RED DAWN Part 2 ?

They are remaking one of my and many conservative favorite movie. John Milius wrote and Directed the first movie in 1984.It starred Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Gray, Ben Johnson and Powers Boothe. The following synopsis is from the IMDB:

It is the mid-1980s. From out of the sky, Soviet & Cuban troops begin landing on the football field of a Colorado high school. In seconds, the paratroops have attacked the school & sent a group of teenagers fleeing into the mountains. Armed only with hunting rifles, pistols & bows and arrows, the teens struggles to survive the bitter winter & Soviet KGB patrols hunting for them. Eventually trouble arises when they kill a group of Soviet soldiers on patrol in the highlands. Soon, they will wage their own guerrilla warfare against the invading Soviet troops....under the banner of 'Woverines'!

Why would you want to remake perfection? This time it's Russians and Chinese who invade the United States and it takes place in Spokane Washington

Wikipedia has this info on the remake:

Two top executives at MGM, Harry Sloan and Mary Parent, announced that a remake of Red Dawn is in the early stages of pre-production in May 2008 at the Festival de Cannes. This was announced along with a big-budget rebuild of RoboCop, which director Darren Aronofsky among others has recently been in to discuss. The remake of Red Dawn is slated to be directed by Dan Bradley, who has previously worked as a second unit director and stunt coordinator on films such as The Bourne Ultimatum, Spiderman 3 and the Quantum of Solace. MGM has announced that Red Dawn will be remade "keeping in mind the post-9/11 world that we're in".[1][6] In a further announcement the same month, Dan Bradley has been confirmed as the director with Carl Ellsworth, screenwriter of Red Eye and Disturbia writing the updated screenplay.[1][7] Ellsworth will be working from a story written by Jeremy Passmore. Vincent Newman (A Man Apart) is also acting in a producer capacity.[8] Australian Chris Hemsworth has been cast in a lead role.[9]

Ellsworth, who was 11 when the original was released, has said:

"The tone is going to be very intense, very much keeping in mind the post-9/11 world that we’re in. As ‘Red Dawn’ scared the heck out of people in 1984, we feel that the world is kind of already filled with a lot of paranoia and unease, so why not scare the hell out of people again? It was later revealed that the Chinese would be the invaders and they would be aided by the Russians later on."[10]

Joining Hemsworth are Josh Peck, Adrianne Palicki.[11]

I have big concerns that John Milius in not taking part in the remake!

To read more click on the title for a link to the IMDB page for the remake.

At the end of the original Red Dawn they show a large rock that has been turned into a memorial to the freedom fighters that has the following inscription"

"In the early days of World War 3, guerrillas - mostly children - placed the names of their lost upon this rock. They fought here alone and gave up their lives, so that this nation should not perish from the earth."

George Carlin on Aging

A friend sent me this in a email today:


George Carlin's Views on Aging

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

'How old are you?' 'I'm four and a half!' You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

'How old are you?' 'I'm gonna be 16!' You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life ! You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony. YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30.. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; 'I Was JUST 92.'

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. 'I'm 100 and a half!'
May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay 'them.'

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.' And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love , whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is..

10.. Tell the people you love that you love them , at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER :
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away

Drive In Theaters

This time of year I think back fondly of the Drive In Theaters of my youth. In the post World War II era of the 1950's families were trying to find an entrainment option as they raised the "baby boom" generation. What follows is an "oldie goldie post" of a few years ago which I have added to and re edited.

I loved Drive In Theaters as a kid.In fact, if I were to pick the favorite thing of my youth it would be Drive In Movies. I grew up in Ogden, Utah; Boise, Idaho; Roseburg, Oregon; and Coos Bay/North Bend, Oregon in the 1950's. Each of those towns had drive in theaters. I can remember going to two or three movies a week in Ogden in the summer before we had TV. This was when I was 4 or 5. My dad didn't like indoor movies because as he said there was always someone behind him chewing on gum which he hated. My mom would make us sandwiches (usually tuna) along with Kool-Aid in a thermos and cookies.(Coke was too expensive) There was always a commercial before the intermission between double features for the snack bar food. I remember an ad for a foreign food I had never heard of called "pizza". My dad said it tasted like card board so we never got any. My mom loved pop corn so we always got some. To draw family's the theaters sometimes had special attractions like pony rides or steam engine train rides. I still have a black & white photo in my "movie room" of my sister and I on ponies taken at a Drive In Theater before the movie. We must have been 4 and 6 years of age. It is one of my favorite pictures. They all had playground equipment we would play on till the movie started. The movie always started with a cartoon. I remember running to the car as the cartoon started. I even loved and still love the previews. Before the movie dad's would often turn on their spot lights and play games on the screen.

