Pirates of the Caribbean:On Stranger Tides

I've just come from seeing the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie On Stranger Tides and I must say it is just as enjoyable as the other three. This being the fourth in the series I wasn't sure how it would go over, but Jerry Bruckheimer and Johnny Depp supply all the thrills, chases, humor and dialogue that so charmed us in the other three.

Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) finds himself on an unexpected Journey to the Fountain of Youth when a woman from his past (Penelope Cruz) forces him aboard The Queen Anne's Revenge the nortorius Blackbeard the pirate's ship played by English Actor Ian McShane.

Returning also is Geoffrey Rush as Barborosa Jack's nemisis who now has a peg leg thanks to a battle with Blackbeard and seeks revenge on Blackbeard for stealing his ship and losing his leg. It was Barbarosa who originaly stole Jack's ship The Black Pearl and now Blackbeard stole it from him so naturally Jack wants his ship back too. The two enemies must now form an alliance to go against Blackbeard.

To get to the fountain of Youth they have to follow a map Jack has in his posession and perform certain rituals such as stealing two gold chalices from Ponce De Leone's lost ship and capture a mermaid's tear and drink it with the water. The mermaids are a dangerous group protecting the bay where the crew has to go. They act charming, but are ever ready to capture anyone and drag them down below and devour them. Blackbeard is ruthless and determined to capture a mermaid to get a tear and he does. Ian McShane is terrific and deviantly cool as the nortoriously evil Blackbeard. Penelope Cruz reveals to Jack that she is Blackbeard's daughter. Jack tries unsuccessfully to convince her she's not.

The film has all the action, characterization and plot we expect from a Pirates movie and Johnny Depp is at his usual best that we've come to know and expect as Capt. Jack Sparrow. What isn't explained is these magical powers Blackbeard has like directing rope to tie around people and other tortures. He also has a devil doll of Jack he uses to control him.


Rolling Stone Keith Richards also returns for a bit part as Jack's father like in the last Pirates movie and you can understand him when he speaks. (Anyone famiar with Keith Richards from past interviews will know that he rambles and slurs his words along with a thick cockney accent that makes it difficult to understand).
I won't reveal the ending, but if you go to see it as with all these Pirate films stay until after the credits are over for a brief additional part. Most people have left by this time, but my wife, friend and I knew they always do this. It's an aha moment.

I am enclosing a link to an exciting preview of the movie and after viewing the clip click where it says enter the sight to see a cast of characters and other scenes andi nformation.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Disney

Pirates of the Caribbean (film series) - Wikipedia, the free ... This tells of plans to make a fifth and sixth film back to back and Disney told the actors not to make too many plans in the future as they will be needed for these films. It also gives synopsises of the last three Pirate movies

To All the Libs Who Voted for Obama

To all the libs who voted for Obama, I have some interesting facts for you. Remember when he said he was going to close GITMO? Guess what,now he endorses it and plans to keep it open.

Remember when he said he was going to cut the debt and deficet in half? Now he's tripled it.

Remember when he said he was going to end the war in Iraq? Not only are we still there, but Now he's given us a third war that was supposed to "last days not weeks" and is still going on.

Remember when all you libs and your messiah criticized Bush for Haliburton? Well now O has awarded them a billion dollar contract.

Remember when he said if we passed his stimulus package unemployment wouldn't go above 8%? Well they passed it and unemployment went up to 10% and is staying at a steady 9%.

So all you Messiah followers, how's that hope and change working out for you? Are you still going to vote for him in 2012? Maybe unemployment will go up to 20% by then and we'll be involved in a fourth war and gitmo will be busier than ever and the debt will be quadrupled. Hope and change??? Really!!!!!

Freedom's Not Free-Mermorial Day

Every year around Memorial Day I stop and reflect more than usual on the brave men and women who have fought and are fighting for our freedoms here. I especially reflect and thank the people who served and are serving in my immediate circle.

First there is my late father who served in the army/air corps as it was known then. He was stationed stateside in North Carolina. His twin brother, my Uncle Herb was a tank commander in France in WW11 and was killed in action as he was getting out of his tank and was hit by schrapnel. Since he was killed before I was born I never knew him, but was always shown pictures of him and heard about him that I felt like I knew him.

