Progress?

Politics today. If you are looking for baseball, hypnotism, or American Idol chatter, you will not find it here. I’d rather just lay it out up front. You are excused if you don’t wish to read more about today’s subject.

How do you define progress?

Webster defines it as a noun in three ways:

\ˈprä-grəs, -ˌgres, US also & British usually ˈprō-ˌgres\

1

a (1) : a royal journey marked by pomp and pageant (2) : a state procession b : a tour or circuit made by an official (as a judge) c : an expedition, journey, or march through a region

2

: a forward or onward movement (as to an objective or to a goal) : advance

3

: gradual betterment; especially : the progressive development of humankind

— in progress

: going on : occurring

I’d never it used in example 1, above, but that matters not.

I’d like to deal with examples two and three for a short while.

Personally, I have goals towards which I would like to make progress. I would think that with few exceptions people want to make progress, right? Am I crazy here? No, I am not; I am totally sane.
My parents wanted me to do better than they did in their lives or, in other words, progress beyond where they ended up in life. So did their parents. Our FREEDOM basically depended on our own ability to progress and keep from being dependant on others in society.

Here, I guess, is where some people begin to have differing ideas about this.
My parents wanted me to have MORE in life and get more out of life. That meant, to them, that I would acquire more wealth so that I would be financially secure so that I would not have to worry about where I got meals, where I lived, etc. They wanted me to drive a new car so that I didn’t have a piece of crap to drive around all the time, leaving me potentially victimized by ill-timed breakdowns. They wanted me to have a bigger house and more land so that I could have more to pass on to my family so that they could be financially secure also, and so on down the line.

I will just assume that you get my point about that without elaborating further.

In America, our ancestors have all wanted the same things, progress in medicine, technology, energy, transportation, etc., etc.
Because of that societal desire to become better at living, in all aspects of our lives, our society advanced. Our ancestors worked hard to create and develop these ideas and things so that we could have better lives and then we would take what they created and develop and create even greater things for our kids.

That, to me, is progress.

So, I’m sort of curious to know why these days we seem to doing things that are regressive and labeling them progressive some how.
Take the automobile. I think what it has done for our freedom and for our economic engine of progress speaks for itself.
Yet, there is an actual movement to do whatever it takes to essentially remove the car from roads.
I have run into more people than I care to know even exist who say we would be better off without the car.

These people, now get this, call themselves “Progressives.”

HUH?!

Not a new term, I know. But it does just want to make you slap yourself in the face to wake up, right?

These same people want us to do away with things like oil, coal, and anything that create actual real energy to power our lives and provide HEAT and replace it with things that do not yet work properly.

Before I continue, let me say that I am all for doing whatever it takes to develop and create new energy sources. But if these sources don’t work better than oil or gas or coal and are not cheaper, THAT IS NOT PROGRESS.

Our education system, once an envy of the world, is not making progress, yet some 75% of educators call themselves “Progressive” to some degree.

Our dollar is regressing. It buys less. Our government, currently run by a Progressive, actually makes policies that intentionally lower the value of our dollar! If our dollar is worth less, how can we progress in our lives?

Our home values are declining. Again, our government, currently run by a Progressive, has enacted policies that have made it more difficult for people to buy a home. If we can’t buy homes, how can we progress?

For the last two examples, we are now being told that we should learn to do with less. This comes from the mouths of Progressives.

Just kick me in the head now because I can’t wake up from this nightmare.

Sidebar…Canada’s economy is now growing at twice our rate. Recent changes in health care there, to a system with INCREASED privatization…according to our Progressives, HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THAT. Just look the other way, sheep…that has nothing to do with it.

It’s so bad and so hypocritical that these people….these Progressives….want those who have actually progressed in their lives, to basically go backwards under THE NAME OF PROGRESS!

If they don’t they are called all sorts of names which include greedy, lustful and even criminal.

We never seem to see these Progressives actually help those who have not progressed very far in life move forward. No, instead they focus their attention on those who have reached goals and then decide to penalize the advanced in the name of progress.

I could continue with more examples of this but let me move to a totally unrelated note…

I wonder if you have ever read the following:

Current Communist Goals
EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, January 10, 1963
 
Mr. HERLONG. Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De Land, Fla., is an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until recently published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose of alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America.
At Mrs. Nordman's request, I include in the RECORD, under unanimous consent, the following "Current Communist Goals," which she identifies as an excerpt from "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen:
[From "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen]
CURRENT COMMUNIST GOALS
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use ["]united force["] to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the

World Court

from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the

World Court

jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.

I saw this quite some time ago. I wonder how many of you have ever read it. A few things are no longer relevant but most of the real majors ones on this of 45 still are.

There is a conclusion that one could make here; it does seem as if SOMETHING has really made “progress” here in America.

Done.

