CBS Sports: NFL 2003- Super Bowl 38- Charlotte Panthers vs New England Patriots- Beyonce Knowles: Proud To Be An American

Source:CBS Sports- Beyonce Knowles Proud To An American, at Super Bowl 38, in Houston, Texas. 

Source:The New Democrat

"Beyonce - Proud To Be An American"

From Mariha Canha

Source:FRS FreeState- Proud to be an American

I like the Beyonce version of this great song more than the Lee Greenwood version of this song that is 20-30 years older. And not because the Beyonce version is more current. But I'm just more of an R&B fan than a pop fan, but both singers do a great job of honoring I believe at least the most important Americans that we have which is our military veterans. And the people who defend our freedom risk their lives to protect our freedom and in too many cases give their lives. And leave their families back to defend our freedom.

Which is what Veterans Days is all about and something that only the anti-military Far-Left and to a certain extent Libertarian-Right in America can't seem to grasp. And if anything tend to see our military as part of the problem in defending peace and fighting for peace and defending our freedom and this is really the nice way of putting how the anti-military Far-Left and Libertarian-Right in America tends to look at the American military.

Veterans Day is not just an extra day off or a three day weekend in a beautiful time of year when people want to be outside at the park or at football games, cookouts and so-forth. But it is the day that we donate to our military veterans where we honor them with songs and performances. And parades and ceremonies and where we honor the great Americans who fought for our freedom. Whether they are still with us or have already given their lives to fight for our freedom or time has simply come for them to rest in peace.

And this is why since 1918 after World War I that we take a day out of our year to give to the veterans who have given their lives to serve our country by defending it and is something that not many Americans do considering how large our country is. Which is why it is even more important that the three-hundred plus Americans who haven't served in our military I believe even have a bigger debt to the veterans who have served us.

So instead of looking at Veterans Day as another day in the year where we do not have to work as Americans. Look at it as a day where we honor the men and women, fathers and mothers. Grandfathers and grandmothers, uncles and aunts, brothers and sisters who have served our country. By defending our freedom and look to pay back some of that huge debt to them. By thanking them for their service and remember that we only have this day off because of them.

Alfred Hitchcock: Vertigo (1958) Starring Jimmy Stewart & Kim Novak

Source:Movie Clips- the official trailer for Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, (1958) according to Movie Clips. 

Source:The New Democrat

"CLIP DESCRIPTION:

A San Francisco detective (James Stewart) suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.

FILM DESCRIPTION:

Dismissed when first released, later heralded as one of director Alfred Hitchcock's finest films (and, according to Hitchcock, his most personal one), this adaptation of the French novel D'entre les morts weaves an intricate web of obsession and deceit. It opens as Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart) realizes he has vertigo, a condition resulting in a fear of heights, when a police officer is killed trying to rescue him from falling off a building. Scottie then retires from his position as a private investigator, only to be lured into another case by his old college friend, Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore). Elster's wife, Madeleine (Kim Novak), has been possessed by a spirit, and Elster wants Scottie to follow her. He hesitantly agrees, and thus begins the film's wordless montage as Scottie follows the beautiful yet enigmatic Madeleine through 1950s San Francisco (accompanied by Bernard Herrmann's hypnotic score). After saving her from suicide, Scottie begins to fall in love with her, and she appears to feel the same way. Here tragedy strikes, and each twist in the movie's second half changes our preconceptions about the characters and events. In 1996 a new print of Vertigo was released, restoring the original grandeur of the colors and the San Francisco backdrop, as well as digitally enhancing the soundtrack."

From Movie Clips

I wouldn't say that Vertigo is a great movie, especially not a great Alfred Hitchcock film. There are at least three others and probably more Hitchcock movies that are better. North by Northwest my favorite, Rear Window and To Catch a Thief, and I'm sure others are definitely better than Vertigo. Vertigo is not Kim Novak's best movie either. But Kim Novak and Jimmy Stewart made Vertigo a very good and entertaining movie almost by themselves by how they worked together and the chemistry they had.

Vertigo does have a very good plot. Jimmy Stewart plays a former San Francisco police detective who is now in semi-retirement. His old buddy from I believe college gets a hold of him with a job for him, but now as a private detective. His old friend who hasn't seen a long time is a very wealthy San Francisco businessman who has a gorgeous, baby-face, goddess, of a wife Madeline (played Kim Novak). He wants Scottie (played by Jimmy Stewart) to believe that his wife is going crazy and wants her to tail her to see what she does during the day.

