Today's Tids Issue 3005
Opening Stuff:

You know you're in a special place when outside the Hotel Entrance you find a rack of snow shoes to help you reach your car!

It was announced this morning that Target's data breach affected more than 70,000,000 and that the data stolen went far beyond what was originally reported, including not only card numbers and expiration dates, but names and addresses...and more. You have to wonder if Target was minimizing the truth in the days before Christmas to avoid rupturing a fast sales finish?

Next week begins profit watch, and early indicators are not particularly rosy, where a large number of big companies are issuing warnings. For Investors, the big worry is how, if  it occurs, a bad three weeks of earnings reports will affect the markets for 2014. But of course, the woeful are always heard loudest, especially when nobody has a clue...which is generally the case these days with the stock market. I'm sitting and waiting.

The Question:
Name 5 Coen Brothers movies.

The Headlines:
--300,000 In Charleston WVa Area Advised Not To use Water After Chemical Spill.
--Economy Only Adds 74,000 Jobs In December; Number is significantly below forecast of 200K+; Economists Also Say New Lower Unemployment Number Is Result Of More People Ceasing To Search For Jobs.
--Target Breaks More Bad News.
--Falluja Citizens Flee Feared Iraq Army Assault.
--al-Qaida Group Fights Off Syria Rebel Attack
--Hillary Loving Media Delighting In Christie Misfortune; Conservative Repubs Delighting In Christie Misfortune.
--Jersey Legislature Planning On Releasing 1,000 New Pages Of Data On Bridge Closing.
--India Orders US To Withdraw One Diplomat As Dispute Continues.
--Sears Entering Death Spiral; Could Be Gone by 2017; Former Strongholds, Craftsman and Kenmore Lead The Way In Declining Sales Sectors.

The Christie thing further focuses the national spotlight on the rise of retribution in politics and government. For instance, up here in RI the Leadership of the City of Cranston Police union ordered their members to take aggressive ticketing action against citizens in city areas represented by councilmen who supported reduced pensions and other necessary reformations of the system. And then  there is the biggie, where somebody in the USA WH Admin ordered the IRS to make life difficult for Tea party members. You just can't have a democracy that becomes a mafia, taking harmful action against opponents. That's what Kim Jung-un does.

It is entirely embarrassing when you complain to a casino management that their "Awards" card isn't working, only to learn that you've been using your hotel Key card. And, it is equally painful when the bellhop rushes to help you open your door only to find the Casino "Rewards" card in your hand.

A good reader adds to to our list Wednesday of most despised expression, words and phrases that must be banned: "When you say Thank You, and the the person replies 'No Problem'!" Some observers say the reason that Downton Abbey is so popular is that so many people are starving for a return to order and civility.

The NFL's great weekend is upon us. Superbowl has the hype and glitz, but this is the weekend of gritz -- eight teams in an all out effort to stay in the game. This weekend we have quite the array of great QB's, veteran and hot newcomers. Any of them is capable of winning it all. Last week I was 0-4 because I went entirely with my heart. Ok. I like Russ Wilson of Seattle a lot. Seattle defense has been superior most of the year. They are at home. Peyton and Brees know how to win. But Pete Carroll will cheer on mightily his team to victory. Denver is the media team because Peyton has been and continues to make them drool. But, I'm picking the Chargers, with their quiet intensity, Danny Woodhead and Phil Rivers. I think that Carolina/SF will be a real war, with two of the best running QB's in the league. I like the emergence of Newton this year, and I think Kaepernick has taken a step backwards (Though always a threat). Both "D's" are real tough.  Can I say tie?  Carolina is the "Find-a-way" team and is at home. Up here it looks like a rainy night, but with warmer temps. New England is like a skeleton with rattlin' bones, and little flesh to stop opposition. Indy's defense is lackluster except for Mathis.  Luck knows how to win, but I have this feeling deep inside that says Belichick will pull one out of the fire...with a little help from Brady and another emerging face in the unknown receiver core. So that's it, Chargers, Panthers, Seahawks and Patriots.

You have to worry about a hotel that has emergency flashlights in each room.

