Net Neutrality......"Gotta pass it before we know what is in it......"

Well the rat bastards did it....they passed a "net neutrality" without knowing what it is......Remember Obungler care......Same thing.   How much longer before us conservative bloggers start vanishing, losing our connection, or we can't find information anymore that is critical of the "Dear Leader" and his group of minions, crooks and hustlers.  

WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) — Internet service providers like Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile now must act in the “public interest” when providing a mobile connection to your home or phone, under rules approved Thursday by a divided Federal Communications Commission.
The plan, which puts the Internet in the same regulatory camp as the telephone and bans business practices that are “unjust or unreasonable,” represents the biggest regulatory shakeup to the industry in almost two decades. The goal is to prevent providers from slowing or blocking web traffic, or creating paid fast lanes on the Internet, said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.
The 3-2 vote was expected to trigger industry lawsuits that could take several years to resolve. Still, consumer advocates cheered the regulations as a victory for smaller Internet-based companies which feared they would have to pay “tolls” to move their content.
Verizon said in a statement — which was originally released in Morse code — that the FCC’s move imposes 1930s rules on the Internet.
“The FCC’s move is especially regrettable because it is wholly unnecessary. The FCC had targeted tools available to preserve an open Internet, but instead chose to use this order as an excuse to adopt 300-plus pages of broad and open-ended regulatory arcana that will have unintended negative consequences for consumers and various parts of the Internet ecosystem for years to come,” Verizon said.
Net neutrality is the idea that websites or videos load at about the same speed. That means you won’t be more inclined to watch a particular show on Amazon Prime instead of on Netflix because Amazon has struck a deal with your service provider to load its data faster.
Opponents, including many congressional Republicans, said the FCC plan constitutes dangerous government overreach that would eventually drive up consumer costs and discourage industry investment.
House Speaker John Boehner denounced the vote in a statement.
“Overzealous government bureaucrats should keep their hands off the Internet. Today, three appointed by President Obama approved a secret plan to put the federal government in control of the Internet,” Boehner said in a statement. “The text of the proposal is being kept hidden from the American people and their elected representatives in Congress, and the FCC’s chairman has so far refused to testify about it. This total lack of transparency and accountability does not bode well for the future of a free and open Internet, not to mention the millions of Americans who use it every day.”

Republican FCC Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Ajit Pai, who voted against the plan, alleged that President Barack Obama unfairly used his influence to push through the regulations, calling the plan a “half-baked, illogical, internally inconsistent and indefensible document.”
Michael Powell, a former Republican FCC chairman who now runs the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, warned that consumers would almost immediately “bear the burden of new taxes and increased costs, and they will likely wait longer for faster and more innovative networks since investment will slow in the face of bureaucratic oversight.”
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said he would pursue industry-friendly legislation, although it was unlikely that Obama would sign such a bill. The FCC’s five commissioners are expected to testify before a Senate panel March 18.
“One way or another, I am committed to moving a legislative solution, preferably bipartisan, to stop monopoly-era phone regulations that harm Internet consumers and innovation,” Thune said in a statement this week.
President Barack Obama personally tweeted from the White House account that millions of Americans made their voices heard on the FCC vote

Range time...:)

  Well on Monday, my son was out of school and he had a friend spend the night, the spousal unit mentioned..."You know that you promised to take the kids to the range..."    I gave her the patented look....you know the one that says

   Yeah..that is the one...

    Well we went to the range near my house and we only brought the .22LR rifles....The EBR stayed home this time, we just shot the regular .22's

.

My sons .22 semi Marlin and my Remington Nylon

And the bolt action Marlin.

   The kids had a good time shooting and they took it seriously the marksmanship.   Both kids enjoyed it and I was there having fun...and supplying the ammo....

 

Practicing the fundamentals

It was a good day at the range...then we headed to the next town over and 

ate gyro's and other fun food,    then we went home and I crashed on the recliner, the cold I was arguing with hit full bore and all I wanted to do was sleep.  the boys played computer games and they were happy also. 