Norris > Utley....duh

Back in 1995 I started a little business called Delaware Sports. It began as a local cable television show and blossomed into what is now a  small sports video production service.
The show itself was really a labor of love. Over the course of its 13-year run I spent so much money that I have no chance of being able to retire someday. To this day I struggle with the financial troubles I had trying to produce a weekly television show with the help of one other part-time person and basically zero support from the business community.
I had to finally decide to take on something different which is why I transitioned into the area where I am now with my stage hypnosis shows.
But there are a lot of things that I miss about working on Delaware Sports on a daily basis.
At this time of the year here, the high school state championship tournaments are taking place. Since I do still videotape for clients I get to head out to see a lot of games.
I don’t know all of the players like I used to know them, but I love the atmosphere. Its fun to watch all of the kids so emotionally involved in these events from the players to the fans to the ball girls at the girl’s soccer games. (The parents are sometimes not so fun to watch, but they do add something else about which to speak as well.)
I met a lot of great kids over the years covering Delaware Sports. Those of who you who access this blog through Facebook would find a lot of them on my connections list. So I miss developing those types of potential long-term relationships.
So during each of the three seasons of high school sports championships I struggle with whether or not to start anything up like that again. There are less expensive ways to do this now, I say to myself.
Now, I do have a growing staff of people working on our podcast show, The Dungeon of Manlove, and we are planning an entire network of shows (one is actually already running and three others are in the works.) It would stand to reason that it would be a little easier to get something like that going again.
I would just have to make sure that there is advance financing for that though. The sales staff we are working to create would have to get companies signed up in advance. That’s always tough to do.

Now the summer season of television is ready to start. I don’t know exactly why I want to write about TV in this space, but I have found that I like to do so. Since I don’t get paid to do this either, I will simply do what I want and say what I want….SO THERE!

How It's Done

Crap. I was supposed to write more about baseball here. Well, it’s been tough to get excited about it. The dirty Phillies are visiting my beloved Mets right now and had two come-from-behind victories in the first two games, so that’s not boosting my baseball mood.
The Red Sox have been on fire and are now in first, as predicted earlier. I just need the Braves to step up since that was the bolder pick in the NL East, but they aren’t cutting the mustard just yet.

Phillie fans are now giving Chase Utley Chuck Norris-like attention, which doesn’t make any sense at all. I won’t go through all of the Chuck Norris jokes here to which they are trying to compare Chase Utley. But they don’t make any sense because Utley is often injured. Sure, he comes back, but if he doesn’t play he can’t do anything heroic. It’s very important to note, naturally, that Chuck Norris never gets injured, he only inflicts injuries so therefore Utley could never be Norris-like in actuality or in tale.

I realize that this winning thing that the Phillies have brought to Philadelphia the last few years is a very new concept for Philadelphia sports fans. After all, the Phillies, even with these hot few years, are still the team that has lost more games than any team in the entire history of the planet Earth. So we will have to excuse them for a while until they learn how to be winning fans and have more practice creating these types of tales of legendary heroes somewhere down the road.

Done.

Alfred E. Neumann - Recording Star



Congratulations to Alfred E. Neumann for winning AI last night, as successfully predicted here prior to the show last night.
Alfred E. was one of the young people who I thought from way, way back was going to land a recording contract with someone. Score a point for me.




Alfred E. Neumann


If you don’t know who Alfred E. Neumann is, he is the main character from Mad Magazine. I am just happy that he was able to make this mid-life career change and have such great success with it.

 



Alfred E. McCreary



I had a great show in DuBois, PA last night. It was a 250 mile ride out there and I had to turn around and come right back because I didn’t have a doggie sitter. So I got home at 3 this morning and am a little beat.

The show was a senior high school dinner celebration. I found out a half an hour before show time that I was replacing a guy who had been doing that party for 24 years in a row.
So basically I was hired to try to replace a local legend.
This isn’t the first time that I have received this news shortly before a show. It adds a little pressure because of a natural tendency to compare acts. It meant that I had to find out the kind of things they had seen before with this guy and change my routine accordingly.
After the show I was told that I’ll be back next year.

So its cool that I am booking shows into 2012 already. It means that my show is getting better and people want to make sure that they are on my schedule as soon as possible. That’s very flattering. Now I just need to fill my summers some how. I have ONE “tentative” show for this July and August, while I have three lined up right now, is usually pretty slow also.

I was listening to the Philthies game on the radio last night on the way home as they were playing a 19 inning game against the Reds. Infielder Wilson Valdez pitched the 19^th inning for the Philths and ended up getting the win as the Philths scored in the bottom of the 19^th. Valdez had to face reigning MVP Joey Votto, Scott Rolen, Jay Bruce and the Reds pitcher. He got Votto to pop out, plunked Rolen (which the fans really enjoyed) popped out Bruce and the pitcher grounded out or something.
So Valdez, who started the game at a position, closed out the game on the mound and picked up the victory. That has not been done since Babe Ruth did it way back when.
It’s not a record or anything, but rather a fantastic addition to a baseball trivia book.

But the real reason I wanted to write something here today was so that I could say congratulations to Alfred E. Neumann and get those pictures posted here.

Done.

Biggest Loser - New Best Show in the World

It’s show night in DuBois, PA, wherever that is.

Good thing it’s a private party and not a public show tonight because the finale of American Idol is on and I am sure it will be well watched.

The winner of American Idol will be Alfred E. Neumann, and that is still the funniest thing that has happened on TV for a couple of years. This is not a slight to Lauren Alaina, anyone of the final 5 or 6 could have won, but it will be Scotty in a landslide.

Last night was the finale of the Biggest Loser one of the top reality shows on TV. I like to watch the very first show of BL, one in the middle and the finale. That is how you really get an impact of how this show has changed these contestants’ lives.

People on this show routinely lose at least 25% of their initial body weight and the winners are close to 50% with a couple over the years actually losing more than half of their weight.

