Denzel Washington soars anew in Flight, 2012 Paramount

Wikipedia, in its page 'Aviation Accidents' reports that according to Aircarft Crashes Records Office (ACRO), a non-government organization based in Geneva,  2,179 aeronautical incidents occurred between 1999 and 2011 claiming 17,928 fatalities worldwide. There is an uptrend in annual incidents but some interpret this as a function of the exponential increase in flights. Planecrashinfo.com published the information that the odds of an air mishap is 1 to 29 million. That impresses little comfort. Did you know pilots caused 50% of the accidents while 22% are attributed to mechanical failures?
Air disasters are so delicate materials that you don't see them often as movie subjects. It's a treat when a fine treatment do come along.
Flight narrates a fictional tale of an aeronautical disaster commanded by a druggie on a personal tailspin and the aftermath filled with tortured realization. It is an emotional drama that jolts and surprises, fronted by a thrilling crash sequence, a most satisfying fare for mature audiences.
After a heroic maneuver out of a turbulence, Captain Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington, Oscar Best Actor, Training Day, 2001 Warner Bros.) takes a 'vodka nap'  rudely awakened by the convulsing aircraft on a dead stick. The craft rapidly dives to a deadly pitch until Whip turns the plane upside down, crashes it in a field in an outcome that prevented a bigger death toll. Only 6 are dead of 102 in the manifest. Hugh Lang (Don Cheadle, Oscar best actor nominee for Hotel Rwanda 2004 United Artists), lawyer for the Union and Whip, explains that several pilots simulated the crash and ended up killing everybody on board.
Amidst a media frenzy on the heroic daredevil maneuver, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) conducts its investigation on the circumstances surrounding the incident. Whip presents a cocky version of his participation but deep inside realizes his liability once his problem with substance abuse is explored. Assisted by his dope dispensing crony Harlin Mays (John Goodman,King Ralph 1991 Universal Pictures), Whip hies off to his father's farmhouse to avoid media scrutiny and resolves to rehabilitate himself.
Charlie Anderson (Bruce Greewood, Nowhereman 1995-6 touchtone TV) and Hugh Lang inform Whip that a toxicology report indicated a high level of alcohol and heroine found in his blood and this was going to be investigated. While the duo kept assuring Whip that Lang can sideline and kill the report, it falls short of comfort and Whip slides back into an alcohol and substance binge. Seeking emotional rescue, Whip decides to look up Nicole Maggen (Kelly Reilly, Lake Eden 2008 Weinstein Company) an overdose victim with which he shared a stairwell for a smoke in a hospital. He found her being harassed by her landlord and decides to bring her to the farmhouse. Whip and Nicole develops a relationship that falls apart precipitated by Whip's binges. She decides to leave because of her resolve to reform while he just wants to escape his situation. Again alone, Whip attempts to reconnect with his estrange family, however he is rebuked by his ex-wife and son.
A day before the NTSB hearing, Anderson and Lang corals Whip in a hotel which room is barren of alcohol to prevent him from jeopardizing his position. However, Whip is awakened by a loose door leading to a connecting suit where he discovers an alcohol treasure fridge. He fights with himself in a tug of war for resolve.
In the morning, he is found by Anderson and Lang still in a lethargic stupor over the alcohol binge of the night before. Helpless Anderson and Lang enlist Mays who immediately comes to the emergency. Whip is up and about after a good snort. Everything is fine.
