Clipping: Solzhenitsyn: Prophet to America

English literature scholar Ed Ericson told a story about teaching Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago to American undergrads, who knew plenty about the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews and other dehumanized minorities but next to nothing about the genocidal history of the Bolshevik and Stalinist regimes. Ericson, who worked tirelessly to widen Solzhenitsyn’s audience in the West, thought it was comic (or maybe tragi-comic) that students often thought “gulag” was something served in dormitory cafeterias, mistaking it for “goulash.”

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RIP Rush Limbaugh, the Golden Microphone has gone Silent.

Rush Limbaugh was a great many things to many people, but one thing is certain, very few people could articulate conservatism and a love for Americas fundamental principles of Liberty more than him. This speech at the 2009 CPAC was one of the best I’ve ever heard, and I have had this transcript saved since then. Read and re-read, and be grateful for Rush’s tireless work over the years. Thank you Rush

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Mercifully Short Book Review #2: John Adams, by David McCullough

John Adams on my family tree

I’ll have to be honest on this one.  I’m totally biased in regards to John Adams, as he is my great great great great great great grandfathers cousin.  The image above is from the Adams (my Gran’s maiden name) family tree, so I have proof!

Regarding the book, it did win a Pulitzer, so I guess that speaks for itself as far as the quality of the book goes, but this book ended up being a lot more than just a great book for me.  The story of John Adams, through the revolutionary war, the presidency and beyond provides some incredible insight and perspective into multitudes of areas from education, politics of course, faith, and principled character, of which Adams had an incredible amount.

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Danny’s Mercifully Short Book Reviews: #1 – The Secret Knowledge, On the Dismantling of American Culture, by David Mamet

David Mamet THe Secret Knowledge

The hardest part of writing something is getting started so I’m just going to begin with talking about beginning to write!  I’m not that great at it, but if you want an example of good writing, a Pulitzer Prize winner isn’t a bad place to start.

David Mamet is the Pulitzer Prize winning writer of Glengary Glenn Ross, the Tony Award-winning Broadway play and movie of the same name.  “The Secret Knowledge” goes through Mamet’s reasoning behind converting from an ardent political Liberal to a Conservative.

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Why The Peanuts Movie is the Best Childrens Movie EVER!

PEANUTS MOVIE IS THE BEST EVER

Ok, so maybe the title is a bit over the top.  I know my son liked it, my wife bless her heart did her best to stay awake, and the rest of the family well, I think they didn’t do quite as good of a job as Laura at not turning our trip to the movies into an expensive nap.

I, however was transfixed through most of the movie.  It was a weird sort of attention though.  I had to work at it, almost like reading (trying to) C.S. Lewis or Shakespeare when you haven’t read anything other than Berenstain Bears or Dr Seuss books for some time.  (Parents you know what I’m talking about)

I was simultaneously trying to be “into it”, struggling with the fact that I had to work at it, and drawing philosophical parallels to my own personal psyche.  (Deep, I know!)

So other than my obviously trying to put into words something I’m nowhere near qualified to even spell, much less pontificate on, why would I say that this is the best children’s movie EVER?  The best word I can think of to summarize would be that its real.

The Peanuts Movie is not the best as in the most entertaining.  It’s not the funniest or most intense and it certainly didn’t have a Disney budget, but it was real.  Real as in a story of kids dealing with real struggles and doubts and fears.

Charlie Brown’s deep feelings of inadequacy, his fear of talking to the little red-haired girl.  Lucy’s over confident bossiness, Linus being the strongest of all of them seemingly yet unable to detach himself from his security blanket.  Each of the children deal with real issues that real children work through on a daily basis.

I love this about the Peanuts Movie.  Children’s movies like Frozen and Despicable Me are awesome.  I enjoy them for what they are, but our children are over-saturated with over-stimulating fantasy.  I am over-saturated with over-stimulating fantasy.  Peanuts is a welcome change.

I’m confident that every now and then my son may have to fend off a 50 foot snow monster, or save the world from an evil villain bent on world domination.  However he’s more likely to have to deal with insecurity, feeling inadequate at school, or eventually being completely done in with confusion when that first crush happens.

The real villains in life aren’t fantastical magic creatures (Though girls will seem like that when the first crush happens!)  Knowing that a dragon must have a sword pierce its heart, or believing that love will solve everything won’t help him get through life.  Living in a fantastical world of rainbows and talking snowmen won’t give him confidence to deal with bullies, to have confidence when nothing seems to go his way, or to have the courage to talk to that little red-haired girl.