Those are some fat people that land on that show, I’ll tell you. You have to have a lot of flub to be able to lose that much weight and not die.

Former Olympic Gold Medalist Rulon Gardner was on this show this year. He quit near the end of it and did not return for the finale. I missed the first 15 minutes of the show last night so I don’t know if they mentioned him or not. I get the feeling he just wanted to get re-motivated and felt that he didn’t want to upstage or out-perform the others on the show who were hardly athletes at all let alone one of Olympian caliber.

But the biggest bombshell thrown out at this show last night was literally a bombshell. Anna Kornikova will replace the legendary Jillian Michaels as a trainer on the show.

Already all men in American who watch this show now have no clue who Jillian Michaels is anymore.

Great Googly Moogly, Anna Kornikova….whoa. Now it looks like I’ll watch more than just those three episodes of that show’s season next year. Yikes. And…she looked goooood when she was introduced last night.

If you don’t know who Anna Kornikova is, here is a picture.

And another

And another.  It would even be ok for her to reject me and run away from me if this was the result...

I could go on and on.
She was a professional tennis player who never won anything and no one cared who owned male genitalia.

Then I watched The Voice while flipping back and forth a little to see who won Dancing with the Stars on its finale.
First of all, it was disturbing to watch Kirstie Alley, who came in second. While she remained completely talented and charming as always, I still had the picture of Anna Kornikova fresh in mind while Alley is dancing around on this show (where she should have been on Anna’s new show as a contestant) with a boob flopping out of her dress. Not that I mind boobs flopping out at any time, mind you, but…ugh…no good here.

Heinz Ward, the Pittsburgh Steeler won the trophy, but I really couldn't have cared less.

So, back to The Hair…I mean Voice. Still, Christina Aguilera has this horridly colored hair that takes all attention away from everything else while she is on camera. I want to like this show, but the fake applause is still grinding on me. I am not sure how much longer I can handle it and when America Has Talent and True Blood return I might have to ditch The Voice.

The Bachelorette started this week, I think. I watch the Bachelor because there are 30 desperate women who are trying to get the attention of whoever is the luckiest man in the world at the time. Some are even pretty hot. But watching this show is not particularly manly even with all of those women on it so that is gay enough for this straight man right here. I ave to draw the line at judging which desperate dude is going to get the girl who I never agree should have the opportunity to have all of them fake like they actually want her for a full season.

I am fully invested in The Event on NBC. It’s an alien show where aliens from another world are coming to Earth to RE-colonize it. The premise is that they were on Earth first and their home planet is ready to explode so they are returning over 2 billion people here. But we have never seen any hint of an alien since they are very close in DNA to humans.
That concept is far too convenient for me but it does allow the writers to have them intermingle with the human population as sleeper cells preparing for the Event to take place at some point. We learned Monday that the Event was NOT anything that has happened so far up to, and including, the event where their whole planet was transported between the Earth and the Moon. This was a pretty cool effect which they obviously spent a lot of the money they saved on alien costumes throughout the season to produce.

If you are someone who has listened to The Dungeon of Manlove podcasts first, let me thank you. For those who listened and were deeply offended by our very raw and filthy language, let me apologize even though you were warned. For those who listen please let me ask you to subscribe to the show the next time you listen to it.
We are tied into the advertising program where the show is hosted. Companies can shop around on the hosting site for popular shows or shows which match their particular demographics. Without subscribers there is no way that any company bothers to take a listen to what we are doing. Subscribing is free; it just requires registering on the site. So that you know, I have never had any unsolicited messages from the hosting site besides notifications that a new show to which I have subscribed is now posted.

Ok, so no baseball in this one today. So let me just mention that the Indians are still the best team in baseball AND that despite the fact that some of my early team predictions were off, some teams are now on the move that are making those predictions more in line with what I suggested might happen, including the run by the Red Sox, who are now just a half-game out of first place, and the Cardinals who now possess first place in the NL Central.

Done

We're Alive!

Well its good to be alive, I think. I was not scarfed up in the rapture on Saturday so its back to work today.

For those of you who thought it was the end of the world on Saturday, it was not supposed to be, except for anyone who died of regular earthly causes or who was taken by the lord early. It was the date of the Rapture.
No, the end of the world date is now October 21^st…for sure this time. That is when the actual end comes.

I heard that a quarter of a billion people were supposed to be raptured. I didn’t read any headlines which talked about a large group of missing people somewhere out there so there are two conclusions I can reach; 1- there are even more sinners than even I thought or; 2- I’ll be working past October 21^st also, so I better prepare myself mentally for that.

I was on the road Saturday and was listening to the radio station where the guy who made this prediction can be heard during the evening throughout the week (Harold Camping.) One would think that if those stations were airing that prediction that there would be all sorts of news about it throughout the day, particularly during the “final week.” Things like what we should pack, stories of rioting and looting, and what type of messages we should leave our sinning friends and family members.

Nothing.

I listened to Camping take phone calls one evening. Some people were challenging his interpretation of the Bible and some were totally in agreement, someone asked him why his stations were still soliciting funds (his ministry is worth over 70 million dollars) but what he never did say that day was that May 21^st was the rapture date, at least when I was listening. He mentioned earthquakes in New Zealand (but that had already happened a couple of months ago) and a specific time but nothing about angels sweeping down and scooping up the chosen few.

