Life is a Highway

Life is a Highway
Source: YouTube

Saturday, 31 August 2013

History Channel: 1968 With Tom Brokaw

Source:McKeow Tube- a hippie with Tom Brokaw.

Source:The Daily Journal 

"In this video, Tom Brokaw presents the causes, details, and legacy of the pivotal year 1968." 

From McKeow Tube

1968 was one of if not the most explosive years in American history, for good and bad. With everything that happened that year from political assassinations, with people being freed to be themselves and live the way they want to. With all the good movies and music that came from this era. With the sporting events, as well as a new political movement in America that emerged on the Left-Wing and what I call the New-Left in America. 

The New-Left (orFar-Left) that came into the Democratic Party that was anti-establishment, anti-war, anti-capitalist, anti-anything that was previously done in America that seemed as part of the establishment. The mid and late 1960s was changing to the point that for people who weren’t Baby Boomers and were older, we're seeing a completely New America.

The term New America I believe gets thrown around a lot and has become another corny catch phrase in American pop culture especially. But we did become a New America not in 1968, but go back to 1964 and perhaps even 1963 when the civil rights movement became mainstream in America. 

1968 is that year where America became that true melting pot and where we became that country that just didn’t claim to believe all of those great liberal democratic values of opportunity, diversity, tolerance, individual freedom, freedom of choice, speech, tolerance etc, but we no longer just claimed those values, but actually owned them. We were no longer just a great melting pot ethnically, racially and everything else, but a country where all sorts of Americans became free to be themselves and live their own lives.

Culturally, the 1950s America that the Christian-Right have tried to move America back to ever since, it didn’t end in 1960 or even 1968. That culturally collectivist decade ended in 1963 or 64. But 1968 was a year where the right-wing came back and took on all of these millions of Baby Boomers who represented millions of Americans of all sorts of ethnic, racial and cultural backgrounds and got behind Richard Nixon for president. And where these New Americans stood their ground. And that is where you see this cultural battle, Cultural War even that is still going on America today. Between Americans who want their 1950s back. Versus Americans who want to continue to progress and create an America that works for all of us.

1968 is a year where you see two America’s emerge. They were always there, but thanks to Hollywood and TV, they became obvious to most Americans. An America who saw things in black and white and if you saw things differently they would view you as Un-American. Versus an America that didn’t see things so simplistically. Who didn’t believe women’s place was necessarily in the home. That women should be able to make this decision for themselves whether to work at home and run the house, or work out of the home for money. 

1968 is a year where our religious, ethnic and racial diversity, became celebrated. Where equal rights and diversity were celebrated in the New America. In 1968 you saw young adults essentially taking on their parents and grandparents in this new Cultural War.

America, went through a lot of hell in the 1960s with all of the assassinations and the Vietnam War. The violence that came about against the civil rights marchers (to use as examples) but with all of that violence and chaos came a lot of positive things as well. A Cultural Revolution where millions of Americans and not just Baby Boomers, but my Generation X and Americans after that, were given true American individual freedom to be themselves. 

So in that sense at least and from my perspective, the 1960s and 1968 even, the most explosive year of that incredible decade, was a great time. It was a time where millions of Americans were given true individual freedom to be themselves. And with what comes with individual freedoms, comes personal responsibility as well. So Conservatives should support this as well.

Wednesday, 28 August 2013

Sullen Toys: Martin Luther King- 'I Have A Dream Speech, August 28, 1963'

Source:Sullen Toys- Dr. Martin L. King, 1963 I Have a Dream speech.
Source:FreeState MD 

"I Have A Dream Speech August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King" 


Dr. King’s I Have a Dream Speech, is the crown jewel of the American civil rights movement because it laid out exactly what the vision of the movement is, that it is about jobs, justice and equal rights. Which is why you hear Dr. King quoting the United States Constitution that guarantees certain basic human rights to all Americans, not just European-Americans, or European-American men, but the entire country. All of us all Americans share these basic constitutional rights. Which was exactly what the American civil rights movement was about a fight for freedom.

The civil rights movement is not too different what the American Revolution was about a fight for freedom as well and to have these constitutional rights. A big difference being that the Dr. King wing of the movement was non-violent from its start, to its core and to its end. And the fact that the Europeans who won the American Revolutionary War didn’t intend to include other Americans in the U.S. Constitution, the fact is they did when they said all men have the basic human rights. And Dr. King and his movement did was to say they are here to collect those rights that the United States Government owes them under the U.S. Constitution.

