Yearly Archives: 2011

Kirk Douglas is turning 95, video clips of movies and interviews

December 8, 2011 – 2:57 pm

You can’t  get more American than Kirk Douglas who turns 95 on Dec 9, 2011.

President Reagan posing with Kirk Douglas and his wife Anne Buydens at a private dinner at Eldorado Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California. 12/30/87.

I have a story to tell about Kirk Douglas. A good friend of mine was the pastor at a small church in Fillmore, California several years ago.  He said back in 1995 Fillmore’s Towne Theater was restored with the help of Kirk Douglas.  It is the only movie house in the town and it only has one screen. Several of my friend’s church members told him that they would notice at times that after a movie would start they would notice Kirk Douglas sneaking in about 5 minutes after the movie would start.

Below is a great article on Kirk by John Farr:

Kirk Douglas Turns 95!

Should we call him “Spartacus”? Or “Champion”? Both names certainly fit the man.

Kirk Douglas turns 95 tomorrow, and he is still very much with us. (Over the past couple of years, I’ve spotted him and his beloved wife Anne twice in New York City, once in a restaurant and once at the theatre.)

He embodies the American Dream because he seized it with the same intensity that animated his characters on-screen. Born in Amsterdam, New York to impoverished immigrant parents, from early days he had a burning desire to perform, and saw acting as his ticket to a better life. He received a scholarship at the American Academy Of Dramatic Arts, earning food money as a gardener and janitor.

After World War 2, an AADA classmate who’d made good, Lauren Bacall, pointed the talented, ambitious Kirk to legendary producer Hal B. Wallis. The actor’s subsequent debut in “The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers” (1946) marked him as a comer. Kirk would rarely, if ever, look back.

An iconic star and producer in Hollywood, he has lived the life of ten men. He was almost on the plane that went down with producer Michael Todd in 1958. He broke the Hollywood blacklist by insisting that screenwriter Dalton Trumbo receive credit for “Spartacus.” He survived a helicopter crash that killed two others. He suffered a massive stroke that robbed him of his speech, and then worked ceaselessly in therapy to regain it. He’s seen one son become a star, and lost another to a drug overdose.

What has sustained him is his Jewish faith (which he re-discovered later in life), and the love and loyalty of his second wife. Their marriage has flourished for close to sixty years.

He holds most every award worth having, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for his longstanding, little-known service as a Goodwill Ambassador for the State Department).

Though he was nominated three times, he never won an Academy Award, but was awarded an Honorary Oscar in 1995.

On this milestone birthday, Kirk Douglas should know that he still commands the love and respect of his many fans.

As to his film legacy, the following list is evidence enough that like the man himself, his best work endures and only improves with age.

Out Of The Past (1947)- Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) plays a former gumshoe trying to start a new life who gets dragged back in to his old one. Via flashback we learn slick gangster Whit Sterling (Douglas) hired Jeff to recover his mistress Kathie (Jane Greer), who’d absconded with some of his cash south of the border. When Jeff eventually finds her, she seduces him, claiming she’s innocent of theft, and simply escaping from a bad man. But all is not as it seems, and soon enough Jeff has to take it on the lam himself. Now Whit has called him back for a final reckoning, and more surprises are in store. Replete with expressionistic lighting, ominous atmosphere, cynical dialogue, and a sizzling femme fatale, Jacques Tourneur’s “Out of the Past” is quintessential film noir. In a star-making performance, Mitchum cemented his image as a laconic, heavy-lidded fatalist, while the white-hot Greer- radiant as Kathie-executes one of the most sensual entrances in film history. A young Douglas also scores as slick gangster Sterling. All conspire to make Tourneur’s “Past” damn close to perfect. Remade to lesser effect as “Against All Odds” (1984).

Champion (1949)- After moving to California with his bum-legged brother Connie (Arthur Kennedy), working-class striver Midge Kelly (Douglas) enters the fight game thanks to small-time trainer Tommy (Paul Stewart), who spots a raw talent. Midge rises quickly through the middleweight ranks, but throws aside friends, lovers, the mob, and all moral principles to nab a title bout. Douglas is ruthless and utterly riveting in his hard-charging breakthrough role. Surrounded by a stable of gifted supporting players like Kennedy, Stewart, Marilyn Maxwell (as a high-living, seductive gold digger), and Lola Albright (as Midge’s married lover), Douglas embodies the stubborn, selfish qualities that make Midge both a hero and a lost cause. Mark Robson’s solid direction and taut pacing further distinguish this excellent boxing drama, which earned six Oscar nods (including one for Kirk) and lots of ringside fans.

Ace In The Hole (1951)- Thanks to womanizing, a drinking problem, and a defiant streak, fiery big-city journalist Charles Tatum (Kirk Douglas) has been relegated to working a local beat for a tiny New Mexico Daily, but he hasn’t lost his taste for the big time. When a miner is trapped in a cave-in, Tatum savvily exploits and prolongs the man’s plight in hopes of engineering his own prime-time comeback to the big-city dailies which have discarded him. Prescient, cynical, and daring for its time, Billy Wilder’s acid-tongued satire on media sensationalism stars Kirk in one of his fiercest early roles. As Tatum, he’s a mean-spirited multiple loser pursuing self-glorification at any expense. The luscious Jan Sterling wins points, too, for her portrayal of the trapped man’s battered, unhappy wife, Lorraine, who threatens to blow the lid off Tatum’s whole circus act. Wilder’s astute handling of the chaotic scene around the mine – the media hordes, the gawkers and hangers-on, the souvenir and snack peddlers profiting off the situation – has much to say about our culture’s lingering appetite for “human interest” tragedy.

