Saturday Night Classics

 

The song I chose for tonight is probably in my personal top 10 favorites. The song is “Waterloo Sunset.” It is by the Kinks, was written by Ray Davies, and is on their 1967 album Something Else. It was released as a single at the time and made the top 10 in Britain, but made nary a dent in the U.S. pop charts. I just think it’s a lovely song.

Contemplating Rome and finding the bunny at the bottom of the bowl. Um-m. All Gone!

James will next visit the Diner in a fortnight. See you then!

The best meal I ever ate…..

 

It was September 1969. The future Mrs. Pessimist and her roommate had moved into the apartment just above the one that my two roommates and I occupied. My two friends had asked them out for pizza and I met my future bride that night when they came back to our apartment. Strangely enough, I was actually studying for a college assignment and had not joined them. That was the last time she saw me studying for quite some time. I heard my roommates talking later that night about how hot Mrs. Pessimist was and I decided I should preempt any attempt on their part to claim her affections. I went up to her apartment the next day and invited her to a Jose Feliciano concert that was scheduled for later that week. My enthusiasm and Jose’s romantic charm made for a delightful first date.

So she invited me up to her apartment the next day. Her roommate was working the evening shift at the hospital. She cooked the best meal I have ever eaten although I suspect it might have been the first meal she had ever cooked. She served store-bought breaded veal patties sautéed in a pan with mozzarella cheese on top with a side of canned Franco-American spaghetti. I didn’t know that spaghetti came in a can but it was absolutely delicious. They don’t make that anymore. The closest thing is Spaghettios which is not nearly the same.

Obama Admonishes Black Males for Low Harris Support

 

Former president Barack Obama “[spoke] some truths” about his problem with the relatively low enthusiasm for Vice President Harris’s presidential bid compared to his own 16 years ago. His stern remarks, delivered at a campaign field office in Pittsburgh, were particularly directed at “the brothers,” whom he believes may be reluctant to support Harris because they “aren’t feeling the idea” of having a female president.

Treading the Boards

 

Looking back at my life, I find many examples of interests that come and go. Sometimes I will become quite passionate about something, even obsessed, for a while, before dropping it unceremoniously and moving on to something else. I used to view this as a character flaw, a short attention span; but as I have gotten older I have realized that it comes instead from a desire to constantly seek out new things to learn. I tend to take on hobbies and pursue them long enough to get a feel for what they’re like. But once I reach the “been there, done that” stage, I lose interest.

One of the earliest of these flings was acting. My entire career as a stage actor was coextensive with my years in high school. When I say “career,” of course, what I mean is that I was active in the drama club; I auditioned for pretty much every play, and I always got cast. That was my main extracurricular activity in high school, and in fact, I lettered in drama. (I still have the sew-on letter somewhere, but I never bought a letter jacket to attach it to.) There were at least two big productions each school year, one in the fall and one in the spring, and occasional smaller ones; it seemed that I was always auditioning or rehearsing for something.

An Evening with John Carpenter

 

As Halloween approaches, many of us will think of the 1978 film Halloween. Some of us even have the theme music going through our heads right now. That music is as iconic as the theme from Psycho, but Bernard Herman, not Alfred Hitchcock wrote Psycho’s theme. John Carpenter didn’t merely direct Halloween, he wrote the music, too. And he wrote the screenplay. This is a talented guy.

It was great fun to hear this talented but cranky man, John Carpenter, in person, at Joe Bob Briggs’ International Drive-In Jamboree at the West Wind Drive-In in Las Vegas. He’d been invited to talk about his filmmaking career. Last year, at the Fourth Annual Jamboree, the honored filmmaker was Roger Corman in his last interview.

Carpenter was introduced with a fun montage with scenes from Starman, Christine, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, They Live, Vampires, The Fog, and others mentioned throughout this post. His first, a student project made at USC that received a theatrical release, came out in 1974. And his last film, The Ward, was released in 2010. He is 76 years old and for the last decade and a half, he has concentrated on music.

