ShowMeBlog

Video about De La Salle

  Here is a video about De La Salle my old high school.  I was in the class of 1959.

Friendly Persuasion

  This Wednesday a great movie is going to be on Turner Classic Movies.  The movie is "Friendly Persuasion" and I love the movie.  The movie will be on at 10 AM on the east coast and it will be at 9 AM for me here in Texas. 
   Now if you watch "Friendly Persuasion" make sure you watch the 1956 one with Gary Cooper.  I will set my alarm and be watching the movie.  I think it is one of the all time great movies.

  This is the first time I have been to TCM (Turner Classic Movies) web site.  It is a great web site.  Since I get TCM movies with my cable TV service (Charter) I am going to start checking out the TCM web site.
  I see at 0230 hours (EST) and I guess that would be then on the September 15th they are going to have on one of the worst movies of all time and that is "The Hoodlum Priest" which was made in 1961.   

  The truth is that I do not remember much of the movie. So it might not be a bad movie.  My problem is that movie is a "true" story about a real Catholic Jesuit priest.  The movie is about Father Charles Dismas Clark.  
  My high school De La Salle (1955-1959) had him come and preach and talk to us for a retreat.  I went to Confession to him.   

   

"Brief Synopsis

Father Charles Dismas Clark, a Jesuit priest in St. Louis, dedicates his life to the rehabilitation of delinquents and ex-convicts. By meeting them on their own terms and talking their language, he wins their confidence and their trust. He is primarily concerned with a young thief, Billy Lee Jackson, recently released from the Missouri State Penitentiary. Father Clark helps clear the boy of some trumped-up charges and then gets him an honest job with a produce market. Billy's rehabilitation is further encouraged by Ellen Henley, a young socialite with whom he falls in love. Meanwhile, aided by Louis Rosen, a successful criminal lawyer, Father Clark raises enough funds to open Halfway House, a shelter for ex-convicts readjusting to civilian life. All goes well until Billy's employer fires him for a theft he did not commit. Embittered, he and a friend, Pio, attempt to rob the produce market. They are caught by one of the owners, and he attacks Billy with a crowbar. The panic-stricken boy grabs a gun and kills him. The police chase Billy to an abandoned house, and he hides there until Father Clark persuades him to surrender. Tried and convicted of murder, he is sentenced to death. Before Billy dies in the gas chamber, Father Clark reassures him by telling him of Dismas, the thief who died on the cross, and of how Christ promised him eternal life. After the execution, Father Clark returns to Halfway House and finds his first client, Pio, drunk and repentant." TCM

 

  I am not sure what year he was at DLS.  I think it was 1955.  But I was just a young dumb high school kid and as I watched and listened to him talk and mostly cry I was saying to myself this guy is crazy!  I was wondering why the brothers would allow a crazy guy to get up in front of us and carry on like that.  
   My problem with him was his emotional crying and holding up photos.  
   I am sure the problem was in me.  I try and control my emotions. I always want to be in control of them and see a guy crying and carrying on like that was a big turn off for me.
 

Pauline Pearce a brave lady

  Extraordinary speech by a fearless black woman to a mob of black youth during the London riots. 

“The "Heroine of Hackney" video (also named "Truly extraordinary speech by fearless West Indian woman in face of Hackney rioters") is the name of a viral video uploaded to Twitvid in summer 2011.^[1] It shows a local woman from Hackney (since dubbed the "Heroine of Hackney")^[2][3] berating looters during the 2011 England riots.

