OT: The Secret Garden At Cheyenne Little Theatre

The Rocky Mountain Theatre webzine, which has been in abeyance for several months due to forces beyond our control, is now back and better than ever.

We've also got an official blog.

Check out a brief review of the Cheyenne Little Theatre's production of The Secret Garden.

https://rockymountaintheatreblog.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-secret-garden-may-3-19-2019-at.html

And subscribe to our official blog:

https://rockymountaintheatreblog.blogspot.com

Meantime, the Rocky Mountain Theatre website is at:

RockyMountainTheatre.com

I hope Leveon Bell never plays again

The article today at CBS Sportsline is "Leveon Bell has his eyes on the Colts," meaning next year he'd like them to sign him.

But I don't think any team should sign Bell - he quit on the Steelers. It's one thing to say, "I'm going to take the year off because I can't feed my family on $40 million a year." (okay, he didn't say that, Latrell Sprewell did, but same difference) and it's another to say...."Well, I might come back next week. I'm looking to come back the week after next."

How could any team, or teammate, trust this jerk to not quit on them just as he did the Steelers?

He should never get "guaranteed" money again.

If he doesn't play, he doesn't deserve to get paid.

Request was denied so Leveon Bell stayed away

Just read an article about the Leveon Bell debacle.

The guy screws over his team and his teammates.

Please God no team hires him next year.

https://247sports.com/nfl/pittsburgh-steelers/Article/LeVeon-Bell-transition-tag-holdout--125010665/

Apparently he didn't want the "transition tag" placed on him, and if the Steelers would do that for him, he'd "consider" reporting to the team.

What an idiot.

What kind of union does the NFL have that a guy can give his team the shaft for a whole year, and still be able to be employed?  He should be banned for life.

Sports "reporting"

I'll be spending a lot of time venting about what's going on in the sports world.

I used to be able to vent my frustrations on the message boards of the various sports and news related sites, but more and more of them are deleting their message boards, doubtless because of all the racist comments (on sports boards) and childish fighting on news sites

And it's so frustrating because I'd like to tell certain authors on certain sports site - well, specifically CBS Sports, that I really hate the current trend of injecting personalities into their "reporting."

None of them report the facts anymore, they've got to be "clever" or "cute..'

So expect to see more venting about sports gossiping in the future.

One thing..it's a joy not to see Lonzo Ball or his father garnering the headlines every single day. Now that LeBron is in LA, the gossipers have made it all about him.

Meantime, I see that Lonzo, while he's definitely been working out over the summer, has also decided to follow the crowd and mar his skin with tattoos. Is there any athlete in the NBA these days who doesn't have a tattoo?

WWE and Saudi Arabia

I don't follow professional "wrestling". I see snippets of it on occasion and cringe every time.

Yes - let's show impressionable youth that it's "cool" to attack your opponent while he's down, beat up authority figures (referees) and prance around as if you're god's gift.

So I didn't know that the WWE has just penetrated Saudi Arabia and will be holding some contests there.

Well...gosh.

That's just what Saudi Arabia needs - decadent American "entertainment' that teaches that there's no need for good sportsmanship, prancing and preening and arrogance are loved, and of course that old thing about not kicking an opponent when he's down.

The impact of pro wrestling can be seen in school yards every day where bullies beat up their helpless opponents, showing them no mercy - and I'm talking girls as well as boys here.

The saddest thing is that WWE is soooo popular. And it will probably be popular in Saudi Arabia, too.

Wonder how soon it will be before young male Saudis start body-slamming any woman they see who has dared to venture outside her house without a male relative beside her...

Red Sox and Curt Schilling

Should athletes - even retired athletes - have Facebook accounts?

I say no. They only get themselves in trouble.

Childish arguments that should be handled man to man, but they put it all out there so that the gossip columnists on CBS Sportsline can have something to write about.

The latest thing is Curt Schilling not being asked to throw a ceremonial pitch before the 2nd game of the 2018 World Serious with the Dodgers.

First off, of course - what were the Red Sox thinking?  Are they so afraid of the man's politics that they'll cave to pressure groups and not honor him?

