Two Things...

1.  I think am more excited to see this than I was to see The Force Awakens.  I mean, Wow! This looks amazing.  I hope it lives up to the hype because the Episode VII gave me reason to be hopeful again for Star Wars movies.  Don't burn me, Disney.

2.  To millennials distraught over Donald Trump's election, please, please, PLEASE, in the name of Jesus, do not make Rogue One political.  As I watched this trailer in light of Tuesday and the aftermath, it almost immediately occurred to me the film's theme - the struggle of the rebellion against impossible odds against the overwhelming might of the evil Galactic Empire - could easily be co-opted as a metaphor for the heroic opposition to the sinister Donald Trump.  Given the highly diverse cast of heroes that appears absent of white men (which I'm not criticizing), pitted against the new villain, an old white guy, it's not a stretch to see how this could seized upon and embraced on social media, and become a thing.  That would suck.

Star Wars is for everybody.  It's not political.  And it would be a crime to make it a source of division, so please don't make it one.  Star Wars was my first love, and I am genuinely gratified that Rogue One (like Ep. VII) by virtue of its international cast, has the potential to allow more different kinds of people, especially children, to feel what I felt for Star Wars as a child, which was magical.

Maybe I'm being ridiculous.  Maybe I'm too cynical.  I hope so.  Perhaps the apparent themes of unity in Rogue One will have the opposite effect and bring people together in these uncertain times. That would be cool.  Here's to me being wrong.  There's been a lot of that lately.

Comedy That Heals (maybe?)

I caught this Saturday Night Live skit over the weekend and I must say, I found it cathartic.  In an election season where the polarization and rhetoric are toxic, SNL manages to remind us in that we all have much more in common than what we are led to believe on TV or social media (while making us laugh).  I was pleasantly surprised Monday to discover the skit has been making the rounds on the internet with an overwhelmingly positive reception.  The way I see it, the only way you can be offended by this skit is if you are looking to be offended.

Increasingly, it seems we categorize ourselves and one another, and with those categories come simple assumptions about what the other group thinks, behaves and even whether they are all good or bad.  In my life, I find people are much more complicated.  And looking a certain way or thinking a certain way doesn't entirely define an individual or a group, much less determine a minimum threshold for basic decency and respect.

Anyway, it's not much.  But right now with our politics and culture so broken and divided, I'll take it.

Happy Canada Day!

Great Odin's Raven!

In case you were wondering what to get me for Christmas.

Ron Burgundy is finally getting his own scotch (click for story).

Superman 75th Anniversary Animated Tribute

Neat little tribute.  Watching this got me thinking maybe DC could help itself out my making a new Superman cartoon based on The New 52, or perhaps some kind of Justice League project.  Seems to me that if they're serious about this new DC universe, they should introduce the character/s to some (gasp!) actual kids.  But if the comics themselves are any indication, kids are the last thing on DC's mind right now.

What we need more of...

At the end of a debate in the race for New Jersey governor, Chris Christie responds to a cheap shot from his opponent with UTTER CLASS. Americans are craving this kind of civility in Washington.

President Obama? Congress?

Take notes.

Happy Birthday Bill Clinton!

I suspect President Clinton commissioned this painting himself.

Happy Birthday Mr. President!

Barack Obama in the eyes of the press.

Respect

President Reagan's Speech on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day

President Ronald Reagan's Address commemorating the 40th Anniversary of D-Day at Normandy June 6, 1984 is one of the greatest speeches by one of the greatest orators of the 20th century.  Regardless of one's political views, can anyone deny, as demonstrated in this speech, that Reagan spoke with a warmth, sincerity and humanity virtually absent in our political leaders?  Certainly his oratory dwarfs that of his successors, Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. President Obama has proven to be fine speaker and if you know me or read this blog, you will be surprised to know that I actually think President Obama gives very good nonpolitical speeches (few though they are).  If you doubt it, go watch at his speech at Tuscon after the Gabby Giffords shooting, or his speech at Ft. Hood following the shooting there, or his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2011.   

But after watching the "Great Communicator," even Obama comes off as flat, even hollow.  I'm not trying to slight President Obama.  I just think Reagan was that good. He was so warm and genuine, it was hard not to like him.  If that sounds like partisan kool-aid Reagan worship, go watch his speeches, and recall he carried 44 states when elected, and 49 states upon reelection.  Think we'll ever see that again?  The point here is there are few people on Earth who could deliver a speech equal to the occasion of honoring the courage and sacrifice of those who landed on Normandy June 6, 1944. But Reagan did.  

Happy Birthday President Kennedy!

JFK makes the moon safe for America.

