Category: Entertainment

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!

Of Obama and Superman

On By kingsjesterIn Entertainment, Politics4 Comments

I love my country. I make no bones about it. I was born American by God’s grace.

However, there are a bunch of idiots out there who do not feel that way. They take the privilege of being born in the greatest country on Earth as a liability, not a blessing.

For example, the Liberal pinheads who are currently publishing the adventures of an American Icon, who has always stood for truth, justice, and the American Way.

That’s right. These snotty-nosed punks are having the Man of Steel renounce his American citizenship.

This unpatriotic bone-headed move takes place in “The Incident,” a short story in Action Comics #900 written by David S. Goyer with art by Miguel Sepulveda. In it, Superman meets with the President’s national security advisor, who is hot about the fact that  Superman appeared in Tehran to non-violently support the protesters demonstrating against the Iranian regime, no doubt an analogue for the recent real-life protests in the Middle East.

What in the world?

…Since Superman is viewed as an American icon in the DC Universe as well as our own, the Iranian government has construed his actions as the will of the American President, and indeed, an act of war.

Superman replies that it was foolish to think that his actions would not reflect politically on the American government, and that he therefore plans to renounce his American citizenship at the United Nations the next day — and to continue working as a superhero from a more global than national perspective. From a “realistic” standpoint it makes sense; it would indeed be impossible for a nigh-omnipotent being ideologically aligned with America to intercede against injustice beyond American borders without creating enormous political fallout for the U.S. government.

What in the name of Krypto the Superdog is going on here?

It’s bad enough that we have to live with the Liberals’ intentional distruction of our American Way of Life, but do they have to corrupt our comic book icons as well?

What next…is Batman going to come out of the closet and change his cape and cowl to pink?

The next thing you’re going to tell me is that the President of the United States doesn’t like our country.

Oh, wait…

On americanthinker.com, in an excellent article posted on 11/1/2009, a writer named bookworm posted the following list of Obama’s anti-liberty goals:

  • He wants to deny individuals access to the marketplace –where they can make their own decisions about their own health care — and instead put the government entirely in charge.   [Since this list was published, Obamacare got passed.]
  • He’s willing to give government control over American businesses (e.g., the bank takeovers and Government Motors).
  • His administration, while on record as opposing the Fairness Doctrine, is aggressively exploring a backdoor regulatory scheme that would have precisely the same practical effect as the Fairness Doctrine: it would impose government restrictions on content, rather than allowing the market (that means us, the consumers) to control content.
  • His FCC wants to control the internet, a humming beehive of free speech (much of it critical of Obama).
  • As his loud battles with Rush Limbaugh and Fox News illustrate, he desires a single-party press, not a free one.
  • He believes that now that he is in power, the opposition should shut up and “get out of the way,” a notion that runs directly counter to the First Amendment.
  • Although he’s mostly erased the record that once existed in cyberspace, his dream is to create a civilian national security force, subordinate to the administration, which would be larger than the American military. The military, please note, is controlled by the Constitution and has traditionally existed separate from, but subordinate to, the rest of the American government.
  • He wants to take away the right to bear arms. He’ll pay lip service to supporting the Second Amendment, but his fundamental goal is to use government to remove arms from individuals.
  • In a stunning blow to the freedom of born alive infants, he is one of a handful of politicians nationwide who believes it is appropriate to leave such infants to die alone and untended. With few exceptions, even those whose politics are entirely colored by a pro-choice viewpoint couldn’t swallow this approach.
  • Without money, people have no choices. The more money the government siphons to itself, the fewer choices we as individuals have. Although he dresses it as fairness (it’s “fair” for the “lucky” to pay substantially more), Obama believes that it’s government’s role to “spread the wealth.” That may be “fair,” but it’s not consistent with liberty, hard work, and individual choices.

And, just yesterday, the Obama Administration  exiled the San Francisco Chronicle’s Carla Marinucci from being a part of the press pool again.

Her horrendous crime? 

She pulled out a small video camera last week and shot some protesters interrupting an Obama fundraiser at the St. Regis Hotel.

Censorship of the press.  My…how Marxist.

Why is it that those who claim to be the most tolerant of anybody in this nation, are actually the least?

And the very country that permits them to practice their misguided ideology is the very nation that they hold in such great disdain?

The State of American Culture, Easter Weekend 2011

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Entertainment4 Comments

Have you seen it yet? I’m talking about the video from that Baltimore McDonalds that shows two black women, one of them a 14-year-old girl, beating the snot (Southern expression) out of a young white woman, kicking and punching the 22-year-old victim in the head.

An employee and patron of Rosedale restaurant try to stop it, while other jackwagons in Mickey D’s can be heard laughing, and poor excuses for men can be seen standing by, like they’re watching a professional wrestling match.

At the end of the beat-down, one of the beaters lands a punishing blow to the beatee’s head, and she appears to have a seizure. You then hear a male (I’m not going to call this individual a MAN) voice telling the women to run because police are coming.

The video, which runs 3 minutes, was first posted on YouTube, then removed by administrators who said it violated the site’s policies. Then it was seen on other sites and finally showed up on drudgereport.com, which made it the headline story for most of the day.   Here it is.

By nightfall, the video had received more than 500,000 views on one site alone.

