Quality TV

Photo: Ed Miller

A few days ago I caught up with Amazon Prime Video's King Lear. There is such a plethora of junk cluttering the airwaves nowadays that it was a breath of fresh air to watch a quality production of a true classic. The stellar cast, lead by Anthony Hopkins as Lear, was outstanding.

Of course, I could watch Anthony Hopkins read the newspaper for an hour and be fascinated; he's just one of my favorite actors. But Emma Thompson, Emily Watson, and Florence Pugh are all captivating in their daughter roles, and the supporting players are excellent as well. Lear is a Shakespearean tragedy, so you know the final scene will be littered with dead bodies, as was the bard's treasured technique. But getting there is likely to hold your attention.

The play has been abridged in this production, so it moves swiftly and with lively action. Perhaps due to this compression, the story can get confusing at times, especially if you haven't read the play. In that case, it might be worth checking some online Cliffs notes--if for nothing else than to prepare you for the eye-gouging scene (truly gruesome, and worthy of any modern slasher movie). In addition to shortening the script, director Richard Eyre has set the action in modern Britain. I've seen this updating done with other Shakespearean plays and, to my surprise, have found that I enjoy the innovative approach.

People who claim to "not get" Shakespeare often don't realize that we quote him every day. In King Lear alone, you'll hear about coming full circle and putting the cart before the horse. All that modern relevancy aside, if you're a fan of great acting in a time-honored story, check out King Lear on Amazon. 'Tis worth watching.

The Price of Justice

In a perverse, twisted way, the entire Kavanaugh debacle has served a positive and useful purpose. But the cost to the country, as well as to the judge and his family, has been horrific.

Image from Patch

Brett Kavanaugh has endured a grueling gauntlet few of us could withstand. His personal and professional good name and reputation, built through a lifetime of hard work, achievement, accomplishment, and public service, has been effectively destroyed by ruthless political and ideological enemies on the radical left. His parents, his wife and two daughters have suffered with him, and their lives, too, have been forever marked by this merciless
ordeal.

But throughout the brutal and filthy process of personal destruction, the left-wing ideologues have been exposed for what they are. They are devious, conscienceless liars who will stop at nothing to retain political power over the judicial branch of government. Their desperation is understandable; the radical left cannot achieve their totalitarian goals without the high courts. The majority of American voters do not support the left's radical agenda. Time and again, activist leftist judges have helped the radical left to accomplish its objectives.

I have seen this result of the leftists' relentless crusade firsthand, in my own state of California. The voters' majority decisions at the ballot box on such key issues as illegal immigration and gay marriage have been overturned by the courts if the left did not approve of the election results. Leftists love to cite our "democracy" as the reason to give them their own way, but they have no interest in true democracy. To leftists, there is only one acceptable way to think--their way. Disagree with them, and you will not only face their unfettered wrath--you will be deemed xenophobic, homophobic, misogynistic, evil, deplorable, inferior--stupid. They will seek to destroy you. This is indicative of authoritarianism, not democracy.  

The left-wing radical ideologues have no rules, no boundaries, no civility, no respect--no decency. If it is good for them, it is good--period. They will attack political opponents in public, screaming obscenities and threatening personal harm, to family members as well as the target individual. They are ruled by emotion and rage, not by reason or logic. This makes them extremely dangerous. America has seen this on full display in recent weeks, and the unseemly spectacle doesn't play well in Peoria. As a recent left-wing president was fond of stating, "This is not who we are." How ironic that Obama's words are now so descriptive of his own political philosophy and followers.

The Senate vote has been completed; Judge Kavanaugh has been confirmed as Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh by a margin of two votes. The US Constitution has prevailed, but Justice Kavanaugh will bear the burden of this hard-won victory for the rest of his life.

Whether or Not...

“In three words, I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on."
~ Robert Frost

Life will go on, whether or not:

1. Brett Kavanaugh is seated on the Supreme Court.
2. Pope Francis does anything of substance in response to the most recent sex crimes revealed within the Catholic Church.
3. Voters put Democrats or Republicans in the congressional majority this coming Election Day.
4. President Trump gets credit for the booming economy.
5. The world's climate is warming or cooling.

