ObamaCare Explained

Video:  ObamaCare Explained

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Watcher’s Council Nominations – Takin’ The 5th Edition

JoshuaPundit on May 22 2013 |  Nominations:

Welcome to the Watcher’s Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the ‘sphere, and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday.

‘Nuff said.

This week’s contest is dedicated to Rep. Darrel Issa..for relentless courage.

Council News:
This week, Ask Marion and Liberty’s Spirit earned honorable mention status with some great pieces.

You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.

Simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the title a link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address ( which won’t be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6PM PST in order to be considered for our honorable mention category, and return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week.

It’s a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members. while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?

So, let’s see what we have this week….

Council Submissions

• The Political Commentator – Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano going back…
• The Noisy Room – The Enemy Among Us – Even in Idaho
• Simply Jews – Glenn Greenwald or the douchebag’s lines of defense
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Shock And Shush
• Bookworm Room – Is the IRS scandal the worst political scandal in American history? I say “yes
• Gay Patriot – In 2008, we told you Obama wasn’’t the man you (thought you) were voting for. . .
• Joshuapundit-DHS Is Training Law Enforcement To Give Muslim Brotherhood, Radical Islamists A Pass
• The Razor – Scandal Scorecard
• The Colossus of Rhodey – New “Scotty” Spouts Off on the New Trek’s Politics
• Rhymes With Right – My Response To @WhiteHouse #ObamaCareInThreeWords Meme
• The Glittering Eye -A Series of Unfortunate Incidents
• The Mellow Jihadi – Autumn Sandeen, a Sailor with No ESWS Pin?
• VA Right! - VA GOP Convention: Conservatives and TEA Party Send Republican Establishment a STRONG MESSAGE! Overcome DIRTY TRICKS and WIN!
• The Right Planet – #Scandalpalooza

Honorable Mentions

• Ask Marion – Incompetent-gate, Corruption-gate and Progressive-gate – Part 1
• Liberty’s Spirit – The IRS, Obamacare,and Abuse of Political Power: An Issue

Non-Council Submissions

• Craig McMillan/WND -The Chicago mob in D.C.submitted by The Political Commentator
• Caroline Glick – Obama and the “Official Truth” submitted by The Noisy Room
• A.J. Adler/The Algemeiner – A Campaign of Willful Blindness on Terrorism submitted by Simply Jews
• Contentions – Exploit Hizballah’s Vulnerability submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• American Thinker/Thomas Lifson-Never Mind Impeachment; Keep your Eyes on the Prize submitted by Bookworm Room
• Commentary -Accepting Responsibility Would Blow Obama’’s Circuits submitted by Gay Patriot
• Jonathan Rosenblum – The Price Of Blindness submitted by Joshuapundit
• Reason –The Myth of the Scientific Liberal submitted by The Razor
• OpenMarket.org – IRS Abuse of Americans Is Nothing New submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Big Jolly Politics – The Real Scandal with the IRS: Organizing for Action and the Chicago-style Misuse of Governmental Power submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Ta-Nahisi Coates/The Atlantic – How the Obama Administration Talks to Black America submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Amil Imani –Saluting Pamela Geller: a Champion of Liberty submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• Tea Party News Network – Lerner Pleads the Fifth, Issa Issues Subpoena for her to Appear Anyway submitted by VA Right!
• Doug Ross – That Crazy Benghazi Conspiracy Theory? It Just Got Less Crazy submitted by The Right Planet
• Mark Steyn – The Autocrat Accountants submitted by The Watcher
• Kirsten Powers/Daily Beast – How Hope and Change Gave Way to Spying on the Press submitted by Watcher

Enjoy! And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that!

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What Movies in History Best Captures the Spirit of Thanksgiving?

It's a Wonderful Life - The annual ritual of watching Frank Capra’s 1946 holiday movie classic on Thanksgiving, kicking off the Christmas season, didn’t gain currency until the 1980s

Yahoo: “In the last 40 years, if you said a character named Captain Christopher Jones would be a figurehead in a movie about the first Thanksgiving, those born within that time frame would think it was the name of the protagonist in a romantic comedy taking place on Thanksgiving. Such is the shift of themes in Hollywood over the decades in movies that represent the meaning of Thanksgiving or the days surrounding late November. However, finding one Thanksgiving movie that captures the true spirit of the holiday is ultimately based on your personal cinematic perceptions.”