Monday Music Robert Palmer "Addicted to Love"

I am arguing with a cold, and I had taken today off because my son is out of school today.  So we went to the range, but more on that in a subsequent post.
     I was stationed at Fort Devens in Mass for Advanced training and this song showed up on the MTV playlist that was playing in the breakroom.  We would be ready to march to class, so we would sit in the breakroom and wait for the time for us to go.  This is the place where I saw Whitney Houston for the first time, along with level 42 and many other bands.  It was a good memory for a place that I have a love/hate relationship with.   Fort Devens was returned to civilian control in the 90's during the early round of BRAC

   We GI's liked the band behind Robert Palmer......While doing research for this posting I found out that Tina Turner has her version that was around almost as long.   Her version is different but good, Nobody can do it like Tina Turner.  I will probably do a Tina song for next weeks "Monday Music"

"Addicted to Love" is a song by English rock singer Robert Palmer released in 1986. The song has become known as his signature song, thanks in part to a highly popular video featuring high fashion models. Other artists have released versions since.
It is the third song on Palmer's Riptide album. The most commonly heard version runs around four minutes, but the full album version runs a little over six minutes.
The song entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart the week ending 8 February 1986. The song ended up topping the Billboard Hot 100, as well as the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart. It was one of the last 45 RPM singles to receive a million-selling Gold certification. It also reached number one in Australia, and number five on the UK Singles Chart.

Originally intended to be a duet with Chaka Khan, the song was made without her because her record company at the time would not grant her a release to work on Palmer's label, Island Records. Chaka Khan, however, is still credited for the vocal arrangements in the album liner notes.
Andy Taylor of Duran Duran (and a bandmate of Palmer's from The Power Station) provides lead guitar. The other guitar part on the song is played by Eddie Martinez and keyboards by Wally Badarou. The song is also notable for its unaccompanied drum opening, which has a time signature of 7/4. The rest of the song is in common 4/4 time.
Noddy Holder (the lead vocalist of English rock band Slade) stated in an interview that this song was the main track he wished he'd written himself. "The one main song that I wish that I'd written and recorded is 'Addicted to Love' by Robert Palmer. To me, that's a perfect pop song. Everything about it really hits the nail on the head."

The 1986 produced music video (which uses the shorter single version of this song), directed by British photographer Terence Donovan, was one of the most iconic of the era. The video features Palmer performing the song with an abstract "band", being a group of female models whose pale skin, heavy makeup, dark hair and seductive, rather robot-like expression follow the style of women in Patrick Nagel paintings.
The five models in the video are Julie Pankhurst (keyboard), Patty Kelly (guitar), Mak Gilchrist (bass guitar) and Julia Bolino (guitar) and Kathy Davies (drums).
Mak Gilchrist recalled to Q magazine:

“I was 21 and got the part on the strength of my modelling book. We were meant to look and 'act' like showroom mannequins. Director Terence Donovan got us tipsy on a bottle of wine but as we were having our make-up retouched, I lost balance on my heels and knocked the top of my guitar into the back of Robert’s head, and his face then hit the microphone."

Palmer recycled the video's "iconic models" concept for the videos of three other songs of his : "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On" (also from Riptide), "Simply Irresistible" and the animated "Change His Ways" (both from Heavy Nova).
VH1's Pop-Up Video trivia about the video include the fact that a musician was hired to teach the models basic guitar fingering techniques, but "gave up after about an hour and left". The episode also pointed out several choreographic errors, including the models moving out of sync with one another, and moving during points with no back beat, such as the second chorus.
The music video ranked at number 3 on VH1's Top 20 Videos of the 1980s and was both the first and last video shown on long running UK music programme The Chart Show.
The models were also used in the spoof of the video in "Weird Al" Yankovic's UHF wearing glasses and moustaches.
The music video was parodied in the music video of Stardust's "Music Sounds Better with You" and in Shania Twain's "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!".

Tina Turner has made "Addicted to Love" a regular feature of her live shows since 1986, although her version did not make it onto the market until two years later.
A live recording from the 1986/1987 Break Every Rule Tour of the track was included on her Tina: Live in Europe album in 1988, and was also issued as the lead single to promote the album in certain territories — instead of "Nutbush City Limits" — and was a Top 20 hit in the Netherlands.
The two singles had the same B-sides: live recordings of "Overnight Sensation" and ZZ Top's "Legs" and near identical picture sleeves. The version of "Addicted to Love" issued on the single was in fact an alternate mix of the track; the single mix was later included on the European editions of her 1991 greatest hits album Simply the Best, as well as All the Best in 2004 and Tina! in 2008.

