Thespis Review: The Drowsy Chaperone

Here is something all too rarely said about Broadway shows any more: The Drowsy Chaperone is laugh-out-loud funny! It seemed like everyone in the theater was having a great time, and there were lots of stops for rolling audience laughter. I was left with the distinct impression that the audiences for this show vary widely, and we were not one of the liveliest groups Bob Martin has witnessed in the last few weeks. Mr. Martin, co-author of the book, and Tony nominee for his performance in this tribute to old-fashioned musicals, keeps the audience in the game from the moment the curtain goes up and the lights go dim-and stay dim as he launches into his opening monologue.

This breezy night at the theater blows by before you have time to think about where you might stop after the show. Bob Martin is at ease chatting with the audience as if those people gathered in the Marquis Theatre were a single, close friend; the Man decides to share with us one of his favorite bubbly-as-champagne musical comedies of the 1920's: The Drowsy Chaperone. As he pulls out the record (yes, a record album) and sets it on the turntable, he sighs that its scratchy sound is like a time machine starting up -- and, just like that, the refrigerator doors become a magic portal through which the madcap characters of the old musical enter one by one. They introduce themselves and set up the story of the show in the effervescent opening number, "Fancy Dress."

The show within the show is light as air; the characters and relationships have the density of cotton candy, the plot twists are ridiculously simple and easily spotted from the top row of the mezzanine, and there is (of course) a happy ending. It's all about being whisked away to another time and place that is more joyous and full of color than everyday life in the present.

We see the entire show through the eyes of Bob Martin (portraying the man in the chair) as he colorfully narrates and comments as the story unfolds. His rollicking commentary on the singing, plot twists, and song lyrics keep this Tony nominated show moving at a frenzied pace.
Unfortunately, as an audience member, I am two-for-two in missing Tony Award winning performers. Beth Leavel, who won the Tony for featured actress in a musical, was absent on this steaming July night and her stand-in was adequate. You can tell that someone, and something, else is needed in this pivotal role.

Sutton Foster is divine, and she was there (unlike other "stars") singing and dancing in her own heavenly manner. It is worth it to see this show just to see Ms. Foster in the stunning number, “Show Off.” Her physicality and choreographed staging in this “star” number is career making almost on its’ own. Sutton Foster possesses a captivating voice and style that is unmatched in its timbre on the Broadway stage of 2006.

Other notable performances are given by Georgia Engle of The Mary Tyler Moore show as Mrs. Tottendale, and Danny Burstein as Aldolpho. These two are comedic geniuses at work! Their slapstick comedy is totally unique on Broadway today.

But, it’s the laughter which captures the essence of this show. The Drowsy Chaperone provides more than ninety minutes of full, frolic, and escape time from anything realistic, and it does so in a sophisticated method. While there are undertones of bawdy humor, these undercurrents remain understated and it is apparent that the authors make no attempt at sending any lame, socialist, liberal commentary to our political leaders. The creators, designers and performers provide us with old-fashioned show-stopping numbers, great Ensemble acting, and a quality product free from political statements and Disney scams.

Thespis Review: Jersey Boys

Attending The Jersey Boys at the August Wilson on Tuesday night was an exhilarating, if not enthralling experience. This winner of the 2006 Tony Award for best new musical has been derided as another just another link in the chain of jukebox musicals. Starting with Smokey Joe’s Café in 1995, a great Broadway show, it’s been quite a ride for these formularized, fabricated inventions camouflaged as Broadway musicals.

With no new music composed for this production, and a seemingly endless succession of 1960’s pop tunes laced together with a partially fictionalized story Jersey Boys has a surface appearance of everything wrong with the Disneyfied wasteland that has become too routine on the boards over the last decade. Mama Mia had to be the greatest tragedy of the genre, with Good Vibrations being the greatest commercial failure. There’s little doubt that all of these shows have on things in common: high wattage is too often substituted for a good book with sing-able plot-rich melodies, and Jersey Boys is no exception in this category. The sound wattage revs up at just the right moments and repeatedly elicits thunderous applause from the mostly fifty-something’s who comprise the audience.

But, like Dreamgirls before it, there is a story in Jersey Boys, and along with riveting choreography and vintage costuming, The Boys will keep you entertained and even mesmerized for the full two hours and thirty minutes.

The story goes something like this: Frankie Castelluccio is a fifteen year old who sings like an angel. He's living in the suburbs in New Jersey, destined to be a barber, until he meets Tommy DeVito, a savvy hustler with a guitar and a vision. Tommy's the guy who can get Frankie out of Jersey. Nick Massi, another guy with a musical gift, joins up with them, but trios are out, quartets are in. Where's the fourth man for the group? Little Joey Fishes (that's Pesci—yeah, that Joe Pesci) finds him, a prodigy named Bob Gaudio; Frankie's wife Mary tells him to spell his stage name with an "i" at the end instead of a "y" (that would be: Valli); and the neon sign of the Four Seasons Lounge gives them their new name. Gaudio writes songs and he comes up with the smash hit that will give Frankie and the boys their own distinctive sound and turn them into superstars.

After several false starts, Gaudio pens a thing that goes something like this:
She - e - e-e-e-e-ry baby (Sherry baby) She - e - rry, can you come out tonight?
The song, Sherry, produces the first thunder-clapping explosion in the house for the evening-especially for the majority of the audience who came prepared to sing along with anything that sounded remotely familiar to them.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Especially when, in Act Two, creators Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice (who wrote the astonishingly strong book) and Des McAnuff (director, providing the most consistently exciting and effective staging of a Broadway musical since Bennett's Dreamgirls) somehow work the miracle again. The group has broken up, and Frankie's family has broken up too. Frankie's working hard to pay off Tommy's gambling debts, but the Four Seasons just aren't generating the hits like they used to. Gaudio's written him a solo number, but nobody'll record it, nobody'll play it, nobody wants it. But Bob and Frankie BELIEVE in it and so, wham, they finally finally get it on the radio and it goes like this”

“You're just too good to be true. Can't take my eyes off you…”
The crowd roars as soon as they hear the familiar melody of Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You. And when those horns come in for the chorus (just before "I love you, baby, / And if it's quite alright, / I need you, baby, / To warm a lonely night")—because Gaudio had promised Frankie a whole horn section back in Act One, when they were kids, dreaming of success; and now here are the horns live on stage! Well, when those horns come in, the palpable electricity in the house reaches a rolling boil.

Michael Longoria, future household name and current under-study for Tony-Award winner John Lloyd Young, was marvelous in the dazzling role of Franki Valli. Longoria barely left the stage the entire night which might explain the high absence rate of J.L. Young. Longoria sings and sings, and has to really act during the more extended book scenes in Act II. He is charming and innocent, yet believable in the tragic scenes where his daughter dies. Longoria demonstrates a full range of vivid emotions, and keeps singing and dancing with magnetic enegryfor more than two hours.

