Hair, Theater, and Politics

My wife and I went to see a local production of Hair last night at the Oakland Theater in Youngstown.  For those of you unfamiliar with the Oakland, it is a relatively small theater making the audience up close and personal with what was a very large cast.  It has specialized in “edgy” type productions, but as of last year the management changed.  It is still somewhat edgy, but on the “mainstream” side of the line.  Over the top or not, the Oakland has always produced a quality product and draws both cast and audience from beyond our area.  We have seen several productions of Hair over the years including the original Broadway production.  This was the best.

First the promo:  It was an outstanding production. This is Community Theater, and great community theater.  The word that comes to mind is gritty.  The intimacy of the theater plus a cast of “real” people who you might know personally made the tribe in Central Park come alive in ways you won’t see in New York or Pittsburgh or Cleveland or in the movie version. These were the people I saw protesting in 1968 as they marched to change America…and if you were in the audience last night, you were out there with them.  This is the beauty of the Oakland:  taking a show like Hair from Broadway perfection to exquisite local reality.  They did it with The Full Monty several years ago.  They have done it again with Hair these past few weeks. 

The audience reflected the age of the show.  There were lots of folks my age in the packed theater.  I was eighteen when Hair made its Broadway debut.  In the spring of my senior year in high school both Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated.  I campaigned for Eugene McCarthy.  I cheered when Lyndon Johnson said he would not run again for president.  I watched in disbelief the violence at the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention.  And then I worked for Richard Nixon because I am a Republican.  Those were scary and exciting times as America experienced a burst of creative energy in all aspects of the arts the likes of which we will never see again as the nation moves further into the digital cocoon. 

I thought the premise and music and message of the show would be dated.   I couldn’t have been more wrong.  Within the story line there was much to dislike about the main characters.  They were rude, goofy drugged up hippie freaks that desired a life of self gratification living as bums.  But underneath, they understood who they were...with lots of insecurities but understanding the necessity for some of life's evils such as money.  

What I remember most about those times was the overriding feeling of hope and idealism.  These concepts were rooted in respect for the individual.  Although the musical dealt with generally accepted liberal issues including race, drug usage, anti military, and a rigid social and governmental hierarchy, it wasn’t the “collective.”  The message was get government out of our lives so we are free to live our lives as we choose.  It is libertarianism. There is a difference. Libertarianism is where liberals and conservatives meet. 

Where did that idealism go?  Where is the hope?   We have been told by the media that folks running things in Washington today are the descendants of those protesting on America’s campuses in the late 1960’s and early 70’s.  I disagree.  They are the ideological descendents of the radical fringe of the movement.  In today’s Washington you are finding the progeny of the Weather Underground, the Black Panthers, the SDS, SNIC and other violent groups.  These folks believe in government control by force and use of government as a political weapon to achieve their goals.  We are just now finding out how autocratic these folks can be in the pursuit of their radical vision of an egalitarian utopia. For them, their end always justifies the means.

The reality, however, seldom matches the fantasy.  So now it is time to assess and move on as we face new issues of an over reaching government; rigid and unfeeling.  And the music goes on.

Somewhere

Inside something there is a rush of

Greatness

Who knows what stands in front of

Our lives

I fashion my future on films in space

Silence tells me secretly

Everything 

Everything

Let the sunshine in!

Obama

Now it’s time to say what needs to be said.  Barack Obama is the worst president in my lifetime, and I suspect in the history of the Republic.  This man has systematically set out to destroy the country and he is succeeding.  He has destroyed any semblance of rule of law.  He has destroyed the Constitution as Americans, and a compliant press, have sat idly by…secure in their own pomposity…watching it happen bit by bit.   Obama and his compatriot Eric Holder have managed to do the impossible.  Their lies and their antics have made Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew, and John Mitchell look like babes in the woods.  The President and the Attorney General should be ashamed.  They’re not.  They are enjoying it.

Under his watch, spying on Americans has reached Orwellian proportions.  Every single thing you do, right down to each key stroke on the computer, is watched by the government.  Corporations send out privacy notices relating to bank accounts and credit cards; hospitals put on a big show with HIPPA.  The reality is you have no privacy.  The revelations today that all the government needs is an email address and they know what you are thinking is frightening…and yet we passively shrug our shoulders.  Sooner or later, the government will use this information against us.  Read your history.  Obama was supposed to be our protector against this type of activity.  He is the worst offender.