I mean just look at the words of the I Have a Dream speech. Dr. King saying that he has a dream that one day his children would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Here’s someone whose economic politics at least would make him a Democratic Socialist today and yet he’s calling for a color-blind and even race-blind society. Which would actually put him to the Right of a lot of people who claim to be his supporters today, who are very race conscience and even have racial if not racist views towards Caucasians, even Jews and especially Southern Anglo-Saxons, people of British background.

The Young Turks: Cenk Uygur- Bill O’Reilly: 'The Truth About Martin Luther King Jr.'



Source:The Young Turks- Bill giving The O'Reilly Finger to Dr. Martin L. King.

Source:FreeState MD 

"Bill O'Reilly used the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's I Have A Dream speech to attack African Americans and claim that MLK was pro-right wing. The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down." 


So I guess you couldn't have your own cable talk show, if you weren't also a psychic and mindreader. Because apparently Bill O'Reilly has some super ability to go into dead people's minds and read what they would think 45 years after their death. Which is apparently that Bill O'Reilly was doing about Dr. Martin Luther King. A man by the way, that Mr. O'Reilly never even met, let was able to ever talk too. 

I don’t know where Bill O’Reilly gets the 75% of African-American babies being born out-of-wedlock. But he does have a point about the state of the current African-American community. And would have problems with it and disagreements with the community. And would want to see more done so this community doesn’t have more poverty, less education, fewer fathers in the households, more crime and murders and people in prison than the rest of the country as a whole.

But I guess it wouldn’t be The O’Reilly Finger, I mean Factor, if Billy wasn’t just stating the obvious and emphasizing the negative. Fifty-years after the I Have a Dream speech, fewer African-Americans now live in poverty, more go to school and finish school, graduate from college, live in the middle class. African-Americans. Still not doing as well as Caucasians, as well as Asians, regardless of ethnicity, and perhaps Latinos, again regardless of race or ethnicity. And that is still the challenge for this community to come to par with the rest of the country and not have negative statistics that are twice the average of the entire country.

To accomplish this, more African-Americans and Americans in general in poverty, need to go to good schools, finish school, further their education, not have kids until they’re personally and financially ready to take care of them and then actually raise their kids. And this get to men in the community that are man enough to create babies and life, but not man enough to raise their own kids. And leave that to the mother who isn’t doing very well herself, yet ready to raise kids all by herself.

Thursday, 22 August 2013

Person To Person: Edward R. Murrow- Interviewing Marilyn Monroe: April 8th, 1955

Source:Lamour Monroe- Person To Person with Marilyn Monroe, in 1955.
Source:The Daily Journal 

"Person to Person interview with Marilyn Monroe and Milton and Amy Greene." 


Edward R. Murrow was sort of the Mike Wallace of the 1950s, or perhaps Mike Wallace was the Ed Murrow post-Murrow. But what I mean by that is Murrow was a very intelligent and great journalist and interviewer who preferred hard news, but was so great at what he did and such an intelligent interviewer, that he could interview practically anyone important that is. And entertainers are important, not as important as I believe they should be and definitely not as important as others people seem to believe they are. But they are important in society and life wouldn’t be worth living as much without them.

As much as Ed Murrow could interview anyone and that probably included pro athletes as well, hard news was his steak and potatoes. What kept him fed and what kept in journalism. If it was his choice, he probably doesn’t take Person to Person and make that his show. Which was sort of late night TV back in the 1950s, perhaps a prime time version of The Today Show or Good Morning America. Shows that are generally about making people feel good and telling them about things that they follow in their free time and generally not hard news shows.

But Murrow was also if not the most popular figure at CBS in the 1950s, certainly one of them news or otherwise and CBS was going to use him as much as possible to help their network. And they knew how good of an interviewer he was and how he and Person to Person could help their network. And that Murrow also had See it Now as part of CBS News, so he was going to do his hard news show anyway. That is why someone who was the quality journalist of an Ed Murrow, is interviewing the Goddess of Hollywood at the time, Marilyn Monroe, in 1955

CBS News: 'Conservationists Fight to Save Giant Panda in China'

Source:CBS News- a Chinese teddy bear.