Detective Story (1951)- Over an eventful day in New York’s 21st Precinct, Detective James McLeod (Douglas), a man of unwavering principle, works over various thugs and thieves with the swaggering confidence of a veteran cop. But his attempts to put away a shady doctor (George Macready) lead him to discover a corrosively painful truth about his beloved wife, Mary (Eleanor Parker). Before “Homicide” or “Hill Street Blues” came this gritty, hard-hitting cop drama based on Sidney Kingsley’s play. Honed to tense perfection by director William Wyler, the film is a showcase for fine, colorful ensemble acting by William Bendix (as the no-nonsense lieutenant), Lee Grant (reprising her role as a mousy shoplifter), Bert Freed (as McLeod’s sensitive partner), and Joseph Wiseman (as a hilariously “innocent” Italian burglar). But it’s Douglas’s fierce, tragic performance as a modern lawman who still sees the world in stark black and white terms that provides the gut-twisting dramatic ironies. Absorbing and devastating, this “Story” gets under your skin and stays there.

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)- Ruthless, down-on-his-luck producer Jonathan Shields (Douglas) desperately needs a blockbuster to keep his studio afloat, and knows he can get one if he signs up actress Georgia Lorrison (Lana Turner), director Fred Amiel (Barry Sullivan), and writer James Lee Bartlow (Dick Powell), all of whose careers he helped launch. Trouble is, they all hate Shields for turning his back on them on his way up. One of my favorite movies about Hollywood, this sharp, stylized melodrama gets top-flight treatment from director Vincente Minnelli, who certainly knew his subject! Featuring a powerhouse cast– Douglas, Turner, Powell, Sullivan, as well as Walter Pidgeon and a personal favorite, Gloria Grahame–this scathing look at the inner workings of Tinseltown is a Hollywood voyeur’s dream. The intense, Oscar-winning “Bad” is anything but- a first-rate ensemble piece that will keep you glued to the final credits.

Paths Of Glory (1957)- Aloof, ambitious French General Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) sends his men out on a suicide mission during the First World War, and when they ultimately retreat, selects three soldiers at random to face charges of cowardice, for which the sentence is death. Guilt-ridden and seething with injustice, the soldiers’ commander, Colonel Dax (Douglas) defends his men in the court martial proceedings, all the while sensing that his just, righteous cause may already be lost. Few films expose war’s insanity more starkly or with such naked power, contrasting the all-powerful, remote armchair generals with young recruits, mere pawns in an obscene political game, who get slaughtered on the front line of the war to end all wars. We share Dax’s righteous fury at the plight of his men as the rushed sham of a trial progresses. Menjou is particularly loathsome as Broulard, and Ralph Meeker also registers as one of the condemned soldiers. One of Stanley Kubrick’s earlier, less self-indulgent gems, this stark, disturbing anti-war film hasn’t aged a bit. (Kirk’s production company, Bryna, made this enduring classic possible.)

Spartacus (1960)- In ancient Rome, a slave called Spartacus (Douglas) leads a tortured, monotonous life of backbreaking labor. By chance he’s able to improve his fortunes by training as a gladiator. Yet even this promotion spells certain death in fighting contests staged for patricians like General Crassus (Laurence Olivier). When Spartacus stages a daring escape from his captors, he mobilizes the slave population into a powerful army, which sets its sights on Crassus’s legions-and Rome itself. This rousing epic was disowned by director Stanley Kubrick after a contentious, difficult production, but “Spartacus” still offers grand-scale entertainment, thanks to bold, sure-handed direction and a powerhouse cast. The brawny, clench-jawed Douglas shines in his signature role, while Olivier is suitably poisonous as the cold-blooded Crassus. Other notables include the rotund Peter Ustinov providing comic relief as a cowardly slave-trader, and Charles Laughton, who lends gravitas as a senior Roman senator. If you’re craving generous portions of spectacle and sweep, here’s your movie.

Lonely Are The Brave (1962)- When he learns that his close friend Paul (Michael Kane) has been sentenced to two years in prison for helping illegals cross the border, rugged, free-roaming Jack Burns (Douglas) deliberately gets himself incarcerated, too (by punching a cop), so he can engineer a jail break. But the once-rebellious Paul has mellowed since marrying and starting a family with his wife (Gena Rowlands), and has no interest in becoming a fugitive. So Jack decides to go it alone, one man against the world of law. Scripted by blacklist writer Dalton Trumbo from a novel by Edward Abbey, David Miller’s “Brave” pits the ideals of radical American individualism against the arbitrariness of social constraints, soulless technology, and land rights. No one was better suited for this role than Douglas, who flees Walter Matthau’s sour sheriff on horseback through the southwestern highlands. At one point, he’s cornered by a police helicopter, and the gap between modern life and the freedom of frontier existence couldn’t be starker. Gena Rowlands, George Kennedy, and Carroll O’Connor round a stellar supporting cast. An under-exposed gem in Kirk’s career.

Seven Days In May (1964)- Outraged that US President Jordan Lyman (Fredric March) has signed a nuclear disarmament treaty with the Soviets, Gen. James M. Scott (Burt Lancaster) plots a coup d’etat with other Joint Chiefs of Staff. Lyman is alerted to the conspiracy by Scott’s aide, Col. “Jiggs” Casey (Douglas), and races against the clock to neutralize the general’s traitorous plan. Two years after “The Manchurian Candidate,” director John Frankenheimer scored again with this gripping political thriller. Beyond serving as a showcase for two frequently paired stars- Lancaster as a power-mad general, Douglas as a principled whistle-blower–the movie works because in the context of the paranoic Cold War era, the premise feels all-too-plausible. Stark black-and-white photography and brisk pacing only add to the film’s breathless tension. Look too for a poignant turn from Ava Gardner as a faded beauty and Washington hostess with past ties to both Jiggs and Scott.