The real stars of this production however, are the other members of the four seasons. Tony Award Winner Christian Hoff, J. Robert Spencer, and Daniel Reichard give stupendous performances in roles that demand greatness. They are polished, engaging actors who sing and truly dance! WOW! These performers made the entire evening worth it. The crisp movements so highly identified with the early sounds of the 1960’s are executed to perfection by these singing actors.

With sets moving everywhere and continuously on the stage, and characters entering and exiting at a break-neck pace, there is not one dull moment in this show.

There is something about the profile of a majority of the audience members in this show. Too many of them know the songs and came to sing along. When cell phones were banned in New York, it is unfortunate that singing along was banned as well. No one paid to hear you sing the songs-Buy the CD, and sing them at home.

Finally, I must mention that Jersey Boys is a picture perfect show. Enhanced by dynamic lighting (another Tony Award for this show), there are more than a dozen moments when the stage pictures freeze for just a few fleeting moments in order to allow some much needed reflection in this fast paced show reminiscent of the jarring, flashing from scene to scene TV shows developed in the 1990’s.

Jersey Boys warrants a trip the August Wilson Theater-just don’t count on seeing the Tony Award winning actor, John Lloyd Young. Michael Longoria is great, and if you go expecting to see him, you will have a pleasant evening.

Update: You'll love this blog!

Ann Coulter Clips

Any fan of Ann Coulter will enjoy these video clips. YouTube can be wonderful.

Ann Coulter with Matt Lauer on Today discussing her wonderful book:GODLESS. The Best of Ann Coulter

Ann Coulter Strikes Back, Ann Coulter on HardBall, Michelle Malkin with her original video: Coultermania.

All of these video links are great! And for your weekend reading pleasure, here are some timeless quotes by the ever creative, original, and colorful Ann:

By 1973, John Kerry had already accused American soldiers of committing war crimes in Vietnam, thrown someone else's medals to the ground in an anti-war demonstration, and married his first heiress.

Democrats couldn't care less if people in Indiana hate them. But if Europeans curl their lips, liberals can't look at themselves in the mirror.

If John Kerry had a dollar for every time he bragged about serving in Vietnam - oh wait, he does. If we're so cruel to minorities, why do they keep coming here? Why aren't they sneaking across the Mexican border to make their way to the Taliban?

We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war.

The great one: Ann Coulter. Go buy your copy of GODLESS today. It's worth it!

We're not for Blackwell, but...

I'm not supporting Ken Blackwell for Ohio Governor, but ridiculous attacks from Hilary Clinton and Chuck Schumer don't make it more likley that Strickland will be elected. In fact, these divisive voices will bring out the rural and suburban republican voters likely to stay home at this moment. Clinton and Schumer need to stay out of Ohio-they aren't going to help Ohio's Schools by interfering, and raising the liberal profile of Ted Strickland. Belive it or not, the Dayton Daily Democrat has it right this time.

For one thing, secretary of state is an elective office. If Democrats didn't want Mr. Blackwell to have it, they needed to beat him. They can't lose an election and then demand that their vanquisher curtail his own responsibilities. At least they can't without looking absurd.

Second, the secretary of state doesn't really run elections. That's the job of county elections boards — which have equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans. They decide how many voting machines will go where. They count the ballots.

Furthermore, Project Logic has a factual word or two to say about the latest Ohio Polls. Also, a reminder from earlier this week, the Keeler Report flushes out the Dispatch Poll.

A message to Hilary and Chuckie: Ohio has real Red State Credentials!

Ghost Light

Ben Magnusun of Kettering, Ohio is currently playing Sweeney Todd on Broadway at The Eugene O'Neill Theater on 49th Street. He is wonderful in this imaginative re-creation of Stephen Sondheim's masterpiece. You will enjoy reading more about him at Broadway.com. Anyone up for a trip to the city this weekend to see Ben, Patti, Michael and the enitre cast of Sweeney? When I saw the show in June it was absolutely marvelous!

Check out the DreamGirls movie fan site for video of the upcoming movie. The anticipation for this movie is reaching fever pitch.

This review of SHOUT:The Mod Musical will make you want to laugh! Shout doesn't seem to be worth the price of the ticker. Also, check out the New York Daily News.

The Education Wonk blasts the Department of Education for another flawed, big government intervention into the schools.

Ian brings us the latest on the nut-house also known as Cindy Sheehan.

Don Surber brings us the latest on the Cynthia McKinney run-off. Neal Boortz wants Cindy to win-let's keep her around to kick around!

Dr. Sanity brings her particular brand of sanity to the current WAR going on in the Middle East. The Doctor really knows her stuff!

Sister Toldjah has a reminder about Jimmy Carter: Kook former President.

Stop the ACLU is relentless in pursuing the Senator Santorum, weapons of mass destruction in Iraq story! I wish that I had the expertise of Oak Leaf at Stop The ACLU.

Enjoy this hot July weekend, and remember to keep the Ghost Light on!

Ghost Light : Thespis' Glow

A Ghost Light: a light left on the stage overnight, or when the stage is not in use for safety. Also to fit with a superstition - to prevent the theatre from 'going dark' also known as the closing of a show.

Proof that men should be banned from going shirtless! Be certain to look at the Gallery.

Dick Morris has it right again:

While Clinton said he embraced the need for Israeli security, when the going got rough, he bowed to world opinion and called for a cease-fire. When the United States asks Israel to stop fighting, it is like a boxer’s manager throwing in the towel. The bottom line is that true friends of Israel cannot afford to let the Democrats take power in Washington.

The Keeler Political Report has come clarifying information on those disturbing polls that came out of the Columbus Dispatch the past weekend. We are looking for some clarification on the true state of the polls in Ohio. Blackwell is certainly in trouble, but nothing is certain at this point.

I think it is a true reflection of Ohio Politics when grassroots voters in the largely suburgan and rural counties say that they are here to stay! Somehow, these voters tend to get left out in the polls.

Joanne Jacobs tells about the new high school in Dayton which will be technology based. Dayton can TRY anything. Let's hope it works for them!

The Daily Grind has an excellent post on the lack of ability in today's students to educated choices. Sometimes, our stduents are simply babyied too much.

Scheiss Weekly cites some home-shooling parent characterisitics that we have noticed too.

We are hoping to make Ghost Light a regular feature around here-to keep the show from closing.

CNN's Anderson Cooper: Looking for all the good in Hezbollah

I'm in the middle of reading Ann Coulter's latest best-selling book, GODLESS. It may be her best book yet, and is useful for everyone who gets too busy to follow up on all of the foolish, fabricated stories that the drive-by media generates in the course of two-three months. A review of her book will be forth-coming.