Harold Camping

I don’t doubt that Camping is sincere about this. He made this same prediction in 1994 and I got a call back then from someone trying to make amends with me because he believed it was all coming to an end. Naturally it didn’t but Camping has such faith in what he believes that he didn’t allow his past failure to sway him.

There are lessons in that. One, I think, is that we should never give up on our dreams!

Ok, maybe that is a stretch to talk about how to rise from the ashes of defeat and failure.

I am not a religious man. This is one of the glaring reasons why; because these messages are skewed by human interpretation. Which religion, if any, are teaching us the correct lessons handed down by God? I even say that, respectfully, with a core thesis that God does exists.
I was exposed early in life to a wide variety of religions. Therefore, I am a product of my environment in that way and have this present opinion. I was told to remain open minded to all beliefs systems because humans do make mistakes.
Even early on in elementary school I remember an exercise where one kid was told a story and had to whisper it to the next one and so on and so on until the final kid in the class had to repeat the story that reached him. It differed so greatly from the original story, which had just been told 15 minutes ago to someone, that it made a very strong impact.

So the other lesson I can take out of this could be that I should trust what I actually see and experience so that I can make critical decisions in life. (I will only speak for myself here…I just crossed out all of the “we’s in there.)

I do admire people of faith. It takes a great deal of courage to stand against a majority of opposite beliefs in times when in the minority. But there is also a war saying that I like to quote sometimes- “Is that the hill you want to die on?” Just having faith that your battle team can capture the hill sometimes doesn’t mean that faith alone can overcome the overwhelming odds stacked against you.

In my 49 years of life I have now survived two raptures, a couple of end-of-the-world dates, Y2K and the consistent playing of Prince’s “Party like it’s 1999” the year before.

This gives me hope that I can survive Lady Gaga, at the very least, and this continuing mess of an economy. That’s right, I went there again and I went there because I trust what I experience and see and not what some preacher or politician wants me to have blind faith in and blindly believe what he says to be true. 

Let me ask one question though, especially for you non-believers of God. About two years ago in Los Angeles a flower was discovered that had never been documented before...in LOS ANGELES, not in some remote jungle.

How did it get there?

Done.

Cowboy (and girl) and Indians

We have a final pair set now on American Idol – Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina. Scotty was one of my picks as a potential finalist. Steven Tyler picked Lauren right from the beginning.
Ousted was Haley Reinhart, my favorite. She got better and better as the weeks went by but was really my favorite because she is hot.
Two factors, I believe, led to her being voted out last night; 1- she exudes perhaps a little extra confidence that some describe as arrogance; 2- and the country community has spoken.
Scott and Lauren are 17 and 16 respectively, both humble, respectful and charming and they both are country singers.
One of Haley’s last performances on the sing-off the other night was pretty cool as she had her father on stage with her playing guitar in a Led Zeppelin song.
While I didn’t initially see Haley as a sure-bet recording artist, I sure do now. Same to be said with Lauren. We are going to hear 7-8 of these contestants on the radio in different genres in the next couple of years.

One of the big additions to this season was music producer Jimmy Iovine. I really don’t know anything about the music industry when it comes to producing records. But the other day I dusted off Meatloaf’s “Bat Out of Hell” CD and saw that Iovine had a major credit on that CD. I then heard him say on the show the other day that he worked on Tom Petty’s “Damn the Torpedoes’” album also. These are two all-time classic works of rock music. He is chairman of Interscope Records (a name that is foreign to me) and has also produced for John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Stevie Nicks (who he was linked to romantically at one point also,) Simple Minds, Dire Straits and Patti Smith to name a few others. He also helped Eminem launch his career and Lady Gaga too.

Iovine is worth an estimated 700-875 million dollars and he spent all of that time working with these kids, which on the surface seems pretty selfless until you then figure that he’ll probably sign most of them.

Jimmy Iovine

One of his greatest contributions is having the singers stick to their true selves. Scotty, for example, is really only a country singer. That is what he wants to, that is what he is. In the past the judges would insist on singers “stepping out of the box” to try new things so that they could “see what they could do.” Then they would tell the singers to stay true to themselves. It never made any sense to me and Iovine as much said so as well.

I think that means I could be a record producer and make a few extra million also!

Two quick baseball notes.
Jason Giambi became the 4^th player in history to hit three homeruns in a game after the age 40 last night against the Phillies. He joins Reggie Jackson, Stan Musial and Babe Ruth on that small list.
And the best team in baseball is….The Cleveland Indians!

Done

Lots of Great Shows

I am officially resisting the urge to talk about gas prices today. I had written a whole bunch of stuff about a rumor I heard that Obama said we should drill in Alaska and went on a whole rant. I’ll save it for another day.

You are welcome.

I’ve been real busy with three shows in three states in four days. All went incredibly well. The one of particular note was a high school in Northampton, PA where I was told by a few people that I put on the best show they ever had there. One of those people was the principal of the school.
That show was in front of 500 people and the truth is that it’s easier in front of a large group like that. I know that statistically I’ll have great candidates and I can move much faster through my induction process than with a smaller group.
But that’s not always the case, of course. I had a return visit to a high school in Butler, NJ this week with about 60 people in the audience and it was probably a better show that the one in PA. There is something in the water up there I guess that just makes them much more animated than most audiences.

Who knows? Maybe I’m just getting better at what I do that helps these things become better shows.