The movies, or shows as we called them, often were not in retrospect that good. I can remember Ma &Pa Kettle, Here Come the Nelsons ( Ozzie and Harriet before TV) and the Bowery Boys. Not real sophisticated stuff. But their was always John Wayne. I can remember campaigning for weeks to go see "Blood Alley". Not because I knew anything about it other than it's name and John Wayne was in it. I loved saying "Blooooood Alley." I knew if Jeff Chandler was in a movie I could talk my mom into going. My sister who still likes to go to bed early would always sleep through the second feature but not me. My dad would always make fun of the kissing scenes and my mom would always kid us about the hero being the only one left in war movies.My mom would put her head on my dad's shoulder and fall asleep. The sound was usually terrible but I loved the big screen and how it transported me out of small town America in the days before color TV. Most of them are gone now the victim of VCR's and now DVD's and high land prices. I still miss them.

Empty Nest Summer of 09

My wife and I have been "empty nestors" since our youngest child, our son, left for college some 7 years ago. However, he has come home from college or graduate school for at least a month or so since then and it is something his mother and I have looked forward to each summer. We enjoy his company. He and his mother enjoy cooking and shopping for food. I enjoy discussing politics and history with him and we both enjoy late night movies either on DVD or at a local theater or a play in Ashland.He loves July 4th fireworks and his birthday is shortly thereafter. This year he will not be home. For the last few summers he had a job here in Medford at a local retail store as a cashier. This summer he has a job back east where he goes to graduate school working as a cashier in in a gift store attached to a chain restaurant. Oh, his mother and I will visit him and his sister for a few days this summer; but, he will not be coming home and we will miss him.

ABC: The All Barack Channel

On June 24th ABC news will broadcast Charlie Gibson's WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House and a one hour prime time special from the White House on Obama's health care plans ! Can you stay..... state run media!

This from the Drudge Report:

Late Monday night, Republican National Committee Chief of Staff Ken McKay fired off a complaint to the head of ABCNEWS:

Dear Mr. Westin:

As the national debate on health care reform intensifies, I am deeply concerned and disappointed with ABC's astonishing decision to exclude opposing voices on this critical issue on June 24, 2009. Next Wednesday, ABC News will air a primetime health care reform “town hall” at the White House with President Barack Obama. In addition, according to an ABC News report, GOOD MORNING AMERICA, WORLD NEWS, NIGHTLINE and ABC’s web news “will all feature special programming on the president’s health care agenda.” This does not include the promotion, over the next 9 days, the president’s health care agenda will receive on ABC News programming.

Today, the Republican National Committee requested an opportunity to add our Party's views to those of the President's to ensure that all sides of the health care reform debate are presented. Our request was rejected. I believe that the President should have the ability to speak directly to the America people. However, I find it outrageous that ABC would prohibit our Party's opposing thoughts and ideas from this national debate, which affects millions of ABC viewers.

In the absence of opposition, I am concerned this event will become a glorified infomercial to promote the Democrat agenda. If that is the case, this primetime infomercial should be paid for out of the DNC coffers. President Obama does not hold a monopoly on health care reform ideas or on free airtime. The President has stated time and time again that he wants a bipartisan debate. Therefore, the Republican Party should be included in this primetime event, or the DNC should pay for your airtime.

Respectfully,
Ken McKay
Republican National Committee
Chief of Staff

This from National Reviews Blog:


First question from Charlie Gibson? "Mr. President, please tell us how your awesome plan will save America."

OBama's Health Care "refrom" is "hypocritiacal" and "dishonest"

"It's hard to know whether President Obama's health care "reform" is naive, hypocritical or simply dishonest. Probably all three."

Who said that? Rush Limbaugh, Shaun Hannity, Newt Gingrich? No, Robert Samuelson the economics columnist for NEWSWEEK magazine. To quote from the column:

It's hard to know whether President Obama's health care "reform" is naive, hypocritical or simply dishonest. Probably all three. The president keeps saying it's imperative to control runaway health spending. He's right. The trouble is that what's being promoted as health care "reform" almost certainly won't suppress spending and, quite probably, will do the opposite.....

The one certain consequence of expanding insurance coverage is that it would raise spending. When people have insurance, they use more health services. That's one reason why Obama's campaign proposal was estimated to cost $1.2 trillion over a decade (the other reason is that the federal government would pick up some costs now paid by others). Indeed, the higher demand for health care might raise costs across the board, increasing both government spending and private premiums.

To read the rest of the column click on the title for a link

June 14th; FLAG DAY 2009

You're a grand old flag,
You're a high flying flag
And forever in peace may you wave.
You're the emblem of
The land I love.
The home of the free and the brave.
Ev'ry heart beats true
'neath the Red, White and Blue,
Where there's never a boast or brag.
But should one acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old flag.

George M Cohan

I have always been a "flag waiver" even when it was not (is not) popular.

Governor Sarah Palin on Today Show

Today Governor Sarah Palin's was interviewed by Mat Lauer on the NBC Today Show. Governor Palin did a great job under tough questioning by Lauer. Way to Go Sarah!

