Spectacular

Lighting from volcano eruption in Japan. These might be two of the most amazing pictures I have ever seen.

Makes me want to do a painting.

It's probably going to be hard duplicating this look.

Where's that lightening bolt paint?

Wow!

Michael Timothy McAlevey

Where are the Pharaohs when you need em......

The crisis in Egypt appears to be growing and maybe they should conjure up the spirits of history and bring back one of those Pharaohs that has been sleeping in his luxurious secret chamber.

Are there any more secret chambers left, or have the Indiana Jones wannabe diggers uncovered everything?

The real question to ask in Egypt...... is the conflict going to result in a Sunni or a Shi'a controlled government?

The answer is SUNNI because they are 94% of the religious population already.

Whether you have been paying attention or not, the goal of the Muslim world is to control Africa and in the last 40 years things have gone quite nicely, with the Sunni faction dominating.

Algeria is 99% Sunni

Lybia is 97 % Sunni

Sudan is 70% Sunni

Syria is Sunni....as is Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

In fact the Shi'a are basically restricted to IRAN (95%) and IRAQ (60/40) and YEMEN (50/50)

There is a lot of complaining by young aggressive Egyptians who claim they can't get work and are being repressed by a military regime.

The fact that ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISTS are primed and ready to overthrown President Mabarak doesn't seem to come up much in the reporting.

In 1996 the unemployment rate was 9%.

In 2003 it was 12%.

Today it is 9.4%

The United States unemployment rate is 9.6%

France is 10.1

Mexico is 5.5

South Africa is 25%

Spain is 20.2

Zimbabwe is 95%

Viet-Nam is 2.9 (Which really says something about kicking our ass)

Afghanistan is 35%

So looking at Egypt at 9.4% and looking back at 2003....it appears that things have gotten better....so perhaps the tension is being created by outside influences.

This might be a controlled opportunity for the Sunni's to help increase the anxiety....and then the type of Muslim theocracy that exists in Iran will suddenly be established.

Maybe Iran will give Egypt to Muqtada al Sadr.....oh yeah I forget he's a Shi'a.

It really is confusing to keep track of all this secular bullshit.

If Tutankhamen was in charge none of this would be happening. Pyramids would be popping up and everybody would have a job.

I promise you this....that last remark makes as much sense as the Muslim explanation of why they want to conquer and control Africa.

The difference is I'm being funny and those wackos are marching down the Dark Continent.

Wake up the Pharaohs!

Michael Timothy McAlevey

State of the Union

Unless Google can hire 10 million people I'm not sure the unemployment number will ever fall below 9 percent. And rest assured that the unemployment number is not actually 9 when it says 9. It's more like 12 or 13 because the numbers don't reflect certain statistics involved.

I keep remembering the number 800,000. That's the amount of jobs that were lost in the financial sector during the meltdown of 2008. Just the Financial Sector.

At least most of those people probably have college educations so they might figure it out.

The worker bees that used to build cars, ships and furniture have a much deeper problem and unless the United States can figure out how to build new manufacturing facilities....that problem will only get worst.

The way I look at it.....Environmental or Green technology or EVIROTECH or GREENTECH might be the only way, but we seem to be letting China and Germany get the upper hand.

Why we are not building solid state lighting plants is beyond comprehension. We have accepted the reality that China will build our LEDs and that's that.....end of story.

Solar panel facilities should be popping up everywhere in the continental United States.

RENEWABLE ENERGY research could solve our problems but it would really have to be done with the cooperation of the oil companies and that's not going to happen.

What REALLY needs to happen is that Chevron and BP need to expand their business models.

AND THE UNITED STATES NEEDS TO STOP GIVING TAX BREAKS TO THOSE COMPANIES THAT CONTINUE TO EXPLORE FOR FOSSIL FUELS.

FUTURISTIC THINKING NEEDS TO BE APPLIED TO THE BUSINESS MODEL OF THE UNITED STATES.

THE SENATE AND THE HOUSE DETERMINE THE BUSINESS MODEL.

Can they look to the future before it's too late?

I have to believe its possible.

After all.....

this
is
America.

Michael Timothy McAlevey

Nice to have Mr. Kelley back on Prime Time

David E. Kelley and Aaron Sorkin belong in a category of their own. Their writing talents and social commentary are truly unique and greatly appreciated by those of us who care about such things as socially relevant television programs.

Aaron Sorkin is probably finished with television because of his success with The Social Network and because of the way he was treated while writing Studio 60.

Mr. Kelley, on the other hand, is back on the boob tube with a new show. It's called Harry's Law and it is

PERFECT.

Monday nights at 10 pm on NBC.

For a television show to be perfect it must make you laugh, think, be surprised, have great actors and appear to be on for ten minutes while actually lasting an hour.

Their are many perfect shows on HBO and SHOWTIME.

Their are very few perfect shows on Network Television.

Now I realize the word perfect might be rather strong while talking about TV but I'm in the TV mode of perfection definition. And when referring to multiple commercial interrupted programs it is quite hard to find perfection. The idea has to be dominate and the delivery of that idea has to be perfect or it just gets recorded and watched later.

