The Sound of Goodbye

Peggy Noonan with a reflection on 9/11 which is both inspiring and tear-inducing.

Read it.

Richard Armitage, A True Friend

Richard Armitage has finally broken his silence, and he says he remained silent about his role as the Plamegate leaker at the request of prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald's request raises questions in and of itself; why did he suppress the truth and carry on with an investigation when the matter was "solved" from the time he was assigned the case?

But setting that aside for the moment, Armitage's self-defense is too cute for words -- in essence, "The President made me do it."

As described by the New York Times: "Expressing irritation over assertions in some newspaper editorials and on some Internet blogs that, by his silence, he had been disloyal to the Bush administration, Mr. Armitage said that he had followed Mr. Bush’s repeated instruction to administration officials to cooperate with the Fitzgerald inquiry. 'I felt like I was doing exactly what he wanted,' he said."

Yes, Mr. Armitage, I'm sure the President wanted you to remain completely silent while his closest friends and advisors had their jobs threatened, racked up huge attorneys' bills, and had their reputations trashed. Not to mention the distractions and problems it caused for the Administration as a whole.

I'd like to know, at any time in the last few years did Mr. Armitage ever try going back to Fitzgerald, prior to this week, and see if Fitzgerald would consent to him speaking out about his role? Was there anyone in the Administration, such as the counsel's office, he could ethically have spoken to, to receive advice on his dilemma?

Armitage seems proud of not having hired a lawyer. Maybe, as he saw his colleagues' mounting legal bills, he should have spent some money on a lawyer himself to see if there was anything he could do to help them, given the truth he knew? What would the legal ramifications have been if he had spoken out despite Fitzgerald's request? Was he afraid of irritating Fitzgerald and being prosecuted, so he saved his own hide by keeping silent and letting others take the blame for his actions?

Saturday Update: Many thanks to Michael Weiss of Slate for the kind mention.

Federal Spending Database Passes Senate

The holds were finally busted and the bill has now passed the Senate... Captain's Quarters has the details.

Rush Limbaugh's CBS News Editorial

I didn't see Rush Limbaugh's editorial on CBS News tonight, as I had no desire to see Katie Couric -- or any other "Big 3" network anchor -- deliver the news. Brit Hume's Special Report is all the news I need. :)

However, thanks to the Internet, if you missed Rush you can watch his editorial online at the above link. It's a nice piece on fighting militant Islam.

"What Did ABC Edit?"

Hugh Hewitt has some of the latest info on the topic of THE PATH TO 9/11. Senate Democrats are threatening ABC if the network goes forward airing the film.

Hugh sums it up neatly: "It was a feckless and dissolute administration, staffed in many key places by the vain and the vacuous. The collective impact on the national security was one of fundamental unseriousness about everything. The bill was paid, and not by them. Now they resent any recollection of their fecklessness."

Clinton & Co. on the Warpath

Bill Clinton and former members of his administration are very unhappy with ABC's THE PATH TO 9/11 and its portrayal of the administration's "wall" between the FBI and CIA and its missed opportunities to capture Bin Laden (which Bill Clinton himself described in a 2002 speech, only to recant his statements years later).

The former President personally called the head of Disney/ABC, Robert Iger, to ask that the program be edited. Now Madeleine Albright, Sandy Berger, and Bruce Lindsey have all written ABC to protest the film.

The idea that Sandy Berger, the man who stole Clinton Administation documents regarding 9/11 from the National Archives, would attempt to act as some sort of arbiter of truth is particularly amusing.

ABC is rumored to have made "minor edits" over the holiday weekend, following the former President's phone call.

The New York Times reports an ABC spokesperson appears to be leaving the door open to further changes: "It is common practice to continue to make edits to strengthen a project right up to the broadcast date."

There are literally hundreds of "screeners" already in the hands of talk show hosts and pundits. Hopefully ABC is smart enough to realize that if they cave in to pressure from Clinton & Co., it will soon be obvious to the American public.

