Category: Entertainment

When Did I Turn Into My Parents?

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Entertainment, Politics6 Comments

What made the “Greatest Generation” great?  Was it the technology available to them?  No.  Was it, as with today’s generation, worship of shallow politicians and movie stars?  No.  Per valuesofamerica.com, it was something else:

As this generation came of age, their future seemed to crash around their shoulders as the economies of the world collapsed. But this generation, following the leads of their parents and the entire heritage of America, would not surrender. They did not bow their heads in misery and despair.

During the Great Depression, the Greatest Generation, with their parents, accomplished whatever tasks opened before them. They built Hoover Dam, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Empire State Building under budget and under schedule.

Hundreds of CCC projects around the nation were completed creating many of the courthouses of the nation, many improvements to the national parks and all manner of public work.

The burden of the Second World War fell almost entirely upon the shoulders of the Greatest Generation. Their backbones had become as strong as steel, their shoulders wide enough to carry the republic through the turmoil of complete war, through rationing, past defeat and into the atomic age.

I’ve written about my Daddy (Southern colloquialism for male parental unit) before. He was a member of the Greatest Generation.  He was a Master Sergeant in World War II, who landed at Normandy, during the D-Day Invasion, as a part of an Army Engineering Unit.  They went on to help clear out the concentration camps.

He never talked about the Invasion.  All I knew was that he was in Europe during World War II, and his first wife sent him a “Dear Ned” letter while he was over there.  When he got back, he worked at various jobs, including being a car salesman, and driving a truck for a beer distributor.

One of those jobs was as a furniture salesman for Sears.  It was there where he met my Mother.  She worked in Unit Control, where she ordered women’s shoes.  She, too, was divorced and had a young daughter, whom my Daddy proceeded to raise as his own.

They had a daughter together, my sister, and settled into the day-to-day-business of living, believing their child raising days would soon be over.

The Lord, as he often does, had other plans.  I arrived 9 years after my sister was born, and 3 days before my Mother’s 40th birthday.   To this day, I believe that they were going to name me “Oops”.

I had a typical American childhood, being raised by 2 Middle Class Working Parents, in a Christian home.  My parents were a little different from others.  My Daddy sang in church, had a joke or story for every occasion, and made friends with every one he met.  My mother was a sports fan, who loved  St. Louis Cardinals Baseball and Memphis State University Tiger Basketball.  She’s the one who pushed me as a child.  So much so, that I wound up graduating high school 30th out of a class of 360.   Our couch always seemed to have one of my sister’s friends camped out on it, who was having trouble at home.  They knew where they could find a sympathetic ear.

My parents were Southern Democrats…until Ronald Wilson Reagan came along.  It’s funny, looking back.   I was experiencing a political awakening, while working as the Campus Radio News Director as a 20-something collegian, and so were they.  As the Democratic Party they knew and loved all those years, morphed into an unrecognizable Liberal imposter of its former self, my parents bid adieu and became Republicans.  So did I.

This joint political conversion should have given me a clue.

I eventually married and gained a step-son, then a daughter of my own.  Looking back, as I was holding and loving my special child, I was mimicking my Daddy.  My special girl is 24 now, and I value every moment I get to spend with her.

I went on to have two more step-sons, both remarkable young men now.  My current step-son and his wife have presented my bride and I with a wonderful grandson, now 4 years old, as a playmate to keep around the house and send him back home when we’re through spoiling him, or, he wears us out, whichever comes first.  I truly believe that his first words were:

Grandpa…cookie!

Looking at the way I relate to him, and the way I related to my step-sons, my darling daughter, and even my niece and nephews, I look in the mirror and see my Daddy.  In my 30 years of singing in churches and leading services, I’ve heard him standing right beside me, singing in my ear.

Every time I watch my Alma Mater, the University of Memphis, play basketball, or watch the St.Louis Cardinals play baseball, I think of my mother.

So, when did I turn into my parents?

It happened the moment I started accepting responsibility for those other lives that God gave me stewardship over.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Miley and Barry: Failures to Live Up to the Hype

On By kingsjesterIn Entertainment, Politics4 Comments

Over the years, as we grow in age and wisdom, we usually learn the hard way about the difficult consequences of placing our faith in, or “worshiping” a flawed human being.

These individuals are usually presented to us as the greatest thing since sliced bread.  Unfortunately, time and time again, they fail to live up to the hype.

Example #1:

On June 3, 2008, Democratic Candidate for President, Barack Hussein Obama spoke the following words to an audience in St. Paul, Minnesota:

America, this is our moment. This is our time, our time to turn the page on the policies of the past…

(APPLAUSE) … our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face, our time to offer a new direction for this country that we love.

The journey will be difficult. The road will be long. I face this challenge — I face this challenge with profound humility and knowledge of my own limitations, but I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people.

Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that, generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless…

(APPLAUSE)

… this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal…

(APPLAUSE)

… this was the moment when we ended a war, and secured our nation, and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth.

(APPLAUSE)

This was the moment, this was the time when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves and our highest ideal.

That was then.  This is now (yesterday).

Fitch Ratings kept its pristine AAA rating on the U.S. on Monday, but the credit-ratings company downgraded its outlook to “negative” in the wake of the Supercommittee’s failure to find $1.2 trillion in spending cuts.

The development, which had been hinted at last week, could have been worse for the U.S. as McGraw-Hill’s (MHP: 41.20, +0.66, +1.63%) Standard & Poor’s slashed its credit rating for the first time ever in August.

However, the negative outlook indicates a “slightly greater” than 50% chance that Fitch downgrades the U.S. over the next two years.

“Failure to reach agreement in 2013 on a credible deficit reduction plan and a worsening of the economic and fiscal outlook would likely result in a downgrade of the U.S. sovereign rating,” David Riley, a managing director at Fitch, said in the report.

Fitch warned that its revised fiscal projections call for federal debt held by the public to exceed 90% of gross domestic product and debt interest payments making up more than 20% of total tax revenues by the end of the decade.