The DVR has allowed those of us who watch TV to experience more programs than normal. Zipping through the commercials allows us to view a half hour show in about 17 minutes....and an hour show in about 38 minutes. Those saved minutes are precious and can be used to do things we love, or be with someone we love who refuses to watch any form of television.

HARRY'S LAW is so good that I will watch it at it's designated time on Monday at 10 PM and suffer through the commercial breaks.

I CANNOT GIVE IT A HIGHER RECOMMENDATION

Thank you David E. Kelley for bringing responsible social commentary back to prime time TV.

If you don't know who David E. Kelley is, or what he has done in the past, or who his wife is.....than you need to get busy and check him out.

I really don't have time to explain everything.

HARRY'S LAW

10 PM

MONDAY

NBC

Michael Timothy McAlevey

Listen to more

Most people are familiar with the I've Got a Dream speech but it's important to listen to many of his other orations to get a proper perspective on just how powerful a speaker Martin Luther King Jr. really was.

It's a national holiday.....so relax and enjoy your friends and family.

Michael Timothy McAlevey

A release is a release......

The memorial service yesterday in Tucson was important.....BUT I was having a major problem with the amount of applause....especially during Barry's speech.

The students of Arizona were actually ruining the flow of his talk. He made some very important comments about the lack of proper discourse in this country, (I think he read my blog) but the moments that counted seemed to be spoiled by the raucous applause.

My friend Tom said that whenever one stages an event in an auditorium....applause will follow.

I guess the people of Arizona needed a release.

The words were spot on so in the long run, hopefully, that's all that mattered.

Sarah's "Blood Libel" comment seems to be drawing equal attention. I personally did not know the expression but obviously my Jewish friends are quite familiar with the term. I'm actually feeling stupid that I didn't know. It seems to be the catalyst for a ton of odd and evil behavior in the last two centuries.

It also seems that Ms. Palin has begun her run for the White House. "Blood Libel" might be the worst campaign kick off words ever used in the history of contemporary politics.

How much fun will a debate between Barry and Sarah be?

Maybe fun is the wrong word........but a contest between President Obama and Governor Palin would prove to be a sensational event. By the way, are you still called Governor even if you resign in the middle of a term?

Doesn't the political future of our country look exciting?

Now if we could just learn to discuss the differences without Sean, Rush, Glenn and Keith telling us how we should think......then it may prove to be a worthwhile experience.

But it could also get extremely ugly.

It's up to us.

WE, THE PEOPLE, NEED TO SET THE BOUNDARIES OF HOSTILE

DISCOURSE.

RULES OF DECORUM NEED TO APPLY

Please.....no applause needed.

Michael Timothy McAlevey

Obviously I wasn't the only one....BUT

My last entry focused on the event in Tucson and how right wing "ferocious" attitudes could have enticed the 22 year idiot to violence. I didn't realize at the time that so many people felt exactly the same way.

I thought for a few minutes that I was the only one who noticed.

Turns out I wasn't.

Now the main spokesperson for the right wing, Sarah Palin, is taking up the mantle to say that the left is completely off their rockers. She calls the viewpoints...."BLOOD LIBEL."

"Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own,” she said. “They begin and end with the criminals who commit them."

Ms. Palin is really opening a can of worms with that statement. I would hope that a slight increase in intelligence would allow her to see that family, friends and social influences all matter when it comes to both good and bad behavior.

Mental disorders play a huge part in irrational behavior and a person who is mentally unstable can be pushed in a direction that could prove ugly.

When the pushing comes from figures of authority....and unfortunately media personalities are figures of authority in our media crazed world......then blame can be placed.

All I was saying in the previous article was that the verbal hostility by certain media personalities has gotten out of hand. But the bigger and scary concept is their.....POPULARITY.

Now it's time to ask.....just how popular are they?

I'm going to spend a few days doing the actual research on the viewing and listening numbers and then I will pass them along when finished. My gut feeling is the percentage of people really paying attention to the radical right wing is much smaller that one might think.

How many people listen to Rush Limbaugh?

How many people watch Sean Hannity?

How many people think Sarah Palin is smart?

How many people watch Glenn Beck?

I believe this is a centrist country and that fanatics on the left and fanatics on the right are simply louder than the middle.

Attempting to rally the middle to extreme points of view seems to be the quest of the right. The radicals on the left are making movies, music and art.

Again I can't help thinking that this is part of the Karl Rove agenda.

Anyway.....I'm off to the yellow brick road research center and I will find out just how large or small.....the listening and viewing numbers are.

In the meantime....both sides need to.....

Calm the f..k down.!

Michael Timothy McAlevey

Teaching hostility instead of discourse

The violent and sad event that took place in Tucson, Arizona yesterday is simply an end result of hostility being preached by people who control the pulpits (TV and Radio) of one sided political debate, and by parents who don't know how to teach the art of intelligent discourse.