One thing we can say: There never has been a movie set on Thanksgiving that doesn't have some kind of discord or other tribulation for the sake of watchable plot. This doesn't necessarily mean that those plots didn't eventually include some type of comedy before arguably becoming sentimental at the end to remind you it's the holidays. Yet what about those early movies I referenced above that depicted the meaning of Thanksgiving?

Earliest Hollywood didn't make movies taking place on Thanksgiving, perhaps because there was a contentious political battle over when the holiday took place. For those seeing "Lincoln" this weekend, (Team of Rivals – Lincoln Film Tie-In Edition.  Also Killing Lincoln is a must read) consider the irony in Honest Abe once setting a long precedent for Thanksgiving being recognized during the final Thursday of November. In 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt unofficially moved Thanksgiving to the previous Thursday. At the eve of World War II, FDR's more commercial stance led to a (surprise!) bitter battle between Republicans and Democrats over when Thanksgiving should officially be celebrated.

Yes, that Congressional story could be a Thanksgiving movie on its own in the future. But after that initial political event was federally settled in 1942, Hollywood only briefly took Thanksgiving commercial with "Miracle on 34th Street" five years later. By 1952, Hollywood went sacred with "Plymouth Adventure [Remaster] {VHS}", starring Spencer Tracy as Captain Christopher Jones of the Mayflower. As you'd expect, it was partially fiction, though set a reverent cinematic tone for Thanksgiving that didn't change until the 1980s.

What was it that changed in the 1980s that led to a few films finally being set on Thanksgiving? Perhaps it was the greed mentality of the era and the beginnings of Black Friday as we know it today. Doing so romanticized this time of year to the point where many romantic comedies started being set on Thanksgiving or around the holidays. Just take a look at how it influenced Woody Allen with 1986's "Hannah and Her Sisters."

Hollywood even toyed with an odd horror movie genre where something slightly morose takes place on Thanksgiving weekend. That genre has recurred periodically since the 1980s with such films as “Home Sweet Home" and more recent "Boogeyman." However, these didn't provide one particular magic formula for audiences: Comedy.

Those wanting a more cheerful diversion should go for this Steve Martin and John Candy comedy. When finding one movie that represents Thanksgiving better than any other in the modern era, it has to be 1987's "Planes, Trains and Automobiles." In fact, it set a comedy pattern that's been copied right up through the 2010s with much less success. Martin stars as Neal Page, a highly strung advertising man who's forced to go on an adventure with Candy's Del Griffith, an easygoing talkative curtain ring salesman due them trying to get Neal home to Chicago from New York in time for Thanksgiving.

If you call it holiday black comedy, it still represents travel during the Thanksgiving in a way that forever brings guffaw communion. And it has a relationship story, plus a sentimental ending. Hence, it officiates this film as capturing the full spirit of a modern Thanksgiving.

Then again, that love triangle among Captain Jones, William Bradford, and Dorothy Bradford in "Plymouth Adventure [Remaster] {VHS}" comes close to unintended holiday romanticism.

1995 brought us the modern Thanksgiving reality themed movies The War at Home and Home for the Holidays.  The War at Home is a real family affair, with Emilio Estevez and his legendary father Martin Sheen. Estevez directed the film, served as co-producer as well as co-starring with his dad. Estevez plays Jeremy Collier, a Vietnam War hero who struggles to return to civilian life in a small town after his experiences in a war zone. Home for the Holidays stars Holly Hunter, Robert Downey Jr., Anne Bancroft, Charles Durning, Dylan McDermott, Geraldine Chaplin, Steve Guttenberg, Cynthia Stevenson with Claire Danes, 'Home For The Holidays follows Claudia Larson, a single-mom who's just lost her job and flies home to meet her family; crazy antics, lessons learned and newfound relationships make this a turkey-filled classic.

