Clancy Movie Here, Georgia 150 Years Late March 18, 2009

Look For This Movie:  You always hear on tv about how parents are looking for family entertainment.  It’s funny because many of the big budget, blockbuster films are not necessarily intended for the whole family.  But, in recent years there have been a number of animated films and more traditional films that have been quite good and entertaining and have made quite a bit of money.  As my daughter has grown up, we’ve gone to a bunch of movies and I really liked most of them even though they weren’t necessarily for me. Then of course, Snow White likes to go to “nice” movies.  She made me go see Garfield because he reminds her of my fattest of cats.  We recently went to see Hotel For Dogs, which was cute.  A couple of years ago, we went to The Nativity Story and the show was jam packed.  That was not long after The Passion of the Christ which apparently no big studio would touch as they felt that “Christian” films wouldn’t do well.  Mel Gibson did it himself and I think that the movie grossed something like $1 billion worldwide.  So, there is a market for family films and also the public does not seem to be repelled by movies with a Christian theme. 

Christina Dawn Fougnie

Kelly’s Filmworks is a small, local, independent production company.  It previously released The Perfect Stranger and a sequel, Another Perfect Stranger.  Trinity Broadcasting liked it so much that it commissioned Kelly’s Filmworks to do a series based on the movie.  I found out that the original screenplay was based on a book by a guy who went to my high school in Houston and whom knew my sister.   Now, Kelly’s Filmworks has come out with Clancy, starring Christina Dawn Fougnie and Jefferson Moore, who also wrote and directed the film.  It is a nice family oriented story that is about the bonding of a little girl from a troubled home and a Gulf War vet with a troubled life.  It’s got a limited release at this point but the company recently announced that negotiations are in the works with other distributors.  It will be running through this weekend in about a dozen markets, including Louisville at the Village 8 Theatres.  It’s worth a looksee.  I’m not a movie critic, but I did hear one person who saw it say that they liked it better than Slumdog Millionaire.  For me, the credits were the best I have ever seen because not only was my name at the end as the Meteorologist, but also they spelled my name right!  If the movie is not playing in your area now, keep an eye out for it in the future.

Georgia Stayed Quiet For 150 Years

Bill of Rights Sans 3 States

On This Date in History: 

When the Constitution was written, members of the Constitutional Convention were more concerned with how to create a central government with some teeth and balancing that with the sovereignty of individual states.  The rights of the people was not at the top of their list of things to do, especially since most states already had such provisions.  That created a battle during the ratification process.  By May 1788, only 9 states had ratified the Constitution.  Two of the holdouts were key.  Virginia and New York were both the most populous and wealthy of all of the colonies and without them, there was no need of even trying to create a nation.  In June, Virginia narrowly ratified the Constitution and New York followed suit in July.  But, there was a bit of a hitch.  Both states ratified the Constitution with the recommendation that a Bill of Rights be adopted.  So, if your two biggest guys say the same thing, it’s probably a pretty good idea for everyone else to go along.

Georgia Just 150 Years Behind

On March 4, 1789 Congress convened for the first time with 11 states with representation.  North Carolina and Rhode Island still had not ratified the document.  James Madison led the charge for the first order of business which was a Bill of Rights.  Originally, there were 12 amendments that provided for individual freedoms and property rights for all citizens of the United States.  By the middle of 1789, the two holdouts ratified the Constitution and so the amendments put forth would require 10 of the 13 states (3/4 required) of the states to ratify the amendments.  On December 15, 1791 ten amendments were ratified and the Bill of Rights became the law of the land. 

Here’s the rub….only 10 states originally ratified the Bill of Rights.  Virginia was the last to do so on December 15, 1791.  But, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Georgia were not convinced the amendments were necessary.  It was on this date in 1939 the Georgia decided that it may be time to join the team and the Peach State ratified the Bill of Rights, 150 years after the first Congress convened.  Massachusetts knuckled under two weeks before and Connecticut didn’t want to be the last hardhead and so a month later, it too ratified the Bill of Rights…150 years after it was first drafted.

