This is a Monday Morning Quickie! Hat Tip to American Digest! If you haven’t seen this… what are you waiting for? I’m getting the movie!!!
Klavan on the Culture
Well, I’m on a new post (a new job at the prison) which puts my days off on Thursday and Friday, and it means I’ll be adjusting my target day for posting new material. I haven’t quite decided between Friday and Monday, though Monday sounds good in terms of starting a new week for those of you that read me at work. Moreover, if the whimsy takes me, I can review the week in news! Of course, I’d like to start jumping into Susan’s Microfiction Monday now and again (cause I truly enjoy that diversion), but I can’t let that substitute for my regular posts – and me being the lazy fellow that I am…
So then, since I can’t quite decide, I’ll mess around with it for the next few weeks and see how it shakes out… In the mean time, check out Andrew Klavan at PJTV in “Klavan on the Culture.” His title this week let’s you know where he’s going with his satire… Obama’s Beach Blanket Recovery: It’s Happy, Snappy & Incredibly Crappy. So click the picture or the textual link and visit PJTV for a nice alternative to the slobbering love fest of the MSM with Obama – who knows, you might laugh. Or cry. Or get angry. Could be all three I suppose.
Cheers!
ED - A Way to Get it Up
ED? No. Seriously. You don’t have to live with the shame. Seriously – visit PJTV and Klavan on the Culture for a dose of what you need if you’re a liberal democrat with buyer’s remorse. Just click the link for another serious laugh today.
Cheers!
No. Seriously. Cheers!
P.S. ~ I said I’d be back later with something a little more serious… 😉
This post was initially headed in the direction of parsing a little history around the word intellectual. It just didn’t come together as a single post, and I am not great at separating a long post into constituent parts – so the beginning of my posts on men of letters as they were once called, will begin next week. On the other hand, during the course of my research (actually, I was avoiding the work and watching PJTV’s Bill Whittle), I ran across a video by a guy over at PJTV that gave a graduation commencement address that is unlikely to be heard. You might have heard of this guy; his name is Bill Whittle.
My generation was pampered beyond good sense, we were molly coddled and told a pack of lies – all with good intentions – “yes, you’re a special, unique, creative little soul…” and as a consequence, I wonder if we have failed our own children by placing notions of self-esteem above both common sense and reality. Have we done our children a disservice? Bill Whittle’s recent serving of Afterburner: Graduation Nation, really hits the mark. It’s another installment that is worth the ten minutes it takes to watch it, and it strikes at least tangentially on my topic of intellectuals…
Part of what has motivated me to write a series on intellectuals is in response to current “experts,” both within and without our current administration, speaking ex cathedra on matters us common folk simply wouldn’t understand. Online, print, and video articles seem to have taken up this topic with a certain verve. I’ve also just about finished a couple of books that have seriously sparked my interest and curiosity. The first is Intellectuals and the American Presidency: Philosophers, Jesters, and Technicians by Tevi Troy. The second is by an author whom I greatly admire, Thomas Sowell, and his newest book is Intellectuals and Society.
I often find it depressing that many will use “quotable quotes” from books or movies without understanding both the author’s intent and the context of quotation. I have been guilty of this on too many occasions, and I understand the desire. For example, in keeping with the subject on both counts, a common Thomas Jefferson quote used throughout the media from blogs to movies is: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” This is from a letter written to William Smith while Jefferson was in Paris, dated November 13, 1787. A more complete quote that reveals some of the context is illuminating:
What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure. Link to the letter
Changes the tenor of the quote just a little bit, hey? I was honored by my oldest daughter when she called one day and said, “Dad, you’ve got to watch The Rock! You’re the Ed Harris character. Get it. Watch it.” So I got it. I watched it. And was flattered beyond measure – and yet hoped that I was more like the Michael Biehn or Sean Connery character. Now I’m not so sure, and I think my daughter had a better insight into her old man than, well, the old man did. Ed Harris uses Jefferson’s line (only a part) in protest of lying and uncaring government. He and Sean Connery’s characters were thinkers, men of letters, intellectuals. Where have our intellectuals gone wrong? As a teaser for what’s to come, I’ll share something out of Thomas Sowell’s preface to his book:
Distinguished professors, gifted poets, and influential journalists summoned their talents to convince all who would listen that modern tyrants were liberators and that their
unconscionable crimes were noble, when seen in the proper perspective. Whoever takes it upon himself to write an honest intellectual history of the twentieth-century Europe will need a strong stomach.
But he will need something more. He will need to overcome his disgust long enough to ponder the roots of this strange and puzzling phenomenon. ~Professor M. Lilla, Columbia University, in his book The Reckless Mind: Intellectuals in Politics
Certainly the defense of both Mao and Lenin by our last few crops of intellectuals is confusing… considering that together they have killed their millions, in fact, more than all of America’s war casualties on both sides. A strong stomach indeed.
So family, friends, and readers all, remember, though I gave up religion for lent, I still find wonderful verses in the bible – as I still read it. Remember I Corinthians 9:24-27:
Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
Remember to watch the video! Click a picture or the link at the top of the post.
Tear me up in the comments 😀
Cheers all
This is a video found by my buddy Dan, with many thanks! Though I’ve got the album (CD to those younger than I), I didn’t know about this beautiful tribute with slides to a wonderful song. So for today’s post, please take the time to watch a quiet song honoring our fallen citizen soldiers, and perhaps it’ll jerk a few tears from you as it did me. While you’re at it, drop on by for a look at my online buddy Tom’s entries at Responsibility – Freedom Demands It… the second has another video that is well worth the time it takes to watch it.
Strength, Honor, Courage
~The Skald
The most protean aspect of comedy is its potentiality for transcending itself, for responding to the conditions of tragedy by laughing in the darkness. ~Harry Levin
The perception of the comic is a tie of sympathy with other men, a pledge of sanity, and a protection from those perverse tendencies and gloomy insanities in which fine intellects sometimes lose themselves. A rogue alive to the ludicrous is still convertible. If that sense is lost, his fellow-men can do little for him. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
I figured a laugh would be a nice thing to have this Thursday morning, and these guys have a ton of laughable videos on YouTube. I haven’t been around to see someone pull off a goofy stunt like this, but the chuckles, laughter, or at least bemusement seems like it would have made the experience worth the while. So enjoy this Theatrical Thursday, and I’ll see you later.
Cheers all 😀
I realize I’ve posted a similar video, but… well, tough. In case you don’t travel over to YouTube to watch it, here’s the blurb I wrote after remaking the video:
This is to celebrate the birth of my grandson, and to provide something happy for his Mother (who is serving her second 15 month tour in Iraq) and his Father (who is holding down the fort at home and already did his tour), for his Aunt Karla (who did her tour of duty in Iraq) and his Aunt Lladro (who takes care of Grandma and Grandpa).
For you family members and friends interested in watching, enjoy, for my regular readers – a new post by Thursday 😀
