I am hoping to go see UCA boys basketball team play this Saturday. I sat with them on a plane from Dallas to Little Rock this morning. I asked how they did in their game and they said not too good. Coach Williamson was wearing sweats and I told him that it may have helped if he got on the floor. He said that would have felt good.
In the next few days I will post portions of the speech (which really was just a newspaper article) but since it is so long I will put an outline of the speech that is provided by David Barton of Wallbuilders.
Spirit of Party.
Parties are “potent engines” that men will use to take over the “reins of government.”
Washington warns against parties’ “baneful effects”:
leads to the absolute power of an individual
“discourage and restrain” the spirit of party
leads to “jealousies and false alarms”
“animosity of one part against another”
can lead to “riot and insurrection”
opens “door to foreign influence and corruption”
“it is a spirit not to be encouraged.”
Spirit of Encroachment.
Leads to “a real despotism.”
There is a necessity of “reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power.”
If a problem arises, correct it by an amendment, not by “usurpation.”
As a young man, Washington was confronted by death many times. He suffered and survived dreadful diseases like malaria, smallpox, pleurisy and dysentery. He nearly drowned when he accidentally fell of the raft into the icy river while returning from an expedition to the French Fort le Boeuf. In 1775, bullets grazed his coat, but he was unhurt.
President Reagan sharing a joke with William F. Buckley at a private birthday party in honor of his 75th Birthday in the White House residence. 2/7/86 .
Actor and Former US Senator Fred Thompson Narrates a Tribute to President Ronald Reagan on his 100th Birthday
My sons Hunter and Wilson will be joining our friend Sherwood Haisty who is involved in a street ministry in Santa Monica, California the week of March 21 and during that week they hope to visit the Reagan Library. I hope to have a lot of pictures from them for me to post.
By Stewart D. McLaurin, Executive Director, The Ronald Reagan Centennial Celebration
This “Centennial Celebration” kicked off on January 1st with a Ronald Reagan-themed float in the Tournament of Roses Parade, the first time in the 122-year history of this great American tradition that the parade has had a presidential-themed float. On the weekend of the President’s birthday, a blend of military ceremony and patriotic celebration took place over three days at the Reagan Library. Throughout the year, there will be a series of academic partnerships with the University of Southern California, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Virginia, and the U.S. Naval Academy, each focusing on a different component of the President’s life, leadership, and legacy. These events and many more will take place not only across the country, but around the world throughout 2011.
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Little known presidential facts:
Woodrow Wilson was the first to show a motion picture in the White House: The Birth of Nation, which has become the most banned film in American history.k
Warren Harding was the first president to own a radio, the first to make speech over the radio, and the first to ride to his inauguration in a car. When women got the right to vote, he was the first president they could elect.k
Tim Pawlenty voices his concerns on the new health care plan
When the going gets tough then the tough get going. You will notice that governor Pawlenty had to deal with a lot of liberals in his state. Did he lie down and let them bankrupt the state or did he fight for budget cuts. The answer is that he fought for the budget cuts.
I am at a hardware store convention in Orlando and I heard a crazy store yesterday about the California State Government. Everybody knows that they are not even close to balancing their state budget there. What does the state government do? They don’t budget cut until they have balanced the budget, but they try to rip off out of state companies that do business in California.
A good friend of mine told me that a hardware distributor of his that carries over 100 different size containers of the cleaner that he sells them, hit his company with a fine of over $1500.0o for not having the correct California Registration number on the paper work for one of the 100 items that was being shipped into California. This is highway robbery, but such is justified if you want to do business in California. No wonder so many businesses are leaving California.
I wanted to include some posts from the article “Excerpts: Tim Pawlenty’s Courage to Stand.” Former Minnesota Governor Discusses Losing the VP Slot to Sarah Palin and How President Obama ‘Broke His Promise’ in His New Book:”
Pawlenty on his often-fractious dealings with the legislature, where Democrats controlled one or both chambers throughout his tenure:
“My eight years in office would be rife with head-on collisions, special sessions, constitutional issues, lawsuits, even a government shutdown. I wish the headlines could have read that Pawlenty mesmerized t he liberals with his charm and wit and that they changed their views due to his winsome ways. But hard-fought battles over big issues are never that lovely.
President Reagan talking to Jimmy Stewart and Gloria Stewart at a private birthday party in honor of his 75th Birthday in the White House residence. 2/7/86.
I am in Orlando at a hardware store convention. The distributor I sell has stores all across the country. Above you will notice a picture of Jimmy Stewart. Stewart’s father Alex owned a hardware store in Indiana, PA. For his work in The Philadelphia Story, Stewart won the 1940 Academy Award for Best Actor. On the night of his win, the story goes, after a swirl of post-Oscar parties, the actor took a call from his dad, who wanted to confirm that his only son had won “some kind of prize.” “I heard about it on the radio,” Alex said. “Yeah, Dad,” his son replied. “It’s a Best Actor Award. They give ’em out every year. I won it for The Philadelphia Story.” “What kind of prize is it?” “It’s a kind of statuette. Looks like gold but isn’t. They call it the Oscar.” “Well, that’s fine, I guess. You’d better send it over. I’ll put it on show in the store where folks can take a look at it.” It remained there for the rest of Alex’s life.
Ronald Reagan Salute before Superbowl on Feb 6, 2011
Ronald Reagan did not enter the world of politics until the age of 50 years old, and his first campaign was for governor of California in 1966. He was wildly popular in his home state and on election day emerged triumphant over Democrat Edmund “Pat” Brown by a margin of nearly one million votes.
It is amazing to me that Ronald Reagan beat Pat Brown so soundly back in 1966 and then this year when practically the whole country went to the right, Pat’s liberal son Jerry was elected governor of California. You what they say about California these days, “That is where all the fruits and nuts come from.”
By Stewart D. McLaurin, Executive Director, The Ronald Reagan Centennial Celebration
Planning for and celebrating the Centennial of the 40th President of the United States – Ronald Reagan – has been many months in the making and involved a complex vision, plan, and collaboration well beyond our home base of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation in Simi Valley, California.
February 6, 2011 marked what would have been the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan. Ten times since 1950, the Congress of the United States has urged a special emphasis on a significant birthday of a former president or first lady (centennial, bicentennial, sesquicentennial). In 2009, Congress passed, and President Obama signed into law, the creation of a bi-partisan commission to encourage the national celebration of President Reagan’s Centennial. As President Reagan would have wanted, not a single federal dollar was appropriated for the execution of these activities. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation has raised private funds, secured collaborative partnerships, and conceptualized plans for a national and international celebration with a balance of celebratory events and substantive initiatives.
1980 interview with Milton Friedman by Phil Donahue (part 5). Friedman greatly influenced me and as a result was a very involved in 1980 campaigning for Reagan.
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Little known presidential facts:
The presidential faces on Mount Rushmore are as high as a five-story building, about 60′ from chin to top of the head. The pupils of eyes are 4′ across and the mouths are 18′ wide. The carving took 14 years, from 1927-1941. The total cost was about $990,000. A total 450,000 tons of stone was removed.b
George Washington’s original ancestral name was de Wessyngton, from a certain William de Hertburn, a twelfth-century noble knight of the manor and village of Wessyngton who later changed his name to de Wessyngton (which is the Norman spelling of Washington).i
Milton Friedman’s film series “Free to Choose” Episode on Education part 4. It was Friedman’s voucher plan that was put into practice in Sweden in 1993.
I am in Florida at a convention center and I got to talking to someone and found out that he graduated at Central in Little Rock in 1977 and he played on the state championship football team in 1975 with Houston Nutt. Actually he told me that Houston was not the only player off that team that played college ball. Robert Farrell (wide receiver, Arkansas), Emmanuel Tolbert (running back, SMU), and Reggie Perry (running back, ?).
Are kids getting a good education today versus 30 years ago? One thing is for sure and that is liberals still oppose competition that the voucher system would bring.
DL: Have students in Sweden improved academically under the voucher system?
TI: The educational results data speak for themselves. On average, the independent schools show better student achievement than the public schools.
