I did not vote for President Obama, twice, I did not vote for Bill Clinton, twice, and I regret none of those four choices. My family has been overwhelmingly Republican since Lincoln made our home a state. When Virginia and the Democrats rebelled, we seceded from Virginia and joined the Grand Old Party to save the Union and free the slaves. My first vote for President was for Ronald Wilson Reagan. If I am a Republican in Name Only, the dreaded... Read more
Beware: higher education is changing. Many schools that exist today will not exist tomorrow and to make matters worse scams happen. The faster change comes, the more bogus programs will develop. What are signs of a bad deal educationally? Beware the unaccredited program. If a school is Harvard, it need not be accredited. If your school doesn’t have that name value, make sure it has the same accreditation as dear old State U. If it doesn’t, it might be good,... Read more
It was funny once. If you are my age and had a bad case of Anglophilia combined with warped humor, then late night PBS introduced you to the lads: the comedy team called Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Televised comedy when I was a kid was not funny. I was too late for the best of black and white television: Andy Griffith or Dick Van Dyke. I challenge anyone a year after an episode to find Laugh In funny. Archie Bunker and Maude were... Read more
Jack Lord’s Steve McGarret was Captain Kirk as a Catholic. Hawaii Five O took traditional American morals through the late sixties and delivered them bruised, but intact to the very eve of the Reagan election. Not every show spawns a reboot, but Lord’s care with each episode and reinvestment in his property paid off in cultural memory. The show lasted long enough and spawned enough catch phrases (“Book ’em, Danno . . . murder one . . . two counts.”) that... Read more
Most Americans would be fine during an extended government shutdown and the longer it goes the more people will realize it. Our national defense is not shut down, the mail is being delivered, and Social Security checks will arrive. Some Americans will be be inconvenienced, but opponents of Obamacare are not apt to give up because they cannot visit the Statue of Liberty. You can, of course, still see it, and that is the main thing: like most things French... Read more
The wily Brownshirt in the Kremlin, Mr. Putin, saved us from an immediate debacle in Syria. He must be wondering if Mr. Obama is going to call and ask him to deal with Congress and the government shutdown. Sadly for the President, Putin is unlikely to help, because as our Interim Leader he would have to join Obamacare and the only person who wants to do that has his name on the program. Somebody asked me what I thought of... Read more
Star Trek delayed my Dad’s pastoral visit: it had that power. He came to visit a family and they paused him while they finished an original series episode. He understood. A world without DVR’s was like that. Picking Star Trek as a show that mattered is obvious, because it was one of the first television shows that fans defended as mattering against ridicule. Star Trek viewers became fans the way Packer backers or Republicans were formed. People always had joined a movement based on a... Read more
What The Andy Griffith Show did for life in the South, the Dick Van Dyke Show did for the suburbs: TV showed a way that a tract home could house great things or at least great fun. I can never take complaints about the soulless life there seriously, because I knew that Rob and Laura could make it rich. In fact, Laura Petrie loved the suburbs and if she could do it, then I could too. Suburbs are only soulless when inhabited... Read more
Would I have married her if she did not love the Andy Griffith Show? Probably, but we would not have been as close as we are. Growing up I learned more from reruns of the Andy Griffith Show, than from any number of school classes. I cannot be the only one of my generation. The Andy Griffith Show is a Utopian vision, a genre not much in favor any more, of life in the rural South in the middle of the twentieth century. Later... Read more
What should I want for those I love? I want them to be happy, of course, but not at the cost of their soul. If hurting other people makes them happy, then I would prefer those I love be less happy, but better human beings. That is obvious, plain enough that I sometimes forget it needs to be said. I wish for health, prosperity, and good things, but experience shows that this is not enough. A healthy man can be... Read more
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