Barney Frank Says Shibboleth

Mr. C. Craft, a close personal friend, pointed out in the comments section of this post an article from Business Week that tries to downplay the importance of the CRA (the result of well-intentioned idiocy of the social engineering type) in the creation of the subprime bubble. You can read the article here.

The article is at best insubstantial using common fallacies to downplay or erase the huge amount of blame that the Democrats in the legislature bear for the current crises. The CRA is only one element of GSE's and the myriad socialist policies in place now that have led to, and will continue to lead to failure. Remember, in today's American politics Democrat=Socialist.

Anyway, you can read the Business Week article for yourself and judge. Then you can watch this video of the Democrats, to include the illustrious Barney Frank, shooting down Republican attempts to forgo this disaster years ago by taking Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to task.


And now we have the Bail-out. See the cycle yet?

Proof of Write

In the previous post I mentioned that I was a quarter finalist in the Page International Screenplay Competition this year, and just so you guys don't think I made that up, here is a copy of the email they sent me. Unfortunately, because of the volume of submission, they didn't post a list of quarter finalists on the site.

July 14, 2008

Dear John,

2008 marks the fifth anniversary of the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards, and it has been a record-breaking event! We received 3,865 scripts this year, submitted by writers from all across the United States and 50 foreign countries. Our judges tell us that the overall quality of this year's entries is the best they’ve seen, and they’ve been extremely impressed by many of your screenplays. So the next few months promise to be very exciting!

Today we're officially kicking off the 2008 Awards season and we have some good news for you…

The First Round of judging has now been completed, and the judges have chosen the top 25% of all entries to compete in the Quarter-Finals. Based on your First Round scores, we're very happy to inform you that the following advanced to the Quarter-Final Round:

An All Consuming Fire

Congratulations!! Given the level of competition you faced, this is a real achievement.

Our Quarter-Final judges are now in the process of reading and evaluating your screenplays, and their scores, combined with the scores of the First Round judges, will determine the twenty-five Semi-Finalists in each of our ten genre categories.

We’ll finish tallying all those scores in just a couple of weeks. So mark your calendar and make sure you check our website on Friday, August 1st, when we’ll post the list of our 2008 Semi-Finalists.

Thanks again for the opportunity to review your work, and best of luck in this Quarter-Final Round!

Sincerely yours,
Jennifer Berg & Zoe Simmons
The 2008 PAGE International
Screenwriting Awards
www.InternationalScreenwritingAwards.com

This message was sent from: Jennifer Berg, The 2008 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards, 7510 Sunset Blvd., #610, Hollywood, CA 90046. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below.



I didn't get any further, probably because the screenplay is a Civil War/Western actioner of sorts, and people don't really go for that as much anymore. Much to my chagrin.

Fellowship of the Screenplay

In actual film related news related to my actual life (the main point of this blog, ostensibly), I have been chosen by my former Screenwriting professor at Georgia State University to represent the school in a fellowship bid from the Writers Guild East (WGAe).

What does that mean exactly? Firstly, it means that out of the three students my professor considered, he believed me to be the best candidate--based on my feature I wrote in his class (a quarter finalist in the Page International Screenplay Awards and current competitor in an other competition) and the three-page-pitch I wrote up for the proposed script to be written with the grant. So God, in his infinite wisdom, has seen fit to make this fellowship thing a real possibility for me.

Secondly, the fellowship means that now, representing GSU, I will be competing with nine other students from schools in the "East" that include: Boston University, Columbia College, Wayne State Univeristy (in Detroit apparently), NYU, Tulane, Drexel University (in Philly), SCAD, Washington University of St. Louis, and Howard University (in D.C.).

Okay, so if my submission is chosen out of the ten, what then? Then I will be presented at the Writer's Guild Awards show on Feb 7 of next year (in NYC) where they give me a "mentor" who will work with me on the script as well as hand me the first installment of the $10,000 grant.

So basically I am in the running for ten grand and a chance to write a feature for the WGAe.
Cool beans, but I've only made it through the first step. So those of you who pray, please pray for me. Those of you who do not pray....pray anyway. I'll teach you how if you need lessons.

The Solution

I have given the issues in our country much deliberation, and each crises and problem has weighed heavily upon me. I know that each of you has been looking to me for an answer...and I have finally reached a solution.

Secession.

It's the only way. Cut ties with Union and it's thick socialism. Turn our backs forever on the legacies of Jackson, Lincoln, Wilson, FDR, Carter, Clinton, etc. Erect a new nation that returns to the principles of our founding fathers; principles of faith, and of freedom. I will even volunteer to lead such a nation, as much as it will pain me to do so.

We can start with Georgia, and if other Southern States choose to join us, they will be welcomed. Unfortunately however, we will only be able to accept the northern part of Florida. Perhaps we can exchange the other half for Alaska. I will begin the negotiations.

Musical Bonding

I personally have only seen a handful of the James Bond films. I like the character, and I like spy movies. I just simply have not gotten around to viewing even half of the catalog....It seems to me the older ones probably didn't age well.

I did enjoy Casino Royale, and I think Daniel Craig is the perfect actor for the role. I think Quantum of Solace will be a good movie--above and beyond its Bond-ness--because of Craig and because of director Marc Forster, who gave us the Kite Runner adaptation, Finding Neverland, and Stranger than Fiction (all groovy flicks.)




The theme song to Solace is performed by one of my favorite modern musicians, Jack White, as a duet with Alicia Keys. An odd mix, to be certain, but their voices live in the same space and to me, the song works. I enjoy it, and the video for it is pretty swining as well.

There is only one problem: In the video Jack is shown playing drums! Now he doesn't even need Meg for that. Will the White Stripes simply become the White Stripe?

But I Thought Bush was Hitler...

Radical leftist, who think that they are clever based on their ability to make words ryhme ("Bush lied, people died!") have for the past couple of years compared President George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler based entirely on nothing.
However, things are changing. (Get it?) Because that video of the kids singing to/for Obama does actually bear a striking and frightening resemblance to something right out of Triumph of Will. Others have picked up on this.

October is Australia Month

....Actually I just made that up. I've been writing on such serious matters here of late that I figured it was time for a little break. Thus I am dubbing October (at least here on my blog, and in my heart) Australia month. As some of you well know, I spent some time down under earlier this year (you can read about it HERE) and I absolutely fell in love with good ole Oz. That's not a hard thing to do because it really is a delightful and fascinating place.

Well, to kick off Australia Month I direct your attention to a new show on Fox called Fringe. It's by J.J. Abrams (the cool cat who brought us Lost) and its just choke full of awesome. The main thrust of the tale is a group of FBI agents and a Mad Scientist must solve mysteries of the pseuo-scientific nature while battling a mysterious group of Evil Scientists...or something along those lines.

Anyway, the show itself has nothing to do with Australia (unlike Lost), but it's star is the lovely Anna Torv who was born in Melbourne and raised in the Hinterlands of the Gold Coast. Below I have posted an interview she did pushing Fringe on Letterman. I think you'll like her and her humorous anecdotes about growing up in Australia with geese.