Time for a change

I’m carrying this three-year labor of love over to a new site. Have a look here.

Draggin’

I attempted to swerve away from the raccoon sitting in the middle of Macon Road in the Cordova area of Memphis, just several hundred yards down the street from my high school alma mater. But the little guy — I’m assuming it was a male — maneuvered in my direction just as I attempted to avoid him.

I’ve dodged would-be road kill countless times before. On this occasion, however, I wasn’t so lucky. The same thing occurred about 10 years ago, except that it was a squirrel on Altruria Road (near U.S. 70) in Bartlett. In any case, seeing the defenseless animal in my rearview mirror go into convulsive shock from getting run over was pretty much the perfect end to an otherwise f’d up week.

Yes, I know that Sunday is, in fact, the first day of the week. Just go with it.

I’ve been almost continuously fatigued lately. Perhaps you can relate. I awake with a headache often (possibly job related). My back also hurts more and more (absolutely job related) while my overall impetus is hindered by a peculiar inability to focus and power my way through. And this blog has fallen off a bit over the past month or two as a direct consequence.

I need to get my shiznit together. Fo’ shizzle indeed. So, for those interested, I’m taking a brief sabbatical. And with that, two conclusions: 1) there is no Sunday’s Quote today, and 2) I’m retiring the Editorial Sketch of the Week feature, as it seems that I’m possibly breaking the law for not paying these professionals for their work, though I have never failed to credit the author.

I intend to return in the near future stronger than ever. See y’all soon.

Profound

This week has been rough. Hence the lack of posts. So here are some words to live by, courtesy of Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender James Reimer.

© Nick Turchiaro/Icon SMI

Sunday’s Quote: An exemplar of redemption

c/o Randy Thomas

Having served as Special Counsel to President Nixon, Charles W. Colson pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice as one of the “Watergate Seven.” His emergence from the Maxwell Correctional Facility in 1975 after a seven-month incarceration was the first step into a new life that ultimately garnered 15 honorary doctorates, the Templeton Prize and the Presidential Citizens Medal in lieu of impacting millions around the world for Christ. You can bet that Mr. Colson is now Home.

========================================

“If Mr. Colson can repent of his sins, there just has to be hope for everybody.”
~ from a 1973 Boston Globe editorial, “Amen, Brother," quoted in Colson’s book, Born Again (p. 183)

Editorial Sketch of the Week: Stating the obvious

Editorials about the Secret Service scandal were in abundance, so I took things in another direction.

© Gary McCoy

“If I don’t have this [economic solution] done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition”
~ Barack Obama; February 2, 2009

Picked from the ‘net, Vol. IV

Original sources are unknown unless otherwise stated.

Just Thinking Out Loud: The thrill is gone

MTV, however warped at times, used to be fun. The music videos were fun. The specials and award shows were fun. Even their “reality” shows were fun. Heck, I remember when Spring Break was a week-long extravaganza through which millions of young people lived in a vicarious hope that, just maybe, we would one day be able to participate in the fun. It wasn’t as innocent or idyllic as we might prefer to remember, but it was better.

Programming then was more lighthearted, and there was little in terms of ulterior motives to implement a kind of social agenda so commonly seen today. And that’s why MTV sucks now. The days of blithe entertainment have been replaced by Left-leaning PSAs which, all too often, imply that aligning with anyone but the Democrats is unacceptable, if not downright offensive to any freethinking individual.

MTV is still on-air. But the network, despite steady ratings — spawned perhaps by the morose curiosity of one vacuous series after another — has essentially been lifeless for quite a while. And that’s not likely to ever change.

Sunday’s Quote: Regrettably unsung

c/o Chin Musik

Earlier today, all Major League baseball players wore #42 in commemoration of Jackie Robinson “breaking the color barrier.” Yet each piece I came across failed to mention Branch Rickey — the man who made Robinson’s barrier-shattering event possible.

A rather insignificant ball player who lasted 10 seasons with the St. Louis Browns (now Baltimore Orioles) and the New York Highlanders (now Yankees) despite a flimsy .239 career batting average, Wesley Branch Rickey made his name as an executive. Though best known for signing Robinson through no coercion but his own conscience, Rickey is also responsible for drafting the first Hispanic player (Roberto Clemente) and standardizing the minor league farm system which, for decades, was notoriously unfavorable to its players.

The majority of fans today may not know about Branch Rickey. Judging from the way his memory has been handled, others might say that his contributions to the game are mere footnotes. Jackie Robinson himself would have disagreed.

