Author: Andy Labis

By:

The Dude on the Right
Today was another win for a group of folks, but for most of the rest of us, it
was a loss, because, well, we didn’t make the call, write the letter, send the
e-mail, to our elected officials, and that is unless, of course, you want your
primetime TV to not reflect 2006.  And I, like you, you can blame me,
because I did have a nice letter to my Senator,
Barack Obama, opposing
this thing, but I didn’t realize this thing already went through and I never
sent it.

First,

let’s get to the win because it’s an easier argument.  It’s an election
year for a batch of government folks, and what better way to gain some votes in
your conservative state than to support an amendment to our United States
Constitution that would state "marriage" is only a union between a man and a
woman.  Well, those supporting this amendment got their platform, but the
Senate rejected the proposed amendment, so right now you won’t see it on your
ballot.  This one was easy for most folks on both sides because they know
where their votes are coming from, and it lends to easy election ads.

Now the
messed up vote, affecting a huge majority of us.  Today the House of
Representatives voted to

raise the fine for obscene or indecent programming on your TV screen or your
radio to $325,000 from $32,500.  I don’t know what the infatuation is with
the 325 number is, but in any case, if you don’t think this will affect you,
just wait until you start watching your prime-time shows on the major networks,
those being CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, and the new CW, or listening to your radio. 
No one in network land really knows how they can relate to the real world
anymore, because there aren’t any defined rules, and the FCC isn’t helping. 
A little while back some ABC folks asked the FCC if airing the uncut version of
"Saving Private Ryan," complete with swear words (fuck and shit being the most
of them), was going to get them fined.  The FCC folks told them, I think,
something like "we can’t determine what is finable until we get complaints." 
Most of you don’t realize that right now, 5, that’s right, five, people, are
given the power to decide what is obscene, indecent, and they are going to fine
your ass because they, the 5, five, that’s right, five fucking people, over this
entire United States, have the authority to decide, what you, me, your friends,
my friends, and their friends, should be able to see on TV or listen to on
radio.

You can complain, bitch, and moan because your shows aren’t edgy
anymore, but you know what?  – It is yours and my fault.  Why? 
Because we didn’t send mention to our elected people that pretty much says the
FCC folks shouldn’t have "Indecency/Obscenity" authority.  A small number
of folks are working to take away our freedoms, and those freedoms might be gay
rights, or your right to watch TV that reflects society today, but if we don’t
work to be a voice, tomorrow might let us lose our voice.  Those on the
side of restricting free speech are gaining ground, and those on the side of
free speech are losing it.  If you don’t think so, wait until the small
number start pushing the agenda of censoring things on cable and satellite TV
(i.e. The Sopranos), or on satellite radio (i.e. Howard Stern and Opie and
Anthony).  I can give a bunch of Benjamin Franklin quotes, but right now
this one seems most appropriate:  "They that can give up essential liberty
to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety."

Right now I can’t really complain, but just worry, because I’ve become
accustomed to a lot of cable TV channels and satellite radio, so FCC regulations
aren’t there.  And if they do get there, we have really crossed a wrong
line.  A small group has been influencing our TV and radio listening, I
suppose I just wonder if the real groups will get off their asses and make as
much noise.

Sorry for this this sort of controversial blog, but these two
things really hit me today.  Let’s see how tomorrow goes.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

By:

The Dude on the Right
We had pretty much a perfect weather weekend here in the Chicago area, and I’ll
talk to Stu about it during our podcast tomorrow.  So because I can’t give
you a synopsis about what I did this weekend, I’ll just give you some ramblings
off of my head.