What Scottie isn't aware of is that this couple is using him and is in on a murder plot. They want Scottie to think that Madeline (played by Kim Novak)  is dead. When the fact is she is alive and well and comes back in the movie playing another character that just happens to meet Scottie. And Scottie is blown away by her because of the incredible resemblance and falls in lover with the same woman again. A very interesting and good movie, but certainly not the best Hitchcock movie. 

The New Republic: Noam Scheiber: 'What My Book Got Wrong About Obama, Summers, Geithner, Recovery'

Source:The New Democrat

It is rare at least in the last four years or so that I agree with Noam Scheiber on anything. And four years is most of the time that I've been blogging. You see more bipartisan cooperation and bills passed in Congress than you see agree with Noam on anything. He is more of a "government can solve every problem on their own, or at least solve every problem, if the people just get out-of-the-way and give government the money to solve their problems for them" Social Democrat. And I'm a New Democrat and believe in limited government and that there's a limit to what government can do especially by itself.

But Noam is right on when he says that the 2009 stimulus or Economic Recovery and Investment Act was too small. It should've been around two-trillion dollars and not paid for. Treated as seriously as the Great Depression and invested all of that money in ending the recession by encouraging people to spend money with individual and business and tax relief. Job creating with a lot of infrastructure and fighting off further unemployment in the public sector with aid to state and local government's so they wouldn't have to lay off so many employees.

The ERIA or stimulus had some of that, but not nearly enough because it was about eighty-percent short of what it should've been. We were dropping seven-hundred thousand jobs of month in late 2008 and into 2009 when Barack Obama became President. And the economy was dropping seven-percent as well, so what they needed to address that immediately with a huge economic package even through borrowing to put the money back in the economy so the Great Recession wasn't as bad and as long as it was. As far as how long it would take the country to get through it.

I agree with Noam to a certain extent about the Obama Administration pivoting too fast to debt and deficit reduction. But that is because the stimulus was too small and that since it wasn't big enough, they should've at least attempted and put stimulus two on the table in early 2011. Telling the new Republican House "that I know you don't think we should do this again with the debt and deficit being where it is, but this is what we need to do because of where the economy is overall. And as President I'm going to do the best that I can to see that it happens and see what we can do in the Democratic Senate".

I disagree with Noam on the healthcare law. If it wasn't passed when it was in early 2010, we are still doing with the problems of not passing that law today. People losing their health insurance because they need it, or have a pre-existing condition, or reached some lifetime cap. A lot more low-income workers without any health insurance because the Medicaid expansion is not there. And millions of Americans who simply can't afford health insurance because their employer doesn't provide it, or it is too expensive and they aren't poor enough for Medicaid. With no health care plan on the table and ready to pass it to deal with these issues.

To somewhat defend President Obama here. A brand new fairly inexperienced President who has never run an administration before, whose whole career up to that point was in the private sector and as a legislature in Illinois and not quite four years as a U.S. Senator, coming into power with a boatload of issues he has to deal with immediately, that is the situation that he came into with his background. I could see why he felt the need to do something fast and make it clear to the country that he is on the job. But someone with more experience and perhaps a better team around him would've said. "You know what, let's do this right before we do it fast". And would've gone bigger early on to address the economy even it took Congress longer to pass a recovery bill. 

Real Time With Bill Maher: 'Atheism Is Not a Religion'

Source:Real Time With Bill Maher- on Atheism and religion.

Source:The Daily Press

"Bill Maher on HBO's "Real Time" goes on a rant about how atheism and theism are incompatible ideologically. He "un-baptizes" Mitt Romney's deceased father-in-law, who was himself an atheist. Funny as hell!" 

From Pariah 2001

This photo is from the same monologue/editorial Bill Maher did on the same program about Atheism and religion.

Source:Real Time With Bill Maher- on Atheism and religion.

Religion: "the belief in and worship of a superhuman power or powers, especially a God or gods.

"ideas about the relationship between science and religion" 

Atheism: "disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods' 

You can see these definitions for yourself at Dictionary.com. 

Of course I agree that Atheism is not a religion. But I also believe hat if jump into a lake, I would get wet. Unless someone who was dying of first, managed to drink every last drop of water, before landed in the lake. But I don't think that's the point here. 

I think the point here is that Atheists, especially hard-core Atheists who put down everyone who is religious the same way that fundamentalist believers put down everyone who disagrees with them on anything, including other believers, sound like fundamentalists as well. 