 Tina Turner Version

Five singles were released from Tina: Live In Europe; "Nutbush City Limits", a cover of Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love, "Tonight" with David Bowie, "A Change Is Gonna Come" and "634-5789" with Robert Cray, the most successful being "Addicted to Love" which has since become a mainstay in Turner's live repertoire and was later included on the European editions of her 1991 hits compilation Simply the Best.

Star Trek "Prelude to Axanar" and other stuff

I have been busy at work, but no overtime this week(drats) so I was working a bunch of chores that needed to be done, the next 6 weeks until spring break promises to be hectic.  I will be posting more movies and video shorts, those will be easier for me to post on my tablet. 
    One of the things I did was put new tires on my Ranger, she needed tires for a long time and I finally put the original rims and tires on the truck.  Now the Ranger looks like a truck again:)    She is my camping and run errands and haul stuff Ranger, I have no complaints, the truck is in excess of 300,000 miles and runs good and she has all of my disgruntled veteran stuff on the back.

New Tires

Gone Camping(disgruntled Veteran) pic

  One of the things I did today was pick up more ammo, I saw the proposed rules from that rogue agency of the rogue Obama regime, the ATF is proposing a ban on the popular green tip 855 round for the AR pattern rifles.  people are angry and there is another run on the ammo.......again.  I have been buying a box here and a box there every week or so and I have been doing this since the Sandy Hook fiasco.  I don't want to be running like a lemming trying to buy ammo at the last minute.

  It is not a lot of ammo, but multiply that by every couple of weeks and it starts to add up after a while.  I learned the lessons after Sandy Hook.  I have been expecting something from the Obama Regime after the 2014 elections, the petulant boy king(I havn't used that in a while) is still throwing a temper tantrums over the 2014 elections.  he is pouting and I am sure that the director of the ATF didn't get this idea on his own.  Gotta choke off the ammo for all those bitter clingers.

   They are still talking about net neutrality and the government attempt to "regulate it in the Public interest" like a utility.   I am hoping that there is such an uproar that the congress will use its power of the purse to rein back the FCC, although I have a gut feeling that the GOP will roll over on this one also.

    

   On a different note, I ran across this video from Star Trek "Prelude to Axanar"   it is about 21 minutes long, there is supposed to be a movie in the works, this is a fan based movie and it is very well done.  If you are a fan of the "original" series before the JJ Adams version hit, you will really like this.  It is the story of the Federation and the Klingon empire that had a war before the adventures of Capt Kirk.  It is a very good movie short and worth the watch.

21 minute movie short

I made one of my infrequent forays into the land of Facebook and ran across this comment from Mike Rowe.   My response was in "blue"    it was a very good article

College education don't equate to intelligence and desire to work. I have met people with college degrees that are as stupid as a bag of hammers and very smart people that never finished high school. You use what God gave you.

Mike Rowe

Off The Wall
Kyle Smith writes...
Howard Dean recently criticized Gov Scott Walker for never finishing college, stating that he was "unknowledgeable." What would your response be on college as a requirement for elected office?