In any case, last week I was in a funk.  I think I am
going through TV withdrawals since all of my standard shows are done, except
"The Sopranos" which concludes its season tonight.  I almost got sucked
back into "So You Think You Can Dance," but baseball was on.  I didn’t
accomplish much for the web site, at least on the surface (or at least that you
could see).  I accidentally made some huge errors during the animation
process that has delayed our latest episode of "Stu & The Dude Reviewin’ the
Movies for You!", our review of "Over the Hedge," about a week.  I watched
too much baseball, for some bizarre reason kept getting sucked into "Batman
Begins" on cable, which I think is a fabulous film, even bought the DVD, but
still haven’t reviewed it (that’s really got to be remedied soon), but I did
accomplish something and you can now find some small accomplishments on the "Movie
Preview" page.  So far there are fourteen new movie previews posted,
with six more to come in the next day or so, and another six to ten ready for
posting by next weekend, just in time for your summer "What the hell movie
should we go see this weekend" questions.

And for some reason some of my
thoughts also keep coming back to my trip to
Arlington Park (a
horse racetrack here in Illinois), and I don’t really know why.  One
thought was the fact that the one jockey won every race he was in, five races in
all.  As someone always looking for easy money, and even though the horses
he was riding weren’t long shots, it would have been easy to double most of your
betting money that afternoon, if only you would know.  But isn’t that the
thrill, and danger, of gambling, the fact that you never know?  I did come
home with more money than I figured I would lose, so I still consider myself a
winner on the gambling front.  The other thing that really struck me about
that day was this bitch of a woman we encountered, and how I still wish I could
be creative on my feet rather than thinking of things to say later in the day.

Anyway, it was still early in the afternoon and the six of us there grabbed some
eats to get us through the afternoon.  Looking for a nice spot to eat our
pulled pork sandwiches and corn on the cob, I think it was Trash who spotted a
dude sitting by himself at a picnic table.  She nicely asked him if he was
saving the picnic table, to which he replied that he was only waiting for one
person, so if we wanted a spot to eat, to go ahead.  So half of us did. 
Our intention was simply to eat our food and be on our merry way, and the dude
seemed to truly understand that.  About halfway through our meal, the
person he was waiting for showed up, a dudette, and she proceeded to start to
chew him out a little bit for giving up part of the picnic table.  It
wasn’t a loud berating, but we could hear it, and it seemed bizarre, on the
level, that for this picnic table, you wanted it all to yourself, just the two
of you, where you could really be a lot more cozy on the lawn.  Anyway, I
don’t know if the dudette was his wife, girlfriend, sister, mistress, but at
least he had the balls to pretty much say "Just shut up and sit down," knowing
we would be leaving on our merry way soon.  Therein lies the "I wish I
could have been quicker on my feet" thing.  How many options would there
be?  Oh, the options are so many.  The first, and easiest, would have
just been to sit there the rest of the day.  Let my friends go on their
merry way betting and such, but just sit there, telling them "No, I like this
spot, I think I’m going to camp out here all afternoon, maybe fake phoning them
my bet for the next race."  Then there would be the "Pretend we are from
out of town and make her look like a dumb-ass" move by putting on a fake,
southern accent, and nicely go to the dude "Thank you so much for you
hospitality, sir, and giving us a nice spot to eat.  I hope we didn’t cause
any problem between you and your misses" as we were leaving.  And so many
other thoughts kept coming to mind, bending on the obnoxious to the making her
look like a complete horse’s ass (get it, we were at the horse races, horse’s
ass – oh man, I kill myself sometimes).

In any case, maybe getting that off my
chest here in this blog will help me to move on, realize that "Big Brother" will
be starting back up in a few weeks, and maybe I should use this time of lack of
TV shows productively.

On tap this week for Entertainment Ave! hopefully will
be our podcast of "Stu & The Dude’s Weekend Wrap-Up," more movie preview
postings, movie reviews of "Cars,"
"The
Omen," and "A
Prairie Home Companion," and I really want to do some CD reviews of the new
Dixie Chick’s album, an album from Blue October, and I’ll try like hell to get a
DVD review of "Batman Begins" done.  I’d like to say I promise to get all
of that done, but there is the season finale of "Deal or No Deal" that might eat
into some of my reviewing time.  God I sometimes hate TV.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!