The other show was an after prom in Weedsport, NY. This was also a return visit. I know that this show went very well for me and that for the most part this was a homerun as well. But there was one girl was over-the-top animated and was a bit on the annoying side to a lot of the people watching and even participating.
How do I know that she was perhaps a little too distracting? Well, there was one incident where I was doing a skit where I was talking to one of the volunteers. For some reason she started pulling the leg hairs of the kid I was trying to get to talk to me. I have no idea why she was doing this, but I needed her to stop so I put her to sleep. Half the audience gave me a standing ovation for doing so.
Then I was doing my skit where everyone talks gibberish. She was now sitting front and center of the stage on the floor in front of three girls who were sitting in chairs. I talked to a few kids who were making no sense, as was supposed to happen, and then went to the girl in the middle of three who had been one of the other stars of the show. I asked her how she was doing and then in English replies, “I don’t know, but this girl right here is really annoying,” to yet another standing ovation.

I don’t really market myself very well with my entertainment career particularly considering the social networking methods available. But I do have a Facebook page for me as a stage hypnotist. Before the PA show I had about 190 people who “liked” the page with perhaps half of them not people who I know who just liked it because they are my friends. After the PA show, it jumped to 238, a 50% increase in “other-people” fans in one show.
That’s very flattering. It perhaps rivals the show I did at a Lancaster, PA show where someone created a whole Facebook page in tribute to the time they had that particular day. “I attended Marshal Manlove's party on Magic Island!”

Again, anything that I read, see, or hear like that is very, very flattering and gives me great satisfaction.


Speaking of great shows, we are down to just three contestants in American Idol now; Scotty, Lauren and Haley the hot one. Lauren pulled herself together this past week and was clearly much more confident on stage. Haley slayed the crowd with a second song performance that pulled herself out of a hole she dug with her first one and Scotty is simply a future country recording star.
We said good-bye to James Durbin, who will also forge forward to recording music in the rock genre. He’ll be missed by the rockers out there who follow the show.

As mentioned, it’s been anyone’s to win now for a few weeks. It’s tough to now judge who is best because we simply all have different tastes. There are two teenaged country singers left of the three though, so that might suggest something about the show’s demographics this year.


Speaking of more great shows, I had wanted to get into talking about Survivor, which had its finale last night. To me it’s still the best reality show out there and it was really the first of its kind to introduce the whole concept of voting off a contestant like that, to my knowledge.
I won’t give away the ending in case some people have it taped and want to try to be surprised by the outcome.
The show still holds up great to me and keep in mind that I can be as critical as anyone of these things. It is well produced, well shot, well planned and it is intriguing every week.
What I like to watch is how this gets filmed. In 22 seasons you cannot find a hint of a cameraman there. Of course you know that the camera is there because people do interviews on it but what I mean, for example, is that you cannot see a cameraman’s shadow in this show. They have cameras all over the place…in the air, underwater, in the mud and you name it, not one shadow that shows a cameraman there.

Cast of Survivor Redemption Island

The engineering staff and creative staff that they have to create, develop and build the sets for the challenges continues to come up with new twists on these challenges and the sets at which they are contested.
Thousands of people still send in entries to be on this show where, if selected, they will basically starve for the majority of the time they are there.
I know plenty of people who talk about how it’s faked and that it’s not completely pure. One cannot fake starvation though, remember that. There would have to be SOME help along the way either with a ration of food or some tools or something at the start. If someone were shipwrecked like that some provisions and tools would wash up on such a deserted place along with the people who were stranded.

Wow, I have a lot to do. So, I’m

Done.

How Much for My Jetpack?

I saw that JetMan had a successful flight across the Grand Canyon the other day. I had posted a link to a story about him on my Facebook page to a newspaper story.

The jetpack apparently reaches speeds of well over 100 mph.

When you are thinking about what I might want for Christmas this year, just get me one of those. It might be a little pricey but my birthday is a week before Christmas, so one jetpack for both days combined will suffice.

I wonder what the gas will cost for that though. It’s now over $4 a gallon here in my region averaging I’d say $4.05.

But there are some people in our government who believe that we should now tax oil companies at a higher rate because of this.

Ok, someone help me out here. How the hell is that going to LOWER the cost of gas?

Seriously, if I asked you to make up a story that included one of the most stupid things a person could do, you would never come close to making up that story.

What is particularly diabolical though is the flat-out lie that our government “subsidizes” oil companies. What that would mean is that we give our money to oil companies to do business.
What these same people really mean by “subsidies” is tax breaks.
What these same people really mean by “tax breaks” is reducing the amount of tax deductions that a business can deduct from its gross receipts.

Every business…and I can’t believe that I actually have to explain this so bear with me those who know better…has costs of doing business. For arguments sake lets say a company does a million dollars a year in business. Businesses don’t get taxed on that figure because it, for example, might cost 400,000 to do that business. Taxes are then on the 600,000 that is left. That is for every business out there.
This is not a “tax break” or a “loophole” this is a cost of doing business. Your labor is a cost of doing business. Companies pay you to do work and because your labor is such a cost the business doesn’t pay taxes on the volume generated to create your paycheck.

Do you really want to go down the road of taxing that whole million dollars? Do you want to keep your job? Do you want the company to move to another country and all Americans working there to lose their jobs? Because that is what happens. So those of you who think otherwise wake up.

Here is a link to a story written by Jazz Shaw which goes a little more in depth  http://hotair.com/archives/2011/05/03/oil-company-subsidies-clarified/

So what will be your breaking point with gas prices? It’s $2 a gallon for me and I’m being generous.

I am an anti-big government person. But if I were President I would toss around ideas that would create real incentives for people and companies to create the necessary technologies that would pull us out of this mess and any other such mess.
For example, I would go to Congress and ask for…lets say 100 million dollars or even a BILLION dollars…for the first person or company to create a car engine that got 200 miles per gallon of gas.
The examples of this could be endless…the same reward for an alternative energy engine that actually worked properly, was LESS expensive, and MORE powerful than what we have to use right now.

Money talks of course. If it’s not a cash prize like that then offer future tax incentives…NO TAX for 20 years for the first company to do the same thing.

But no, there are those in this country who instead take a company, claim it is screwing the American people, then tax it into oblivion, or at least to the point where it has to move out of the state or country to do business. Who wins then? China, India, Saudi Arabia…name it.

Obama went to El Paso to give this speech about immigration reform. He claims that everything is much better with regards to illegal immigration.
Ok, I won’t even go in to that. Let’s say it’s true because he believes it.

Then why bother talking about it? Why is he even out there discussing this when we have yet another energy crisis.

Better yet, think about this. When prices raised this high under GW Bush, the media went batty about how Bush and his “oil buddies” were in cahoots and out to screw the people.

Bush isn’t in office now so what’s the excuse this time? If Bush had anything to do with gas prices as his detractors said, then so does Obama.

But the detractors were right, Bush did have some things he could do to deal with gas prices. Remember when a price of a barrel of oil shot back down under $40 a barrel? That was a direct result of an easing of regulations on the amount of boutique gasoline blends that create these higher costs of doing business and developing product for market for the oil companies.
But what does our current genius do? Create MORE regulations to clamp down on oil companies and suggest that higher taxes should do the trick.

So…speculators…you know those greedy evil bastards, right? What do they do? THEY know that all of these policies are going to make it more expensive for oil companies to make gas, so they speculate that the price is going to be higher.

If those same evil doers knew that the cost of making gas was going to be less, guess what would they would speculate next?

Please don’t make me right the common sense answer to that question now, ok? It’s nearly criminal that I have had to actually have this same conversation more than once live and in person.  And have it with people who, on the surface, are not as idiotic as they then make themselves out to be when they side with policy makers who are destroying this country.

Here is something I might have written here before, but I’ll repeat it even if I did.
If someone is really smart and goes to school to learn something and what they are learning is all wrong, are they really actually all that smart?
If someone with a high IQ goes to Harvard and what they teach at Harvard is any strain of communism/socialism/Marxism are they really that brilliant?

Crap…I really didn’t want to spend all this time on this. But now that I have, I’m not erasing it. I’m posting it.

Done.

Mr. President

American Idol is now down to four remaining entertainers…Lauren Alaina, Scotty McCreery, James Durbin and Haley Reinhart as Jacob Lusk got the boot last night.

Lusk was a likeable guy. He’ll have a nice career in the entertainment industry.

If I am the producers of this show or, more importantly, the parents of Lauren Alaina, I’d get her some help real quick though. This 16-year old is cracking under the pressure. Of course everyone is tense and nervous, but she is clearly overwhelmed with the attention and the criticism on top of the expected nervousness.

Durbin was ticking like a time bomb this week too so it’s getting to him a bit more as well while Scotty and the Hottie seem to be much more composed.

It can be a little scary standing up in front of small crowds to perform a show of any sort. At least I can speak about that from experience. I know that I had butterflies in my stomach for my first bunch of shows and then they returned for appearances in Atlantic City and Las Vegas. All of these were small shows numbering anywhere from a few dozen to a few hundred people in attendance. But I can’t imagine walking out in front of all of those cameras and knowing there are millions of people watching every little detail about you on stage and criticizing every note of your performance. Then to read and hear what people say online, for example, can make one wonder how much it’s all worth.

I know I get flustered when I get ANY negative feedback and that’s despite knowing that there is going to be some in EVERY show that I do. This is without exception. When I think about that I then have to multiply it by thousands.

If someone’s self confidence is low, watch out. As bubby and personable as Lauren Alaina is, I am going to take a shot in the dark that she lacks the confidence of the other three who are left.


I watched the first presidential political debate last night. While I won’t get into any of my thoughts about that because this would then be a 9 page commentary, I will mention that there was a big surprise winner of the debate, according to a Frank Luntz focus group.
That winner was businessman Herman Cain. Of the 29 people in Luntz’ group, perhaps 6 of them knew much about him before the debate. 25 of them believed that he was the hands down winner and perhaps over half of them now believed they might change their allegiance to Cain based on his performance.
Cain, if you are someone who has not heard of him, is of African descent. He is black; however you want to categorize him or describe him saying is a successful American multi-millionaire businessman.
If he were to be the Republican nominee, the leftist press and all of you leftists out there would be in a real quandary. Those who disagree with Obama’s policies are labeled racists in this country because Obama is black. It’s the typical leftist attack plan pulled from the old play book that those of us who know better keep trying to inform those who don’t know better about. Anyone who is Republican hates black people, according to chapter 1 of their book about how to try to win an election by character assassination.
The other common attack plan is to label anyone who is Republican candidate as stupid. 