At the hearing, the discussion pointed to an aircraft maintenance failure leading to mechanical fatigue and off the toxicology report on Whip. However, upon raising the probability of one crew member being drunk on the job with three fully consumed miniature bottles of Vodka, Whip is driven by conscience to protect the image of lover and crew member Katerina (Nadine Velasquez, My Name is Earl 2006-9 NBC). He confesses to consuming the alcohol during the flight. The film ends with Whip in a correctional facility being visited by his son.
Flight received so much excellent reviews but failed to register in the Oscar radar. A climate of grit on-screen pervaded non-stop which should have been enough to put  it on the Oscar map. The movie kicks off with a prolonged shot of the breast of Nadine Velasquez against a bedside clock  in a hotel (7:14 in the bedside clock maybe unintended but that's a verse on Chronicles calling for repentance for evil ways). It then segues to the horrifying conditions leading to the crash. The crash aftermath showed the gritty struggle of the main character to recover a life falling apart. Everything culminates to the climactic NTSB hearing where Whip decides to own up.
Robert Zemeckis ( Oscar Best director-Forrest Gump 1994 Paramount) spreads the tension evenly in the main protagonist's search for redemption in a broad mosaic environment of pride, family, death, lovers, corporate politics, failure, success, friends as well as life deranging events in a story by John Gatin (writer Real Steel, 2011 Touchtone). The dialogue feels spontaneous while clearly conveying the arguments, the exchange of Whip and Lang in their first meeting as an example.  Why the picture and director got passed for the Oscars, who knows?
The camera work was great specially in the moments leading to the crash. The tilt while moving the camera up and down the isle of the plane puts the audience in the center of chaos, more acutely when the plane rolled up inverted and hung people upside down to helter shelter. Staging the crash it itself with CGI was effective.
However, truth to tell, I enjoyed the prolonged breast exposure of Nadine at the start more, really. Great work!Great body!
Denzel Washington, meantime, earned the nomination as best actor in the Oscar, which result is still pending. In the Golden Globe, Washington looses to Daniel Day Lewis' portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in the movie with the eponymous title. Washington calibrates effectively the acting to show the conflicting, alternating emotions of hubris and despair without turning the character into a screaming wreck out for sympathy. Kelly Reilly portrays the frail but resolved reforming junkie who hooks up with Whip in the same mood of desperation. Her performance matches the quiet intensity of Washington particularly in the scene her character decides to leave but kept it to herself. James Badge Dale (Rubicon 2010 AMCTV) makes a marked appearance as the fast talking cancer patient with a cavalier life attitude in the smoking stairwell scene. Don Cheadle handled the exasperation of the character with a show of diminishing emotional investment. His eyes disconnect in a scene where before he turns and walks, he tells  Anderson to "Just get him to the church on time". Bruce Greenwood underplays to exact proportion the empathizing but confused colleague. Keeping emotion in check to guide, the character  is resolved to complete his task if not for Whip then for the union. John Goodman turns in another wonderful performance as a good natured dope dispensing druggie that earned him a Golden Globe but not an Oscar. Well in my book, he should have gotten a nomination for Argo(Warner Bros. 2012), Flight and Trouble with the Curve (Warner Bros. 2012).