Thursday Update: Mr. Clinton is apparently going so far as to demand the movie not be shown if it's not censored.

Rush Limbaugh points out this morning that the movie is also critical of Republicans, and, for example, it takes Richard Clarke seriously when most conservatives think he's a "doofus." Yet Republicans aren't up in arms and complaining. Rush says that this episode shows just how flimsy the "Clinton legacy" is, when the Clintonites aren't able to just ignore any supposed errors and move on. They apparently fear that a single TV-movie can undo the administration's reputation.

Arnold Uses His Veto Pen

Governor Schwarzenegger has today announced a veto of two bills recently passed by the California legislature.

Today he vetoed a law that would have given homosexuals special protection from "discrimination" in public school textbooks and classrooms -- how discrimination would have been defined is anyone's guess -- saying homosexuals are already protected from discrimination under the state Constitution.

The Governor also announced he will veto the law which would establish a "single payer" state-run health care system.

Conservatives such as myself are in a quandary when it comes to whether or not to vote for the governor's re-election. Governor Schwarzenegger has taken a number of positions with which I very strongly disagree. While he made a good decision today to prevent the further encroachment of the homosexual agenda into classrooms, just a few days ago he supported a law preventing any school with a moral conduct code from receiving state funding.

If a Democrat were governor, we would now be facing being forced into a government healthcare system.

Is half a loaf better than none?

Around the Blogosphere Today

Lots of bloggy goodness on the 'Net today...here are a few highlights.

Hugh Hewitt (linked above) posts an email claiming that ABC executives met over the holiday weekend to consider whether or not to accede to Bill Clinton's request that they edit THE PATH TO 9/11. Apparently some minor changes resulted. With hundreds of "screeners" already available, bloggers and pundits will easily be able to compare and see if the changes were significant or not.

Ed Morrissey posts on the restrictions on free speech as we enter the "McCain-Feingold blackout period" prior to the election. Ed: "If you feel just a little less free today, this is the reason why." I hope the Supreme Court will be revisiting this clearly unconstitutional law at some point in the future.

Speaking of the Supreme Court, Betsy's Page recently pointed out an interesting interview with Justice Alito and his wife.

Rush Limbaugh on immigration today, headlined "No immigration bill better than a bad one": "The House is the only body that's been right on this, but McCain and sadly the White House, led the Senate and defined what this bill is going to be, and that makes the House effort to get this done impossible." I'm not certain whether this piece is available on the "free" side of Rush's site, but it's worth taking a look.

NewsBusters notes that Katie Couric's CBS News has hired the liberal historian Douglas Brinkley.

Finally, NBC's prima donna David Gregory had another temper tantrum today, after Tony Snow said that David had "nicely summarized the Democratic point of view." Apparently the truth hurts.

You Know You Want to Peek...

...at the newly released photo of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' baby. Apparently she really does exist.

And that should just about do it for this blog's first and only Baby Suri post. :)

New Books: Limbaugh, Williams

David Limbaugh has written a new book, BANKRUPT: THE INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL BANKRUPTCY OF TODAY'S DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

I've enjoyed his previous books, ABSOLUTE POWER and PERSECUTION, and look forward to his latest effort.

I'm also intrigued by Juan Williams' new book, ENOUGH: THE PHONY LEADERS, DEAD-END MOVEMENTS, AND CULTURE OF FAILURE THAT ARE UNDERMINING BLACK AMERICA, AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT. Although at times I find Juan frustratingly obtuse, he has always struck me as a decent man with a bit of a conservative streak hiding under the liberalism. (It thus wasn't too much of a surprise to learn his son is running for office as a Republican.) One of his previous books, THIS FAR BY FAITH, chronicled African-American religious history.

Tonight's Dinner: Cola Pot Roast

A few weeks ago I resurrected my crockpot, inspired by an interesting cookbook, THE FIX-IT AND FORGET-IT COOKBOOK (linked above).

