dance No's to the music no.s worked like a charm. And since were on the subject of musicals, High School Musical II -- despite the overload of saccharine-driven story and cardboard characters -- worked it's Disney magic to make runner-up honors.

Best Hero: This is a tough one, but I'm going with Daniel Radcliffe reprising the title role of Harry Potter in Order of the Phoenix. Homer Simpson for saving the town of Springfield in The Simpsons Movie, gets runner-up.

Best Villain: No baddie put a shiver down my spine more than Imelda Staunton in Order of the Phoenix. As Umbridge, she not only brings out the evil side in bureaucracy, but she makes Dick Cheney look tame. Ashley Tisdale takes the runner-up prize in HSM II reprising her role as the school bitch Sharpay, who takes her bitchiness and her attempts to steal Gabriella's man, Troy, to new, irresistible lows that makes the Plastics look like a joke.

Most Disappointing: I never thought I would be giving this award to Peter Parker, but there's really no denying that Spider-Man 3 became a mediocre summer movie when the filmmakers sucked-out what dark narratives the third movie had in exchange for bigger and more visual action pieces. That, and having Peter go emo on you doesn't help out the cause much.

Worst movie: Who cares about who killed Lindsay Lohan's character in I Know Who Killed Me? What I do know that Lohan killed her career in just one summer with her next bomb, Georgia Rule. Sad to see a bright career was thrown to the wayside for a drive in the fast lane.

Hate mongering doesn't take a day off

You would honestly expect that on the 6th anniversary on 9/11, there would be at least a day without politicization, right? Well, there was. The College Republicans and College Democrats at San Francisco State decided to join together in commemorating the horrific events of September 11, when a group of protesters pulled this stunt.

Regardless whether the opinions of the communists protesters was accurate, it was highly inappropriate for them to do this on the day of remembering those who died in 9/11, as were the methods.

Unfortunately, for Leo Pusateri, he wasn't aware that two wrongs don't make a right.

There's a name for individuals who pull this kind of a number: certified assholes.

What do Gabriella and Harry Potter have in Common?

There are many things that young stars Vanessa Hudgens of High School Musical & High School Musical II and British actor Daniel Radcliffe of the Harry Potter franchise have in common:

Both Hudgens and Radcliffe are household names through one movie.
Both Hudgens and Radcliffe are legal (18 years of age).
Both Hudgens and Radcliffe are discussed on how hot they are though their other sexes.
Both Hudgens and Radcliffe are rich as hell.

But now they share this fact: they've both gone butt-naked.

And yet there's one grueling difference between these two young stars.

One of the big stories this week was that Hudgen's nude photographs and other photos of her stripped down to her bra and panties was leaked to the internet, and now instead of discussing about the experience of doing HSM II, she's doing damage control and asking forgiveness from her tweener fans, most of whom have never seen nor heard of a woman's breast or pussy.

"I want to apologize to my fans, whose support and trust means the world to me," says Hudgens in a statement to "Extra" on Friday, Sept. 7. "I am embarrassed over this situation and regret having ever taken these photos. I am thankful for the support of my family and friends."

The photo was first reported by The National Enquirer and has been splashed all over the Internet on blogs such as PerezHilton.com. Hudgens, 18, is seen fully nude and standing, facing the camera in what appears to be a private bedroom. Online speculation wondered if the photo was faked, but TMZ.com confirmed on Thursday that it's authentic.

"This was a photo which was taken privately," says Hudgens' rep. "It is a personal matter and it is unfortunate that this has become public."

I'm not going to bust her balls over this scandal because when you look at the track record of other young and famous stars such as Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, this is really tame. For all we know, Hudgens could've been doing other crazy shit.

As I said before, there is a difference with Vanessa and Daniel, in terms of going naked. And the difference is that while Hudgens meant for those photos to be private, Radcliffe is going naked for a play that he's signed up for. And ladies, Radcliffe will soon be going naked for Broadway.

British actor Daniel Radcliffe hopes to debut on Broadway next year in a reprise of his London role in "Equus," a performance where he shed not only his clothes but the mantle of Harry Potter.

Radcliffe won rave reviews for his performance as a tortured teenager during an 8-week run of Peter Shaffer's grueling psychological thriller in London earlier this year, but said the prospect of acting in New York was "terrifying."