Let me just give you a few examples from some very clear indicators. The average “merit value” is actually an average of the grade points (each grade gives a certain amount of points) for all students in all subjects in the ninth grade. This means that every single student has his/her own merit value, but that the average merit value is calculated based on all students that particular year in that particular class, school, city/municipality, country, etc. By the summer of 2008 (the most current information available), the merit value average of the whole compulsory school in Sweden was 209 points (with a maximum possible value of 320, indicating highest grades in all subjects). The public schools averaged 207 points, while the independent schools proved to have 227 points!
This significant difference has been in place for many years. In the last years, with an increased competition from a steadily increasing amount of independent schools, the total merit value average of the whole compulsory school actually has begun to rise. In upper secondary education, the pattern is about the same.
Another way of measuring results is to adjust for socio-economic factors and look at what could be an expected outcome of learning regarding the students’ background. This is called “SALSA value,” a Swedish acronym for The National Board of Education Analysis Tool for Local Correlation Analyses. There is no national summarizing of SALSAs, but if you look into the single cities and municipalities, you often find independent schools getting the best SALSA results. This means that many independent schools educate their students better than expected if students’ socio-economic background is taken into consideration.
If you want to adjust for possible “grade inflation,” you can just look at the results of the national tests that are being carried out for the key subjects of the curriculum and in exactly the same manner all over Sweden in both public and independent schools. The rate of students reaching the two highest grade levels in all key subjects are at least 10 percent higher for independent schools compared to public schools.
I am in Central Florida and today was the liftoff for the space shuttle Discovery from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. I learned when I went to rent a car a couple of days ago that most of the people that rented cars a few days ago for the Daytona 500 did not return them because of the upcoming Discovery takeoff.
It is sad to me that our government does not have much money because of the wasteful stimulus law and other sad attempts to buy ourselves out of this recession. Now programs like our space program will suffer because of all these ploys by the Democrats. Pawlenty is right when he says our federal government has got way too big.
I wanted to include some posts from the article “Excerpts: Tim Pawlenty’s Courage to Stand.” Former Minnesota Governor Discusses Losing the VP Slot to Sarah Palin and How President Obama ‘Broke His Promise’ in His New Book:”
Pawlenty on describing his philosophy toward government that echoes tea party principles:
“Endless government growth becomes a form of tyranny. When the government takes up more and more space — space that was previously reserved for individuals, families, the faith community, charities, markets and the private sector — the result is more displacement, discouragement, disincentive, and dependency. As government swells to become nearly everyone’s financial nanny, freedom and personal responsibility are diminished.”
Pawlenty on a heated meeting he had as a legislator with then-Gov. Jesse Ventura, who was mad at Pawlenty for accusing the former Navy Seal of leaving taxpayers “behind enemy lines.”:
“The hockey player and wrestling fan in me would have some taken pride in surviving a Jesse Ventura smackdown. But the apology felt better. And that was all it took to let the air out of the balloon. He went from enraged to reasonable and graciously accepted the apology. The meeting ended well.”
President Reagan with Nancy Reagan, William Wilson, Betty Wilson, Walter Annenberg, Leonore Annenberg, Earle Jorgensen, Marion Jorgensen, Harriet Deutsch and Armand Deutschat at a private birthday party in honor of President Reagan’s 75th Birthday in the White House Residence. 2/7/86.
Milton Friedman’s book “Free to Choose” did influence me a lot during the days leading up to the Reagan presidency. Take a look at his interview with Phil Donahue below. Did you know that Phil Donahue is married to the daughter of Danny Thomas. Marlo is in charge of raising funds for her father’s hospital in Memphis.
I am going to post portions of this article by Ronald Reagan the next few days.
June 10, 2004, 10:30 a.m.
Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation
Ronald Reagan’s pro-life tract.
Abraham Lincoln recognized that we could not survive as a free land when some men could decide that others were not fit to be free
I have often said we need to join in prayer to bring protection to the unborn. Prayer and action are needed to uphold the sanctity of human life. I believe it will not be possible to accomplish our work, the work of saving lives, “without being a soul of prayer.” The famous British Member of Parliament, William Wilberforce, prayed with his small group of influential friends, the “Clapham Sect,” for decades to see an end to slavery in the British empire. Wilberforce led that struggle in Parliament, unflaggingly, because he believed in the sanctity of human life. He saw the fulfillment of his impossible dream when Parliament outlawed slavery just before his death.