This post by Anderson Cooper will probably be in the first chapter of Ann's next book, CLUELESS. Poor CNN, they can't get a grip on reality and realize why their ratings are so terribly low.

Wizbang has so much more.
Jack Kingston of Georgia started it all

Two Legendary Shows Coming to Broadway

It looks as if the long awaited Broadway revival of THE WIZ will finally make it to New York in the Spring of 2007. THE WIZ is simply one of the best Broadway musicals written in the last sixty years. It is highly entertaining, has infectuous even contagious music, and is beloved by audiences all across the United States. Try to forget the abhorent movie-it was a phenomenal disaster. Film makers forgot the the formula of THE WIZ was the story and the music. They altered the script to the point of it being unrecognizable, and mangled the score with interpolations and mascinations.

Here's looking forward to a great production of THE WIZ on broadway sometime in 2007.

The coverage over at Broadway World, Check out Broadway.com, Playbill

Message Board at Broadway World with lots of comments.

George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess is the greatest American Opera of the 20th Century. We reported earlier on an innovative production being staged in London. The soaring melodies of Progy and Bess along with the compellling storyline make this a classic of Opera Houses all over the world. Many people tend to forget that Porgy first appeared on Broadway in 1935. This fascinating production should be a not-to-be-missed moment on Broadway whenever it may arrive. The glorious tunes of Porgy and Bess include, "Summertime," "My Man's Gone Now," "Bess, You Is My Woman Now," "A Woman is a Sometime Thing," and "Oh Lord, I'm On My Way." WOW! What a show! If the production is a really strong one, I hope it runs for ten years!

The New York Times article on the production, Playbill,

DREAMGIRLS: The Movie

I sincerely hope that the Director and the Producers of the upcoming film of DREAMGIRLS did not ruin the great integrated storyline, music, and legacy of house quaking, show-stopping moments produced by this awe-inspiring Broadway show. There is a great deal of publicity available, and everywhere I turn lately, there is a revival of interest in DREAMGIRLS and the upcoming movie. There is a lot of pre-show buzz about an academy award. Without a doubt, this buzz is generated by a well-oiled public relations machine trying to cultivate an image for DREAMGIRLS as unstoppable.

DREAMGIRLS is a dream of a show. The essence of the vintage music and costumes, the overtones of the great struggle for civil rights, and the powerful, often fiery affecting outbursts are rounded out with the evocation of the vivid range of human emotion.

I saw DREAMGIRLS once on Broadway at The Imperial Theater in August, 1984. Roz Ryan portrayed Effie Melody White in the production at that time! WOW! What a show! The audience was able to stop the show several times, but the reaction to “And I Am Tellin’ You I’m Not Goin’” was one of the most spontaneous explosions that I have ever witnessed in the live theater.

With much trepidation, I look forward to the movie. It is exciting to see the trailers, read the publicity, and hope for a great movie of this rarely produced musical. Enjoy all of the links.

The Offical Web Site of the DREAMGIRLS Movie
This is the DREAMGIRLS Fan Blog
Jennifer Holliday singing "I Am Changing" on stage at the Imperial Theater/OBC
Holliday once again, this time at the 1982 Tony Awards singing her signature piece, And I Am Telllin' You..
The Making of DREAMGIRLS
This 1988 Theater Works rendition of MOVE is wonderful. Watch the Effie in the center-she can really move! This is a MUST SEE!!!

Fabulous Sunday Reading

Here's a list of the things we are reading today, ENJOY!

The Carnival of the Insanities-Special Middle East Edition. Dr. Sanity has done it again! There's lots of laughs, and other great posts!

Michelle Malkin has the Black-out in Queens covered! Forget the Daily News and the Post. Just read Michelle!

The Fair Tax passed by 85% in the three counties surrounding Atlanta! WOW!

Darren at Right on the Left Coast has a response for the Sacremento Bee editorial that blasts the NEA. Even a cursory reading demonstrates that the Newspaper, and Darren don't quite get it! Accountability is a great idea! Accountability measures must be fair to students, teachers, and communities. There is a lot more to this issue than the Newspaper or Darren take time admit!

I have looked over at The Conservative Outpost for the third time to see this posting: Hell Hath No Fury... It is must read, you'll love it!

Michelle Malkin blasts the Treason Times for their latest disclosure. The reference to Japan, 1945 is proceless!

I think that MsUnderestimated speaks for many Americans when she says, "Did I Ask You To Vacation in Beruit? She speaks my thoughts exactly!!

The Education Wonk has another take on the public vs. private school discussion. Like most people, The Wonk tends to view the situation simplistically, and fails to properly acknowledge the fundamental apples/oranges issues which plauge most of this debate!

LaShawn Barber has up a great post: Big Blue Balls and Other Stuff. LaShawn espouses strongly Christian values in this wonderful post. Take time to read it, especially if you did not go to church today.

You have to see this news story, courtesy of YouTube that profiles Jennifer Hudson. Hudson will portray Effie Melody White in the upcoming movie of the legendary Broadway musical, DREAMGIRLS!

Jonathon Larson's Tick, Tick...Boom will appear at the Schuster Center

The Dayton Daily News is reporting on an upcoming production of Jonathon Larson's (RENT) other musical, Tick, Tick...Boom that will be presented Mathile Theater in the Schuster Center for the performing arts.
Tick, Tick . . . Boom!, Jonathan Larson's "other" musical, opens tonight in the Mathile Theatre of the Schuster Center, where a 6-year-old, but little known group called the Encore Theater Company is launching plans to present an annual season of new and underexposed musicals.

Tick, Tick is definitely in the latter category. Larson wrote it in 1990 as a one-character show called 30/90 as he was nearing 30. He is, of course, best known for Rent, which opened on Broadway in 1996 hours after he died.

At 31, which includes several years of trying to write musicals himself, Encore artistic director David Brush can relate.

He and managing director Jim Farley came tantalizingly close to a breakthrough a few years ago with their show Summer of My German Soldier, which was a finalist in the Chicago Stages Festival and was presented in a Washington, D.C., workshop.

"Rent-heads will love it. Those who are drawn to off-Broadway avant-garde material will want to see it. Plus, it's just a great rock show," Brush said.

Tick, Tick....Boom had a very successful off-broadway run, and should be most enjoyable to audiences. It seems that there are only two performances. Look for tickets online at Ticket Center Stage. Anyone attending the show who would like to write a review, please submit it, and I would be thrilled to post it!

Let me know your thoughts on this regional premiere.

You Gotta Be Kiddin' Me....

This story just in courtesy of the Xenia Daily Gazette and WHIO-TV Channel 7:

XENIA -- Local children gathered at the Xenia branch of the Greene County Library on Thursday morning to showcase their reading abilities to a very captive audience -- dogs.