Lust For Life (1956)- This superb biopic about tortured 19th-century Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh (Douglas) chronicles the life of the artist from his early years as an evangelical missionary to Belgian miners to his days of squalid living with prostitute-model Christine (Pamela Brown), also focusing on the relationship between Vincent and his art-dealer brother, Theo (James Donald). Through Theo, Vincent meets the great Impressionists of Paris, striking up a friendship with the eccentric Paul Gauguin (Anthony Quinn), until his volatile nature gives way to full-fledged madness. Based on Irving Stone’s popular book, Vincente Minnelli’s beautiful, vibrant film tracks Van Gogh’s tragic journey into obsessive madness with unusual perceptiveness and insight. Douglas’s fiery performance is a career peak, but Oscar winner Anthony Quinn nearly steals his thunder with a brief but indelible turn as Gauguin. Minnelli filmed on location in Holland and France, even borrowing actual Van Gogh works to use in the production. The result is a compelling, inspiring drama about the hazy border between brilliance and insanity.

_________________________

Other links on Van Gogh:

The characters referenced in Woody Allen’s movie “Midnight in Paris” (Part 28,Van Gogh)

I have been going through the characters referenced in Woody Allen’s latest film “Midnight in Paris.” I only have a few characters left. Today is Vincent van Gogh who actually is not mentioned but his painting “The Starry Night” is featured in the poster to promote the movie. The Starry Night Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, […]

Oldest person in the world cursed? Jeanne Calment wasn’t, she lived to 122 yrs and told of meeting Van Gogh

Season 32, episode of Saturday Night Live, December 9th, 2006, Justin Timberlake hosting. During the news segment: Seth Meyers: Elizabeth “Lizzie” Bolden, the world’s oldest person, died Monday in a Memphis nursing home at the age of 116. Man, it’s like that title, “World’s Oldest Person”, is cursed or something. _____________________________________ Jeanne Calment was not […]

 

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Current Events | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Rick Perry says Social Security is a Ponzi scheme

December 8, 2011 – 2:43 pm

Rick Perry says Social Security is a Ponzi scheme

Rick Perry and Mitt Romney went after each other at the debate over this term “Ponzi scheme.”

Over and over Rick Perry has said that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme and I agree with him. 

__________

The Social Security Rorschach Test

by William Shipman

This article appeared on The Daily Caller on September 21, 2011

Comments by Rick Perry and Mitt Romney on Social Security during the last two Republican presidential debates may have provided more insight into these two men than expected — something to ponder with the next debate coming up.

Mr. Romney told us that he is “committed to saving Social Security” and that “under no circumstances would I ever say by any measure it’s a failure.”

Mr. Perry called the system a “Ponzi scheme” and said it’s “a monstrous lie” to tell young workers that their payroll taxes will provide them with Social Security benefits.

Bill Shipman is chairman of CarriageOaks Partners, LLC and co-chairman of the Cato Institute Project on Social Security Choice.

 

More by William G. Shipman

 Mr. Romney replied that Mr. Perry’s position could disqualify him as the GOP nominee. Apparently, a line has been drawn.

In his 2005 State of the Union Address, President Bush spent about 20 percent of his time talking about Social Security reform, specifically personal investment accounts. Democrats fought this idea with all their strength. Although it’s less well known, Republicans engaged in a family brawl in which many fought Mr. Bush’s investment-accounts idea, too. They were afraid that if they supported the president, they would lose their next elections.

But now the brawl has broken through the Republican skin and is in the open. What can we learn from this?

First, reflect upon Governor Romney’s point that Social Security is not a failure “by any measure,” and try to square that with the fact that Social Security is mandatory. Each worker is compelled to pay 10.6% of his wage, on up to $106,800, to the government for the retirement portion of the system. That means the average-wage earner has no choice on how to allocate 10.6% of his wage income for retirement. That’s bad enough, but it’s made worse by the fact that his Social Security benefits are very low: about half of what his Social Security taxes would provide if they were invested in a diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds.

Second, in 1950, when there were 16 workers per beneficiary, the payroll tax rate was just 3% on $3,000 of wages. Since then the tax rate increased 18 times, and the wage subject to the tax increased 43 times. After adjusting for inflation the maximum tax jumped 1,322%. Benefits rose as well, but proportionally much less. The squeeze in benefits relative to taxes has progressively made the system a worse deal.

Third, Social Security’s actuaries estimate that the mismatch between future taxes and benefits is just under $7 trillion. That number represents what must be invested right now, in addition to all future payroll taxes, in order to pay scheduled benefits.

Finally, in the 1960 Flemming v. Nestor case, the Supreme Court ruled that workers have no property rights to their scheduled benefits. The government can reduce them at will, which it did in 1983 by increasing the retirement age from 65 to 67; or it can increase the tax at will, which it consistently has done. Also, when one member of an elderly couple dies, the government — in most cases — reduces Social Security benefits by a third. Sort of a death tax.

This system of no choice, low benefits relative to taxes, significant tax increases, a massive unfunded liability, the absence of personal property rights and a death tax apparently does not rise to the level of failure “by any measure” according to Gov. Romney.

For his part, Gov. Perry has called Social Security a Ponzi scheme: a fraudulent investment operation that pays subscribers not from investment earnings but from new subscribers’ funds. To entice subscribers, such schemes must provide unusually high and/or stable returns. Given that the high returns require endless new subscribers to pay off previous ones, such schemes ultimately fail.

Although Mr. Perry’s Ponzi analogy is not technically correct, it has some validity in that Social Security benefits are financed by ever more subscribers — that is, wage earners. But unlike a Ponzi scheme, Social Security is not fraudulent, and it doesn’t pay large benefits relative to taxes. Indeed, it pays low benefits. A Ponzi scheme promises high returns. That’s why people freely, although foolishly, play the game. Social Security promises low returns. That’s why people are forced to play the game.

Mr. Romney has stated that the Republican nominee must be committed to saving Social Security, not abolishing it. It’s not clear what he means. Does he want to save the objective of Social Security, which is, broadly speaking, the provision of retirement benefits? Or does he want to save its structure wherein today’s young finance benefits for today’s old?

Mr. Perry says the system is a Ponzi scheme and a lie. Does this mean that he wants to get rid of the structure yet keep the objective? Or does it mean that he wants to get rid of both?

The two candidates’ differences on this issue may shed light on bigger philosophical disagreements they may have. Do they see government as bungling but benign, only in need of a seasoned CEO who can more successfully manage the enterprise? Or do they see government as overreaching, stifling, oppressive and hurtful in its reach, and in need of a strong and principled leader to shove it out of the way?

How these candidates deal with Social Security, the government’s largest program, may shed light on who they really are.

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Cato Institute, Social Security | Comments (0)

Pearl Harbor 70 years ago (Part 3)

December 8, 2011 – 6:54 am

Two survivors of Pearl Harbor showed up in Little Rock on Dec 7, 2011 for the rememberance. Here is a portion of an article from Pittsburgh Tribune-Review :

Dwindling number of Pearl Harbor survivors recall that fateful day

By Rachel Weaver and Richard Robbin, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Read more: Dwindling number of Pearl Harbor survivors recall that fateful day – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Most Western Pennsylvanians who survived the “date which will live in infamy” are in their late 80s or early 90s. Here are a few of their stories about that day:

Floyd Laughlin of McDonald

Ten days after Floyd Laughlin of McDonald married his wife, Dorothy, on May 31, 1941, he headed for training in California before his assignment at Fort Kamehameha in Pearl Harbor.

That Dec. 7, Army Cpl. Laughlin was eating breakfast when a plane crashed into a truck outside the mess hall. He and his comrades took cover under a porch as planes flew overhead.

“All you could do was stand and watch,” said Laughlin, 94. After the attacks, he said, “everything was blacked out.”

In Ohio, where Dorothy worked at her uncle’s gas station, she didn’t hear from her husband for two weeks after the attacks. It cost him $25 for a three-minute phone call to tell her he was safe.

He came home in 1945 and worked at the former American Cyanamid chemical plant in Bridgeville until retiring in 1981.

The couple has two sons and six grandchildren. Laughlin jokes that they stayed together for so long simply “because she never left.” Dorothy, 93, laughs and kisses his cheek.

A former president of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, Laughlin has returned to Hawaii five times. In his wallet, he carries a worn photo of himself in Pearl Harbor. Tucked behind it is one showing the youthful faces of him and his wife.

Bernard Ordos of West Mifflin

Bernard Ordos, 92, thinks about Pearl Harbor every day.

Near his living room chair in his West Mifflin home, a photo in an album shows him as a uniformed private, relaxing with his military buddies. He has looked at it hundreds of times, said his wife, Betty, 88.

Pvt. Ordos was waiting to be relieved of guard duty on the Navy base near Schofield Barracks when the planes attacked.

He took cover under a stack of mattresses when the first low-flying plane came into sight.

“I could see it plain as day,” he said. “I don’t know why he didn’t come down and machine-gun me.”

His family, including his bride, did not know that Ordos survived unhurt; they could not reach him for more than a week. Betty finally spent more than $50 to call Hawaii.

Weeks afterward, the Army sent Ordos to the Gilbert Islands, where he and fellow soldiers relieved Marines who captured the area from the Japanese.

He came home to work in the mills for 35 years. He and Betty, married 71 years, have three children, three grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Ordos, who said he saw too many aircraft leave for missions and never return, hasn’t boarded a plane since the war.

Staff writer Rossilynne Skena contributed to this report

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By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in War Heroes | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Dear Senator Pryor, why not pass the Balance Budget Amendment? ( “Thirsty Thursday”, Open letter to Senator Pryor)

December 8, 2011 – 12:04 am

Dear Senator Pryor,

Why not pass the Balanced  Budget amendment? As you know that federal deficit is at all time high (1.6 trillion deficit with revenues of 2.2 trillion and spending at 3.8 trillion).

On my blog www.HaltingArkansasLiberalswithTruth.com I took you at your word and sent you over 100 emails with specific spending cut ideas. However, I did not see any of them in the recent debt deal that Congress adopted. Now I am trying another approach. Every week from now on I will send you an email explaining different reasons why we need the Balanced Budget Amendment. It will appear on my blog on “Thirsty Thursday” because the government is always thirsty for more money to spend.

Marco Rubio is one of your fellow citizens and he noted:

A balanced budget amendment would be a necessary step in reversing Washington’s tax-borrow-spend mantra. It would force Congress to balance its budget each year – not allow it to pass our problems on to the next generation any longer.

The Balanced Budget Amendment is the only thing I can think of that would force Washington to cut spending. We have only a handful of balanced budgets in the last 60 years, so obviously what we are doing is not working. We are passing along this debt to the next generation.

Thank you for this opportunity to share my ideas with you.

Sincerely,

Everette Hatcher, lowcostsqueegees@yahoo.com

 In my two short months in office, it has become clear to me that the spending problem in Washington is far worse than many of us feared. For years, politicians have blindly poured more and more borrowed money into ineffective government programs, leaving us with trillion dollar deficits and a crippling debt burden that threatens prosperity and economic growth.

In the Florida House of Representatives, where a balanced budget is a requirement, we had to make the tough choices to cut spending where necessary because it was required by state law. By no means was this an easy process, but it was our duty as elected officials to be accountable to our constituents and to future generations of Floridians. In Washington, a balanced budget amendment is not just a fiscally-responsible proposal, it’s a necessary step to curb politicians’ decades-long penchant for overspending.