There's something both comforting and depressing in this reality, but that doesn't mean the average person is powerless in the grip of current events. There are certain actions we can take to ensure our tad of influence is leveraged to the fullest extent.

• We can be sure we are registered to vote, and then do so.
• We can stop financial support to the Catholic Church at every level.
• We can speak out about the practical benefits of the jobs reports, the stock market, improved national security and military strength, and deregulation of US industry.

For my own peace of mind, I'm currently doing all of the above--whether or not it makes a difference as life goes on.

In Honor of Courage

Flight 93 National Memorial ~ Pennsylvania, USA

This nation shall remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave. 

~ Elmer Davis

The Wall of Names

The Tower of Voices

News Break

One of the best things about a two-week vacation with family on the opposite side of the continent is the distance it achieves from media events. I missed a lot of "sound and fury" but am none the worse for it. In fact, I'm quite relieved to have been able to ignore most news reports and enjoy my time away.

For example, take the week-long public lamentations over Senator John McCain. I left town just after the onetime war hero, longtime senator had passed away, and I was halfway through my vacation before he was finally laid to rest. Viewed fleetingly from an iPhone, all the honors and ceremonies seemed endless. Of course there was the inevitable flap over President Trump; why he had to be involved, I don't know. Grieving family members have every right to say whatever they wish; formally invited eulogists, less so. I thought that even the slightest allusion to the senator's differences with the current president drew the spotlight away from John McCain, where it rightfully belonged, and that the bitter remarks were beneath the dignity of the senator's funeral. (Of course, as my grandchildren might say of McCain, "He started it!" by publicly barring Trump from his funeral in advance. But still...)

During my second week off, the Senate hearings for future Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh took center stage--complete with histrionic theatrics. All the Democrat's dramatic efforts and interruptions failed to render their protests as entertaining as the movie Spartacus, but New Jersey's Cory Booker gave it a go. I only heard snippets, but Booker's "Spartacus moment" was memorable, if not for the reasons he had hoped.

To cap off my vacation, Barack Obama, of all people, decided to pop out of his blessedly quiet corner and vocally trash his successor, Donald Trump. I was especially glad to miss this news coverage. Do we really have to listen to him again? For eight years, untold millions of Americans suffered in silence along with me as Obama lectured, hectored, lied, divided, and condescended to us. Now he's back at it. Doesn't the country have enough on its plate? No, in Obama's mind--and in the adoring media's estimation--there's always room for more Obama.

So although I thoroughly enjoyed my long break from the news, I know I can't run away from the fact that the news is still broken. And even if I could flee, I know for sure I wouldn't be wearing a pair of Nikes.

Uncomfortable Shoes

And other shoes continue to drop in the ongoing scandal within the Catholic Church. It is now revealed that Pope Francis discontinued Pope Benedict's sanctions against Cardinal McCarrick, and also covered up for him until it was impossible to do so any longer in the face of the ugly, nauseating facts.

The "shoes of the fisherman" are apparently a bad fit for Francis. He should perhaps rethink his wardrobe entirely.


Link: Petition to Remove Cardinal Wuerl

Of Millstones and Money Changers

So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.
~ John 2

In the wake of the disgusting revelations of the Pennsylvania's grand jury report on hundreds of sexual crimes against children by priests, and ensuing coverups by their superiors, I've heard and read many references to the New Testament's millstone warning. It appears in all three of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), and it quotes Jesus saying the following:

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea."

There it is, in black in white: hurt the children, and you're going to face fearsome punishment.

That dire admonition directly from the Lord's lips doesn't seem to bother the perverted priests or the complicit hierarchy of the Catholic Church. The details of the Pennsylvania report are sickening to read and too obscene for me to reference directly.

