John Wayne was one great American who by way of his Hollywood movie career portrayed to America, what it really means to be a man. Not only was he tough on screen, he was unabashedly and refreshingly honest, always to say truthfully what is on his mind. None of this political correctness nonsense for him! If ever a Gloria Steinem or Germaine Greer-type woman got uppity with him, he had no second thoughts to turn them across his knee and give their fannies the true-grit paddling they so richly deserved! Yet, he was actually very generous in his attitude towards women and their rights. Shortly before he died, The Duke said, "Women can do anything they want to....as long as they have supper ready for us men when we come home from work."
Fair enough: throughout the history of America, men have done a very great deal, from which women have benefitted. So there is some justice to be had in a little gracious compensatory gratitude back to men from the distaff side.
For all his portrayal of male machismo on the Hollywood movie screen, however, John Wayne never actually served in the U.S. military armed forces, despite being of appropriate age to do so in World War II and in the Korean conflict. (He was born in May 1907.) He never led any real-life charges up San Juan Hill, nor did he ever ride into the proverbial very jaws of hell and return again, unscathed. A college football injury was responsible for his marked absence from military service to his country.
John Wayne may have had great basic physical strength, but as an alleged inveterate smoker off-screen, he never had any enduring stamina to display in any of his movies, i.e. he never ran or swam continuously for any great distance. He also never participated in the Olympic Games. These facts create something of a credibility gap between his on-screen invincibility, and his real-life athletic capability. But at least, when we Americans turned off the TV after watching a John Wayne movie, we felt damn good to be an American! Stars and stripes forever, and no bowing to foreign heads of state to apologize to them for America's past doings abroad!
Yet, John Wayne was never gratuitously pugnacious or petulant. He was always well-reserved, saving the full force of his wrath exclusively for those who deliberately provoked it. He obliged both good and evil with the utmost of equity becoming a patriotic American.
This blogger confesses that John Wayne was every bit the man yours truly never was and should be. He has it in mind that when he dies and goes to heaven, his first question to God will be, "Lord, why did you not make a John Wayne out of me?" God's answer may well be, "But Larry, John Wayne knew not a lick about music! Look at all the musical talent with which I blessed you!" "I am mighty grateful to you for that, Lord", I would reply in kind. But all my musical talent won me more scornful and jealous enemies than admirers in my lifetime, even among alleged friends and family relatives. John Wayne was far better-off in the popularity department with an America which admires crude brutality over refined cultural erudition.
Thanks to the stereotype of such effeminate music composers as Mozart, Schubert and Mendelssohn, this musician blogger never dated girls in high school and college, feeling assured no woman in her right mind would be caught dead in the company of a sissy-wimp cellist. Yet, the reality is that even The Duke himself experienced divorce several times in his life. Maybe wives exposed to the private lives of the rich-and-famous know something about wowie-kazowie men the rest of the general public does not know about them.
No, there is never any rose without thorns, even if that rose is named John Wayne. Still, it is well beyond dispute that on the Hollywood screen, The Duke was and still is a hero--a great American hero--to tens of millions of Americans. In an American Rust Age of anti-hero, The Duke still remains rhetorically an eternal torch in the hearts of those who remember him, of all those traditional values which built America into the world's greatest and uniquely-exceptional nation.
-LKM
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Behaviour Unbecoming
In both the civilian government and the military, there exists in the law code a broad and disturbingly-vague category of punishable wrong-doing, simply called "behaviour unbecoming", i.e. behaviour inconsistent with and contrary to a perfect role-model example of someone in government service at public tax-payer expense, whether in civilian service or in the military. This legal category is itself unbecoming to the rest of the body of law because it is so very imprecise and thus subject to partisan political or otherwise whimsical and capricious interpretation by any would-be tyrant using that power of government office for personal hubris and self-aggrandizement. In order to insure equal justice under law, law itself must be narrowly and accurately defined.
Many Americans--this blogger included--proudly believe in American exceptionalism: we say there is something about America which sets it uniquely apart from all the rest of the world's nations. We believe this American exceptionalism to be a gift from God, a gift which the Lord will rescind, should America decline its obligation to play its exemplary role of unique destiny in world history.