Censorship at Oregon State University

Oh, those Oregon State Beavers! This news story hit the press this morning:

The Liberty, an independent conservative student newspaper at Oregon State University, has plastered the word CENSORSHIP on the front page of its current issue. Oregon State officials have banned the newspaper from distributing on campus except for two locations. One in the student union and the other in the administration office.All other racks on campus have been removed.
The Daily Barometer the "Official" student newspaper is allowed racks for distribution all over campus.. According to a local TV news report, OSU administrators say the Barometer is the only recognized student publication at the university and “therefore is the only newspaper allowed special distribution" The Liberty says that’s "censorship.”

Sounds like Censorship to me!

Lest We Forget

John Wayne died 30 years ago today on June 11, 1979. I still remember where I was when I heard the news. My bother in law called and told my wife while I was mowing the front lawn. She called out to me with the news.Has it really been 30 years!

I am a Jew!

Legend says that when the Germans ordered Jews in occupied Denmark to identify themselves by wearing armbands with the Star of David, King Christian X of Denmark and non-Jewish Danes thwarted the order by donning the armbands themselves. The legend is not true but unlike the rest of Nazi occupied Europe, during World War II, the Danes were able to save most of their Jewish citizens.

65 years later:

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who for 20 years was the spiritual mentor to the president of the United States, surfaced Tuesday, and the Daily Press of Newport News, Va., reports:

Wright told the Daily Press that he has not spoken to his former church member since [Barack] Obama became president, and he implied that the White House won't allow Obama to talk to him.
"Them Jews ain't going to let him talk to me," Wright said. "I told my baby daughter that he'll talk to me in five years when he's a lame duck, or in eight years when he's out of office. . . .
"They will not let him to talk to somebody who calls a spade what it is. . . . I said from the beginning: He's a politician; I'm a pastor. He's got to do what politicians do."

James von Brunn Who killed a security guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC yesterday also did not care for "them Jews," as the Washington Post reports: "Von Brunn's writings condemning 'Negroes' and Jews were prolific." Reviewing a tract he wrote that was available online until yesterday, we noticed that he tends to spell the word JEW in majuscules and use it as an adjective as well as a noun, a practice straight out of the Anti-Semitic Manual of Style. James von Brunn also had the address with him of the neo con Weekly Standard in Washington DC which is a magazine that strongly defends Israel and in which Bill Kristol is an editor and founder.*

Yes, today I Am a Jew!

* Some of the above comes from the Wall Street Journal email newsletter.

"You have the right to remain silent...."

What are we thinking?

Background from the Weekly Standard:

The Obama Justice Department has quietly ordered FBI agents to read Miranda rights to high value detainees captured and held at U.S. detention facilities in Afghanistan, according a senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. "The administration has decided to change the focus to law enforcement. Here's the problem. You have foreign fighters who are targeting US troops today--foreign fighters who go to another country to kill Americans. We capture them. . . . and they're reading them their rights--Mirandizing these foreign fighters," says Representative Mike Rogers, who recently met with military, intelligence and law enforcement officials on a fact-finding trip to Afghanistan.
Rogers, a former FBI special agent and U.S. Army officer, says the Obama administration has not briefed Congress on the new policy. "I was a little surprised to find it taking place when I showed up because we hadn't been briefed on it, I didn't know about it. We're still trying to get to the bottom of it, but it is clearly a part of this new global justice initiative."

From thee Weekly Standard:

U.S. Department of Justice Confirms FBI is Reading Miranda Rights to Detainees in Afghanistan

Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd confirms Steve Hayes's report that the FBI is reading Miranda rights to terrorist suspects in Afghanistan:
“There has been no policy change and nor blanket instruction issued for FBI agents to Mirandize detainees overseas. While there have been specific cases in which FBI agents have Mirandized suspects overseas, at both Bagram and in other situations, in order to preserve the quality of evidence obtained, there has been no overall policy change with respect to detainees.”

Today is the 65th Anniversary of D DAY

Ronald Reagan’s unforgettable Pointe du Hoc speech on the 40th anniversary.

We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.

We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but 40 years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, 225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.

The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers--the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After two days of fighting, only 90 could still bear arms.

Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there.

These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.

Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender's poem. You are men who in your "lives fought for life . . . and left the vivid air signed with your honor.''

I think I know what you may be thinking right now--thinking, "We were just part of a bigger effort; everyone was brave that day.'' Well, everyone was. Do you remember the story of Bill Millin of the 51st Highlanders? Forty years ago today, British troops were pinned down near a bridge, waiting desperately for help. Suddenly, they heard the sound of bagpipes, and some thought they were dreaming. Well, they weren't. They looked up and saw Bill Millin with his bagpipes, leading the reinforcements and ignoring the smack of the bullets into the ground around him.

Lord Lovat was with him--Lord Lovat of Scotland, who calmly announced when he got to the bridge, "Sorry I'm a few minutes late,'' as if he'd been delayed by a traffic jam, when in truth he'd just come from the bloody fighting on Sword Beach, which he and his men had just taken.

There was the impossible valor of the Poles who threw themselves between the enemy and the rest of Europe as the invasion took hold, and the unsurpassed courage of the Canadians who had already seen the horrors of war on this coast. They knew what awaited them there, but they would not be deterred. And once they hit Juno Beach, they never looked back.

