More Foreign Flicks ... First Reads gets a plug ... President Present ... Chris Christie ...

Amici:

More Foreign Film Reviews:

Mademoiselle Chambon ... a schoolteacher meets the parent of one of her students, gets the hots for him and makes a play ... boy is this one riveting. Heartbreaking and as tough as life sometimes gets. Painful to watch and/or get over once you’ve seen it.

Sabah: a love story ... very funny and touching love story between a 40 year old Arab daughter expected to take care of momma and a Canadian carpenter ... after watching the French film above, I needed this one big time. A nice story about clashing cultures, family and amour.



First Reads gets its first plug ...

President Present ... I don’t know when the party of the people is gonna get a little ramped up about this and I know how some Democrats are claiming Obama has to save himself from the wrath of the people and make the smart political choice or else he won’t have a second term, but TK says, WTF already ... who needs a second term with a guy who sits on the sidelines? What, he’s gonna grow a pair after 2012? By then he’ll be worried about his “legacy” and whether or not he’ll enough time to finish his 3rd memoir and win a second Nobel Peace prize (and you have to know he’s in the running; nobody on the Nobel committee had a problem with him ratcheting up the war in Afghanistan before handing him his first Prize ... what was it, six weeks into his administration?).

Double and triple Oy vey ...

Chris Christie ... aside from the fact he’s fatter’n Knucks, the new (New Jersey) champion of the Republican Party puts forth some compelling statistics claiming the costs of police officers in Camden (New Jersey) can be broken down thus: 71% fringe benefits, 29% salary. Interesting, except New Jersey is long known as the most corrupt state in the union and some of the hedge fund managers making $2.4 million an hour (these the clowns most responsible for bankrupting the country, never mind New Jersey) are given tax breaks by the same state government (we already know what President Obama and the federal government gave them).

Now, nobody says the disparity shouldn’t be trimmed (71% = 50%) or, if necessary, whatever the AVERAGE private worker has to kick in for health and pension funds, but let’s not get carried away. These cops aren’t rich people. Nor are the nurses, corrections officers or any other public officials whose contracts came from past negotiations (not stickups). Holding up 6 or 7 state employees retired on bloated pensions shouldn’t be a guilty verdict against unions. How about the cadre of public officials doing the perp walk every year in the great (and smelly) state of New Jersey? You think they maybe had an impact on the state's economy?

Compelling arguments pitting the small guy against the next small guy so long as you’re willing to ignore the impossibility of someone earning $2.4 million an hour and what that has cost all of us. Why isn’t that an issue, TK would like to know? How could anybody possibly earn that much, never mind need that much ... and then get tax breaks for his or her “efforts”?

So, the governor speaks the truth out of one side of his mouth while the other side remains stuffed with as much bullshit as the clown in Wisconsin.

Excusez-moi tandis que je fume un de mon Gauloise...

—la Knucks