F U Tom Cruise!

Bill's Big Blog

F U Tom Cruise!!!!!

Ok, so I know it's been a long time since I've blogged, but I had to find time to address this raving narcissist.

I know it's not just me that thinks this guy is a total whack job. Put aside my personal belief that scientology is a bs cult created and perpetuated to make money for its founder and consider the recent outbursts against psychiatry, ritalin and drug treatment of post-partum depression!


Rant One:



Nutjob rant against Brooke Shields.

"These drugs are dangerous. I have actually helped people come off. When you talk about postpartum, you can take people today, women, and what you do is you use vitamins. There is a hormonal thing that is going on, scientifically, you can prove that. But when you talk about emotional, chemical imbalances in people, there is no science behind that. You can use vitamins to help a woman through those things."

Who have you helped Tom? Why don't any of these people come forward to support your moronic claims? Where exactly did you get your background in medicine?



Rant Two:



When asked if he could be with someone at this stage in his life who doesn't have an interest in the Church of Scientology -- Holmes has said she's embracing the religion -- Cruise told interviewer Matt Lauer: "Scientology is something that you don't understand. It's like you could be a Christian and be a Scientologist.

"It is a religion. Because it's dealing with the spirit. You as a spiritual being." When Lauer mentioned Cruise's earlier criticism of Brooke Shields for taking anti-depressants, Cruise told the "Today" show co-host he didn't know what he was talking about.

"You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do," Cruise said.

The interview became more heated when Lauer, who said he knew people who had been helped by the attention-deficit disorder drug Ritalin, asked Cruise about the effects of the drug.

"Matt, Matt, you don't even -- you're glib," Cruise responded. "You don't even know what Ritalin is. If you start talking about chemical imbalance, you have to evaluate and read the research papers on how they came up with these theories, Matt, OK. That's what I've done."


Rant Three:



In an interview with Der Spiegel magazine.

SPIEGEL: We visited one of your locations near Los Angeles and were amazed to find a fully staffed tent of the Scientology organization right next to the food tents for the journalists and extras.

Cruise: What were you amazed about?

SPIEGEL: Why do you go so extremely public about your personal convictions?

Cruise: I believe in freedom of speech. I felt honored to have volunteer Scientology ministers on the set. They were helping the crew. When I'm working on a movie, I do anything I can to help the people I'm spending time with. I believe in communication.

SPIEGEL: The tent of a sect at someone's working place still seems somewhat strange to us. Mr. Spielberg, did that tent strike you as unusual?

Spielberg: I saw it as an information tent. No one was compelled to frequent it, but it was available for anybody who had an open mind and was curious about someone else's belief system.

Cruise:The volunteer Scientology ministers were there to help the sick and injured. People on the set appreciated that. I have absolutely nothing against talking about my beliefs. But I do so much more. We live in a world where people are on drugs forever. Where even children get drugged. Where crimes against humanity are so extreme that most people turn away in horror and dismay. Those are the things that I care about. I don't care what someone believes. I don't care what nationality they are. But if someone wants to get off drugs, I can help them. If someone wants to learn how to read, I can help them. If someone doesn't want to be a criminal anymore, I can give them tools that can better their life. You have no idea how many people want to know what Scientology is.

SPIEGEL: Do you see it as your job to recruit new followers for Scientology?

Cruise: I'm a helper. For instance, I myself have helped hundreds of people get off drugs. In Scientology, we have the only successful drug rehabilitation program in the world. It's called Narconon.

SPIEGEL: That's not correct. Yours is never mentioned among the recognized detox programs. Independent experts warn against it because it is rooted in pseudo science.

Cruise: You don't understand what I am saying. It's a statistically proven fact that there is only one successful drug rehabilitation program in the world. Period.

SPIEGEL: With all due respect, we doubt that. Mr. Cruise, you made studio executives, for example from Paramount, tour Scientology's "Celebrity Center" in Hollywood. Are you trying to extend Scientology's influence in Hollywood?