The Department of Justice has thrown rule of law out the window replacing it with crony justice.  There are so many incidents that you can’t begin to list them.  There is no excuse for government behavior during the Trayvon Martin trial.  There is no excuse for end running the Supreme Court’s decision on voter rights laws going after Texas.  There is no excuse for not prosecuting Black Panther thugs in front of polling places.  There is no excuse for lying to a judge about a journalist being a criminal suspect in an affidavit for a search warrant.  There is no excuse for stone walling gun running in Fast and Furious.   There is no excuse or justification for using the IRS as a political weapon. 

Eric Holder should have been fired years ago.  He never should have been appointed in the first place after facilitating the re-entry into the country of one of this nation’s biggest tax cheats in exchange for a political contribution to Bill Clinton.  That is the kind of man he is.  He is a thug and a liar.  He has destroyed respect for the law in America.

Then there is American foreign policy which can be summed up in one word: Benghazi.  The revelation today that CNN found one of the perpetrators and interviewed him as our government sat idly by is beyond comprehension.   These people attacked our embassy and killed our ambassador and three other Americans.  All we have gotten is stonewalling.  When asked about it today, Press Secretary Jay Carney told the reporter to call the FBI.  That is contemptible.  What are they hiding?  The only person who has gone to jail is the poor guy who made a two bit video that was insulting to Muslims.  And he had nothing to do with it.

The press continues to be complicit in the cover-up.  First it was to protect Obama.  Now it is to protect Hillary Clinton.  You know…the one asked who should answer the phone at 2 in the morning!!!  Hopefully it won’t be her.

Meanwhile, the economy is growing at a whopping 1.7%!!!  And that was considered good news.  What they are not telling you is that the government had to go back to 1929 to recalculate GDP growth for the last 80 some years to achieve that 1.7% growth.  Obama has accumulated more debt that all of the other presidents put together.  But don’t worry.  He has fixed health care.  Well…sort of…maybe they will put off full implementation another year.  But who cares, we are now a nation of part time jobs. But don’t worry, he is addressing the energy problem.  Maybe the bankruptcy court will give back to the government some of the billions that have gone down the toilet with Obama's green energy start-up companies (run by his campaign contributors).  I know...then he can give the money to Detroit!!!!

Take out the African American support for him based mostly on his race, and Obama’s approval rating would be about 30%.   That is pitiful; but definitely earned.

There is light at the end of the tunnel.  But this has been a dirty and rotten and corrupt presidency…to the core.  I’m not so sure America has it in her to reach the end of the tunnel.  Houston, we have a problem.

Egypt: The Front Line Against Islmaic Extremism

Egypt is such a far-away place.  For much of my life it seemed benign enough, steeped in the most ancient of history.  Most Americans think of the Pyramids and Charlton Heston leading the Jews out of slavery with Yul Brynner chasing them in his chariot….or maybe Elizabeth Taylor exchanging Eddie Fisher for Richard Burton while filming Cleopatra (much to Debbie Reynold’s delight).   To see Egyptian history you could either go to Cairo or the British Museum, where many of Egyptian antiquities landed during the British colonial era.

But just underneath the surface it has been smoldering and a hot bed of international activity.   Egypt led two wars of note against Israel, the Six Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War in 1973.  This resulted in the Arab oil embargo to the United States and gas rationing.  Although it did better militarily in 1973 than 1967, Egypt recognized it would never defeat the Israelis and in 1979 and made peace with Israel under the Camp David Accords.

Now it is back in the forefront.  Egypt is a poor nation and relied heavily on the Soviet Union for financial assistance, and then the United States.   It’s the United States which keeps the Egyptian military in business.  We pay 70% of the Egyptian military’s budget. Through assassinations and military uprisings Egypt has had several changes of government starting with Hosni Mubarak who came to power after the assassination of Anwar Sadat. Mubarak was then overthrown in February of 2011 in the Egyptian version of the Arab Spring.  Elections took place about a year later electing the radical Muslim Brotherhood led by Mohamed Morsi to power.  Morsi, in turn, rammed through an Islamist constitution, usurped power from the Egyptian courts, threatened the military, and just last week was thrown out of office in an Egyptian military coup in response to millions of people taking to the streets.  He is now under house arrest, and the head of his party is under real arrest. 

The story that is not being told by any of the media in the United States is that it is the Egyptian people who are now leading the war against radical Islam.  Egypt has become the hot war front line against the Islamists.  What is even more disturbing is that Barack Obama seems to be falling on the wrong side of all rebellions against radical Islam over and over again.  It gives one pause.  What is he doing?