After seeing this movie, I am not about to fly in the immediate future. But this movie definitely takes off.
It's a ten for me like Bo Derek. Go see it again.

A Splendid Kevin James Movie- Here Comes the Boom. Columbia 2012

You know the thing about ex-Saturday Night Live (SNL) comics who make it to the big screen? They have this penchant for making awkward, out of this world situation movies that they identify as comedy but which clearly escape audiences. Adam Sandler and Will Ferell typifies the genre, visibly inspired  by off the wall comedy segments of Andy Kauffman. However, the Kauffman variety are mere segments and stretching them to movies spell disaster because of limited dimension such as the Blues Brothers by Belushi and Ackroyd; Zohan by Sandler, that Will Ferell thingy and yeah a few from Ben Stiller. Surpringly some made good money, the Fockers as an example, which I thought only Jerry Lewis would like.
It comes as a great relief that comedy is back to normal with Here Comes the Boom.
For my money this is the best Kevin James flick. Written by James with Allan Loeb and Martin Sollibakke, it comments on the American school system then proceeds to take the guise of an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) movie. It works on so many levels- the situation comedy , the visual gags, the story development- although the main plot comes off as a bit of a stretch.

Once teacher of the year turned slacker, Scott Voss undertakes to save the music program of Wilkenson high from being scrapped because of budget cuts. Among the consequences of the scrapping of the music program is the lay off of  his friend Marty (Henry Wrinkler, Happy Days ABC 1974-84) who has a baby coming. His attempt at raising the school funds takes him to a job, teaching American citizen class. There Voss strikes a friendship with Niko (Bas Rutten, UFC Heavy weight, actor The Eliminator 2004 MTI home Videos) who introduces him the UFC where the idea to fight for money germinates. Voss proceeds to take on fights assisted by Marty, Niko and Mark Della Grotte (Pro Muay Thai boxer) to the consternation of principal Becher while continuing to teach biology, additionally, wooing school nurse Bella Flores (Salma Hayek Frida 2002 Miramax) and helping student Malia  (Charice Pempengco, Alvin and Chipmunks: the Squeakquel 2009 20th Century) deal with her father (Reggie Lee, Sgt. Wu of Grimm NBC). He succeeds to reach the UFC in MGM Grand through a participant fall out and endorsement of Joe Rogan. In the end, Voss gets the money and the girl as well as bringing harmony back to Wilkenson.
Frank Coraci again megs James after the Zookeeper, a movie also co- written by James. The story telling is paced just right bereft of lingering scenes that exhaust audience patience. It would be tempting to pan back and forth on the faces of James and Hayek on some scenes but I think Coraci made an effort to unhook the action from too gooey romantic sequences. Visual gags work because of timing and the reaction of real UFC fighters who didn't clown as non actors would do. On top of my list is the fight under the rain where the opponents kept slipping, a real riot. Another was when the the whole cage collapsed under the weight of James.
That scene where Voss is shown throwing up on his opponent seems like out of a Sandler movie and should have been clipped. The joke was set up too long from the car where James eats..whatever it was but doesn't really hook on anything except it was done in a fight. That Marquez punch should have been enough to propel the action.
Phil Meheux captured really nice angles in the fight scenes (better than Rocky) and visual gags. I like the opening shot of the motorcycle careening and weaving through traffic in daredevil speed. The rain fight, the trio against James, the collapsed cage and of course the Voss-Dietrich match are among the many visual gems.
Kevin James is a physical comedian in the mold of Buster Keaton and it stood well that focus of the movie was the action instead of the emotion. The table dance, the dunk mishap, the rain fight really took off.
Salma Hayek as the love interest is no stranger to comedy and action flicks displaying her fluidity in both.  She wrestles James after dinner in one sequence. Greg German (Ally McBeal 1997-2001 Fox) isn't given much to chew on but sufficiently delineates the role of a hapless principal harassed by budget cuts and an out of control biology teacher. Henry Wrinkler plays goofy Marty that shows how the Fonz would have aged had he become a music teacher. Charice Pempengco is given a lot of exposure in this movie and sufficiently showcases her wares from acting to singing. Reggie Lee who doesn't look Filipino (another actor of Chinese descent, Lucy Lui does not want to look Filipino) plays father to Charice and successfully deviates from Sgt. Wu. Gary Valentine, older brother of James plays...James' older brother. However, the surprise of the show was Bas Rutten who you have to see to appreciate. All the actors who played UFC fighters, the actual fighters and men behind the UFC Joe Rogen and Bruce buffer contributed immensely to lending reality to the film.
Overall I would give the film an eight on a scale of 1-10.
See it and have a nice laugh.

Clint Eastwood does a Matthau in Trouble with the Curve/Warner Bros/2012

I like this film because it's breezy but tight, just right for an afternoon movie fare with your 80 year old mother over tea and biscuits. The film is so linear and predictable that going to the bathroom will not be a problem.
The screenplay of Randy Brown weaves stories of  curve balls in life and the protagonists' ways of handling them at bat. The center of the action revolves around the strained relationship of a father, Gus Lobel, an aging baseball scout, with his daughter, Mickey, a  lawyer with prospects of landing partner in her firm. Their disparate lives are thrown together on a scouting sojourn. As a double play, enter Johnny Flanagan, a dead arm turned scout, out to snare his first draft into the big leagues in hope of entering baseball broadcast. However, his out pitch is reserved for Mickey.
Not really aiming to be Oscar material, it pitches some funny lines (" Get out before I die of a heart attack trying to kill you" Clint Eastwood growls at a guy in a bar harassing Amy Adams), some cutesy love scenes, interesting insider trade crafts on baseball (hands drifting at bat cannot hit a curve), a little office politics and a bit of drama, all neatly wrapped in a package. One scene had Eastwood talking to the gravestone of his wife supposedly dramatic in intention but comes off funny reminding one of the chair monologue he did in the Romney campaign. If just for this, the movie becomes worthwhile.