The 46-second clip was subsequently uploaded to YouTube,^[4] quickly becoming popular and receiving more than a million hits in a few hours.^[5] Its rapid spread was helped by tweeting from famous people such as newspaper editor Piers Morgan^[5] and former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.^[6]

The video was uploaded and filmed by The Daily Telegraph reporter Matthew Moore on a mobile phone.^[1] The woman, filmed close to the rioting and seen holding a walking stick and gesturing, was initially anonymous.^[7][8] Her identity was subsequently reported, along with the information that she is a singer of jazz and is active in community radio station Conscious FM,^[9] campaigning against violent crime.^[6]

Viewers commented that the woman should be given a job in Downing Street or be a bearer of the Olympic Flame for the 2012 Summer Olympics.^[8] One viewer commented that he wanted to marry her,^[7] and the speech has also been used in a song.^[10] The woman has reported feeling embarrassment at becoming an internet sensation”.^{[9]        Wikipedia}

The Day the Middle Class Died

“The Day the Middle Class Died

By Michael Moore, Open Mike Blog

06 August 11

rom time to time, someone under 30 will ask me, "When did this all begin, America's downward slide?" They say they've heard of a time when working people could raise a family and send the kids to college on just one parent's income (and that college in states like California and New York was almost free). That anyone who wanted a decent paying job could get one. That people only worked five days a week, eight hours a day, got the whole weekend off and had a paid vacation every summer. That many jobs were union jobs, from baggers at the grocery store to the guy painting your house, and this meant that no matter how "lowly" your job was you had guarantees of a pension, occasional raises, health insurance and someone to stick up for you if you were unfairly treated.

Young people have heard of this mythical time - but it was no myth, it was real. And when they ask, "When did this all end?", I say, "It ended on this day: August 5th, 1981."

Beginning on this date, 30 years ago, Big Business and the Right Wing decided to "go for it" - to see if they could actually destroy the middle class so that they could become richer themselves.

And they've succeeded.

On August 5, 1981, President Ronald Reagan fired every member of the air traffic controllers union (PATCO) who'd defied his order to return to work and declared their union illegal. They had been on strike for just two days.

It was a bold and brash move. No one had ever tried it. What made it even bolder was that PATCO was one of only three unions that had endorsed Reagan for president! It sent a shock wave through workers across the country. If he would do this to the people who were with him, what would he do to us?

Reagan had been backed by Wall Street in his run for the White House and they, along with right-wing Christians, wanted to restructure America and turn back the tide that President Franklin D. Roosevelt started - a tide that was intended to make life better for the average working person. The rich hated paying better wages and providing benefits. They hated paying taxes even more. And they despised unions. The right-wing Christians hated anything that sounded like socialism or holding out a helping hand to minorities or women.

Reagan promised to end all that. So when the air traffic controllers went on strike, he seized the moment. In getting rid of every single last one of them and outlawing their union, he sent a clear and strong message: The days of everyone having a comfortable middle class life were over. America, from now on, would be run this way:

• The super-rich will make more, much much more, and the rest of you will scramble for the crumbs that are left.
• Everyone must work! Mom, Dad, the teenagers in the house! Dad, you work a second job! Kids, here's your latch-key! Your parents might be home in time to put you to bed.
• 50 million of you must go without health insurance! And health insurance companies: you go ahead and decide who you want to help - or not.
• Unions are evil! You will not belong to a union! You do not need an advocate! Shut up and get back to work! No, you can't leave now, we're not done. Your kids can make their own dinner.
• You want to go to college? No problem - just sign here and be in hock to a bank for the next 20 years!
• What's "a raise"? Get back to work and shut up!

And so it went. But Reagan could not have pulled this off by himself in 1981. He had some big help:

The AFL-CIO.

The biggest organization of unions in America told its members to cross the picket lines of the air traffic controllers and go to work. And that's just what these union members did. Union pilots, flight attendants, delivery truck drivers, baggage handlers - they all crossed the line and helped to break the strike. And union members of all stripes crossed the picket lines and continued to fly.

Reagan and Wall Street could not believe their eyes! Hundreds of thousands of working people and union members endorsing the firing of fellow union members. It was Christmas in August for Corporate America.

And that was the beginning of the end. Reagan and the Republicans knew they could get away with anything - and they did. They slashed taxes on the rich. They made it harder for you to start a union at your workplace. They eliminated safety regulations on the job. They ignored the monopoly laws and allowed thousands of companies to merge or be bought out and closed down. Corporations froze wages and threatened to move overseas if the workers didn't accept lower pay and less benefits. And when the workers agreed to work for less, they moved the jobs overseas anyway.

