Late March 2k12 Rant

I swear I’m going to try to do this more often. Just some observations this late March, 2012

The previous winter will be known as the winter that never was here in SC. Of course, I believe we'll have at least another freeeze- posisbly in April. JUST enough to make the peaach farmers freak out and increase peach prices. WOW- I'm writing about "Big Peach" instead of 'big oil'...

Where Tim Tebow is going to go has become a spinoff of the Peyton Manning soap opera. Some stories state he wants to play in Florida. His destination will probably be known before you even read this. Jets possibly? There's no telling where he'll end up - like one of his passes. (Thanks Mr. Leno!!)

Hines Ward has officially retired and he did so as a Steeler. Hines may not have many Lynn Swann-esque catches, but his contribution to the Steelers is just as important in my opinion. Definitely a future hall o’ famer.

How’s your NCAA Basketball Tournament bracket going? I’ve lost 2 or my predicted Final Four. Wanna see my bracket?? Click HERE.

President Obama’s 13 year old daughter is spring breaking in Mexico. Something like 25 secret service agents are accompanying her down there. Complete with private plane, funds, agents, etc… The White House says the leak of the story is an invasion of privacy for the 1^st family. Look out, this COULD be a future Disney move...

The Mitt Romney, Republican candidate for President is closer to becoming mathematically official. Is it me, or has this whole exercise in debates and caucuses and primaries and such just that; an exercise? I mean, Mitt’s been the nominee whether we the majority like it or not. A common story I’m sick of reading or hearing about is that the electorate doesn’t like ANY of the candidates running against and including Mitt.

Bristol Palin says she feels either she or her mom deserves a phone call from the President because of all of the names she and her mom were called that was much worse than the term Rush Limbaugh used referencing Sandra Fluke. Tongue in cheek, of course..

Datsun automobiles are coming back, but not in the USA. Nissan will be manufacturing.  Click HERE

What’s up with the drone spy planes in 2015? Many conspiracy minded people believe this is an obvious intrusion into our privacy.  Click HERE.

Yet, another KISS summer tour has been announced. Motley Crue is touring with them. I may wanna go see this.

Looks like the movie “The Hunger Games” will be the latest book series to drive all the kids mad and crazy with box office records and such. I am more interested in seeing this than the stupid ‘Twilight’ movies.

In a kind of related story, Anne Rice has released a new novel - post religious epiphany.  The Wolf Gift tackles werewolves.  I’ve always wanted her to approach werewolves.

Epic movie John Carter has now been officially considered a FLOP.  Disney released a “forward looking” financial statement yesterday warning its shareholders/investors to expect a 1^st quarter 2012 loss due to the film’s bust.  It mentions forward looking hope in the upcoming “The Avengers” movie. Click HERE to see it.

I really liked the season ender of “The Walking Dead”. Season 2 was lackluster in my opinion, but the last 5 minutes REALLY set Season 3 up to possibly be the best season yet.  Can’t wait for “Game of Thrones to begin.

"The Riches" alum Eddie Izzard will be a producer and play Grandpa on "Mockingbird Lane," NBC's drama revamp of "The Munsters. Sigh…

Looking forward to your comments- email- johncthomasii@yahoo.com

John

Winter is OVER!!

Hello Spring!!

Sad News To My Friends and Former Co-Workers

I got this from CBSnews.com at their CBS Moneywatch website concerning jobs that are or will soon be disappearing..

http://www.cbsnews.com/8334-505143_162-57343788/will-these-10-jobs-disappear-in-2012/?pageNum=5&tag=next

Will these 10 jobs disappear in 2012?

By Louise Tutelian

Newspaper reporter

Read it and weep: According to the BLS, a whopping 4,400 jobs will disappear by 2018 (out of 69,400 total in 2008). That's more than three times the number of newsroom employees at The New York Times. The bad news for print can be summed up in one word: Internet. "Some of the print people are finding jobs online," says Lauren Csorny, an economist at the BLS. But there aren't enough to make up for the losses. No wonder that newspaper reporters ranked No. 184 out of 200 jobs, one slot above stevedore, in CareerCast.com's annual JobsRated survey.