Ed Lauter

When Mickey Lobel (Amy Adams, Junebug 2005 Sony Pictures) joins her aging baseball scout father Gus (Eastwood) on a trip to North Carolina to spot players, The Bad News Bears (Paramount, 1976) immediately comes to mind. It doesn't help that Eastwood tries a Walter Matthau, complete with the trademark grumpiness,  slobbery and a know it all persona.
Adams for her part is fitted with a role that almost resembles that of Tatum O' Neil- smart talking, baseball savant, billiard playing, single-malt drinking lawyer, well almost. A trio of other scouts (Lauter, Ross and Thomas) sprinkles the movie with funny bits of screen nostalgia as they go about their business like how Sammy Davis should have played the Sundance kid instead of Redford (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969 20th Century Fox) or Ice Cube being versatile compared to De Niro. HD actor Ed Lauter is made to sit all throughout  his scenes without a line, makes one wonder why they needed his services at all.
The strain on the relationship gets ugly as they spend the days together because Gus is unwilling and unable to discuss his desertion of his daughter when she was 6 while Mickey seemed bent on holding her father responsible for her over-long psycho therapy. Flanagan (Justine Timberlake, Friend with Benefits 2011 Screen Gems) joins the father and daughter duo in their search for baseball talents.
The focus of the scout expedition, a heavy hitter, Bo Gentry (Joe Massingil) does not impress Gus.  In turn Gus  advises Flanagan to pass on the player for the draft. Flanagan follows Gus but later discovers that Gus' group picks up Gentry (prodded by Sanderson played by Mathew Lillard, Scream 1996 Dimension Films) and feels betrayed, specially by Mickey with whom he develops a relationship. Meantime, Mickey's partnership prospect in her law firm comes to a standstill because she had now spent an inordinate time with her father in North Carolina.
Gus decides to leave Mickey on her own after explaining his desertion when she was six. Meantime Mickey chances upon Rigo Sanchez (Jay Galloway) and decides he is a better pick than Gentry. Some sequences portrayed Gentry as an asshole (together with his father) probably to push audience sentiment towards Sanchez which I thought was unnecessary.  With Pete Klein (John Goodman, King Ralph 1991 Universal Pictures) Mickey is able to showcase Rigo which results to the dropping of Gentry (I suppose), the firing of Sanderson, the patching up of Mickey and Flanagan as well as the resolution of the relationship problem of father and daughter.
The movie feels like it's made for TV except for its power house cast. The directorial debut of Robert Lorenz feels technical which is to say, it seemed he just set up the shots forgetting to leave character notes to the actors.
Tom Stern makes no attempt to jazz up the visuals even the CG of the curve ball does not make an impact which is what the film was all about, curve balls of life.
Eastwood's attempt at Matthau is hampered by the gruff  because for the character to be lovable, inspite his personality, it should have a wise- cracking, fast talking side. Amy Adam reminds one of Melissa Joan Hart with her goody-goody face. So she looks miscast as street smart Mickey even as she delineates her role clearly. She doesn't even look a bit like old Clint. Timberlake playing a washed up pitcher trying to clinch another career had his moments but if the script allowed him to sing, I'd say it would have been better.
Lillard passes for a corporate ass wipe while Robert Patrick seem to be still in the set of Terminator II with his unchange expression all through the film.
Now John Goodman is another story. Either playing the concerned friend of Eastwood in this film or the drug dispensing crony of Denzel in Flight (2012 Paramount) or the villain in another Denzel film, Fallen ( 1998 Turner) or the make up guy in Argo (2012 Warner Bros), Goodman is always able to make the characters believable through the tone of his voice or the way he walks or gestures with his hand. Also he always comes up hip.
Oh Yeah, the pick of the songs in this movie is oh so good, more specially that Hollies hit Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give this movie a 6. Buy the DVD and enjoy a delightful afternoon with your mom or your grandmother.

The Big Burn

Philippines- I cannot blame senator Teofisto Guingona III for voting to retain Juan Ponce Enrile as senate president, although I did hope he would buck the trend. How could he? After receipt of the PhP 1.6M as additional Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE), he was 'house broken'.
Save for Sotto, Lacson, Honasan and Estrada, staunch Enrile supporters and United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) party mates, (Revilla and Lapid probably decided on the result of a coin toss) senators who voted to retain Enrile, decided not to decide against themselves. How could you have received money then denounce the distributor?

It was a master stroke alright. Enrile in his ripe age is still the cunning, highly astute politician he was 40 years ago. Paradoxical and complex, Enrile on top of the heap remains a tragedy and a blessing for  Philippine politics. No one comes remotely close. 

But back to Senator Guingona, in those days when he insisted on being addressed as 'Toots', managing a moderately successful realty company called Tierra Minerva, he struck me as an honorable man, consistent and uncompromising in his beliefs yet entirely diplomatic and conciliatory. He is a highly learned person dabbling in diverse interests, able to communicate and apply accumulated knowledge from the most simple to the complex. Above all he is a man of the people, embracing quirks of those around him, welcoming strangers and controlling the most difficult of oppositions. He is hip, stands above the crowd (towering at 6 feet two inches), contains an air of royalty yet humble and can drink beer with the best of them. For me, he is the best dude in that crowd called the 15th congress. In fact, he is presidential material. So, his decision of allegiance to the senate president comes as a big burn.