========================================

“I realized how much our relationship had deepened after I left baseball. It was that later relationship that made me feel almost as if I had lost my own father. Branch Rickey, especially after I was no longer in the sports spotlight, treated me like a son.”
~ from I Never Had it Made: An Autobiography of Jackie Robinson by Jackie Robinson and Alfred Duckett

Editorial Sketch of the Week: Deflection

© Two-time Pulitzer Prize recipient Michael Ramirez, Investors’ Business Daily

On This Day in History

c/o Rutgers University

The first one all year. . .

1777 — Henry Clay was born in Hanover County, Virginia. Both a Senator and three-time Speaker of the House of Representatives, Clay was a strong proponent of the “American System” that benefited industry to a great extent. Styled “The Great Compromiser” and “The Western Star,” a Congressional panel in 1957 named Clay as one of the five all-time greatest Senators (along with John C. Calhoun, Robert La Follette, Robert Taft and Daniel Webster).

He died of tuberculosis in Washington, D.C. in 1852. Clay was 75-years-old. Subsequently he was the first person to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol.

1861 — Beginning at 4:30 a.m., Confederate forces commenced their bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina. Although the Union garrison returned fire, they were significantly outgunned and, after 34 hours, Major Robert Anderson agreed to evacuate.

Amazingly there was no loss of life on either side during the engagement, although a gun explosion during the surrender ceremonies two days later resulted in two Union deaths. The War Between the States had officially begun.

1908 — Robert Lee Scott, Jr. was born in Waynesboro, Georgia. He is best known for his book God is My Co-Pilot, a memoir about his time as a member of the 1st American Volunteer Group (“The Flying Tigers”) during World War II.

Scott shot down down 13 Japanese aircraft en route to becoming one of our earliest fighter aces of the War. He served in the United States Army Air Forces for 25 years and retired a Brigadier General in 1957. He died in his native Georgia in 2006. General Scott was 97-years-old.

1934 — The strongest surface wind gust ever recorded (to that point in history) is measured at 231 mph on the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire. The record stood for 62 years until a 253 mph gust was recorded at Australia's Barrow Island during Cyclone Olivia in 1996.

1945 — President Franklin D. Roosevelt died just months after winning an unprecedented fourth term. Our 32nd President, and perhaps the last liberal Democrat for whom I may ever hold a modicum of lasting respect, was a relatively young 63-years-old.

1961 — Russian (Soviet) cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to perform a manned orbital flight. His time in space lasted just under two hours.

1981 — The Space Shuttle Columbia launches in NASA’s first shuttle mission (STS-1) from the Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. The shuttle itself suffered an untimely demise shortly before the conclusion of its 28th mission (STS-107) on February 1, 2003.

1987 — The lovely and vivacious Brooklyn Decker was born in Kettering, Ohio. But the Victoria’s Secret and Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue cover girl is a Carolina girl at heart.

1989 — Sugar Ray Robinson, the undisputed best pound-for-pound boxer of all-time, died in Culver City, California. He compiled a 173-19-6 (108 KO, 2 NC) record over a career that spanned a quarter-century, including an almost unbelievable tally at one point of 128-1-2. He was 67-years-old.

1999 — President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court for giving “intentionally false statements” in a sexual harassment civil lawsuit. Scandalous, impeached, and ultimately disbarred, good ol’ Bill sure was fun.

2002 — Religion of Peace: Just seven months after 9/11, a female suicide bomber from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade detonated a bomb at the entrance to Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open-air market, killing seven and wounding 104.


Information initially obtained from Wikipedia; confirmed and revised (when necessary) through various sources.

Picked from the ‘net, Vol. III

Original sources are unknown unless otherwise stated.

Sunday’s Quote: The Resurrection

Chesterton explains it as only he can. . .

“ON THE THIRD DAY the friends of Christ coming at daybreak to the place found the grave empty and the stone rolled away. In varying ways they realized the new wonder; but even they hardly realized that the world had died in the night. What they were looking at was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in a semblance of the gardener God walked again in the garden, in the cool not of the evening but of the dawn.”
~ from The Everlasting Man

In addition. . .

Ravi Zacharias is among the finest defenders of the Faith. When challenged by a Muslim, he articulately explained the difference between Christianity and the rest.

Editorial Sketch of the Week: A different double standard

© Dana Summers, Orlando Sentinel

Guilty Pleasures: Virtual college football

Because confession is good for the soul. . .

Released in July 2006, I played this game ad nauseam — as in, two or three times a week, quite often by my standard — for over five years. Having officially retired the game several months ago, my PS2 now sits dormant as it collects dust, turned on only in the rare instance I get the gumption to play an older version of the Madden franchise (the one with Brett Favre on the cover). But this one will always be my favorite game.

