Vicki Dahl: The Marilyn Monroe Story

Source:Vicki Dahl- The Marilyn Monroe Story from Lifetime Network.

Source:The Daily Review

Had Marilyn Monroe been mentally as strong as she was physically, or even mentally half as strong as she was physically, she’s probably still alive today. Unless some jealous disturbed women murdered her, because she could no longer handle how much better looking Marilyn was over her. If Marilyn was strong mentally, to go with her appearance and body, we might be talking about the goddess of all-time. I would still be leaning towards Sophia Loren and perhaps a few other women. Imagine had Marilyn’s brain matched her face. Imagine if mentally she wasn’t as adorable and immature as she was physically. That she didn’t look at life from the standpoint of a 16-year-old girl, but instead as an early middle-age 36-year-old women. Which is how old she was when she died.

Forget about the great legs, the butt, the body that was perfectly designed and perhaps purposely designed for the skinny jeans in boots look today. The long strong legs and round butt, that of course she had. She was a hell of an actress, as well as a great comedian and when she was happy she was about as funny as anyone in Hollywood and probably could have written her own humorous scripts for TV and the movies in her forties had she just lived in a natural life in years. She was an excellent singer, she had great moves, she could act very well and probably ends up winning awards as an actress and not just as a comedic actress. But these were her talents and you don’t last in Hollywood simply on talent. You have to work and hold it together personally as well.

Unfortunately Marilyn Monroe fits the old cliché, ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’, like a glove. As perfect as she was on the outside, she was at times at least just as weak on the inside. With the personality and maturity level of a teenage girl and even the voice of one. She’s a women who never grew up mentally and could never see how great a talent that she was and how great of a future that she had only she was just reached and out grabbed it. Laid off the booze and pills, showed up for work on time and do the work and produce the great films and performances that she was more than capable of doing time after time being rewarded handsomely for her great performances. This is the Marilyn that we would have seen had she just had been mentally strong enough for it.

Crash Course: Craig Benzine- 'The Bicameral Congress: Crash Course Government and Politics'

Source:Crash Course- The United States Congress, from Crash Course.

Source:The New Democrat

"In which Craig Benzine teaches you about the United States Congress, and why it's bicameral, and what bicameral means. Craig tells you what the Senate and House of Representatives are for, some of the history of the institutions, and reveal to you just how you can become a representative. It's not that easy. But an eagle gets punched, so there's that."

From Crash Course

The main reason why we have a bicameral Congress made up of a House of Representatives and a Senate, is because our Founding Fathers (The Founding Liberals) came from an authoritarian unitarian dictatorial country. That was run by a monarchy and had an official state religion. The United Kingdom of course and the Founding Fathers wanted to create a free society that had a limited responsible government. Where a lot of power wasn’t rested with one part of government, or in one office. But spread out and accountable to the people. For Congress to pass any laws, they have to do it together. The House and Senate, have to come together and work out the final bill that both chambers pass and get the President to sign what they agreed on.

As surprising and disappointing to today’s so-called Progressives as this may be, we don’t have a unicameral Congress and a Senate, that makes up our federal legislature. We don’t have a Congress and a Senate and every time I hear someone say that we do and say the Congress and Senate, or our Congress members and Senators, or even Congress people and Senators, I think to myself no wonder the world sees Americans as stupid. Because you have all of these people who not only don’t understand their own history, but don’t get their own form of government. And perhaps only have high school diplomas, because their schools were tired of seeing them and trying to teach them. The Senate, is a big part of Congress and the bigger part as far as power. And the power that an individual Senator has over a Representative.

We have 535 Members of Congress. 435 Representatives in the House and a 100 Senators in the Senate. Representatives, represent sections and generally gerrymandered House districts that are part of states. But Senators have to represent the entire state and are accountable to the entire state. Which is one example of why they’re more powerful than individual Representatives, because again their accountable to more people and have to speak to more people. Even if politically and ideologically they agree with what their party colleagues in the House want to do on a bill and even if they were once a Representative themselves, they might not be able to politically go along with what their party is doing in the House. Because it could hurt them politically at home voting for something that is so ideological and partisan. Which means they have to compromise.