Hi Kyle
Back in 1990, The QVC Cable Shopping Channel was conducting a national talent search. I had no qualifications to speak of, but I needed a job, and thought TV might be a fun way to pay the bills. So I showed up at The Marriott in downtown Baltimore with a few hundred other hopefuls, and waited for a chance to audition. When it was my turn, the elevator took me to the top floor, where a man no expression led me into a suite and asked me to take a seat behind a large desk. Across from the desk, there was a camera on a tripod. On the desk was a digital timer with an LED display. I took a seat as the man clipped a microphone on my shirt and explained the situation.
“The purpose of this audition is to see if you can talk for eight minutes without stuttering, blathering, passing out, or throwing up. Any questions?”
“What would you like me to talk about,” I asked.
The man pulled a pencil from behind his ear and rolled it across the desk. “Talk to me about that pencil. Sell it. Make me want it. But be yourself. If you can do that for eight minutes, the job is yours. Ok?”
I looked at the pencil. It was yellow. It had a point on one end, and an eraser on the other. On the side were the words, Dixon Ticonderoga Number 2 SOFT.
“Ok,” I said.
The man set the timer to 8:00, and walked behind the tripod. He pressed a button and a red light appeared on the camera. He pressed another button and the timer began to count backwards. “Action,” he said. I picked up the pencil and started talking.
“Hi there. My name’s Mike Rowe, and I only have eight minutes to tell you why this is finest pencil on Planet Earth. So let’s get right to it.”
I opened the desk drawer and found a piece of hotel stationary, right where I hoped it would be. I picked up the pencil and wrote the word, QUALITY in capital letters. I held the paper toward the camera.
“As you can plainly see, The #2 Dixon Ticonderoga leaves a bold, unmistakable line, far superior to the thin and wispy wake left by the #3, or the fat, sloppy skid mark of the unwieldy #1. Best of all, the Ticonderoga is not filled with actual lead, but “madagascar graphite,” a far safer alternative for anyone who likes to chew on their writing implements.”
To underscore the claim, I licked the point. I then discussed the many advantages of the Ticonderoga’s color.
“A vibrant yellow, perfectly suited for an object that needs to stand out from the clutter of a desk drawer.”
I commented on the comfort of it’s design.
“Unlike those completely round pencils that press hard into the web of your hand, the Ticonderoga’s circumference is comprised of eight, gently plained surfaces, which dramatically reduce fatigue, and make writing for extended periods an absolute delight.”
I pointed out the “enhanced eraser,” which was “guaranteed to still be there - even when the pencil was sharpened down to an unusable nub.”
I opined about handmade craftsmanship and American made quality. I talked about the feel of real wood.
“In a world overrun with plastic and high tech gadgets, isn’t it comforting to know that some things haven’t evolved into something shiny and gleaming and completely unrecognizable?’”
After all that, there was still five minutes on the timer. So I shifted gears and considered the pencil’s impact on Western Civilization. I spoke of Picasso and Van Gogh, and their hundreds of priceless drawings - all done in pencil. I talked about Einstein and Hawking, and their many complicated theories and theorems - all done in pencil.
“Pen and ink are fine for memorializing contracts,” I said, “but real progress relies on the ability to erase and start anew. Archimedes said he could move the world with a lever long enough, but when it came to proving it, he needed a pencil to make the point.”
With three minutes remaining, I moved on to some personal recollections about the role of pencils in my own life. My first legible signature, my first book report, my first crossword puzzle, and of course, my first love letter. I may have even worked up a tear as I recalled the innocence of my youth, scribbled out on a piece of looseleaf with all the hope and passion a desperate 6th grader could muster...courtesy of a #2 pencil.
With :30 seconds left on the timer, I looked fondly at the Dixon Ticonderoga, and sat silently for five seconds. Then I wrapped it up.
“We call it a pencil, because all things need a name. But today, let’s call it what it really is. A time machine. A match maker. A magic wand. And let’s say it can all be yours...for just .99 cents.”
The timer read 0:00. The man walked back to the desk. He took the pencil and wrote “YOU’RE HIRED” on the stationary, and few days later, I moved to West Chester, PA. And a few days after that, I was on live television, face to face with the never-ending parade of trinkets and chotchkies that comprise QVC’s overnight inventory.
I spent three months on the graveyard shift, five nights a week. Technically, this was my training period, which was curious, given the conspicuous absence of supervision, or anything that could be confused with actual instruction. Every few minutes a stagehand would bring me another mysterious “must have item,” which I’d blather about nonsensically until it was whisked away and replaced with something no less baffling. In this way, I slowly uncovered the mysteries of my job, and forged a tenuous relationship with an audience of chronic insomniacs and narcoleptic lonely-hearts. It was a crucible of confusion and ambiguity, and in hindsight, the best training I ever had.
Which brings me to the point of your question, Kyle.
I don’t agree with Howard Dean - not at all.
Here’s what I didn’t understand 25 years ago. QVC had a serious recruiting problem. Qualified candidates were applying in droves, but failing miserably on the air. Polished salespeople with proven track records were awkward on TV. Professional actors with extensive credits couldn’t be themselves on camera. And seasoned hosts who understood live television had no experience hawking products. So eventually, QVC hit the reset button. They stopped looking for “qualified” people, and started looking for anyone who could talk about a pencil for eight minutes.
QVC had confused qualifications with competency.
Perhaps America has done something similar?
Look at how we hire help - it’s no so different than how we elect leaders. We search for work ethic on resumes. We look for intelligence in test scores. We search for character in references. And of course, we look at a four-year diploma as though it might actually tell us something about common-sense and leadership.
Obviously, we need a bit more from our elected officials than the instincts of a home shopping host, but the business of determining what those “qualifications” are is completely up to us. We get to decide what matters most. We get to decide if a college degree or military service is somehow determinative. We get to decide if Howard Dean is correct.
Anyone familiar with my foundation knows my position. I think a trillion dollars of student loans and a massive skills gap are precisely what happens to a society that actively promotes one form of education as the best course for the most people. I think the stigmas and stereotypes that keep so many people from pursuing a truly useful skill, begin with the mistaken belief that a four-year degree is somehow superior to all other forms of learning. And I think that making elected office contingent on a college degree is maybe the worst idea I’ve ever heard.
But of course, Howard Dean is not the real problem. He’s just one guy. And he’s absolutely right when he says that many others will judge Scott Walker for not finishing college. That's the real problem.
However - when Howard Dean called the Governor “unknowledgeable,” he rolled out more than a stereotype. He rolled a pencil across the desk, and gave Scott Walker eight minutes to knock it out of the park.
It’ll be fun to see if he does.
Mike