Source:The Daily Journal

"It's believed 1,600 pandas live in the wild today, down from nearly 2,500 in the 1970s. The Chinese government has set up more than 60 nature preserves to protect the remaining pandas, but conservationists say human behavior needs to change for pandas to survive. Seth Doane reports." 

From CBS News

The cutest pound for pound animal in the world. The high school girl in this video, said that the Panda is to China what the Bald Eagle is to America, that they’re not just some beautiful animal, but they’re a symbol of the country. And at least in some way represents what the country is about. 

In America’s case, the Bald Eagle tends to represent individual freedom and our individualism as a country. The Panda (I’m not an expert on China) I imagine it represents to Chinese sweetness. I believe anyway the Panda is the cutest pound for pound animal in the world. They have their baby faces from the time they’re born until they die. Similar to Corgis when it comes to dogs in that they can pass as babies even when they’re ten years old or older. 

When you have animals that represent so much to one country and the good things that the country represents, I believe you have a moral obligation to see that they’re always protected and can live healthy lives.

Saturday, 17 August 2013

Research Channel: 'Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture in Social Justice'


Source:Research Channel- Reverend Jesse Jackson appearing at this lecture.

Source:FreeState MD 

"An annual event during University of Pennsylvania's celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. King; each year, it highlights a scholar of African descent who is committed to the field of social justice. The 2004 guest was the Rev. Jesse Jackson, in conversation with the Rev. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, moderated by Dr. Tukufu Zuberi." 

Martin L. King was a true Social Democrat. Not a Marxist, or a Communist, but someone who believed in using government to redistribute wealth from the wealthy and use that money through government to provide for low-income people who lacked the basic tools to live well in America. Which in many ways is what democratic socialism is about, to see to it that a few people don’t do so well, while so many others live without the basic necessities.

Had Dr. King lived past 1968 and wasn’t assassinated at thirty-nine years old in 1968, the next stage of his movement would have been about poverty in America economic and social justice. And perhaps would have been the modern Bernie Sanders, or Henry Wallace of his generation. And perhaps we would have seen the Green Party emerged in the 1970s as a true Social Democratic Party that could compete with Democrats and Republicans.

Economically speaking, I see Senator Bernie Sanders as the Martin King of his generation. Depending on how you define generations and would Senator Sanders and Dr. King, be in the same generation, or not. But two men who are essentially anti-wealth. That being wealthy and economically independents are bad things in their view, when others go without. So in their view, you need a big government to take from the well-off, to give to the less-fortunate, so no one has to live in poverty.

Wednesday, 14 August 2013

FOX News: John Fugelsang Talking Politics (2011)


Source:FOX News- talking about Newt Gingrich For President (2012)

Source:FreeState MD 

"Comedian, actor, radio and television personality John Fugelsang appears on Fox News' "Fox & Friends" to discuss politics and The Stephanie Miller Sexy Liberal Comedy Tour." 

From Shanem FO

This is just about John Fugelang talking about American politics in 2011 and who was up and down that year. They talked about Newt Gingrich for President, who ran for President in 2011/12. And you get to hear what John Fugelsang and the rest of the panel thinks about what was going on in American politics late that year.

NBC Sports: MLB 1986-NBC-GOW-06-14- New York Yankees @ Baltimore Orioles: Full Game


Source:NBC Sports- New York Yankees leadoff hitter Rickey Henderson, at 1st against the Orioles, in the 1st inning, in 1986.

Source:The Daily Journal

“1986 06 14 NBC GOW New York Yankees at Baltimore Orioles”


The Orioles started the first of three straight losing seasons in 1986. And 5-6 losing seasons from 1986-91, going through a pretty bad stretch of bad baseball as they closed out Baltimore Memorial Stadium in 1991. 1986 dealing with a bunch of injuries that season and key hitters like Eddie Murray and Fred Lynn dealing with injuries. While the Yankees were still contending, but again not making the playoffs in 1986.

With the Orioles, they were dealing with key injuries to their best players and hitters especially in Murray and Lynn. You’re talking about two of the best all around players in the game at this point. And two of the best power hitters in the game as well. And when your team isn’t that deep to begin with, losing a Lynn and Murray at the same time is really difficult. 1986, very similar as 1984, 87 and 88 for the Yankees. A very solid lineup offensively, but not enough starting pitching and enough depth in the bullpen for the Yankees to win the AL East, which was a great division back then and still is today.