Several senators have proposed balanced budget amendments that ensure Congress will not spend a penny more than we take in, while setting a high hurdle for future tax hikes. I am a co-sponsor of two balanced budget amendments, since it is clear that these measures would go a long way to reversing the spending gusher we’ve seen from Washington in recent years.

During my Senate campaign, while surrounded by the employees of Jacksonville’s Meridian Technologies, I proposed 12 simple ways to cut spending in Washington. That company, founded 13 years ago, has grown into a 200-employee, high-tech business, and the ideas I proposed would help ensure that similar companies have the opportunity to start or expand just like Meridian did.

To be clear, our unsustainable debt and deficits are threatening companies like Meridian and impeding job creation. In addition to proposing a balanced budget amendment, I recommended canceling unspent “stimulus” funds, banning all earmarks and returning discretionary spending to 2008 levels.

Fortunately, some of my ideas have found their way to the Senate chamber. The first bill I co-sponsored in the Senate was to repeal ObamaCare, the costly overhaul of our nation’s health care system that destroys jobs and impedes our economic recovery. Democratic leaders in the Senate have expressed their willingness to ban earmarks for two years after the Senate Republican conference adopted a moratorium. I have also co-sponsored the REINS Act, a common-sense measure that would increase accountability and transparency in our outdated and burdensome regulatory process. These bills, along with a balanced budget amendment, would help get our country back on a sustainable path and provide certainty to job creators.

While Republicans are proposing a variety of ideas to rein in Washington’s out-of-control spending, unfortunately, President Obama’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year proposes to spend $46 trillion, and even in its best year, the deficit would remain above $600 billion. Worst of all, the President’s budget completely avoids addressing the biggest drivers of our long-term debt – Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Rather than tackle these tough, serious issues, President Obama is proposing a litany of tax hikes on small businesses and entrepreneurs, to the tune of more than $1.6 trillion. These tax increases destroy jobs, make us less competitive internationally and hurt our efforts to grow the economy and get our fiscal house in order.

A balanced budget amendment would be a necessary step in reversing Washington’s tax-borrow-spend mantra. It would force Congress to balance its budget each year – not allow it to pass our problems on to the next generation any longer.

Marco Rubio

Marco Rubio, a Republican, is a U.S. senator from Florida and former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives.

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in spending out of control | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Actor Harry Morgan dies at 96, video clips from his best movies

December 7, 2011 – 2:47 pm

I remember when Morgan was in all those funny Walt Disney movies!! He passed away today at age 96.

Below is a story from the LA Times:

Harry Morgan dies at 96; star of TV’s ‘MASH’

Emmy Award-winning Harry Morgan played LAPD Officer Bill Gannon opposite Jack Webb in ‘Dragnet’ and Col. Sherman T. Potter in the hit series ‘MASH.’ He also appeared on the Broadway stage and in more than 50 films.

Harry Morgan

Harry Morgan arrives for the “M*A*S*H*” cast party at a restaurant in Los Angeles (Lennox McLendon / Associated Press / April 2, 1983)

By Stephanie Stassel, Special to The TimesDecember 7, 2011, 10:23 a.m.
 
Emmy Award-winning actor Harry Morgan, who played the crusty yet sympathetic Col. Sherman T. Potter in the sitcom “MASH” and the hard-nosed LAPD Officer Bill Gannon in the television drama“Dragnet,” died Wednesday. He was 96.Morgan died at his home in Brentwood after a bout with pneumonia, his daughter-in-law, Beth Morgan, told the Associated Press.Morgan’s eight–year run on “MASH,” the pinnacle of his seven-decade acting career,began when he was 60 and had already appeared on the Broadway stage, in dozens of television shows and more than 50 films.Three years after it debuted, he joined the show in 1975 as commanding officer of the unorthodox 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, which patched together the wounded during the Korean War.When the 21/2- hour “MASH” finale aired in 1983, 77% of the people watching television were tuned in, making it the most widely watched show in history.Shortly before the final episode was broadcast, Morgan told The Times, “There’ll never be another ‘MASH.’ There’s nothing in the way of doing your best work on this set, absolutely nothing.”Although he set out to be a lawyer, Morgan fell into acting and stayed. The son of an auto mechanic, he was born Harry Bratsberg in Detroit on April 10, 1915. He grew up in Muskegon, Mich., played high school football despite his small stature and was a member of the school’s champion debate team.

Morgan attended the University of Chicago but left in the 1930s to sell office equipment in Washington, D.C. As a salesman during the Depression he had free time, so he joined a theater group. Performing on a hotel stage he experienced success in “The Front Page” and “The Petrified Forest.”

He left his office equipment job to appear in summer stock. In the fall of 1937 he went to New York City and appeared in several Broadway productions, using the name Harry Bratsburg.

“In my ignorance, I thought to myself, ‘Hey, this acting business is a great life!’ Little did I know! Things got rougher from then on. If I had had to struggle at the beginning like most actors … I’d never have stuck it out. But having such complete success at the beginning, I was stuck with being an actor for life,” Morgan said in the 1983 book ” ‘MASH’: The Exclusive, Inside Story of TV’s Most Popular Show.”

In 1941 he and his actress wife, Eileen, headed for Hollywood, and Morgan did hit a rocky patch of sorts – he didn’t work for five months.

After appearing in a one-act play in Santa Barbara titled “Hello Out There,” he was offered a contract with 20th Century Fox and, going by Henry Morgan, promptly made six movies, starting with “To the Shores of Tripoli.”

 

Morgan went on to appear in such films as “High Noon” (1953), “The Glenn Miller Story” (1954), “Inherit the Wind” (1960), “Support Your Local Sheriff!” (1969) and his personal favorite, 1943’s “The Ox-Bow Incident.”

