Israel Joffe

viral Atlantic City article published on Fox -

Israel Joffe

Israel Joffe

Israel Joffe Israel Joffe

 Israel Joffe award from WWE hall of famer Johnny Rodz

Israel Joffe 

Sale of last iconic Catskills resort signals the end of an era

Movies such as Dirty Dancing, gave us everlasting memories of the once affluent getaway spot.

Now, the last of the iconic Catskills resorts has been sold to a company that plans to turn the property into a healthy living resort. 

Sullivan County economic development officials said the sale of Kutscher's Country Club was finalized Wednesday.

The Catskills used to be the 'place to be' in the summers and winters for generations of vacationers.

Through-out the decades, major performers would flock to the tourist destination which was known for it's lavish hotels and getaways.

In the winter, The Concord, The Pines, Kutschers, Browns and many more hotels in the area is where families would stay to go skiing in the close-by mountain ranges or to watch famous acts such as Neil Diamond and Frankie Avalon, before the area's once unimaginable decline.

In the summer the area had great hiking, mountain climbing, camping and much more.

Families looking to get away for the summer would head there in the thousands each year; and parents would send their kids to the area's many sleep away camps like Kutscher's Sports Academy and Camp Anawana, made famous by the popular Nickelodeon show of the same name. 

Stars such as Sammy Davis jr. Jackie Mason, Frank Sinatra, Elvis and many more graced the billboards of the now dilapidated area.

Efforts to bring gambling to the area, notably to revive the Concord hotel with a casino, have so far not been successful.

The most recent attempt to revitalize the area, a casino called Monticello raceway, has met with only limited success, and the area still remains vastly neglected. 

The next Detroit? Atlantic City facing catastrophic collapse

• http://www.fox5ny.com/news/16771572-story

With the closure of almost half of Atlantic City's casinos, Newark set to vote on gambling and casinos or racinos in almost every state, it seems as if the reasons for the very existence of Atlantic City are in serious jeopardy.

Atlantic City, once a major vacation spot during the roaring 20s and 1930s, as seen on HBOs Boardwalk Empire, collapsed when cheap air fare became the norm and people had no reason to head to the many beach town resorts on the East Coast. Within a few decades, the city, known for being an ‘oasis of sin’ during the prohibition era, fell into serious decline and dilapidation.

New Jersey officials felt the only way to bring Atlantic City back from the brink of disaster would be to legalize gambling. Atlantic City’s first casino, Resorts, first opened its doors in 1978. People stood shoulder to shoulder, packed into the hotel as gambling officially made its way to the East Coast. Folks in the East Coast didn't have to make a special trip all the way to Vegas in order to enjoy some craps, slots, roulette and more.

As time wore on, Atlantic City became the premier gambling spots in the country.

While detractors felt that the area still remained poor and dilapidated, officials were quick to point out that the casinos didn't bring the mass gentrification to Atlantic City as much as they hoped but the billions of dollars in revenue and thousands of jobs for the surrounding communities was well worth it.

Atlantic City developed a reputation as more of a short-stay ‘day-cation’ type of place, yet managed to stand firm against the 'adult playground' and 'entertainment capital of the world' Las Vegas.

Through-out the 1980s, Atlantic City would become an integral part of American pop culture as a place for east coast residents to gamble, watch boxing, wrestling, concerts and other sporting events.

However in the late 1980s, a landmark ruling considered Native-American reservations to be sovereign entities not bound by state law. It was the first potential threat to the iron grip Atlantic City and Vegas had on the gambling and entertainment industry.

Huge 'mega casinos' were built on reservations that rivaled Atlantic City and Vegas. In turn, Vegas built even more impressive casinos.

Atlantic City, in an attempt to make the city more appealing to the ‘big whale’ millionaire and billionaire gamblers, and in effort to move away from its ‘seedy’ reputation, built the luxurious Borgata casino in 2003. Harrah’s created a billion dollar extension and other casinos in the area went through serious renovations and re-branded themselves.

It seemed as if the bite that the Native American casinos took out of AC and Vegas’ profits was negligible and that the dominance of those two cities in the world of gambling would remain unchallenged.

Then Macau, formally a colony of Portugal, was handed back to the Chinese in 1999. The gambling industry there had been operated under a government-issued monopoly license by Stanley Ho's Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau. The monopoly was ended in 2002 and several casino owners from Las Vegas attempted to enter the market.

Under the one country, two systems policy, the territory remained virtually unchanged aside from mega casinos popping up everywhere. All the rich ‘whales’ from the far east had no reason anymore to go to the United States to spend their money.

Then came the biggest threat.

As revenue from dog and horse racing tracks around the United States dried up, government officials needed a way to bring back jobs and revitalize the surrounding communities. Slot machines in race tracks started in Iowa in 1994 but took off in 2004 when Pennsylvania introduced ‘Racinos’ in an effort to reduce property taxes for the state and to help depressed areas bounce back.

As of 2013, racinos were legal in ten states: Delaware, Louisiana, Maine, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and West Virginia with more expected in 2015.

Tracks like Delaware Park and West Virginia's Mountaineer Park, once considered places where local degenerates bet on broken-down nags in claiming races, are now among the wealthiest tracks around, with the best races.

The famous Aqueduct race track in Queens, NY, once facing an uncertain future, now possesses the most profitable casino in the United States.

From June 2012 to June 2013, Aqueduct matched a quarter of Atlantic City's total gaming revenue from its dozen casinos: $729.2 million compared with A.C.'s $2.9 billion. It has taken an estimated 15 percent hit on New Jersey casino revenue and climbing.

