Gripes

[oselle]

Unnnnh. 27 days into the new year and only a week away from the inauguration and unnnnnnh....where have all the good vibes gone?

First of all, Kim Manners. Of course the great loss here is to those who actually knew him, to his friends and family and colleagues. But I'm just a fan and speaking as a fan, this does not bode well for the show. At all. I was just speaking recently with someone about how I don't know what happened to this season -- the last few episdoes haven't exactly been awful or anything, but IMO they've really slumped from the high of the season's first few episodes. And now I'm wondering how much of that had to do with Kim Manners' illness and no doubt lack of involvement with the show.

Now I know there are those of you out there who think Eric Kripke and Sera Gamble can do no wrong and that Ben Edlund is a visionary genius but I'm not and have never been one of them. Sera Gamble rocked when she was writing with Raelle Tucker but her solo act hasn't been as impressive. As entertaining as Ben Edlund's episodes can be, they often seem to be written more for his own personal jollies -- which are best served up in extreme moderation. And I just don't know about Kripke. I think left to his own devices he'll sink down into a sophmoric stew of babes n' bullets and annoying reliance on the word "douchebag." These folks needed the likes of Kim Manners around. The guy had a better resume than any of them and, I think, was almost wholly responsible for the show's visual style and tone. He grounded them, he grounded the show and he brought out the best in the cast. In a statement released by the show's publicist, Kripke called Manners the "patriarch" of Supernatural and I honestly don't know what they're going to do without him.

As for the rest of the world...oh my God. Our new president is trying to "compromise" with the Republicans over the economic stimulus. There is no compromise with Republicans. It's their way or the highway and for God's sake I don't know why our supposedly "liberal media" is bending over backwards to tell the Repubs' side of the story. They have no ideas. They have no plans. They have nothing but ill will towards the American people. They are solely interested in their own twisted Randian ideology. You don't compromise with that. You give it some lip service and then YOU FUCKING IGNORE IT. We voted these fuckers out of power for a reason, Mr. President.

America lost another 70,000 jobs yesterday. On 60 Minutes this weekend I watched a report about a town in Ohio where just about everyone worked for DHL, which is closing up all of its operations this month. One of the people they interviewed was a woman who described how she was "stockpiling" non-perishable food while she still had a job...you know, peanut butter, cereal, spaghetti, etc. For God's sake, how long before the roads are clogged with modern-day Okies? But where will they go? There is nowhere to go.

Meanwhile, twice this weekend I caught televangelists (Pat Robertson and Joel Osteen to be exact) telling their congregations that the more they give, the more they'll receive. Robertson's 700 Club profiled a couple who claimed they could draw a direct correlation between their donations to Robertson's CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network) and the success of their lunchwagon business. And the always-oily Osteen predicted that his faithful would all be receiving "explosive blessings" in 2009 in the form of sudden, unexpected cash windfalls so there was no need for them to pinch their pennies. I'd say that it was unchristian and exquisitely cruel to prey on people this way during such hard times, but you know what? Anyone who buys this "God wants you to be rich" crap is so stupid that they deserve to be fleeced down to their last dime. In fact if I thought I could affect a cornpone accent and a beauty-pageant hairdo I'd create my own fucking "ministry" and start raking it in. Hey, God WANTS me to be rich, after all.

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