Star Wars Anime

More proof that nearly anyone with talent can do Star Wars better than George Lucas. I'm not a fan of anime, and I certainly didn't think I would want it anywhere near Star Wars, but I gotta admit, this is pretty darn cool.

Charlie Chaplin speech from 'The Great Dictator'

A pretty amazing speech from from a guy known almost exclusively for his silent films. The Great Dictator was Charlie Chaplin's first talking picture, and his most commercially successful.  I had never even heard of this movie until a few days ago, but now I'd like to see it.  The film was released in 1940 when the United States was still formally at peace with Germany.  The Great Dictator is a allegorical take on Hitler's Germany, in which Chaplin mocks and condemns Hitler, Nazism, Mussolini and fascism.

Chaplin, who was not a Jew, plays a Jewish barber who looks just like the dictator of Tomania, Adenoid Hynkel.  Near the end of the movie, there is a mix up in which Hynkel is mistaken for the barber and arrested.  Consequently, the barber is forced to assume the identity of Hynkel.  He is taken to the capital where he must give a speech. His lieutenant Garbitsch, while introducing him to the crowd, decries free speech and calls for subjugation of the Jews.  The Barber gets up and delivers a stirring speech, calling for humanity to break free from dictatorships and use science and progress to make the world better instead.  Chaplin starred, wrote, produced, scored, and directed The Great Dictator.  I don't much about Chaplin, but I like that he used his popularity and clout to make a film that addresses the greatest threat of his day.

(Full disclosure: I swiped most of this summary of the film from Wikipedia.)

Paul Revere's Ride 2.0

The British Are Coming!

Paul Revere's Ride
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm."

Then he said "Good-night!" and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.

Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street
Wanders and watches, with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread of the grenadiers,
Marching down to their boats on the shore.

Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,
By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry chamber overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade,
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town
And the moonlight flowing over all.

Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, "All is well!"
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay,
A line of black that bends and floats
On the rising tide like a bridge of boats.

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse's side,
Now he gazed at the landscape far and near,
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry tower of the Old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns.

A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.

It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer's dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog,
That rises after the sun goes down.

It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, black and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.

It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadow brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket ball.

You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

"We have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents..."

I don't even know what to say to this.  In a new ad from MSNBC, Melissa Harris-Perry explains her view of parenthood.  It says a lot about the network's relationship with reality that no one apparently thought this would be controversial.  Leaving aside the warped, insane idea that children belong to their community rather than their parents, and what that really means, let's just examine her contention that we don't invest enough in public education.  According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the United States spent, on all levels of public education, $15,812 per student in 2009.  That's the highest in the world.  State and local governments spent $859.9 billion on public education in 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s a 30.1 percent increase from $660.5 billion (adjusted for inflation) that the U.S. spent in 2000.

So if we followed Ms. Harris-Perry's advice and took a more collective view of children, we would... spend even more money?  Sorry -- "investments."  And that would make our schools better?  What could she possibly point to as evidence of this?  Parents understand perfectly well the community's role in the life of their children.  They live it everyday through their churches, schools, neighborhoods and civic organizations.  They don't need academics and government bureaucrats lecturing them from on high.

"The Second Amendment is Bullshit"

I'm actually grateful to Bill Maher for saying what I suspect not an insignificant number of people on the left believe, but aren't quite willing to say aloud.  I made sure to use a clip that included the entire context of the conversation, so as to be fair and not go ape over a one-sentence soundbite (at 2:23).  I think the context is actually quite useful in showing what Maher and other like minded people would like to see, which is the elimination of most all guns in private hands like in many European nations.  In listening to the panel, it's clear they don't understand (and probably don't know any) gun owners/enthusiasts.  They paint a caricature of them that is colored with derision.  It's also evident that Maher, either doesn't understand (I think he does), or doesn't care about American history and its founding.  There is reasonable debate to be had over the meaning of the Second Amendment, but I think Maher's comments speak to the aspirations of so many on the left, who wish to see America transformed into a kind of egalitarian, government-centered society, that sheds those mores of the past which inhibit the state's power to bring about necessary change.   Back in 2001, President Obama expressed a similar sentiment over the limits placed on government by the Constitution.

To that extent, as radical as I think the people try to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn't that radical.  It didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution, at least as it's been interpreted, and the Warren Court interpreted it the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. Says what the states can't do to you. Says what the federal government can't do to you, but it doesn't say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf.