The House of Representatives, or HR, is accountable to the popular will of the people. The people they represent and when something becomes very popular with the majority party in the House, they tend to act quickly and pass their own bill. With very little if any input from the minority party, even the minority leadership. The House is known for show votes, because that is what they do a lot of. They pass bills that either clearly don’t have sixty-votes in the Senate, or the other party controls the Senate and that bill won’t come up anyway, because the Senate Leader will kill the bill by himself. The Senate, usually is where the action is as far as bills that are passed that get signed into law by the President. The House passes a partisan bill. It dies or is blocked in the Senate and the Senate passes a compromise worked out by the majority and minority leadership’s.

Again, Senators have to represent an entire state and unless they come from a state where one party and one political philosophy is clearly in control, like South Carolina, or Massachusetts, there’s a limit to how partisan they can be and still be able to pass bills and even get reelected. Senators who are there to legislate, (Senators other than Ted Cruz) have to be able to work with their more moderate members in their caucus, their own leadership and even practical Senators from the other party. If they want top committee assignments, elected to leadership, build up a solid Senate record in Congress and even get consistently reelected. Because their own party in their state might not be that radical and part of the Center-Left, or Center-Right, depending on which party they come from. And because of this bicameral Congress it makes it difficult to pass bad partisan legislation in Congress. because you have a partisan House, but a Senate that has to work together to get anything done.

The Steve Allen Show: Lenny Bruce (1959)

Source:Sam Legend Wrestling- Comedian Lenny Bruce, on The Steve Allen Show in 1959.

Source:The Daily Review

"Lenny is tender/mean/sweet at the same time. Enjoy! One of my favorite comedy  bits of him."

Source:Michal Oleszcyzk- " Lenny Bruce: All Alone." On The Steve Allen Show in 1959.

From Sam Legend Wrestling

Source:The Daily Review- Comedian Lenny Bruce, on The Steve Allen Show in 1959. 

"Lenny's heart-wrenching take on solitude and love's end... It always makes my eyes dewy: Lenny's SO autobiographical here, and so tender/mean/sweet at the same time. Enjoy!" Originally from Michal Oleszcyzk, but the video since has been deleted or blocked on YouTube.

Steve Allen, right before he brought on Lenny Bruce, made a great comment and I realize he was being humorous, but he was damn right on it. He said and I'm paraphrasing: "We should just offend everybody so we don't have worry about offending anyone.

And Lenny Bruce is the comedian to do that, because that's is exactly what they meaning Steve Allen and Lenny Bruce, we're talking about back then which was censorship and political correctness, but not from the Left, (the Far-Left, really) but the Right.

Lenny Bruce, had a message and his own act and issues he wanted to talk about. And he also believed in free speech, which all comedians really should. And he couldn't give a damn if his act offended people, especially when it was just entertainment anyway.

Comedy, is not for oversensitive tight asses, who think fat jokes are anti-obesity. Or gay jokes are automatically homophobic, or religious jokes Christian, Muslim, whoever else, that person is some bigot towards that religious group.

Comedy, is exactly that, a way to critique life and people in life. Including groups and even talk people and groups and their shortcomings. Not to say that every member of whatever group, has some clear flaw, but to point out humorous flaws about members of certain groups and even flaws that some groups carry as a group.

The political correctness movement of the 1950s, didn't want to hear jokes about sex, religion and sure as hell didn't want to hear adult language. Especially since they still saw adults as kids for the most part who needed to be babysat.

The political correctness warriors of the 1950s, didn't want to hear jokes about sex, because they believe sex didn't exist or something. They didn't want to hear jokes about narcotics, because they were on alcohol or marijuana highs and believed narcotics simply didn't exist.

Lenny Bruce, challenged the political correctness establishment in America and paid a hell of a price for it. All he was about was free speech and talking about issues and using adult language even that most Americans, at least outside of the Bible Belt used anyway, but did it in public. Did it in a way that simply wasn't done back then for the most part and didn't become mainstream at all, at least until the late 1960s.