Broadcast announcer

The play-by-play for this occupation isn't pretty. Consolidation has eliminated many jobs already, and technology is hijacking off-air tasks, such as editing, once performed by announcers (and future announcers paying their dues). Add the increased use of syndication and the growth of satellite radio and the picture is even bleaker. By 2018, broadcasting is expected to lose 2,400 radio and TV announcer jobs.


of course, this really isn't news to most of us who work or used to work in the industry -- John 

Coming February 7th, 2012

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Different_Kind_of_Truth
A Different Kind of Truth is the upcoming 12th studio album from Van Halen; their first album since 1984's 1984 to feature David Lee Roth on lead vocals and the first album to feature Wolfgang Van Halen on bass guitar.

No. Title Length


1. "Tattoo" 4:44

2. "She's The Woman"

3. "You And Your Blues"

4. "China Town"

5. "Blood & Fire"

6. "Bullethead"

7. "As Is"

8. "Honeybabysweetiedoll"

9. "The Trouble With Never"

10. "Outta Space"

11. "Stay Frosty"

12. "Big River"

13. "Beats Workin'"

A Bowling We Will Go......

I'm sure there are just TONS of stories out there on the world wide web about this upcoming bowl season. Most I bet argue the need of a playoff system (I'd be one of them). Of course, to me the idea of a "Humanitarian Bowl" seems laughable for football. This year's roster of bowl games feature 4 games in which neither team has a winning record.  None of the teams in the Dec 30th Music City Bowl, The Texas Bowl and the FIGHT HUNGER Bowl on Dec 31st. nor the Jan 2nd Gator Bowl have winning records. That's right, 8 teams this year will be rewarded for their mediocrity or losing records....

For a complete list to see who is going to play in the New Mexico Bowl, Belk Bow, The Pinstripe Bowl, The TicketCity bowl or my 2nd favorite behind the Fight Hunger Bowl, the BBVA Compass Bowl, go here.  Or http://stats.washingtonpost.com/cfb/scoreboard.asp  for the HTML impaired.

BTW, GO TARHEELS in the 2011 INDEPENDENCE BOWL!!!! December 12th! Beat the 7-5 Missouri Tigers!!

Show Me Da Money!!!

While everyone is complaining about the billions; and sometimes trillions of dollars 'big oil' companies are pocketing after expeditures every ninety days, no one is batting an eye at the millions of dollars being generated by our incumbent President and the Republicans during the past 3 months.

Rick Perry = $18 million -- Mit Romney = (est) between $13-$18 million, Ron Paul (my boy) raised (est) $8 million, and my President raised $55 million - ALL DURING THE LAST 90 DAYS!!!! And these numbers are around the same as the PREVIOUS 3 month period. Of course the grand total in the coffers are much, much more than this. Now this is for a job, a job in power and prestige in which you can't really put a price tag on mind you, but a position that earns a $400,000 annual salary, along with a $50,000 annual expense account, a $100,000 non-taxable travel account and $19,000 for entertainment. (Wikipedia)

This is another example of the OBVIOUS irregularities being overlooked and "shell games" continuing politically all around us. Before last year's elections, the Democrats had a super majority AND the Presidency - basically able to do what they wanted when they wanted to- and yet, didn't do a thing. All the while appearing on TV and radio calling the Republican Party the "party of no" when the Republicans were impotent to do anything but filibuster. Same thing with the Republicans when "W" came to power. People just dismiss these things as "it's always been, it always will be - nothing we can do" and the like. They get together on talk radio or TV preaching and agreeing with each other to decry the way things are - yet nothing ever changes.Know-it-all talk show hosts say they don't want to take the pay cut or that they can do more where they're at speaking to thousands or millions. What if a few of our founding fathers thought this way? What if Ben Franklin or James Madison decided "Aw, to heck with creating and signing the constitution, I'm going to serve my country by hekping locally or teaching at a university instead of forging a new republic."

I understand I'm beginning to sound like one of those conspiracy-at-every-corner nut jobs. Truly, I want ot believe that even though we (America),  seemingly at our lowest, are better than this. History doesn't bear me out on this. We're doing the same old things; making the same old mistakes. Am I wrong? In the future when we sit back and tell each other "See, I TOLD ya. I PREDICITED this would happen!", what then? What good is it to always be the one who predicts things to come, yet does nothing to affect the outcome or change?



BTW RIP Steve Jobs - regardless of what he became, he is an example of what can be done forming beginning a business in his parent's garage with little or no money

Ranting Andy Rooney Style - But Not As Good



Not meaning to sound like ‘chicken little’, but at the very least, SOMETHING is up with the sky. Regardless of whether it’s the affect from a 24 / 7 news cycle or overwhelming negativity in all media, there’s no doubt something is happening. No matter how I or YOU or people we know, love, and are acquainted with personally are doing, things on a whole are getting tough. Call it what you will; “just the ways things are”, the much predicted “end of times” or “last days”. Be it the 2012 issue (which current Mayan ancestors are repeatedly saying does not necessarily mean the end of the world) or the global/ domestic economies, new self destructive drug crazes (‘bath salts’), or the nearly everyday stories about child death and abuse, life as we know it is rapidly changing.



We’re now a world where there’s a huge outcry over humorous, smart-alecky t-shirts for kids reading “Too Beautiful for Homework” or “Allergic to Math” and these shirts are immediately removed from the store shelves.


For years we’ve been fed marketing and products high in “antioxidants” when there’s no real study or value as to the benefits of these ‘antioxidants’ to we humans; the only long term or real studies have been in rats and other animals. Look for a study; ANY study on antioxidants and their effect on humans.


The political machine seems destined to keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Lies and flip flops, long staples of politics, are much more obvious and evident then they were in the past; yet are dismissed or looked over. Often, it’s a kind of ‘slight of hand’ that occurs. Regardless of which political jersey (Democrat/Republican, left/right, liberal/conservative) you wear.


The “prepare for disaster/survival gear” market has also exploded. More and more people are purchasing durable foods, equipment, weapons, storage lockers, etc from websites like preparewise.com, foodinsurance.com. I honestly don’t knock anyone who chooses to participate or prepare. If anything, these things will be handy in any type of temporary or long term emergency or inconvenience. Even I have some supplies stashed away for my wife, dogs and me in case we’re without power or water for a few days. The Travel Channel recently aired a program where for between $450k to $950k per person, you can be a part of a doomsday community where food, lodging, etc would be waiting for you in the event of cataclysm, 2012, whatever. I suppose I’d just have to perish when the robot warlords take over.


I can’t help but to feel like I’m being conned or scammed when I see and hear all these commercials beckoning me to buy or invest in gold or silver to ‘shore up my financial portfolio’. To me the pitchmen and/or women seem like car sales people to me. I feel like I’m being “set up”. Kind of like those commercials for online, do-it-yourself trading. Which I’ve done before back when I was first married. So the mystery and spell about them is a little less cloudy to me than these ‘gold n silver’ guys. Though investing in these and other precious metals isn’t a bad thing in my opinion. In the event of a survival doomsday, the ATM’s, water and power grids, any computer run anything will be rendered useless thanks to the EMP’s (electromagnetic pulse). Either EMP’s or whatever CERN creates or opens the door to. FTL my @$$!!! (Google CERN if ya don’t’ know what it is).


Personally, I have faith that while things can and probably will get worse before they get better, me and mine will do the best we can do and get by the best we can. I remember when I had to grow up a little earlier than others my age did and all the things I thought would be impossible to do or accomplish given my state of being at the time. I was then and am certainly now no one special. I didn’t have it no where NEAR as bad as many in the past, present, or future. I just have faith in myself and God. When the world ends and nothing’s left, that’s all we really have anyway whether you believe in a deity or not.


BTW- Michael Jackson is dead, Amanda Knox is at home, bath salts are THE SHIZZLE, now I can't buy lettuce again thanks to the latest recall- THANKS!I still want either a PS3 orXbox, and Kim Kardashian is kinda cute…. That’s CODE for the uninitiated…