Part Eight Part Nine We came back down, and Walpole and Percival prepared a special midday meal for me. They served a haggis and other Scottish delights. After we had eaten, they pulled out a deck of cards and small bottle of whisky. They magicked up some tumblers and ice, and we had a very […]
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After Trump’s 2016 victory, I considered forming a new political action group called the Al Czervik Republicans. It would be based on Rodney Dangerfield’s classic character in the 1980 comedy film Caddyshack and serve as a tribute to those considered the “wrong kind” of people by the establishment in Washington DC.
If you’ve never watched Caddyshack before, you might want to do so before reading the rest of this. Spoilers will follow.
In many ways, Trump is a perfect metaphor for Dangerfield’s Al Czervik. They’re both self-made businessmen and builders. They’re sometimes crass, often hilarious, and completely despised by the “right kind” of people. They both delight in pointing out the hypocrisy of the privileged class and are targeted for retribution as a result.
Iconic Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Sir Winston Churchill was a former officer in the British Army and is considered by many to be one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century. He oversaw British victory in the Second World War, played an important role in defending against the spread of fascism, […]
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Join Jim and Greg as they welcome the news that a top figure in Iran’s likely nuclear weapons program was targeted and killed and they marvel at how it was done. They also bang their heads against the table as some Trump supporters suggest opposing GOP senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler for being insufficiently vocal about the alleged election fraud and believe writing in Trump in the Senate races would send a powerful message. And they groan as the media clearly intends to stay in full Joe Biden cheerleading mode, including one story featuring an animal psychic who says Biden’s dogs are convinced he will be a great president.
Well There’s Your Problem Podcast. Well There’s Your Problem is an engineering/politics/dark comedy podcast that covers the background, events and fallout of engineering disasters throughout the ages, in particular what faults directly led to the disaster. Preview Open
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Part Seven Part Eight The morning dawned with Mr. Terzi the tailor coming in to dress me properly as a grand vizier facing battle. I quickly broke my fast and then went up to the walls of the city where le Dauphin was in command. Preview Open
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This is about a World War II Navy Chaplain, Charles Robinson, who helped free the first Allied POWs in Japan. I’m posting this on Ricochet partly because I was irritated by the recently discovered comments by the Democrat candidate Raphael Warnock in the Georgia special election for Senate, who orated from the pulpit that people cannot serve the military and God. I didn’t find this to be true during my Navy career, whether one was serving as a Chaplain or just an adherent of a religion. Some of the people I respected the most were men of the cloth and I still value their friendship and the time we served together.
The essay is unrelated to the politics of the moment, so if you’d like a break from news about the election, the essay is safe to read. I doubt any of you have heard about Father Robinson, but his story is one that is worthy of sharing and, I believe, undercuts the narrative that Reverend Warnock peddles. Father Robinson pursued studies in theology that led him to become a Jesuit Priest almost 100 years ago, and he went overseas to Japan for his first posting. What he learned while in Japan ended up helping hundreds of prisoners of war in the Tokyo area who had been tortured or were starving at the end of the war.
The full essay is based on a research project for a history class I completed earlier this year. The professor described how Father Robinson had accomplished a mission of mercy for the Jesuits at the Jesuit Sophia University in Tokyo, and due to my Navy background, she suggested I research it for the term paper. My research determined that he had done a lot more of consequence before his rescue mission to Sophia. At the war’s end, he was stationed onboard the Battleship USS Missouri (BB-63), which arrived at the entrance to Tokyo Bay a few days before it would host the surrender ceremony on 2 September 1945. Of the tens of thousands of sailors who came to Tokyo Bay and were present for the surrender ceremony, Father Robinson had a skill that ended up being critical for rescuing hundreds of prisoners of war (POW) languishing in Japan’s numerous POW camps. He used his knowledge and abilities with distinction, in ways that helped smooth the process of quickly freeing the first group of POWs and saving other lives.
It remains one of my most thrilling visits to the movies. I had seen clips for this upcoming science fiction film, Star Wars, on Creature Features (in the San Francisco Bay Area, KTVU). I wasn’t impressed. It was just a little scene inside a space ship and that ape creature’s make-up wasn’t nearly as impressive as what was done for Planet of the Apes.