Lenny Bruce was a true American, because he was an individual who felt the freedom to be himself. And express how he felt about issues even in public.Lenny felt no need to fit in to whatever was the culturally correct closet, because he was an American in the best sense of the term as someone who felt and had the freedom to be himself. Instead of whatever was considered culturally correct at the time. 

National Constitution Center: As Expected, Affirmative Action Arguments Featured Anthony Kennedy & Antonin Scalia

Source:National Constitution Center inside the U.S. Supreme Court with a cartoon.

Source:The New Democrat

The end of quota set-aside racially and ethnically based affirmative action, is finally coming to an end in America. And may be headed out the door this year with the Texas case at the U.S. Supreme Court. The type of affirmative action that I just described, is not popular in America and that is because of the two young adult populations. The Gen-Xers and the Millennial’s, who simply don’t judge people by race and ethnicity, by in large with exceptions with the Far-Left in these generations. And we have a Supreme Court that at least has a majority that doesn’t want racial and ethnic set-asides and a Congress that can’t and won’t do anything to overrule the Supreme Court, assuming this affirmative action gets thrown out. Which means what comes after racial and ethnic set-asides and quotas once they’re thrown out.

As a Liberal myself I see this as a great opportunity, because once racial and ethnic set-asides are thrown out, we can get back to the heart of problem for why racial and ethnic majorities and really why African and Latin-Americans, are behind economically compared with Caucasian and Asian-Americans. Which has to do with things like education, economic development, infrastructure and civil rights enforcement. African and Latin-Americans, are behind Caucasian and Asians economically, not because of their race or their ethnicity. But because they tend to come from communities where education and economic opportunity, simply don’t exist. At least not to the point where these communities can be successful.

Before doctors can prescribe prescriptions to medical conditions, they first have to know what the problem, or problems that their patients are facing. And find a prescription to those problems. If you have communities that are dealing with high rates of poverty and they lack infrastructure, education and economic development, it seems to me at least that is where you go to fix that economic condition. Not give set-asides to people who don’t have the education and skills to take advantage of what you’re trying to reward them with. Especially when those set-asides come at the expense of people whether they’re Caucasian, Asian, or whoever, who are qualified to take advantage of those economic and educational opportunities.

A real affirmative action program in America, would look something like a Marshall Plan, but do it in America. Where we’re pouring in aide and resources, into underserved communities in America, urban, rural and even suburban, regardless of race. Empowering non-profits, building underserved communities, encouraging economic development in those communities, building schools, making higher education universally affordable, empowering people in those communities to become small business owners, toughen civil rights enforcement, so it’s not in the financial interest of organizations, to deny access to people simply because of their race, ethnicity, or gender. And then you would see real racial and ethnic equality in America when it comes to economics.

A real affirmative action plan would be a plan that would empower underserved and economically depressed Americans to be able to stand up on their own feet and acquire real economic freedom and live their own American dream. Simply because they were given an opportunity not because of their race or ethnicity, but because they are an American who simply needs an opportunity to get on their own two feet. Not giving people opportunity who are not ready for it, simply because of their race or ethnicity, especially at the expense of people who are qualified to have that access. Economic empowerment should be about empowering people in need. Again regardless of race, ethnicity, or gender. Not about giving access to people simply because they’re a member of a traditionally underserved group in America.

New America Foundation: Double Take- Speaking On Freedom of Speech

Source:New America Foundation-

Source:The Daily Review

At risk of sounding like a nationalist, but people right and left have debated whether America is exceptional or not the last ten years or so and debating what is called American Exceptionalism. Is America an exceptional place or not and if we are, are we exceptional in a positive sense. Do we represent as Americans the right values or not. Our First Amendment which of course is our guaranteed constitutional right to Freedom of Speech, is one example of why we are exceptional. Along with our diversity which is across the board and our other guaranteed civil liberties and constitutional rights.