Herman Cain

 

So if Cain is the nominee, will they dare call him stupid? What would he single-handedly do to the leftist playbook? Could the leftist media call him dumb and get away with not being labeled racist? What would the 90% of black people who are Democrats now do when they heard another black man getting attacked like that, if so?
If Cain were the nominee next November it would be interesting to see how the black vote splits. Would it go 50-50? What would the white democrat vote look like then? I would imagine that it would pretty much stay the same. That would make Herman Cain the next President with that split in the black vote and probably make him President even if he only took 40% of it, which is entirely possible. Cain is a common sense, successful man who clearly swayed a remarkable 86% of that focus group last night.

Ok, see, I’m keeping this short and am running long…
Take gas prices alone last night. In one minute he gave the plan and the solution to the current mess which dealt with supply, distribution AND speculation issues in that span. Coincidentally in the news yesterday morning was a piece about the Obama administration now studying the possibility of applying a tax for every mile that we drive. This is on TOP of what we are paying now in state and federal taxes on every gallon of gas.
Even if I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again…the car represents freedom, to at least me. A tax on every mile that I drive (beyond how I am taxed already on it with gas taxes and tolls) is a tax on my freedom and a SPECIFIC attempt to control where I go and how.
Let me be even clearer, one of the facts that we are paying so much for gas now is precisely because there are people in our country and in our government who absolutely want to determine how we live our lives.

This process has just begun. There is so much that will happen from now until next November that will affect people’s decision making process. There are also still many candidates yet to join the fray but if I were to vote today I would vote for Herman Cain for President of the USA.

Flash - 9.0% unemployment figure now. The WH will point to 244,000 jobs created in April but will seem to forget to mention all of the jobs that were UN-created in April as well.

Done.

Gots Me the Blues

It was a beautiful weather day today; one of the first real nice ones for me this spring. I don’t care for hot weather so it was perfect.

So why do I feel so depressed today? Ugh…this is awful. I should go get some ice cream at Brewsters. That has got to help…so what if I gain 8 pounds. It’s not like women are going out of their way for my attention in my current state.

We have all heard that money can’t but happiness right?
Have you ever seen the show, “Undercover Millionaire?” See the look on people’s faces and their reactions when the millionaires write them big checks?
Sure, there are some tears, but those are tears of HAPPINESS!
I guess the person who originally uttered that quote didn’t understand the concept of “tears of joy.”

I know I was happier 2-3 years ago when I was making 4 times what I am now, that’s for sure.

I am now waiting for American Idol to start.

Wait a minute…that is truly pathetic, isn’t it?

Ugh.

The new episode of the Dungeon of Manlove in four parts is now posted at http://www.marshcast.com/ THAT has been making me happy. I wanted a creative release as I mentioned here, and there it is.
It’s not for kids or those who can’t deal with dirty language and other naughty things. But if you can deal, check out our premier edition of “Angry Bitter Old Man Dating Advice for Beginners” there.
You’ll also get a great lesson about why you shouldn’t do drugs. The taping can thus serve as public service tool.

Wow. That is all I have. Going to try to keep away from ice cream and push through this funk today.

Done.

You go Cee Lo

The Twins Francisco Liriano threw baseball’s first no-hitter of the year against the White Sox last night in a 1-0 win for the team with the AL’s worst record.
Liriano walked 6 men and only struck out two in the contest. This game was his first ever complete game too, suggesting that someone nearly needs to throw a no-hitter or perfect game in order to complete the task that started that particular game.
Liriano’s no-hitter was the first for the Twins since 1999 when Eric Milton did it against the White Sox.

Andre Ethier’s hitting streak reached 29 games last night and now its getting interesting as it’s over half way to one of baseball’s legendary record. His streak is the second longest in Dodger’s history tied for second with Zack Wheat behind Willie Davis’ mark of 31 set in 1969. Earlier this week he surpassed Duke Snider and Ducky Medwick who both had 27 game streaks while playing with the Dodgers. Ethier did not know who Zack Wheat was…merely a Hall of Famer.

I watched the second episode of The Voice last night. I still can’t get past Christina Aguilera’s awful hair-do.
I had never heard of Cee Lo Green until this recent “hit” of his, which I only actually heard for the first time when one of the auditionees sang it. It’s not really called, “Forget You” right? If I recall, it’s F You. No matter, that was the only reason I had heard of him.
I find that I like this guy though. He hasn’t pigeon holed himself by taking on singers to coach on his team that perform his style of music only. The last person he took was a country singer who the country singer on the panel, Blake Shelton, didn’t even take.
Shelton, who I also find to be likeable, didn’t take two particular country singers that Cee Lo and Maroon 5’s Adam Levine ended up taking. Ironically both of those particular contestants sang songs that Shelton and his fiancé Miranda Lambert made famous.

But it’s the hair that is still very distracting.

And Carson Daly. How the hell did he get another high profile hosting gig?

So, we believe that Bin Laden is dead now, right? Watch this administration screw this up big time. The longer that proof is held from the public the greater the speculation is that Bin Laden is not dead or that any evidence later produced (video, pictures or whatever) is fabricated.
Seriously, these advisors in the WH are blowing this for Obama (which is just fine for me, as you know.)
I would have had Obama walk out to the podium late Sunday night to make his announcement that Bin Laden is dead and then hold up the picture of his corpse right on TV in front of billions.
Of course that would have been shocking, but it would have been rather convincing right on the spot.