In recent decades, grave American governmental and societal departures from that unique obligation have heralded a new era of behaviour unbecoming to the unique greatness America alone has heretofore been priviledged to know and exercise. What are these behaviours unbecoming to America? Lest we, too, be accused of being vague and imprecise, let us declare them to the world:
1)America has condoned law-breaking by certain "politically correct" demographic segments of society, based on alleged claim of victimhood from generations past now long-dead and gone. 2)America has tolerated leaders in high government office who shamelessly talk dirty four-letter-word bathroom-wall language. This behaviour is an assault upon the solemn dignity of public trust in high government office. 3)America has invaded the privacy of its citizenry in the name of national security, by use of politically-motivated surveillance without warrant. This government behaviour opens the door to possible use of federal agencies for partisan political purpose. 4)America has engaged in excessive taxation of its citizenry, thus robbing the people of God-given right to pursue happiness on their own terms. 5)America has cowardly abandoned freedom of speech in favor of political correctness. 6)America has winked its approval of certain sexual behaviours not tolerated in this country one hundred years ago. The mass communications media shamelessly places these sexual perversities on center stage before the public, in daring defiance of traditional marriage. 7)America has zipped the proverbial rug out from under the feet of the nation's parents, to discipline their own children as they see fit. Consequently, America has recently raised generations of defiant young brats who feel America owes them a free living with no obligations on their part in return. Dr. Benjamin Spock is largely to blame for abolishing parental boards of education applicable to young seats of learning. 8)America has recently replaced beauty with ugliness in public display of both audial and visual arts, saying in the name of political correctness that ugly is just as good as beautiful, and there is no absolute and objective measure of either. 9)Inferior public school education threatens to render future generations of Americans unable to successfully compete in international global markets. 10)Numbers substitute for absolute principles in determination of right from wrong. 11)America has adopted quick-easy divorce laws allowing nullification of marriage for relatively light and transient reasons. This practice is an assault upon a God-ordained and sacred social institution. 12)After sacrificing thirty-five-thousand American lives in a war against Communism in Korea, and sixty-thousand more in a later war against Communism in Viet Nam, we slowly but surely adopt Communism for ourselves, even by our own collective hand, as we convince ourselves that individual liberties are too dangerous and the uncertain vicissitudes of a free market place are too discomforting for America's own good. The hottest beds of Communism in America are in its halls and classrooms of academia, where honest education is supplanted with political indoctrination. 13)Thanks to reckless and irresponsible government economic policies, the American dollar continually loses its purchasing power every year. This decline has international repercussions as foreign governments also lose confidence in the American dollar as the world back-up monetary currency.
To be sure, America has never witnessed a Golden Age of Victorian sinlessness and moral rectitude. Nevertheless, the certainty of moral decline in America over the last one hundred years is beyond dispute. Behaviour unbecoming to the ideals of the American character are now more endemic than ever before. That said, we need not listen to the clarion call of some who declare that America's better days are now irreversibly behind her. We have many other sources of leadership to look to for inspiration besides those in government and politics. What about our pioneers in science and technology? What about our innovators in education? What about our literary writers, music and theatrical drama composers, our architects and our automotive industry designers? What about our inventors and discoverers? It is these people who will courageously carry the day for America, popular majority opposition and cynicism notwithstanding. All that is necessary for a revival of American greatness is for every American to quit saying "Let George do it", look at himself or herself in the mirror, and say in full confidence and conviction, "I will do it."
-LKM
Many Americans--this blogger included--proudly believe in American exceptionalism: we say there is something about America which sets it uniquely apart from all the rest of the world's nations. We believe this American exceptionalism to be a gift from God, a gift which the Lord will rescind, should America decline its obligation to play its exemplary role of unique destiny in world history.
