EFI Morning Report With Your Host Pile On®

Stone Surprised By Failure Of Alexander

LONDON — Director Oliver Stone said he was surprised by the critical reaction to his historical epic "Alexander" and put the blame on the fundamentalist morality in some parts of the United States.

Critics lambasted the film, which stars Irish actor Colin Farrell, and some conservative groups condemned Stone's depiction of the Macedonian conqueror's sexuality.

Stone said the commercial failure of "Alexander" in the United States could be linked to "a raging fundamentalism in morality."

It is refreshing to see someone take responsibility for their own failures, it gets tiresome to see people try to put the blame on others. Clearly Stone has his finger on the pulse of the nation.

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Are French Fries The Root Cause Of Crime

A Pennsylvanian man allegedly tried to run over restaurant workers after they told him they had run out of fries. It happened after the 22-year-old, of DuBois in Clearfield County, and a couple of friends asked for fries at a drive-in Burger King in Sandy.

According to the Courier-Express in DuBois, the man made an obscene gesture and repeatedly cursed at staff after learning they had run out. He then noticed a couple of restaurant workers taking down his number plate registration and allegedly drove his truck at them, nearly hitting one employee.

The man was arrested a short distance away on Route 255, where he allegedly scuffled with police, kicking out the back window of a police car after he was handcuffed.

Is there a link between french fry addiction and crime? What percentage of criminals consume fries on a regular basis. Is the need to satisfy the addiction forcing people into fits of rage and lives of crime? This growing problem clearly needs further study.

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Mexican Wrestling Star Arrested On Drug Charges

Hector Segura Solano, 35, who wrestles under the name Hector Garza, was arrested Monday on a charge of possession of a controlled substance. Bail has been set at $1,000. Segura, when teamed with a wrestler known as the Latin Lover, was popular with female fans for his Chippendales-like dancing skills, Fairbairn said.

It saddens us to see another professional athlete superstar involved in a drug scandal. Have we left no heroes?

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Neil Cavuto Of Fox News Is No Fan Of Alan Greenspan

I have to tell you, I just think this infatuation with these guys on the Fed is way over the top. Yet the media, Congress — they all worship at the altar of Saint Alan. Not me. Maybe because I'm a little simple, I look at things simply. And I simply cannot understand a bunch of guys who get praise for raising rates, I think, way too prematurely now. Just like they were forgiven for bringing them down way too tentatively before.

But I'm not here to bash their economics. I'm here to bash them.

I'm sorry, but these guys are weird and here's the kicker: We know they're weird. But we accept them like the crazy uncle walking around the living room with his fly down.
I mean, why do we put up with an organization that supposedly rewards us by releasing the minutes of its meetings grudgingly sooner than before? Instead of six weeks after the fact, it's three weeks after the fact.

Here's a newsflash, Al: It's still after the fact! The markets were selling off like crazy on Tuesday based on something you guys were whining about nearly a month ago. And for this newfound openness we're supposed to do a jig?

I don't think so. Let's get real here. They've simply moved from fanning out news like Pravda to maybe something akin to Al Jazeera.

They still talk in broad generalities, but say almost nothing in planned speeches and put out statements that read like a disclaimer from a used car salesmen.

People far smarter than I say there's a reason for that: they don't want to trap themselves. So, instead, they want to make fools of themselves?

Why do we condone a group of guys whose policy is made in secret and whose decisions which affect us all is made without one scintilla of debate? It's goofy. It's weird. It's the crazy uncle thing. The difference with the crazy uncle is that I can tell him to zip his fly. I just wish I could tell crazy Al to zip the mumbo-jumbo.

I was interested in this because it is so contrary to the conventional wisdom and since the CW is so often wrong it is worth considering. Here at the Institute we have been critical of Greenspan in the past, his fear of inflation, has in our opinion made him slow in lowering interest rates going into a recession and made him to quick to raise them in an improving economy.

He is certainly no Saint and a legitimate target for criticism. Is he like the Crazy Uncle? No comment.