But our family took a vacation to see relatives in Colorado and one of my cousins told me I had to see this film. He had already bought the soundtrack album, which I thought was a rather strange thing to do, not knowing I’d soon do the same. Soon, I was sitting by him in a movie theater in Colorado Springs. As that John Williams surged, words drifted over my head and soon huge spaceships. I had never experienced anything like it. And I love it.
Soon the camera took us inside that rebel ship. It was being invaded. A huge masked man, all in black including a grand black cape boarded the ship. “Scary” didn’t begin to describe him. In the film, he was an underling to greater forces, but it was difficult to imagine who Darth Vader could possibly answer to. Who could be even more dreadful than this Sith Lord? When Vader escaped the explosion of the Death Star, it was frustrating and exciting. Multiple viewings of the film led to discussions with friends, “Will there be a sequel? Darth Vader has to come back.”
Piper Blackwell is an ex-GI. She saw service in Iraq with the 101st Airborne, seeing combat as an MP. Instead of serving her planned 20 years, she separated at the end of her hitch to look after her father, Paul Blackwell, ill with cancer. Her father, then sheriff of rural Spencer County, Indiana urged 23-year-old Piper to run for sheriff in his place. To her surprise, she won.
“The Dead of Jerusalem Ridge: A Piper Blackwell Mystery,” by Jean Rabe, is the fourth book in this mystery series. Blackwell is into her ninth month as sheriff. She has shaken up the sheriff’s department, mostly for the better. Even her election opponent, Chief Deputy Sheriff Oren Rosenberg, who would like for her to be inadequate so he could replace her, grudgingly admits her competence.
This book opens with Piper taking a three-day Labor Day weekend in Kentucky, with several ex-army buddies. They are playing paintball on land owned by one of them when tragedy strikes. They get attacked by an armed, active shooter. Several of the participants are killed, including the shooter. Others including Piper are badly injured.
(Usually, I just post a link to my Movie Churches Blog in the Film Group, but this week I decided to post the whole thing.) The Flowers of St. Francis (1950) I think the best way to describe Roberto Rossellini’s The Flowers of St. Francis is as a frat comedy, where instead of pursuing women and beer, the bros […]
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Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five Part Six Part Seven “What sort of ridiculous spells are these?!” Hans II of Denmark, Norway, etc. thundered out. Preview Open
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Tonight, I had to log onto a career resource and resume template website. I made an account my freshman year of high school; the teacher warned us to create a username and password we could remember because we would be using this website for a long time. The student teacher mentioned he was using it.
I was skeptical. There are many things teachers will tell you will be long-term things that you will use later in your education, or perhaps into your career. As it turned out, a few of these predictions were right, and many were wrong. Not that I think the teachers were universally wrong: Some students probably did go on to use those things, but not me.
Thank you, Douglas A. Jeffery for your article in the Claremont Review of Books. I read it earlier this week and rolled my eyes so hard, they still hurt a little. Good grief! It’s amazing the incredible vitriol that some so-called “educated” people maintain for Pres. Trump.
“One sure sign,” Frum writes, “is when the president tries to bypass the executive branch that exists to serve him.” This is a Catch-22 worthy of the British sitcom Yes Minister: an elected leader trying to bypass the bureaucrats thwarting him is proof he needs thwarting.
I have a question, but here’s some backup first. The other night, I had this incredible dream. I came home to find I lived in a mansion. Once inside, dozens of friends shouted, “Stad’s here!” Someone handed me a margarita, and friends immediately surrounded me: Preview Open
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From what was then called The Teaching Company I once bought a course about constitutional law, and it was so bizarre I returned it for a full refund, which provision may or may not be in the U.S. Constitution. The course probably was getting around to saying so, because everything is in the U.S. Constitution, […]
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Perusing the nooks and crannies of James’ website will leave your treasure bag filled with, well, if not exactly treasure, comedic delight. James is writing about bathroom designs of the 1950s, so, there’s your obscurity. Image below, but his comments are the gold here. Or frankincense. Or myrhh, if that’s your bag. http://lileks.com/misc/bathrooms/50s/5.html Preview Open
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Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five Part Six I stood there for a minute not believing what I had heard, “I beg your pardon?” Preview Open
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