The millstone warning (my term for it) is all well and good, but there is another New Testament story that I believe fits the situation equally well. It appears in the second chapter of John's gospel and describes the fury of Jesus upon entering the temple and finding commerce being conducted. He actually fashioned a "whip of cords" and physically drove the money changers from the temple, overturning their tables and scattering all of their loot in the process.

That's what righteous anger looks like, and it was over selling birds and livestock in what the Lord called "my Father's house." Consider the famous question, "What would Jesus do?" with regard to the widespread rape of children (see "millstone," above) in his Father's house. This is not sin by merchants selling their wares, but depraved, deliberate evil by priests anointed to God's service, against the most innocent and vulnerable--young children. That unspeakable atrocity, repeated for many decades countless times the world over, was followed by the crime of coverup by those in authority over the criminals. What would Jesus do? I can't speak for the Lord, but somehow I doubt that a "whip of cords" would be sufficient for his response.

Jesus Drives out Money Changers

As a practicing Catholic, I am enraged. Just this month Pope Francis declared capital punishment "inadmissible." Yet Pope Francis has expressed only "shame and sorrow" (through a spokesman, no less) over the criminal obscenities reported in Pennsylvania's grand jury report. That's absolutely pathetic. I've got more than a few questions for the pope, and as a Catholic I have every right and duty to ask them.

When will child rape and sexual defilement be "inadmissible" in the ranks of the Catholic Church? When will the bishops who covered up these obscenities be exposed and held accountable? When will the offending priests and bishops be stripped of their privileges, handed over to law enforcement authorities, charged with rape, prosecuted, convicted, and thrown into prison for the remainder of their natural lives?

When will you deal with the evil that is rotting the Church from within? Until you do, your "holiness," you are a coward who is as guilty of these filthy, unspeakable crimes as the priests and bishops who committed them.

I remain a Catholic. As I explain to people who inquire, my obligation is to the Lord, not to any man or institution. Each of us someday will die and face God's judgment. I will need to answer for myself and for my sins. The pope, the bishops, all of the Church hierarchy that aided and abetted this corrupt and ubiquitous scandal*, and each and every evil priest who destroyed a child's life will need to answer for their own sins. Good luck with that.

*Link to petition to remove Cardinal Wuerl (added 8/27/18)

Aretha Franklin names her favorite songs

The Train to Nowhere

Image from ALIVE East Bay Magazine

I've lived in California for several decades, but I've never adjusted to the state's profligate spending. Of course, the liberals are in the majority in the state assembly and senate, which perfectly explains the lack of common sense, but let's leave that aside for the moment. California flings money at a multitude of useless projects ranging from the highly impractical to the absolutely ridiculous.

The state's stalled "bullet train" is one financial disaster that fits both descriptions. Despite the complete waste of $77 billion on a project that is now eleven years behind schedule, Jerry "Governor Moonbeam" Brown still insists that California's bullet train is the future of transportation and environmental nirvana.

Just between us, I think he's still high from his last Linda Ronstadt concert.

Think about $77 billion dollars frittered away over the course of more than a decade by the government, with nothing to show the taxpayers for it. The "bullet train to nowhere," as it's called in polite circles, has an imaginative variety of alternate nicknames among the state's residents. I've heard it called the "crazy train," the "cuckoo choo-choo," and the "scam tram," among other monikers not suitable for this blog's editorial standards.

Consider what $77 billion dollars could do if it had been in vested in a real necessity, such as firefighting and drought mitigation. For far less than that mind-boggling sum, there could be more water treatment and desalinization plants built, more firefighting airplanes and helicopters bought, more firefighters hired, trained, and deployed to knock down the recent monster fires that California has been suffering in recent years.

I heard one conservative commentator declare that "drought is a choice." It's an interesting perspective, one that would have benefited California immensely had it been adopted by the state politicians even a few years ago. But, like it or move, California's politicians have us all traveling on the train to nowhere. If they only had a brain.

Old News is No News

Image from Politico

As our president signs legislation

To satisfy pledged obligation

The media news stations

Pursue old allegations

And leave us in newsless starvation.