“In Fitch’s opinion, such a level of government indebtedness would no longer be consistent with the U.S. retaining its ‘AAA’ status despite its underlying strengths,” Riley said.

Example #2:

Miley Cyrus became a TV star at the age of 13 as the title character in the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana. Cyrus is the oldest daughter of country music star Billy Ray Cyrus, who topped the charts in 1992 with “Achy Breaky Heart.” Miley Cyrus began performing at an early age, and by the age of 9 was embarking on a professional career. Prior to Hannah Montana she had a handful of jobs, most notably a small part in Tim Burton’s Big Fish (2003, starring Ewan McGregor). After a series of auditions that began when she was 11, Cyrus landed the lead role of Hannah Montana, a teen pop star who leads a double life as an average schoolgirl. Her dad, Billy Ray, was chosen to play her widowed father in the TV series, and the entire Cyrus family moved from Nashville, Tennessee to southern California to encourage Miley’s career. The show was a hit during its long run from 2006 to 2011. The instant success of her television series led to a record deal for Cyrus, whose husky singing voice was often featured in the show. In October of 2006 the soundtrack to Hannah Montana, featuring eight songs by Miley and a duet with her father, debuted at number one on Billboard’s Top 200 chart. The album Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus was released in 2007, and Cyrus toured the country in a successful Hannah Montana concert series. The 2008 film Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour was a hit, and Hannah Montana: The Movie took in $34 million on its opening weekend in 2009, proving that Cyrus was still a very popular star. Also in 2009, at age 16, she published the memoir Miles to Go.

Once again, that was then.  This is now.

Cyrus stunned well-wishers at her 19th-birthday party, happily telling them she’s a pot-loving “stoner.”

“You know you’re a stoner when your friends make you a Bob Marley cake,” said the “Hannah Montana” star during her the bash last week at Hollywood’s Roosevelt Hotel.

“You know you smoke way too much f–king weed!” she exclaims on footage from the birthday bash obtained and first aired yesterday by the iPad newspaper The Daily.

But her rep insisted “It’s all been taken out of context.”

In an interview with Us Weekly, her rep said “The cake was a joke and Miley’s response was intended to be sarcastic.”

Cyrus, who turned 19 Wednesday, caught heat last year when video emerged of her using a bong to inhale what she claimed was salvia, the controversial — but legal — hallucinogenic herb.

The singer’s pal and party host, Kelly Osbourne, was standing next to the birthday gal when she made her unexpected pot proclamation. Osbourne laughed and chirped: “I thought salvia was your problem!’

The new “Britney Spears” is finding her star fading fast as her last movie tanked and her latest album’s sales are very disappointing.

However, Ms. Cyrus’ failures pale in comparison to that of example #1’s.

And they’re also not nearly as hazardous to America’s future.

What It Was, Was Not Football

On By kingsjesterIn Entertainment4 Comments

America has been rocked by the news of pedophilia in the football locker room of Penn State University, where living legend, Coach Joe “Joe Pa” Paterno  had strode the sidelines for 47 years.

Notice I said “had”.

Reuters.com gives us the latest developments:

Penn State University students were warned by local police not to take to the streets on Saturday at the football team’s final home game to protest the sacking of legendary coach Joe Paterno amid a sexual abuse scandal.

State College Police Department Captain John Gardner said he plans to have every officer working at the game against Nebraska, where some fear students may protest the ouster of Paterno after 46 years in charge of the team.

“It you truly support Coach Joe or Penn State, this is not the way,” Gardner told a news conference. “Stay off the street. The behavior of last night will not be tolerated.”

Chanting “Hell no, Joe won’t go” and “We want Joe back,” thousands of students took to the streets overnight to protest the decision, overturning a television van during a demonstration which some police dispersed using pepper spray.

Gardner said more than a dozen people were arrested when as many as 5,000 students protested on Wednesday evening in what he said degenerated into a “riotous mob.”

Pennsylvania State Police and the university police force will assist the town’s police on Saturday, Gardner said.

A child sexual abuse scandal brought down Paterno, one of the most iconic names in American sports, amid criticism he did not do enough to stop crimes allegedly committed by his long-time former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

Paterno, winner of two national championships and in his 46th year as head coach of the Nittany Lions, was criticized for not doing more to intervene when incidents of Sandusky’s abuse were brought to his attention in 2002.

Sandusky, 67, is accused of sexually abusing at least eight boys over more than a decade. Two other university officials have been charged with not reporting an incident in 2002 when Sandusky allegedly was seen sexually assaulting a child.

Lawyers for all three men have said they deny the charges and maintain their innocence.

Graham Spanier, Penn State’s president for 16 years and a family therapist by training, was also sacked on Wednesday.

Former athletic director Tim Curley and former finance official Gary Schultz were charged on Monday with failing to alert police after they were told Sandusky was seen molesting a young boy in the locker room showers in 2002. They were also charged with perjury in their statements to a grand jury.

Things are getting curiouser and curiouser.  Rumors abound, including one started by Pittsburgh radio host Mike Madden yesterday morning on the Dennis and Callahan Radio Show.

Madden wrote a remarkably accurate story about Sandusky and the problem at Penn State last April.

He told John Dennis and Gerry Callahan:

I can give you a rumor and I can give you something I think might happen. I hear there’s a rumor that there will be a more shocking development from the Second Mile Foundation — and hold on to your stomachs, boys, this is gross, I will use the only language I can — that Jerry Sandusky and Second Mile were pimping out young boys to rich donors. That was being investigated by two prominent columnists even as I speak.

What is the Second Mile Foundation?  According to their website:

The Second Mile is a nonprofit organization serving the youth of Pennsylvania. At The Second Mile, we are committed to helping young people achieve their potential as individuals and as community members and providing education and support for their parents and youth service professionals.

…The most recent reports we’ve read this past weekend state that Mr. Sandusky met the alleged victims through The Second Mile. To our knowledge, all the alleged incidents occurred outside of our programs and events. However, we are encouraging anyone with information regarding this investigation to contact investigators from the Office of Attorney General at 814-863-1053 or Pennsylvania State Police at 814-470-2238.