Will it Take Another 9/11?

 

As we watch the fires of anti-Semitism flare up across the country, and college students think they are being heroic for defending Hamas and Hezbollah, we have to wonder if it’s even possible to turn this country around to the virtue and values it has been known for. When violence, Nazi-like behavior, and protests attacking Jews in this country and worldwide are increasingly celebrated, who will put the brakes on and stop this nihilistic behavior? The academies have built fortresses of Marxism and anti-Americanism, and their militaristic resistance to resurrecting the values of the Founders continues to flourish.

Where do we go from here?

This week we cover a handful of great tug-of-war games, past, present, and future. Charles McElwee, founding editor of RealClearPennsylvania, returns to the podcast to give an election season tour of the swingy Keystone State. Next, Tevi Troy joins for a discussion about the epic clashes between America’s masters of the universe and their presidents. (Be sure to get a copy of his new book, The Power and the Money.)

Steve, Charlie and James also chatter about Florida’s latest roaringly windy Wednesday, and end on the neutral note of AI symphonies.

Britannia under the Waves

 

Despite my last name being Gallagher, I’ve always been something of an Anglophile. I took two years of English History during my long-ago college days and when I graduated I took a six-week backpacking trip around England. I never ventured any farther north than Wales, but along with hanging out in pubs, I did manage to take what I called the Castle Tour. Starting with the grim fortress of Dover Castle overlooking the English Channel, I visited Arundel Castle, Carnarvon Castle, Conwy Castle, Harlech Castle, and Caerphilly Castle with its still-intact moat.

My travels weren’t just confined to castles, however. I visited the British Museum, where I viewed one of the early copies of the Magna Carta, which contains Articles 39 and 40, two of the foundation stones of our modern freedoms. I also visited the Imperial War Museum, the Tudor Palace of Hampton Court, Sir Christopher Wren’s St. Paul’s Cathedral, and Westminister Abbey with its walls covered with plaques honoring Britons both famous and obscure.

Yom Kippur: Regrounding and Rolling Onward

 

I have often described Judaism like a wagon wheel on a road. The wheel turns, and so in a sense, we are going through a cycle each and every day, and each and every year. A wheel in a wheel, as the gospel song goes.

The difference between Judaism and classic circular religions (basically all religions that model themselves after the natural world with its seasons), is that our wheel is not suspended in space. Instead, we are bouncing along a road. We have an origin, and we have a destination. And it is the touchpoints of the road that give us continuity and a sense of belonging. It is why we sing familiar melodies. We reground at the very same time as we look forward.

Our Friday round-up of the week’s big stories:

  • Biden and Harris take on “misinformation” in the aftermath of back-to-back hurricanes
  • Happy Birthday, Reverend Al!
  • Lesbian Navy runs aground
  • Mika seeks professional help
  • Ron doesn’t take Kamala’s phone calls

The Saint Louis Ricochet Meetup, October 3-6

 

A handful of us had a splendid Saint Louis Ricochet Meetup the first weekend of October. This started out with LC and myself saying that, one day, we need to go to a science fiction convention together. We live far from one another, and Saint Louis is about halfway between, so when I saw that Archon was going to have Bob Eggleton as one of its guests, I thought this would be the convention. There were some other Ricochetti who were going to join us, but due to Hurricane Helene or other reasons had to drop out. But we did have @lidenscheng, @omegapaladin, and @katiekoppelman, along with some non-Ricochet companions.

My wife and I went to the Saint Louis Art Museum as soon as we got to town on Thursday afternoon. It is a nice museum, but unfortunately, none of the other Ricochetti got there until after closing time. They did get to see a handful of outdoor sculptures. Next stop was the Chuck Berry statue, which happily turned out to be just a block from Ranoush, the restaurant where we all met for supper. If anyone is looking for good Syrian cuisine in Saint Louis, I recommend it, although Lidens’s boyfriend thought it made his pants smell funny.

