High Noon

[alw 0]

Yesterday my wife forced me to give her the remote control and informed me I'd been watching too much cable news. To lower my blood pressure she switched to an old Gregory Peck movie, "The Gunfighter".

You remember that one? In this classic noir-influenced Western, Gregory Peck stars as an aging gunslinger, sick of killing but haunted by punks wanting to make a name for themselves by slaying a legend.

My mind turned immediately back to the news du jour. Wasn't it really the same thing? Gunslingers abounded on the news networks and blogs. Each was trying to prove that they were the fastest, always trying to best their opponents. Of course Couric didn't go after Biden's "Roosevelt on TV" comment. Maybe she didn't know he was wrong but more likely she just wasn't interested in gunning down the village idiot.

No if you're going to play High Noon in the big leagues you gotta go for the shootists. Plug Pelosi on her partisanship and for extra good measure put one right between her PAC paid Hubby's eyes. Better yet knock off the competition by setting a trap for Iffel and making sure she is out of bullets before you spring it.

Yep, I love a good gunfight, but for my money I would prefer one of the gangster version where you stand Franks, Dodd, and Schumer up against the wall of a garage and tommy gun them.

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Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

[Skyrad 0]

Get up, get out and live your life.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[alw 0]

What part of this gloomy island do you live on? It rained all day yesterday.

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Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

[Skyrad 0]

Yesterday? Actually its rained for the last three months!!! Thats why God invented Welly boots! Actually I now live in Ireland. Its pissed down there for months also. But I'm in London at the moment, why where are you?

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[alw 0]

Ossett near Wakefield.

For an American from Orlando it's somewhat less than stellar weather - but at least I have my health.

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Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

[billvon 2,435]

> Wasn't it really the same thing?

Nope - not even close. This sort of oversimplification is one of the biggest problems in our political system today. It's fun to think about sports and action movie analogies, but it leads to missing most of the issues.

[alw 0]

You mean I should stop asking myself, "What would John Wayne do?"

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Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

[billvon 2,435]

>You mean I should stop asking myself, "What would John Wayne do?"

Well, you can - and The Duke would probably be a lot more fun than some politician. Better to ask yourself, though, what Patrick Henry, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln would have done.

[alw 0]

Quote: Well, you can - and The Duke would probably be a lot more fun than some politician. Better to ask yourself, though, what Patrick Henry, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln would have done.
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OK if you want to get serious . . .

I doubt that any of them would have the ability to deal with the specific realities of the situation today. What they would bring are the things I think are sorely lacking, loyalty, honor, itegrity. They were after all just men doing their best.

I'm sure you read my posts summarizing the bill as I read through it yesterday. There are glass half full/half empty parts of that legislation. The situation and solutions are complex in the extreme. No matter what we do, events will take their course. Thoughtful people will try to weave solutions that will inspire additional thought from leaders.

I have great faith in the American people and the country's ability, through it's freedom to think on its own, to deal with crisis. When we can see a foe and unite against it we will be in a better position to deal with it.

I'm still looking for someone who can lead. Haven't seen them yet.

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Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

[billvon 2,435]

>I doubt that any of them would have the ability to deal with the specific
>realities of the situation today.

I think they would. The details have changed but the underlying realities have not. Lincoln in 1837:

"It is an old maxim and a very sound one, that he that dances should always pay the fiddler. Now, sir, in the present case, if any gentlemen, whose money is a burden to them, choose to lead off a dance, I am decidedly opposed to the people's money being used to pay the fiddler . . . all this to settle a question in which the people have no interest, and about which they care nothing. These capitalists generally act harmoniously, and in concert, to fleece the people, and now, that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel."

Think he might have some insight into this banking problem we're facing today?

>What they would bring are the things I think are sorely lacking, loyalty,
>honor, integrity. They were after all just men doing their best.

If you go back in time, the partisan attacks were just as bad then as they are now*. Then, as now, we have politicians who are really trying to do their best. Then, as now, we have people who can see no honor or integrity in anyone who disagrees with them.

That's not to say that there are no differences from the 1700's and 1800's to today - but things are similar enough that people like Lincoln could understand the political climate, work within it and bring positive change.

(* - during Lincoln's election, tales of state-sponsored black men raping white women were common in the South, and two Southern newspapers implied that Lincoln would support such rapes. Other newspapers accused them of creating "falsehoods and sensation tales to arouse the passions of the people and drive them into the Southern Disunion movement." Compared to that, calling Obama a Muslim is nothing.)