All of these men were part of a rollcall of honor with names that spoke of a pride as bright as the colors they bore: the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, Poland's 24th Lancers, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, the Screaming Eagles, the Yeomen of England's armored divisions, the forces of Free France, the Coast Guard's "Matchbox Fleet'' and you, the American Rangers.

Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet, you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief; it was loyalty and love.

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge--and pray God we have not lost it--that there is a profound, moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.

You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.

The Americans who fought here that morning knew word of the invasion was spreading through the darkness back home. They thought--or felt in their hearts, though they couldn't know in fact, that in Georgia they were filling the churches at 4 a.m., in Kansas they were kneeling on their porches and praying, and in Philadelphia they were ringing the Liberty Bell.

Something else helped the men of D-Day: their rock-hard belief that Providence would have a great hand in the events that would unfold here; that God was an ally in this great cause. And so, the night before the invasion, when Colonel Wolverton asked his parachute troops to kneel with him in prayer he told them: Do not bow your heads, but look up so you can see God and ask His blessing in what we're about to do. Also that night, General Matthew Ridgway on his cot, listening in the darkness for the promise God made to Joshua: "I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.''

These are the things that impelled them; these are the things that shaped the unity of the Allies.

When the war was over, there were lives to be rebuilt and governments to be returned to the people. There were nations to be reborn. Above all, there was a new peace to be assured. These were huge and daunting tasks. But the Allies summoned strength from the faith, belief, loyalty, and love of those who fell here. They rebuilt a new Europe together.

There was first a great reconciliation among those who had been enemies, all of whom had suffered so greatly. The United States did its part, creating the Marshall Plan to help rebuild our allies and our former enemies. The Marshall Plan led to the Atlantic alliance--a great alliance that serves to this day as our shield for freedom, for prosperity, and for peace.

In spite of our great efforts and successes, not all that followed the end of the war was happy or planned. Some liberated countries were lost. The great sadness of this loss echoes down to our own time in the streets of Warsaw, Prague, and East Berlin. Soviet troops that came to the center of this continent did not leave when peace came. They're still there, uninvited, unwanted, unyielding, almost 40 years after the war. Because of this, Allied forces still stand on this continent. Today, as 40 years ago, our armies are here for only one purpose--to protect and defend democracy. The only territories we hold are memorials like this one and graveyards where our heroes rest.

We in America have learned bitter lessons from two World Wars: It is better to be here ready to protect the peace than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We've learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent.

But we try always to be prepared for peace; prepared to deter aggression; prepared to negotiate the reduction of arms; and, yes, prepared to reach out again in the spirit of reconciliation. In truth, there is no reconciliation we would welcome more than a reconciliation with the Soviet Union, so, together, we can lessen the risks of war, now and forever.

It's fitting to remember here the great losses also suffered by the Russian people during World War II: 20 million perished, a terrible price that testifies to all the world the necessity of ending war. I tell you from my heart that we in the United States do not want war. We want to wipe from the face of the Earth the terrible weapons that man now has in his hands. And I tell you, we are ready to seize that beachhead. We look for some sign from the Soviet Union that they are willing to move forward, that they share our desire and love for peace, and that they will give up the ways of conquest. There must be a changing there that will allow us to turn our hope into action.

We will pray forever that some day that changing will come. But for now, particularly today, it is good and fitting to renew our commitment to each other, to our freedom, and to the alliance that protects it.

We are bound today by what bound us 40 years ago, the same loyalties, traditions, and beliefs. We're bound by reality. The strength of America's allies is vital to the United States, and the American security guarantee is essential to the continued freedom of Europe's democracies. We were with you then; we are with you now. Your hopes are our hopes, and your destiny is our destiny.

Here, in this place where the West held together, let us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. Let our actions say to them the words for which Matthew Ridgway listened: "I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.''

Strengthened by their courage, heartened by their value [valor], and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died.

Thank you very much, and God bless you all.