At its face, the additional MOOE seem to adhere within legal standards but not quite. Foremost, Additional MOOE is to cover budget shortfalls in expenditures, specifically in cases where needed services or materials have been procured but remain outstanding as a result of deficit spending. Most agency wait for the next budget to plug these shortfalls. Definitely additional MOOE is not to be distributed as bonuses to staff where amounts reported reached as high as P120,000 for senior officers. The glaring disparity where ordinary bureaucrats receive a measly P10,000 tells you of its immorality and illegitimacy.
Hey man, you know this better than anyone. Your pops was Commission on Audit (COA) commissioner.

Senator Angara calls it a tradition which he himself has done. Then I submit, the Filipino people have been traditionally and monumentally fucked for a long time. Definitely, it is a time for change and I don't mean a change in terms of generation or relations- Jackie from Johnny, Sonny from Ed, Cynthia from Manny, another Estrada or Binay or Marcos or Aquino or way too many Cayetanos. A change of leadership in the senate is needed to veer it away from the disaster it has inflicted on the public: the misplaced spending (pork barrel, travels, bonuses etc);  its succumbing to the carrot in the impeachment case; its non public disclosure of SALN; expensive deliberation of the RH no brainer; its overall non-performance. The senate has long been filled with people of delusions of grandeur,  stale politicians, polluticians, magicians, fools and useless eye candies. The Philippines need a change of scene.
We also need new faces in the house of representative, first to go should be the speaker, Feliciano Belmonte. These legislators stall the coming of a better Philippines.They have instead imposed coplan armado, the Bae shooting spree, calamities, everyday crimes,the pabaon of the AFP, the likes of Garcia, Reyes and Ligot among a host of debacles that continuously ruin the country.

The 15th congress of the senate maybe the strangest bedfellows based on their past and current alliances. Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and the Cayetano siblings, whose fathers were partners of Enrile at some point, seem indifferent to the senate president somehow, a cause for celebration. On the other hand,  Sotto, Drilon and Arroyo, known critics of Martial law and Enrile seemed to have a change of heart and embraced the Enrile leadership to no end. Maybe they have all forgotten what they fought for during those years of martial law. Maybe, Saguisag should remind them. Lacson, another scourge of martial law at least is standing pat as a reminder of Marcos and later Estrada.

Add to the lot Guingona, whose father had nothing but disdain for the father of martial law.

Santiago who was aligned with Enrile during Erap and probably before, as they both worked for Marcos is leading the fight against Enrile. I celebrate the challenge and woe the misplaced allegiance of Drilon, Escudero (UNA senatorial bet), Guingona; the absence during the voting of Santiago, the Cayetanos, Pangilinan, Villar and Osmena; the abstention of Arroyo.
It's been a long arduous journey to Jericho. We are at its walls, so let  the walls fall now and let it start with the senate president and the speaker of the house.

Saturn Seasons

"I'm waiting for my ship" I told the devil.

"That ship sailed a long time ago." she replied as she dragged on the last puff of the Lucky Strike she nursed until the filter. She turns looking for someplace to throw the remnant, then at last finding a nearby bin, she flips the cigarette and turns to me  for a wink before walking off the narrow alley. 

I stood dumbfounded at the remark, thinking hope is lost.
More than fifty years ago, I found her shuffling whiskey shot glasses,  high on a mountain bar where cigar smoke accumulated thicker than the fog at four in the afternoon. On the veranda, she served me a couple of shots of neat jacks. She wasn't particularly good-looking with pock marks of juvenile skin problems peppering her face but she held an air about her that indicated she did not think she belonged in menial undertaking. Neither was she coy about what she wanted, you know the type. 