Cruise: I just want to help people. I want everyone to do well.

Spielberg: I often get asked similar questions about my Shoa Foundation. I get asked why I am trying to disseminate my deep belief in creating more tolerance through my foundation's teaching the history of the Holocaust in public schools. I believe that you shouldn't be allowed to attend college without having taken a course in tolerance education. That should be an important part of the social studies curriculum.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Spielberg, are you comparing the educational work of the Shoa Foundation with what Scientology does?

Spielberg: No, I'm not. Tom told you what he believes in, and after that I told you what I believe in. This is not a comparison between the Church of Scientology, the Shoa Foundation and the Holocaust. I was only showing you that some of us in Hollywood have set out to do more than just be actors or directors. Some of us have very personal missions. In Tom's case, it's his church, and in my case, it's the Shoa Foundation, where I'm trying to help other people learn about the mortal dangers of pure hatred.

SPIEGEL: How do you set about doing that?

Spielberg: I think that the only way we're going to teach young people not to kill each other is by showing them the reports by the survivors of the Holocaust -- so that they can tell them in their own words man's inhumanity to man. How they were hated. How they were displaced from their homes. How their families were wiped out and how by some miracle they themselves survived all that.

Cruise: How did the Holocaust start? People are not born to be intolerant of others. People are not born bigots and racists. It is educated into them.

Spiegel: Mr. Cruise, as you know, Scientology has been under federal surveillance in Germany. Scientology is not considered a religion there, but rather an exploitative cult with totalitarian tendencies.

Cruise: The surveillance is nothing like as strict anymore. Any you know why? Because the intelligence authorities never found anything. Because there was nothing to find. We've won over 50 court cases in Germany. And it's not true that everyone in Germany supports that line against us. Whenever I go to Germany, I have incredible experiences. I always meet very generous and extraordinary people. A minority wants to hate -- okay.

SPIEGEL: There is a difference between hate and having a critical perspective.

Cruise: For me, it's connected with intolerance.

SPIEGEL: In the past, for example when "Mission: Impossible" (1996) came out, German politicians called for a boycott of your movies. Are you worried that your support for Scientology could hurt your career?

Cruise: Not at all. I've always been very outspoken. I've been a Scientologist for 20 years. If someone is so intolerant that he doesn't want to see a Scientologist in a movie, then he shouldn't go to the movie theater. I don't care. Here in the United States, Scientology is a religion. If some of the politicians in your country don't agree with that, I couldn't care less.



Now to read what other celebrities have been saying about this so called religion.

Check out this link: http://www.factnet.org/Scientology/celebcrit.html?FACTNet

And finally, Tom Cruise, shut the hell up!

Blessed again!!!

Well, our lives are turned upside down once again. But in the very best way. Parker William arrived at 19:39 on Thursday at 8 lbs. and 21 in.

Everyone is doing well and Parker's "big" brothers couldn't be more excited!

It's easy to get caught up in the hassles of our everyday lives and to forget about the things that make everything right.

Children are the great equalizer for me.

They need, but you don't mind giving. They give without realizing they're doing it. They love you like nobody else can and it's all completely natural to them. They don't know any other way! And, you find yourself giving everything you have and then digging even deeper to find that little bit of extra strength to keep walking the floor at 3:00 a.m. because one of them has gas and can't help but cry, or to get up over and over because one of them has a running nose and keeps waking himself up. You find yourself repeatedly doing these things without thought of benefit or reward and you have a chance to reconnect with that person that your parents always saw in you. The one that they placed all their hopes on, spent their sleepless nights worrying over and beamed proudly over when they saw all their dreams for you coming true.

That's all I have time for now. My family needs me.

Be nice.

Peace

Awake for 40 hours...