"Duffin For the Ducks" 2009

(Writen Saturday morning the day after) On Friday I arrived at the Rogue Valley Country Club about 8:30 AM and met up with other volunteers and unloaded cars and trucks of the items needed for the silent and oral auctions. We moved it all up to the second floor of the club house to where the dinner auction would be held. We then set up for the golf tournament registration. "IowahawkDuck" and I each brought our 8 feet high blow up Oregon Ducks and set them up in the registration area. I had printed up an information flyer on the oral auction so I distributed them to the 30 or so golf carts that would be used that day so the golfers would be able to get an advanced look at what would be in the auction. I then put them on the tables for the golfers lunch on the RVCC's veranda. We sold the golfers "mulligans" while they registered. "Iowa" and I then had lunch. The bus from Eugene arrived with the coaches and staff of the University of Oregon Athletic Department. Jim Bartko
Executive Senior Associate AD made the trip. Jim got his start here in Medford as our Duck Athletic Fund Representative oh so many year ago.
After lunch we cleaned up the registration area as the golfers hit the course and moved the 8 foot blow up Ducks to the RVCC Ballroom. Joe, Dave, Jim D and his wife, and I then spent about 3 1/2 hours setting up the Ballroom for the Dinner/Auction with most of the time setting up the silent auction of 64 items.Mr & Mrs "O" helped decorate up the room and were a very nice addition to our group of volunteers I then drove by the office and picked up my wife and rushed home for a quick shower. My wife and I returned to the dinner about 5:20 PM and helped coordinate the ladies who handled dinner registration along with the folks who were helping me with the oral and silent auctions.After dinner head basketball coach Ernie Kent spoke followed by new head football coach Chip Kelly.The normaly noisy room was very quit when Coach Kelly spoke. This is his second trip to Medford since he was announced as our new Head Coach and he is a big hit with Medford fans and fans here in Southern Oregon. While the oral auction was being conducted we closed the silent auction in three stages and moved the silent auction items from the Ballroom to the cashier room and helped the ladies who had changed from working on the dinner registration to now working as cashiers for the auction. After the oral auction was over I helped the cashiers deliver the oral and silent auction items to the winners. After the dinner we packed up all of our equipment and were out the door of the Rogue Valley Country Club about 9:45 pm. During the day I had met a lot of nice Duck fans and had some very good help from "Iowa," my wife, Mr & Mrs 'O" and a lot of other volunteers. We had a lot of people who worked on the Golf Tournament portion of the event led by "Dave S".

Don't have the final figures but hopefully we raised some funds for University of Oregon Athletics.

After two years without a Duck Athletic Fund Representative, here in Medford, to help us put on the event, it was good to have Joe Ancell stationed down here . His help made the event even better.

Next year we will be back for Duffin 2010! Let's Go Ducks

Bumper sticker of the day.... Support Israel

Update on Preseident Obama's Speech in Egypt today from Andy McCarthy of National Review:

President Obama said the actions of Muslim terrorists "are irreconcilable with the rights of human beings, the progress of nations, and with Islam. The Holy Koran teaches that whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind; and whoever saves a person, it is as if he has saved all mankind."

The president was drawing on Sura 5:32. Somehow, though, he managed to leave out the very next verse, Sura 5:33:

The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land, is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: That is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the hereafter.*

I must say that some of that sounds even worse than waterboarding. But, in any event, it's hard to see how ignoring it is consistent with forming a “partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn’t.”

[Hat tip, Robert Spencer.]

__________________

* I'm quoting from one of the copies of the Koran I keep in my personal library — published by the Ministry of Hajj and Endowments of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia — but I have no reason to doubt that the same scripture could be found in Thomas Jefferson's Koran.

I am sure not all followers of Islam believe this literally but this is what led some Islamic fascist to fly a plane into the World Trade Center.

"The Obama Infatuation" By Robert J. Samuelson

Robert J Samuelson the economic columnist for Newsweek and the Washington Post has written a column about the Main Stream Medias infatuation with Barack Obama:

The Obama infatuation is a great unreported story of our time. Has any recent president basked in so much favorable media coverage? Well, maybe John Kennedy for a moment, but no president since. On the whole, this is not healthy for America.....

The infatuation matters because Obama's ambitions are so grand. He wants to expand health-care subsidies, tightly control energy use and overhaul immigration. He envisions the greatest growth of government since Lyndon Johnson. The Congressional Budget Office estimates federal spending in 2019 at nearly 25 percent of the economy (gross domestic product). That's well up from the 21 percent in 2008, and far above the post-World War II average; it would also occur before many baby boomers retire. ....

The press has become Obama's silent ally and seems in a state of denial. But the story goes untold: Unsurprisingly, the study of all the favorable coverage received little coverage.

To read the rest click on the title for a link

Mitt Romney... Speech from the Wilderness!

National Review posted part of Mitt Romney's speech to the Heritage Foundation:

"Arrogant, delusional tyrants can not be stopped by earnest words and furrowed brows. Action, strong bold action coming from a position of strength and determination, is the only effective deterrent.

It is time to apply comprehensive, regime-crippling sanctions to North Korea. Assets should be seized; international financial capabilities terminated. North Korea should be recategorized as a state sponsor of terror. And, most importantly, the President should immediately reverse his recent decisions and strongly support completing our ballistic missile defense system.

and

America sacrificed the blood of its sons and daughters and sent treasure abroad, helping nurture democracy and human rights all over the world. We sustained a network of alliances and built military prowess that at first contained and then defeated Soviet communism. Because of what America did in the 20th century, there are hundreds of millions of people around the world who now live in freedom – who, but for the price paid by the United States, would have lived in despair. I know of no other such example of national selflessness in the history of mankind. That is why America is the hope of the earth.

That is also why, with all due respect, I take issue with President Obama’s recent tour of apology. It’s not because America hasn’t made mistakes—we have—but because America’s mistakes are overwhelmed by what America has meant to the hopes and aspirations of people throughout the world.