SPC Outlook Mar 18, 2009 to March 19, 2009

Weather Bottom Line: The forecast is on track.  Mid to perhaps even upper 70′s on Wednesday and getting a little windy.  Cold front Wednesday night will bring rain and some thunderstorms late night into early Thursday morning.  There hasn’t been much time to load up the atmosphere so the risk  of strong storms is pretty minimal.  Not totally out of the question for the SPC to issue a slight risk area but, if they do, it would probably be west of our area and also would be for more elevated storms producing hail and gusty winds.  Cooler, but not really cold following the front with highs in the 50′s then 60′s for the weekend with some clouds.

  DAY 2 CONVECTIVE OUTLOOK 
   NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
   1155 AM CDT TUE MAR 17 2009
  
   VALID 181200Z – 191200Z
  
   …NO SVR TSTM AREAS FORECAST…
  
   …SYNOPSIS…
   UPR TROUGH CURRENTLY EVOLVING ACROSS THE NRN PLNS/CNTRL CANADIAN
   PRAIRIES WILL AMPLIFY AS IT CONTINUES ACROSS ERN CANADA AND THE
   GRTLKS/MIDWEST ON WEDNESDAY.  ASSOCD CDFNT WILL MOVE S/SEWD INTO NEW
   ENGLAND…MIDWEST…OH VLY AND THE SRN PLNS THROUGH THE DAY AND BE
   THE FOCUS FOR CONVECTION.
  
   …OZARKS NEWD INTO THE MIDWEST…
   THOUGH SFC DEW POINTS HAVE BEEN RECOVERING ACROSS THE REGION…MOIST
   LAYER IS QUITE SHALLOW AND SHOULD REMAIN THAT WAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY.
    WHILE THIS WILL LIMIT OVERALL INSTABILITY…LAPSE RATES WILL REMAIN
   QUITE STEEP AND AS MODEST COLUMN MOISTENING OCCURS ASSOCD WITH THE
   ARRIVAL OF THE UPR WAVE…BANDS OF SHOWERS/TSTMS WILL DEVELOP
   ALONG/BEHIND THE FRONT.  IN ADDITION TO THE LIMITED BUOYANCY…
   VERTICAL SHEAR WILL BE WEAK WITH ONLY WEAKLY ORGANIZED STORMS
   EXPECTED AT BEST.  THE STRONGER UPDRAFTS MAY YIELD MARGINALLY SVR
   HAIL/GUSTY WINDS FROM PARTS OF WRN IND SWWD INTO THE OZARK PLATEAU
   LATE WEDNESDAY AFTN AND EARLY EVENING.
  
   …S FL…
   MODIFIED S ATLANTIC BOUNDARY LAYER…EXHIBITING WEAK LAPSE
   RATES/MINIMAL INSTABILITY WILL BE MAINTAINED ACROSS S FL ON
   WEDNESDAY.  SCTD DIURNALLY-ENHANCED SHOWERS AND TSTMS WILL BE
   POSSIBLE WITHIN THIS REGIME…BUT STORMS WILL REMAIN SUB-SVR.
  
   ..RACY.. 03/17/2009

Did Bill Ayers Write Obama’s Book? Is Palin Really a Tax Raiser? Did Mars Attack? October 30, 2008

A MARTIAN INVASION!!!!

The weather turned out as expected. The winds were sufficient to keep the mercury from falling too far on Wednesday morning. The low in Louisville at the airport was 34 and the NWS office was 32. Other areas were similar with many around the freezing mark, a few in the uper 20′s and the cooperative observer at Bradfordsville in the extreme Southeastern part of the viewing area getting down to 24, which seems rather odd but other nearby places around Campbellsviille being 26. I guess the wind wasn’t as strong there. A frosty start Thursday will mark the end of the chilly conditions. We’ll have an inversion over us on Thursday afternoon so the highs will be in the low 60′s but we jump to the upper 60′s and low 70′s for Halloween and that type of regime will continue through the weekend. No rain in sight until the middle of next week.

