Mr. Brooks
directed by Bruce Evans
Sometimes actors can get bored doing the same type of roles. This 2007 movie was a definite step away from the serenely moral aw shucks folksy patriarchs that make up a lot of Kevin Costner's filmography.
However, this film still lets Costner play a protective decent family man, although a very twisted one.
It was a fine piece of acting and perhaps something you should watch if you've never seen Costner portray wicked characters. This wasn't really a hit IIRC. Some would argue that's because Costner isn't a very compelling actor. I would disagree with that. It is true that this film wasn't what most people wanted to see from Costner.But Costner's alleged lack of range works for this role as his character is very tightly wrapped indeed.
Earl Brooks (Costner) is the middle aged CEO of a packaging/boxing company. Earl is a good man, or so it seems. Earl is a philanthropist. He's solicitous of his workforce; Earl has so far resisted selling out to East Asians or outsourcing work overseas. Although Earl is a multimillionaire he's evidently still married to his first wife Emma (Marg Helgenberger), a woman in his own age range, instead of a much younger secretary or supermodel. Earl is faithful to Emma.
The United States is one of the few nations in the Western developed world to still offer birthright citizenship in which anyone who is born here is a citizen regardless of their parents' status. Most other nations, both in the "West" and beyond it, don't do that. Although the original intent of birthright citizenship was rooted in the immediate post-Civil War attempts to grant African-Americans full and unqualified citizenship in the United States, this legal tradition proved quite attractive to the people arriving in the post-Civil War waves of immigration to the United States, first from Europe and then later from Asia, Africa, Latin America and other places. In most nations, particularly in Europe, the "nation state" is synonymous with control and demographic dominance by one or at most a few ethnic/racial groups. The United States may have started with the same intent but because of slavery and the presence of the Indigenous people, the United States was never going to be a nation of one race or failing that even of one ethnic group.
I have my doubts about the current wisdom of birthright citizenship during a time of mass immigration from the Third World but that's a different post. Today's problems is that some people are gaming the system to get the benefits of American citizenship for their progeny and later themselves without making the slightest contribution to the American political or economic framework. If someone is born here but spent all of their formative years as a citizen of China or Russia, are they really an American? There are a lot of different foreign nationals getting involved but for years Chinese and Russians have been the biggest practitioners of birth tourism.
Three people who operated multimillion-dollar birth-tourism businesses in Southern California were arrested Thursday in the biggest federal criminal probe ever to target the thriving industry, in which pregnant women come to the United States to give birth so their children will become American citizens.
The businesses coached their clients to deceive United States immigration officials and pay indigent rates at hospitals to deliver their babies, even though many of the clients were wealthy, investigators said. Some Chinese couples were charged as much as $100,000 for a birth-tourism package that included housing, nannies and shopping excursions to Gucci.
You have to wonder about people who spend so much of their time, energy and resources trying to rip off other people. It seems that it would just be easier to make your money legally like most other people. But some folks think that they are smarter than everyone else and don't need to be restricted by the same rules.
Occasionally those people get away with it. Some even get elected President. Other times though they just make a fool out of themselves and wind up facing the judge. One Mr. Alexander Goldinsky forgot that you don't see everybody who sees you.
Feb. 1 (UPI) -- A New Jersey man is facing charges after he was caught on camera throwing ice on the ground and faking a slip and fall in an alleged fraud scheme. The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office said Alexander Goldinsky, 57, was working as an independent contractor at a business in Woodbridge when a security camera recorded the incident. The footage shows Goldinsky throw ice on the ground, carefully arrange himself on the floor and then wait to be discovered.
It is important to remember that no matter what we might hear from the more hysterical types in this #metoo era that immoral and criminal behavior can occur among both genders and in any sexuality.
Predation is not by any means something that only heterosexual males do to women. This latest story made me wonder if the University of Michigan might not have some explaining to do and/or even a little housecleaning. As always we should always grant every accused. male or female, gay or straight, the presumption of innocence. This particular alleged incident goes against the preferred media narrative. I have no idea if the powers that be at the University of Michigan knew of the rape allegation or all of the other sexual harassment allegations detailed in the story below. I would hate to think that people turned a blind eye to certain facts because they were eager to score a skilled performer or because they didn't want to be the ones to sound the alarm on a couple who were the poster boys for the country's acceptance of gay marriage. One minute you're on top of the world. The next minute, you're being extradited to Texas, which is not a phrase most people ever want to hear.