The President also claimed on Arabic TV that America has dictated to other nations. No, America has sacrificed to free other nations from dictators. Britain’s Guardian newspaper noted that Mr. Obama has been more critical of his own country, while on foreign soil, than any other president in American history. That would be a most unfortunate distinction at any time. But it is particularly so today: with all that is transpiring in the world, in Iran, North Korea, Georgia, Somalia, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, this is the time for strength and confidence, not for apologizing to America’s critics."

Ain't she sweet !

My father-in-law in Italy during World War II

My time in the U.S. Army

In the last few days I have been thinking about my time in the army. This is a reworked version of a post I wrote years ago.

Drafted- September 1969
I thought I would write about my experiences in the US Army some 50 years ago. In the spring 1969 I graduated from the University of Oregon with a BS in Political Science. My dad brought my draft reclassification notice to my graduation. Some graduation present! A few weeks later I received my "Greetings" letter telling me I was drafted. This is the same summer Bill Clinton received his draft notice. Like Bill I explored the possibility of joining the ROTC while I started Law School. I had been admitted into the University of Oregon School of Law for the fall of 1969: However, there were no draft deferments for law school. The ROTC folks could only guarantee me two years of ROTC before I would have to go into the Army and Law School was three years. So I enlisted in the army a few weeks before I was to go in as a draftee and signed up for Officer Candidate School(OCS) . Because of my political beliefs there was never any thought of not going (ie going to Canada or faking a physical problem). I was a Hawk, but felt we were not fighting the war in Vietnam to win. I left for Basic Training in early September of 1969 .



Basic Training- Fall 1969.
After going through the Armed Forces Examination Station in Portland Oregon I was sent by commercial airlines to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. Or as we liked to call it "Fort Lost In the Woods". Basic was not fun for a guy who is not coordinated, short and not an outdoorsy type. I learned to fire an M-16 rifle, throw a grenade, run, march and march. I still remember the night we had to crawl under barbwire while they fired live machine guns over our head. The course had mud as thick as a milk shake and it got into our rifles and down our necks and it was cold. One guy got caught in the barbwire and so they turned on these big light to get him out while the rest of us laid in the mud and all I could think about was going back to the UofO. It took a lot of effort to get the mud out of that rifle. In fact we had to take them into our showers and then oil them down.In, the last few weeks of Basic training, we were given our orders for OCS. There were three possibilities. Infantry OCS at Fort Banning Georgia, Artillery OCS at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and Engineer OCS at Fort Belvoir outside of Washington DC in Virginia. We all knew by then that Infantry and Artillery OCS were quick trips to Vietnam and an infantry platoon in the field either as a Platoon Leader or a Forward Observer for the artillery. However, Engineer OCS, put officers in the other branches of the army like Ordinance, MP's, and Military Intelligence. They took us into a large classroom and handed out the envelopes. My friend from Michigan who sat in front of me got infantry. Luckily my envelope said I was going to Engineer OCS in Virginia. Better yet it was close to Washington DC. Toward the end of basic we got a rare pass one night to go to a nearby PX for some 3.2 beer. I went with this farm kid from Kansas who had just graduated from high school. He wasn't going to OCS but was going to go to Infantry AIT and then he knew he was going on to Vietnam. After a few beers he told me he knew he was going to die over there. The passage of time has erased his name from my memory but I still wonder what happened to that kid from Kansas.

Advanced Individual Training- Fall 1969 & Winter 1970.
After, Basic training,in Missouri the Army sent me and a lot of other guys by chartered bus, to Advanced Individual Training or AIT at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Even though I had orders for Engineer OCS, after AIT, the Army sent me to an Artillery AIT to learn Fire Direction Control. In other words, how to calculate how to elevate artillery pieces so it will hit the target. For a guy who had not taken a math course since his sophomore year of high school it was another case of trying to put a square peg in a round hole. Worse, our unit sergeant was trying to run the program as an "OCS prep school" and there was lots of harassment. Worse yet, our commanding officer was an Oregon State Beaver. While at Fort Sill the draft was changed to a lottery system. I had a low lottery number so it would not have made any difference. This is when Bill Clinton bugged out of ROTC as he had a high lottery number and knew his chances of being drafted were very small.