As part of the library's summer reading program, children were invited to spend the morning reading books to local therapy dogs who spend their time with children, visiting hospitals and helping with physical therapy.

"Children from kindergarten to sixth grade are able to take part in the summer reading program," Children's Librarian Lindy MorganMoore said.

"Children who come to the library regularly in the months of June, July and August can earn free books."

The therapy dogs trained through the Miami Valley Pet Therapy program.

Sophie, a 6-year-old Great Pyrenees has been coming to the library for three years and laid down on the couch while 7-year-old Ethan Manley read her a story.

"My favorite book is Green Eggs and Ham," Manley said.

St. Brigid sixth grader Margaret Lehmankular first read to a 3-year-old pug named Dixie before moving on to read "Show and Tell Sam" to Sophie.

"Dixie is new to pet therapy but loves it! Kids are her forte and she has taken really easy to the program," owner Melody McCallister said.

"She is really a people dog."

The library's summer reading program will continue into August with upcoming events being "Party till the Cows Come Home Family Night" on Monday and a Children's book sale for all ages on Aug. 2.

Maybe I'm loosing it. After a long day of blogging and other intensive activities on Thursday, I am partially watching the eleven o'clock news WHIO TV Channel 7 in Dayton. A story comes on about children reading to therapy dogs at the library as part of the summer reading program. My friend the pyschologist happens to be watching the news with me. I ask him, was that a real news story? Almost Dr. Kevin replies by throwing his hands in the air and saying that he couldn't speak for the validity of such a counseling technique?

I am still thinking, is this story for real? Is their really value in having the children read to dogs? DOGS??! I am certain that there are plenty of adults of all ages: brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and maybe even a lowly public school teacher willing to listen to these young people read a story. And, am I correct in thinking that an appropriate human response would enrich and enoble the experience of reading aloud? I read aloud to many people when I was in firstm second, third, and fourth grades, but I NEVER was invited to read for a dog!

Surely this story is of sufficient merit to qualify for this weeks Carnival of the Insanities over at Dr. Sanity!

Environmental Republican
Another Insanity over at Hot Air

Liberals: Born To Run!

Ann Coulter is precisely on target with her column this week! There is good reason why her new book "Godless" has been in the top three on the New York Times bestseller list since its' debut last month.

Some have argued that Israel's response is disproportionate, which is actually correct: It wasn't nearly strong enough. I know this because there are parts of South Lebanon still standing.
The fact that Israel is able to launch an attack on Hezbollah today without instantly inciting a multination conflagration in the Middle East is proof of what Bush has accomplished. He has begun to create a moderate block of Arab leaders who are apparently not interested in becoming the next Saddam Hussein.
There's been no stock market crash, showing that the markets have confidence that Israel will deal appropriately with the problem and that it won't expand into World War III.
But liberals can never abandon the idea that we must soothe savage beasts with appeasement — whether they're dealing with murderers like Willie Horton or Islamic terrorists. Then the beast eats you!

Ann Coulter remains the strongest voice of common sense conservatives in America today.

While Fox News is reporting with substantial documentation that the American evacuation is the envy of the world, the liberals are out there blaming America first for all the problems of the Middle East.

Faulty News Templates for the Middle East

Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations July 20, 2006: “I repeat, hostilities must stop!”

If Kofi Annan had been speaking for the United Nations in 1944 as the tide of World War II turned strongly in favor of the allies, he no doubt would have insisted that the allies cease hostilities and permit Adolf Hitler time to re-arm his nation and murder more of his people. In fact, had the United Nations been around in 1940, there would have been voices insisting that the world take more time to truly understand the motivations of Japan and Germany. Applying today’s paradigm of thought to the 1940’s would have allowed America’s freethinking, socialist sophists to construct an elaborate, nuanced response that would have left Hirohito and Hitler in power well into the 1960’s. Fortunately for all of us, the prevailing thinking of the 1940’s demanded that we fight and win wars in the quickest manner possible. The constant equivocating of good and evil, which hangs like a musty scrim over today’s liberals, took a backseat to the world-wide struggle of good versus evil in World War II. The grayish miasma of leftist quibbling with the strong articulation the values of liberty, freedom, capitalism, and equality by our President and military apparatus had no place in the total victory for the allied powers in the great wars of the twentieth century.

Unfortunately for those of us present at the dawn of World War III, essential lessons of World War II are being ignored in favor of political posturing on the part of nearly every elected democrat public official. Domestically, we are experiencing a trivial political debate full of daily dogmatic drivel. A calculated strategy that is regularly employed by the liberals is to insist that the United States work with the United Nations. This notion of deference for the views of the United Nations is not a part of the autonomy that has served the United States throughout our history. Strident voices of the left are crying out in accord led by Jack Murtha, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, and others blaming the Bush administration for failing at diplomacy for these past five years. These so-called leaders of the opposition seem to have diplomacy confused with appeasement, and along with Madeleine Albright, they seem to have all of the administrations flaws at their finger tips at any moment.

I am sorry that the United States of America must continue to participate in the charade at the so-called United Nations. The UN has become completely irrelevant, corrupt and useless. The mainstream media in our country has a glaring and unmet obligation to inform citizens of the culture of corruption which exploded at the UN under Mr. Anann’s leadership. The oil for food scandal and the correlating nepotism have not made their way into our national consciousness. Anyone who has any abiding faith in the ability of the United Nations to positively impact events in the Middle East is a fool!

There is some general concurrence on the useless nature of the United Nations in the 21st Century.

The gyrations of the United Nations on the terrorism raging in the middle east is all part of the great schematic template of thought being force fed to the American people by a mainstream media that has never been more treasonous. As if to please these voices of an imagined world unity, the American media cries for restraint on the part of Israel. These voices call strenuously for a proportionate response on the part of Israel. They say this as if another Israeli concession with bring a different result than those allowances that Israel has made in the past.

Despite the lessons of history, and the facts of the current conflict, the media uses its own predetermined model to tell their fictions from the Middle East.

The most pronounced example of a failed news template is the reporting emanating out of Lebanon, Israel and Iran this week. The reckless, tabloid, and adolescent reporting of the mainstream media is a dubious unison being sung by liberals in a prescribed, counterfeit harmony that pierces the realm of the harsh realities faced by the United States, Israel, and the world. Generally, the television networks and the work of their so-called reporters borders on an illusory sedition.

Whether you may watch CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, or MSNBC the plotline is the same with the only variation being the order of the talking points to be used against President Bush.

A short list of the most egregious and flawed viewpoints overused by the mainstream media would include the following:

• Israel must have a proportionate response

The shrill, piercing, and constant cry for a “proportionate response” from Israel from disjointed voices across the networks is redundant and demonstrates a profound ignorance of the circumstances that led to this war. Countless stories are based on the misguided premise that Israel somehow owes the world a proportionate response for being repeatedly and randomly attacked.