Saturn seduction comes easy with sixty moons hanging on the evening sky. Saturn summers, comprising a fourth of the thirty year revolution of the planet around the sun, gives a new meaning to the phrase 'endless summer'. We didn't make any plans about the future, seeing all too well it was temporary but it went on and on and on and on like the EverReady rabbit on crack.
"Is there god?" I asked her once.
"It's a convenience we all need" she replied smiling enigmatically.
"You're the devil, you should know"
"The devil is in the eye of the beholder"
One night, on our way to Euclid, we lost our way, driving around in circles. I started to sing. Music calms the soul. I said "Should we encounter bandits just hand them the keys." Suddenly a dragon storm caught us in the middle of the street. The patter of solid methane upon the roof of the vehicle was ear splitting. We had to find shade.
It was a music lounge south of a half arc. Old men filled the club singing songs that survived the ages accompanied by an interstellar crowd pleaser. An insurance salesman hogged the stage crooning melodies from what I can only suppose were from the first millenium.
"Do you know "Is there love?" I asked the pianist on my turn at the stage
"It's a convenience we all need"
We floated our relationship. The immediate impact of lesser gravity is that floating makes carbon based entities laugh uncontrollably. It was happiness without reason, just the interaction of hydrogen and floating. It's like herbs with peanut butter sandwiches. We were laughing all the time.
Then, a sygyz occurred on the 28th year of one revolution. Mars, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn and the sun fell in a straight line. All the heavens went dark.
"Is there a soul?" I heard a shout from the back.
"Peanut butter!!" the crowd roared "Peanut butter!!""Peanut butter!!""Peanut butter!!"
The confusion dangled that made existence questionable
"Rythm, Rythm" I distinctly heard her call my name while I was in a daze.
As she walked away, I felt ambiguous. My consolation was that the first rule of striking a deal with the devil is- don't.

Expiry dates on Marriage contracts and other long overdue laws

(  1) The Provision of Expiry Dates on Marriage Contracts
Marriage contracts should contain expiry dates, like any other agreement. For my money, most would probably go for periods of not less than two (2) weeks but not to exceed two (2) months, conducted in an intense, passionate and devoted manner. Sex shall be daily, twice at the minimum, at prescribed periods with or without all parties concerned. After a period of two (2) months, parties can negotiate for another two-month (2) extension with a provision for another two more months(2).
With expiration dates on marriages, animosity between the state and the church here in the Philippines can be avoided, specially now with some nut talking about a  divorce law right after the Reproductive Health law. Also, we can skip expensive legal and church proceedings for divorces and annulments.
(  2)  A Sin Tax on Elective Positions
With the general view that politics is corrupt, elected officials can prove otherwise by paying a tax for their position. A rate of P10 for every vote sounds reasonable.
( 3) The declaration of Erap's pompadour as a national heritage.
Like a worn out pair of shoes, the bid of the former president for the mayoralty of Manila smells. His politics like his hairstyle have gone out of style and should be viewed in a museum for reference only. What would Philippine politics be without the pompadour? Probably better, nuff' said.
(  4) Outlawing of the performance of Gangnam style by elected and appointed Philippine officials with at least the equivalent rank of Undersecretary. 
The gangnam, may have made dancing accessible again to people with two left feet when it set out to trivialize the complicated dance steps and the body contortions currently in vogue. Trivialize is the operative word and didn't you cringe at the sight of DOH Usec Tayag dancing to make an all important point on safety from firecrackers.
Imagine all the bureaucrats dancing the gangnam to make a point.
(  5) A special budget provision for a translator for Manny Pacquiao 
Believe me, Manny, this hurts me as much as it would hurt your ego. Your communication represents not only a boxing champion but a whole nation as you are an elected legislative representative, a work that requires communication skills. With a speech coach, things would get better in time. Just  for now, get a translator.
(  6) A policy of stamping the word 'Disneyland' across the map on Chinese passports.
The Chinese fantasy of the nine-dash should be dashed with a dose of reality.
(  7) An administrative order to change government disbursement vouchers' tag line of "To Payment"
Who came up with this?
Description of transactions in government vouchers usually start with the phrase 'to payment' as in: to payment of purchase of dump trucks.
I don;t know how it started but it is grammatically incorrect.
( 8) Outlawing of Sleeveless shirts, Midribs,  Short-shorts, Two (2) Piece bikinis, lingerie, halter,   plunging necklines and any type of 'supposed' sex provoking clothing  on fat, wrinkled, aging women and ill-looking, cross dressers.
Imagine your grandmother in a bikini. OUCH!!! Now, hold the image and morph in the head of the fat, hairy screaming, cross-dresser down the street. This is to save children from the obscenity of desperation and avoid a shooting rampage by people with delicate sensitivities.
(  9) A ban on anti-RH bill homilies
Nuff has been sed alredi!!! One more and I would seek conversion to Mormonism. Can one seek a temporary restraining order on anti-RH homilies?
(10) Legalization of Marijuana
And the crowd goes wild!!!

O Freunde, nicht diese Tone!
Sondern labt uns angenehmere anstimmen,
und freudenvollere.

(11) The Declaration of Chief Justice Sereno's psychological test, a national secret.
It's revelation might cause our downgrade in all international rankings.