And at every step along the way, the majority of Americans went along with this. There was little opposition or fight-back. The "masses" did not rise up and protect their jobs, their homes, their schools (which used to be the best in the world). They just accepted their fate and took the beating.

I have often wondered what would have happened had we all just stopped flying, period, back in 1981. What if all the unions had said to Reagan, "Give those controllers their jobs back or we're shutting the country down!"? You know what would have happened. The corporate elite and their boy Reagan would have buckled.

But we didn't do it. And so, bit by bit, piece by piece, in the ensuing 30 years, those in power have destroyed the middle class of our country and, in turn, have wrecked the future for our young people. Wages have remained stagnant for 30 years. Take a look at the statistics and you can see that every decline we're now suffering with had its beginning in 1981 (here's a little scene to illustrate that from my last movie).

It all began on this day, 30 years ago. One of the darkest days in American history. And we let it happen to us. Yes, they had the money, and the media and the cops. But we had 200 million of us. Ever wonder what it would look like if 200 million got truly upset and wanted their country, their life, their job, their weekend, their time with their kids back?

Have we all just given up? What are we waiting for? Forget about the 20% who support the Tea Party - we are the other 80%! This decline will only end when we demand it. And not through an online petition or a tweet. We are going to have to turn the TV and the computer and the video games off and get out in the streets (like they've done in Wisconsin). Some of you need to run for local office next year. We need to demand that the Democrats either get a spine and stop taking corporate money - or step aside.

When is enough, enough? The middle class dream will not just magically reappear. Wall Street's plan is clear: America is to be a nation of Haves and Have Nothings. Is that OK for you?

Why not use today to pause and think about the little steps you can take to turn this around in your neighborhood, at your workplace, in your school? Is there any better day to start than today?

P.S. Here are a few places you can connect with to get the ball rolling:

Main Street Contract for America
Showdown in America
Democracy Convention
Occupy Wall Street
October 2011
How to Join a Union by the AFL-CIO (they've learned their lesson and have a good president now), or
UE Change to Win
MoveOn
High School Newspaper (Just because you're under 18 doesn't mean you can't do anything!)”

“One Oath”

The following is a comment left on the Huffington Post site

“Attn DNC and White House: Proposal for a public info campaign that will resonate.

"One Oath" - one large problem in this debt limit debate is the number of members of Congress who unwisely signed onto the Grover Norquist "No Tax" pledge.

There should be only one oath and one allegiance for Members of Congress - their oath of office. To take an oath to any entity for any reason prior to a primary, prior to being elected is fool hardy. Members should deal with the issues that come before Congress as they arise and not have their hands tied for two or six years by a oath written by a lobbyist, unelected and unaccounta­ble to anyone.

I feel the public will get a "One Oath" informatio­nal campaign and it's a way to turn the Norquist brigade's strength into a weakness. Pledging anything to an entity or individual that is allowed to rise above an oath of office strikes me as folly.

One Oath : the oath of office.”

Post by Dick Williams

The last launch

  I watched online the launch of Atlantis.  Ken, my son, saw the launch up close.  He was at the closest point that you can get to the launch.  He was in a kayak.  He said it was amazing and a awesome view.

  It has been 30 years for the space shuttle program.  

  But I been following man in space since the launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957 by the USSR (now Russia).  I tracked some of satellites using my shortwave radio and I wrote about them in a printed publication.  It is has been a long time.

  We need to be in space and reaching out.  With budget problems we still need to be going into space but I fear for right now it maybe to costly to send men into space until we want to do joint project with other nations.  I do not see how we can afford to do it alone.

Shooting of 11 year old girl

  I blogged about people shooting off guns in the air on the 4th of July – Gun shots. 

  I found the following story on The Kansas City Star web site:  Police investigate random shooting of girl, 11.

