That Other Superman Movie

In honor of the Superman Returns movie opening this week, I remind viewers of that other Superman film: The Indian Superman. Sometimes, the fast rip-off version is just so much better.

Besides, how can you not love a movie where evil dancing girls (there's always dancing in Bollywood pictures) sing:

We haven't lost and we never will
Today you came into our grasp
We are going to kill you
We are going to kill you
By giving you lots of water to drink

Now I just need to figure out which Indian market in town carries this ....

The Armageddon Flow Chart

When the End Times come, it may go something likethis. Or maybe not. [WARNING: Bad language alert.]

Some of my favorites:

Call Bruce Campbell

Unwary righteous crushed against ceilings

Four Horsemen firmly advised to stop dicking about

Yeah, whenever the end of the world threatens, you always gotta call Bruce.

Memphis Bioworks and Governor Bredesen

Bill Hobbs excerpts an interesting report from the Tennessee Center for Policy Research that documents some interesting election campaign donation connections between the Memphis Bioworks Board of Directors and Governor Phil Bredesen!

Here are the interesting facts:

1. Memphis Bioworks has 18 board members, two of whom are university presidents (UT and U of Memphis). As TCPR notes, university presidents rarely donate to political campaigns. Of the remaining 16 board members, 12 of them have made campaign contributions to Bredesen. Contributions to Bredesen's campaign fund by those 12 board members and their spouses total $36,500 over the past three years. A 13th board member didn't donate directly to Bredesen but did give $1,750 to a PAC that contributed $5,000 to Bredesen in 2005. Also, Memphis Bioworks President and Executive Director Steven Bares contributed $500 to Bredesen in December of 2003.

2. Six of the Memphis Bioworks board members contributed a total of $10,500 to Bredesen in a twelve-day span in December of 2005, only days before the beginning of the Special Session on Ethics and as the administration was finalizing its preliminary budget recommendations for Fiscal Year 2006-07.

Betty Anderson (That's Mrs. Jimmy "Speaker of the House" Naifeh to politicians.) was hired as a lobbyist!

It should also be noted that Rep. Harold Ford Jr used tens of millions in budget "earmarks" to get the Federal funding for this project. Is it Federal "pork" or savvy quid pro quo politics?

You See? I Told You: Joyce Peterson Department

Remember back in November of last year when I wondered what happened to WMC's Joyce Peterson? I pointed out that WPTY needed to snap her up and make her the weekend morning news anchor ASAP. (More here.)

Well, the wheels of Clear Channel grind slowly, but Cameron announces that she will be joining WPTY as the weekend evening news anchor! Bonnie Kinney and Terrance Bates will anchor the weekend morning show.

Took 'em long enough! I'm just glad to see Ms Peterson back on the air.

It Was Four Years Ago Today

It wasn't an auspicious start, but I began blogging four years ago today. The first "real" post came three days later, and it had all the ingredients Half-Bakered became known for: a slam at namesake Jackson Baker and the Memphis Flyer, swipes at the press and politcians (Tennessee House Speaker Jimmy "Thug" Naifeh) and an income tax rant.

It was the income tax effort that got this blog rolling. Every single paper in the state supported the income tax, nearly without exception. Such lockstep uniformity by what should, by natural expectations, be a wildly diverse lot, was stunning. Someone had to speak up in opposition as a few talk radio hosts across the state were. I decided to become one of those "someones."

I'm glad I did.

On the other hand, as I've said before I have written well in excess of half-a-million words. That's about six novels worth of stuff or who knows how many non-fiction books. I'd be a mid-list author well into a career by now.

In just four years.

And I haven't been paid for it, except for some donations via PayPal.

I have been rewarded in other ways. I've met a lot of folks I'd never have met otherwise; I've had some movers and shakers of Memphis call wanting to meet me! I've been presented with a lot of opportunities, many of which I've not taken and some I have.

All because I got fed up with the state's newspapers and television stations. Thanks y'all! Keep underwheming me, please.

Yes, blogging has been erratic in the last year. I hope I'll get back on track soon; we'll see. But I encourage you to just go back to the first year of blogging and read at random. I have a lot of passionate essays back there; entertaining and informative reading, believe you me.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for coming back. Thanks for commenting or emailing. Thanks for the support. Yes, I do this for me but if I didn't have y'all I'd have given up a long time ago.