Let his faith and perseverance be our guide. We will never recognize the true value of our own lives until we affirm the value in the life of others, a value of which Malcolm Muggeridge says:. . . however low it flickers or fiercely burns, it is still a Divine flame which no man dare presume to put out, be his motives ever so humane and enlightened.”
Abraham Lincoln recognized that we could not survive as a free land when some men could decide that others were not fit to be free and should therefore be slaves. Likewise, we cannot survive as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to abortion or infanticide. My Administration is dedicated to the preservation of America as a free land, and there is no cause more important for preserving that freedom than affirming the transcendent right to life of all human beings, the right without which no other rights have any meaning.
1980 interview with Milton Friedman by Phil Donahue (part 4). Friedman greatly
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Little known presidential facts:
Several of his descendants and a few historians claim that John Hanson (1721-1783) is actually the forgotten first president of the United States because he was the first president under the Articles of Confederation.j
William McKinley was the first to ride in a self-propelled vehicle—the electric ambulance that took him to the hospital after he had been shot.k
The other day I told a story about flying on Southwest Airlines from Little Rock to Florida by way of St. Louis and I ridiculed them for sending me the wrong way at first. I wanted to make it known that I really do like flying with Southwest and they do a great job. In fact, I flew one time on the same plane with the famous Democratic Senator from Illinois. No it was not the future President Obama but Paul Simon. The lady next to me said, “I know that guy. He is famous.” I told her it was Paul Simon and she thought it was the singer. Then she asked me if it was the writer of TV Shows (Neil Simon), but I finally told her it was the Senator with the bow tie. Senator Simon got a kick out of the story when I relayed it to him while getting off the plane later.
We are a great nation because we have been the most free nation of all time according to Tim Pawlenty in his speech as seen above. The heavy hand of government that President Obama endorses. Also no one should be forced to send their child to a bad school. I have spent lots of time on that with all my articles on Vouchers.
I wanted to include some posts from the article “Excerpts: Tim Pawlenty’s Courage to Stand.” Former Minnesota Governor Discusses Losing the VP Slot to Sarah Palin and How President Obama ‘Broke His Promise’ in His New Book:”
Pawlenty on the intersection of faith and politics:
“People often ask how I reconcile my faith life and my public life and to what extent my Christian faith influences my decision making. For any public leader — or a leader in any arena, for that matter — our upbringing, life experiences, values and beliefs inevitably influence who we are and how we approach the decisions before us. Faith is part of my experience, and it is the cornerstone of my value system. It is part of who I am and how I think.”
Pawlenty taking issue with the federal government’s corporate bailouts and subsidies for public broadcasting:
“The government is like one of those hoarders you see on talk shows — the folks with fourteen dining room tables in their garage, eight boxes of sweaters in their kitchen. The federal government needs to have a yard sale!”
Pawlenty on President Barack Obama’s first two years in office:
“President Obama broke his promise to pay for ‘every dime’ of new government spending. Of course, that’s not the only promise that he has broken. He said that health-care reform would be a transparent, bipartisan effort; instead, the health-care bill was written behind closed doors and passed without any Republican support. He promised to not raise taxes on the middle class, but he broke that pledge. This is not change we can believe in. This is change we still can’t believe.”
I was on a plane flying from St. Louis to Orlando last night and we took off 20 minutes late. Not to worry though because the pilot informed us that he will just do 600 mph and get there 20 minutes early. I was amazed to see so many baseball and tennis courts lit up in Orlando. Of course, the temp in St. Louis was 36 degrees and in Orlando it was 73 degrees.
I am going to post portions of this article by Ronald Reagan the next few days.
June 10, 2004, 10:30 a.m.
Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation
Ronald Reagan’s pro-life tract.
Mother Teresa:”If you don’t want the little child, that unborn child, give him to me.”
It is possible that the Supreme Court itself may overturn its abortion rulings. We need only recall that in Brown v. Board of Education the court reversed its own earlier “separate-but-equal” decision. I believe if the Supreme Court took another look at Roe v. Wade, and considered the real issue between the sanctity of life ethic and the quality of life ethic, it would change its mind once again.
