I would like to start this piece with the mention of a movie and its soundtrack. The 2007 movie “Reign Over Me” featured Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle. The movie soundtrack was a song by the Who, “Reign O’er Me”. Now I am not now, nor have I ever been, a big Adam Sandler fan. He is far too often over the top for my taste. But in my humble opinion, this a great movie and a great performance by Sandler in the movie. It features a beautiful story, outstanding performances, classic music, and if you will give it a chance…it will bring tears to your eyes. It is quite the story of redemption; Lord knows we can all use some of that. Don Cheadle and Sandler have a chemistry in this movie that is really effective. Cheadle to me is like Clint Eastwood…I never saw a bad Eastwood movie; some are just better than others. Not sure what brought this particular movie to my mind at this time, but if you have never seen it…you have a hidden treasure to enjoy. Here is a good review of the movie at Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/reign_over_me and here is the Who’s (one of any classic rock fan’s favorite bands) soundtrack with lyrics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhLsC2FpDZk . This is, without a doubt, one of Roger Daltrey’s finest efforts. What a great marriage of film and music. Enjoy.
Now…on to things less
entertaining. The issue of our
children’s education in America continues to be one of, if not the,
most important social war battle that is happening today. Returning our curriculum from wokeness to
common sense, wresting control of academia from the liberal elite and returning
it to parents, providing the fat and lazy public school system with private
school competition in order to increase effectiveness of both and give all
parents a choice, and most of all…removing the corruptive and self-serving
control of education from administrator and teacher unions and returning it to
taxpayers and parents....These are the
battles that are playing out all across our nation today. The stakes could not be higher. It appears that Florida, with Governor Ron
DeSantis taking the lead, has become ground zero for this particular culture
war. But make no mistake about it, no
matter where you might live in our country, this is going on in YOUR
backyard and in YOUR schools.
Wake up. Get involved. Take care of YOUR children.
https://jewishworldreview.com/0223/school_choice_resurgent.php3
Why do we need school
choice? Here is why: https://jonathanturley.org/2023/02/11/report-23-baltimore-schools-had-zero-students-proficient-in-math/
https://reason.com/2023/02/10/free-speech-group-calls-out-10-censorship-prone-colleges-to-avoid/
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-college-board-goes-to-war-with-desantis/
We are going to have a Presidential
election in the fall of 2024. With the
mid-terms now behind us, potential candidates for both national parties are jockeying
around for position to see how they might pursue their individual interests in
the upcoming primary process. Some truly
expect to be President. Some might be
vying for a Vice-Presidential slot. Some
might be positioning themselves for a cabinet or plum patronage appointment. Then there will be others who are simply going
through an ego-massaging exercise to get some camera time. Each of us will end up with a favorite, but
for me…there is one prime directive: Let us NOT come down to Biden vs.
Trump. If we have learned nothing else
from the past six years, surely we must realize that constant turmoil and partisan
conflict is no recipe for good government.
We must also surely know by now that the last thing America needs is a
Chief Executive who is over 80 years old and casts doubt every day of his life
as to his competence.
BOTH NATIONAL PARTIES
have candidates available that will be far better choices than Biden or
Trump. Let us hope that the cream will rise to the top and
we will have a choice between two viable candidates in November of 2024. Personally, my early preference is Ron
DeSantis at the top of a ticket with Nikki Haley as his Vice-President. We never really know what type of President a
candidate might prove to be; it is a crap shoot. Campaigning ain’t serving. But looking back over my life, I believe that
the best experience I have seen for a potential President is serving as
Governor. A governorship demands all of
the skills (with the possible exception of foreign policy) from a person
managing a state government that will likely be required, albeit on a much
grander scale, from a person managing our national government. I like the way DeSantis has performed in
Florida and Haley was a very effective Governor for South Carolina. It seems to be a far better practice to
examine how people have performed on the job rather than judge them on their
campaign rhetoric. Whatever YOUR
choice might be, please…just anybody but Biden and Trump…ABBT.
https://nypost.com/2023/02/12/florida-gov-ron-desantis-is-the-gops-sunshining-future/
For my money, which
ain’t much, the two greatest Presidents were Lincoln and Reagan. Given that we are near his birthday, here is
some great history about Lincoln: https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/02/remembering-mr-lincoln-12.php
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/02/a-genius-for-friendship-9.php
There is a real
difference between conservative government and liberal government and the
reality today is that the Democrats represent liberal government and the
Republicans represent conservative government.