It seems more and more that young college grads are gravitating towards companies and  careers related to Energy. Actually, my first job out of college over 50 years ago was with an Energy company -- Westinghouse Electric.!
( Which at the time was the 15th largest company in the world). Think about it, energy has always been paramount to society, for warmth at first, and also over time for more sophisticated techniques to power what ever needed to be powered. Oh yeah, and fifty years ago the main concern of Westinghouse Management was developing "Energy alternatives". Nothing is ever really knew under the sun. Oh yeah, and fifty years ago Westinghouse was working on energy sources that are still considered power sources of the future --- just in case you are looking for some thing magical.

It seems to me that there are so many different ways to report employment/jobless/job growth numbers, that even the best economists are having trouble understanding which they should believe.

One of the only good things about the socialist takeover of the Northeast US  is that companies are moving out to greener pastures in sensible rational states, meaning that some of the beauty of our magnificent natural region will remain untouched by developers and corporate spread. Unless of course, Public Employee Unions build lavish greenfield campuses. 

Today we will review a host of "Critically Acclaimed" movies. Critically Acclaimes? Yesterday I heard on the radio the Film Critics of New Yorker magazine and the NY Times trying to outdo each other describing American Hustle. It was the very definition of eloquent BS. I thought AH was but a fair movie, sleep inducing dullness at times. I guess I'm just not an intellectual. So I warn you, that too often critics fall in love with themes and acting as opposed to whether or not the film is worth the time to watch. Today's RBTLMR films are about War heroes, Dysfunctional families, Weird Love and Depressed lonely losers. Which two do you think they liked best?

Reading Between The  Lines Movie Reviews:
--Lone Survivor is being touted as one of the if not the best ever War movie. Wahlberg has away of delivering unique portrayals of gritty winners over insurmountable odds. This is a true story about Seals in Afghan. To warn you about how it may get to you, NE Pats Coach Belichick took the team to see it and they all left, hulking tough guys, tears in eyes. Belichick, the stone, admitted that he had seen it twice and it got to him both times.
--Her is a weird little romantic story about a guy who falls in love with a computer. It's hard to explain. It is well done, and may be worth it for curiosity sake. It will probably make you smile pleasantly at times...when you aren't scratching your head in disbelief.
--I guarantee you I will not be seeing August: Osage Country. It's about dysfunctional family confrontation. A reviewer says it could have been named: "Death of a Long Day's Journey onto Virginia Woolfs Streetcar." The main household consists of a Mother on drugs and drink becasue of oral cancer, an alcoholic poet father, and native American caretaker. Dad kills himself. Three daughters arrive with mates and kids to sort it out. It's not that good.
--In "Kill Your Darlings" Daniel Radcliffe plays 18 year old beat poet Allen Ginsburg, showing his transformation from naive 40's kid into raging poet thoroughly radicalized at Columbia U. This is one for progressives who like to belittle and ridicule the beliefs of those who were raised in the forties and fifties. Your Choice.
--Inside Llewyn Davis is a movie I might eventually see, mainly because it is a Coen Brothers film and is a celebration of Folk singers, which I enjoy. It is well done, humorous and tragic.with good music.

The Answer:
Fargo is one of my favorite all-time movies. I saw Blood Simple years ago, and looking back it was like the TV Pilot for "Justified". Others are the Big Lebowsky, O Brother, Where art Thou, No Country For Old Men, Burn After Reading, True Grit, Raising Arizona, Barton Fink and Millers Crossing.

Scared?
I really worry about a lot that's going on today, and a lot of what a lot of people think as incrdulaous many others think as excellent. Rolling Stone Magazine wrote a story about five things young people should want and should be fighting for. The reaction was very positive by more people than you might expect and for me and others very hard to understand or even comprehend. The five were: Guaranteed Jobs for All. Social Security For All. Take back all land from Owners. Make everything owned, owned by everybody. A public Bank In every state. No real pressuring responsibility with an abundance of time for fun is the new mantra according to the article..maybe written in Colorado?.

Happy Weekend E-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y!

They're out there.