…The Second Mile was first contacted by the Attorney General’s office in early 2011. Since then, we have done everything in our power to cooperate with law-enforcement officials and will continue to do so.

Our highest priority always has been and will continue to be the safety and well-being of the children participating in our programs. We encourage program participants to report any allegations of abuse and/or inappropriate sexual activity wherever it has occurred, and we take any such reports directly to Child Protective Services. We have many policies and procedures designed to protect our participants, including employee and volunteer background checks, training and supervision of our activities.

The Second Mile has helped thousands of Pennsylvania’s children to lead better lives, and we remain committed to that mission. Our success is a result of the trust placed in us by the families and professionals with whom we partner, and we will take any steps needed to maintain their confidence in us.

There seems to be a lot of blame to be shared in this sorry, heinous, tragic situation.

As a college football fan, it grieves me to see it happen.  As a father and grandfather, I wish I had been there instead of that 28 year old Graduate Assistant who caught Sandusky with a little boy in the locker room shower.

I remember my father, who loved to laugh , buying a 45 rpm featuring a spoken word performance by Andy Griffith.  The title was “What It Was, Was Football”.

Andy, playing the same type of character he played to perfection in” No Time for Sergeants”, described his experiences while attending his very first football game.  At the end of the narrative, Andy said:

An’ I don’t know, friends, until this day what it was that they
was a-doin’ down there, but I have studied about it, and I think it’s
some kindly of a contest where they see which bunch-full of them
men can take that punkin an’ run from one end of that cow pasture
to the other’n without either gettin’ knocked down—
‘er steppin’ in somethin’ !

Penn State stepped in somethin’…and the depraved stench of it ain’t goin’ away anytime soon.

Battleground Hollywood: Tinseltown and Christian Americans

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Entertainment, Politics3 Comments

I was listening to American Family Radio yesterday.  One of their hosts was on, stating the obvious fact that American Christianity has been under attack during the present Administration.

He and a Congressman from Houston had been talking about last summer’s dust-up at the 3rd largest Veterans Cemetary in America, where the VA had attempted to ban  Christian Services there and all mention of Christ.

Here is a report from foxnews.com about the controversy, posted 6/30/11:

Veterans in Houston say the Department of Veterans Affairs is consistently censoring their prayers by banning them from saying the words “God” and “Jesus” during funeral services at Houston National Cemetery.

Three organizations — the Veterans of Foreign Wars, The American Legion and the National Memorial Ladies — allege that the cemetery’s director and other government officials have created “religious hostility” at the cemetery and are violating the First Amendment. According to court documents filed this week in federal court, the cemetery’s director, Arleen Ocasio, has banned saying “God” at funerals and requires prayers be submitted in advance for government approval, MyFoxHouston.com reports.

“People are doing things out there that I feel like they shouldn’t be,” Vietnam veteran Jim Rodgers told the website.

The Department of Veterans Affairs said in a statement that it “respects every veteran and their family’s right to burial service that honors their faith tradition.” The department employs nearly 1,000 chaplains who preside over religious burials, according to the statement.

The matter was settled quietly, and Christian Services were once again allowed at Houston National Cemetary.

Some of my most popular blogs recently have been about the fight going on in this God-given land between a vocal minority of non-believers who seem to want to make everyone as miserable as they are, and Christian Americans, who are fighting back.

And the battle is even taking place in the American Movie Industry.

Hollywood Reporter.com  recently ran the following story:

Before the filmmakers for Sherwood Pictures shot the first frame of Courageous, they prayed. It’s right there in the press materials. They did the same thing with Sherwood’s previous theatrical releases, Facing the Giants in 2006 and Fireproof in 2008. None of these Christian-themed movies is up to Hollywood production standards, though by one metric — box office compared to budget — they’re some of the most profitable films in modern history.

While Iron Man 2 and Thor earned three times their production budgets, Giants was made for $100,000 and took in $10.2 million domestically, 102 times its budget. Fireproof cost $500,000 but earned $33.5 million, a multiple of 67 on its budget, and Courageous, made for $2 million, earned eight times that in its first 10 days. It bowed No. 4 at the box office with$9.1 million from 1,161 theaters.

It seems Sherwood — a company few in Hollywood have even heard of — has discovered the secret for making films on a shoestring that people will line up to see in theaters. Maybe it’s all that praying.

Sherwood Pictures is “the moviemaking ministry” of Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga., which spans 130 acres. While it serves 3,000 congregants from a dozen nations, its message — “passion for Christ and compassion for all” — reaches millions more through TV and radio broadcasts and its film entity, which launched in 2003 with Flywheel, a movie produced for $20,000 that sold 350,000 DVDs. Since then, Sherwood has struck distribution and marketing deals with two units of Sony Pictures: Affirm Films and Provident Films.

Sherwood’s films are similarly themed. Courageous is about cops who fear they might fail as fathers without help from Christ. With Fireproof, which starred Kirk Cameron, it was men seeking help to become better husbands, and with Giants and Flywheel, it was men seeking help in their professional lives. The movies have progressed from amateurish to critical successes.

However, as Al Jolson said in the first Talkie:

Waitaminute…waitaminute…you ain’t seen nothing…yet!:

With half a dozen film projects derived from classic Bible stories in development, it would seem that Hollywood has (amen!) found God. Not since the 1950s, when Paramount and Cecil B. de Mille trotted out a handful of Old Testament tales, has there been so much Good Book on the books. Paramount and New Regency are building the big-budget Noah with Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky; Relativity has Goliath in the works with director Scott Derrickson; Warner Bros. has its controversial Judah Maccabee/Hannukkah movie with Mel Gibson producing (that film is competing with another Maccabee project); Steven Spielberg is considering directing Gods and Kings, a Moses story; and an adaptation of John Milton’s Paradise Lost starring Bradley Cooper as Lucifer is aiming for a January shoot. It’s a veritable flood.