In recent decades, grave American governmental and societal departures from that unique obligation have heralded a new era of behaviour unbecoming to the unique greatness America alone has heretofore been priviledged to know and exercise. What are these behaviours unbecoming to America? Lest we, too, be accused of being vague and imprecise, let us declare them to the world:
1)America has condoned law-breaking by certain "politically correct" demographic segments of society, based on alleged claim of victimhood from generations past now long-dead and gone. 2)America has tolerated leaders in high government office who shamelessly talk dirty four-letter-word bathroom-wall language. This behaviour is an assault upon the solemn dignity of public trust in high government office. 3)America has invaded the privacy of its citizenry in the name of national security, by use of politically-motivated surveillance without warrant. This government behaviour opens the door to possible use of federal agencies for partisan political purpose. 4)America has engaged in excessive taxation of its citizenry, thus robbing the people of God-given right to pursue happiness on their own terms. 5)America has cowardly abandoned freedom of speech in favor of political correctness. 6)America has winked its approval of certain sexual behaviours not tolerated in this country one hundred years ago. The mass communications media shamelessly places these sexual perversities on center stage before the public, in daring defiance of traditional marriage. 7)America has zipped the proverbial rug out from under the feet of the nation's parents, to discipline their own children as they see fit. Consequently, America has recently raised generations of defiant young brats who feel America owes them a free living with no obligations on their part in return. Dr. Benjamin Spock is largely to blame for abolishing parental boards of education applicable to young seats of learning. 8)America has recently replaced beauty with ugliness in public display of both audial and visual arts, saying in the name of political correctness that ugly is just as good as beautiful, and there is no absolute and objective measure of either. 9)Inferior public school education threatens to render future generations of Americans unable to successfully compete in international global markets. 10)Numbers substitute for absolute principles in determination of right from wrong. 11)America has adopted quick-easy divorce laws allowing nullification of marriage for relatively light and transient reasons. This practice is an assault upon a God-ordained and sacred social institution. 12)After sacrificing thirty-five-thousand American lives in a war against Communism in Korea, and sixty-thousand more in a later war against Communism in Viet Nam, we slowly but surely adopt Communism for ourselves, even by our own collective hand, as we convince ourselves that individual liberties are too dangerous and the uncertain vicissitudes of a free market place are too discomforting for America's own good. The hottest beds of Communism in America are in its halls and classrooms of academia, where honest education is supplanted with political indoctrination. 13)Thanks to reckless and irresponsible government economic policies, the American dollar continually loses its purchasing power every year. This decline has international repercussions as foreign governments also lose confidence in the American dollar as the world back-up monetary currency.
To be sure, America has never witnessed a Golden Age of Victorian sinlessness and moral rectitude. Nevertheless, the certainty of moral decline in America over the last one hundred years is beyond dispute. Behaviour unbecoming to the ideals of the American character are now more endemic than ever before. That said, we need not listen to the clarion call of some who declare that America's better days are now irreversibly behind her. We have many other sources of leadership to look to for inspiration besides those in government and politics. What about our pioneers in science and technology? What about our innovators in education? What about our literary writers, music and theatrical drama composers, our architects and our automotive industry designers? What about our inventors and discoverers? It is these people who will courageously carry the day for America, popular majority opposition and cynicism notwithstanding. All that is necessary for a revival of American greatness is for every American to quit saying "Let George do it", look at himself or herself in the mirror, and say in full confidence and conviction, "I will do it."
-LKM
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Thomas Jefferson On The Political Correctness Doctrine
The pernicious doctrine of political correctness is one of Communist origin. Chinese Communist Chairman Mao Tse-T'ung wrote about it in his Little Red Book several decades ago, calling it "right thinking". In Communist countries, political dissidents have been sent to "mental hospitals", to get their political thinking "straightened out". What would Thomas Jefferson say to this doctrine of political correctness, were he to be alive today to witness it? In America today, threats to supplant free speech with political correctness, especially on pretext of protecting the feelings of certain demographic groups of people against all possible emotional injury, are becoming ever-more pervasive. In his book, You Can't Say That!, George Mason University law professor David Bernstein gives many examples of how individual civil liberties guaranteed us under the Bill of Rights are being rescinded by anti-discrimination laws.
Thomas Jefferson once said, "Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty." Around the inner-wall dome of the Jefferson Memorial today, we read others of his words: "I HAVE SWORN UPON THE ALTAR OF GOD, ETERNAL HOSTILITY AGAINST EVERY FORM OF TYRANNY OVER THE MINDS OF MAN."
-LKM
Thomas Jefferson once said, "Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty." Around the inner-wall dome of the Jefferson Memorial today, we read others of his words: "I HAVE SWORN UPON THE ALTAR OF GOD, ETERNAL HOSTILITY AGAINST EVERY FORM OF TYRANNY OVER THE MINDS OF MAN."
-LKM
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