How dare you. How dare I not.

Forty-niners quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, is getting a lot of negative attention for his recent choice to take a stand by not standing for the National Anthem because in his opinion racism in the US is still a problem. Well, folks Mr. Kaepernick, has a point, racism is still a thing in the US. While his protest has generated a lot of talk very little of it is in the right direction, of addressing the issue of racism. So you might say that his protest failed. But has it really failed. The sit ins of the civil rights movement did not change things dramatically over night, it took years before meaningful legislation was passed and enforcement of those laws occurred. The same is true for any social change. Certainly Colin hit a nerve with many people but most people do not even think about the meaning of standing up for the national anthem it is a reflex and little to no thought is put into why we stand, it is just something we do. There is not anything particularly patriotic about most sporting events, and they are usually not political events by any measure. Playing the national anthem at the beginning of sporting contests isn’t necessary nor is it required by any law. Somehow it has worked into the fabric of sporting events, and graduations, and other things where someone thinks it should happen as a matter of national pride or some other political gesturing. There is no law that requires the national anthem to be performed at any time, there are some rules regarding how to behave during the playing of the national anthem but these are “should” rather than “shall” making them optional or the preferred means to show “respect” but are not required (unless on a military base, installation, or ship). I put respect in quotes because you can fake respect for anything by doing what is “expected” of you without having any respect for the action. Which is worse; not doing what is expected or faking the respect, that is a question for another discussion. So while you may disagree with the protest and that is your right, Mr. Kaepernick has the right to protest peacefully if he chooses even if you don’t like how he has chosen to protest. Personally I think that all the people who have hung their flags upside down during President Obama’s administration are doing something disrespectful and I don’t agree with their form of protest, but they have the right to protest in that manner, even if I don’t like it. One of the things that is truly great about the US is that we have the right to protest governmental and social wrong doing. Not everyone is going to agree with the means of protesting or with the issue that is being protested. While it may seem hypocritical for an overpaid adult playing a game to say things are not fair for some folks in the US, there is no requirement that you must be part of the oppressed group, or you must be subjected to the unfairness, to say things are not right. It wasn’t all women saying women should have the vote, it wasn’t all black people saying that basic civil rights needed to be law. Pick any social issue where a group is treated unfairly by the government / social system and the people protesting the unfair treatment, are not all in the group which is oppressed or treated unfairly. Like most protests the message is lost in the rhetoric of the unrelated issues, so if you want to hate Mr. Kaepernick, okay you can, if you want to burn his jersey, you can probably do that too, you may want to have a hose ready though, fire can be dangerous. You can even refuse to go see 49ers football or watch the games on TV. You can even ask that he be fired, fined or traded. You can do all of those things, but he can still protest by not standing for the national anthem. I served this country in the armed forces to protect everyone’s rights, not just those people who think like I do. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015, Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards

Vroom, vroom...

DCU v. MCU Not really a review of Suicide Squad. Movies are bigger than ever and they are promoted so much that they hype usually out performs the movies. I say usually because there are times when a movie overshadows the hype. Comic Book film genre is not going anywhere anytime soon. The movies make money and allow the studios to make other films and not just the comic book genre DC comic Universe (DCU) cannot seem to get the universe series of characters off the ground as well as Marvel Comic Universe (MCU). DC has been happy to just keep their characters in their own realms rather than bring them together. Batman has had very good success and to a much lesser extent Superman has had good first movies without a strong follow up film. Marvel has been building the all characters tie in to a single universe since Iron Man in 2008. The DC film Man of Steel 2013 and Henry Cavill which was more a relaunching of another attempt at the Superman as film star and possibly series. However, I’m not sure that the story in Man of Steel was written with the intention of Universe building for DC but it is now the beginning of the DCU Films and from where all of DC’s characters will interact in the way Marvel has been doing since Iron Man in 2008. While the Marvel movies seem to be homeruns most of the time, DC movies seem to be okay too good with not as many people saying they are great films. For example, DCU film Batman v. Superman = good against MCU Civil War = great. Batman v. Superman got a lot of bad press with Ben Affleck as Batman. I think Ben did a fabulous job as the Dark Knight but the story got all jumbled with too much stuff going on and Jesse Eisenburg’s Lex Luthor was just bad and he is a better actor so you have to blame the director and writers for that mess. Overall thought BvS was a good film not great but good. Suicide Squad is the next chapter of the DCU building the film world series. A lot of things have worked against this film. One is the already mentioned is over hyping of movies for this one it was over a year and it seems that is becoming the norm and it should stop. The Joker. No matter who tried to fill the shoes of the Joker after Heath Ledger was going to suffer harsh reviews. Heath really just nailed the character and competing with a ghost is impossible. Jared’s Joker is not bad but it isn’t great. In defense of this version of the Joker he isn’t in the movie a lot but enough to get a sense of character and I wish there had been more story devoted to the Joker but there wasn’t. As to other characters; Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn was nearly great, as was Viola Davis as Amanda Waller. Will Smith was respectable as Deadshot, Jared Leto was solid as the Joker but again not Heath’s Joker, then the cast goes down from there which has more to do with a story that is all over the place and less to do with actors and their abilities. The big problem DC seems to have with their films is clutter and bad guys which don’t make much sense. The Christian Bale Batman Trilogy excluded from that statement as the exception. DC should use that model moving forward with their universe and upcoming films. Bad guys who are a large enough threat but in a realistically understandable way and not this planet crushing thing with five other subplots that they seem to want to do in every film that is not just Batman stand alone series. Man of Steel there are the Terraforming machines killing the earth and other stuff BvS you have Doomsday trying to kill the earth and a lot of other stuff Suicide Squad has the same type of thing going on. Obviously this is not working for you DC, go back to what Christopher Nolan did in his Batman Trilogy. Have a single villain or problem and not so huge a problem that the entire world is going to end, one large city is big enough it keeps a scale that is managed and interesting for the viewer. Overall I liked Suicide Squad and it had really good scenes but the scenes were not really tied together well enough to have a sense of this is where things are headed. The movie was like oh that was cool, filler, that was cool too, filler, cool back story, filler, that was cool and on it went. There is a clip of things to come midway through the credits so stay if you like those. Hopefully Wonder Woman will be better and the Justice League will be as well. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards

What's up doc ...

One summer my grandfather (maternal) taught me and my brother how to make a box trap. It isn’t really complicated and we already had the general idea from the coyote and road runner cartoons. We stayed several summers with the grandparents when were little kids, and then we ended up moving into the house next to them at some point. So I had the idea that I was going to catch a rabbit during one of the summers, I’m not sure when the brother became a part of the plan but that happened along the way. One of those you need to include your brother things that adults say so they don’t have to watch kids in more than one place. It wasn’t that I was actively trying to exclude my brother, it just never occurred to me to include him in the plan either. The first plan was not a very good one and I could shift it to the brother for having the bad idea but it was my bad idea and I’m willing to own it. I thought if I was quick enough I could catch the rabbit with my bare hands…indeed, alcohol did not always play into my delusions of cat like reflexes. My brother had similar faith in his rabbit catching abilities and even felt he would out do me in the number of rabbits he could catch. The key was to be really quiet and ready to run at any moment. Silly as this plan sounds it nearly worked, if you count nearly working as chasing a rabbit in a yard like a mad person for 20 seconds before it disappeared into brush. The rabbit was nowhere near being caught at any moment but it seemed like that plan was almost perfected and we kept at it. The running rabbit maneuver happened several times, for more than a single day too. I think the rabbits were having lots of fun and were making it a game on their side as well. Get the human to chase you, the one who stays out the longest gets first dibs on the new carrots. Our grandmother didn’t care that we were chasing rabbits and didn’t concern herself that our confidence in our abilities would land a rabbit or more at any time. She was certain that chasing rabbits would make us sleep well. Which was pretty true. Well after a few days of foot chasing rabbits, we netted a sum total of, no rabbits. Our grandfather decided it was time to teach us how to make a box trap. We even learned two triggers for the box trap; active and passive. The passive one is when the bait is fixed to the trigger and you leave and come back and check the box every now and then. If it is sprung there may be a rabbit under the box or not. Usually it was the wind that knocked over the box and there was no rabbit. The active trigger was a stick with a string tied to it and you laid in wait holding the length of string, poised to pull the trigger as the rabbit went under the box. The trick here was not falling asleep and or being able to pull the string fast enough so the box dropped quickly. The key here was putting the bait near the small angle end of the propped box, so even if you weren’t really quick you still were likely to catch whatever was eating the bait. The trap I’m sure would have worked but the rabbits decided that since the odds were now in our favor and not the other way around, as with the foot method, they quit playing. I laid for hours watching that box hoping for a rabbit to wander in, but it never happened. Still probably some of the best fun that I had as a kid and maybe the least dangerous but those are tales for another time. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards

Father's Day

With Father’s Day approaching soon-ish… I find myself as I have for the last decade fatherless, yet I am a father. So it is a happy and a sad time for me. I love my children but also mourn the loss of my father. My being a father is a much different “father” than one path on my life would have led me to as an ordained priest in the Catholic Church. For those of you who don’t know… once upon a time, I was in the seminary but left long before the priesthood became a reality. I did, however become a father of children, who share half of my genetic material, and I wear a lot of black clothing. I can say that my daughter and my son, are without a doubt or any equivocation, the best contribution I have made to world. My children are simply the ultimate joy in my life. I am proud of them beyond any word can express. They are unique in the world and the first and last people I think about every single day since they have been born. While those words may seem trite or over used, I mean them sincerely, I have no disillusions about who they are as people. They have each made mistakes, along with many successes. As to the mistakes I wish they had not made them but who has not made mistakes. I have certainly made my share of them. To me they are better people because they have taken missteps and learned from them and moved on. My daughter and son are courageous and beautiful, intelligent and whimsical, daring and reserved and so much more. They are simply the people I love the most in the world. There is a Hebrew saying, “The child remembers what the parent wishes to forget.” I have made missteps as a father, just as my father had his own missteps…not one of us can look back on the action of all of our days and not find fault, we can only hope that those days a few and that we can be forgiven for any mistakes we have made. I am no different than anyone and know that I am not perfect, I tried my best to be best father I knew how to be, and there were times when I fell far short of that mark and wish with all my heart to have the opportunity to do things differently and not make the mistakes I made. However, hoping and wishing cannot change what has already happened, we can only learn from our mistakes and try not to make them again. I know now, as a father, that my father certainly felt the same. We did not always see, eye to eye and there were many a harsh word pass between us. I would give anything the change that truth but it is not possible The last words I spoke with my father were words of love after a period of turmoil between us. I am happy that he did not leave the world with a burden that I am glad I do not have to bear. If I thought my father had left this world thinking that I did not love him, would have been a terrible thing to live with and I am sad to say was almost a reality. However, we had made our peace but all too soon after he was gone. My children are adults now and on their own journey, I tell them as often as I can, without being too annoying, that I love them with all my heart. They have given me the best thing any child can give a person and that is the opportunity to be a parent, without my daughter and my son I would just be this guy who did a bunch of stuff that didn’t really matter but because of them I am a Dad and to me there isn’t anything better that I can be. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards

What do you do for money...

There seems to be an uproar about changing our money because they may or may not pull Andrew Jackson off the twenty dollar note and replace him with Harriet Tubman. First who gives a fig? Seriously, there are more important things in your life, let alone the world for anyone to give more than a passing thought to this. Even this is time possibly ill spent. Secondly, if you do find it to be a concern to you, ask yourself a few questions. Will make the bill worth less, in the economy not for some esthetic reason you have in your mind. Will you be paid less money because of the change in how the money looks? Do you work for the Treasury Department? If you have answered no to all those questions, not including the esthetic reasons, then you should probably find some other thing to concern yourself with and no I don’t think what restroom transgendered people are using qualifies as a better place to focus your concern. If you want to be pissed off about something in the economy, specifically the treasury. How about the millions the US government wastes on making one cent coinage, there is something to come up in arms about… well maybe not guns but certainly protest worthy, writing your representatives about kinds of action. The penny is a waste of money, time and it does not facilitate use in the economy. The five and ten cent coins should also be killed off as well but that isn’t the point today. Another thing bills are not practical as currency. The guy on the twenty dollar note which many seem to be so fond of keeping on the twenty dollar note, thought that paper currency was not a good idea. So let’s put him on paper money as a way to remember his Presidency? From what I read he would have rather had a whiskey named after him or a casino … as in he drank and gambled …like a lot, no I mean a lot. As in Jackson lost some stuff in the White House on a bet drinking and gambling. Not sure if he is the guy we want on any money really. Jackson wasn’t such a fan of banking either and felt the power of banks should be very limited and not centralized or be involved in politics. In fact, Jackson made it a personal mission to ruin, not just professionally but on a personal level too, one banker because of his involvement in, what he believed to be corruption. Which may have been misuse of presidential power and in which Jackson was censured by Congress as well. The only President to have that happen. If you want to honor Jackson as President, fighting to dismantle the mega banks would be a better place to start than arguing about if he is on money or not and again a type of money he didn’t like at all. The thing is, while we haven’t seen much change in what our money looks like in the last two generations there have been a lot of changes to our money. Like adding the words, “in god we trust” in the 1950’s. We have had all kinds of things on paper money and coins which are not presidents. Even today the Ten and the One Hundred both have non presidents on the notes. Hamilton was a secretary of the treasury and Franklin was …well was Franklin but never a President. We’ve had Greek gods on the money, buffalo, women, other animals, buildings, and whatever else you like to put on money it’s been on there. Just because we haven’t seen much of it in our lives doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened. Harriet Tubman was kind of an awesome person, not that she was any less or more awesome than Andrew Jackson but a very interesting person in our history as a nation. The bottom line is that it doesn’t matter whose face is on the money it will still spend the same. Putting Harriet Tubman on the twenty no more disrespects Andrew Jackson, than putting him on the money which he would have objected to in the first place. Why not honor more people than just the select few who become President? Seems like we would be better than this. Find something worthwhile to be pissed off about or better yet a reason to smile Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards

National Sibling Day

National Sibling Day As an older sibling with younger siblings, on National Sibling day I suppose it is time to say that younger siblings don’t really understand or appreciate all that we, older siblings, did for them. Yes, little bothers and shit-sters, no those aren’t misspellings, that includes all the rough handling at times too, these were important life lessons, we can’t help it if you needed remedial lessons to pick up what we were putting down. As the older sibling we were the trailblazers who molded the parents to the easier going much more pliable people you grew up with. It was our blood, sweat and tears that made your life what it was as much as it was our parents efforts. Our trial and errors were met with stern unyielding sentencing and uncompassionate punishments; where as your adventures were met with compromise and fair negotiations and probation or even nolle prosequi at the bench of parental authority We seasoned and tempered the parents from bumbling inept and oft times clueless simpletons to the full of reason, good advice giving, folksy people you know as mum and dad. Think back to these happy days of your youth and I’m sure can recall the exasperated sighs, confused looks, and trudging away by your older sibling. This was because the jailer and warden, AKA mom and dad to you, had just let you off with some reasonable punishment or none at all for something if had we done it would have landed us in solitary confinement, AKA grounded, for many a moon, or the speech before the lashings, this hurts me more than it hurts you; pretty sure heart hurt, feels much different than spankings… just saying. So younger sibs, your fond memories of fair and understanding, even compassionate parents is due largely to our efforts. However, as mom and dad, would not clue you into the harsh realities of life and the world, we felt obligated, compelled even, to pick up their slack and prepare you for life. Which, we know you did not appreciate because you would report us to the authorities and of course we were punished as you should have been for your prior transgressions. Come to think of it we were probably punished for your screw ups more times than we can remember. However even then, when we were placed on the rack or locked away, we were showing you that there is a harsh world out there and if you don’t toe the line there will be pain. So you learned, from all of our missteps. We aren’t saying, that mom and dad didn’t do their part in raising you but we were the real artist who sculpted them. We didn’t just stop with the parents. We also didn’t let anyone else kill you either, little siblings have an uncanny ability to overload their ass with their mouth which makes other people want to kill them. To which we, older siblings, had to respond, to those who meant you harm, “No, if anyone is going to kick the ever living snot out of this kid, it is going to be me not you”. Pain in our ass you may be, but you were our pain in the ass and come hell and be damned, if we were going to let anyone do our job. So we stood in the way of bullies and punches, kicks and threats. Sometimes you saw this, other times you were clueless that you nearly had your ass beat for some dumb shit you said or did. So if you were confused about some random slap in the head you got, it may have been you needed to know pain, just not from someone else. So on this national sibling’s day, make sure you thank your older sibling for all the effort they put in to make sure your childhood was happy and healthy and try as we might, we didn’t actually kill you. All that said, we are happy now to have brothers and sisters who shared our lives, you were our compatriots in ill-conceived and even more poorly executed plans, to have someone to complain to about life, even if you did rat us out from time to time. We had good times a plenty, adventures in the woods, playgrounds, and parks beyond remembering. While we may not have said it much when you were snot nosed pains in the ass, we loved you then. Here is to all the siblings everywhere, some of the best stories in my life involve you guys. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards

Eye in the Sky -movie

Eye in the Sky not review This is a very intense film which looks at how the industrial world conducts war with drones. In this particular examination the war is against terror, but could easily be substituted with any group and the questions posed would still be relevant. The important thing to keep in mind when watching this film is to listen to the arguments as they are proposed. I don’t know that this film is likely to change the mind of anyone and where they stand on the use of drones. I do think that it does at least start the mental dialogue and perhaps actual discussion of now that these weapons exist how, when, and where, do we use them. They are not going away, they are too valuable and provide real time information so that missions can be adjusted to meet the ever changing circumstances of operations in the field. Yet while the create options there are limitations and with those limitations come dilemmas. With increasing and up to the minute intelligence many questions are answered which allow for better decisions and also ethical and moral dilemmas. There are many questions posed and many dilemmas brought to the scenario without making it seem like a quagmire of what ifs being posed just of the sake of making the arguments. The questions and problems fit to the story and feel like they are realistic for our world today. This film does not pull punches while it is not gory, it is a realistic look at what happens in war. As we become much smaller as a world and allied nations will have common opponents on the world stage and military operations will become and have become combined and with that come other questions of different political and other ideological concerns when it comes to war and warfare. The film explores the combatants in this film who are in very different environments some are in harm’s way in the operational zone and others are not and the face of warfare can be conducted without even being in the same time zone. I do not think the purpose of this film is to direct anyone to a specific point of view but rather to get the people thinking and talking about the modern face of war and peace. Peace is always the better option, no matter what, it is always better to live and let live but we are not always given an option for Peace in the world. All in all, this is a great film, well worth the hour and forty-five minutes. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards