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Seems like this movie might be coming together. Yes!

As if like a magic wand to tell us all we can breathe a sigh of relief that yes, IMDB has posted this link to the in-production Arrested Development movie.

Apparently the actors on the show have been contacted by creator Mitchell Hurwitz and show producer Ron Howard to see if they’re on board. The large cast (Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter, Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Portia de Rossi, Tony Hale, David Cross, Ali Shawkat, Michael Cera, and Ron Howard as Narrator) will, fingers crossed, all come together for a final visitation to the Bluth family saga. Hopefully other players (Henry Winkler as the incompetent lawyer or Liza Minelli as the vertigo-suffering Lucille II) will also be able to join the cast one last time.

For those that are curious, you can watch the entire series streaming online on MSN here.

I got an email from the conservative side of my family telling me all sorts of seemingly-horrible things about Barack Obama. Unfortunately for my conservative family NONE of these are true. I’ve copied the email and left all the spelling and punctuation errors for your enjoyment. Here is this little gem of an email fear-mongering campaign:

Who is Barack Obama?

Very interesting and something that should be considered in your choice. If you do not ever forward anything else, please forward this to all your contacts…

this is very scarey to think of what lies ahead of us here in our own United States … better heed this and pray about it and share it.

We checked this out on “snopes.com”.

First off, I thought I’d mentioned that I, too, fact-checked this information on Snopes.com and found this all to be horrifically untrue. We’ll also overlook the misspelling of the word “scary.”

It is factual. Check for yourself.

Who is Barack Obama?

Probable U. S. presidential candidate, Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu , Hawaii , to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., ablack MUSLIM from Nyangoma-Kogel, Kenya and Ann Dunham, a white ATHIEST from Wichita, Kansas . Obama’s parents met at the University of Hawaii . When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced.

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that Obama’s father was a Muslim and his mother was an atheist. The all caps accusatory manner sort of spells out the true nature of this email: fear people who are different from you. In this case, we’re supposed to fear Muslims and atheists regardless of who they are and where they’re from.

His father returned to Kenya . His mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a RADICAL Muslim from Indonesia.? When Obama was 6 years old, the family relocate to Indonesia . Obama attended a MUSLIM school in Jakarta . He also spent two years in a Catholic school.

Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. He is quick to point out that, “He was once a Muslim, but that he also attended Catholic school.”

According to Snopes, Obama’s father was raised Muslim, as are many of the people of Kenya which has a high Muslim population density. Of course, we all know that just being a Muslim doesn’t make you a radical Muslim. There, I’ll say it again: Being a Muslim does NOT make you radical Muslim. Got that, conservative family members?

Obama’s political handlers are attempting to make it appear that he is not a radical. Obama’s introduction to Islam came via his father, and that this influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior Obama creturned to Kenya soon after the divorce, and never again had any direct influence over his son’s education.

Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, introduced his stepson to Islam. Obama was enrolled in a Wahabi school in Jakarta. Wahabism is the RADICAL teaching that is followed by the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad against the western world. Since it is politically expedient to be a CHRISTIAN when seeking major public office in the United States , Barack Hussein Obama has joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background. ALSO, keep in mind that when he was sworn into office he DID NOT use the Holy Bible, but instead the Koran.

I’ve heard this business about the Qur’an before, and it’s simply not true. When America’s first Muslim member of congress was elected, Minnesota’s Keith Ellison, he was indeed sworn in on a copy of the Qur’an which just so happened to be Thomas Jefferson’s copy of the Qur’an. Turns out Mr. Jefferson was a big fan of Muslims and their religious writings.

Obama himself is a member of the United Church of Christ and has, since entering public life, described himself as a Christian. As for rumors about his radical church that only allows black members, this is also a false. Obama is a member of a church that is predominantly black, but does NOT exclude anyone based on race. Again, conservative family members: coming from a black church does NOT mean you hate white people, okay?

Barack Hussein Obama will NOT recite the Pledge of Allegience nor will he show any reverence for our flag. While others place their hands over their hearts, Obama turns his back to the flag and slouches. Let us all remain alert concerning Obama’s expected presidential candidacy.

Barack will say the Pledge of Allegiance. See the evidence for yourself.

The Muslims have said they plan to destroy the US from the inside out, what better way to start than at the highest level – through the President of the United States, one of their own!!!!

Please forward to everyone you know.

Would you want this man leading our country?
…… NOT ME!!!

I, for one, would be happy to have a man like Barack Obama as president. So, to all my conservative and misguided family members, you don’t have to believe those fear-mongering tactics. Obama simply isn’t the man you want to vilify him as. He is, much to your surprise, a lot like you and I but with different skin color.

What really constitutes a smear campaign?

The photo above was recently circulated online and it was speculated by some news outlets that the photo is being passed around by the Clinton camp. The photograph shows presidential hopeful Barack Obama while on a diplomatic mission to Kenya wearing traditional garb. This includes a turban, long utilized as a symbol of fear against Muslims.

Kenya is a mostly Muslim nation, though experts state that this outfit isn’t related particularly to the Muslim religion. On Slate, former ambassador to Kenya Mark Bellamy states that he thinks the outfit isn’t Islamic garb at all, but traditional dress for the region. He also says that, as ambassador, traditional dress was a part of honoring your hosts.

Obama’s father was of Kenyan descent. He has relatives that still live there.

The real question is, does a leak of this picture constitute a smear campaign? Let’s take out the percentage of Americans like myself who don’t fear having a Muslim president. That leaves the rest of America, people who have real trust issues after what happened seven years ago in New York and Virginia. Leak this picture without an explanation, and they might start questioning things.

Is that a smear?

This particular photograph gives us pause to look at our own attitudes about culture. When was the last time campaign, apart from this one, where we really had to closely examine our cultural beliefs and stereotypes? When JFK’s Catholicism was a big deal, we soon realize that he was still white and still a traditionalist Christian. The seeming culture shock of our current campaign is too much for the hardcore xenophobes to take.

Believe me, there are still xenophobes, racists, and misogynists of all kinds in our country, whether we like it or not. If the Clinton camp did release this photograph to play on the fears of others, shame on her. She should know better. If not, Obama should shrug off this incident like so many others. After all, wearing traditional dress doesn’t make you a Muslim or terrorist sympathizer. He should have nothing to worry about.

If you’re an Arrested Development fan, you may have heard possible chatter about an Arrested Development movie in the works. Jason Bateman and Jeffrey Tambor have both talked about the possibility of brining the cult classic to the big screen.

For those that don’t know, Arrested Development ran for three seasons on Fox but was canceled due to low ratings. Unfortunately, the show’s format didn’t relate to the casual sitcom viewer, resulting in an eventual cancellation, despite brilliant guest starring roles from the likes of Charlize Theron, Carl Weathers, Judge Reinhold, and James Lipton. Stars Michael Cera and Jason Bateman have recently gained a fair bit of box office success with the release of Superbad and Juno.

To Mitch Hurwitz, creator of Arrested Development and Ron Howard, producer:

Please bring Arrested Development to the Big Screen. Your brilliant three seasons weren’t enough to satiate the appetites of those who are hungry for brilliant, satirical, and smart comedy on television. I will see your movie in the theater, I promise. I will go twice on opening weekend, just to ensure box office success.

I’ll do my best to get online buzz going for the movie. I won’t even charge a fee. I’ll make sure all the gossip blogs and websites are crowded with my pleas for an AD movie. I’ll make a viral video on YouTube, begging for this deal to go through.

In short, I will do whatever it takes to make sure this Arrested Development movie goes through. Please let me know if I can assist you further.

Jolie Simons,
your friendly, neighborhood blogger

Will Farrell, who’s been on a tour of various colleges lately, spent the night at Boston College with Will Arenett of Arrested Development fame. The verdict? The Arrested Development movie is still in the works. See for yourself:

Ask Will Anything: Boston College on FunnyOrDie.com

In a surprising turn of events, two of the paintings recently stolen in Zurich, Switzerland were recently recovered. Van Gough’s “Blooming Chestnut Branches,” and Monet’s “Poppy Field at Vetheuil” were found in a car close to the crime scene. The four men who robbed the museum are still at large. The other two paintings, Degas’s “Ludovic Lepic and his Daughter” and Cezanne’s “Boy in the Red Waistcoat” are still missing.

An employee at a local mental hospital noticed a suspicious white vehicle in the hospital’s parking lot and called local police. Inside, police found the two paintings, unharmed.

There’s been plenty of speculation as to why the paintings were casually left in a stolen car so close to the private collection where the paintings were stolen. Some say the owner of the collection or the insurance company paid a ransom to recover the paintings. Others speculate that the nervous thieves had roused suspicion and were unable to sell or use the paintings on the black market.

If ransom was the reason for the theft of these paintings, this could explain the swift recovery of these priceless works of Impressionist art. Both the owners of the collection and the insurers of the paintings refused comment.

The most valuable painting of the four stolen, a work by Cezanne, is still at large and will likely fetch a hefty ransom for a safe return. Despite trouble moving and selling famous artwork on the black market, many priceless works of art remain lost for years, if at all.

Most recently, a copy of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” was recovered after two years of investigation by the police in Oslo. Most famously, Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” was stolen and spent two years in the home of the Italian man who stole it. The painting was, of course, recovered and returned to the Louvre where it sits today.

As many news outlets are reporting, Toshiba is expected to announce the end of their HD DVD technology, essentially taking the company out of the next generation race for high definition movie technology. Toshiba will stop manufacturing HD DVD players and will cease printing HD DVD titles. As many are reporting, this could have a ripple effect in the computer and gaming market, including the loss of HD DVD burning technology for computers.

Despite HD DVD’s lower price points, Sony’s Blu Ray technology ultimately won the war with studios, and this trickles down to customers. Studios were attracted to Blu Ray’s  new laser technology, meaning that Blu Ray discs are protected from copying–for now. When customers don’t have many purchasing options in the HD DVD format, they will choose not to invest in HD DVD players or titles.

HD DVD players could be purchased for as low as $100 in some cases, or for $180 as an addition to an Xbox 360 console. Blu Ray, on the other hand, required an investment of $400 or more to purchase a Playstation 3 or standalone Blu Ray player.

Toshiba, which created DVD technology, was unable to get a foothold in the high definition movie market despite having several advantages over Sony’s Blu Ray. HD DVD’s were based on DVD technology and could be produced more cheaply than Blu Ray discs. HD DVD players were online-ready, and customers could use online features and instant online updates with their HD DVD players, whereas Sony has only just recently announced a move to make Blu Ray technology sync online. HD DVD’s have better menu technology, and the difference in picture and sound are negligible.

There is no word, yet, on why Toshiba’s partnership with Microsoft or it’s demanding presence in the movie market–with their ownership of DVD technology–couldn’t save their foothold in the market.

A rash of DUI arrests for the somewhat-famous have been going down in southern California these days, including Barron Hilton who was charged with a DUI at around 8:30 AM on Monday. Barron is the brother of Paris Hilton.

Barron blew a 0.14 on a Breathalyzer, nearly twice the legal limit for an of-age adult. Barron is only 18, and any level of intoxication is considered over the legal limit. Barron allegedly also hit a gas station attendant with his car while driving recklessly in a parking lot.

Josh Booty, a Fox sporstcaster, was arrested this morning, February 13th, and charged with a DUI. Apparently the sporstcaster was surly and uncooperative, meaning police had to tase him.

If that weren’t enough, Mel Gibson, famous for his anti-semitic run in with Malibu police, has now completed his probation and is once again a free and clear man.

Think of all the celebrities who have been in DUI trouble lately: Nick Nolte, Keifer Sutherland, Mischa Barton, Rebecca DeMornay, Gary Collins, Daniel Dae Kim of Lost, and the guy who co-wrote Pulp Fiction, Roger Avary. Avary’s crash involved two other passengers. His wife was injured. The other passenger in the car was killed.

All of these celebrity or near-celebrity arrests beg the question: at what point did these celebrities lose all sense? Can they not afford a taxi or car service? Don’t they realize the danger this puts on everyone else around them?

I know that, as a kid, I was often warned about the dangers of drinking and driving. Quite possibly the most immoral thing you could do in my house was drink and drive. My father was a rehab nurse for many years and saw the devastating consequences: broken spines, broken necks, and permanent wheelchair use was common.

I have no problem with people choosing to drink. Drinking is a personal choice for adults. Driving and drinking, however, is something entirely different. I hope that the likes of Barron Hilton and Mischa Barton will wise up and simply call a limo next time. God knows they can probably afford it.