Tonight we tried one of the more unusual recipes, Cola Roast. I've previously had Ribs in Coca-Cola and liked them, which made me brave enough to try the recipe. It consists of pouring one packet of onion soup mix (I used Lipton's Beefy Onion mix) and two cans of Classic Coke over a roast and letting it cook away in the crockpot all day.

It may sound a bit unusual, but it was really tasty. The marinade juices were good poured over the roast and mashed potatoes. Easy and everybody liked it -- can't ask for more than that!

It's a Boy!

Japan has a new member of the family who is now third in line to the Imperial Throne, as Princess Kiko -- wife of the Crown Prince's younger brother -- has given birth to a boy.

Crown Prince Naruhito and his wife, Masako, have thus far only been blessed with a daughter, Aiko. A movement has been underway in Japan to change succession laws so that a girl can inherit the throne. This apparently didn't please the "suits" of the Imperial Household Agency, the powers behind the throne. Out of the blue Princess Kiko, whose youngest daughter is 11, announced her pregnancy, amidst considerable media speculation about whether there was any "scientific assistance" to increase her chances of having a boy.

For now the newborn boy will follow his uncle, Crown Prince Naruhito, and his father, Prince Akishino, in the line of succession. Whether the succession laws are changed in coming years remains to be seen.

The Royal News Forum can be counted on for regular updates.

Weekend Reading: Los Angeles Art Deco

I found this book, LOS ANGELES ART DECO, in the store on my daughter's college campus. It's a lovely little volume filled with interesting photos of art deco buildings which were or are in the Los Angeles area.

It follows the usual pattern of the books in Arcadia Publishing's Historic Images series, with crisp black and white photos and informative captions.

As a side note, some of the buildings depicted in the book, such as Crossroads of the World and the Darkroom camera shop, have been paid tribute with reproductions at Disney-MGM at Florida's Walt Disney World. I think it's my favorite of the four Florida parks from a "visual" point of view.

If art deco architecture interests you, it's worthwhile to spend an hour curled up with this interesting book.

Elementary School: Too Much, Too Soon

Newsweek asks "Are Kids Getting Pushed Too Fast, Too Soon?"

The answer, I think, is yes and no. They are being pushed -- and tested -- way too early on "academics" like reading and math, but at the same time they're not being exposed to the kinds of things that will interest them in lifelong learning, like history, music, and art. Even quality literature is pushed aside in favor of dry "reading textbooks" which have had all the personality stripped out of them by committees afraid of running afoul of the P.C. police.

The article attempts to blame the No Child Left Behind Act, but I think the problem is actually not so much "standards" or "testing" -- it's the increasingly early ages the standards are expected to be met. Since school administrators haven't wised up to this commonsense idea, parents are often responding by starting their children in school a year later. And as the article notes accurately, "Testing kids before third grade gives you a snapshot of what they know at that moment but is a poor predictor of how they will perform later on."

The pressure on children from an early age is out of control -- and pointless. I remember well when a kindergarten teacher approached me with deep concern because one of my children didn't know four letter sounds and couldn't count all the way to 100, three months into kindergarten. Said child is now a few years older, reads just fine and is an excellent math student.

One mother in the article, whose child has had private tutoring in reading since the age of three, proudly says "It's paying off. In kindergarten, he was the only one who could read a book at age 5." And that matters why? Does she not realize that all children develop at wildly varying rates, and does she think all the other children won't be reading by, say, third grade? Will that child who was pressured with "tutoring" from age 3 really have a leg up on his peers a decade later? What matters much more is that he learn to love learning.