“’What are those things that have huge pre-awareness that are huge spectacles that you can exploit our contemporary filmmaking abilities to do even bigger?’” says Goliath producer Wyck Godfrey, who saw comic-book, video-game and fairy-tale cycles running their course. “We’ve spent our entire lives hearing sports analogies of David versus Goliath. Well, before every David and Goliath story there was David and Goliath. That’s how I sold it.”

What a concept.  Family-friendly movies, based on the Old Testament, aimed at attracting the 75%  majority of Americans who proclaim Christ as their Savior.

Why, next thing you’ll be telling me is that a well-known Hollywood actor will produce a movie about the Life, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which will stay in release for 156 days, and bring in a worldwide gross of $611, 899,420.

Oh, wait…

The Idea-less Generation: Clueless Liberals Doing Unsuccessful Things

On By kingsjesterIn Entertainment, Politics5 Comments

By now, you’ve heard that New York Mayor “Gutless” Michael Bloomberg did not clean up either the park or the, by now, rancid hippies yesterday.

That’s a shame.  Because, it turns out that those protesters are even dirtier than we thought that they were.  According to Thomas Ryan, reporting for Andrew Breitbart’s biggovernment.com:

On August 10, 2011, the hacker group “Anonymous” announced that it would join the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. That’s what sparked my interest in monitoring #OccupyWallStreet.

I reached out to a colleague and asked if he would be interested in studying the protest with me. At first, it seemed disorganized, and we believed it would only be a few hundred protestors.

As we engaged in monitoring its growth, we recruited other people to help us begin the collection of data available via social media. We began mapping out key players, and monitored Anonymous’s efforts to organize protests in the San Francisco Bay area public transportation system (#opBART) in order to detect patterns and key influencers.

Then, at the end of August, we were alerted by a fellow researcher that information about USDoR (U.S. Day of Rage, to which Occupy Wall Street is connected) had been posted on Shamuk and Al-Jahad, two Al-Qaeda recruitment sites. We began to take the “Occupy” protest more seriously, and dedicated more time to research and monitoring.

Days later, Anonymous announced that it would be releasing its new DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) tool. Because of the Al-Qaeda posting, we contacted the New York Field Office of the FBI so they could investigate the potential threat. From that point on, we decided we needed to include the Human Element of Intelligence (HUMINT), and to infiltrate the protestors to map their ties to Anonymous, and to the postings on Shamuk and Al-Jahad.

A few of us had attended several of the pre-protest meet-ups and training classes. The Civil Disobedience training was taught by Elliot “Smokey” Madison, a New York-based anarchist who is a member of the People’s Law Collective, a voluntary group that advises protesters on legal issues arising from their actions. The Media training was taught by Vlad Teichberg, a New York based anarchist who is a member of the Glass Bead Collective, an artistic activist group.

After attending these meetings and socializing with those present, several of our team members were added to all the mailing lists of the “Occupy” group. That is how we created the email archive that we are sharing with you (see below). In addition to the involvement of socialists, anarchists, and other radicals, the emails also reveal heavy union involvement from the beginning of the “Occupy” movement, as well as discussion about the role of the Democratic Party, and how the movement should respond to President Barack Obama.

The emails also reveal that the Occupation attempted to provoke the New York Police Department prior to some of the clashes that occurred with activists.

Additionally, the emails reveal the many failed efforts of the hacker collective Anonymous. If those efforts had succeeded, they may have damaged the global economy.

So, it turns out that American Conservatives have been right about the actions of these idiots all along.  The protestors are not out there satisfying some altruistic desire to make the world better.  Au contraire.  As I wrote the other day, this is a paid-for “Oh, look!  A puppy!” full-blown pay-no-attention to the president distraction.

Can this generation of Liberals generate any new ideas at all with those little pea brains of theirs?

Evidently not.

ABC says its revamped version of the 1970s hit “Charlie’s Angels” is being shut down after only four airings because of low ratings.

The network said Friday that four more episodes remain to be aired. The action series focused on three female detectives in Miami.

But the reboot has struggled in the ratings since its premiere last month. It’s ABC’s first cancellation of the new fall season.

The original “Charlie’s Angels” aired for six seasons on ABC and launched one of its angels, Farrah Fawcett, as a major star. More recently, two feature films were also produced.

Drew Barrymore, one of the stars of the two Charlie’s Angels movies, was the Executive Producer of this waste of air time.

As pretty as the three women she hired as the new Angels are, they can’t hold a candle to the originals:  Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith, and Farrah Fawcett, nor Miss Fawcett’s replacement, Cheryl Ladd.  Heck, they don’t even measure up to Miss Barrymore and her fellow angels Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz.

Why do Liberals completely screw up everything they get their hands on?  From synthetically trying to re-create the passion-laden protests of the 60s to trying to ruin the legacy of an iconic television show like Charlie’s Angels, this generation’s Liberals seem to possess thoughts as deep as kiddie pools.

And the sad thing is:  They actually think that they are smarter than you and me.  Just watch their president.

Bocephus and Dubya Stand Up for America

On By kingsjesterIn Entertainment, Politics6 Comments

Am I a voice alone in the wilderness, or has it seemed to you also, gentle reader, that the cable news channel which Conservatives have made the most watched in the world, Fox News, celebrating its 15th anniversary, has lately been overreaching toward the Left in their efforts to be “Fair & Balanced”?

We’re not alone.  Bocephus thinks so, too.

According to reuters.com

Country singer Hank Williams Jr., whose theme song was pulled from “Monday Night Football” after he compared President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler, lashed out at the media on Monday with a topical song called “Keep the Change.”

The track, which borrows its title and certain themes from another song released by Williams’ daughter, Holly, in 2009, was offered as a free download on his website.

Williams sparked an uproar when he appeared on the Fox News Channel show “Fox & Friends” on October 3 and said Obama’s pairing with Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner in a June golf summit was “like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu”.

[Actually, it was an awkwardly worded analogy:

HANK WILLIAMS: Remember the golf game?

STEVE DOOCY: Boehner?