Officer Candidate School- Winter, Spring & Summer 1970.
(I found this picture on the Internet but it sure looks AND feels like it did then!)
After AIT, I received leave to fly home to Coos Bay/North Bend.On the way home my buddy from Portland and I were delayed in Seattle at SeaTac Airport and a nice man bought us dinner. After leave, I flew to Washington DC and met up with some of my buddies from Basic and AIT. We had a few hours to see the sites in Washington DC.The first place we went was the Lincoln Memorial. The next morning we  took a cab to Fort Belvoir for Officer Candidate School.(Class 24 Bravo 1) There was lots of harassment as they tried to make us into officers that would lead men in combat. To start with we did not have "sidewalk privileges", no coffee and had to eat every meal, except on Sunday, sitting at attention.In my OCS unit there was a group of college guys that had been with me since Basic at Fort Leonard Wood.There was a kid from Massachusetts who was married and explained to me what a "ninfo" was; there was a football player from Kansas State who loved the Saint Louis Blues hockey team; there was a married former Peace Corp member from South Dakota; there was a basketball player from Oklahoma City ;there was a kid from Portland Oregon who walked like John Wayne;there was a kid who wanted to go to medical school who's father was a professor at Oregon State.We tried to help each other through this experience. We all knew if we dropped out of OCS we would get leave and then a ticket to Vietnam.The football player from Kansas State couldn't take the strain and dropped out. I can still remember us saying good bye to him. He had been placed in a unit next to ours and said if he had been with his buddies he could have "made it".I became our companies "Command Information Officer" so I could read the Washington Post and keep the bulletin board updated with news. I got to report to our unit current events such as the incursion into Laos and the Kent State deaths and John Wayne winning an academy award for "True Grit". I worked very hard at building up my muscles and got into the best shape I have ever been in before or since. For the 4th of July we got a rare pass to go into Washington DC. We were required to wear our dress uniforms and every hippy and school kid gave us the "Peace Sign" with their fingers.My friend who walked like John Wayne said he wanted to shoot their fingers off. It was very hot.... We went to the Capitol and an aid for House Speaker Carl Albert of Oklahoma came over to talk to us as we walked around the outside of the Capitol.We went to Georgetown and then rented a car to drive down into Virgina. On the night of July 4th I watched the fireworks and a nice family invited us to share their blanket and gave us some cookies. During our training our unit was taken to Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia near Fredericksburg by bus for a week of infantry training. We spent the week in the woods training as an Infantry platoon in Vietnam. One night we were required to travel cross country all night to avoid capture by the VC. Well, I was captured and taken to a POW camp and rubbed from head to toe with axle grease because I would only give my name, rank and serial number. I was never able to wear that uniform again no matter how many times it was washed. When we got back to Fort Belvoir they started training us for "riot" duty in Washington DC in the event the "peace" demonstrators got out of hand. Keep in mind this was after the killing at Kent State and the incursion into Laos. Toward the end of our training in the summer of 1970 there was a rumor that the Army was going to offer an "Option" to OCS candidates that if we would forgo our commission, as a Second Lieutenant, the army would give us "state side" duty for one year. We had already been in for one year, and we would then be honorable discharged after two years service. The Army was cutting back in Vietnam and they had too many officers. With about two or three weeks to go before I was to receive my commission, in August of 1970, as a Second Lieutenant the rumor turned out to be true and every OCS candidate at all three of the OCS schools were offered the "Option". It was a very hard choice for me to make! I had been working and training for almost a year to become an officer and a gentleman. I had given it everything I had and was going to make it!I had finally passed the Physical Training (PT) test.I was going to be sent to Korea as an Ordinance Officer. On the other hand, I had been admitted to law school and the admission was only good for two years, as I had been drafted. If I became an officer I would have at least two more years in the army for a total of three. After those three years I would have to reapply to law school. By that time everyone and his dog wanted to go to law school and it was hard to get admission.The night before I had to make my choice I was on CQ duty(Charge of Quarters)and had to stay up all night in the company headquarters office.That night on the radio I heard the Sandpiper's song "Come Saturday Morning" which made me think of my time at the University of Oregon and I then decided my main goal was to become a lawyer.Funny, how a song can cause you to make a major decision. I and about 2/3rds of my unit accepted the "Option" and I became an E-4 enlisted man for the last year I was in the Army.
Fort Carson, Colorado- Fall 1970 & Winter, Spring & Summer 1971

I spent my last year at Fort Carson, Colorado. By this time in 1970/71, and the Army was not a happy place. The draft had ended and the Army was moving toward an all-volunteer Army. Many of the soldiers at Fort Carson had served their tour in Vietnam and just wanted out.Others were waiting for orders to go to Vietnam. Moral was very low. The army didn't know what to do with me. I was sent to an artillery unit. I eventually became a "supply sergeant". At one time I volunteered for permanent KP as I would work one day and get two days off. I worked as a dining room orderly.... ie I cleaned tables. Colorado Springs is a very nice place but it gets very cold on guard duty in the middle of winter and Army pay didn't go very far in those days. Just before I got out I made E-5. In Late August 2001,I got an "early out" for law school. I left after surviving my two-year to go to law school at the University of Oregon. When I got back to the University of Oregon I let my hair grow as a protest to my days in the Army. The GI Bill paid for most of Law School.

In thinking back on my two years in the Army I am glad I served. The Army taught me discipline, organization and how to handle stress that I have used to this day. I didn't like it at the time but the Army made me a better person. Even when you are not in a combat zone overseas there is something about being in the military in time of war. Things stand out in primary colors in your mind. Life was very full and had an edge to it. When I got to law school some of the students couldn't take the strain. I always said as tough as the professors are they can't "grass drill" or run you till you throw up. No one is going to shoot at you. Considering the sacrifice many made in going to Vietnam, my time in the Army was very uneventful, but I met many nice people from all over this country. In those days the Army was truly a melting pot.