Since the beginning of his presidency Obama has taken a conciliatory approach to radical Islam.  Domestically, he declared the war on terror over.  While cracking down on Christians and Jewish religious activity in the public sector, he has accommodated Muslim activity.  He has refused to call Muslim terrorists what they are…terrorists.  He has pointed Homeland Security away from Islamic terror and towards “right wing” terrorist groups.  He failed to follow up on information provided to his administration about the Boston bombers.  Meanwhile, granny in a wheel chair is still being patted down before getting on an airplane to placate “profiling” Muslims…and my phone calls to my wife are being monitored.  The Fort Hood massacre is still not being called a terrorist event, and this Islamic whack job is defending himself in the courts.

Internationally, he failed to support the Iranian green revolution pulling American support for those in the streets opposing the Mullahs, leaving demonstrating students twisting in the wind.  He has led from behind in Egypt offering succor to the Islamists who eventually came to power and now have been thrown out by the Egyptian people and army.  He still is saying the Muslim Brotherhood must be included in a new Egyptian government.

In Libya, America came late to the party as Ghadafi was overthrown. The night of the Islamist attack on Benghazi and our embassy and ambassador, Obama was nowhere to be seen.  He later blamed the event on a video rather than terrorism from Islamic radicals while he fund raised in Nevada.  His administration refused requests for additional security before the raid, and military help during the raid. 

All of these things, plus a myriad of others, have been shrugged off by the American press.  Maybe individually they can be ignored.  Together, it paints a disturbing picture.  Obama has NEVER answered his view of radical Islam which is anathema to everything his left wing supporters believe.  America needs to know his core beliefs about Islam as Russia, China, and just about every other nation leaves us in the dust in dealing with a philosophy that beheads gays, burns down Christian churches, and beats women for uncovering their face. 

America owes the people of Egypt and the Egyptian army a debt of gratitude for doing what we have failed to do.  

America at the Crossroads

This Independence Day, America is rudderless and leaderless adrift in a morass of liberal orthodoxy that doesn’t work.  Folks are being indoctrinated in our primary and secondary schools.  Universities have been taken over by the extreme left under the guise of “academic freedom” which is anything but.  Try finding a Republican or a conservative tenured professor or a center right commencement speaker.  The media is crawling with the spawn of 1960’s hippies who have dropped principles of freedom and individualism for the collective and a cult of personality.   The melting pot of my immigrant grandparents has become a “celebration of diversity” which harbors the threat of tearing this nation apart in the future.  “From many, one,” has become “from many, many.”  The founding fathers have been relegated to the trash can of irrelevancy; a bunch of old white men who promoted the slave trade.  Our leaders seem ready to sacrifice our country on the altar of internationalism cutting out the country’s heart using the knife of sacred environmentalism to “redistribute” wealth not to our citizens, but other countries.  America should pay for its sins.

Our nation has been turned upside down. Kids lemonade stands are closed down.  Men are expendable.  The government is watching every key stroke we make on the computer, including mine typing this essay.  Our phone calls and emails are being gathered in the name of “national security”.  The IRS has become a political enforcement agency.  The thought police are looking for every non-politically correct utterance we make notwithstanding how long ago (consider Paula Deen’s problems).  Monitoring cameras, both private and government, are everywhere.  Now the government is turning government worker against government worker through an Obama executive order advising federal employees to report on co-workers who might be experiencing stress, or marital difficulties or financial difficulties or have expressed “discontent.”  Even in schools students have been asked to report on parental activities which might seem strange.  This is the stuff of totalitarian governments.

What is more disturbing is the arrogance of those doing these things.  The Obama administration has stonewalled Congress, the people’s house, in investigations relating to the Mexican gun running operation Fast and Furious, the investigation of the Benghazi fiasco, the IRS scandal, the Associated Press scandal,  the NSA matter.  This includes non-operative department heads lying to Congress and an Attorney General who has been held in contempt of Congress with no consequences.   Add to the current of the IRS who provided a redacted report which said nothing, a combative Hillary “what difference make it now” Clinton, two IRS acting heads who pleaded the Fifth and went on Easter Egg hunts in the White House.

The result of all of this is a public who distrusts and fears the government, a press that is afraid to report the news, whistleblowers going into hiding, and a world community that for all intents and purposes is laughing its ass off at American impotency.

This Independence Day, it’s time for America to press the reset button on ourselves.  It’s time to re-examine the principles on which this nation was founded.  The Bill of Rights needs to be dusted off and moved to the front of the room.  America is in trouble.  There is apparently not a leader in sight to take this nation into the future.  People need to get their nose out of the computers and tablets and cell phones and pay attention to the real world. 