HANK WILLIAMS: That was one of the biggest political mistakes ever.

CO-HOSTS: Why?

HANK WILLIAMS: That turned a lot of people off. You know, watching, you know, it just didn’t go over.

GRETCHEN CARLSON: You mean when John Boehner played golf with President Obama?

HANK WILLIAMS: Oh, yeah! Yeah. And Biden and Kasich, yeah. Uh-huh.

GRETCHEN CARLSON: What did you not like about it? It seems to be a really pivotal moment for you.

HANK WILLIAMS: Come on. Come on. It would be like Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu, OK?]

Back to the Reuters story:

He also referred to Obama and Vice President Joe Biden as “the enemy.” That day, ESPN publicly rebuked Williams and dropped his “All My Rowdy Friends” song as the opening theme for its weekly “Monday Night Football” broadcast.

He subsequently issued a statement saying he was sorry for anyone who took offense, but the Disney-owned sports channel and Williams later said they were parting company after an association of more than 20 years. Williams had introduced “MNF” since 1991 on both ABC and ESPN.

In his new song about the controversy, Williams took aim at both ESPN and Fox News.

“So ‘Fox & Friends’ want to put me down/Ask for my opinion/Twist it all around/Well two can play that gotcha game,” he sings on the track.

Williams, a longtime supporter of Republican causes, also sings that the United States is becoming “socialist” and takes a dig at Obama’s 2008 campaign theme of “change.”

“I’ll keep my freedom, I’ll keep my guns/Try to keep my money and my religion too … Keep the government out of my business/ and y’all can keep the change,” he sings.

The song ends with the 62-year-old Williams, nicknamed Bocephus by his country music legend father, urging fans to join him in a boycott.

“Yeah you can keep ‘Fox & Friends’ and ESPN out of your homes too. ‘Cause Bocephus and all his rowdy friends and his song is out of there,” sings Williams, who is selling “Hank Jr. for President” T-shirts on his website.

Fox News declined to comment on the song, and a representative from ESPN could not be reached for comment.

The new Williams track borrows its title from a song called “Keep the Change,” which released by his daughter, Holly Williams, in 2009.

While Holly Williams did not write the song, her version gained solid radio play with lyrics that present a more subtle but still biting critique of the Obama administration.

Hank Williams Jr. is slated to hit the TV talk show circuit on Tuesday, including appearances on the ABC daytime program “The View” and the conservative Fox News show “Hannity.”

Bocephus’ introductory song for Monday Night Football was heard in American homes for 22 years.  It was originally released as All My Rowdy Friends are Coming over Tonight, accompanied by a great video featuring a galaxy of country music singers and stars of television and movies.  It was re-written and eventually morphed into this:

Just as Bocephus is getting the last word in on both ESPN and Fox News, the American people seem to be getting the last word in on President Barack Hussein Obama.

According to gallup.com, as of yesterday, Obama presently has a 53% disapproval rating, compared to a 40% approval rating.

At this junction of his presidency, George W. Bush had a 55% approval rating.

Miss him yet?  I know I do. For all his faults as president, at least Dubya loved his country and stood up for our Best and Brightest.  In fact, he’s still standing up for them.

From marinecorpstimes.com:

George W. Bush says that after eight years in the White House, he’s happy to be back home in Texas and out of the spotlight.

But the former commander-in-chief tells The Associated Press there’s one aspect of his presidency he still misses: interaction with U.S. troops. And Bush, who sent them to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, says that despite his desire to remain largely out of the public eye, he wants to make sure veterans and military members know they still have his support.

“I was a little concerned that our veterans don’t think that I still respect them and care for them a lot,” Bush told the AP. He added later, “There’s nothing as courageous in my judgment as someone who had a leg blown off in combat overcoming the difficulties.”

Bush is hosting next week’s Warrior Open golf tournament in suburban Dallas, an event featuring members of the U.S. Armed Forces wounded while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, including those who lost limbs and suffered brain injuries. Bush joined more than a dozen wounded military members in the Warrior 100 — a 62-mile mountain bike ride he hosted in West Texas last spring.

These public appearances are the exception to the lifestyle Bush has led in his post-presidency.

After leaving office two years ago, Bush and former first lady Laura Bush bought a house in Dallas and started work on the George W. Bush Presidential Center, slated to open in 2013. He has attended select events relating to the center, as well as a ceremony with President Barack Obama marking the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But he has largely remained out of the public eye.

Bush said he doesn’t want veterans to mistake his private nature with a lack of appreciation for what they’ve done on the battlefield.

“They hadn’t seen me and they hadn’t seen me with the troops,” he said. “So therefore I am using mountain biking and golf to stay connected with the military, people who served during my presidency.”

Military members and veterans groups have generally held Bush in high regard, despite the nationwide protests and international controversy that grew more fervent as the American death toll grew in Afghanistan and Iraq under his command.

More than 1,680 military members have died in Afghanistan since the U.S. began bombing there in October 2001, while more than 4,470 military members have died in Iraq since the war began there in March 2003. Another 46,000 have been wounded in both campaigns.

“What I’m concerned about is that Americans forget the sacrifice,” Bush said. “I don’t think they are right now, but one of my objectives is to make sure they never do.”

We won’t, Mr. President.  And may God bless you, sir.

American Influences: Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and Little Debbie

On By kingsjesterIn Entertainment6 Comments

Growing up as an All-American boy, there were certain foods that were staples around our house:  foods like Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix and Uncle Ben’s Rice and, if my older sisters didn’t grab them first, Little Debbie Oatmeal Cakes.

Like me, I’m sure some of you grew up as a child, thinking these kindly characters were real people.

Aunt Jemima actually was…and made personal appearances!

According to food reference.com:

Chris L. Rutt and Charles G. Underwood purchased the Pearl Milling Company in 1889, and came up with the novel idea of creating a ready-mixed pancake flour. Rutt named it for a catchy tune called ‘Aunt Jemima’ which he had recently heard in a vaudeville show.