Monday Music "Thriller"

Well I tried to get this out on Monday but I was overcome by event....Like Work and wanting to sleep.   I will post some pithy comments tomorrow...

    I remembered when Thriller came out, the Album...It was a good album, the songs "Billy Jean" and "Beat it" were huge smashes in their own right, but "Thriller" totally eclipsed the other video's and it became the standard for Music video's.  I remember being in High School and we all would talk about the new music video coming out on MTV

   There was a huge hype and buildup for this song and video, after it exploded on the airwaves, MTV would schedule subsequent screenings and people would run home to catch the video.  It was that huge...
     I liked Michael Jackson, before he got strange.  He was a hugely talented musician and artist whose influence is still felt today.  I have the album on vinyl, it is still one of my favorite albums.  I never picked up the CD version. 

"Thriller" is a song recorded by American recording artist Michael Jackson, composed by Rod Temperton, and produced by Quincy Jones. It is the seventh and final single from his sixth studio album of the same name. It was released on November 12, 1983 in most countries and January 23, 1984 in the United States by Epic Records. The song has appeared on multiple greatest hits compilation albums from Jackson, including HIStory (1995), Number Ones (2003), The Essential Michael Jackson (2005), and Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009) and it was remixed to the Immortal album in 2011. The song, which has a voice-over from actor Vincent Price had originally been titled "Starlight".
The song's instruments include a bassline and synthesizer. In the song, sound effects such as a creaking door, thunder, feet walking on wooden planks, winds and howling dogs can be heard, and the lyrics contain frightening themes and elements. "Thriller" received positive reviews from critics and became Jackson's seventh top-ten single on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart from the album, while reaching the top of the charts in France and Belgium and the top ten in many other countries.
"Thriller" was adapted by American Werewolf In London director John Landis into a highly successful music video, known independently as Michael Jackson's Thriller. At fourteen minutes the video is substantially longer than the song, which ties together a narrative featuring Jackson and actress Ola Ray in a setting heavily inspired by horror films of the 1950s. In the video's most iconic scene, Jackson leads other actors costumed as zombies in a choreographed dance routine. Though it garnered some criticism for its occult theme and violent imagery, the video was immediately popular and received high critical acclaim, being nominated for six MTV Video Music Awards in 1984 and winning three. In 2009 it was added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, the first music video ever selected. Although the song itself was a huge success commercially, the video outshone its popularity.

"Thriller" was written by Rod Temperton, and produced by Quincy Jones. "Thriller" was originally titled "Starlight",contrary to other reports of the title "Starlight Love". While the song was titled "Starlight", the song's hook lyrics were "Starlight! Starlight sun...", but after the song was changed to "Thriller" the hook was rewritten to "Thriller! In the night...". Temperton commented,

Originally, when I did my Thriller demo, I called it Starlight. Quincy said to me, 'You managed to come up with a title for the last album, see what you can do for this album.' I said, 'Oh great,' so I went back to the hotel, wrote two or three hundred titles, and came up with the title 'Midnight Man'. The next morning, I woke up, and I just said this word... Something in my head just said, this is the title. You could visualise it on the top of the Billboard charts. You could see the merchandising for this one word, how it jumped off the page as 'Thriller'.