• Condolezza Rice should travel immediately to the Middle East

Madeleine Albright, Anderson Cooper and others in the media have promulgated a superfluity of stories making it appear that Condoleeza Rice should immediately go to the Middle East. Their desire for immediate gratification in the arena of cosmetic diplomacy has nothing to do with winning the war. This convoluted strategy is fraught with failure, and President Bush is not going to accept advice from the enemies of his doctrine. Albright and others need to apply their proportionality mechanism to their constant cries for Condi to intervene immediately. Like children throwing a earsplitting tantrum, the repetitive call for Condi to travel to the region has no logical purpose or conclusion. Condi, ever the mature adult, has called for a framework to be in place that would alter the broken structure of a strained peace between Israel and her neighbors. Condi and the United Sates must pursue the policy that terrorists must be eliminated not pacified, soothed, and placated!

• The evacuation of US Citizens from Lebanon is a replay of the Katrina evacuation

Using narrow prism of faux caring, meticulously polished with a shining veneer of feigned concern, Nancy Pelosi and her willing accomplices in the elite media have generated countless stories this week regarding the evacuation of US citizens from Lebanon. In a politically motivated effort designed to manipulate the thinking of unsuspecting viewers, this evacuation has been repetitively compared to the Katrina victims stranded at the Superdome. Rush Limbaugh created a montage of statements by several media personalities documenting this obsession on the part of the media.

The answer will not come from me, will not come from you,. It won't even come from the New York Times. The answer will come from polls and focus groups. As Bob Dylan once sang, ladies and gentlemen, the answer, my friend, is blowing in the polls. (laughing) The Democrats, I'm sure they're out focus-grouping this right now. Now, they may have already had their answer handed to them by the Drive-By Media. Dingy Harry and Nancy Pelosi have returned to the scene of the original drive-by, which is Katrina. The Lebanon evacuation is just like that now. Here's a montage of various leftists.
JACK CAFFERTY: Remember Katrina? France has gotten more than 700 of their people out!

CHRIS JANSING: Sort of brought back, you know, the whole Katrina thing.

ANDERSON COOPER: It's like Katrina all over again.

NANCY PELOSI: Just another manifestation of the Katrina mentality.

HARRY REID: It is too bad that this is being treated as a mini Katrina.

ANDREA KOPPEL: The slow response that the Bush administration had after Katrina...

MILES O'BRIEN: One of the people we talked to earlier today equated it to...Katrina!

KATE SNOW: Some in Capitol Hill are bringing up memories of Hurricane Katrina.

DAVID SHUSTER: The image of Americans terrified has burned the Bush administration before following Hurricane Katrina.

PAULA ZAHN: You have heard Katrina, calling it "a mini-Katrina."

These robots in the media seem to expect the American people to lap up their version of the news like thirsty dogs on a hot July day. There are obvious comparisons to Katrina: these comparisons are so obvious that the elite, arrogant, liberal media chooses to ignore these real stories while they invent other tales in order to twist the reality that is so painfully obvious.

The failure of the state and local governments in New Orleans is a direct parallel to the failure of the United Nations. The local and state government agencies and officials are well matched with the incompetent and ineffective officials of the United Nations.

The citizens of New Orleans and the US citizens in Lebanon have individual accountability for their circumstances that is ignored by the mainstream media. Neither the situation in New Orleans or Lebanon was entirely unexpected. Therefore, the threshold of personal responsibility trumps government culpability in our system of government.

Our media will never provide it, but we need a dose of reality on the networks and in the newspapers. Let’s see a rash of news stories exposing the evils of Iran, Syria, Hezbolah, Hammas, and the United Nations. Let’s review the fundamental lessons of history when it comes to appeasing terrorists and dictators.

Peggy Noonan makes the point stronger than I ever could in her Wall Street Journal column of July 20:

The other day ABC News's Internet political report, The Note, argued that President Bush, in his then-upcoming veto statement and other presentations, had better be at the top of his game if he wants his party to hold on to Congress in 2006. "[Mr. Bush] is going to need to be focused and impressive, not easy pickings for the Rich-Krugman-Dowd-Stewart axis."

As I read I nodded: That's exactly true. What was significant is that The Note did not designate as Mr. Bush's main and most effective foes Pelosi, Dodd, Reid, Biden, et al. Mr. Bush's mightiest competitors are columnists and a comedian with a fake-news show.

This is one reason the media is important. (It's not "the media are" it's "the media is." People see the media as one big thing.)

One big reason the media is important is that they change things. And they lead. On 9/11 itself it was the media--anchors, reporters, crews sent to the scene, analysts--that functioned, for roughly 10 hours, as the most visible leaders of the United States. The president was on a plane; the vice president was in the bunker and on the phone. It was on-air journalists who informed, created a seeming order, and reassured the public by their presence and personas and professionalism.

So they're important. But very recently it seems to me they're important because it is from the media that Mr. Bush's most effective opposition--attacks on his nature and leadership, attacks on his policies--comes. Among the Democrats an op-ed columnist has more impact than a minority leader.

It is common wisdom that newspapers are over. But when the most powerful voices against a powerful president at a crucial time are op-ed jockeys, newspapers are not over. Or perhaps one should say paper may be over, but news is not.

Hear, Hear!

Supporting Evidence can be found: Wudrick Blog, Captain's Quarters, The New York Sun, The Wonderful Peggy Noonan, Hard AstarBoard, Perish The Thought-This is exactly what I have been thinking and saying!!, The marvelous Neal Boortz, Rush Limbaugh, The Mudville Gazette
Expose The Left, News Busters, Michelle Malkin,

New York City, Some Education Left-overs, and a Potpourri of Interesting Reading

"Crossing Over, Step by Step" an intriguing article in the New York Times about walking the gorgeous bridges that span the waterways leading to Manhattan from the East. It would be thrilling to take each of these walks. I have personally walked only the 59th Street Bridge of the Bridges described here. This walk was on the evening of the black out in August, 2003.

Speaking of Black-Outs, there was "Dark Warning" in Manhattan on Tuesday. I hope I am never in the city when there is a black out again!

Downsizing at the New York Times is one of the best pieces ever written at The American Thinker. Here's how the article begins:

A profitable company is to shutter a factory it built in 1992 as part of a much-hailed visionary strategy to take advantage of technology. But now it is just a cost to be cut. Eight hundred jobs, many of them well-paying blue collar positions (supposedly an endangered species) will disappear, while managerial and professional jobs are being protected.

Normally, this would be a juicy target for series of articles on the front and business pages of the New York Times. You know the drill: a parade of blue collar people victimized by the Bush administration, and now facing a bleak future. Meanwhile the insiders make out fine. There’s even a fat cat CEO whose compensation package has done a whole lot better than its profits or stock. If Howell Raines still were editor, he’d get at least 40 stories out of it.