Rutt and Underwood went broke in 1890, and sold the formula for Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix to the R.T. Davis Milling Company. Davis looked for a woman to represent the product, and hired an African American woman named Nancy Green (Nov 17, 1834 – September 23, 1923) from Chicago, Illinois.

At the 1893 Colombian Exposition in Chicago, Davis made an all-out effort to promote the new pancake mix, and built the world’s largest flour barrel. ‘Aunt Jemima’ (Nancy Green) demonstrated how to use the new mix, and the exhibit was so popular, police had to control the crowds at the Aunt Jemima booth. Nancy Green was awarded a medal and proclaimed ‘Pancake Queen’ by the Fair officials. Soon signed to a lifetime contract by Davis, Green was a hit all across the country, as she toured demonstrating the new Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix, and by 1910 it was available nationally.

She played the part of Aunt Jemima until her death on September 24, 1923 (she died in a car accident).

Aunt Jemima Mills were purchased in 1925 by the Quaker Oats Company of Chicago.

Uncle Ben?  Not so much.

In the 1910s, the German-British scientist Eric(h) Huzenlaub (1899–1964) invented a form of parboiling designed to retain more of the nutrients in rice, now known as the Huzenlaub Process. It involves first vacuum drying of the whole grain, then steaming, and finally vacuum drying and husking. Besides increasing rice’s nutritional value[citation needed], it also made it resistant to weevils and reduced cooking time.

In 1942, Huzenlaub partnered with a Houston food broker, Gordon L. Harwell, forming Converted Rice, Inc., which sold its entire output to the U.S. Armed Forces.[2] In 1944, with additional financing from the Defense Plant Corporation and an investment by Forrest Mars, Sr., it built a second large plant. Not long afterwards, Mars bought out the founders and merged the company into his Food Manufacturers, Inc..

When white South Carolina planters were unable to make their rice crops thrive, “slaves from West Africa’s rice region tutored planters in growing the crop.”

Uncle Ben’s products carry the image of an elderly African-American man dressed in a bow tie, said to have been the visage of a Chicago maitre d’hotel named Frank Brown. According to Mars, Uncle Ben was an African-American rice grower known for the quality of his rice. Gordon L. Harwell, an entrepreneur who had supplied rice to the armed forces in World War II, chose the name Uncle Ben’s as a means to expand his marketing efforts to the general public.

In March 2007, Uncle Ben’s image was “promoted” to the “chairman of the board” by a new advertising campaign designed to distance the brand from its iconography depicting a domestic servant.

Finally, what about Little Debbie:  was she a real person?  You betcha!

According to the folks who should know at littledebbie.com:

In 1960, McKee Foods founder O.D. McKee was trying to come up with a catchy name for their new family-pack cartons of snack cakes. Packaging supplier Bob Mosher suggested using a family member’s name. Thinking of what could be a good fit for the brand, O.D. arrived at the name of his 4-year-old granddaughter Debbie. Inspired by a photo of Debbie in play clothes and her favorite straw hat, he decided to use the name Little Debbie® and the image of her on the logo. Not until the first cartons were being printed did Debbie’s parents, Ellsworth and Sharon McKee, discover that their daughter was the namesake of the new brand.

The first family-pack was produced in August of that year and consisted of the original snack cake, the Oatmeal Creme Pie. Family-packs were one of the first multiple-item baked goods available with individually wrapped products. The cost per carton was only 49 cents. By combining a quality product with outstanding value, Little Debbie® quickly became a member of America’s households. After its initial introduction, more than 14 million cakes were sold within 10 months. While the Oatmeal Creme Pie was the original Little Debbie® snack cake, there were 14 different varieties by 1964 including the ever-popular Nutty Bars® Wafer Bars and Swiss Cake Roll.

So, there you have it.  Brand names for foods that became American icons.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, gentle reader, I’ll take my leave.  I’m hungry.

Caylee Anthony: A Beautiful Life

On By kingsjesterIn Entertainment, Uncategorized5 Comments

By now, unless, as the Geico guy says, you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard about the verdict that was handed down in the trial of Casey Anthony, surviving mother of precious little 2 year old Caylee Anthony.

On July 15, 2008, Cindy Anthony called 9-1-1 in Orlando, Florida to report that her daughter, Casey Anthony, had stolen a car and some money. She called back later to report that her granddaughter, Casey’s daughter, 2-year-old Caylee Marie Anthony was missing and had been missing for more than a month.

Police interviewed Casey Anthony and arrested her for child endangerment after she told investigators several lies concerning the whereabouts of Caylee for the  31 days that Caylee had been missing.

On December 11, 2008, a water meter reader found the skeletal remains of 2-year-old Caylee, in a garbage bag near a small retention pond less than a half mile from her home.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the remains found at the site where those of a small child. Reports said a water meter reader picked up a garbage bag near Chickasaw Trail and Suburban Drive in the west Orlando area and a small skull fell out of the bag.

The bag was found 15 to 20 feet off a paved road. Tim Miller, founder Texas Equusearch, said he believes the area where the remains were found were not previously searched because the water level was too high.

Anthony, 25, was found not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter of a child. She was found guilty of four charges of providing false information to law enforcement officers.

Caylee was reported missing in July 2008. Anthony told law enforcement her daughter had been kidnapped by a nanny, but during the trial, Baez said Caylee drowned in the Anthony family pool on June 16, 2008.

Anthony was judged by a jury of her peers. Media saturation of the jury pool available for the case in the Orlando area forced the judge to select a jury from Pinellas county, just south of Tampa on Florida’s gulf coast, an area represented in Congress by Debbie Wasserman- Schultz.

Every lawyer that had any sort of half-baked idea concerning what was going on in this trial, got their mug on one of the Cable News Channels, as a featured legal expert. Wall-to-wall coverage necessitated it.

After the trial was over, Casey Anthony defense attorney Cheney Mason blasted the media and the so-called legal experts in a news conference:

I hope that this is a lesson to those of you that have indulged in media assassination for three years. Bias, prejudice and incompetent heads saying what would be and how to be. I’m disgusted by some of the lawyers who have done this.