And it isn't just Aqueduct that's taking business away from them.  Atlantic City's closest major city, Philadelphia, only 35-40 minutes away, and one of the largest cities in America, now has a casino that has contributed heavily to the decline in gamers visiting the area.

New Jersey is the third state in the U.S. to have authorized internet gambling.  However, these online casinos are owned and controlled by Atlantic City casinos in an effort to boost profits in the face of fierce competition.

California, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Texas are hoping to join Delaware, Nevada, New Jersey and the U.S. Virgin Islands in offering online gambling to their residents.

With this in mind, it seems the very niche that Atlantic City once offered as a gambling and entertainment hub for east coast residents is heading toward the dustbin of history.

Time will tell if this city will end up like Detroit. However, the fact that they are losing their biggest industry to major competition, much like Detroit did, with depressed housing, casinos bankrupting/closing and businesses fleeing , it all makes Atlantic City’s fate seem eerily similar.

Stop Eating Yogurt, IT IS TERRIBLE FOR YOU!!!

Look, I am going to be blunt with all of you. I know there is a lot of hype surrounding yogurt. How great it is for you, how it has all these health benefits and so-called "pro-biotics" (which havent been proven to work, look it up people, its true) but the truth is YOGURT IS AS BAD FOR YOU AS ICE CREAM IS!

There I said it. Everyone loves it, and thinks its part of a good diet, but it has sugar and lots of sugar. REMEMBER PEOPLE, FAT IS NOT THE ENEMY. SUGAR IS THE ENEMY. FAT IS OK, SUGAR IS WHAT MAKES YOU FAT. FAT JUST HAS A BAD RAP BECAUSE ITS CALLED FAT, BUT IT IS NOT WHAT MAKES YOU FAT, AT ALL!!

According to my friend a diet specialist at Weight Loss Center Inc. If you want yogurt, have greek yogurt. It has a lot of protein and not a lot of sugar. Sure it tastes gross, just add some equal and there ya go!

But enough with the frozen yogurt B.S.

People have been making millions off of this so-called healthy alternative to ice cream because they know most people are too ignorant to look at the label and see how much sugar is in there, or they just do not know. So remember this.

Fact: Sugar is the enemy. Yogurt is as bad for you as ice cream is, end of story.

The New Domino Theory in South East Asia

We all read about the Domino Theory, the principle cause of justifying the Vietnam war. It meant that if we allowed South Vietnam to fall, Cambodia, Laos and other nations would fall to communism as well

The truth is, it did happen and most of those south east Asian countries fell to communism. But what about now? China is capitalist, Vietnam is capitalist, so is Cambodia. So what does all of this mean?

What this means is that we are experiencing a new Domino Effect. This one however is where communist run, central economic systems are falling in favor of capitalist, free enterprise systems.

So the bottom line is, by the communists winning in the Vietnam war, all they really did was prevent the inevitable from happening. All they did was delay, what the United States and her allies tried so desperately to enforce during those treacherous years of conflict. That capitalism, not communism is the way to hope and prosperity.

No Pain No Gain is a Thing of the Past, Now its No Burn, No Earn

No Pain No Gain is a Thing of the Past

Now its No Burn, No Earn

Working out at the gym and hitting those reps until it burns like crazy seems to be the oldest way to get the most out of your muscles. Its an old adage that has been repeated time and again since that huge gym craze from the 80s, popularized by Olivia Newton John's famous anthem "Physical". NO PAIN, NO GAIN!!

The biggest problem with that saying is it is very right, but very wrong.

People have the misconception you need to do reps until you feel pain and that any pain is good. Many do not realize that you could be doing some heavy duty damage to your body. Its time to look at he pain you are feeling when you do your reps. If you feel a sharp pain, STOP WORKING OUT THAT BODY PART! If you feel burning, you are doing it right.

So in closing just remember, it is indeed correct, NO PAIN NO GAIN, but just replace it with NO BURN, NO EARN and youll be solid before you know it and seeing good results :)

The Myth About the Unemployment Rate being at 10 percent (its really close to 24 percent)

It is amazing that the government, the media and most of the people are buying into the supposed fact that the unemployment rate is at an "astonishing and tragic" 10.7 percent.

Actually everyone, its more like 24 percent. Yes, you read it correctly, 24 percent.

One must wonder how it is possible that I came to that conclusion. Well it is certainly not just me, but a steady stream of intellectuals, politicians and bloggers who are realizing that the governments' current guidelines for determining the unemployment rate is horrendously flawed.

'After a year, if you haven't found a job, they assume you gave up and dont count you anymore!'

According to Jason Termin a jobs analyst who works for the Department of Labor, the unemployment figures are skewed to give a much better picture and its been this way for decades. "Basically the unemployment rate is figured by guessing how many people have been looking for a job for a year or less" Termin says.

"If you have been looking for a job longer than a year, than the government assumes you gave up and doesn't count you in the tally of unemployed, even though in this recession, according to MOST job sites it can take almost 1 to 2 years in this climate to find the ideal job."

He went on to point at the latest jobless figures. "If you figure in the people who STILL havent found work after a year, its certainly close to, if not more than 20 percent unemployment, and most job statisticians would agree with that figure".

So what is the solution? Termin says we should really "press the media to stop buying into the goverments flawed way of calculating the unemployment rate and demand that the government give accurate figures"

The bottom line is, both sides of the government are at fault for promoting this lie. People deserve the truth. Unfortunatley the truth may be too sobering for both sides of the media and goverment to admit to, especially when the truth points to that grim fact that this recession has a jobless rate almost equal to that of the Great Depression.