Picked from the ‘net, Vol. II

More that caught my eye recently. And remember, the original source of all pics is unknown unless otherwise stated.

Sunday’s Quote: Country and the Soul brother



c/o Lionel Richie

R&B crooner Lionel Richie has sold somewhere north of 35 million units, both as a solo artist and as a member of The Commodores. Last month he released Tuskegee. Named as homage to his Alabama hometown, the album features remakes of his past hits in tandem with some of the biggest names in Country music. He recently explained why.

========================================

“I don’t write records for [Los Angeles] and New York. I write for between them. That’s where it is. Especially when you listen to those country songs. All of a sudden the guy on the radio says, ‘The number-one record this week is I Love My Truck.’ I’m sitting there telling myself, I’m thinking too deep. ‘Me and my red pickup…’ God, man. Just want to drink some beer. I love it. That’s real.”

~ Lionel Richie, from Esquire’s April 2012 edition, p. 115

Editorial Sketch of the Week: A proper one-liner escapes me

As if grabbing is ankles for the King of Saudi Arabia and the Emperor of Japan wasn’t bad enough. . .

© Scott Stantis, The Chicago Tribune

Just Thinking Out Loud: A once-viable medium

© Ajani Charles

A few exceptions notwithstanding, I just don’t respect the Rap genre’ as I once did.

Picked from the ‘net: Not so controversial

This blog was never intended to become so picture oriented. And while I haven’t done much writing lately, a permanent transition from the written word to Web-based memes remains unlikely. Yet having seen the benefit of expanding the parameters of my little corner of the internet-connected world, a new feature called Picked from the ‘net appears necessary.

The original source of all pics (including their veracity) are unknown unless otherwise stated.

Sunday’s Quote: Jefferson wouldn’t have been present

Painting by Gilbert Stuart, 1805

A group of atheists gathered on the National Mall in Washington, DC earlier today to proclaim their disbelief in the Almighty. Though some among these Left-wingers claim otherwise, I’m certain our third President wasn’t one of them.

========================================

“Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath?

“Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever: that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events: that it may become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest.”
~ from Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII: Manners by Thomas Jefferson

Editorial Sketch of the Week: Money talks

© David Fitzsimmons, Arizona Daily Star

“If I were the Devil”

Paul Harvey (1918-2009) was one of our finest broadcasters. Some 47 years ago, he offered a bit of commentary, under three minutes in length, that has proven more prophetic that he could have ever anticipated.

If I were the Devil - Paul Harvey (Warning for America) from anberlin_fan on GodTube.

Grappling 101

I recently re-entered the martial arts arena after a 15-year absence. As expected, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is no joke. I’ve been grabbed, twisted, thrown and choked in almost every way imaginable. It’s a new way of fighting for a striker’s background like mine and progress has been slow. In fact it will be a full year before reaching my first color belt (blue). But I enjoy the style, and I look forward to learning something new every time I hit the mat. As a result, the following pics definitely say a lot.

Democracy & capitalism vs. the alternative

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is neither democratic, nor a people’s republic. The country better known as North Korea is, in fact, an isolated totalitarian dictatorship by which the ill-fated citizens of this often cold and generally rigid place are plagued by human rights abuses, high rates of infant mortality and a standard of living similar to Third World realms such as Tanzania and Bangladesh.

South Korea, on the other hand, is a republic similar to numerous democracies around the world (including our own). Devoid of immense human rights violations, South Koreans enjoy the highest standard of living in Asia while boasting of the twelfth-largest GDP on Earth.

The picture below, which compares the capital city of each aforementioned nation, sums it all up.

c/o Strange Cosmos

Sunday’s Quote: On the welfare state

c/o Frostburg State University

While Alexis de Tocqueville is best known for his two-volume work, Democracy in America, it is perhaps a more obscure effort that he composed around the time of Democracy’s initial release that speaks volumes about one of the key social issues plaguing the nation for which the French philosopher once wrote so glowingly.

Feel free to read this one lengthy sentence over and over again. Every word is as perfect as it is relevant to this day.

========================================

“But I am deeply convinced that any permanent, regular, administrative system whose aim will be to provide for the needs of the poor, will breed more miseries than it can cure, will deprave the population that it wants to help and comfort, will in time reduce the rich to being no more than the tenant-farmers of the poor, will dry up the sources of savings, will stop the accumulation of capital, will retard the development of trade, will benumb human industry and activity, and will culminate by bringing about a violent revolution in the State, when the number of those who receive alms will have become as large as those who give it, and the indigent, no longer being able to take from the impoverished rich the means of providing for his needs, will find it easier to plunder them of all their property at one stroke than to ask for their help.”
~ Alexis de Tocqueville, “Memoir on Pauperism: Does Public Charity Produce an Idle and Dependent Class of Society?” (1835)

Editorial Sketch of the Week: Strange weather (not that I’m complaining)

© Rick McKee, The Augusta (GA) Chronicle

When additional description is redundant

A couple of pics from the digital tribe that caught my eye. . .