While Temperton was writing "Thriller" he stated that he'd "always envisioned" a "talking section at the end" on the song, but did not really know what "to do with it", until deciding "to have somebody, a famous voice, in the horror genre, to do this vocal." Jones' then-wife, Peggy Lipton, who knew Vincent Price, suggested Price for the vocal part, which Price agreed to do.

    Vincent Price

"Thriller", along with other songs from Thriller, was recorded by Jackson over the course of eight weeks, in 1982. Jackson recorded the song at Westlake Recording Studios on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. Bruce Swedien, the song's engineer, said of the song being recorded,

When we started 'Thriller', the first day at Westlake, we were all there and Quincy [Jones, the producer] walked in followed by me and Michael and Rod Temperton and some of the other people. Quincy turned to us and he said, 'OK guys, we're here to save the recording industry.' Now that's a pretty big responsibility – but he meant it. And that's why those albums, and especially 'Thriller', sound so incredible. The basic thing is, everybody who was involved gave 150 percent … Quincy's like a director of a movie and I'm like a director of photography, and it's Quincy's job to cast [it]. Quincy can find the people and he gives us the inspiration to do what we do.

Swedien and Jones stated that Vincent Price recorded his introduction and voice-over rap for the song in two takes; Jones, acknowledging that doing a voice-over for a song is "difficult", praised Price and described his recording takes as being "fabulous". Swedien said of Jackson recording the song, that, "I tried all sorts of things with Michael – for instance, he would sing the main vocal part and we'd double it one time and then I'd ask him to step away from the mic and do it a third time and that really changed the acoustics in the room so it gave Michael's vocals a unique character … We recorded some of those background vocals in the shower stall at Westlake."
Throughout the song, sound effects such as a creaking door, thunder, feet walking on wooden planks, winds and howling dogs can be heard. Bruce Cannon, a sound effects editor for "Thriller", said that, "Things like the lightning may have come from old Hollywood movies – we'll never know which movies – but the best sound-effects editors do go out in the desert and find a coyote, so I have a feeling that was a real howl."
The backing track, especially the bassline, has certain similarities to the 1981 number-one R&B hit "Give It to Me Baby" by Rick James. The bass part was made from two modified Minimoogs playing in unison^.

^{Quincy Jones}    

"Thriller" received high acclaim reviews from contemporary music critics. Ashley Lasimone, of AOL's Spinner.com, noted that "Thriller" "became a signature for Jackson" and described "the groove of its bassline, paired with Michael's killer vocals and sleek moves" as having had "produced a frighteningly great single."Jon Pareles, of The New York Times, noted that Thrillers tracks, "Billie Jean", "Beat It", "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" and "the movie in the song 'Thriller'", were the songs, unlike the "fluff" "P.Y.T.", that were "the hits that made Thriller a world-beater; along with Mr. Jackson's stage and video presence, listeners must have identified with his willingness to admit terror."
Ann Powers, of the Los Angeles Times, described "Thriller" as being a song that was "adequately groovy" with a "funked-out beat" with lyrics that are "seemingly lifted from some little kid's 'scary storybook'". After Jackson's death, AOL's Radio Blog released a list, titled "10 Best Michael Jackson Songs", which placed "Thriller" at number one. In 2009 Melissa Cabrera, of AOL Radio Blogs, listed "Thriller" as being the fourth best song on their "Top 100 '80s Songs" list.Eliot Glazer, AOL's Radio Blogs, placed "Thriller" at number one on a list titled "Top 1984 Songs". "Thriller" was also listed at number two on the "10 Best Halloween Songs" and "10 Best Party Songs" lists by AOLs Radio Blog, and at number one on "The Top 10 Halloween Songs" list by Billboard.