But today, the company in question is the New York Times Company. So don’t expect the same rules to apply.

Nothing personal – it’s just business.

WOW! The New York Times has big issues!

The Sun Shines in "No Child" a new and compelling off-Broadway play. This sounds like a show for teachers to see this summer.

Speaking of "No Child Left Behind," Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings claims ignorance of a report out of HER OFFICE that demonstrates the relative parity to be found among achievements of public school and private school students. She also feigns ignorance as to why this report was released late on a Friday in summer. In fact, she says she prefers not to release information in this time honored manner of hiding a news story. Who is running your office anyway, Secretary Spellings?

The New York Daily News has the story on a new week-day morning program on the Fox Network coming this Fall. There won't be time for watching TV this autumn at 148 Home Avenue.

For anyone who attends or directs student instrumentalists, actors, dancers, or singers, you must see this wonderful post that speaks for all of us. Audience behavior at student performances has been on a steady decline for many years. Scheiss Weekly has this topic covered.

AJ Strata makes a point we've been making for a couple of weeks: let's hope Joe Lieberman loses the primary and wins the race! It punctuates the fringe, kook element that is alive and well in the democrat party!

Check Out The Party at TMH's Bacon Bits
Open Post at Stuck on Stupid

Public Vs. Private Schools

There is a very interesting editorial in the New york Times today regarding the quality of education at public and private schools. Here is the most revealing analysis:

The public, private, charter and religious realms all contain schools that range from good to not so good to downright horrendous.
This point was underscored last week when the United States Education Department released a controversial and long-awaited report comparing public and private schools in terms of student achievement as measured on the federal math and reading tests known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress. As with previous studies, this one debunked the widely held belief that public schools were inferior to their private and religious counterparts. The private schools appeared to have an achievement advantage when the raw scores of students were considered alone. But those perceived advantages melted away when the researchers took into account variables like race, gender and parents’ education and income.

Wow! Finally, a study that demonstrates what we have ALL known to be true: there is quality in the public school system. In fact, public schools sometimes out-perform the so-called champion schools, those darlings of the right wing: private schools! The hollow arguements made repeatedly as the false mantras for the anti-public school alliance are permanently undermined.

We have school choice within America. It is simply the unfulfilled responsibility of the political class to properly fund and oversee and educational program for all children K-12. Now, there are studies which demonstrate the success of public schools in direct comparsion with private education!

The study seems to begin the process of comparing apples to apples in this on-going and fervrent debate about public education.Let us compare apples to apples in comparing the academic achievement of students in all school systems. Let’s compare several students from several schools with two parents at home who are engaged in rearing the students. Let us compare and contrast the portfolio assessments of students whose parents have a middle class income. Let us compare the students who have one parent or no parent, or who are never fed properly at home, or who may be lacking in appropriate health care. Let us use a rubric or assessment measurement that quantifies the value of an involved parent or two, or put all of these requisite factors into the overused and confusing set of propaganda that is so often misused to bash the public schools!

The prevailing conservative “news” paradigm relative to public education allows only pessimistic stories promulgated by the mainstream media to constitute the entire vocabulary of news reporting. Conservatives use this one-sided reporting to further their thesis of bad “government schools.” I am glad that I did not stop reading columns and blogs because there are a few blogs out there that certainly are irresponsible, inaccurate, and unprofessional. There are bad bloggers, bad teachers, bad superintendents, bad politicians and bad journalists to be found throughout the United States. Because all public schools are supported by state, local, and federal tax dollars, every incidence of poor behavior is magnified beyond its breadth and scope and each overblown occurrence makes an easy and ready-made target for the anti-public school alliance which always seems to be lurking in the wings.

A real, meaningful, and authentic discussion of reform in the public school must begin with a discussion of all things done well in the public schools and those things that are obvious failures.

Finally, there is one more issue that I have raised that is never addressed by the critics. This comprehensive philosophy should provide a basis for reform, and promote a scholarly, essential, and consequential topic for further discussion.

While I am a strong advocate of portfolio accountability and comprehensive assessment for public school students and teachers, and I believe that as a nation we should aspire to the ideal of allowing competitive market forces to assist us in creating stronger public schools, I will also vigorously support strong public schools as the foundation of our republic and the hope of future generations. As with many institutions in our society, there is room for significant improvements in the public schools.



Even more revealing are the low math scores of the students in conservative christian schools.

Here are the NAEP scores and analysis on which all of the commentary is based.

Here's some more information from the Washington Monthly.
The Education Wonks have further information from January

It's Carnival Time

Check out today's Carnival of Education over at Education in Texas! The host made the first link to Thespis Journal, and it has generated the largest single one day traffic in our almost eleven month history. This weekly carnival is always full of interesting education articles and fascinating topics. None of the education bloggers allow CNN to determine news topics for them, their readers, or their friends and family.

The photo is from the production of Neil Simon's Rumors performed at our High School in November, 2005. This is theater education at its' finest!

The Great One: Tony Snow

Tony Snow, the White House Press Secretary, blasted foolish Helen Thomas today. Tony has to be one of the finest Press Secretaries of my lifetime. Check out the video at Outside the Beltway. Everyone on the right side of the blogosphere has linked over there. The entire three minutes and twenty-eight seconds is well worth watching!

Tony's daily briefing before the C-Span camera is informative and great entertainment. Tony uses the same unassuming style that worked for him so well at Fox News and on the radio-especially when he used to subsitute for Rush Limbaugh. Tony is very comfortable and is in his element while working with the hostile, socialist, Palestinian loving White House Press corps.

Speaking of the unhinged media, by the time Amderson Cooper came on tonight, he was in a total lather about getting all of the Americans out of Lebanon. In shrill tones not heard since Katrina, Anderson insisted that, "the French had done it, Sweden has done it, why can't the United States get it citizens out of Lebanon? This is just a guess from an amateur: these nations probably had far less people in Lebanon. We wish all US citizens the best of everything who are located throughout the Middle East, but we have to ask the question why so many people are there, and how President Bush can be held responsible for the safety and evacuation of our citizens in such a volitle place in our world. Surely, most of the citizens knew of the risk of being there. We pray for their safe return, but it can not be the only priority of our government, and it should go beyond a partisan obession of the news media.

More at Stop the ACLU
4TheLittleGuy
Citizen Journal

Whats' Going on With The Fair Tax

Wouldn't you love to abolish the IRS. . . . Keep all the money in your paycheck. . . . Pay taxes on what you spend, not what you earn. . . .
And eliminate all the fraud, hassle, and waste of our current system?