According to county police, the savage attack happened on April 18 in the 6300 block of Kenwood Ave. The reported that the 14-year-old girl has been charged as a juvenile, while charges were pending against an 18-year-old woman.

Per Equality Maryland, the victim is a transgender woman. They have called on state Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler to step in and investigate the case as a hate crime.  Police and prosecutors are unsure about whether the victim is a transgender woman or not.

The victim wound up with cuts to her mouth and face. A police report said she had been taken to Franklin Square Hospital Center in fair condition. Police reported Friday that they had no update on her status.

Has America become a just another barbaric country? Have we, as a nation, achieved the goal, so often stated by President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm), and replaced the Reaganesque image of A Shining City on a Hill with that of a Third World Barrio?

If we have, our celebrities have led the way.

For example, former Disney Darling Lindsay Lohan continued her downward spiral into the fiery abyss yesterday as Judge Stephanie Sautner sentenced her to 120 days in jail for violating her probation.

The former child star has also been ordered to complete 480 hours of community service. 360 of those hours must be performed at the Downtown Women’s Center, so the pampered celebrity can experience the plight of women in need. The remaining 120 hours will be served at the L.A. County morgue, so that she might have a clue as to where she is headed.

The ig’nant (another Southern expression) young woman stole a $2,500 necklace. The bimbo, err, young lady, err, Lohan waited several weeks, and then returned the necklace, only after finding out the police were about to raid her house. Judge Sautner, while handing down her ruling, explained that Lohan should have called the store and notified the owners about the necklace sooner.

Sautner was very intrigued by the surveillance video, watching it for the first time in court yesterday. The Judge agreed with Deputy District Attorney Danette Meyers, who presented the argument that Lindsay used her friend Patrick as a decoy to distract the clerk.

Speaking of celebrities presently in a rapid descent into the fiery abyss…

D.C. police are investigating why actor Charlie Sheen received a police escort from an area airport to his show in downtown Washington this week.

Police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump said late Thursday that the police department’s internal affairs unit is investigating the incident.

On Tuesday, D.C. police used lights and sirens as they escorted the former “Two and a Half Men” star from Dulles International Airport to his stage show, “Violent Torpedo of Truth: Defeat Is Not an Option.” At the time, Sheen was running nearly an hour late for the show.

Sheen tweeted about the ride and included a picture of a speedometer reaching about 80 mph.

Councilman Phil Mendleson says he met with D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier on Thursday. He says Lanier did not authorize the escort.

Are we,  as Americans, the enablers of our own destruction?  The family dinner table is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.  Wholesome Family Sitcoms seemed to have vanished after The Cosby Show, Family Ties, and Home Improvement.

Some people believe that Obama was right, when he said:

I don’t.  I stand with  John Adams, our 2nd United States President (1735-1826), who served from 1797-1801, and proclaimed that:

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

I also, this Easter Weekend, stand with the 75% of Americans, who proclaim their faith in God, like this great bunch, appearing in this wildly popular viral video from 2nd Baptist Church. 

May God bless America…again.

Elvis, Bad Dog, and Larry

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Entertainment1 Comment

What is it about a person that makes him/her popular?  Is it money?  No, that comes and goes.  Is is talent?  Well, that may be a part of it.  But, in the Mid-South alone, there are a lot of extremely talented unknowns.  Last night, as I was tossing and turning, I asked myself, what was it about Elvis Presley, John “Bad Dog McCormack”, and Larry Finch that made them so beloved by their hometown of Memphis, Tennessee and beyond?

As always, now that I’m older and, hopefully wiser, I returned to the place where I know that I can find the answer:

1 Corinthians 13:

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Have you ever been around someone who lights up a room the moment they enter?  My Daddy (Southern colloquialism for male parental unit) was like that.  So were these extraordinary men.

I had the privilege of attending one of Elvis’ Concerts , seated in the top row of the Mid-South Coliseum with my late step-sister in the early 70s.  Elvis was wearing one of his blue jumpsuits.  Even from the 35th row, I was touched by the genuine love that he had for his fans and the ease by which he communicated with them.  At one point in the concert, Elvis said:

Since I’m home, and y’all are all home folk, I’m gonna try a new song out on ya.

He proceeded to grab some sheet music and sang from it, without missing a beat.  Here’s an example of Elvis’ talent:

I had the privilege of talking to Bad Dog McCormack in the late 80s, while I was working at Memphis Cablevision.  He, Tim Spencer, and Bev Hart were there, taping commercials for a promotion that their radio station, Rock 103, was running with Coca-Cola.  The spots were called Coke Breaks.  He was such a naturally nice guy.  After that, I listened to the Wake-up Crew every morning, until Clear Channel broke them up when they bought the station.  After that, I listed to Bad Dog until he passed away from leukemia last month.  Here is a message that he recorded right before he worked his last Ronald McDonald House Radiothon for the kids of St. Jude Hospital.  He found out that he was out of remission, right before the Radiothon, but he refused to miss it, telling everyone that he had to do it for the kids.

And, of course, there was Larry Finch, who bridged a racially divided city like no one else has since.  Here are highlights from the Tiger’s 1973 loss in the NCAA Basketball Championship to UCLA.

Memphis was once known as The City of Good Abode.  It can be again. However, it will take singular men like these.  And love.