    
The music video, directed by John Landis, was filmed in various locations in New York and Los Angeles. Contrary to reports of $800,000 to $1 million production budgets, Landis stated that the music video was made for $500,000. Jackson said of making the music video, in an interview that aired on December 11, 1999, for MTV's 100 Greatest Videos Ever Made:

My idea was to make this short film with conversation ... I like having a beginning and a middle and an ending, which would follow a story. I'm very much involved in complete making and creating of the piece. It has to be, you know, my soul. Usually, you know, it's an interpretation of the music. [...] It was a delicate thing to work on because I remember my original approach was, 'How do you make zombies and monsters dance without it being comical?' So I said, 'We have to do just the right kind of movement so it doesn't become something that you laugh at.' But it just has to take it to another level. So I got in a room with [choreographer] Michael Peters, and he and I together kind of imagined how these zombies move by making faces in the mirror. I used to come to rehearsal sometimes with monster makeup on, and I loved doing that. So he and I collaborated and we both choreographed the piece and I thought it should start like that kind of thing and go into this jazzy kind of step, you know. Kind of gruesome things like that, not too much ballet or whatever.

The music video of the song also included on the video albums: Video Greatest Hits - HIStory, HIStory on Film, Volume II, Number Ones, on the bonus DVD of Thriller 25 and Michael Jackson's Vision.
Following the release of the music video, a 45-minute documentary was released that provided candid glimpses behind the scenes of the music video's production.Entitled Making Michael Jackson's Thriller, it, like the music video, was shown heavily on MTV for a time and was the top-selling home-video release of all time at one point, with over nine million copies sold. MTV paid $250,000 for the exclusive rights to show the documentary; Showtime paid $300,000 for pay-cable rights; and Vestron Video reportedly paid $500,000 to market the cassette, in a profit participation agreement.

    
Set in the 1950s, Michael and his unnamed date (Ola Ray) run out of gas near a dark wooded area. They walk off into the forest, and Michael asks her if she would be his "girl"; she accepts and he gives her a ring. He warns her, however, that he is "different". A full moon appears, and Michael begins convulsing in agony, transforming into a werewolf. His date runs away in terror, but the werewolf catches up to her, knocking her down and begins lunging at her with his claws. The scene then cuts to a modern-day movie theater where Michael and his date, along with a repulsed audience, are actually watching the scene unfold in a movie called Thriller.

Michael's date leaves the theater as Michael hands his popcorn to a stranger, catches up to her, and assures her that "It's only a movie". Some debate follows as to whether or not she was scared by the movie. They then walk down a foggy road as Michael teases her by singing the verses of "Thriller". They pass a nearby graveyard, in which zombies begin to rise out of their caskets as Vincent Price performs his soliloquy. The zombies corner Michael and his date threateningly, and suddenly, Michael becomes a zombie himself. The zombies then break into an elaborate song and dance number, followed by the main chorus of "Thriller" (during which Michael was reverted to human form), frightening his date to the point where she runs for cover.
Michael (turned back into a zombie) and his fellow corpses then back the frightened girl into the corner of a nearby abandoned house. Michael then reaches for his date's throat as she lets out a bloodcurdling scream, only to awake and realize it was all a dream. Michael then offers to take her home, and she happily obliges. As they walk out of the house, Michael eerily looks at the camera, thus revealing his yellow werewolf eyes, as we hear Vincent Price's haunting laugh

     The music video was listed as the "Greatest Video" on VH1's "VH1: 100 Greatest Videos" in 2001.MTV listed the music video as being the "Greatest Music Video Ever Made" on their list, "MTV: 100 Greatest Music Videos Ever Made" in 1999. In July 2011, the music video was named one of "The 30 All-TIME Best Music Videos" by TIME magazine.

Comparing the Military Services..

I ran across this and saved it to post it when I had an opportunity.  

    I am an Army veteran so we can make jokes at the Air Force.  They DO treat their people better and that is a fact.....although I and other veterans do consider them........well pampered comes to mind.

    I will also add another one that had made the rounds a few times and I had seen a copy of this at the flight operations hut at Katterbach Germany(Near Ansbach)

Net neutrality?...Really? from the most transparent administration in American History.

   My apologies to my readers whom head to my corner of the internet when you are bored and I am the last stop before surfing the bowels of the net.

    I have a post I want to work on.  I will post my standard Monday Music next Monday, it will be "Thriller".  There is a lot of material with that one and I guess it is fitting that it will be a long one.