One of his early TV credits was “December Bride,” in which he played Pete Porter, the wry-humored, henpecked neighbor who cracked jokes about his wife, the never-seen Gladys. At this time Morgan started using Harry as his first name to avoid being confused with television comic Henry Morgan.

After seven years on “December Bride,” Morgan appeared opposite Cara Williams in an early 1960s spinoff, “Pete and Gladys.” His TV career continued with the anthology series “The Richard Boone Show” and with “Kentucky Jones,” in which Morgan played a ranch handyman who works for the title character, portrayed by Dennis Weaver.

Until “MASH” Morgan was best known for his role as Officer Bill Gannon in “Dragnet”, a show that he had first appeared on in the 1940s on the radio. In 1967, Morgan replaced Ben Alexander as the partner of Jack Webb‘s Sgt. Joe Friday in the show that lionized the Los Angeles Police Department. He remained a fixture for four seasons.

The intense two-day shooting schedule challenged Morgan, as did Webb’s insistence that they speak in a flat monotone so they wouldn’t appear to be emotionally involved with the other characters. (Morgan later had a cameo in the 1987 Dan Aykroyd–Tom Hanks “Dragnet” spoof and provided the voice of Gannon for a 1995 episode of “The Simpsons.”)

In the early 1970s Morgan worked on another Webb creation, the courtroom drama “The D.A.,” and appeared opposite Richard Boone in “Hec Ramsey,” a western that was part of “NBC‘s Sunday Mystery Movie” series.

The role of Col. Potter in “MASH” came along when the fictional surgical unit needed a new commanding officer after McLean Stevenson left the show in 1975. It was not Morgan’s first appearance on the program — his portrayal of a demented general on the show earned him an Emmy nomination the same year he joined the series.

The antiwar comedy, based on the 1970 film starring Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould, debuted in 1972. The TV series, starring Alan Alda, had already won an Emmy for outstanding comedy series and had long been declared a “smash” by The Times.

Even so, Morgan was nervous about replacing Stevenson’s Lt. Col. Henry Blake, who was “one of the boys.” Morgan’s Col. Potter was much more spit and polish, yet had a sentimental side that was evident in his oil paintings and interactions with others at the base outside Seoul at the height of the Korean War.

Harry Morgan | 1994

 

( CBS-TV )

Walter Matthau, left, and Harry Morgan in the television movie “Incident in a Small Town.”

He received eight Emmy nominations for the role and won once, in 1980, the same year he was nominated for directing an episode of “MASH.”

Morgan also costarred in a spinoff sitcom, “AfterMASH,” which was set in a stateside veterans hospital and aired from 1983 to 1984.

After that he appeared in about 20 more TV productions, including a few episodes of “3rd Rock from the Sun” in the late 1990s.

Harry Morgan | 1988

 

( Associated Press )

Harry Morgan and his wife, Barbara, arrive for the People’s Choice Awards.

When “MASH” was ending in 1983 he told The Times: “The sadness will fade after a while. The cup is so damn full that you can’t really be sad that you don’t have any more. We’ve all gotten so much more than we ever would have doing anything else. That will last a long, long time.”

With his first wife, Eileen, Morgan had four sons. She died in 1985 after 45 years of marriage. A son, Daniel, died in 1989.

Survivors include his second wife, Barbara; his sons Christopher, Charles and Paul; eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Stassel is a former Times staff writer.

Harry Morgan | 1957

 

( CBS-TV )

Harry Morgan, as Pete Porter, appears skeptical when Barbara Eden tries to sell him a new kiss-proof lipstick in a scene from the television series “December Bride.”
By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Current Events | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Van Jones liberal alternative movement doomed to fail

December 7, 2011 – 2:40 pm

Van Jones liberal alternative movement doomed to fail

There is such an angry response to the message of the Tea Party, but is there any choice but to cut spending?

Brandon Stewart

June 24, 2011 at 4:47 pm

He talks about “rebuilding America,” but his ideas will do nothing of the sort.

Last night, Van Jones launched what he’s calling the “American Dream Movement.” Jones, as you may remember, was President Obama’s Green Czar before he resigned amidst controversy. He was hired last year by Princeton University as a visiting lecturer in the Center for African American Studies.

In his almost two-hour, live-streamed event launch—which was heavily promoted by the liberal group MoveOn.org—Jones laid out the liberal vision for America. He called the simple truth that our country has a major debt and deficit problem “a dangerous lie” and led the crowd in chants of “America is not broke!”

In one particularly shocking part of his speech, Jones seemed to compare conservatives to terrorists, saying, “Paul Ryan’s budget would knock out more critical American infrastructure than our sworn enemies ever dreamed of knocking out.” This is specially dangerous territory for one such as Jones, who has found himself in trouble before for signing a petition suggesting that America was at fault on 9/11 or complicit in al-Qaeda’s attacks on our nation—the so-called truther movement.

Throughout his speech, he repeated many of the same tropes of the left that we’ve heard before: that America is not broke, that the wealthy don’t pay their fair share, that union membership is the foundation of the middle class, that wages have remained stagnant, etc.

Jones ended by questioning the patriotism of the Tea Party movement. With a nod to Vice President Joe Biden, he discussed the patriotism of paying higher taxes and took to calling his fellow progressives the “deeper patriots,” as if patriotism is determined by how much of other people’s money you can spend.

But perhaps the major conceit in Jones’s address was the notion that the economy is a zero-sum game where the success of one person hinders your ability to succeed. If you’re not doing well, it’s because someone else is getting ahead at your expense. “We’re not broke,” Jones said early on in his presentation, “We’ve been robbed.”

As Rachel Weiner over at The Washington Post notes, this isn’t the first attempt at a sort of anti–Tea Party, and not even the first attempt by Jones:

A coalition of liberal and civil-rights groups united under the “One Nation” banner last year and held a rally on the National Mall in October. After the election, the group—in which Van Jones was involved—fizzled.