Schilling is upset with the Red Sox for not inviting him to throw out a first pitch.  Talk about it in an interview or something, not on Facebook!  Confront them, don't whine!

Why Make a Pity Party Out of It

The parents of a 6-year-old kid named Terry Mazzinni invited his entire kindergarten class to a birthday party for him at a pizza place.

No one showed up.

The mom objectified poor Teddy, taking a photo of him sitting among all those empty plates.

And she sent that photo to news outlets in Tucson, who publicized the little kid's humiliation.

Whose fault is it that no one came to his party?

You invited 35 people, you don't personally call to make someone will show up?

I find it difficult to believe that his classmates wouldn't have told the kid they wouldn't come, unless he's a bully or something.

 It's bad enough no one came to his party - I blame mom for not cancelling the party when she knew no one could come, and for making her son an object of pity on the news.

Because you just know he's going to be teased mercilesslly about it by his classmates.

I blame the mom.

As for the rest, 32 classmates didn't show up? Something suspicious there.

4 Jan 2018 Rush headlines

 New York Times tries to save the Russia investigation

Conservatism, not populism, wins for Trump

Everything I've heard about what's in Wolff's book.
The Wolff in question is Michael Wolff, the book is Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House

Day 4: 2018: America's Anchorman Returns - Apparently Rush was going to take the whole week off, but his staff and advertisers "begged" him to return, so he's back.

Cognitive dissonance for Jan 3, 2017: Hannity website

Here's the headline on the Sean Hannity website:

SOCIALIST PARADISE: UK Cancels ALL ROUTINE OPERATIONS Due to Overcrowding

 https://www.hannity.com/media-room/socialist-paradise-uk-cancels-all-routine-operations-due-to-overcrowding/

 That's the headline.

Here's what's actually going on:

The United Kingdom’s National Health Service announced this week that it was canceling all “routine operations” until February, saying all “non-emergency” procedures will be delayed after a flu-outbreak left hospitals overcrowded and under-funded.
According to the Telegraph, the nation’s government-run health services axed over 50,000 operations in every hospital in the UK following claims by doctors that patients were being treated as if they were in “third world countries.”
“Hospitals are reporting growing chaos, with a spike in winter flu leaving frail patients facing 12-hour waits, and some units running out of corridor space,” write the Telegraph. “Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS medical director, on Tuesday ordered NHS trusts to stop taking all but the most urgent cases, closing outpatients clinics for weeks as well as cancelling around 50,000 planned operations.”
“I want to thank NHS staff who have worked incredibly hard under sustained pressure to take care of patients over the Christmas. We expect these pressures to continue and there are early signs of increased flu prevalence.” Keogh added.
The chaos comes as prominent Democrats and liberal legislators like Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders advocate for a similar, single-payer healthcare system in the United States. Left-wing advocates often point to Canada and the United Kingdom as an “ideal” vision for the future of America’s health industry.

 So a massive flu outbreak is crowding hospitals, causing all *non-essential* operations to be postponed for a month.

I'm not sure what the headline writer means with his "Socialist paradise."  If there's a massive flu outbreak here in the US, wouldn't the same overcrowding occur regardless of whether someone got free healthcare or wanted to pay for it?

The problem is caused by a flu outbreak, not by any inherent flaw in the system.

If there's no surgeries being done because of red tape, that'd be a different story.

3 Jan 2018: Tod Herman guest again

Rush will return Thursday, 4 Jan 2018.

Meantime, what's big in the news?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/03/world/middleeast/trump-israel-palestinians-twitter.html

The US gives billions of dollars to Palestine refugees...where does all the money go that they live in such poverty?

Tod Hermann of AM770 is guest host

Rush still hasn't returned to work - the guest host today will be Tod Herman.

He is located out of Seattle, apparently.

http://mynorthwest.com/category/todd-herman/?

Here's an example of what's going on in Seattle, according to Herman, from his December 29, 2017 article regarding the year just past:

• Seattle taxes sugary drinks; Seattle plans to subsidize heroin use.