Then there was my late father-in-law Charlie who was in the marines and two weeks after he got out Pearl Harbor was bombed so he joined the army/air corps and flew bombing missions over Germany. Once he got a few beers in him, he would never tire of telling us many inside stories that you don't read about in the history books. We liked to say he kicked Hitler's ass. :D I often told my wife she should have recorded him for posterity.

I myself served six years in the army reserves towards the end of the Vietnam war. I was stationed in Ft .Jackson, South Carolina during the summer for my basic training and received jungle warfare training. I never left my state of New Jersey the entire time.

Then there are my current online buddies. First retired marine colonel J Karl Miller who served bravely in Vietnam and wounded several times. I learned and continue to learn a lot from his weekly columns in his hometown newspaper he sends out to us all. Then there is our friend Nikki who is currently serving in the Navy and recently was appointed to the rank of Chief. Nikki has served bravely and valiently in Iraq and Afghanistan training our troops and is also a beautiful woman. Thank you for your service Karl and Nikki, we salute you.

Below are two links by Ron and Kay Rivoli of the Rivoli Revue to their song Freedom is not Free. Both are the same song but different videos paying tribute to and saluting our troops. Please check them out.

Some gave all,
They paid the price
for Freedoms here
they sacrificed
They gave their lives
for you and me
Their graves remind us Freedom's not free.

YouTube - Freedom's Not Free/Memorial Day

YouTube - "Freedom's Not Free" The Rivoli Revue

The Right Speech By the Wrong Man

As I heard Obama address the troops at Ft. Campbell today I couldn't help but think this was the right speech by the wrong man. It was a speech that sounded more like political posturing and a campaign speech. I'm sorry, but I just couldn't take him serious. It was a great speech, full of patriotism and passion and had the troops cheering as he said things about never forgetting 9/11 and how we will always back countries faced with terrorism,etc. It sounded like a speech George Bush should give because we knew he meant it. Obama even borrowed lines from Bush's 9/11 speech such as "We will not falter" and "we will never forget". He touted the successes of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (wars he opposed by the way) and said how he sent troops to Afghanistan that are keeping the Taliban at bay and will soon turn over the fighting to the Afghanistan troops. I would like to remind Obama that he spent several months dithering and deciding to send troops there and when he finally did it wasn't as many as Gen.McChrystal wanted. Also there were more deaths in Afghanistan of American troops under Obama than under Bush there.


I find it hard to take his speech serious here when here was a guy who went through the middle east apologizing for America and calling us Arrogant and dismissive. I find it hard to take a guy like this serious who has a wife who calls us a "down right mean country." I find it hard to take serious a guy who calls middle Americans "people who cling to their guns and religion." Now we're supposed to accept him as this super pro American patriot? The conqering hero who got Bin Laden even though he opposed the very acts that gave us the info to capture this guy in the first place? Obama spoke out against waterboarding, enhanced interrogations and secret bases and promised to close Gitmo . Now those very same interrogations and waterboarding enforced under the Bush Administration led to ithe capture and killing of Bin Laden and Obama is the conqering hero.

Obama was opposed to the idea of bombing the compound for fear of collateral damage even though there were 18 ft. high walls and said we would never know if we got him or not and he had to be dragged kicking and screaming to approve this plan with the SEALS. He dithered for 16 hours on this plan and it was only until Leon Panetta convinced him to go thru with it that he ok'd it. Now he's taking all the credit for it. Everything as usual with him is "I,I,I, I did this and I did that. I put the team together, I gave the order.." He never mentioned or thanked the Bush administration for all the help they got from their policies. If Obama's policies were in place and we did away with enhanced interrogations, and other means they employed, Bin Laden would still be alive today.

Obama goes to Ground Zero and makes a great photo op and meets with the fire dept. and first responders which was fine and appropriate,but he never went there before. He then follows that with this great speech to the troops and has them cheering. Yes it was a great speech, but by the wrong man.

Now They Won't Release a Photo?

The Most transparent administration in history now says they won't release a photo of Osama because it is too violent and too incisive. But the elites get to see it for us. What a crock that is. First he wouldn't release his birth certificate and now they won't release a photo? This is the wrong thing to do. They are bending over backwards in being so politically correct to appease the muslim community that it is going to bite them. Al Queda wants to see a photo, Hamas wants to see a photo, The Taliban wants to see a photo and most of the American people want to see a photo. By not releasing a photo will give rise to every conspiracy theorist in the world. Most of the muslim community overseas thinks he' still alive and demanding proof now. This will further enflame their beliefs. Even if they do release a photo how do we know it won't be photoshopped like his birth certificate was. I understand there is already a photoshopped photo being passed around that is supposed to be him, but is really of an Al Queda dead body with Osama's face on it.