If you think about it, Atheists and fundamentalists have one big thing in common and this includes Bill Maher: they don't disagree with the Golden Rule, they hate the Golden Rule to the point that they think it should be outlawed. 

If you are going to live in a free society, it helps to not put down people as immoral, crazy, and stupid, simply because of religion, or any other issues where the individuals have a constitutional right to decide for themselves whether to be part of whatever the activity is. 

America has lasted almost 240 years with fundamentalists, Atheists, and Agnostics, even with the fact that we've always had fundamentalists on the Far-Right, who not only love their religious beliefs, but think they should be the law of the land and hate the concept of the Separation of Church and State. And not just Atheists, but Communists on the Far-Left, who would probably try to outlaw organized religion, if they ever came to power. 

One of the beauties of free speech and personal freedom, it allows for everyone to be themself and live and learn. Let's keep it that way. 

Bill Maher: 'Be More Cynical on Religion'

Source:Free Thinking- Real Time With Bill Maher. No, really. This is not his TV show.

Source:The Daily Press

Being cynical is probably a conservative boring way to live your life. Where you'll end up taking less risks and your not putting your heart on the line very often. Not trying to sound gushy, but being cynical has its advantages as well. You'll probably get burned and disappointed less, because you're taking less chances. You're not automatically going to take someone's word when they say something. 

For example when a member of Congress refers to someone from the other party as their friend, which happens all the time in the Senate, you're not automatically going to assume Sen. Smith is friends with Sen. Jones or John McCain is friends with George W. Bush. Just because they say that, you'll understand that they may just be saying that. 

That's how Washington works and when a member of Congress is referred to as a distinguished gentlemen or distinguished gentlelady, you know that they not be distinguished at all. Perhaps except for being a leader in Congress when it comes to fundraising, or bridges to nowhere, or "bringing home the bacon", that no one eats. Because no one lives or drives there, etc. 

If you trust someone who has a good track record with you, they have sound judgement, etc and they invite out to treat you for dinner or will pick up the check, you know to take their word they'll do those things. But when you offer them something to eat and give it to them, something they never had before and they taste it and have a horrible look on their face and they say its not good, chances are they are just being nice and don't take that seriously. Truth and flattery are different.

The only advice I would give here, is take things in life for what they are. And don't automatically assume everything you hear is the truth. Especially from people who need you for something. I would start with politicians, but anyone who needs something from you, when they do and say things that make sense and you know why they did it and understand it, great. 

But if they do or say something strange that's out of character and is something that's not a good thing, for example let's say you love playing tennis. And someone you know needs something from you. And they don't have a clue about tennis and don't even like the game and they start talking to about tennis, trying to express an interest in it, even challenging you to a match, don't automatically assume they've become tennis fans. 

They just might want you to believe that they are tennis fans instead, as a way to communicate to you. When they give you an explanation for it, unless it makes sense and adds up, don't automatically assume they are saying what happened or the whole truth. Because they might only be saying what they want you to hear.

I know I'm a political junky and I have this pattern of using political stories to communicate broader points. But this is my last political story here. Politicians are the perfect people to be cynical about. If a white collar politician comes to your state, hell let's say running for President, why not and I'm not going to use a name here, a wealthy white collar wine and cheese yuppy politician, let's say. 

This person comes to your State and let's say your state has a lot of blue collar workers there, lets say Pennsylvania or Ohio. And this politician stops by one of your local taverns or bowling allies in Pittsburgh, to speak to your people. And this person comes to show you his bowling skills, trying to convince you he has some. 

Or the white collar limo owning and riding politician  drinks beer to show you he likes beer, but generally doesn't do these things, don't automatically assume this politician is like you. But instead wants you to believe he is, to get you to vote for him. He wants your vote not to be friends. 

The more you take things as they are and not just what you want them to be, the better you'll be off if life. And I know that sounds unromantic and perhaps unreligious, but what do you expect from an Agnostic anyway. Because you'll always know or at least most of them depending on how intelligent you are, who is with you and who wants you to believe they are with you in order to get something out of you.
Source:Free Thinking

Movie Clips Classic Trailers: Primary Colors (1998) John Travolta as Bill Clinton

Source:Movie Clips Classic Trailer Vaults- Adrian Lester as Henry Burton.

Source:The Daily Press 

"Primary Colors Trailer - Directed by Mike Nichols and starring John Travolta, Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy Bates, Adrian Lester. Jack Stanton is the charismatic governor of a southern state who decides to run for President. The film follows Stanton's bumbling, philandering and plotting as he rises to the top of American politics."

From Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers 

"A man joins the political campaign of a smooth-operator candidate for President of the U.S."

Source:IMDB- left to right: Adrian Lester.

From IMDB 

"Jack Stanton is running for president. The election is seen through the eyes of young Henry Burton. Along the way Stanton must deal with a sex scandal. Written by Anonymous"

Source:IMDB- left to right: John Travolta, Emma Thompson, and Adrian Lester.

From IMDB 

I saw the movie Primary Colors in the spring of 1998. Doesn't seem that long ago, but that's a different story with a long time friend of mine from high school who'll go nameless. And we saw it for free because my friend worked at a movie theater, one of the few perks of being friends with him. 

And I looked forward to seeing this movie, because it reminded me of a real life Southern politician another New Democrat. (The real Liberal Democrats) Who is a political hero of mine, who had the ability and vision to do great things. But lacked personal discipline, made too many mistakes for someone with his intelligence who also had a strong take charge attractive wife played by Emma Thomas. Who've could've been very successful on her own.

The question being could her husband be successful on his own. Same question in this movie Primary Colors was full of scenes that looked like the real person I'm talking about and if you've seen the movie and follow American politics, you probably already know who I'm talking about. 

And the movie was also based on this real life person, liberal governor from the South who culturally fit in very well with his state and the broader region. Who didn't have any Federal Government experience, not even serving in the military. Who despite being a Southerner, fit in very well with people outside of that region especially Northeastern and Hollywood Democrats who have a lot of power in the Democratic Party if not run the party.

The main politician in Primary Colors the character played by John Travolta, great actor and a very funny man Governor Jack Stanton running for President, had the strong wife that I was talking about. Started running for President in New Hampshire with a very small budget and staff, just like the real life person. 

Had a sex scandal that involved a long time friend of the Governor, had really smart political strategist also from the South played by Billy Bob Thornton. Again long time friend of the Governor just like the real life person, veteran politicos as well a young people on his staff. Just like the real life person and there was a question of whether Governor  Stanton evaded the Vietnam War Draft just like the real life character.

There was a primary debate where Governor Stanton had a big moment to win the debate just like the real movie. There was a campaign event, where Governor Stanton was able to connect with the audience his I feel your pain moment just like the real movie. When Governor  Stanton basically told the audience that: "I know times are tough, but I can't promise you the jobs you lost are coming back. That it's time that a lot of American workers go back to school and learn other trades". Which also happened with the real life character. And of course the comeback kid moment in New Hampshire where Governor Stanton does well enough in New Hampshire to keep his campaign going.

Of course the real life person I"m talking about is Bill Clinton who back in 1991-92, when he was running for President was Governor of Arkansas and was a Liberal Democrat ,but in the true sense. Progressive sure, but also understood the limits of government and the New Deal and Great Society. And that government has to be more responsible with tax revenue and of course all those situations that I just laid in the movie actually happened with Bill Clinton or were very similar. 

Very intelligent, but not very discipline, strong intelligent wife with Hillary Clinton. Small budget and campaign in New Hampshire, memorable debate where he takes on Jerry Brown. The campaign event where he feels the senior citizens pain and walks up to her and hugs her. The sex scandal with Jennifer Flowers, the story of whether Bill Clinton dodged the Vietnam War. Great political strategist Jim Carville all of these things being true. 

Primary Colors was based on Bill Clinton and his 1992 campaign for president where of course he was elected president. And also based on a book by author Joel Klein that was fictional with different names for the characters. But still based on a true story and they both did a very good job and this was a very entertaining movie.

Fire Cloud: The Contender (2000) Lane Evans: The Church of Liberalism

Source:The New Democrat

Except for the part about taking every gun out of private hands and private homes, which might be a far-left Hollywood fantasy and clearly against the Second Amendment and the Right to Self-Defense, this was a very good speech by Vice Presidential nominee Senator Lane Evans in The Contender. She was talking about the women's Right to Choose, of course referring to abortion. The constitutional amendment that gave women the right to vote. Freeing the African slaves in the civil war and using military force to fight for human rights.

If I wrote that speech, I would've taken out the part about the guns, left everything else in there. And also talked about Freedom of Speech for everyone, the Right to Privacy for everyone to do everything as long as innocent people aren't hurt as a result. The right to a quality education for all, which I believe we should have for freedom to really be available to everyone. Instead of writing a speech that makes liberalism look like some form of statism, I would've talked about the freedom that liberalism is actually about and not statism. But this for the most part was an excellent speech.