Decade in Review... The 2000s

So the decade is finally over. The decade that saw the return of many 80s outfits and styles, big sunglasses, leotards, spandex, pink shirts for guys, the return of mohawks, spiky hair, stripes and plad and much more.... Lets review the decade...

Time magazine called it the Decade from Hell. The Red Sox know it as the decade the Curse of the Bambino came to an end. And all Americans know the past decade as the one when war struck home.

The decade began with a sigh of relief when the feared computer Y2K bug failed to materialize as companies adjusted their systems in time. And optimism prevailed when AOL and Time Warner decided to merge in a deal that epitomized the dot-com era's belief in seemingly unlimited growth, however ended up being one of the worst mergers in history, one which saw Turner owned World Championship Wrestling being bought by Vince Mcmahon and the former WCW owner out almost 10 Billion dollars because of this horrendously miscalculated deal.

But tensions grew quickly in the 2000s: There was the crash of the Concorde, the beginning of the second Intifada, the attack on the USS Cole, and a hotly disputed presidential election that wasn't officially decided until the Supreme Court halted the recount of ballots in Florida

The rest of the decade bore witness to:

• Violence. The Sept, 11th attacks were the worst of a series of terrorist attacks, the first attack on US soil by a foreign enemy since Pearl Harbor with far more casualties. Followed several years later by a train bombing in Spain and a subway blast in London. After 9/11, the United States led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Russia and their former republic Georgia tangled in later year, each side blaming the other for the conflict and with the U.N. surprisingly blaming Georgia for starting the fight!

• Natural disasters. Nearly 230,000 people spread over several South Asia countries died in a tsunami spawned by an Indian Ocean earthquake. Tens of thousands were killed by earthquakes in Pakistan and China. Hurricane Katrina tore through New Orleans in 2005.

• Economic malaise. The collapse of the dot-com and housing bubbles fostered two financial crises: The second one resulted in the worst economic climate since the Great Depression, something I call the Great Recession.

Good News:

News wasn't bad for everyone. Apple unveiled the iPod, and later, the iPhone. Their stock more than doubled.

Nintendo came out with the revolutionary Wii motion system which destroyed Sony and Xbox and prevented Nintendo from going the way of Sega and Atari, their stock jumped from 20-130 dollars a share while Sony and Microsoft barely survived the Great Recession.

The New York Giants won their second Super Bowl championship by beating the undefeated New England Patriots in one of the biggest upsets in sports history. Mixed Martial Arts, most notably, UFC went from being bankrupt to becoming a mainstream billion dollar industry on the way to compete with boxing.

The Boston Red Sox broke an 86-year drought in winning the World Series. Michael Phelps swam into the record books with eight Olympic gold medals. An airline pilot saved more than 150 lives by landing on the Hudson River safely after geese flew into the engines and forced the plane to land. The Yankees won the World Series multiple times including the 2009 World Championship....

COUNTDOWN TO '10

There were plenty of firsts. First Austrian bodybuilder to become the governor of California. First woman to win an Indy race. First female speaker of the House. First Hispanic member of the Supreme Court. First African-American president.

The final year of the decade saw the death of the biggest musical star of his generation Michael Jackson; political rancor ("You lie!") over proposals to change U.S. health care, which could result in the most far-reaching government program since the Great Society; and a sex scandal surrounding professional golf's biggest draw. There is much more to talk about, but in the meantime, lets ring in this new year on tomorrow nights FIRST BLUE MOON IN 19 YEARS with a prayer that all our dreams comes true and good things happen to all those around us! Amen!

Is the "Great Recession" over?

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke rendered his most positive assessment of the economy yet in a speech Friday and gave credit in part to his own institution's handling of the worst economic crisis in decades. He claimed that the so-called "Great Recession" is over and things are turning around as we speak.

On paper, one may think so. Home sales have jumped a whopping 27 percent (some say 33 percent, or 17 percent, but either way its a jump). Job loss claims were lower than expected last month (even though they did jump this month to over 500,000). So one might think things are easing up... Well, that is simply not true.

According to Ray Jones, CEO of Farmworth Capital LLC. the majority of home sales were done by corporations who were looking to get a steal from buying foreclosed and decrepid homes. That is where the sales increased. These werent sales from people who were looking to buy a great home at a great price. The latest scheme going on these days, according to Jones is that corporations are getting together and buying homes that once cost $400,000 for less than $150,000 dollars... in bulk, that is all that is happening. And that's not all..

The commercial real estate bubble hasnt even burst yet. There are some companies that overpaid for buildings in Manhattan by hundreds of millions and have no way to coming up with their payments.

One building bought in Times Square for almost a billion dollars, has not only gone down in value by nearly half since the "Great Recession" started, but the company that bought it, TL Gerban, a Dutch corporation, has no way of coming up with the payments because theyre about to go bankrupt. It is one example of perhaps thousands of companies that have no way of coming up with rent payments.

When the foreclosures start in the commercial real estate market, that is truly when the "Great Recession" will have bottomed out. So until then, Mr. Bernake can keep doing the drugs he is doing, he is stepping down in January anyway. Sorry everyone, the "Great Recession" is here to stay for another few years.

Summer Movie Review... Bruno!!!!!!!!!!