Even some republicans are getting in on not releasing a photo:

According to Fox News sources, the photo of bin Laden "shows a large, open gunshot wound on bin Laden's forehead, revealing brain matter." Fox News adds that "a senior U.S. official who has had access to the images said one of bin Laden's eyes is open while the other is 'completely gone.'"

Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., who has seen a photo and confirmed that it shows bin Laden, disputed the notion the image is too gruesome for the public to see.

"Nobody wants to see a disturbing photograph, but for closure purposes, it should be released," she told Fox News. "We don't want to see conspiracy theories develop, particularly among the terrorists."

When Saddam's sons were killed they released photos of them with their heads blown away. When they hung Saddam they released a video of it and released a photo of his severed head afterwards. You can get pics of JFK's head blown apart on Google. We can take it. By releasing a photo it will show every terrorist that this is YOUR fate if you should try anything with us.

There are many questions now to be answered especially since conflicting stories are coming out. First there was a fire fight with him. Then he had no gun, then he was hiding behind a woman, then he wasn't behind a woman, then it was his wife he was behind and she was killed, then it wasn't his wife and the woman was only wounded. Will we ever get a straight story?

I am no conspiracy theorist, but I find it particularly funny that all this happened when Obama was low in the polls and 70 percent of the people say we are on the wrong track and an election is coming up next year and suddenly this happens and he's suddenly 9 points up in the polls? Hmmm? Just a coincidence? Did Obama and his co-horts know about this for a while and decided to pull it off now because of what was just said? I just report. You decide.

In any event a pohoto should be released. We should stop worrying about incurring other countries wrath and start making them fear our own wrath.

The Islamic Bastard is Dead-Independance Day!!!!!!

As singer Martina Mcbride so eloquntly sings in her hit song Independance Day:
"let freedom ring, let the white dove sing let the whole world know thatToday is a day of reckoning let the weak be strong, let the right be wrong roll The stone away, let the guilty pay, it’s independence day"
Yes Osama is dead. Let this be a lesson to all terrorists that you don't mess with the U.S. I thought that was a gutsy move by Obama and give him credit for that, but I do object to him taking all the credit. This was a result of years of work and investigating and a crack Navy Seal team that he was in favor of disassembling, this is a guy who wanted to give Miranda rights to enemy combatants, this is a guy who wanted to reduce the size of our military and didn't give Gen. David Petreus all the troops he asked for in Afghnistan, this is a guy who went through the middle east bashing us and now he takes all the credit and acts so patriotic? He just sees an election coming up and he's down in the polls.

Obama spoke out against enhanced interrogations, yet thanks to George Bush's order for enhanced interrogations like waterboarding, that so many libs argued against, we were able to get this information from Khaleel Sheik Mohammed and the names of couriers that led to where Osama was hiding. Now libs are arguing that we did the wrong thing because we violated Pakistan's sovereignty and didn't confer with the U.N first. If we did that this would never have happened. Now Islamic clerics are mad at us because we didn't turn the body over to them for a proper Islamic burial so he could be facing Mecca. That old has been Cindy Sheehan is saying Osama isn't dead so watch the conspiracy theorists come out in droves. Osama's son is saying that the worst is yet to come and Hamas and other terror groups are vowing revenge so we have to be on high alert now. Osama's second in command Al Zawahiri will take over and apparently they have been prepared if something like this happened.

The navy is pondering whether to release the photos of Osama's body. I say they have no choice. It would be the most viewed picture in history. Now is not the time to worry about sensitivity. We can take it. We've seen pictures of JFK's dead body with the bullet hole in his head which are available online. We've seen pics of David Koresh's burnt body in the Waco assault that time. If a person is offended they don't have to look at them. The Navy also says they have a video of the Islamic service they gave Osama at sea. It was a 40 minute service with Islamic officials translating and observing. I say 40 minutes was too long a ceremony for the likes of him, they should just feed him to the sharks, but I guess you have to be respectful and show them what we are made of. That is more than any Islamic thug would do for us. By releasing these photos that would be a warning to all future terrorists that this is YOUR fate if you mess with us.

Like George Bush said in his 9/11 speech, "We will hunt you down and we will find you and deal with you." Yes the guilty pay, Independance Day for sure.