These kinds of issues are among several reasons we turned to homeschooling. At home my youngest child learned phonics in kindergarten, in a low-key way, but he also got to be a little boy! He learned world geography, for example, by going on "airplane trips" made from chairs in our living room (he even made a "passport" with his photo on it) to countries like "France," "Spain," and "Holland." He made Dutch canals out of clay, and together we read MADELINE and FERDINAND THE BULL. He painted his version of the Eiffel Tower. That kind of "exploratory play" has been pretty much eradicated from our local kindergarten classrooms. School plays, holiday parties, Social Studies, Art, and Music have all seen similar cuts as the focus has built on "teaching to the test." And yet children seem to be worse off educationally than in my (or my parents') generation, when reading waited till 1st grade and multiplication tables till 3rd or 4th grade.

AFI's Top 25 Musicals List

These lists are usually fun as jumping-off points for discussion, but I do think this list is one of AFI's goofier efforts.

The list is too heavily weighted with movies made since the '60s which really don't deserve the honor (or at least such high rankings) when stood side by side with older musicals. One has to wonder how well those on the voting panel actually knew their "vintage" musicals.

For instance, I liked CHICAGO well enough to buy the DVD, but putting this film, with its myriad quick cuts, ahead of a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie is just, well...dumb.

GREASE is a film which is mildly amusing but never especially impressed me -- certainly not enough to be among the 25 Greatest Musicals. As I recall, there are times in the dance scenes when the camera cuts off the dancers' feet! Yet we're going to put that on the list ahead of SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS? Get real.

THE KING AND I is a fine adaptation of the Broadway musical, but again I would not have placed it ahead of such original film musicals as SEVEN BRIDES or THE BAND WAGON. I don't necessarily dispute its inclusion on the list, but would have ranked it in the lower fifth.

GUYS AND DOLLS, while fun, is just not a Top 25 musical. Maybe they didn't want more than two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals on the list, but the films of OKLAHOMA! and CAROUSEL were far better than GUYS AND DOLLS. And the adaptation of THE MUSIC MAN was "practically perfect in every way." How is it that THE MUSIC MAN was omitted and GUYS AND DOLLS included?

MOULIN ROUGE made the Top 25, but not GIGI, the Best Film of 1958?

I would have put any number of things on the list ahead of FUNNY GIRL or CABARET, including less acclaimed musicals such as Fred Astaire and Judy Garland's EASTER PARADE or Astaire's YOU WERE NEVER LOVELIER, which has a hokey plot but divine Jerome Kern music and divine dancing with Rita Hayworth. Or SWING TIME. Or PAJAMA GAME. Or the underappreciated WHITE CHRISTMAS. Or...

I'll stop there with my complaints. If you were to remove roughly a half-dozen titles from the list and make some substitutions, it would be a pretty good list.

I'm pleased to see MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS and MARY POPPINS recognized in the Top 10. I would place ST. LOUIS on the short list of "greatest movies ever made," and MARY POPPINS is a film I appreciate more on each successive viewing. I believe its stature among original film musicals is growing with time, as it should. And THE SOUND OF MUSIC and WEST SIDE STORY definitely rank in my mind as the all-time best film adaptations of Broadway musicals.

I was also pleased to see BEAUTY AND THE BEAST on the list. I'll never forget the first time we saw it...my husband and I turned to each other after the opening number and jointly exclaimed "Wow!"

Marni Nixon hit the jackpot...at a glance, it seems she might be the talent who "appeared" in the most movies on the list. She dubbed the leading ladies' singing in MY FAIR LADY, THE KING AND I, and WEST SIDE STORY, she was a nun in THE SOUND OF MUSIC...and she also sang for one of the animals in MARY POPPINS!

In closing, I note that my three favorite movies are included on the list -- SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, and MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS. If you haven't seen one of these films yet, it's way past time. :)

Update: Missy has posted her thoughts.

While I'm at it, another candidate for the list: LOVE ME TONIGHT, starring Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier, with a Rodgers and Hart score and a remarkable opening musical sequence.

Juan Williams' Son Runs for D.C. Council...

...as a Republican. The Weekly Standard has the story.