As we continue to work to overturn Roe v. Wade, we must also continue to lay the groundwork for a society in which abortion is not the accepted answer to unwanted pregnancy. Pro-life people have already taken heroic steps, often at great personal sacrifice, to provide for unwed mothers. I recently spoke about a young pregnant woman named Victoria, who said, “In this society we save whales, we save timber wolves and bald eagles and Coke bottles. Yet, everyone wanted me to throw away my baby.” She has been helped by Save-a-Life, a group in Dallas, which provides a way for unwed mothers to preserve the human life within them when they might otherwise be tempted to resort to abortion. I think also of House of His Creation in Catesville, Pennsylvania, where a loving couple has taken in almost 200 young women in the past ten years. They have seen, as a fact of life, that the girls are not better off having abortions than saving their babies. I am also reminded of the remarkable Rossow family of Ellington, Connecticut, who have opened their hearts and their home to nine handicapped adopted and foster children.
The Adolescent Family Life Program, adopted by Congress at the request of Senator Jeremiah Denton, has opened new opportunities for unwed mothers to give their children life. We should not rest until our entire society echoes the tone of John Powell in the dedication of his book, Abortion: The Silent Holocaust, a dedication to every woman carrying an unwanted child: “Please believe that you are not alone. There are many of us that truly love you, who want to stand at your side, and help in any way we can.” And we can echo the always-practical woman of faith, Mother Teresa, when she says, “If you don’t want the little child, that unborn child, give him to me.” We have so many families in America seeking to adopt children that the slogan “every child a wanted child” is now the emptiest of all reasons to tolerate abortion.
Dr. Koop shares his experience when sharing his faith as a surgeon in the hosptial setting and as Surgeon General in Washington. More information at http://www.christianethics.org
1934 Three Little Pigskins . Lucy moments.
My son is crazy about the “Three Stooges.” It is always been our goal to expose our kids to the finer things in life and lots of culture. Last night we saw an episode with Lucy in it from 1934. Notice a picture of Lucy below with the Reagans.
President Reagan, Nancy Reagan, Tom Selleck, Dudley Moore, Lucille Ball at a Tribute to Bob Hope’s 80th birthday at the Kennedy Center. 5/20/83.
1980 interview with Milton Friedman by Phil Donahue (part 3). Friedman greatly influenced me and as a result was a very involved in 1980 campaigning for Reagan.
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Little known presidential facts:
Abraham Lincoln is the only president to receive a patent (# 6469). He was the first president to have a beard, at the request from a little girl named Gracie Bedell. The first child to die in the White House was Abraham Lincoln’s 12-year old son, Willie.i
Abraham Lincoln was the tallest president at 6′ 4” and weighing 180 pounds.i
Milton Friedman’s film series “Free to Choose” Episode on Education part 3. It was Friedman’s voucher plan that was put into practice in Sweden in 1993.
I am sitting in the St. Louis airport waiting to get on my plane to Orlando on a business trip. Can you imagine, I booked a trip with Southwest Airlines because they have always done such a great job and they sent me from Little Rock to Florida by way of St. Louis.
DL: What has Sweden’s experience been with the universal vouchers program?
TI: People really choose! Before the reform, less than 1 percent of all pupils in compulsory education (and around the same amount for students in upper secondary schools) were enrolled in private schools. Today, 10 percent of the pupils in compulsory education and 20 percent of students in upper secondary education choose independent schools. In certain regions of the country, almost half of all pupils and students are enrolled in independent schools.
The independent schools have gone from being an odd phenomenon in certain cities to an obvious and natural part of the Swedish education system. From a business point of view, the independent schools are developing into what can be considered as a real industry, and they are promoting real innovation.
The small independent schools have often challenged the public schools and forced them to improve. But the large chain companies, which have an estimated one-fourth to one-fifth of all independent school students, have proven to be an important force for innovative progress, regarding both educational methods and, important enough, ways to measure, compare, maintain, and improve results.
This also explains why independent schools, on an average, prove to have a smaller per pupil cost than public schools. Since 2004, the inflation-adjusted cost increase per pupil has been smaller for independent schools than that for the whole Swedish education system. And independent schools are not allowed to choose their students. Detailed analysis of cost items shows that independent schools spend a higher share of their revenues on education and teaching materials and are more efficient in managing other costs.
The Daily Hatch 