Bruno was by far one of the funniest films I have ever seen. I cannot get over how ingenious Sacha Baron Cohen is.. The guy is unreal. He blurs the line between reality and fiction. For example, how do you know Paula Abdul and Ron Paul werent in on it.. Without going into too much detail, I will tell you that there are times when you might question whether or not the people involved actually know Bruno is a fake... For its originality I give it 3 and a half stars... I wouldve given it 4 stars, but it gets to be a little too much in terms of the EXTREME nature.

3 and a half stars... Original and ingenious, better and funnier than Borat.

Summer Movie Review...Harry Potter, Not just for Kids anymore...

Summer Movie Review...Harry Potter, Not just for Kids anymore...

Ive always felt that movies should be no longer than two hours. After about that time, a person gets ancy, no matter how good a movie is. However, in this sixth installment, which has some of the best special effects I have ever seen, the movie shouldve been a bit longer! I am not even kidding! Very well done. Truly one of the few movies to be just as good as all the others in their respective series. And I dont wanna hear about how Godfather 2 was better than The Godfather, because it wasnt and I know plenty of people who agree with me! Now back to Half Blood Prince..

Interestingly enough, this was to be J.K. Rowlings final installment, but the final book is so huge, over 700 pages, that they needed to make the final episode into over 2 movies long! So we still have a few more Harry Potters to go (and I still have to finish the book version of this movie!)..

The plot goes like this...

Lord Voldemort has returned to power, and his wrath has been felt in both the Muggle and Wizarding worlds. Severus Snape, long considered an enemy of Voldemort and a member of Dumbledore's anti-Voldemort coalition, the Order of the Phoenix, meets with Narcissa Malfoy, mother of Draco and wife of Lucius, an imprisoned Death Eater. Snape makes an Unbreakable Vow to Narcissa, promising to protect her son, Draco.

Dumbledore heads to 4 Privet Drive to collect Harry from his aunt and uncle. On their way to the Burrow, Harry and Dumbledore stop to recruit Horace Slughorn to return to teaching at Hogwarts. Harry is reunited with his best friends, Ron and Hermione. When shopping for schoolbooks, Harry runs into Draco and follows him to Borgin and Burkes, where he overhears Draco threatening Borgin and insisting that he fix an unknown object. Harry is instantly suspicious of Draco, whom he believes to be a Death Eater, just like his father. The students return to school, and Dumbledore announces that Snape will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, much to Harry's surprise.

Harry receives a used Potions textbook that once belonged to someone named “The Half-Blood Prince.” Spells and amendments are written in the margins of the book, and Harry uses the Prince's notes to excel at Potions. Dumbledore schedules regular meetings with Harry in which they use Dumbledore's pensieve to look at memories of those who have had direct contact with Voldemort. Dumbledore believes that if Harry can learn enough about Voldemort's history, it will help him when they finally fight face to face, as the prophecy concerning Harry foretells. Harry learns about Voldemort's family, including his grandfather Marvolo, his uncle Morfin, and his mother Merope, who cast a love spell on a Muggle and was abandoned by him when it wore off. Voldemort was left at an orphanage and grew to be an unpleasant and aggressive boy. Harry also learns that Voldemort has divided his soul into seven Horcruxes. Two of these, Tom Riddle's diary and Marvolo's ring, have already been destroyed. One resides in Voldemort, one resides in a snake, one is Merope's locket, and the other two are suspected to be hidden in objects belonging to Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Gryffindor.

Ron acquires a new girlfriend, Lavender, of whom Hermione is extremely jealous. Harry feels stuck in the middle of his friends' bickering. Eventually, Harry falls in love with Ginny, Ron's sister, and Ron and Lavender break up, making Hermione quite happy. Harry spends much of his time keeping up with his duties as Quidditch captain and following Draco Malfoy. Harry uses his Marauder's Map to keep track of Draco, but often cannot find him on the map. Eventually, Harry realizes that when Draco is not on the map, he is using the Room of Requirement on the seventh floor of Hogwarts, which transforms into whatever its user needs. Harry tries his best to get in to see what Draco is up to, but until he knows exactly what Draco is using the room for, he cannot gain access. Eventually Harry and Dumbledore leave Hogwarts together to fetch and destroy Merope's locket, thus making Voldemort one step closer to mortal. They must overcome a variety of traps and challenges before reaching the basin where the locket is hidden under a poisonous potion. Dumbledore drinks the potion and Harry fights off Voldemort's Inferi. They take the locket and return to Hogwarts as quickly as possible. Dumbledore is quite weak, and when they reach Hogsmeade they can see that the Dark Mark is visible above the astronomy tower.

Harry and Dumbledore rush toward the tower. When they arrive, Dumbledore uses his magic to freeze Harry in place, while Harry remains hidden by his cloak of invisibility. Draco Malfoy sprints into the room, threatening Dumbledore's life. Weak and with his wand out of reach, Dumbledore stalls Draco, telling him that he is not a killer and that the Order of the Phoenix could protect him and his mother from Voldemort. Draco lowers his wand, and Snape pushes into the tower. Harry cannot move or speak, but he hears members of the Order fighting Death Eaters below. Snape raises his wand and kills Dumbledore, sending him flying over the edge of the tower. When Dumbledore dies, his spell on Harry is broken, and Harry rushes after Snape, determined to avenge the death of his friend and headmaster. Snape escapes, and Harry is devastated. He looks at the locket he and Dumbledore retrieved and realizes that it is not a Horcrux. Inside the locket is a note from someone named “R. A. B.” Harry tells his friends he will not be returning to Hogwarts next year and will instead search out and kill Voldemort by destroying all of the Horcruxes. Ron and Hermione vow to join him...