Louisville's Christina Fougnie Stars in Clancy

Shot In Metro Louisville

Local Movie of Note: Snow White and I had dinner with Jefferson and Kelly Moore the other night. Jefferson Moore is a local actor who, with his wife, have formed a production company. They have made two films that have done quite well world-wide on video and it was adapted into a tv series. It’s called The Perfect Stranger and the two movies are available in Blockbuster or directly from Kellyfilmworks. The movies and series were shot in the Louisville Metro Area with much of the cast being local talent. Coming next is Clancy which is a very heartwarming story. It too was filmed in the Louisville Metro Area and you may recognize some of the cast, including the star, 12-year-old Christina Fougnie. They are working on distribution and it may be in a theatre near you or on TV in the near future. But, if you CLICK HERE you can get a sneak preview. It’s a good flick for the whole family and, while it is quite uplifting, it’s not something that will send the community into hair-raising pandemonium like

Orson Welles did On This Date In History:

A Vicious Invader?

The Martians Invaded on this date in 1938…at least that’s what millions of Americans thought. A young 23 year old radio man named Orson Welles presented a show on CBS radio. He began by saying it was an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. It began at 8 pm. But a whole bunch of people were listening to Edgar Bergen and his dummy, Charlie McCarthy on NBC. Bergen’s routine ended at 8:12 and many switched to CBS. By then the radio-play was already going so they missed the opening disclaimer. Welles’ production had some sort of regular sounding broadcast with a weather report followed by some cheesy music that went on for some time before a reporter broke in with a report (I don’t think they called it “breaking news” then) and he said there were explosions on Mars. Then more music followed by another break in with a hysterical “reporter” describing ugly Martians getting into large machines that rose out of the ground with long tentacles. It reported that the machines fired heat rays and destroyed a national guard unit, dropped deadly gas bombs and they were destroying everything.

People thought it was real. Some went bananas and jammed the highways looking to get out of

Orson So Good He Caused Mayhem

town. CBS had Welles break in and remind everyone it was fiction, but no one listened. The panic was on. Reports of suicides came in but there was no confirmation. Congress naturally had to investigate and found nothing was wrong. Welles thought his career was over. Instead, he got a cinematic contract which led to his production of Citizen Kane which has regularly topped the list as the best movie ever made.

Like Welles, sometimes we create the worst in our mind when, in fact, the best is just around the corner. If you are discouraged or feeling that you’ve made a terrible mistake, keep your head up. You don’t know what the future holds and today’s set back may just be the foundation for tomorrow’s success.

Political Tidbits worth reading:

Used a Ghost Writer?

The weather is quiet so I’m taking the opportunity to bring up a couple of questions posed by some writers of such things. Just some items to consider.

Senator Obama wrote a memoir Dreams From My Father. It has been well received by critics. However, this writer raises the question of who wrote Dreams From My Father? He presents evidence and a point of view that Senator Obama could not have written it and suggests that none other than Bill Ayers wrote it.

Here is the article-decide if the writer Jack Cashill makes his case.

Governor Sarah Palin has run on a record of standing up to the oil companies. She is

Raised Taxes and Cut Hockey?

running on a platform of cutting taxes. The top part of her ticket, Senator McCain, has been charged with wanting to cut corporate taxes. Yet, Governor Palin raised taxes on oil production in her state. This writer raises the question is Sarah Palin a tax cutter? The article suggests that not only did she raise taxes, but did so when the state was running a budget surplus of over a billion dollars and that, in spite of the budget surplus and projected overwhelming growth of tax revenue, she cut some programs…including funding for a local hockey association…by a “hockey mom.”

Here is the article by Alison Fitzgerald-decide if she made her case

I put these types of things in here from time to time because it seems to me that we hear all of these things on TV in commercials and speeches but really don’t get the details or in depth analysis. It makes it difficult to figure out what is truth, what is spin and what is total fabrication. I short, it is my view that the media has done a poor job in providing information to the public concerning this election. These two articles just seem to touch on some issues that may provide some things to consider.