What is being taught is the art of hostility, anger and extreme ugliness.

The inflammatory expressions of those who disagree with their political adversaries can result in less intelligent people behaving in less intelligent ways.

Acting in a violent manner is a less intelligent method of human behavior.

Part of this is so obvious when you listen to people that don't like the current President of the United States. There's an undercurrent of ugliness that goes well beyond policy and ideals.

The right wing of American politics has literally stepped over the edge of rational behavior. And even that statement will get some nut job off his or her couch and headed to a rally.

The problem is that it used to be the extreme right wing that acted insane. Now it's just the right wing. Regular people who listen to Rush and Sean and somehow think they now know something about the political system and how it should and should not work.

I simply think back to how we, the left wing, behaved when Bush was President. We made fun and we made jokes and we bitched and moaned on a regular basis because GW just made it too easy.

The hostility towards Barack Obama, and Democrats in general, goes much deeper and gets much uglier because as a person he doesn't offer any material like GW did.

What the right wing has decided to do is attack the entire platform of the Democratic Party and with simplistic analytical rhetoric, blame everything that is not working on the Democrats...and thus on the leader of the Party.

I have heard the two words Socialism and Communism more in the last two years then I had heard them in 25 years....total.

Why I think this is another KARL ROVE tactic is simply my paranoia. He couldn't be behind this crap....could he?

ATTACK....ATTACK....ATTACK.....and don't worry about substantial facts and information because most people don't care about facts. The SWIFT BOAT Organization is a prime example of that premise.

JUST MAKE UP TONS OF STUFF AND THEN WATCH IT WORK ON THE PSYCHE OF AMERICAN VOTERS.

The discussions of how economic and political things work is no longer a discussion. It's a one sided preaching done on national Radio and TV broadcasts....and it's done to rally people to rise up and take action. When someone like Sarah Palin uses a TARGET to overlap the picture of a democrat during an election, it is no longer subtle suggestibility.

To an unstable right wing extremist...it's a blatant call to physical action.

The kind of action that took place yesterday.

I've always thought that when someone, under the age of 25, commits a violent crime that their parents should also be arrested and held for questioning.

I'm thinking that maybe Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and the entire Tea Party should be held for questioning regarding the horrible incident in Tucson.

I hope there is some deep discussions with the idiot's parents by Homeland Security.

This was a domestic terrorist attack and every facet of how and why this happened needs to be investigated....which means starting at the home.

Teaching discourse and how to discuss political differences is the intelligent way for parents to behave.

Teaching how to hate and how to be hostile is way to easy....and way too common.

Michael Timothy McAlevey

Starting the new year with a 79....my Bro and a 91model

The game of golf is not black and white....for amateurs it's totally gray. There are so many reasons to enjoy playing a round of golf and then when you add family, and or friends, it becomes extremely hard to classify the experience as anything but enjoyable.

Then you detail the actual game of golf and you find there are at least 15 to 20 reasons why it totally sucks. Those 15 or 20 reasons result in scores in the high 8o's and low 90's. And once in a while it goes well beyond that.... but it's fairly easy to forget those days.

So the process of playing golf, as a once a week duffer, comes down to how many good or perfect ball strikes can be recorded. And who can you share the experience with.

My Brother, my father and my father's best friend is a perfect foursome. Dad shoots right around his age and sometimes in the high 80's. My dad's buddy, Bill Blackman, is a few years younger and shoots in the 80's. My brother Jerry can shoot 78 or 95 depending on the day. He's only been playing for 3 years and hits the snot out of the ball.

I should be shooting in the low 70's. Of course I've been saying that for about 30 years.

The truth is.....I've never struck the ball better than I do now. I make perfect contact numerous times during a round. Perfect contact is when you strike the ball first, take a nice divot and let the club do the work.

I should be shooting lower scores but something goes amiss from time to time and I turn into Mr. Stupid. Mr. Stupid does something with his back swing that causes the club to strike the ground about an inch behind the ball. Now an inch might not seem like much, but in the game of golf it's like from here to Catalina. Mr. Stupid (no muscle memory) shows up about 6 to 10 times in a round.

Whenever I do make a bad shot I always have the extreme pleasure of being able to hear my dear old Dad make some type of unique remark. It's always comforting when you hit your ball into the trees and you hear a voice say....."why did you hit it in the trees?"

I actually regard my rescue shots as one of the best parts of my game. I've had so much practice that I've learned how to drive the ball under trees, between trees and over trees....and sometimes directly into a tree.

And there's a tree at our course that is more like a very large bush and every week I find a ball in that tree. Give and take......that's what it's all about.

I do have one wish for 2011. I would like to see more hot women playing golf. It just makes the course that much more attractive.

And it's also fun to watch my Dad sweet talk the ladies. He's been married three times and it

obviously is something in his DNA. He's actually pretty good at it. I guess when you are 91 and still playing golf.....flirting is just another part of the game.

The best part of everything about golf is that the weekly Tuesday game continues.

I treasure it with every ounce of my body and soul.

Michael Timothy McAlevey