An extremely high profile art theft in Zurich, Switzerland of valuable Impressionist artwork worth an estimated $164 million (U.S.) begs the question: what’s so valuable about artwork? The Zurich heist took famous works by Degas, Cezanne, van Gough, and Monet, a veritable who’s who of Impressionist art.

The paintings were from a collection of Emil Buehrle, a Swiss industrialist who was controversial for selling weapons to Nazi Germany during World War II.

Degas is famous for his paintings of ballerinas and his interesting use of subjects. The piece stolen was called ” Viscount Lepic and His Daughters” and has Degas’ famous use of fabrics and red cheeked faces.

Cezanne is famous for his landscapes, though his stolen painting “The Boy in the Red Vest” uses his characteristic use of unexpected color, only on a human subject.

Monet, most famous for his paintings of the French countryside and for his water lillies, used his style of paint texture and unexpected lighting in his stolen painting “Poppies near Vetheuil,” a countryside scene.

Van Gough, famous for his various subjects, uses his characteristic brush motions in the beautiful but simple “Blossoming Chestnut Branches,” where the motion and unexpected forms compliment the seemingly simple subject.

This is not the only time high profile art as gone missing. In a 2006 article, Playboy magazine mentions the high profile theft of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream,” a famous work of expressionist painting and a worldwide favorite. These men entered the museum, also in broad daylight much like the Zurich thieves, and took the valued painting. Munch produced several copies and lithographs of “The Scream,” and all but one of those paintings are owned by the Oslo museum that housed the painting.

These thefts, coupled with the recent theft of two Picasso paintings, underscore that the world of black market fine art is alive and well, though their intentions are unclear. Selling these paintings on the market will garner police attention. Some speculate that these paintings are being used to buy drug, guns, or other black market contraband since there’s little movement for private collectors to buy stolen art.

A sizable reward is being offered for the recovery of the Zurich paintings. Unfortunately, only about 1 in 5 stolen paintings is ever recovered.

With such a great shift in the housing market, foreclosure rates keep going up. Until there are laws passed to change foreclosure law, consider that there are some options you can use before your home goes into foreclosure.

If you’re currently delinquent on your mortgage payments, or are facing foreclosure, be sure to investigate all of your options. Remember that plenty of things can happen to either stop foreclosure or reverse foreclosure. If you haven’t investigated these options, do so right away:

First, try to negotiate with your mortgage lender, which works for several reasons. Banks don’t like foreclosure any more than you. They don’t get back the cash they need to lend, and often lose money on an auction. With so many more defaults and foreclosures, some banks will simply negotiate lower interest rate terms, thus lowering your monthly payments.

Second, you can try to refinance. If you got stuck with an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) with increasing payments and were able to get your house for no money down, this might not be such a good option because you probably have little or no equity or actual cash value in the home. Skittish and cash-strapped lenders are becoming more cautious about who they lend to, so don’t count on being able to refinance after that ARM starts biting back with higher monthly payments.

Third, you do have some legal recourse, especially if you live in a mortgage deed state where legal action is required before foreclosure beings. If nothing else, exhausting all of your legal options can tie up foreclosure proceedings even longer, giving you more time to figure out what you’re going to do.

Fourth, you put the house up with a real estate agent and hopefully sell in time to pay off the mortgage. Going into default and curing, or paying off a loan will hurt your credit somewhat, but this isn’t as devistating as foreclosure. The only problem is, if you live in a neighborhood with a lot of foreclosures, you might not be able to sell the house for enough money to pay off the mortgage.

You can do what’s known as a “friendly foreclosure” and simply give the deed of the house to the bank in exchange for the mortgage debt. This is an option only if there aren’t other lien holders on the house, like a second mortgagor, or a tax lien.

You can pay off the debt or make a substantial effort to pay it off. This means paying all of your back mortgage, along with fees that have accumulated. Some people can manage this, but usually a person is in foreclosure because they couldn’t afford to do this.

Finally, you can sell to an investor, the people who are probably already calling you and sending you business cards in the mail, wanting to “help you with your foreclosure problem.” Sometimes these investors can be a good option, but there may be some slimy investors in the bunch. Don’t believe them when they say that selling to an investor will “save your credit.” It won’t. Don’t take the first ridiculously low offer. Be sure you know what you’re getting out of the deal.

Remember that you do have options. Fight for your house if you’re in foreclosure. After all, the bank is fighting to take your house. Why not fight to keep it?