So in the end, it was great visually, I do not feel the series is fatigued yet and I still feel theres alot more Harry to come in the next few years... I give it two thumbs up, three and a half stars, if only because the ending couldve been a bit of a better cliff hanger. And by the way, my prediction? Dumbledore pulls an Obiwan and returns in some form to guide harry..

I give this movie an A or 3 and a half stars!

Great effects, great continuity, great story telling and great character development, with a dash a great comedy thrown in! Just be wary, the kids might get scared with the blood and death of dumbledore. It aint just for the kids anymore, Harry is all grown up...

Williamsburg, Brooklyn starting to resemble Miami...and I dont mean in a good way!

Well I said this 3 years ago.. Noone listened to me... Izzydomus predicted that Williamsburg would overbuild and noone listened.

Well lets see if I was right. According to the New York Times today, atleast 17 buildings in Williamsburg that overlook the amazing waterfront of Manhattan are now vacant!

NOT 17 APARTMENTS, BUT 17 BUILDINGS!!!!

The New York Times, stealing a quote from me, went on to say that Williamsburg is starting to resemble Miami in terms of the amount of buildings taking up the skyline that are literally empty!

And it is.

A few years ago everyone thought that Miami was the place to buy. For the life of me I dont understand why they didnt just ask their parents about the early 1980s when everyone thought the same thing as the drug dealers were being kicked out. By the early 1990s, Miami had gone bust along with the rest of the real estate market. Its a pattern that happens every 20 years in Miami, it happened in the 1960s before the drug dealers took over... and now I believe the same thing is happening in the outer boroughs of New York City.

In 1987 everyone raved that Long Island City was the place to buy. They put up a big ugly green Citi bank building and thats about all that changed for atleast 20 years until the recent real estate boom put so many yuppies in there it now resembles a small version of Hoboken, New Jersey with a really cool skyline. But it took 20 years...

Williamsburg was one of the most disgusting, dispicable places anyone could ever walk through. The crime was horrible and the projects were overwhelming. Then, over the past 10 years it developed into a really cool hipster spot for the art loving crowd. Heck, young people from all walks of life have been flocking there and now the Williamsburg Bridge is one of the coolest and safest places to walk to Manhattan from. Its like an artsy Hoboken. And the crazy part is, some of the prices in Williamsburg are more than Manhattan!!!! I USED TO LIVE IN BROOKLYN, ITS SHOCKING THAT THIS IS HAPPENING!!

However, greedy real estate tycoons like Waterson inc. thought it was smart to buy up 10 or 12 buildings with the wonderful philosophy, if you build it, they will come... well... they built it, but only half of them actually came and bought. Waterson, like many others, are feeling the pinch of the real estate bust and now, like theyre bretheren in Miami, they can either choose to wait until the storm passes within 5 years or go bankrupt, there really is no other alternative... We just have to hope that long gone are the days when landlords in Brooklyn and the Bronx would resort to burning down their shell of a building in hopes of getting atleast some of their money back... that would be...really bad...

Season opener of Entourage was great, Hung was..... surprisingly....

Season opener of Entourage was great, Hung was..... surprisingly....

Surprisingly good. I must say, the idea of a show about a male gigilo brings me back to the Schneider movies that had plenty of laughs.. for a movie... but to make it into a serious (sort of) series? well that was something that I thought would for sure bomb.

But in my opinion it didnt and it wont. The flashback sequences, the character development all worked perfectly. Thomas Jane, the guy who portrayed the Punisher, does an outstanding job as a teacher whos luck forced him to call for desperate measures in order to make money. The kids were funny and the way his wife is portrayed as an annoying mom who the kids want to get away from is genuinely, perfectly done.... I actually felt bad for her.

Two thumbs up for the newest surprise hit for HBO (apparently it was more watched than Entourage and everyone that I know of who watched it, said it was great and were as surprised as I was in how good it was!)

A+ two thumbs up...


As far as Entourage goes... last season it was really cool seeing Vince struggling as he fell from the mountain top, only to regain his momentum and land a movie role, just as it started to appear he was finished... showing that one must never give up in life no matter how many boulders are put into ones path....

so..... for the new season opener of Entourage, it appears that Eric has decided it’s time to spread his wings and is looking to move into his own place, but it doesn’t go that easy for him. Last night’s episode also saw Lloyd and Ari battle with each other, over Lloyd’s future.

And as for Vince, the premiere saw him keeping busy. Not only was he seen trying to get his driving license and prepare, but last night, we also saw him in a starring role of a new Martin Scorsese movie “The Great Gatsby,” which he was promoting on Jay Leno.

A+ for both premiers..

next week I will give my opinion on a show that all my friends are begging me to get into...

True Blood. ive watched a few episodes, its good and I am very surprised a show based on modern vampires made it this far, but I promise, next week I will give a fair and honest review.

Why the protests in Iran will change nothing, why Ahmadinejad makes no difference and why it wont make a difference if Mousavi is Granted Victory

I am going to make this my shortest blog ever. Lets be honest. Iran's mullahs are not giving up power. If Mousavi wins, he still has the mullahs pulling his strings and anyone with a brain like some of my Iranian friends, understand this. It is terrible that people are dying because they are simply performing their G-d given right to freedom.
Well unfortunately ... to the people who like to think of it as a reverse 1979 Iranian revolution, with democracy as the end result, the army, revolutionary guards and other militia are well paid and fully support the current regime.
Personally I prefer Ahmadinejad or however you spell his name stay in power so he can keep showing the world Iran's real intentions. As Obama says, "With the mullahs in charge, theres no reason to think Iran's policy will change if the opposition wins the election, or at the very least Ahmadinejad resigns."
Iran's regime wants the bomb, most people know it and there is little the world can and will do about it. Keep in mind the irony of the fact that in 1935, the Persian Muslims wanted to show their solidarity with the Nazis so much that they changed the name of Persia to Iran, which literally means lands of the Aryans, keep in mind that they want nukes and it makes for a very scary scenario that the world must eventually be prepared to deal with.