Demons on Film

 

As California AG, Kamala prosecuted David Daleiden and seized many hours of the unreleased undercover tapes he had of the crimes committed by Planned Parenthood – specifically the selling of body parts from aborted babies. She tried to cover this up! What are the odds that solid American journalists like the lovely ladies on The View, or that intrepid late nite hack Stephen Colbert, or that ghoul on the Call Me Daddy podcast will ask Kamala about this?

Abortion is the only issue Kamala has to run on. She can’t claim any success on the economy, the border, the world on the brink of war, etc., etc. All she wants is to codify Roe v. Wade. And as one can see in the short film, the abortion industry is demonic and sick.

Washington at Monmouth

 

Seven years ago, the Fatal Sunday audiobook was released. I have improved a lot as a narrator since then, so it’s a little painful to listen to this one, but it is one of my all-time favorites of the 86 books I’ve narrated. George Washington was under a lot of pressure to get a victory, after performing a miracle rebuilding his army at Valley Forge. There were folks in the Continental Congress who wanted to replace him. This fatal Sunday in New Jersey was truly a crucial point in the Revolutionary War. I still have some promo codes for a free Audible download if you would like to listen to it.

In this episode of Homeschooling Journeys with Curious Mike, Katie Switzer from West Virginia shares her compelling story as a homeschooling mom navigating the state’s Hope Scholarship program. She recounts her pivotal role as a plaintiff in the legal battle that saw the scholarship declared unconstitutional by a West Virginia Circuit Court, only to be appealed to the state Supreme Court. Katie also sheds light on the frustrations and red tape surrounding the reimbursement process, a challenge many parents face when trying to access funds through the scholarship. Despite the hurdles, Katie successfully uses her Hope Scholarship for her children’s education, covering basic curriculum, speech therapy, piano lessons, and online classes with a beloved teacher, Miss Ashley. This episode provides an eye-opening look at the struggles and successes within the evolving landscape of school choice and education savings accounts.

There’s an ill wind blowing and it’s not from a hurricane. The calls to end your First Amendment right of free speech is growing, and with disingenuous promises that’s because we have to keep people “safe.” Dennis takes you into the eye of this storm with Chris Kohls (aka, MrReaganUSA on X and YouTube) whose Kamala parodies put him up against the state of California.

Fight back and be heard!

Still in the Fight……….

 

“Hurricanes are bad…” said Captain Obvious.  Milton the monster (who remembers that reference?) is hitting the Florida Peninsula as I write this.  Usually, the hurricanes approach the southeast US traveling due north and then push towards the east, up the eastern seaboard and/or into the Atlantic.  If they go inland they rapidly dissipate.   Well, Ms. Helene had thoughts of her own, traveling strongly north by northwest into the mountains of North Carolina, dumping what can only be described as a biblical amount of rain.

Now North Carolina holds a special place for anyone who has joined the US Army Special Forces. Fort Bragg, now known as Fort Liberty (“Vive la liberté!”) is the home to where one becomes a Green Beret, including participating in an Unconventional Warfare culmination exercise designed to free the fictitious country of Pineland from the grip of tyranny.   It is conducted in 26+ counties and it extends well into the North Carolina mountains.

Don’t count the Badger State out. It’s very much in play, but keeping up with its moving parts and pieces can be downright dizzying. Craig Gilbert of Marquette Law School and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel joins Henry to properly orient us to a state with Obama-Trump voters in the West, Anti-Trump Republicans in the suburbs, and one oh-so-narrow Senate race.

Plus, Mr. Olsen finally has some company to spread the news about the Republican Party’s novel voter identification edge. He breaks down what this best-kept non-secret means for strategists, and assesses how the Harris and Trump campaigns are responding.

Oh, My Sainted Aunt: The UK Tory Leadership Election

 

File:Official portrait of Kemi Badenoch MP crop 3, 2024.jpg - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaYesterday, reassurance,  if you’re a normie, anyway.  James Cleverly (I never thought he was all that) seemed to have a clear path to the “final two” in the elimination rounds for the Tory leadership contest.