No constitutional right is absolute and that includes both the First Amendment and the Second Amendment. But what it means is that Americans essentially have unlimited free speech and free expression rights and basically and unlimited ability to express ourselves and how we feel about things, places, issues, culture and even people. Short of inciting violence, violently harassing people, or falsely libeling people. And then others have the same right to express how they feel about us. Which means Donald Trump can run his nonsensical reality show disguised as a presidential campaign and say all sorts of garbage about groups of Americans. And the rest of the country has the same right to express out they feel about The Donald. The Captain of Reality TV.

Free Speech, is not a threat to America. The opposite is the truth, which is fascism in the form of political correctness, whether it comes from the Far-Left or Far-Right. That says the political correctness warriors knows best what is acceptable and unacceptable speech. And they’ll decide what people should think and what we can say. You can’t have a liberal democracy without free speech and a liberal right to free speech. Put all the views out there and then let the people weigh in on what the speakers and thinkers are saying. Correct the falsehoods, reward the truth tellers and critique the liars. That is how liberal democracy and free speech works. Instead of having some Board of Experts deciding what is appropriate and improper speech in a developed society.

The Week in Review: 2015 Holiday Season

Source:The Daily Review-

Source:The Daily Review

My 2015 holiday season other than not seeing the sun at all until really my last day in Port Ludlow, Washington which is about an hour or so outside of Seattle in Kitsap County just off of Bainbridge Island, was by in large positive. I don’t see my family other than my parents that much to begin with. My family for the most part is now in California, while I’m in Maryland just outside of Washington. So we’re three-thousand miles apart physically, as well as miles apart personally as far as being very different people. I’m talking about my two brothers really. Who both are now married with their own families. So I don’t go out-of-my-way to stay in touch with them.

I haven’t seen my brothers and sister in-laws, their wives for three years before we saw each other last week. My choice really. I’m fine with my older brother who generally speaking is a great guy with a great and really cute and friendly wife, my older sister in-law. And they have three great kids. My nephew and two of my nieces. But he rarely speaks unless spoken to. He’s pretty aloof, at least in my experience with him. How his wife communicates with him I may never know. Perhaps they just talk about what’s for dinner and whose picking up the kids, some weather we’re having and that sort of thing. But I had a great time with them and the two days I had with them last week. Especially my nephew Nicholas, who reminds me of me as far as his interest in sports and history.

My little brother, is sort of the opposite of Alex, but we don’t get along very well. He’s got an opinion about everything and we’re almost complete opposites when it comes to personality. He can be bit a judgemental prick and that might be an off day for him. As a Liberal, I’m a live and let live person. My attitude on life is basically, “its your life pal, as long as you’re not hurting someone.” And I could care less how someone eats their spaghetti and how they comb their hair. Plus, he can be very stupid, but in an insulting way. Ask really dumb questions as if they’re legitimate, or state the obvious as if he’s being informative. Our father, is very similar, but Kit is much worst and at least Dad won’t be really sensitive when I call him out on his insulting stupidity. Kit, will act like he’s completely not at fault. He and his wife, are perfect for San Francisco and that yuppie snobby universe.

But, it’s not as if I don’t love my family, including my in-laws. It’s just that I don’t feel the need to see and talk to them on a regular basis. But it was three-years and my little brother and his wife, just had their first baby in late 2014, so I was thinking this would be a good opportunity to meet my new niece. And catch up with my other nieces and nephew, as well as my brothers and sister in-laws. Even if it meant spending a week in the Seattle area, where you have a better chance of drowning in a flood, than ever seeing the sun while you are there. Which is why I went out there to hang out with them and see if I could get along with my little brother and little sister in-law. Perhaps hear my baby niece’s first words and try to have a good time.

Another reason why I don’t go to Seattle where my parents have a second home in Port Ludlow, is because it’s basically like flying to Alaska from the East Coast. You literally spend the whole first day traveling, or waiting for your plane, ferry, or ride. I tend to leave early in the morning East Coast time and finally get to the house late at night ECT. So that tends to wear me out. But the first three days that I had with my parents, little bother, sister in-law and brand new niece, were fairly positive. We saw Goodfellas together as a family. A movie the whole family likes. One of my parents friends from that area joined us for Christmas and she’s great and we had a good time with her. We managed to not get on each others nerves. Which is a hell of an accomplishment for the Schneider Family when we’re all together. I took a couple of hikes in between rain storms up there.