Gambling Reaches New York City.

Gambling Reaches New York City.
It worked in Pennsylvania, however there are those who are very concerned.

In 2006, the New York state legislature gave the NY Lotto the power to regulate and license slot machines and video poker in a racing track 5 miles away from Manhattan. People were immediately fearful that a "racino" with an 18 to gamble law (as opposed to 21 in other area casinos) would do nothing but cause crime and depress real estate prices in the surrounding area.
Many people believe there are benefits in having a racino that brings in millions of dollars. In New York, most of the money generated by the racino, like most New York Lotto games, is used for education. And in Pennsylvania, it helped lower property taxes. However there are others that believe there is indeed a cause for concern.
In the 1970s, when Atlantic city, a resort town that used to be the Disney World of the early 20th century, eventually decayed into a barren wasteland of filth and drugs, the New Jersey state legislature approved one of the most controversial plans ever by a state. The city was one of the worst in the nation and quickly needed money. So by 1976 New Jersey became the second state to allow casinos and gambling. Did it help? Well it certainly created thousands of jobs and with posh hotels like Hotel Chelsea and Borgata, incredible restaurants that rival New York and Vegas and 37,000,000 visitors a year compared to Vegas' 38,000,000 a year, so it can certainly look like a success on paper, especially when you consider the 150 percent increase in real estate prices Atlantic city went through in the past decade. However, crime still runs rampant outside the casino boardwalk area and Atlantic city's high school remains one of the worst in the state.
Then one might point out what gambling did to parts of Connecticut when they allowed the Native Americans to open Casinos. Over 200,000 jobs were created and the tribes who live in these reservations, people who were used to poverty and depression, now see hope and millions of dollars in profits (sometimes billions for certain Casinos).. instant economy for the reservations.
So in essence, it works. Especially when one considers that in its first week, the Empire City Casino, 5 minutes from Yankee Stadium in Yonkers profited 4 millions dollars a day that week and still profits numbers just as close, more any other race track in the tri state area! Consider the fact that most of the money raised in Empire City goes into education and one may feel they are giving to charity when they gamble! so that can be dangerous in its own right! Justified gambling!

Can Socialism in America Work? Does Socialism work at all?

First, it was tried, in an EXTREME form in the Soviet Union. Bread lines, lines for toilet paper, lines to ask what line to get in so that you could get on a waiting list to stand in another line to get a place of your own and be able to leave the 1 room apartment you were sharing at age 35 with your wife, nine kids, your no good brother in law, your grandmother, and crazy uncle Igor who liked to re-enact the Seige of Leningrad at the most inopportune times.

Then it was tried in Eastern Europe, where again, it failed in all of the communist bloc countries.

The idea was that the government owned everything, gave you your salary, got you a job, universal health care, and supposedly you lived like everyone else. No upper class. No snobs to make fun of your poor lifestyle. The only problem...there was indeed a ruling class and they lived a heck of a lot better than the rest of the populace. No freedom to vent your anger at the government if they so happened to come in the middle of the night and kidnap your parents, and another problem was that there was no motivation for anyone to work beyond their means since you couldnt exactly buy a nice piece of land eventually, a house, a nice car, or own anything that would make you different or better than anyone else for that matter. So that system of socialism failed.

Then Western Europe, realizing after World War 2 that they badly needed the government to keep things afloat formed a sort of "hybrid form of Capitalism/socialism". Now I am not talking about the hypocritical Chinese form of socialism capitalism. They aren't even a communist country anymore. They are more like a form of a capitalist dictatorship, similar to South Korea between the 50s and the 80s with a lot more people and a lot less freedom for the populace.

The rest of Europe and many countries throughout the world took many of the ideas of socialism and etched it deep in their societies. The government would take a large stake in many corporations to make sure they cant fail. They tax so much it would make a lottery winner feel poor. But in the end there was universal health care (which many feel is a waste, considering the long waiting lists), pensions for much of the populace. Basically in a lot of these countries you can be guaranteed to be taken care of from cradle to grave, you just have to pay more in your taxes.

Some corporations in these countries are deemed just "too big to fail" (sound familiar?). Canada and many commonwealth countries have "Crown corporations" where the government owns and has a big say in these companies so they dont end up the way of Chrysler.

So does it work? ask Iceland, who just ended up bankrupt, a first for a modern western democracy (if im wrong, let me know, but I cant find any other examples). But then again, Western Europe did experience the "miracles" of the late 50s and 60s where they had enourmous economic growth after being torn apart by World War 2.

In America, people have a bad taste for this sort of capitalist/socialist hybrid system. Some bloggers claim that there already was a small form of it before this recent economic mess started.

Police
Military
Some power grids
City and state infrastructure is supposedly a combination of socialism and capitalism working side by side. Or maybe just Federalism.
K-12 schooling
Some higher education is all under some sort of federal and state control. But the whole point here is corporate full blown capitalism/socialism with a planned economy and if it indeed DOES work, because it truly has never been tried here.