This is America’s crossroads.  The Barbarians are at the gate, and they are us.  No on needs to take away freedom that Americans are now willing to give it away to an omnipresent government.  If it is not fixed, the Independence Days of the future will be hollowed out celebrations with no substance…only fear.  

Don't Forget Free Speech at Universities

In the midst of the Obama scandals and the assault on political freedom by the Internal Revenue Service and the NSA, the Obama administration has also been active on college campuses making sure we are all politically correct. In a directive that is applicable to all universities that receive federal funding, the Departments of Justice and Education have issued new guidelines on what constitutes sexual harassment. It now must be defined as “any unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature” including “verbal conduct.”

On its face, it seems innocent enough. On the mild side, if someone tells another a dirty joke and someone overhears it and is offended…that is sexual misconduct. If there is a debate on the morality of homosexuality, that is sexual misconduct. If the school reads or performs The Vagina Chronicles, that is sexual harassment. It has also been used to stop pro-live groups from certain activities on campus because it made some students “uncomfortable.”

This overturns a previous policy defined in 2003 which stated sexual harassment must “include something beyond the mere expression of views, words, symbols, or thoughts that some person finds offensive.”

The new policy guidelines were issued in an advisory letter to University of Montana co-opting requirements under the Administrative Procedure Act for notice posting and public comment on all such regulations. Once again the Obama administrative is playing fast and loose with the law to get what it wants be executive decree.

The response from universities has been tepid. Already mired in “hate speech” codes, the associate counsel for the State University of New York (SUNY) stated:

“The Education Department and higher education administrators are well aware of the First Amendment and academic freedom. Encouraging the campus community to report instances of sexual harassment and leaving the evaluation of such reports to designated experts is appropriate and lawful”.

In other words, you can trust the university to make the decision as to whether or not there are free speech violations. Just like the NSA is telling Verizon customers to trust them not to use the mass of information being collected by them to be used inappropriately and only for “national defense.”

A case in point re: trusting university administrations occurred at the SUNY Oswego campus:

“In October 2012, exchange student Alexander Myers was suspended and ordered to vacate his campus residence after emails he sent were alleged to "defame, harass, intimidate, or threaten another individual or group." Myers had contacted three area hockey coaches as research for a class assignment he was writing on SUNY Oswego men's hockey coach Ed Gosek, explaining that "what you say about Mr Gosek does not have to be positive." The next day, Myers received a letter from President Deborah F. Stanley, which placed him on interim suspension and charged with "disruptive behavior," on the grounds that SUNY Oswego policy prohibited emails that "defame, harass, intimidate, or threaten another individual or group." FIRE wrote to Stanley on October 26, 2012, arguing that the charges were blatantly unconstitutional. In response, SUNY dropped the "disruptive behavior" charge, though it found him guilty of "dishonesty" and ordered him to write apology letters to the hockey coaches.” (from article posted on the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education web site.)

SUNY was publicly chastised by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and backed down from its position dropping all charges. Nevertheless, America…wake up to what these fascists and thought control people are doing to this country.

Does anyone see a pattern here?

(THE ABOVE IS BASED ON ARTICLES APPEARING ON THE WEBSITE OF FOUNDATION FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS IN EDUCATION AND WASHINGTON FREE BEACON)  

Scandals and Scorpions

Any one of the three scandals currently smothering Barack Obama would be sufficient to sink any other president.  Barack Obama has a life line…he is the first black president.  African Americans are understandably proud of the first African American president; but the assumption is wrong.  He had done NOTHING for the black community because he is not “black” as Americans currently understand the term.  He is a socialist who happens to be black.  Nonetheless, it may be the only thing standing between him and ultimate impeachment.  The visuals of impeaching the first African American president are unfathomable.  But you never know.

I am floored at the political tone deafness of the Obama administration.  Commentators keep asking why he has responded to these scandals using Nixonian tactics.  For those of us over the age of 55, it is déjà vu all over again.  Therein lies the answer to the question…because all roads lead to him and his cabal of socialist thugs.  If one assumes he as "in the dark" or ignorant or clueless as he claims, then one would think he would want to resolve the issues quickly.  Unfortunately, he is as guilty as sin of malfeasance at worst and gross negligence at best.  Either way, he has to cover up and hope everything eventually goes away.  He has no other choice.

Contrary to what the Fox News people are saying, the mainstream press is not pursuing these scandals in any aggressive manner.  Fox News has been chasing Benghazi since last September, and the press, while finally giving it some scrutiny, is still dragging their feet.  The IRS scandal is interesting to them, but at the end of the day, they quietly approve of what the IRS did to those big, bad Tea Party racists and haters. 