Then there is The Ice Storm (1997) set during Thanksgiving 1973, Ang Lee's 1997 movie, based on the novel by Rick Moody. Starring Kevin Cline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci and Elijah Wood, the movie follows two interlinked Connecticut families breaking apart as the children discover adulthood and the adults regress to childhood. This angst ridden classic may not be one to cheer you up if the turkey's gone awry but it's thrilling delving into suburban disintegration, sexual experimentation and the titular weather disaster make it a dark holiday classic. The film also featured Katie Holmes screen debut.

Pieces of April (2003) starring a pre-TomKat Katie Holmes,  follows April Burns, a young woman from a dysfunctional family who invites her estranged folks over for Thanksgiving. There follows a variety of misadventures, but all learn that whatever happens, at this time of year it's family that matters.

Sometimes watching an old movie with relatives or your kids is a great place to start a conversation about society, changes in our culture, history, tradition or even faith that can lead to future conversations, the reading and reviewing of books and expanded conversations.

Related:

Merry Christmas From Hollywood – Holiday Movie Classics

God Rest Ye Merry Merchants

Ben Stein on Christmas

How to avoid grinches at Christmas

For Fourth Straight Year, Obama’s Thanksgiving Message Doesn’t Thank God

A National Crisis in Character… So Let Us Recapture The Culture!

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Paul Harvey’s “If I Were The Devil” Speech In 1965 Is Spot On Today

In the past few days, If I Were the Devil: Paul Harvey (Warning for a Nation) has gone viral.  If you have not heard it, or haven’t heard it for awhile… please listen to the whole thing.  Harvey recorded this in 1965… sounding like he was looking at 2012.

Mark Wilson, Getty Images

Paul Harvey’s “If I Were The Devil, Our Father Who Art In Washington” speech in 1965 is spot on in 2012. Paul Harvey Aurandt, better known to the world as Paul Harvey, penned the article in 1964. The following audio presented below in his own words is from 1965.

Paul Harvey was the BEST. No one on the radio was or is as good as Paul Harvey was. He could deliver a story on radio better than anyone could with pictures and media. Harvey made you think. He made you see. He made you feel. But, most importantly, he made you believe!

At a radio seminar several years before his death in 2009, Harvey walked into the room and immediately commanded everyone’s attention.  He received a standing ovation before he even uttered a word.

Harvey was a genius at his craft. He delivered daily broadcasts for ABC Radio Networks and captured us all with The Rest of the Story. His listening audience topped 24-million people per week at the peak of his career. And that doesn’t even begin to take into account the people who read his newspaper column or took any opportunity to hear him speak live.

Although the following audio is from 1965, you would think he recorded it yesterday. That’s how brilliant he was… and his words are a testament as to how low we have sunk. “Good Day”!

Video:  If I Were the Devil: Paul Harvey (Warning for a Nation)

h/t to CJ  and to Deonia Copeland

Thought For The Day - 09.18.08

"The more elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate."
…Joseph Priestley, 18th-century British theologian, natural philosopher, and political theorist

There’s a reason why top salespeople try to have as many face-to-face meetings with their customers and prospects. On the flip side, there’s a reason why salespeople that communicate almost entirely via email are usually searching for a new job within six months. Personal, face-to-face communication is a dying breed — but those who still rely on it, are among the highest paid, most productive people in America. Never settle for an email when you have a phone number — Never settle for a phone call when you have an address.

And the same can be said for politics…  One of John McCain’s strengths is getting out there and talking to the people in small Town Hall kind of settings, where he can shake hands, talk one on one and meet people face to face… venues that Barack Obama does not feel as comfortable in.  Obama prefers large less personal forums or texting… like he used to announce his VP choice of Biden.

McCain’s connection to the Internet World is his daughter, Meghan, who blogs about the campaign at McCainblogette.com as they travel the country from town to town in the McCain bus… the “No Surrender” which replaced Sen. McCain's famous "Straight Talk Express".

 

“Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.”  …Anne Morrow Lindbergh