Some on my side have gone too far reading into this quote, but I think it accurately expresses the frustration of some on the left who would like to see the government take a more active role in establishing the kind of society they long for.  As a conservative, it's refreshing to see an issue in which the left is so out of step with the American people, and the frustration that they, their representatives in government and the news media, cannot move public opinion like they have on so many other issues like "the rich not paying their fair share" and gay marriage.

For good or for ill, Americans love their guns.  So much so that even the combined media blitz following Sandy Hook and the shameless demagoguing by the President failed to get any kind of "meaningful" gun control passed.  Even liberal politicians tread lightly on the issue because of their constituents.  Ever wonder why President Obama was utterly silent on gun control during his first four years or in the Presidential campaign?  He wanted to be reelected.  What's worse for liberals is that all this manufactured hysteria after Sandy Hook to get strict gun control passed has only served to make Americans more protective of their firearms; more wary of government efforts to curb their second amendment rights, and creating another a kind of hysteria to load up on guns and ammo.  Companies like Remington, Glock, and ATK having been running their factories 24/7 for months and STILL cannot keep up with demand.  So as a result of the left's barrage of outrage and push for government action (the "do-something disease") every time a crime or tragedy like Sandy Hook occurs, the gun companies they have so much contempt for are making money hand over fist.

If this issue proves anything, it is the power of representative government.  Since 1789, politicians have tried to bend, walk over, sneak by, or flat out ignore the Constitution. Thankfully, in spite their efforts, the will of the people still holds some sway in the halls of power in Washington, and that gives me some comfort, even if Bill Maher thinks it's bullshit.

Happy Birthday Thomas Jefferson!

Thomas Jefferson makes the case for Independence.

A Wild Horse

David Brooks of the New York Times is an interesting columnist.  A self-described moderate conservative, his opinions swing from one end of the political spectrum to the other, driving both conservatives and liberals crazy, depending on the day.  From my perspective, he sometimes drifts off the reservation, but about every third column, he really nails it.  Such is the case in his Monday editorial.  While the liberals and the media carp over the GOP being extremists, racists, out of touch and dying off as a party, Brooks brilliantly points out the bankrupt (literally and figuratively) philosophy of today's Democratic party.

There is a statue outside the Federal Trade Commission of a powerful, rambunctious horse being reined in by an extremely muscular man. This used to be a metaphor for liberalism. The horse was capitalism. The man was government, which was needed sometimes to restrain capitalism’s excesses.  

Today, liberalism seems to have changed. Today, many progressives seem to believe that government is the horse, the source of growth, job creation and prosperity. Capitalism is just a feeding trough that government can use to fuel its expansion. 

For an example of this new worldview, look at the budget produced by the Congressional Progressive Caucus last week. These Democrats try to boost economic growth with a gigantic $2.1 trillion increase in government spending — including a $450 billion public works initiative, a similar-size infrastructure program and $179 billion so states, too, can hire more government workers. 

 ...

Today, progressives are calling on government to be the growth engine in all circumstances. In this phase of the recovery, just as the economy is finally beginning to take off, these Democrats want to take an astounding $4.2 trillion out of the private sector and put it into government where they believe it can be used more efficiently.  

How do the House Democrats want to get this money? The top tax rate would shoot up to 49 percent. There’d be new taxes on investment, inheritance, corporate income, financial transactions, banking activity and on and on. 

 ... 

The progressive budget in the House seems to have been written by people hermetically sealed in the house of government. They work in government. They represent public-sector workers. They seem to have had little contact with private-sector job creators and no idea about what factors might play in their thinking. It’s a reminder that while Republicans may embarrass on a daily basis, many progressives have lost touch with what actually produces growth and prosperity.  

With Senate Democrats refusing to produce a budget since 2009 (nearly four years ago), Republicans included a provision in the January debt ceiling bill that forced the Senate to produce a budget or face a suspension of pay. Facing a threat to their income, Senate Democrats finally obliged. Their proposed budget eliminates the sequester cuts, raises taxes by $1 trillion and never balances the budget.  Today, the House rejected the Senate budget by a vote of 261-154.  The Congressional Progressive Caucus was also rejected 327-84.

Where's the President in all this?  He still hasn't proposed a budget, missing the deadline (February 4) for the third year in a row and for the fourth time in his presidency.

With Republicans disillusioned, stumbling around trying to find their identity, Democrats may think they have the future locked up.  But their innate and intransigent aversion to cutting even a penny of government spending means they will not turn away from the looming iceberg of unrestrained spending, unsustainable entitlements, and soaring debt.   In fact, the Democrats will steam straight for it, all the while claiming the iceberg will melt if the rich would just pay their fair share.

Happy Birthday to Old Hickory!

Andrew Jackson: Earth's defender.