Courtesy of wallpapersafari.com
Quote of the Day
Become a student of change.
It is the only thing that will remain constant.
Anthony J. D'Angelo
A Holiday Note
In my journal posts, I've written about Christmas movies, particularly on cable. I'll move onto other topics shortly, but I did want to make a few closing remarks.
First, E! is running a "It's w Wonderful Life" marathon Christmas Day. (They may have done it in the past, too.)
Second, I have a fondness for classic Christmas movies and musicals, so "White Christmas" falls in the sweet spot. There's a bit of arbitrariness in what I consider a classic: I include the 1970 musical version of "Scrooge", even the 1989 quasi-fantasy "Prancer" There's a sentimental reason for the latter; my late Dad, a USAF jet mechanic, had permanent partial hearing loss from a career on the flight line. Rebecca Harrell plays the lead little girl Jessica who thinks she's come across Santa's injured lost reindeer. But it was an incidental aspect of the film: Jessica has a wonderfully off-key singing voice that drove my Dad nuts; I thought his reaction was hilarious and teased him about it constantly.
I did catch part of "The Homecoming" on an inspiration channel, the Christmas movie thar let to the long-lived Walton family series. The movie focused on patriarch John Walton who was working away from home during the Depression and his way back home for Christmas, in doubt because of bad winter travel conditions. One reason I like this movie is eldest son John-Boy has an ambition to be a writer, something his father doesn't understand as a practical way of making a living. So at the end of the movie, John-Boy opens his Christmas gift from his Dad--a set of blank paper writing tablets. It reminded me of a rare time the folks dropped us by day care on base, and I was thrilled to get a plain white sheet of copy paper--the number of things you could create with it was mind-boggling. When I mentioned that years later, my middle brother roared with laughter. He said, "Just imagine how much the folks could have saved at Christmas by buying you a ream of copy paper!"
I do not like all these politically correct themes being put into film plots. In one of them, the younger brother of a homebuilder has studied architecture and is trying to convince his brother to build green-friendly homes. In at least a couple of plots, bakery factories are looking to automate operations at the expense of lifelong employees. In yet another plot, a senior NICU nurse is about to be forced into early retirement because the hospital has to cut costs, where "people are just numbers". There are other Luddite-style themes, like "exploding robots" vs. old-fashioned train sets.
I think for me the proverbial last straw was when Lifetime had this movie about some unrequited homosexual high school crush, and the movie ends with the male couple in question kissing each other on the lips. It sort of reminds me how GML host Chuck Thompson waxed enthusiasm over the SCOTUS decision to impose conditions over state marriage laws, a very unlibertarian perspective. Arguing state laws, reflecting a thousands-of-years cross-cultural institution of heterosexual commitment as the foundation of the family unit, were "discriminatory" is nonsense. There were established gay communities in almost American metropolitan area. I remember when I moved to the Houston area in the 70's; I'm personally straight but I learned almost immediately about the Montrose neighborhood. Nobody was micromanaging gay relationships. I think there may have been an unenforceable sodomy law on the state books, I think most of the people, at least in my generation, had a live-and-let-live attitude. The psychology textbook I had in college talked about homosexual activities occurring across species. Even when I was a Navy ensign I met two lesbians in uniform. In those days, straight guys, disillusioned with nuclear sub life, would intentionally get caught in gay sexual acts in the hopes of getting discharged.
At least 2 or 3 nephews and nieces are gay. I wish them personal happiness in their lives. That being said, there's a difference between tolerance and advocacy. I don't want the gay agenda being shoved down my throat, including holiday movies.
The Babylon Bee Interview With Elon Musk
Reason Mocks Congressional Hearings on Cryptocurrency
McClanahan on Democracy
McClanahan sent out an email implying he may publish a fresh episode or 2 over the coming week. In the meanwhile here is one of his oldie episodes:
Choose Life
Political Cartoon
Courtesy of Steve Kelley via Townhall
Musical Interlude: Christmas Songs
Dolly Parton, "Hard Candy Christmas"