We were down to three candidates,  The leader was James Cleverly!  Oh, happy day!  The “traditional” candidate.  The “continuity” candidate.   The Telegraph (with one notable exception) was delighted!  Cleverly, outspoken supporter of the recently deposed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. More of the same.  Sigh.

Today, Whoops!  All I can say is that there must have been some serious “strategic voting” going on in the past couple of rounds.

Join Ericka Redic and guest co-host Dr. Lori Fineman as they welcome the Founder and CEO of New Light New Life, Veronica Robles. Robles, an internationally acclaimed makeup artist, founded New Light New Life to combat human trafficking and empower survivors through transformative services that promote self-confidence.

Brash, irreverent, and mostly peaceful!

Isolation is Grand

 

There is a lot to be said for isolation in a world fed by the 24-hour news cycle. The isolation that has come for families in North Carolina, South Carolina, parts of Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Florida is a different matter.

Good intentions and expressions of concern from pundits who couldn’t build a fire in the wild to save their own lives are not going to accomplish the job of rebuilding homes and lives. They will eventually stop reporting the story because they have never built anything themselves.

Each month, a panel of constitutional experts convenes to discuss the Court’s upcoming docket sitting by sitting. The cases covered in this preview are listed below.

Royal Canin U.S.A. v. Wullschleger, (October 7) -Federalism & Separation of Powers; Whether a post-removal amendment of a complaint to omit federal questions defeats federal-question subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331; and (2) whether such a post-removal amendment of a complaint precludes a district court from exercising supplemental jurisdiction over the plaintiff’s remaining state-law claims pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1367.
Williams v. Washington, (October 7) -Federalism & Separation of Powers; Whether exhaustion of state administrative remedies is required to bring claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in state court.

A hurricane is coming and my refrigerator went on strike

 

It is my old refrigerator/freezer that I moved into the garage when its ice maker quit. I use it mostly as a chest drawer freezer and a beer cooler. He seemed happy with the arrangement, but in the past three weeks, I noticed that I needed to recycle the settings to keep him cool and happy. When my beer is warm, I can tell something is wrong. I told him that I knew I had been ignoring him lately, but asked if he couldn’t hang on for a few more weeks. He didn’t say a thing and just seemed to smile as he sat silently, holding all my thawing meats in his belly.

So tonight I had to scrub a large cooler and fill it with the thawing meats. It is a lot of meat. I don’t know what I will do with it. Some can refreeze in the kitchen freezer. Maybe I will have a post-hurricane party and cook it all.

This week on The Learning Curve, co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and Mike Goldstein interview Katie Everett, the Executive Director of the Lynch Foundation. Ms. Everett shares her journey into K-12 education reform and discusses the influential vision of Carolyn and Peter Lynch, and their foundation’s role in shaping education policy in Massachusetts and beyond. She highlights the Lynch family’s contributions to the Commonwealth’s educational, cultural, and civic landscape. Everett delves into the operational challenges facing Catholic schools, such as labor costs and enrollment issues, while also emphasizing the work of the School Choice and School Financial Sustainability Committee, which developed a finance model to assist tuition-based schools. She elaborates on how the model has been received and its potential to expand access to early childhood education, breaking cycles of illiteracy and poverty. Additionally, she explores how her school finance model could align with state policies, like ESAs, to bolster Catholic and private schools. Everett closes by calling for more robust involvement from governors, legislators, and parents in improving academic outcomes for American students.

Regarding Kamala’s Glock Pistol Ownership Claim

 

When questioned on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Vice President Kamala Harris, historically a quite rabid anti-gun advocate, has declared that she owns a Glock pistol. From Forbes:

The vice president has owned a Glock “for quite some time,” she told “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker, pointing to her law enforcement background as her reason for buying a firearm.

When asked if she had ever fired the weapon, Harris responded, “Of course I have,” saying she’s used the gun at a shooting range.