Actually - they're not subsidizing heroin use, they're just building a place where heroin people can inject themselves with the drug that they've already bought. Even though heroin is illegal, they can go to this place to inject themselves without fear of being arrested.

• Seattle taxes sugary drinks to make them more expensive so people will buy less of them. Seattle wants to place a tax on employees — a per head tax — so that employers will hire less people. Oh … wait, that can’t be right.

No, what the city wants to do is put a tax of 2.5% (gosh, how awful!) on people earning $250,000 a year.

Under the new law, the city taxes income over $250,000 a year for individuals and over $500,000 for couples at 2.25 percent. The tax is approved but isn't being collected yet.

• Seattle spent more money trying to hide how much money they made taxing guns and ammunition than they made by taxing guns and ammunition.

No, they spent money on a lawsuit that gun owners brought against them, nothing about trying to hide anything!

• One of Seattle’s four mayors of the last year — the one who resigned after a fifth allegation of sexually abusing children — famously said of the homeless crisis — on which King County spent nearly $1 billion last year — “I don’t have all the answers; we are making this up as we go along.”

So of 3 out of the 4 allegations that Herman brought up, he lied about.  And this is the guy Rush has as his guest host today.

1 Jan 2018: A new year of posting

It's Monday, 1 January 2018.

While the world hasn't stopped spinning, Rush has been on vacation for a while and will return to his radio hosting duties tomorrow, Tuesday, 2 January 2018.

On December 28 and 29, Mark Steyn had substituted for Rush.

On December 27, it had been Nick Searcy.

On December 26, Ken Matthews

Headlines from December 22:

• "Happy Trump ends first successful year - and the Haters are miserable!"
• "Swamp Republicans have warmed up to Trump because they finally believe the Mueller investigation is BS"
•  "CNN Analysts blame talk radio for exposing the bogus Russia investigation"
• "Rush prediction: Republicans will hold House and Senate in 2018"
• "Conspiracy! Collusion! Boeing spokesman thanks Trump on Fox & Friends"
• "Reluctant Trump voter apologizes to the President"
• "The biggest challenge we face in the next 30 years"  (closing the border with Mexico)
• "Former head of MI6 thinks American Exceptionalism is measured by how much we do for other countries at our own expense"

OT: Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo results

I've published the results for the Cheyenne Frontier Days PRCA rodeo at my Wyoming in Motion travel webzine.

http://wyominginmotion.com/results-cheyenne-frontier-days-prca-rodeo/

Just what does LeVar Ball mean by "stay in your lane"?

Levar Ball, an egomaniac who seems to be living the high-life at the expense of his sons (and where's his wife/their mother, one wonders?) gets sports coverage every single day for no other reason than that he's an egomaniac.

He's accomplished nothing, his one-and-done son Lonzo has yet to accomplish anything, yet Ball, who coaches an AAU team, successfully got a female referee removed at halftime from a game. Supposedly she had a "vendetta" against him according to Ball and should "stay in her lane."

Has anyone asked him what that means?   Are women refs only supposed to ref women's games?

The atrocious thing about this is that Ball still has a coaching job. Presumably he puts up his monwy for the team. But parents send their sons to him to be coached, and what have they learned? If you don't like a call a ref makes, whine and complain and if it isn't changed, walk off the court.

Of course, there's plenty of professional basketball players who also whine and complain and disrespect refs - although baseball has its fair share of these idiots who think they're above the game (Bryce Harper, anyone)?

A few weeks ago, Ball also told some other woman to "stay in her lane."  This woman was someone who criticized him because his "Big Baller:" brand didn't sell women's clothing. I'm not going to look up that article, but on the face of it - even though once again I'd like to know what "stay in her lane" means, I wouldn't have minded Ball telling this particular woman to mind her own business. Why should a startup company have to make clothing for both boys and girls? Especially when girls these days wear the same clothing as boys? (They all look like they are swimming in clothes 20 times too big for them - such an unattractive look.)

So *that* was an unjust criticism, in my opinion - I'd be really curious to know why that woman would even *want* Big Baller brand to sell clothes to women in the first place.