The Associated Press story, on the other hand, as has been magnified by seizing of the phone records of Fox reporter Jim Rosen, finally got their attention.  God forbid, Obama should turn his wrath on the press.  The story of Jim Rosen is downright scary.  In order to get a judge to sign off on a search warrant, they had to identify him an unidentified co-conspirator who committed a crime.  Not only did the Justice Department go after his records, but those of his parents. 

Obama gets in front of the press and says he believes in the sanctity of the First Amendment.  Right! Tonight we find out it was his Attorney General Eric Holder who signed off on the subpoena.  But that’s okay, Obama believes in the sanctity of the First Amendment.  After all, he said he did.  As in all things Obama, look at what he does; not at what he says.

The big scandal in ALL of these three scandals is Obama lied to the public to get re-elected.  The bigger scandal is the press knew it, and let him get away with it.  Several years ago my wife asked me when Obama was going to get his.  I answered when he goes after those who are defending him, the press.  That is exactly what happened. 

Of course one wonders why would he try to go after those who helped him.  It’s the old story of the scorpion and the frog.  While the frog was carrying the scorpion across the river the scorpion stung the frog. “Now you did it,” said the frog.  “You have killed us both.  Why did you do that?”  “It’s my nature,” said the scorpion. 

And this is Barack Obama’s nature.  The real Barack Obama.  

Boston Bombers and American Liberalism

The fallacy of liberalism has reared its ugly face in full view of the country in the circumstances surrounding the Boston Marathon bombers.  From terrorism denial to student visas to political correctness in the FBI and CIA to Homeland Security ineffectiveness to welfare to scholarship programs….it has it all.  America should take a lesson.  This is the ugly side of liberal policies.

It’s hard for the mainstream media to run from this one although they are trying.  The Tsarnaev family must have studied how to take advantage of our flawed and guilt ridden American system.  They came to this country as political refugees seeking political asylum.  That enabled them to qualify for welfare programs immediately.  Yet they went back and forth to Chechnya the way we go to Cleveland.  Included in their welfare package were food stamps, direct cash payments, and Section 8 housing.  Initial figures put the “welfare” portion of their sponging at about $100,000.00 over a ten year periods.  Commentators stated that is probably just the surface.  They lived in Cambridge, one of the most expensive areas in one of America’s most expensive cities.  Section 8 housing paid the rent. There is much more to come.  The brothers Tsarnaev attended the most exclusive schools and colleges on scholarships and by all indications had no issues with money dealing drugs on the side. 

While on welfare Tamerlan, the dead terrorist, managed to squeeze in a trip or two to Russia and attempted to go to Saudi Arabia for a pilgrimage.  The Russian government tailed him, and told the United States, both the CIA and the FBI, to watch this guy.  There were problems with his Visas, yet Homeland Security was not made aware.  Early reports stated the Saudis also warned our government. The wouldn't let him in.  The Saudis have since changed their story…hmmmm.   All of this notwithstanding, Tamerlan, for all intents and purposes, posted his intentions on You Tube for everyone to see.  Of course, we would not wanted to have invaded his privacy.

The stories go on and on.  And the government is stonewalling again.  Governor Deval Patrick inserted himself into the debate by denying access to the family welfare records citing privacy issues.  Really?  Can this guy be serious?  But what else would one expect from a Massachusetts liberal?  Conservative media and the Massachusetts legislature put an end to that foolishness. 

And now we find out that the younger bomber’s friends attempted to help him escape by destroying evidence.  One of them was here illegally.  The stories go on and on and on.  Meanwhile, Eric Holder sends in a judge and justice department lawyers to interrupt the interrogation of young Dzhokhar while he was in the hospital by reading him his Miranda rights.  He then announces to the world that he will prosecute anyone who discriminates against Muslims. 

This is from the same guy who wants to try terrorists in New York City and has stonewalled his knowledge of gun running across the Mexican border in the Fast and Furious operation.  Standing Amen Corner is John Kerry who has taken over as apologist in chief from Hillary Clinton.  On the back of the Benghazi debacle we now have a trend.  Of course, Hillary Clinton wanted to know what difference four dead Americans made now….and Jay Carney said at a press conference today that Benghazi terrorist raid during the height of the election was “ a long time ago.”  President Obama, of course, is "not familiar" with accusations that his White House has hidden Benghazi survivors and threatened career staff members if they do any whistle blowing on Benghazi. 

You who they need?  They should get Candy Crowley to run cover for them…just like in the debate.  If you want to know what is wrong with America and American liberalism, just look.