Idle Thoughts: What the Hell is Going On?

Tweets from September, 2019:

• 2019-09-01: Mr. President, how about calling for a total and complete shutdown of gun sales in the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on? (Link)
• 2019-09-02: Drop ice in the ocean to stop hurricanes? Fly military jets clockwise in hurricanes to stop them? Silly man. Everyone knows the real answer is to bomb hurricanes with nukes. (Link)
• 2019-09-02: @RepLanceGooden, the protest movement in Hong Kong does have the attention of our leaders like you. Almost to the exclusion of attention that should be paid to the growing threat of authoritarianism here at home. Not good.
• 2019-09-03: "Religion makes good people better and bad people worse." -- H. Richard Niebuhr.
  God grant me the humility not to automatically assume I'm in the former category.

After the jump, more idle thoughts.

Downton Abbey (2019)

Rotten Tomatoes

Downton Abbey (2019) Faithful to the TV series. Julian Fellowes gives every story line that wasn't wrapped up in the series finale a happy ending. If you've never seen it, you'll be lost by all the characters and subplots, and raise your eyebrows at some plot contrivances. B+

Battle of the Bands

From 2019 09 27 Duncanville vs Berkner

Duncanville Band

The Berkner Rams faced off against Duncanville High School Friday night. Besides seeing the Rams and the #1 ranked Panther football team, fans were treated to two of the state's best marching bands as well. Halftime was a real treat.

More photos after the jump.

Run Wild, Run Free

From 2019 09 27 Duncanville vs Berkner

Milton Catalina, 65 yd QB run

The Duncanville Panthers visited the Berkner Rams Friday night. Duncanville prevailed 42-0, but losing to Duncanville, the #1 ranked team in the state of Texas, is nothing to be embarrassed about. Berkner did have a few highlights: two interceptions and a 68 yard quarterback run in the first half.

More photos after the jump.

POTD: Classic Road Picture

From 2018 09 20 Monument Valley

Today's photo-of-the-day is from mile marker 13 on US 163 in Utah, just south of Mexican Hat, looking south to Monument Valley on the Arizona/Utah border. The spot is sometimes called Forrest Gump Point, the spot where Forrest Gump decided to stop running.

Forrest Gump: That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So I ran to the end of the road. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run to the end of town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just run across Greenbow County. And I figured, since I run this far, maybe I'd just run across the great state of Alabama. And that's what I did. I ran clear across Alabama. For no particular reason I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going.

Forrest Gump: [running] I had run for 3 years, 2 months, 14 days, and 16 hours.

[he stops and turns around]

Young Man Running: Quiet, quiet! He's gonna say something!

Forrest Gump: [pause] I'm pretty tired... I think I'll go home now.

Source: Forrest Gump.

Ad Astra (2019)

Rotten Tomatoes

Ad Astra (2019): Moon pirates, rampaging space gorillas, and too many other absurdities and plot holes to fit in 280 characters. Even the human interest, a man's search for his missing astronaut father out by Neptune, consumes the whole movie, then reaches a nothing climax. C-

POTD: Navajo Dancers

From 2018 09 20 Monument Valley

Today's photo-of-the-day is from a window of the gift shop of the visitor center in Monument Valley on the Arizona/Utah border.