Why would anyone buy Big Baller brand crap, period?

Carhenge would make a great place to watch the Great American Eclipse

A friend yesterday was telling me about Carhenge, a tourist spot in Alliance, Nebraska that features a life-size recreation of England's Stonehenge, only it's made out of cars!

Check it out at the Wyoming in Motion travel webzine here:

http://wyominginmotion.com/nebraska-see-2017-great-american-eclipse-carhenge/

OT: The Great Cheyenne Boot Hunt!

If you are a "travvie" - someone who travels for their own sake, to seek out new places, new adventures, new tastes - similar to what a "foodie" does for food, then you'll enjoy traveling to Cheyenne, Wyoming for the Great Cheyenne Boot Hunt.

Check it out at the Wyoming in Motion web magazine:
http://wyominginmotion.com/cheyenne-wy-the-great-cheyenne-boot-hunt/

OT: Fan fiiction Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes

If you've seen Doctor Strange chances are you've become a fan of British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who stars as Doctor Stephen Strange.

Benedict Cumberbatch is 40 years old, but he's only been a "star" in the US for the last 7 years, I think, ever since he began appearing in Sherlock, in 2010 - Sherlock Holmes in a modern day setting.

Just a few years ago he guest-starred as Kahn in Star Trek Into Darkness, and I'm sure that got him a few fans as well.

There's plenty of Benedict Cumberbatch fanfiction out there (or fan fiction as I call!), and here's one that I think is particularly good:

It's called The TeleChronomicon Files: Where it is Always 1895. and is an ongoing feature in the AStudyinBenedictCumberbatch blog.

There's lots of info about Benedict Cumberbatch on the web - his roles in Star Trek, Doctor Strange, Sherlock Holmes, as Stephen Hawking, etc., but A Study in Benedict Cumberbatch consolidates it all in one place.

Arrogance on display

I'm watching Florida State vs Syracuse Football.

Florida State is winning 14 0 in the first quarter.

So number 44 for Florida States makes a tackle. He immediately stands up, runs a few feet away from the rest of the crowd, then folds his arms and stands there posing for several seconds, as if to say, "Look at me! Look at me!"

I'd just like to slap the guy and say, hey, there's three quarters left in this game. Why don't you just go high five your teammates and go back to the sideline instead of poncing around like you're the only football player who has ever made a tackle?

He's just emulating the pros, of course.

Why are people not tuning in to football like they used to?  Maybe because people are tired of seeing all this posing and poor sportsmanship.

(Actually, I doubt it. Considering how half the country behaves, they probably think these idiots strutting around, 'stylin', etc. are cool. Or, "the bomb," to use what I think is the current slang expression.  Or at least, I think 10 years ago that was the equivalent of being "cool." God knows what teens say today.

Counseling for college students?

According to Sean Hannity today, colleges across the country are offering students counseling because Trump was elected - which includes therapy dogs and aroma therapy.

My God.

Then there's school curriculums that are apparently going to start teaching that a racist homophobe was elected to the presidency...

The US is out of control.

And it's only people like Rush and Hannity who can say these things.

Anyone in a school system who complains about what's going on on their Facebook page will be fired....

So much for polling data

I was nervous about Donald Trump. Frankly, even though Hilary was much the worst option, I thought she would win in a landslide, voted in by people who wanted to see the first woman president.

But while she got most of the black vote and probably most of the Latino vote and apparently most of the young vote, she lost to Donald Trump.

Now it's up to Trump to make sure that he gets the country on the right track, and to do that he's got to better the lives of our minority communities.  According to Rush Limbaugh (but not independently checked by me), blacks under Obama have done no better, economically, than before he got into office.

But really, the whole United States needs a sea change. It will be interesting to see just how many people in our country actually voted.  Over half of them? Less than half?

And the burning question on my mind - will he repeal Obamacare? And if so where are people going to go for their insurance?

I of course would like Obamacare to be repealed, but it's already driven a few healthcare providers out of business....so what can be done?

Time will tell.

It will be an interesting four years.