The next two days were with my older brother Alex and his wife my older sister in-law Sandra. Had dinner with them their first night in town. Played basketball, hung out with them at their second home in Port Townsend. Threw the football with my nephew Nicholas and talked NFL history. Think about that for a minute. I’m talking about NFL history and the history of the San Francisco 49ers, with a nine-year old boy. Hanging out with him was not like hanging out with a kid. We played basketball together. he knocked down a couple of three-pointers, we played pool together, threw the football around and talked football history. This is a nine-year old boy, who lives in the San Francisco area, that might know more about the Washington Redskins than a lot of Redskins fans. Hanging out with Nick, was like hanging out with myself, or grown man. He’s just a lot more advanced than a lot of kids his age. This coming from his uncle, but its true.

Coming back from Seattle, is really a blog in itself. Seattle, a little more than half the size of the Washington, DC area, is a fairly large community with a lot of tourist attractions, but they only have one big city airport, which is SeaTac. Which might be the worst big city airport in America. The Washington area in contrast, has three great major airports. So getting through SeaTac, plus dealing with TSA, is not fun. And by the time I get to my gate to go to Minneapolis, my stop before Washington, I find out my flight has not only been delayed, but by two-hours. So no I know my trip home has been screwed and what do I do once I get to Minneapolis. Delta, whatever you think of them, are very customer friendly and don’t like losing customers. They put me up for one night at the Raddison in Bloomington, Minnesota. Which is near their airport.

By in large, this was a very positive trip. Still not crazy about going to Seattle especially during their rainy season, which is only twelve months a year and every time I go out there the weather is Washington tends to be warm and beautiful, which makes the experience even worst getting local weather reports back home. But I will make bigger effort in the future to see my brothers and their beautiful families more often and would like to go to San Francisco to visit them. Where they all live now and perhaps avoid Seattle instead.
Source:Grace Helbig

Barbara Walters Interviews of a Lifetime: Raquel Welch (1985)

Source:Drew David- Hollywood Goddess Raquel Welch.

Source:The Daily Review

Raquel Welch by 1985, was not the big star in Hollywood that she was in the early and mid 1970s, but she was still a big star. Who could find work easily and didn't have much if any trouble staying busy. She was 44-45 at this point and as you can see you still looked great. Even with the short hair, but take it up twenty-five years later to 2010 the year she turned 70, she was still red-hot and baby-faced adorable as a seventy-year old women who was collecting Medicare and Social Security. But that is Raquel Welch. She's said several times before that she sees part of her job to look great all the time. To take care of herself which is what she's been doing ever since she came to Hollywood in the 1960s.

Raquel, isn't a Hollywood goddess because she was born with a great face and body and hair. Those things are obviously part of it, but the real reason is because she's a true professional. She takes care of herself and does projects that makes her look great. And by the mid and late 1970s I believe we finally got to see Raquel as the actress and entertainer, doing roles that showcased her talents as a singer and as a comedian. Myra Breckinridge, whatever you think of the movie and I love the film, she was great and very funny in it, but go up to 1977 with Mother Jugs and Speed, where she uses all of the sexual talk about her and plays off of it and throws it back in those guys face. To show them how they sound, you see the great comedic timing, ability and improvisation of her as well.

Raquel Welch, is a true Hollywood goddess, because yes she's physically a goddess, but you need more than that otherwise you're going to burn out at a certain point when you're no longer considered fresh. The reason why Raquel stands up from lets say Hollywood playmates and even bimbos, because she has real talent as an actress and entertainer. She's a Golden Globe winner and has worked on Seinfeld and done other TV roles mostly in comedy. And has done more TV in her seventies as well. You don't last this long in Hollywood if you can't do the job. Play the parts that are given you, or even have the ability to create parts for yourself if you don't like what's coming your way. Raquel Welch, is built to last and when she turns 80, she'll probably still be seen as a Hollywood goddess.