If you ask your grandparents, the closest the government came to owning anything was a few banks in the 70s and the famous Chrysler loan of the late 70s, early 80s. But they never had a large stake like they do in the 70 percent ownership of GM and some of the major banks. So whats supposed to happen now? If you ask your parents and grandparents, they may be as puzzled as you because they dont remember the last time the government owned anything this much!

In a way, the corporations themselves, federal and state jobs have forms of socialism. Universal healthcare for you and your spouse, a pension. But take note that many corporations have failed because they were forced to pay out large sums for pensions and surgeries of retired workers i.e. GM, Chrysler.

The bottom line is, in the past, like Flint Michigan in the 1980s, the idea of the government was, "let the natural cycles of capitalism take fold. People will lose their jobs, lives will be ruined but eventually someone will pick up the pieces and such is life." Its worked for 200 years so what I cant understand is why the government all of a sudden has this new idea that government ownership will prevent the inevitable collapse of companies that are doomed to failure because their business models just dont work.

You cant artificially inflate failed business models with money loans and government ownership. It cant work, and it wont work. This country is too big. Now dont even mention Henry Paulson and his famous Wall Street loans. The mere mention of his name makes me angry because a man like him should be brought up on corruption charges. He blindly gave money to wall street, noone has any clue where the money went, and he has a nice snug job in the very same place he helped "save" in what was one of the biggest thefts in US history, but thats another issue that I will vent about another time. In any case, it isnt the sort of Government intervention im talking about.

It sounds cruel, but its true because its worked in the past. Let the natural cycle of capitalism happen. But thats the old idea. We are in a new age, looking at a new abyss.

Noone here has ever been involved with such an experiment before and unlike the people at CNBC who have to tell everyone itll get better by the end of 2009 (thought they said the same thing in 2008), I think we are in for a recession that will not get better until the better part of 2012, 2013, when the new World Trade Center is finally FINALLY built (thats another story ill be venting about next time).

So final answer: We dont know if it will work, because it has never been tried here before. But if we look at other examples, i.e. Iceland, we may be in for a big bad surprise, or not. Its too early to tell.

"Life is so simple, but we insist on making it complicated"

Confucius
551 - 479 BC

Darfur... The tragedy of our generation's Holocaust

Darfur... The tragedy of our generation

It is extremely sad that we live in a time where politicians openly talk about the Darfur tragedy yet no one seems to want to do anything about it.

Rawanda happened in the mid 90s and we promised ourselves something like that would never happen again. Here we are in the midst of a tragedy that is about to eclipse the horrors of Rawanda and once again our government is paying lip service and doing nothing concrete.

Both the republicans and democrats have promised to do something about it. Once again, all we are getting are empty promises while over 500,000 have been killed, nearly 3 million displaced and an untold number of women brutaly raped and sold into slavery.  

Similar to how ignorant the world was 70 years ago, when the jews of Europe were being systematically disenfranchised then led to slaughter, once again the world is turning a blind eye to this madness.

Shame on us, shame on our goverment and shame on the United Nations, which was originally set up to stop this sort of thing from happening in the first place.

LIVING IN AN ERA OF NUCLEAR APPEASEMENT

LIVING IN AN ERA OF NUCLEAR APPEASEMENT

I look at the political atmosphere and I cannot help but notice the similarities between now, and 1938.

Now I know what you are going to say, it is a VERY different world. The United States isnt into Isolationism anymore and is extremely pro-active in world affairs. Fine. One might also say that the jews now have an army, navy, airforce and over 300 nukes. Fine. Well as much as we have evolved, so has the enemy.

In the world of 1938, the world appeased the Nazis in every possible way to avoid war. The world gave them Czechoslovakia, allowed them to rebuild their army, navy and airforce...and the people who thought that by allowing them to pursue their visions, "peace in our time" would be reached. We all know how that went. The Axis powers went on to start World War 2 and came very close to having Nukes before they were stopped, after causing over 70 millions deaths world wide.

So here we are in 2009. Kim jong Il, the leader of North Korea, successfully sent a rocket to space, and Obama got so upset, he told him that it wasnt the right thing to do. Wow. North Korea, the biggest supporter of arms and technology to countries like Syria and Iran, has now proven to our enemies that they can do whatever they want to pursue their dreams of obliterating Israel and causing holocaust #2 and the world will most likely do nothing as they head toward that goal.

How about in 2006 when North Korea set off their first low level nuclear bomb. The world did nothing either!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea%E2%80%93United_States_relations#2006_nuclear_test

In the 1930s, the Nazis SLOWLY built up their army, in clear violation of their surrender terms from World War 1. They saw that the world did nothing, then built up their Navy, the world did nothing again, then the airforce while the world did nothing other than complain to the toothless League of Nations (the precursor to the even more toothless United Nations).

See the similarities?

How about the little known fact, that in 1935, the Persian muslims wanted to show their solidarity with the Nazis so much that they changed the name of their land from PERSIA to IRAN, which literally means, LAND OF THE ARYANS. Amazing right? Its like a piece of the Nazis are still left over and we are stuck dealing with them.

On 21 March 1935, the ruler of the country, Reza Shah Pahlavi, issued a decree asking foreign delegates to use the term "Iran" in formal correspondence.

Members of the Persian intelligentsia were not happy with this decree, seeing a pro-Nazi motive behind it. After Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, the Nazi Economics minister, commented on the Aryan origin of Persians, Reza Shah's ambassador in Germany encouraged him to issue the above-mentioned decree, asking all foreign delegates to use the word "Iran" as used by Iranians inside the Iran (meaning "Land of the Aryans") instead of "Persia" in formal correspondence.

So the question is, what is next in this era of Nuclear Appeasement?