We will see in the coming weeks whether this newest movement fares any better. But ultimately, it’s doomed to fail. There’s a reason the Tea Party movement wasn’t launched with a slick website or a webcast. The Tea Party was the result of a growing feeling in this country that things aren’t on the right track, that we weren’t being told the truth by our leaders.

The Tea Party is the small business owner struggling under the weight of more and more regulations, the senior citizen wondering how the government can possibly afford to keep its promises, the parents concerned that their child will be worse off than they. In short, the Tea Party is a selfless movement driven by the desire to save our country before it’s too late.

This new effort by Van Jones is something else entirely. It’s supported by those who, like AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, know they have a vested interest in keeping government big and are trying to convince the rest of us that we do, too. This “American Dream Movement” is about fostering jealously and class warfare to justify expansive social programs and bigger government in order to, as President Obama explained, “fundamentally [transform] the United States of America.”

There are two important lessons from Jones’s presentation for conservatives.

First, conservatives need to keep educating the public, because we have real solutions to the nation’s most pressing issues. The left knows they have to do something because, as Charles Krauthammer explained earlier this year, “they’ve lost the American people” and are struggling with serious Tea Party envy. After all, liberals control the Senate. They control the White House. But they know they’re losing the public.

Secondly, while we explain the importance of reducing government and righting our fiscal house, we can’t forget to explain the other half of our message—how taking these steps not only keeps us from going off the cliff but can help stimulate growth and create jobs. In one of the videos played during the event, a woman says, “The American dream is worth fighting for.” Heritage agrees, which is why we launched an actual plan to preserve that dream and ensure that it exists for future generations. We call it “Saving the American Dream,” and you can learn about it here.

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in spending out of control | Comments (0)

Interview with Tea Party Senator Mike Lee of Utah

December 7, 2011 – 2:38 pm

Here is an excellent interview above with Senator Lee with a fine article below from the Heritage Foundation.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) came to Washington as the a tea-party conservative with the goal of fixing the economy, addressing the debt crisis and curbing the growth of the federal government. It’s an uphill battle for the youngest member of the U.S. Senate, but one he’s prepared to fight.

Lee’s recent book, “The Freedom Agenda: Why a Balanced Budget Amendment is Necessary to Restore Constitutional Government,” outlined his goals for changing Washington. (Listen to our recent podcast.) Yesterday at Heritage, he delivered the annual Helms Lecture, detailing his opposition of the Law of the Sea Treaty — a measure supported by the Obama administration that awaits Senate ratification.

Lee spoke to us afterward about President Obama’s jobs plan, the mounting federal debt and his solution to saving Social Security.

In the days following Obama’s speech to Congress, Lee sharply criticized the president’s ideas for raising taxes and hiking spending to spur economic growth. As he explained to us, “We need to not be doing more of the same things that made the problem worse. We need to refocus on getting the federal government out of the way rather than making the federal government part of the problem.”

The interview runs a little more than 4 minutes. Hosted by Rob Bluey and produced by Brandon Stewart, with help from Hannah Sternberg.

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in spending out of control | Comments (0)

Republican mainstream candidate Romney slips behind Gingrich and Paul

December 7, 2011 – 8:17 am

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich appears at a news conference before a tea party rally in New York Saturday. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

Who would have thought that the mainstream candidate Mitt Romney would fall to third in the polls in Iowa behind Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul?

I am not too happy with Newt because of his womanizing ways of the past which are pointed out by the liberal columnist Gene Lyons in the current issue of the Arkansas Times.  Another reason I oppose Newt is because of his liberal tendencies of the past.  I am more inclined to support Ron Paul who is vastly more conservative than Gingrich.

Many like Max Brantley of the Arkansas Times Blog claim that these candidates can not win because they are out of the mainstream. In fact, Brantley is pulling for Gingrich to win the Republican nomination because he believes he will lose in the general election to President Obama. I am hoping that he is wrong.

Recently Peyton Hillis got on the Ron Paul bandwagon. (According to the Arkansas Times earlier this year Hillis was  named the cover star of Madden NFL ’12, the latest edition of the most enduringly popular sports video game on the market which has indicated that his stardom has risen in the last few years.) Take a look at the video below:

Evidently a close friend of Peyton Hillis has convinced him that Ron Paul is the candidate that he should support.

 

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Pearl Harbor 70 years ago (Part 2)

December 7, 2011 – 6:57 am

Uploaded by on Dec 7, 2009

At 06:05 on December 7, the six Japanese carriers launched a first wave of 183 planes composed mainly of dive bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters. The Japanese hit American ships and military installations at 07:51. The first wave attacked military airfields of Ford Island. At 08:30, a second wave of 170 Japanese planes, mostly torpedo bombers, attacked the fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor. The battleship Arizona was hit with an armor piercing bomb which penetrated the forward ammunition compartment, blowing the ship apart and sinking it within seconds. Overall, nine ships of the U.S. fleet were sunk and 21 ships were severely damaged. Three of the 21 would be irreparable. The overall death toll reached 2,350, including 68 civilians, and 1,178 injured. Of the military personnel lost at Pearl Harbor, 1,177 were from Arizona. The first shots fired were from the destroyer Ward on a midget submarine that had surfaced outside of Pearl Harbor; Ward did successfully sink the midget sub at approximately 06:55, about an hour before the assault on Pearl Harbor.