Looking back over two-hundred years, the founding fathers of this country kept petitioning the King of England with redress of grievances brought upon this nation by the Crown. King George stopped listening, and even went so far as to enact a tax on tea. Eventually the colonists had enough and in 1773, they snuck aboard three British ships in the Boston Harbor and dumped several hundred chests of tea into the water as an act of grievance against unfair taxation of the colonies by Britain. The Boston Tea Party became a symbol of the American Revolution and the determination of the American people.

The campaign for the "Fair Tax continues. The grass-roots movement is alive and well. Almost one year after the release of The Fair Tax Book, the effort continues. Check out all of these relevant links, and keep talking the talk. Thanks to Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder for leading the charge, and keeping the effort alive.

For the fabric of our society to hold together, we must all have an investment in our government. The FairTax, while providing a rebate to protect those trying to climb up, requires absolutely everyone to pay taxes absolutely every time they buy a new good or service. The FairTax requires this investment, and in plain text on every receipt the FairTax will show you exactly how large the investment is. Every taxpayer--from the smallest to the largest--should be confronted with exactly how much their government is taking from them and spending on their behalf. The FairTax provides this confrontation with its completely transparent tax calculation. If the voters vote for more spending, they will see that spending reflected in a higher sales tax rate that all will pay. If the voters want less spending, they will reap the benefits of that with every purchase as well.

It's time for a tea party again!

Here is the official Fair Tax Blog

Here's more information on the upcoming Fair Tax Rally in Orlando, Florida on July 29
This is the address for the Fair Tax Organization
A Great Synopsis of the Fair Tax
The Ohio Fair Tax Site

Hilary, Dan Quayle, and War

Frank Luntz, a widely respected Republican Pollster, has a great article detailing how Hilary can become President of the United States in 2008. The column, which appears in today's New York Daily News, is useful for all those interested in well-founded analysis and common sense.

For all those Republicans and a few Democrats who think Hillary Clinton can't possibly be elected President, I have two words for you: Ronald Reagan.

I remember it well. He was too old. He was too conservative. He was too scary. And he was elected in two landslides. The exact same kinds of assumptions about electability 25 years ago are alive and well in 2006, and they are just as wrong for Hillary Clinton today as they were for Reagan in 1979.

She's too divisive. Too calculating. Too marred by the Clinton years. Oh, - and she's a woman.Never mind the chatter. Hillary Clinton sits atop many polls for President with good reason and, if she plays her cards right, she could remain there right through November 2008.

Bush stated further: " … We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime."

Ms. Underestimated reports on Dan Quayle walking out of a concert due to a political statement by the "artist" Jonh Mellencamp. Mellencamp dedicated a song to all those hurt by the administration of President Bush! Please! Where do all of these so-called artists get their political education...CNN?

Rush Limbaugh writes clearly in an editorial of September 7, 2001 that Israel must be unleashed to deal forcefully and finally with all of its terrorist enemies.
The only way some form of quiet will ever exist in the Middle East is if Israel is given the latitude to totally defeat its declared enemies. Only then will the terrorist attacks on Israel's civilians come to an end. Perpetual negotiations, diplomatic half measures, or land for peace deals will not bring peace to the Middle East. For those who believe this is an irresponsible notion, I use history as my guide.


Today marks the 60th anniversary of Imperial Japan's unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor, in which 2,500 Americans were killed. There are lessons to be learned from our victory in that war.

In his April 16, 1945 address before a Joint Session of Congress, President Harry Truman stated: "Sothere can be no possible misunderstanding, both Germany and Japan can be certain, beyond any shadow of doubt, that America will continue the fight for freedom until no vestige of resistance remains. We are deeply conscious of the fact that much hard fighting is still ahead of us. Having to pay such a heavy price to make complete victory certain, America will never become a party to any plan for partial victory. To settle for merely another temporary respite would surely jeopardize the future security of the world. Our demand has been, and it remains, unconditional surrender."

On August 6, 1945, just 16-hours after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, Truman issued a statement which said, in part: "The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor. They have been repaid many fold. … We are now prepared to obliterate more rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have above ground in any city. We shall destroy their docks, their factories, and their communications. Let there be no mistake: we shall completely destroy Japan's power to make war."

Truman understood that there could be no peace without total victory. This lesson has not been lost on President George Bush. On September 20, 2001, Bush also addressed a Joint Session of Congress and announced America's policy - "the Bush Doctrine" - in responding to the atrocities of September 11. He stated: " … Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated."

"The Reagan Myth" is a A Fabulous article by Fred Barnes in the Wall Street Opinion Journal.

It is amazing how many liberal politicians will try to make points against President Bush by distorting Ronald Reagan's record.


Check out more about the Treason Times at Perish The Thought

Get Your Laugh of the Day at The Nose on Your Face

Just Another Fable in the Educational Landscape

As much as I respect the views of values of host/author Karen Braun, she has posted an outlandish and unverified statement as the notion of a recent posting at Spunky Home School. Her first error is placing faith in statement by former justice Sandra Day O’Connor who until the recent term of the Supreme Court was President Reagan’s biggest mistake. After the recent, abominable Hamdan decision, Anthony Kennedy now holds this distinction. Regardless of the pathetic judicial decisions handed down by O’Conner or Kennedy, the statement of justice O’Connor endorsed without academic citation or proof by Karen Braun is absurd on its’ face.

Sandra Day O'Connor believes we have a civics crisis in America due to a lack of teaching in the public schools,
"Public schools have pretty much stopped teaching government, civics and American history. ... I truly don't know how long we can survive as a strong nation if our younger citizens don't understand the nature of our government. ... That is something you have to learn. It just isn't handed down in the genetic pool."


Karen Braun says, "How true that is."

One would think that a responsible teacher, parent, adult, let-alone a former supreme court justice might consult actual research and produce some empirical data that is directly and indisputably correlated to the teaching of civics, history, and government in the public schools when making such a broad indictment of public schools and public school teachers. This attack on public education and public school teachers is symptomatic of the type of irresponsible criticism leveled by those in the anti-public school alliance on a non-stop basis. We at Thespis Journal have found these common threads among home schooling advocates: a prevailing and constant need to bash public education while failing to acknowledge any good in any professionals in the public school, and the shameless and unrestrained desire to over generalize flaws in our culture and society and make the indirect and unproven connection to public education. There is also a failure to acknowledge the widely varying degrees of success and achievement between large urban public schools and the largely successful and highly functioning suburban local school districts across our nation. It is embarrassingly inconvenient and weakens the arguments of the public school opponents significantly when one begins to discuss the portfolio of success developed in suburban and rural schools across America.