Original source unknown

Iconic Shot: A “Dynamite” cast

© Gage Skidmore

I didn’t like Napoleon Dynamite when it debuted on the big screen in 2004. I thought it was just another indie waste that benefitted from MTV-generated hype. But after watching the flick another six or seven times, I am now compelled to drop whatever I’m doing the moment I see it on television.

Taken at Comic Con in San Diego last July, the pic above is a nice candid shot of Deb, Grandma, Napoleon, Kip, Pedro, Uncle Rico and Rex. An outstanding ensemble if ever there was one.

Sunday’s Quote: Chesterton on education

c/o The Guy with the Glasses

Having authored dozens of books, hundreds of short stories and several thousand essays in his lifetime, Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was “a man of colossal genius” whose intriguing, if not groundbreaking, take on a plethora of topics established this London-born sage of Christian apologetics among modern history’s most extraordinary intellectuals.

Below is a selection of his opinions about education, which evidently ring just as true today as they did a century ago.

========================================

“IT is rare to come across anyone enthusiastic for our system of elementary instruction. It is not common to find anyone who is even free from grave misgivings about it. Nobody seems very keen about education — least of all the educators. I have a huge personal respect for the teachers in the Church and State schools, in regard to their untiring cheerfulness, industry, and courage. But I never met one of them who seemed at all certain that the system was doing any good.”
~ from Chesterton’s piece in The Illustrated London News; August 24, 1912

“IT is the great paradox of the modern world that at the very time when the world decided that people should not be coerced about their form of religion, it also decided that they should be coerced about their form of education.”
~ from Chesterton’s offering in The Illustrated London News; August 8, 1925

“NO MAN who worships education has got the best out of education; no man who sacrifices everything to education is even educated. I need not mention here the many recent examples of this monomania, rapidly turning into mad persecution, such as the ludicrous persecution of the families who live on barges. What is wrong is a neglect of principle; and the principle is that without a gentle contempt for education, no gentleman's education is complete.”
~ from Chesterton’s essay, The Superstition of School

“WE believe that a purely intellectual conspiracy will soon threaten the very existence of civilization, that the scientific and artistic worlds are silently bound in a crusade against the Family and the State. We have formed a special corps of policemen, policemen who are also philosophers. It is our business to watch the beginnings of this conspiracy.”
~ from Chesterton’s novel, The Man Who Was Thursday

Editorial Sketch(es) of the Week: Duplicity at home and abroad



© Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune

© Nate Beeler, Washington Examiner

“Runaway slave”

C.L. Bryant, a former NAACP chapter president and current Tea Party activist, is set to debut a documentary-style movie about his journey away from “the Progressive plantations of the government masters, the eyes of liberal overseers and the whips of conformity.” His trailer is definitely worth a look.

Sunday’s Quote: Conviction and fortitude

c/o Thy Black Man

There’s a lot to like about Allen West. Anything but a typical politician, this 22-year Army veteran has spoken frankly about Islam and the War on Terrorism more than once. His most recent statement is no exception.

========================================

“I want to extend my sincere condolences to the families of the Army Colonel and Major who were killed by Afghanistan security forces over this ‘burning Koran’ episode. If we had resolute leadership, including in the White House, we would have explained that these Islamic terrorist enemy combatants being detained at the Parwan facility had used the Koran to write jihadist messages to pass to others. In doing so, they violated their own cultural practice and defiled the Koran. Furthermore, they turned the Koran into contraband. Therefore, Islamic cultural practice and Parwan detention facility procedures support burning the ‘contraband’. Instead here we go again, offering apology after apology and promising to ‘hold those responsible accountable’. Responsible for what?

“When tolerance becomes a one-way street it leads to cultural suicide. This time it immediately led to the deaths of two American Warriors. America is awaiting the apology from President Hamid Karzai.”

~ Rep. Allen B. West (R-FL, 22nd congressional district); February 27, 2012

Editorial Sketch of the Week: The downside of prophecy

© Drew Sheneman, The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ)

Some pics that caught my eye

Original source unknown

Original source unknown

Original source unknown

Regarding Andrew Breitbart’s untimely death earlier today, Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi wrote “Good! Fuck him. I couldn’t be happier that he’s dead.” So someone vandalized (so to speak) his Wikipedia page, replacing his profile shot with a picture of excrement — to which I say. . . good. F--k him.

c/o The Jane Dough