I can tell you that my colleagues from coast to coast and border to border have condemned this whole process of lawyers getting on television and talking about cases that they don’t know a damn thing about. They don’t have the experience to back up their words or the law to do it. And now you’ve learned your lesson.

After Mason was finished gloating, lead defense attorney Jose Baez also spoke to the media:

While we’re happy for Casey, there are no winners in this case. Caylee has passed on far too soon. My driving force for the past three years has been to make sure that there is justice for Caylee and Casey, because Casey did not murder Caylee, it’s that simple. Today, our system of justice has not dishonored her memory by a false conviction.

Perhaps, counselor. Or, perhaps there just was not enough evidence presented by the prosecution to convict your hedonistic client on the murder charge.

After their press conference,  Defense attorneys Jose Baez and Cheney Mason celebrated their client’s not guilty verdict with a champagne toast at Terrace 390, a restaurant on North Orange Ave in Orlando, Florida.

As word of their celebration got out, people gathered in front of the restaurant’s glass doors where scould watch Casey’s attorneys hanging out with about 20 other people inside, including…you guessed it…Geraldo Rivera.

You can throw up now. I did.

Local resident Wanda Tyler put it succinctly:

They shouldn’t be celebrating. A little girl is dead and they helped her killer go free.

Patrick Fowler, of Tampa, hanging out in the local establishment, shouted that Baez should leave the restaurant. He made sure that everyone there knew that he didn’t think justice had been served.

Baez, stopped drinking his beer long enough to look up and smile a few times.

One of guys whom he was drinking with, a tall, slender man wearing a plaid shirt, came close to the door and made a lewd gesture with hand.

A couple of minutes later, Mason moved closer to the door and made a lewd gesture at Fowler.

While I realize that this is the way that our legal system is supposed to work, that thought does nothing to abate my sadness over the senseless murder of a precious child. What fuels my anger over the situation more, is the actions of Casey herself.  In those first 31 days, before she reported the missing Caylee to the police, Casey was out partying with her friends, as if nothing was wrong at all.

We’ve all seen the pictures.

During her drunken debauchery, before she reported Caylee as missing, on July 2, 2008, she gifted herself with a tattoo, which reads:

Bella Vita

This translates as “beautiful life” in Italian.

Caylee’s was.  And it was horribly and irrevocably taken from her.

American Influences: Glen Campbell

On By kingsjesterIn Entertainment3 Comments

A short while back, I began a series of posts titled American Influences.  These posts are about people, of all walks of life, who have influenced our country and its’ culture through extraordinary talent and/or intelligence.  Or they might have just been at the right place at the right time.

No American has accomplished more or proven to be a more versatile and integral part of our country’s music industry than Glen Campbell.

He was born Glen Travis Campbell on April 22, 1936, on his family’s farm in Billstown, Arkansas. Campbell was one of 12 children, the son of Wesley, a sharecropper, and Carrie Dell,. The impoverished family all worked, picking cotton, when they weren’t picking musical instruments.

When he turned four, his father bought Glen a $5 Sears and Roebuck guitar and within a few years, Campbell was appearing as a paid act and performing guest spots on local radio stations.

At the age of 16, Campbell dropped out of high school and left to seek his fame and fortune out West, where he played with bands in Wyoming’s bars and roadhouses.

In 1961 at the age of 24, Campbell relocated to Los Angeles. Taking a job at the American Music Company, a small publishing house that employed a staff of songwriters, Campbell wrote and recorded the single Turn Around, Look at Me. The record had a little success, but, more importantly, it caught the attention of Capitol Records, who signed him to a contract.

Glen quickly became known as a skilled session guitarist and finger-picker and went on to work as a sideman with artists including Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Merle Haggard, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, the Righteous Brothers, and the Monkees. Hot producers Phil Spector and Jimmy Bowen also regularly tapped Campbell for their recordings.

In 1965, after Brian Wilson’s retirement, Campbell was invited to tour with The Beach Boys as a temporary bassist. In 1967, he recorded the song Gentle on My Mind, and his career as a solo artist kicked into high gear. His next single By the time I Get to Phoenix also made the Top 40 and earned a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance. That same year, his song, Gentle, earned the Grammy for Best Country and Western Recording.

Campbell’s career was on fire, as the Country Music Association honored him as the Entertainer of the Year and, in 1968, Campbell released his biggest hits to date:  Wichita Lineman and Galveston.

Then, in 1968, Campbell appeared on The Joey Bishop Show.  The Smothers Brothers saw the program and liked what they saw so much that they gave him with the opportunity to co-host The Summer Smothers Brothers Show. Campbell’s down-to-earth personality and musical skill impressed CBS executives, and thus was born, in 1969, The Glen Campbell Good Time Hour.  The program was a combination of musical acts, comedy segments, and nationally-known guest stars. The show, which was produced by The Smothers Brothers, became a No. 1 hit in the United States and the U.K., making Campbell an international star.

After conquering television, Campbell appeared in movies, playing a memorable role as an ill-fated Texas Ranger opposite John Wayne in 1969’s True Grit. Campbell proved to still have the magic touch in the 70s, as the overwhelming success of two No. 1 singles, Rhinestone Cowboy (1975) and Southern Nights (1977), further cemented Campbell’s status as a crossover success.

Then,in the late 1970s, while dating singer Tanya Tucker, Campbell’s abuse of cocaine and alcohol threatened to destroy his career. The couple’s wild and violent relationship, combined with his poor record sales, kept Campbell on the cover of the gossip magazines.

However, after touring for a few years in the 80s, and breaking up with Tanya, Glen left Los Angeles, successfully overcame his drug habit, and became a born-again Christian.

However, even born-again Christians falter.  Campbell was arrested in Phoenix on drunk driving and hit-and-run charges in November 2003. He crashed into another car at an intersection, and left the scene of the accident. He went on to plead guilty to extreme DUI and leaving the scene of an accident, and was sentenced to 10 days in jail.