A jailed University of Michigan professor and his husband, accused of drugging and raping a man in 2010, won’t fight extradition on charges they face in Texas.
David Daniels, a 52-year-old opera singer, and William Scott Walters, a 36-year-old conductor and singer, both of Ann Arbor, waived their right to extradition hearings during brief appearances in Washtenaw County Trial Judge Carol Kuhnke’s courtroom Friday, Feb. 1.
Racism isn't just about committing genocide or hurling racial slurs in a never ending Tourette's spasm. It's also about refusing to extend the same courtesy to someone else that you would extend to a member of your own or more preferred group. It's about enforcing the law to the full extent without exceptions when it comes to THEM but being reasonable when it comes to US. Although Michigan is a great state it is also in many ways the Mississippi of the Midwest when it comes to race, though Indiana and Ohio are always in the running. One thing which my parents and other older people always stressed to me was to follow rules as best I could because usually many of the people enforcing the rules would have no mercy on me for even a minor violation. They wouldn't give me the benefit of the doubt. I learned that to be true.
What strikes me about this story is not the fact that the officer made a legitimate traffic stop. It's that the white officer took pleasure in humiliating and insulting a black woman. Yes, regardless of race, everyone should always keep their driver's license, vehicle registration and insurance paperwork up to date and paid in full. I certainly do. But I think that in this case the officer would have found something else with which to harass the young woman.
Detroit — A Detroit police officer has been reassigned while the department investigates racially-charged comments made during a traffic stop and posted to the officer's social media this week. The alleged incident happened during a traffic stop near Joy Road and Stout Street on the city's west side Tuesday night, police said. Officer Gary Steele pulled over Ariel Moore, 23, for an expired registration on her license plate and seized her vehicle. He told Moore to exit the vehicle and that it would be towed. Moore walked about a block to her home in below freezing weather.
November Road
by Lou Berney
You may or may not believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman who murdered JFK and Officer Tippit before being murdered in turn by Jack Ruby. It is a fact that powerful mob bosses Carlos Marcello of New Orleans and Santo Trafficante Jr. of Tampa both despised JFK and his brother, Attorney General RFK. In 1962 and 1963 each boss made impassioned predictions (really threats) to their associates that JFK was going to be murdered soon and implied that they and/or their friends would have something to do with it.
Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby had tenuous connections to both southern Mob bosses. Ruby was also a low level flunky to the Chicago Outfit fronted by noted psychopath and JFK hater Sam Giancana. All three Mafia leaders were involved with the Cuban exile movement and CIA abortive attempts to murder Castro and invade Cuba. So there's a lot of smoke there. November Road asks the reader to imagine that there's not only smoke but also fire.
Frank Guidry is a loyal (well loyal to money and himself) lieutenant of New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello. Frank doesn't handle murder or any heavy work. Frank is a fixer and arranger. He greases the corruption wheels to get things done. Frank and Carlos go back. But Frank's first loyalty is to Frank. When an old friend pops up begging for Frank to hide him from Carlos' executioners, Frank offers help but promptly leaks his friend's location. Hey, people might have seen them together; Frank doesn't want any misunderstandings with the notoriously exacting and unforgiving Carlos. Frank wants to live, dammit! He may only have a life of empty hedonism but Frank believes that's better than the alternative.
However when another mob associate turns up very dead, Frank searches for some common denominators. The common thread is Dallas.
As several people have noted Trump is not the big bad muyerfuyer he likes to pretend that he is. He talks a lot of smack and will certainly cheat or behave vindictively towards weaker people over whom he has power but like most bullies when faced with someone who punches back Trump scurries away.
I knew this was coming when Trump backed down on the State of the Union Speech. Although politics is not a game, you can use game theory to predict results and determine next moves. And the fact is that Trump blinked first. Streets are watching. Everyone will remember this. The question is during the three weeks that the government is open, will Trump make good on his threat to declare a national emergency and build a wall without Congressional authorization?
President Donald Trump and congressional leaders have reached a deal to reopen the government for three weeks and end the longest U.S. funding lapse ever, the president announced Friday. In remarks at the White House, Trump said he hopes to sign the measure as soon as Friday, the 35th day of the partial shutdown. It would restart government operations through Feb. 15 — without the money he has demanded for his proposed border wall. Trump said he expects Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will bring it to the Senate floor "immediately."