Disclaimer: profanity below:

Not that I planned to be awake for 40 hours straight, but that's what happens when some miscontent with too much ability and not enough motivation creates a variant of a computer virus and lets it lose on the internet. When you look at the lost hours associated with this kind of crap, you have to think that the resources to catch these idiots need to be enhanced and the penalties made so severe as to actually discourage anyone from even thinking about doing it for more than 10 seconds!

I'm not talking about loss of productivity, although that is important to our economy. No, I'm talking about the time my colleagues and I lost with our families because we had to be in work all frigging weekend to fix the damage caused by this latest virus.

Kids grow up so quickly, spouses hardly have any time together as it is, and then some asshole comes along and because he's pissed at the world, or his mother didn't hug him enough or some other bullshit "I'm a victim, the world owes me something" craptastic excuse he spends his time fucking things up for the rest of us who don't owe him shit! I've had it with this crap. All this low self esteem bs has finally pushed me to the edge. You know what, people? It's time to get the fuck over it! grow up, take responsibility for your own life and stop blaming everyone else for every bad thing that happens to you or anytime something doesn't go your way. We all have our issues and we've all had things to get through in our lives. The rest of us are out here living our lives and enjoying things as best we can. It's high time you joined the party or quit the whole fucking scene. If you're that miserable, buy a one-way ticket to Amsterdam, sit around eating hash brownies all day and live on the streets. At least you'll be leaving the rest of us in peace.

I know this was a bit stronger than some of my usual posts, but I'm not about to apologize for it. Grow up, get with the program and stop screwing things up for everyone else.

Be nice

Peace

I hate mimes.

I generally don't hate much, but for some reason mimes just piss me off. Although the use of Marcel Marceau speaking the word no in Mel Brooks' Silent Movie was mildly entertaining, I still hate mimes.

That's all for now.

Be nice

Peace

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

A new Republican Revolution is coming...

Never did I think the day would come that I'd be missing Newt Gingrich. But that day has indeed come. Back in the days of the "Contract with America", I may have scoffed at the idealism and pandering nature of its content, but at least the underlying ideas were sound.

Here's what Republicans in the 90's were about.

Reducing the size and scope of Federal Government.
Eliminating unfunded mandates.
Eliminating the budget deficit.
Returning rights to the States.
A policy that moved us away from overt nation building.

How in the heck did we get to where we are today???

2.3 trillion dollar budget presented to Congress compared to 1.8 trillion in the final full year of the Clinton administration.
412 billion dollar deficit compared to 86 billion dollar surplus in the final full year of the Clinton administration.
Enormous budget deficits.
BIGGER Federal Government.

And these numbers don't even include the cost of the wars we are involved in. They are off budget items that don't get included in the proposed figures and new spending for war efforts will come along as supplemental spending bills that will further balloon the deficit.

Huge cuts are being proposed in many domestic programs to allow President Bush to make good on a promise he should never have made to reduce the deficit by half by 2009. These cuts will likely be rebuked by members of Congress to protect their constituents' local interests, thereby keeping the budget huge and the deficit reductions unrealized.


Here's the good news. Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind) is leading the charge to restore the party to its vision and goals of restoring the balances of federalism with the states, limiting the scope and influence of the Federal government and bringing spending back under control. A recent meeting in Baltimore of 50 influential Republicans discussed these and other key issues to restore our country to a fiscally sane path.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm still fairly liberal on social issues, but have always been in favor of fiscal conservatism. You don't spend what you don't have and if you need more money you find ways to make us more productive and increase revenues by means other than raising taxes.

It's not necessarily a bad thing to need more money than you have. In fact, its this very predicament that drives many people to come up with new and innovative methods of increasing productivity, enhanacing cash flow and increasing overall revenues.

I still strongly feel that George Bush is one of the worst Presidents we've seen in the last 25 years, but I also believe that we can work to effect change in spite of him through our representatives in Washington. Many of us may never have thought we'd be seeking help from the right-wing side of the aisle, but the time has come to align our priorities with many on the right who share our fiscally conservative values and believe that the Federal government should have less influence in our lives, not more!