Can you think of a better way to do it? What, put the picture on a website somewhere? Have Jay Carney come out the next day and hold it up for the press? THAT IS NOT WORKING.
If Obama gets the credit for it, then take the damned credit for it. Hold up the picture, say “Osama Bin Laden is dead. Our Navy Seals did this with my blessing and on my command. Don’t F with the United States of America,” Then turn around, walk back into the WH and go to sleep. Ok, replace F with mess, I don’t really care.
I would have even jumped out of my seat and ran out into the streets screaming USA, USA! Obama is the man!
Think about THAT statement and what it would do for his poll numbers…which, by the way raised 11 points in the NY Times/CBS polls (LOL) although his numbers haven’t changed in the Rasmussen polls.
But instead, we have a bunch of politically correct fools making a mess out of the public relations part of this victory.

The WH Spokesman, Carney, was just quoted as saying the release of the photo would be inflammatory.
You have got to be $^$&** kidding me now, right? Bin Laden supporters are inflamed and are threatening Obama’s life because he killed Bin Laden. You’re worried about a showing a picture proving it now? Are you afraid they will double threaten to kill him? I don't get it.

Speaking of public relations snafus, apparently the Bin Laden operation was called “Geronimo” so now “Native Americans” are pissed off equating an evil terrorist with a Native hero.

Whatever public relations firm this administration is using, I will do the job for half the money and just using common sense will give Obama 12 extra poll points.

Done.

USA!

Wow, what great news we all heard last night. Osama Bin Laden is dead! Bye bye M*#&#^R F&$*#*R.

If it hasn’t been clear in anything that I have written, or said, I can’t stand Barack Obama. It’s not a personal thing, it’s a policy thing.
But one has to give credit where credit is due. Bin Laden goes down on Obama’s watch, so therefore he gets the credit.
I had a little problem finding out that they “had a lead” all the way back in August and now it’s April/May when this goes down, but the job is done and kudos to those who carried out the mission. Whoever did the actual job are American heroes and I hope we get to throw a major parade honoring those on that mission. Whoever was the leader gets the credit for it happening under his command.
I’m good with all of that; finally something has gone right under Obama.

That’s right. Finally, something has gone right. Because nothing has really gone so well up to that point, from where I sit and what I see.

So, since Obama gets the credit for Bin Laden, he now also needs to take credit for the gas prices which have doubled under his watch and crushed any chance for an economic recovery, for which he somehow thinks there has been and is taking credit for.

Want to impress me, Mr. President? Want to actually get my vote next November even though you’re a communist at heart? Pretty easy to do…get those gas prices back under $2 a gallon, and I’ll vote for your ass.

You read it right here from my own fingers.

See, because dealing with this oil problem is actually much easier than trying to find Bin Laden hiding in a Pakistani cave. Don’t let anyone con you in to thinking otherwise. If one believes that this is an issue that cannot be dealt with easily, I believe you have indeed been conned.

But that’s another longer discussion.

I’ll also say that this victory by Obama and the United States really changed the career path of one individual in particular – Donald Trump. I saw a photo already this morning that had a picture of a smiling Obama with text printed on it that read, “Sorry about the delay in getting my birth certificate to you. I was busy killing Osama Bin Laden.”
Classic burn there; one that will go down as an all-time classic.

I’m going to talk about Trump tonight on the next taping of the Dungeon of Manlove. The basic gist of the discussion will center on my thoughts that Trump doesn’t have any intention of running for President at all. That’s all that I will tease here (not that I think you’ll now get all excited waiting for my revelations) for now.

But the bottom line of all of this is that Americas public enemy number one is dead. That is all that matters today. Obama was right about a couple of things in his announcement last night; that we should all rally together around something like this just as we did on September 12^th 2001 and God bless the USA baby.

Now let’s get our troops home. Those scumbags may think otherwise in the long run, but as far as I am concerned the mission is complete and we just won this war.

USA!

Done.

What's That Smell?

It seems as if the crowd at my show in Lynchburg, VA left the show satisfied Friday night. Usually when organizers say they want me back next year already, that’s a good sign.
It’s after-prom and graduation season now so most of my shows are scheduled at those types of venues.
I like doing the high school shows because kids are just naturally more willing to participate and much more animated when they are hypnotized.
While those shows are always funny because there are usually lots of participants and much more animated participants, the adult shows are ultimately much funnier.
The difference is in the audience expectations of what they think they will see when adults are on stage as opposed to high school aged volunteers. Even though a similar response may come from a 45-year old and a 17-year old, the reaction to a nasty smell, for example, usually does seem funnier from the older person.
Basically its because my show is filled with all sorts of goofy things that one might associate with a younger audience anyway. If I have a bunch of boys hypnotized and there is a nasty smell, the reaction and interaction of the group one could probably see while everyone was wide awake in any such group at any time. If there are a group of middle aged women now experiencing a nasty smell and one turns to someone next to her and asks, “Did you shit yourself?” it’s always funnier even though the kids may ask the exact the same thing.

The exception to that is a young person who is usually quiet and shy in public, but then becomes that crazy, animated and loud person on stage that surprises those who believe they know the person to be more reserved.
I’ve seen a couple of instances where that type of person then becomes less socially awkward afterwards.

Stupid people are really bothering me today.

Done.