Do we stand around and do nothing?

In 1994 we almost went to war with North Korea when Kim Il Sung first started this nonsense until we backed off last minute because of the fear of 50,000 American casualties in invading North Korea. So we agreed to give them aid, and what has been accomplished since then? North Korea has been building themselves up even more, supplying Iran and Syria with nuclear technology, and we are standing around, letting this happen!

My grandmother, who is still alive, lived in Berlin in the 20s and 30s. A jew living in Berlin during the 1930s. She says that the world back then never imagined Hitler would go to war with the world or exterminate the jews of Europe. They figured he was just all talk. She goes on to say that Iran is Germany all over again, but with different suits. The world once again does nothing but appease our enemies with concessions (aid to North Korea) and toothless UN sanctions.

War is terrible, but sometimes the cost of nuclear appeasement is even more terrible. Unfortunatley its human nature to do nothing until something happens. Sooner or later, the world is going to have to wake up, or be woken up, its as simple as that. Quoting the leader of Poland "Its either Israel is going to have to attack Iran, or Iran is going to attack Israel, there is no middle ground".

It's the Maginot line all over again!

It's the Maginot line all over again!

I want you to really quickly click on this link.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE7DB153EF933A0575AC0A96F958260

Now the thing I want you to notice is that this article is from 10 years ago. It talks about how the Clinton Administration put all of this pressure on the republican congress to pass housing reform in order to make it easier for the banks to approve mortgages. The roots of the mess we are all in today.

I have always blamed both parties. I blamed President Bush and the democratic controlled congress for approving disasterous bail out packages that, for some reason, noone can figure out where the money went. And I blame the Clinton Administration and the republican controlled congress back then for giving banks the power to give mortgages to anyone and anything that happened to be capable of picking up a pen and signing their name. To make a long story short. It is 1990s Japan all over again.

Let's make some analogies. The Maginot line, a supposedly well thought of defensive barrier built by the French before World War 2 was supposed to stop the Germans from invading France. The Germans simply went around it and the Maginot line was useless. The Israelis repeated that same mistake all those years later in थे 1973 वर with the Bar Lev line when the Egyptians simply went around and over the line, consequently making it useless. The Israelis simply failed to learn from past mistakes.

So here we are in 2009, repeating the same economic mistakes Japan made in the 1990s. It is truly incredible. Japan was suffering from a huge contraction in their economy. So in order to fix it, the economists over there decided the government should pump billions into Japan, nationalize a whole bunch of institutions and well.... fast forward to 2009 and they are still suffering. WHY did we not learn from their example???

Why are we giving billions of dollars to companies that screwed up??? Why are we giving billions to CEOs who destroyed their company??
The obvious solution would be to buy up the mortgages, make them into 30 year FHA loans and, yes, MAYBEEEE, we should give money to companies in order to cover their losses, but they should fill some prerequisites first. They should fire the people who screwed up the company instead of giving them bonuses and they should change their business model before getting a dime.

Once upon a time in the late 70s, Lee Iococca, who was in charge of Chrysler, asked the government for a billion dollar loan. There was a great debate about it. They agreed to change their business model, fire some people, and eventually the company got its money and paid the American people back. This is how it shouldve been done all these years later. Instead we are giving pointless amounts of blind dollars to companies that will die eventually.
GM should just declare bankruptcy so that they can renegotiate the union contracts because if they dont, then no matter what happens, they will always be behind the 8ball and die as well because their profits just cannot cover the money they owe to people in the union, whether its to retirees or people who were laid off. The contracts are just too unrealistic and need to be renegotiated, and this can only happen if they declare bankruptcy.

It's time to get some economists who know what they are doing. Its too soon to tell if Obama will be great, but if he keeps repeating the same past mistakes, then I can guarantee we will still be in the same mess 4 years from now, with little chance of a swift recovery.

The Iraq War, similar to another war... NOT The Vietnam War (not even close)

The Iraq War, similar to another war in history... but not The Vietnam War (not even close)

For the past few years I noticed how people in the media, especially the New York Times have this fascination with comparing the Iraq War to the Vietnam War. People are so obsessed with comparing this war to the Vietnam war that they forget to look at the real facts.

There really is no basis for the New York Times' comparisons other than the Iraq War is unpopular to many people. The interesting thing, is that the Iraq war does parallel another war in history. The Philippine–American War.

Interesting right?

• Both wars were almost exactly a hundred years from each other 1902- 1913
• Both wars involved about 130,000 troops.
• Both wars had over four thousand US troops killed.
• Both wars were/are unpopular.
  
• Both wars were fought against a stubborn insurgency that ended when the population tired of the death and destruction and helped US forces put and end to it once and for all.
  
• Both wars involved Republican US Presidents.

Another interesting thing to note is that in 1902, the US declared victory over there, only to have to fight the Phillippine insurgents until 1913. All of this sounds familiar right?

Now we all know that the end goals in both wars were different. One goal was to colonize while the other is to stabilize the place and leave. However from a military point of view, they are incredibly similar.

The insurgency in Iraq had a similar strategy that terrorists used against the French in Algeria. A strategy that worked and the French left. A strategy the Philippine insurgency used. It seemed like a sound theory. De-stabilize the whole place and maybe the occupying forces will leave. Fortunately for us, the Iraq insurgents strategy completely backfired and it looks like we are finally on the road to achieving a democratic, stable Iraq and victory. Again, similar to how the US gained the upper hand in defeating the Philippine insurgency.

Interesting how the New York Times refuses to acknowledge these logical comparisions.