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Here is a portion of an article from Pittsburgh Tribune-Review :

Dwindling number of Pearl Harbor survivors recall that fateful day

By Rachel Weaver and Richard Robbin, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Read more: Dwindling number of Pearl Harbor survivors recall that fateful day – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Most Western Pennsylvanians who survived the “date which will live in infamy” are in their late 80s or early 90s. Here are a few of their stories about that day:

Alexander Dyga of Kilbuck

Pvt. Alexander Dyga of Kilbuck awoke to the familiar sound of his superior pounding on the door of the room he shared with three men at the Army’s Schofield Barracks on Oahu. They worked early to clean mule stalls, before the temperature climbed to 80 degrees.

He was eager to get to the mess hall for breakfast. Instead, he would spend two days helping to move bodies.

“A lot of men had been blown apart,” said Dyga, 88. “It didn’t bother me. I was too young then.”

They carried men from Wheeler Field, site of the first attack, to doctors at Schofield. Dyga saw dead sailors whose burned bodies floated to the ocean surface after ship explosions.

He has returned to Hawaii more than 10 times. He’s there this week, observing the anniversary.

He filled his home with souvenirs marking his trips. Some are fun, such as the plastic hula dolls that line a dining room shelf. Others are meaningful, such as framed photographs of Dyga with other survivors.

A Dravosburg native, Dyga served in the Army and Air Force for a combined 20 years, and worked in utilities and maintenance. He and his wife, Annamarie, whom he met in Germany, married in 1948; she died in 2005. They have a son, three grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Pearson Harkema of Monessen

Seaman 1st Class Pearson Harkema of Monessen assumed the aircraft flying toward the USS Oklahoma was a U.S. plane, until he saw the red dot on its side.

Then the first of nine torpedoes hit the battleship, causing it to tilt. Harkema slid over the side, hitting his knees on the way into the water. He swam a short distance to shore and thought the rest of the crew would reach safety. More than 400 did not.

A rescue crew found Harkema sitting in oil-soaked clothes. When a Marine offered his clothes, Harkema took them. Years later, Harkema realized that if he had died, wearing clothes with another man’s name stenciled inside, the wrong family would have received notice that their son was dead.

“You never think about things like you do in later years,” said Harkema, 91, seated with his wife of 60 years, Marion.

He never returned to Pearl Harbor.

“I had my fill on Dec. 7,” he said.

Harkema went on to serve with the Navy aboard the USS North Hampton and battleship USS Indiana. He worked in steel mills for 30 years. He and Marion have two children and two grandchildren.

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By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in War Heroes | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Woody Allen interviews Billy Graham (Woody Wednesday)

December 7, 2011 – 12:58 am

A surprisingly civil discussion between evangelical Billy Graham and agnostic comedian Woody Allen. Skip to 2:00 in the video to hear Graham discuss premarital sex, to 4:30 to hear him respond to Allen’s question about the worst sin and to 7:55 for the comparison between accepting Christ and taking LSD.

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The Christian Post > International > N.America|Sun, Nov. 20 2011 03:41 PM EDT

Woody Allen, The Faith Behind the Films (VIDEOS of Allen With Billy Graham)

By Kayla Amadis | Christian Post Contributor

American filmmaker, Woody Allen, will be starring in an exclusive two-part documentary film beginning tonight. The “Annie Hall” director and actor is notorious for his privacy. However, this three-and-a-half hour film claims to be a right of entry into the life and art of Woody Allen.

The works of Allen have always been a peculiar one for most viewers throughout generations. He has a touch for making artful flicks with the just enough humor included. His films, sometimes controversial, have also been unique in that they are driven by his distinctive vision and artistry. Allen has never been an artist to succumb to altering a script so it would appeal to mainstream audiences.

Therefore, many have noted reoccurring themes throughout Allen’s work over the years. He often integrates pop culture and religion sub-textually into the content of his writing.

Allen, now 75, grew up in a Jewish household. Now, as an agnostic, many of his films including “Crimes and Misdemeanors” and “Match Point” have subject matters concerning forgiveness, how to handle sin, finding meaning in life without God, or religious figures.

Many evangelicals including Chuck Colston and Southern Baptist leader, Richard Land are devoted fans of Allen. Although the filmmaker remains disclosed, he continues to be one to speak openly about deep issues in life even outside of his films. Allen has always been honest enough to ask many questions about morality and religion, but never has any of the right answers, Land suggested.

In the archives of Woody Allen appearances, one can find an old talk show video (below) in the 1960’s in which he interviews Billy Graham. Of course, Graham, clearly anchored in his beliefs in God, shared completely different views on life compared to the wisecracking Allen.

The conversation sounds undoubtedly tense upon first hearing. However, both counter-parts handled their discussion with much composure and the heart to agree to disagree.

Allen: “If you come to one of my movies or something, I’ll go to one of your revival meetings.”

Graham: “Well now that is a deal.”

Allen: “You could probably convert me because I’m such a pushover. I have no convictions in any direction and if you make it appealing and promise me some sort of wonderful afterlife with a white robe and wings I would go for it.”

Graham: “I can’t promise you a white robe and wings, but I can promise you a very interesting, thrilling life.”

Allen: “One wing, maybe?”

The dialogue was both light and deep all at once. “I find Woody over the years, and of course this is true of people as they get older, there is more resignation,” Land said to the Washington Post.

“There is a light touch and a confidence in his earlier movies – I’m not dead, I won’t die for a long time so I have a long time to figure this all out. Some of his more recent movies, you can see he’s aware of his own mortality.”

Decades later, one would hope Allen would come around to considering the true answers to all of his moral questioning. Perhaps he would think back to some of the words Graham spoke many years ago. However, Allen remains with doubtful views. “Sooner or later,” he said in a 2010 interview. “…reality sets in, in a crushing way. As it does and will with everybody, including Billy Graham. But it’s nice if you can delude yourself for as long as possible.”

“Woody Allen: A Documentary,’’ directed by Robert B. Weide, will touch on the career of Allen more intimately. Many look forward to understanding the true man behind the art and humor.

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By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Current Events | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)