I wish this young man luck, it sounds like he would be a much-needed breath of fresh air in Washington.

Today's Movie: Panic in the Streets (1950)

PANIC IN THE STREETS is an exceptionally well-done thriller. A murder victim whose body turns up on the New Orleans waterfront is also discovered to have had pneumonic plague. It's up to a public health doctor (Richard Widmark) and a police captain (Paul Douglas) to find the people the murder victim came in contact with, including the killer, and stop the spread of the lethal disease. They have just a couple of days to successfully accomplish their mission and prevent widespread "panic in the streets."

The film has tremendous atmosphere, beginning with the neon lights of New Orleans under the opening credits. The movie was filmed on location, and it thus has a realistic, genuinely gritty feel fairly unusual for its era. Snatches of jazz heard in the background further add to the sense of "place." (Director Elia Kazan followed this with another project set in New Orleans, the film version of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE.)

The interesting plotline received the Academy Award for Best Story. Some of the issues raised still resonate today, including the role of a responsible press and when the public has a "right to know." Illegal immigration also comes into play.

The supporting cast includes Barbara Bel Geddes, charming in her few scenes as Widmark's supportive wife, and Jack Palance as a very creepy villain. (Palance, in his film debut, was billed as Walter Jack Palance.) Zero Mostel (Broadway's original Tevye in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF) and Tommy Rettig (of TV's LASSIE) also have significant roles.

The movie runs a fast-paced 93 minutes.

PANIC IN THE STREETS is available on DVD as No. 3 in the Fox Film Noir series. The print quality is superb. Extras include a commentary track and trailer.

It's also available on video.

May 2015 Update: I had a wonderful experience seeing this film again on a big screen at the 2015 Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival.

The Answer is No

The Los Angeles Times asks: "Can Recast Clinton Play to the Nation?"

Glenn Ford, Patriot

Glenn Ford was not only a beloved actor, he was part of a bygone era when movie stars were patriots who served on the front lines.

Phil Brennan of NewsMax focuses on Ford's military career (linked above). While Brennan's assertion that the actor's obits ignored his military career is not entirely true (witness this short mention in the L.A. Times), his essay does an excellent job focusing attention on Ford's military career, which stretched from WWII to Vietnam.

Ford leaves movie fans with happy memories of great films made during Hollywood's Golden Era, including GILDA, BLACKBOARD JUNGLE, and THE COURTSHIP OF EDDIE'S FATHER. THE FASTEST GUN ALIVE has been sitting in my "watch soon" stack for a few weeks now.

Like many people of a certain age, however, I think Ford might be most appreciated by me for his brief but moving portrayal of Jonathan Kent in SUPERMAN. In his few scenes he conveyed both humor and poignance, creating a truly unforgettable performance. "There's one thing I know for sure, son. And that is, you are here for a reason..."

The London Times has another excellent obituary, and be sure to check out the remembrance posted by our friends at The Shelf.

A Retro Labor Day Barbecue

I stumbled across the new COOKOUT USA: GRILLING FAVORITES COAST TO COAST, by Georgia Orcutt and John Margolies, in a bookstore last week. I love "retro" graphic designs of the '40s and '50s so the cover immediately caught my eye.

The book contains BBQ recipes from all 50 states. It's illustrated with a treasure trove of vintage travel brochures, postcards, advertisements, and other "fun stuff." I purchased it on the spot, and we'll be making the Roasted Corn recipe (from the state of Illinois) on Sunday. We've been meaning to learn how to roast corn on the outdoor grill for some time now (we usually boil it), so now's the time!

There are a couple other wonderful retro style barbecue books on the market, RETRO BARBECUE, by Linda Everett, and PATIO DADDY-O by Gideon Bosker, et al. RETRO RANCH by C.W. Welch also contains many recipes which would be appropriate for a "cookout weekend."

All of the above titles are colorfully illustrated, enjoyable to look at as well as to cook from.

Happy Labor Day weekend!