This great country is far to diverse too allow Washington to force the wishes and beliefs of a true minority of close minded individuals on the whole of the nation. STAND UP PEOPLE. Stand up and be heard. Dont let groups like the Parents Television Council dictate the policy that comes out of Washington to affect all of us! http://www.parentstv.org/

This is one scary group. A recent Freedom of Information Act request revealed that 99.8% of all complaints received by the FCC come from this lone group! Complaints are up from 14,000 in 2002, to nearly 240,000 in 2003. There were only 350 complaints during 2000 and 2001. So, one group of very vocal people are influencing national policy in a very frightening way.

What is wrong with these people that they are so terrified by the sight of a breast or Mickey Rooney's butt! Other civilized nations, many of whom are our allies, don't freak out like this over nudity. They also don't have near the content of violent programming on television and movies that we have. You want to talk about inappropriate content, how about some of the movie promos shown during the Super Bowl. I was diving for the remote to stave off potential nightmares for my 5 year old. There is a ridiculous double standard in this country and it's being supported by this administration and its appointees to "protect" our children from nudity, but that allows incredibly violent programming with nary a peep of objection.

I don't know about you, but I'd much rather my children see a naked body in relevant programming or even humorous commercials than the absurd levels of violent content in today's programs and advertisements.

Nudity is OK people. Our children won't go blind, start having sex too soon or become deviant because they see images of naked people.

They WILL rebel against the type of repressive censorship that is being forced upon them and when they hit teen years... well, you'd better look out because all that repressive BS you've been crushing them with is gonna blow up in your face!

Now I'll take a deeeeep breath and try to wrap this up. I know this has been a long one and may seem to be a senseless rant. If so, I'd kindly ask you to read it through once more and think a bit about some of the points I've tried to raise.

Get Active. Contact your politicians and even those you didn't think you agreed with.

Relax. Spend a little more time with those you love, be that family friends or complete strangers you enjoy meeting on a park bench while feeding pigeons!

And never take a vacation you can afford. This may seem to deviate from the fiscal sanity portion of this blog, but its important to remember that life does indeed move pretty fast and as Ferris Bueller told us, if you don't dtop and look around once in a while, you could miss it! Truer words were never spoken.

Be nice.

Peace

AUDI-lightful

VORSPRUNG

Those who know me well, know that I am not generally a walking billboard. I don't buy shirts, pants, hats, etc. with the big Nike swoosh or other bs logos on them. I've long held that companies should be giving the stuff away if I'm going to be doing the advertising for them.

There is however, one exception to this rule. And that my friends is when it comes to my brand loyalty with respect to my car. Call it hypocritical, call it being a corporate shill, call it what you like. I call it promoting a product in which I believe. A great car, well designed and manufactured, that keeps me as safe as possible while affording a boatload of driving enjoyment.

Now I'll grant you, these are not inexpensive cars. But, if researched carefully as any large purchase should be, great deals can be found on pre-owned models that offer all the joy and excitement of a new car at a vastly reduced rate.

For more info than you could imagine about Audis, check out http://www.audiworld.com



Now, I'll take a moment to rant just a bit about HDTV.

The picture is fantastic if you're watching an HDTV broadcast. The picture is far less than thrilling when watching standard broadcast programs. It's kind of like being in a hotel bathroom and looking at your face in one of those 16x lighted mirrors. The image is remarkably clear, but the flaws revealed by such clarity may not be a welcome sight! It's still great and I wouldn't go back to plain old TV if you paid me, but it'll be sooo nice when my local giant conglomerate of a cable company starts carrying more HD programming.


Other than that, life is good. Very good. Family is healthy and happy. Job is great. Outdoors are a beautiful winter wonderland and Lewis Black and Jim Short were on XM Comedy this morning back to back! Just the laughs I needed to wade my way through traffic.

Be nice.

Peace