The Peanuts movie is the best children’s movie ever because while my son is being entertained, he’s also seeing a kid just like him, going through the same things he’ll most likely go through, and still ending up on top.  Not because he’s the best baseball player, coach, director, or student; but because he doesn’t give up, surrounds himself with friends who care about him, and has an unwavering drive to keep trying to kick that freakin football no matter how many times it gets pulled away from him.

That’s what makes this the best children’s movie ever.  And to be honest a great movie for us grown-ups as well, but that’s a much longer, deeper, psyco-babbley  post for another day.

Thanks for reading.

Christmas in November and the Wisdom of Disney’s Incredibles

It’s that time of year again.  Time for Starbucks to release their newest Christmas-hating cups, Halloween decorations to come down, and for everyone to completely forget that there’s this major American holiday called “Thanksgiving” coming up.

I get it.  I mean, we only live in the safest, most prosperous and successful nation the world has ever known.  We have longer life expectancy, better food, better schools, and more TV channels than you can count!  Seriously, our median per-household income is over $50,000 and the worldwide average is hovering in the $9-$10,000 range. What do we have to be thankful for?

Apparently we can be thankful for Christmas.  Halloween isn’t even over these days and Target is setting up the back corner of their store for Christmas.  Want a Thanksgiving turkey decoration?  Maybe a pilgrim hat?  Already in the 50% off aisle, if you can even find it.  If you’re really lucky you have a store with maybe even a whole quarter of an aisle dedicated to the modern-day Jane Eyre of holidays.  Even then half of that is football related, but I digress…

Today as I was driving home from work I was listening a podcast and the questions came up, “how early is TOO early to put up Christmas decorations?  Is it sinful to put them up before December 1st?”  For those reading this that are in the non-church/non-religious crowd, this was asked tongue-in-cheek.  Christians don’t sit around thinking this is a sin for real.  We reserve that for coffee cups.

However, to answer the question with marked simplicity, YES!  It is sinful and terrible to put Christmas decor up the day after Halloween!  Ok, maybe just mildly sacrilegious, or lame.  Ok, its not a sin but golly it should be frowned upon by decent folks.

I’m sure by now you’re wondering where I’m going with this, and not just because you want to get to where the reference to Disney’s Incredible’s will finally play into this rambling tirade.

Each holiday during this season is special and deserves to be recognized as so, but Christmas is especially so.  Christmas, the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Son of God come to take away the sins of the world.  The day that fulfilled thousands of years of prophecy and led to the availability of forgiveness, love and hope for all mankind.

So now moving from deep theological religiosity to a movie targeted to those who cannot read.  What DOES “The Incredibles” have to do with this?

If you recall, the villain, Syndrome, is upset after being hurt (emotionally) by Mr Incredible as a child.  He responds by inventing gadgets, machines and weapons to turn himself into a “super”.  He of course chooses to be a super-villain instead of a hero but that’s not my point here.

During one of his monologues, he reveals his ultimate game plan against the supers.

I’ll give them heroics. I’ll give them the most spectacular heroics they’ve ever seen! And when I’m old and I’ve had my fun, I’ll sell my inventions so everyone can be superheroes! Everyone can be super! And when everyone’s super, [laughs maniacally] no one will be.

Did you see it?  When Christmas (super power) is expanded beyond the select few days/weeks allotted it, each of those days becomes less special!

Just like a precious metal, the value in it is not just because it is inherently valuable.  Its valuable because it is rare!  It’s worth is determined by the fact that it’s not surrounded by other things just like it.

The same goes in my mind for the Christmas holiday.  It’s not so much about overlooking Thanksgiving (though that is of course important).  It’s about keeping Christmas as that special time of year, not that special 4th quarter of a year.

So, go on with your sinning and your Christmas decorating and your demon-coffee drinking.  I, like all God-fearing decent people am going to wait until 12:01 am on November 27th to shovel all my fall decor into boxes.  Then I’ll make my house look like Santa Claus lost control of his elves and they magically stampeded through my yard, leaving half the North Pole strewn across it in their wake.

That is how you keep Christmas special.  That and tricking Starbucks baristas into writing “Merry Christmas” on your coffee cups.