At any rate, let’s look at the one article cited by Karen Braun when she takes her latest swipe at public education. First of all the citation comes from the tabloid USA Today, and quotes not only former Justice O’Conner but also Justice Kennedy. The article quotes research that shows the alleged ignorance of the public on one basic constitutional and civics question. The remaining data in the article loosely and rather disingenuously tie together snippets of documentation which show the lack of constitutional expertise in the public at large. Spunky Home School makes a broad intellectual long-jump (something we caution against in the public school) and simply joins the other strident voices in our society which seek to make the public schools the scapegoat for failed parenting, lack of family values, lack of a strong work ethic, and all the ills which can be hung in a wreath around the neck of the crucified public school system. This line of logic rivals for idiot of the week Madeleine Albright and her cohorts in the liberal media who seek to make President Bush singularly responsible for the behaviors of Hamas, Hezbolah, and Kim Jung Il.

O’Conner, Braun, and the author of the article, Nat Hentoff, take the research and attribute this ignorance to a poor public education in a sweeping and unfounded statement that does not meet the rigorous guidelines of a junior research paper at our high school. Our budding authors are schooled in the basis of properly proving a point. The use of spurious surveys to prove an unrelated point is a considerable deduction of points on any research assignment. The survey cited in the USA Today article asked only one question of public high school students, and while the responses were unsatisfactory, the method and question used could have reflected any number of emotions, knowledge, views, and background. The survey does not specify the grade level of the students interviewed. The response s are typical of ninth grade students, but very atypical of seniors who have completed their high school curriculum. Simply knowing about the first amendment does not correlate to having an opinion about it. Assuming that all students are interested in a discussion of the first amendment with someone they don’t even know demonstrates the sheltered assumptions, and general lack of knowledge that people who never set foot inside a public school would use to bash public education.

The remaining research in the article has nothing to do with public education, and demonstrates only the complexion of society today. If suburban and rural public school districts are so terrible, Karen Braun, or no author should need to stoop to such levels to illustrate a point about the quality of public schools and public school teachers.

All of the suburban and rural school districts in the this region of Ohio require two years of American History, some form of a civics course (designed to meet the unending battery of high stakes tests that prove almost nothing), and a year of American Government. While it is a difficult topic for many of the teenagers produced by our culture and society today, the public school can not determine for parents, a child, or their extended family what values to live. If many students and their parents do not hold the constitution in high enough esteem to make truly learning and internalizing by providing the requisite answer demanded by former Justice O’Conner, the public schools can do little besides repeatedly presenting and assessing the material.

Knowing about our history, our political processes, and the relevance of our constitution to our daily lives are basic issues in a quality education. Karen Braun, Sandra Day O’Conner, and all of the rest of the anti-public school alliance can forget blaming all their ills on public education. Conservative Americans still value the role of individual freedom and responsibility. You can’t go on blaming the public school for everything much longer. Your credibility is stretched beyond the limits of believability now. Implying, by association, that the public school educators think that the popular site MySpace can teach a civics lesson is proof that Karen Braun and Sandra Day O'Conner must not know one real, live, breathing teacher. None of us would ever think something so inanane! We'll leave that type of thinking for those who lack the faith in a fair, fully funded educational opportunity for every child.

The USA Today article that set off this latest fiasco!
SpunkyHomeSchool's fantasy of civics in the public school
Read About Betsy's Summer Vacation, and she teaches history!

Thespis Journal Exclusive Essay: On the Brink of World War III

Menacing threats are on the near horizon for the United States of America. The storm clouds are gathering, the forces of evil are conspiring against the American people and Western civilization, and we the American voters, and our leaders need to be prepared to deal with this military and geo-political conflagration.

Many voices in the elite, intellectual venues of power in the major media circles of New York City and Washington DC are trapped by the limits of a narrow view of history. If these frothy thinkers had been in charge in 1941, they would have wanted to provide Hirohito, Mussolini, and Hitler endless opportunities to rehabilitate themselves and return to the peaceful community of nations. After Pearl Harbor, no reasonable leader in America believed, even superficially, that there should be more time for negotiations and stronger attempts made for a ramshackle appeasement. The United States of America and the leaders found a unity of purpose in defeating a clear enemy, and in all of the righteous might of a determined people who love freedom; an undivided America fought back and won.

The forces at work in World War I and World War II were no more black and white than the circumstances that we Americans are facing today. The struggle of good versus evil, the clash of cultures, and the manifest envy of tyrannical rulers with an identity crisis was no less pronounced. The differences in our current circumstance with the great World Wars of the 20th century have nothing to do with the struggle of the United States and other nations. The differences are in the dominant political philosophy controlling the mainstream media in these early years of the 21st century, and the disproportionate time the self-flagellating media pays to the out of power liberals and their insatiable appetite for power.

Last week saw an outbreak of stories in the dominant liberal press regarding a change of direction in the Bush doctrine. While there may have been a pause in the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive strikes against the axis of evil, and a momentary roll-back in the unwavering pursuit of freedom and democracy around the world, anyone who believes that President Bush and Condoleeza Rice have abandoned the core principals guiding their decisions since September 11, 2001 simply does not have sensible or appropriate context for their wandering remarks and sensationalist commentary. In the days ahead, Bush, Cheney, and Rice will once again demonstrate their hallmark decisiveness. These highly skilled world diplomats will no doubt surprise the unimaginative deadbeats in the liberal hierarchy and their allies in the mainstream press with strategies and methods developed while these elite editorial writers and lugubrious latte-drinkers were still trying to convince the public that Saddam Hussein could have been a friend to the United States if only Albert Gore were our President today.

The reality of today is that the United States is on the brink of World War III. It doesn’t look that much different than the last World War, and the list of similarities suggests that eerie sense of a path that must be followed: Fanatical dictators hate the West and the United States. Socialist Europe attempts appeasement while we lunatic Americans carry on with the true spirit of 1776. The acts of aggression are breath-taking and shake the world economy. An Asian mad-man wants to dominate his region. Many Americans want to avoid war at all cost. Americans lead the World in many of the critical indicators of success, including, but not limited to the most prosperous economy and living standard known to mankind.

While President Bush and his team must move carefully forward, we must never conduct our foreign policy and our global relationships from a retiring, apologetic tone. The United States, despite the dissonant voices arrayed against us from without and within, must provide the glittering beacon of liberty’s light in all of the dark days ahead. With a clarion voice, the chanticleer must sing out the song of sovereignty, autonomy, and basic human freedoms.

No one can predict the future, but if you ask me: the days and months ahead will prove to be a dire time our nation’s history, and sometime in the near future, it will be universally recognized by renaming this War on Terror as World War III.

Read more on these pressing topics at Hot Air, Hard Astarboard, Captain's Quarters,Stop The ACLU, Expose The Left, TMH Bacon Bits,Instapundit, 4thelittleguy, Check Out Basil's Blog
The Strata-Sphere
Perish The Thought, Here's an Outrage at Michelle Malkin, Powerline, MsUnderestimated