Each…individual…elected official is unique and brings a different set of
principles and values to the table; but the fact is that votes in Congress are
what matters in today’s political world and we must remember that when we go to
the polls. That is exactly why idiots on
both sides of the political aisle continue to get national party support and
win elections. At some point soon, we
can only hope to get to a point where we can primarily consider the true
character content of our voting choices rather than just their party
affiliation. But for now…we are left
with the numbers game. We will get the
government we deserve…the one we vote for.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/02/florida-vs-new-york.php
https://reason.com/2023/02/12/across-the-globe-government-health-care-systems-are-failing-us/
And in an effort to
expand our world view and consider how other nation’s might deal with their
leadership choices, here is a very good article on Italy’s new, and somewhat
controversial, Prime Minister: https://americanmind.org/salvo/meloni-ascends/
If the upcoming
presidential campaign brings us nothing else, may it please greatly dispense
with the all-too-common practice of candidates, and current leaders,
blatantly and shamelessly lying to our faces, cherry-picking facts and
statistics to support their own agendas, and essentially performing in
deceitful and dishonest fashion. Be
honest with yourselves…don’t you feel totally disrespected when someone
disregards your intelligence in this way?
While on this topic, one man in particular comes to mind….
https://jewishworldreview.com/0223/hanson020923.php3
https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/02/08/fact-checking-7-claims-in-bidens-state-of-the-union-address/
https://jewishworldreview.com/0223/fact_checker020823.php3
https://thefederalist.com/2023/02/08/dont-fall-for-joe-bidens-economic-fairy-tale/
https://amgreatness.com/2023/02/10/theres-going-to-be-hell-to-pay/
The shameful abandonment BY
BOTH PARTIES of fiscal responsibility is pathetic. But anyone paying attention to federal
spending must acknowledge that the Democrats, beginning with Obama and reaching
stratospheric levels with Biden, have taken federal spending to a whole, new
level. I have often said that perhaps it
is true that the government that governs least, governs best. I fear this is not the case for our social
security system. If fundamental
changes are not made soon to that system, it is clearly obvious that it will
not be sustainable and will not be around to support our future
generations. Some political courage is
called for from both sides.
https://reason.com/2023/02/07/biden-promises-to-let-social-securitys-ship-keep-sinking/
The Democrats in Congress
and the Deep State spent over four years chasing Donald Trump…and they continue
that frenetic effort even today. The
idiocy and zealotry demonstrated in that bizarre adventure has established many
irregular precedents are now beginning to come back and haunt those same
Democrats. Karma is a bitch. Joe Biden has always been, and I fear
continues to be, one shady dude. He, his
family, and their business associates have pretty effectively insulated
themselves from accountability and justice in regards to their questionable
business/political activities. Hunter
Biden might very well prove to be the leak that sinks that particular rotting
ship. The real question is this: Is there sufficient time between now
and the next election to pull the sheets back on the corruptive Biden family
enterprise?
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/02/the-deep-meaning-of-no-comment.php
If there is anybody out
there who has not yet gotten the message, here it is: THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS A BIASED AND
UNETHICAL CLOWN SHOW! Censorship, disinformation, bias, invasion of
privacy…all of these abuses have blossomed under the unholy alliance formed
between the media, the Democrat Party, the extreme liberal elements of our
society and culture, academia, the Deep State, and the high tech industry. If you believe that this notion is simply a
political concoction brewed up by the Republicans and the conservative segment
of our citizenry, then you are naïve beyond description. This is not Oliver Stone running around
with his hair on fire; this is very real, very ominous, very threatening, and
very poisonous to our freedoms and liberties.
https://amgreatness.com/2023/02/10/righteous-tyrants/
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/02/a-twitter-files-footnote-8-2.php
https://amgreatness.com/2023/02/07/missing-documents-and-files-in-ongoing-j6-cover-ups/
And here is the cherry on
top of the sundae. THIS is the
federal agency that Congress recently appropriated additional funding to so that it might
ESSENTIALLY DOUBLE IN SIZE. Somehow…I
do not think this is what our founders had in mind when they wrote: Government
by the people and for the people. https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/lois-lerner-20-irs-meets-disinformation-targeting-nonprofit-seeking-tax
I will close this post
with a very good summary of the recent “UFO Shootdowns” that have
garnered so much attention. Who better
to sum it up than the invaluable Jim Geraghty: https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=desktop&utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_term=second&utm_content=morning-jolt
And this from https://reason.com/
……. https://reason.com/2023/02/13/north-americas-ufo-weekend/