NEW ON DVD THIS MONTH

Two of my favorite movies of all time have been released this month on DVD:

NORTH WEST FRONTIER(1960)

(Also known as "Flame over India" in the United States). A rousing English made colonial adventure about the British in India in 1905 trying to keep the peace between the Muslims and the Hindus with a a good cast that includes Lauren Bacall and Kenneth More. Bacall is the American governess of a young Hindu prince who Muslim rebels are trying to kill. (Somethings never change) Kenneth More is a "stiff upper lip" British officer trying to protect the prince and they end up on a long train trip to escape the Muslims. In some ways a rehash of John Ford's Stagecoach,and originally written by John Ford associates including John Wayne's son Patrick Wayne! I love British Colonial movies.Liberals hate this movie because it is not politically correct.( British are the good guys and the Muslims play the part of American Indians to carry through the Stagecoach analogy)

REVOLUTION REVISITED(1985)

Director Hugh Hudson and Al Pacino reedit their 1985 tale of a woodsman and his son drafted into the Continental Army during the American Revolution. The British don't come off as well in this movie! With Nastassja Kinski and Donald Sutherland (mean British officer). One of the best movies of the American Revolution ever made. Unfortunately there have been few modern movies made of this important historical event. The movie bombed at the box office in 1985. Ted Marhar, the movie reviewer of the Oregonian newspaper at the time, was one of the few reviewers that liked this movie. I love it. It is very realistic. For DVD the movie has been re cut with about 10 minutes removed and a voice over narration added by Pacino. The movie takes you to Valley Forge and some of the important battles of the Revolutionary War including Brooklyn Heights. However the war is as seen through the eyes of a father and his young son.

(Some of the descriptions of the moves are from Internet sources).

North Korea Gets The Bomb!

What will Obama do? What will the world do?.........NOTHING !

"Doom marches on" Winston Churchill

You Get What You Vote For!

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,” Judge Sotomayor

From the New Republic:

The most consistent concern was that Sotomayor, although an able lawyer, was "not that smart and kind of a bully on the bench," as one former Second Circuit clerk for another judge put it. "She has an inflated opinion of herself, and is domineering during oral arguments, but her questions aren't penetrating and don't get to the heart of the issue."

(click on the title for a link)



Update from the New Republic's Jeffrey Rosen:

I was satisfied that my sources's concerns were widely shared when I read Sotomayor's entry in the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary, which includes the rating of judges based on the collective opinions of the lawyers who work with them. Usually lawyers provide fairly positive comments. That's what makes the discussion of Sotomayor's temperament so striking. Here it is:

Sotomayor can be tough on lawyers, according to those interviewed. "She is a terror on the bench." "She is very outspoken." "She can be difficult." "She is temperamental and excitable. She seems angry." "She is overly aggressive--not very judicial. She does not have a very good temperament." "She abuses lawyers." "She really lacks judicial temperament. She behaves in an out of control manner. She makes inappropriate outbursts." "She is nasty to lawyers. She doesn't understand their role in the system--as adversaries who have to argue one side or the other. She will attack lawyers for making an argument she does not like."

Long Holiday Weekend !

The advantage of a long holiday weekend is you can get a lot done. The weather is perfect here in Medford Oregon. It's been sunny and the temperature is in the low 80's.

Friday night I did my yard work in order to get it out of the way. I mowed both lawns and cut the weeds down by the creek.

Saturday my wife and I drove out to the Bass Shoe store and the Van Heusen store at the shops in Phoenix and did some clothes shopping for work and for a trip we are taking to the east coast to see our adult kids. Both stores had a big sale with most things were 75% off. I only go clothes shopping about once a year and it's probably been a year and a half since I last went so we got some good deals with will last me another 18 months or so.We then had lunch a Abie's and then my wife went grocery shopping as I washed all the clothes. I then had to drive back to Phoenix to perform a wedding ceremony for a nice couple at a trailer court. My wife and I then watched a Netflix movie in blu ray..... "Marlie and Me." I always cry in dog movies since I saw "Old Yeller" die when I was a kid. I can watch thousands of people die in a movie but have one dog die and I get all chocked up.

Sunday I scraped paint on on our deck overlooking the driveway and then sanded the boards. I then used wood filler to fill in the cracks and will put an undercoat on them when it gets cooler. I restrained both of our garage doors. I also restrained the front door. My wife is repainting the metal railings going up to our bedroom changing the color from black to dark brown. The first paint she used was very runny so we went out to Home Depot to get a different brand and it did the trick and looks great. On the way back we stopped for a treat at Dairy Queen. After dark I will watch another Netflix Movie.

Monday I will finish the deck painting by putting on the final coat and generally touch up the rest of the house on the outside with paint.

This weekend we have a guest. "Cruiser" our male office cat came home for the weekend because of some work the building owner is doing to our office. Our cat "Gabbie" a female does not like other cats so we have had to keep "Cruiser" in our son's old room except when "Gabie" is in our bedroom or outside. We introduced them to each other and "Gabie" was less than a gracious host.

Not to forget what this weekend is all about "Old Glory" has been flown each day.

Tuesday back to work?

Memorial Day Weekend 2009

LEST WE FORGET