Campbell released a tell-all autobiography in 1994 by the appropriate title of Rhinestone Cowboy.  In 2005, Campbell was rightfully inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. After that, he continued to appear at theaters in Branson, Missouri.In 2008 he released an album of cover songs entitled Meet Glen Campbell.

This week, the following story appeared on people.com:

In his new song, “A Better Place,” Glen Campbell sings, “I need the ones I love Lord/More and more each day.”

The lyric is more personal than the world knows: In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Campbell, 75, and his wife, Kim, reveal that the singer has Alzheimer’s disease.

The couple have decided to go public with Glen’s diagnosis because he’s hoping to say farewell with a final slate of live performances this fall – and they want his fans to be aware of the musician’s condition.

“Glen is still an awesome guitar player and singer,” says Kim. “But if he flubs a lyric or gets confused on stage, I wouldn’t want people to think, ‘What’s the matter with him? Is he drunk?’ ”

The Grammy-winner, whose “Rhinestone Cowboy” topped the charts in 1975, had been suffering from short-term memory loss for years, but the Alzheimer’s diagnosis only came six months ago.

“I still love making music,” says Campbell. “And I still love performing for my fans. I’d like to thank them for sticking with me through thick and thin.”

And Glen, don’t worry. We’ll understand. God bless and Godspeed.

Father’s Day 2011

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Entertainment3 Comments

Today, all across the world, Fathers will be honored by their children, natural, adopted, foster, and those that they took in as one of their own. Did you ever wonder how this Global Remembrance got started?

There are two stories which are attributed as being the origin of Father’s Day.

According to the first tale, it all began in 1910, when Sonora Smart-Dodd of Spokane, Washington, tried to figure out a way in which to honor her dad, a remarkable man, who had single handedly raised six children. Sonora, naturally, loved her dad with all her heart, and wanted everyone to recognize him for what he had done for her entire family. She made the decision to declare day of tribute, a Father’s Day, if you will, on her father’s birthday – June 19.

The next year, Sonora contacted the local churches in an attempt to get them to throw their support behind the celebration, but they simply laughed her off. After that setback, it took a while before Sonora’s proposal once again started gaining attention.

A bill in support of a national remembrance of Father’s Day was introduced in 1913. The bill was approved by US President Woodrow Wilson three years later. The bill received further support from President Calvin Coolidge in 1924.

This brought about the formation of a National Father’s Day Committee in New York within the next two years. However, our Federal Government, not exactly being strong in the pursuit alacrity, took another 30 years before a Joint Resolution of Congress officially recognized Father’s Day. Then, implementation of the bill was postponed another 16 years until President Richard Nixon declared third Sunday of June as Father’s Day in 1972.

The second story of the origin of Father’s Day involves Dr. Robert Webb of West Virginia. According to this version, the first Father’s Day service was conducted by Webb at the Central Church of Fairmont in 1908.

Around my house, we always thought that Hallmark and Walmart invented it.

Just for fun (and in an attempt to actually gain a readership) Newsweek/The  Daily Beast published an article listing the 5 best cities for Dads.  What was their criteria?

To compile the rankings, we started with the 100 biggest cities, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. We then looked five factors, equally weighted, to tell us about the quality of life for resident fathers, using the most recent available data:

Dads-per-capita: The percentage of fathers in each city with one or more children under 18 years old, according to the Census.

Educational quality: The overall caliber of public schools in each city based on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best. Scores are from Great Schools, which ranks schools based on standardized test performance.

Quality time with kids: Sure there are lots of things Dad can do with the kids, but we decided to look at a ubiquitous American classic, played in big cities and small towns across the country: little league (specifically, the number of little leagues-per-dad), with data from Citysearch.

Cardiologists: Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of men age 25-54, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For Dad’s health, we decided to look at the number of cardiologists-per-dad, with data from HealthGrades. HealthGrades doctors must be affiliated with a high-quality hospital, free of state sanctions, disciplinary actions, malpractice judgments, and monetary settlements in the last five years, and be board certified in his/her practice specialty.

Father’s Day fun: Again, we used Citysearch to find the number of public golf courses and sports bars-per-dad in each city.

No. 5 Tampa, Florida

Dads-per-capita rank (among 100 largest cities): 57

Little leagues-per-Dad rank: 2

Cardiologists-per-Dad rank: 33

Father’s Day fun day rank: 18

School quality (1-10 scale): 6

No. 4 Orlando, Florida

Dads-per-capita rank (among 100 largest cities): 73

Little leagues-per-Dad rank: 5

Cardiologists-per-Dad rank: 22

Father’s Day fun day rank: 1

School quality (1-10 scale): 6

No. 3 Gilbert, Arizona

Dads-per-capita rank (among 100 largest cities): 8

Little leagues-per-Dad rank: 64

Cardiologists-per-Dad rank: 31

Father’s Day fun day rank: 20

School quality (1-10 scale): 9

No. 2 Scottsdale, Arizona

Dads-per-capita rank (among 100 largest cities): 4

Little leagues-per-Dad rank: 83

Cardiologists-per-Dad rank: 24

Father’s Day fun day rank: 4

School quality (1-10 scale): 9

No. 1 Irvine, Calif.

Dads-per-capita rank (among 100 largest cities): 7

Little leagues-per-Dad rank: 49

Cardiologists-per-Dad rank: 18

Father’s Day fun day rank: 28

School quality (1-10 scale): 10

Funny how no Southern Conservative cities made the Liberal website’s list.  But, I digress…

Right now, in America, it is harder than ever to be a Dad.  Any male, who is not impotent, can sire a child…as is being proven daily across our country.

However, it takes a man to be a Daddy, a Papa, a Pop, a Pops, somebody’s Old Man, or, simply, Dad.

I’ve had to privilege of having a hand in raising three step-sons, one nephew, and one very special daughter.  I would not give back one moment of those experiences for anything that this world can offer.

I was not a perfect role model.  I made mistakes.  But, looking back, I know, in my heart, that I’ve made a difference in their lives. And I thank the One who made me for that opportunity.

Happy Father’s Day!