“Kansas City police on Tuesday canvassed apartment complexes near a house where an 11-year-old girl was struck in the neck by a stray bullet Monday as she enjoyed a backyard July 4th celebration.

The girl’s condition was so grave Tuesday that police transferred the case from the assault squad, which investigates shootings, to a homicide squad, which investigates deaths.

The shooting occurred about 9:15 p.m. near 43rd Street and Pittman Road, just east of the Truman Sports Complex.

Detectives determined several groups of people were firing guns at nearby apartments about the time the girl was hit. Police said they have an idea of the bullet’s trajectory based on her wound and where she was standing in her uncle’s yard when she collapsed.

Her uncle, Marq DeMoss, said Tuesday that his backyard is fenced and surrounded by trees that obscure the nearby complexes…”

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/07/05/2996114/police-investigate-random-shooting.html#ixzz1RJEEz9uM

I will not go into one of my rants on the subject of guns.  But if you are one of the gun nuts out there PLEASE do not fire guns in the air.  This is just one sample of what happens.  On the 4th of July and on New Years Day I hear guns being fired and this is the sort of thing that happens sometimes.

TV Affects Sleep of Preschoolers

“Watching violence on television or TV before bedtime can lead to sleep problems for preschoolers, according to a new study in the journal Pediatrics. Experts have known for some time that too much TV time can negatively impact our sleep, but this new research finds that what young children watch and when they watch it can make a difference as well.

The study looked at the television viewing habits and sleep problems of more than 600 preschoolers in Seattle, Washington. When children watched age appropriate TV in the morning or afternoon, they didn't have problems with their sleep, but when the shows contained violence, young people were more likely to experience nightmares and walk up feeling tired.

Part of the problem, researchers say, is that younger children are watching shows meant for older kids, and preschoolers can't yet distinguish fantasy from reality.

"For a 7- to 10-year-old they are really at a point where cognitively they can grasp that that's not real violence and they can see the humor in it – it's not frightening for them. But 3- to 5-year-olds just aren't developmentally there yet," explains study author Michelle Garrison, Ph.D., with the Seattle Children's Research Institute.

Garrison also found that watching television right before bedtime made it more difficult for children to get to sleep, meant  more nightmares and waking up during the night,  even if the shows were educational and geared specifically for young children…”   CNN – The Chart

 

  Think about the children that see violence right in their own homes.  Think about the children that see violence right outside their home or apartment.
  We need to do more for our children.  We need to do better by them.
  How many fathers just want their kids to go to bed so they can surf for porn.

  We are learning more about children and our brains all the time.
  But it appears to me that there is less interest in using the information.  The Republicans want to do away with the Department of Education.  The Republicans do not believe in science. The Republicans hate teachers. 
  Republicans want to cut taxes of the rich and give more money and benefits to the rich at the same time they want to cut help for children and working families.  
 

  One of my kids would not want to go to bed because “Star Trek” was on and it was on late.  She was tired but she would stand in the rocking chair and rock back and forth and watch “Captain.”  I would say “time for bed” or something like that and she would say “Captain.” 
  Sometimes I would just let her watch it and then she would go right to bed and other times when I knew she was very tired as soon as a advertisement came on I would say “Captain is over” and she would go to bed. 

  One of my other kids when she was older loved all animals.  She loved hamburgers but would not eat them because it was made from cows.  So I told her that they were made from beans and other stuff but not cows or animals. She ate a lot of hamburgers after that… I think she knew I was not telling the truth. 

  I think most of us try to do what is best for our children.  We often fail.
It has got to be harder than hell now days to raise kids.  I had four kids.  I do not think I could do it now days.  We need to support families and we need government to help.

Liberal vs. Conservative: Does the Difference Lie in the Brain?

“The differences between liberals and conservatives run wide and deep, and a new study suggests they may even be reflected in the very structure of their brains.