"It will be amazing, but I will be terrified because I was talking to Richard Griffiths about playing New York and he said the most stupid thing you can do is underestimate New York audiences," said Radcliffe, 18, in an interview with Reuters.

And yet, I hear no outrage over Radcliffe going butt-naked. Go figure.

Another example of the three-ringed circus freakshow that is Hollywood today, I suppose.

High School Musical II

Say whatever you want about High School Musical II (an exercise in providing more mental masturbation that execs at Disney can sell to the tweenage crowd), but give credit where credit is due to Ashley Tisdale (The Suite Life with Zack and Cody). She not only reprises the mean-spirited bitch in Sharpay, she takes the plotting and conniving to a new level not seen since Rachel McAdam's performance as Regina in Mean Girls. Within Disney limits, that is.

Sharpay's new scam includes stealing Troy Bolton (Zac Efron of Hairspray) away from his girlfriend Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) by hiring him to work at her parent's country club and surrounding him with college recruiters when Troy's friends are tagged along for work and enter the talent show. Yes, the scam is very bland and dull, but Tisdale works with what she has and makes it irresistible fun watching her character play Troy like a wind-up doll.

Tisdale's performance -- add to it, the catchy and flashy numbers ranging from the impressive I Don't Dance to the kick-in-the jams spectacle opening no. What Time Is It? -- not only makes this tweenage product placement film watchable (even with the cardboard story, cutout characters, and ultra-cliched romance between Troy and Gabriella) but it's soon-to-be third installment (due out fall of next year on the big screen) worth looking at as well.

** 1/2 stars out of ****

Starting September Off Right

Jeez. I have reached a new low since starting this online journal. In the month of August, I have only poster three blogs. And I haven't been keeping up with the presidential campaign of Rapture Ralph/Blat. Damn you, life!

Anyway, for the umpteenth time, I apologize for my lack of blog postings. With Senior year in full swing, I won't have all the time that I want to blog. Thankfully, fall break is fast approaching and depending on how non-lazy I am, I might be able to crank out a few a week, so pray that I don't fall ill to laziness.

And the hypocrite of the month goes to......: Senator Larry Craig, a (i'm shocked, i'll tell ya, shocked!) Republican representing Idaho who plead guilty to soliciting oral sex from an undercover cop in the bathroom of a Minneapolis Airport. Ironically, Senator Craig, in the past has voted against both gay marriage and civil unions for gays, and voted to impeach Bill Clinton for lying under oath about his affair with one Monica Lewinsky. If the GOP should take anything away from this latest scandal it should be the following: if you're going to keep preaching you're the party of traditional family an moral values, then lead by example.........on second thought - don't. You're not the party of traditional values. You never have been.

The race to the post season: has begun. And this time, just about every race is up for grabs, and there's no way to tell which teams gonna win which division. Will A-Rod carry the Bronx Bombers to to another post-season appearance? Can Jake Peavy, Milton Bradley, and the pitching staff lead the Padres to another Western Division win? Are the fighting Philies good enough to make it to the playoffs? Who is the team everyone will fear come playoff time? And which team will win it all this year? You gotta love September baseball - the drama, the action, and the teams showing themselves if they're pretenders or contenders. Stay tuned, folks.

Lord of the Ring: One Ring to rule them all. One Ring to find them. One Ring to bring them all, and in the Darkness, bind them. OK, i'll admit, it's really dorky of me to recite this, but dammit, we're the graduating class of 2008! With the Senior rings we're picking out, then receiving in 4-6 wks., we might as well be the Masters of our school! My ring will look something like this:

class ring - heritage with school chest
ring model - lexington (H33)
metal choice - 14-kt. yellow gold
metal finish - antique (traditional)
stone color - birthstone
birthstone color - september fire blue spinel (chose school color)
accent stone - cubic zirconia
stone cut - sunburst
ring side 1 - school mascot (mustang)
ring side 2 - name (chose my nickname, radio) and design (paw print)
ring band options - full name inside and smooth band
ring year date/size - 2008/9.5
outside initials - JH

This is going to be a bitchin ass ring!

Fall Movie Season: It's fall, and the awards will be in full swing, and there are some great movies this time round. Here are my top 3 movies to watch for:

The Darjeeling Limited


No Country for Old Men


Lions for Lambs