    But I digress;
 
    I have taken my laptop 2 days in a row to work to try to finish this post, and I am now Friday night at the kitchen table working on it.    All I can say is that I have been extremely busy with overtime, and that is a good thing$$$$$ and basketball stuff and Boy Scout stuff and Church group stuff.

     I have heard that the Obama administration wants to propose a "net neutrality" protection act.  In the interest of "fairness" they want to attach the Internet to the  FCC and reclassify the internet as a "utility" and regulate it in the "public Interest".  This is the same group that tried to put "Truth Czars" in the news room to screen for content.......

..Think about that for a moment....Remember the same people that proposed the truth czars in the news room, are the same people that are pushing "Net Neutrality".  They want to regulate the last bastion of freedom that is the internet, they want to screen the content and the websites....if you are a "free Speech" advocate...think of the ramifications of the government checking the information available...All the information that is critical of "dear leader" and his minions will be buried.  they will also enact the "Fairness doctrine", the fervent hope  of leftist in the United States...they have been trying to muzzle talk radio since the early 90's because the news and information presented there isn't pushed through the media conglomerates that basically are teleprompters for the Democratic National Committee whom they receive their talking points.
   

The internet is the same way,  it is the only for the most part that is not regulated, I remember a few years ago....15 I think.....If you had a 56K modem, you were highspeed, now you can watch movies through your computers, I am talking megs of data per minute....Such things were undreamed of a few years ago.  YouTube, netflix and other internet services have changed the way we do business.  Now imagine this if it was heavily regulated like the "Ma' Bells" was in the 70's and early 80's.  Very slow......Remember this?

  For many years, this was the standard of communications.....and if you had the pushbutton version....You really were ahead of the power curve.  When "Ma Bell" was broken up in 1984 and all the smaller telephones companies had to start competing for the customers, innovation finally started, we quickly went to bag phones and pagers and the early analog cell phones to the smart phones of today.  this wouldn't have been possible if the phone/communications system is operated as a monopoly under the auspices of FEDGOV.  Bureaucrats despise changes....it disturbs their orderly little world.  And if the government can control the internet, they can in the name of "public good" censure content and if there is anything bad that the government doesn't approve of....guess what...nobody will find out.   Right now on the internet, you can find out news and other things quickly.  Right now we have the MSM having a love affair with the Obama regime, if you had to rely on them for news, you would find the news very favorable to "Dear Leader" and his cronies. 

    I also will tie this is

While most of us will agree that several outlets are clearly propaganda for the current regime, there is some visible free press demonstrated. Sharyl Attkisson at CBS comes to mind.
Ajit Pai, commissioner at the FCC, recently wrote that while different new organizations cover different news they believe to be important and may give their particular spin on it, "everyone should agree on this: The government has no place pressuring media organizations into covering certain stories."
Pai went on to report at the Wall Street Journal:

Unfortunately, the Federal Communications Commission, where I am a commissioner, does not agree. Last May the FCC proposed an initiative to thrust the federal government into newsrooms across the country. With its "Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs," or CIN, the agency plans to send researchers to grill reporters, editors and station owners about how they decide which stories to run. A field test in Columbia, S.C., is scheduled to begin this spring.

The purpose of the CIN, according to the FCC, is to ferret out information from television and radio broadcasters about "the process by which stories are selected" and how often stations cover "critical information needs," along with "perceived station bias" and "perceived responsiveness to underserved populations."

…

The FCC also wants to wade into office politics. One question for reporters is: "Have you ever suggested coverage of what you consider a story with critical information for your customers that was rejected by management?" Follow-up questions ask for specifics about how editorial discretion is exercised, as well as the reasoning behind the decisions.

In other words, it's about "pressuring media organizations into covering certain stories." However, it's not just about covering certain stories, but the way in which they are covered, ie. Propaganda.

The ACLJ's Matthew Clark agrees. "That's right, the Obama Administration has developed a formula of what it believes the free press should cover, and it is going to send government monitors into newsrooms across America to stand over the shoulders of the press as they make editorial decisions," he wrote.However, that is not the only issue. While newsrooms are spoken of, the undeniable road this will go on is to newspapers and inevitably bloggers will be affected.