In the study, led by Ryota Kanai of the University College London, people who identified themselves as liberals generally had a larger anterior cingulate cortex — a comma-shaped region near the front of the brain that is involved in decision-making. By contrast, those who identified as conservatives had larger amygdalas — almond-shaped structures that are linked with emotional learning and the processing of fear. (More on TIME.com: In Politics, It's Survival of the Fittest, Literally)

These structural differences, the authors suggest, support previous reports of differences in personality: liberals tend to be better at managing conflicting information, while conservatives are though to be better at recognizing threats, researchers said. "Previously, some psychological traits were known to be predictive of an individual's political orientation," said Kanai in a press release. "Our study now links such personality traits with specific brain structure."

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/04/08/liberal-vs-conservative-does-the-difference-lie-in-the-brain/#ixzz1JFBytMbP…”

 

  That explains it.    I have some great friends that are Republicans.  They are good people and they are smart but for years I been saying how can my friends be so evil and so stupid.
  Now I have the answer.  They just have a large amygdalas. 
  So I should not hate them.  They just had a brain that grew to have a large amygdalas.

    Now does this show up in a baby before it is born?  (See why we need funding for Planned Parenthood?)
    If a student is known to have a large amygdalas can education change it?  (See why we love education, teachers and the Department of Education?)

  OK OK.. relax and chill…I am kidding of course… I do think there is something to this study and the others studies on this type of subject.  I have posted about some of those other studies in the past. 
  It would explain a great deal.   

Maine Governor Removes Pro-Worker Mural

“WASHINGTON -- The Maine Department of Labor quietly took down a mural depicting the state's labor history over the weekend, after Gov. Paul LePage (R) sparked controversy last week byordering it removed and saying it was biased against businesses and employers.

“The mural has been removed and is in storage awaiting relocation to a more appropriate venue," said LePage Press Secretary Adrienne Bennett in a statement provided to The Huffington Post. "Workers and employers need to work together to create opportunity for Maine's 50,000 unemployed. We understand that not everyone agrees with this decision, but the Maine Department of Labor has to be focused on the job at hand."

"This is government censorship at its worst," said state Rep. Diane Russell (D), who has been an outspoken advocate on labor rights…”

 

“(CNN) -- Maine GOP Gov. Paul LePage followed through with his decision to remove a mural depicting the history of the workers' movement from the state's labor department lobby, a spokeswoman said Monday.

"The mural has been removed and is in storage awaiting relocation to a more appropriate venue," said LePage press secretary Adrienne Bennett in a prepared statement. "We understand that not everyone agrees with this decision, but the Maine Department of Labor has to be focused on the job at hand."

The controversy over the 36-foot-long, 11-panel mural erupted last week when a LePage administration official announced that the artwork would be removed and that conference rooms dedicated to American labor movement icons would be renamed.

Administration officials said the change was needed to reflect a new image for the department, one not tilted toward organized labor. They said visitors to the lobby had complained that the mural is anti-business.

Maine AFL-CIO president Don Berry called it "a spiteful, mean-spirited move by the governor that does nothing to create jobs or improve the Maine economy."

Last week, acting Maine Labor Commissioner Laura Boyett announced a contest to replace the names affixed to the conference rooms. The names to be replaced include Cesar Chavez and Frances Perkins…”

                                                              

These right wing Republicans are the same type of Republicans that objected to the movies; “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” 
  There is something wrong with these people.  They act like they love America and attack everyone else for being un-American but they hate everything that is good about America.

 

“…LePage's office originally said that the governor made his decision after complaints from businesses owners, eventually pointing to a single anonymous letter, in which the author said that when looking at the mural, he or she felt like it was something from "communist North Korea."

In an e-mail to The Huffington Post, Bennett also pointed to a Sunday blog post by Mike Violette, a conservative radio host in Maine, along with other anonymous statements from employers who support what LePage is doing and believe the mural has helped make the Department of Labor a "militant, angry, business-hating environment."

There have been several protests at the Department of Labor, and one attendee suggested forming a human chain to block the mural's removal. When asked by WCSH 6 what he would do if protesters did indeed form a chain, LePage replied, "I'd laugh at them, the idiots. That's what I would do. Come on! Get over yourselves!"”