Foreign Affairs: Bilal Y. Saab: ‘Saudi Arabia’s Way Forward’

Saudi Arabia's Way ForwardSource:Foreign Affairs– the King of Saudi Arabia.

“King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz will be remembered for his relatively reformist mindset and bold foreign policy initiatives. But the Saudi leader’s passing will have little to no impact on the Kingdom’s future, especially given the set of increasingly difficult challenges the country will have to face at home and abroad.

Leadership matters, especially in the Middle East, where institutions are weak and often nonexistent. But charisma and talent, on their own, won’t be enough to dig Saudi Arabia out of the profound generational problems that go beyond Abdullah, his successor Salman, or any leader who will…

You might be able to read the rest of this article at Foreign Affairs.

“The 90-year old king of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah Bin Abdulazziz Al Saud died today. His successor is his younger brother, King Salman who is also a veteran in governing Saudi Arabia.”

Saudi Arabia has a new king

Source:ABS-CBN– the new King of Saudi Arabia

From ABS-CBN

I’m not claiming to be an expert on Saudi Arabia and that their people and especially their government is ready for this type of government, system and constitution. Especially their government that currently benefits so much from their current makeup and setup that their oil and gas revenues provides so much for their people and that most of the country is able to live pretty well in return. That their people in return give up individual freedom, or at least a lot of bit certainly from a personal perspective, but perhaps from an economic perspective as well. Since the Saudi economy is so dependent on their oil and gas.

What I’m saying is that what I would propose for them has worked very well in other countries with similar government’s or population’s. That Britain is a democratic monarchy where their government is separated from their monarchy. That their head of state is a Prime Minister who is independent of the monarchy. And that country has done very well for about sixty-years now under that system. Turkey, one of Saudi Arabia’s neighbors in the Middle East is a very religious Muslim country. But their government is secular by in-large, even if their current government wants to change that. And their government has functioned very well the last thirty-years or so.

I believe the way forward for Saudi Arabia is not to abolish their monarchy or their form of Islam. But to separate them from their government and have those three things act independently, but in partnership with the others:

A national government, hopefully federally under a federal system. That has checks and balances with an executive, legislature and judiciary. That again are independent of each other, but work in partnership. An executive that is led by a president or prime minister, not a king who is accountable to their legislature, judiciary, and most importantly, the Saudi people.

What Saudi Arabia will probably get instead from their new King is the status-quo. Which is very conservative at least on sense that they won’t change anything. And if anything make their current system stronger and more centralized and dictatorial.

For Saudi to truly become a developed country and a giant in the world economically, politically and militarily, they need to diversify their government and their economy so their people have the freedom to make Saudi as strong as it can be. And not so dependent on a monarchy and energy industry doing so much for everyone else.

You can also see this post at FRS FreeState, on Blogger.

Posted in Foreign Affairs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

C-SPAN: George Clooney: ‘On The Life & Career of Edward R Murrow: Goodnight & Good Luck (2005)

George Clooney on the Life and Career of Edward R Murrow Good Night and Good Luck Film 2005)Source:C-SPAN– actor David Stathairn talking about the movie he starred in.

“George Clooney on the Life and Career of Edward R Murrow Good Night and Good Luck Film 2005)”

From Wenzel Videous

“George Clooney on the life and career of Edward R. Murrow (2005)”

C-SPAN_ George Clooney_ ‘On The Life & Career of Edward R Murrow_ Goodnight & Good Luck (2005) _ The New Democrat

Source:CBS News– anchor Edward R. Murrow.

Source:The Film Archives

What I didn’t cover yesterday was how important Ed Murrow was for network hard news and what he meant for it. It was almost like the man was physic and could see what network news would look lets say fifty-years later. He could already see news moving in a more tabloid and entertainment oriented direction. And that news being combined with entertainment. He wanted to run and anchor a hard news show that dealt primarily with hard news. Which is exactly what CBS News the gold standard for network news for the next twenty years starting in the early 1960s became.

What Murrow said was that he knew what entertained Americans and what they wanted to see and get entertained. What he was saying was that he wanted Americans to also get what they needed to know. Why their country and world operates the way it does and why that is important to them. That Americans could have their desserts, but that also should have their entrees. Their meat and potatoes before they have their ice cream and cake. Ed Murrow was a hard news man working for primarily an entertainment network. Which is what CBS was primarily in the 1950s. Which of course changed with CBS News and CBS Sports in the 1960s and ever since.

And this whole time period with CBS executives telling Murrow and Fred Friendly that they want entertainment and with McCarthyism going on in the U.S. Senate and other big news stories of that era was the perfect way to show how entertainment competes with hard news at TV networks. Murrow saying that he knows that Americans want to see Ed Sullivan and Leave it to Beaver and whatever else. But you got these big stories going on that affect the future of America that are frankly more important. And they have to be covered and shown too.

Posted in Classic News, Originals | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Piper Perabo: Can’t Fight The Moonlight- Coyote Ugly (2000)

Piper Perabo LeAnn Rimes Can't Fight The Moonlight - Google Search

Source:Daily Motion– Piper Perabo singing LeAnn Rimes’s Can’t Fight The Moonlight.

“Coyote Ugly – Can’t Fight The Moonlight – Piper Perabo”

From Daily Motion

“Piper Perabo LeAnn Rimes Can’t Fight The Moonlight”

Piper Perabo LeAnn Rimes Can't Fight The Moonlight

Source:Lena Safranova– Piper Perabo’s Can’t Fight The Moonlight.

From Lena Safranova

For the first minute of this video I was trying to figure out whether or not Piper Perabo was actually singing. Or whether she was lip singing, or perhaps was wearing a secret earpiece and LeAnn Rimes was feeding her the words for her song. Also I didn’t know that John Goodman and Maria Bello spoke Spanish so well and were able to do it with Spanish accents. (Ha, ha)

For the sake of this post I’m going with Piper was actually singing and say that she did a very good job. I could buy that (especially if I was rich) because she does have a sweet voice and I could believe her as a good singer. With a lot of help from LeAnn Rimes who has one of the best voices in the business. And does a great job with a great song.

I could count on one hand the number of LeAnn Rimes songs that I like and not need all the fingers. I’m not a fan of country or country pop. Country rock I could listen to, but LeAnn has a great voice and would love to hear her sing to classic rock or R&B. She has a great voice for both.

Posted in Coyote Ugly, Originals | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Firing Line With William F. Buckley: The Hippie Generation (1968)

I find this whole show very interesting if for no other reason and there might not be any other reason why I find this episode of Firing Line interesting, but the contrast on it. You have Bill Buckley who was as Anglo-Saxon and preppie and perhaps even square as an American can get, interviewing hippies and an expert I guess on Hippies. Why Buckley would let Jack Kerouac go out on his show drunk, I have no idea other than maybe to make fun of the man and make him look like a joke.

The hippie movement was a reaction to the 1950s and every other conservative establishment decades before it. What the Hippies said was that there were multiple ways for Americans to live their lives and be productive people and good Americans. That they didn’t have to live the lives of the parents and grandparents. The Baby Boomers who probably made up most of the Hippies were giving this message and living their life differently. That they didn’t have to live the lives of their parents and could live the way that they wanted to and still be good productive people.

Posted in Firing Line, Originals | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: Run For Doom (1963) Starring Diana Dors

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour - Run for Doom - Google Search

Source:IMDB– English Muffin Diana Dors on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in 1963.

You can also see this post at FRS FreeState, on Blogger.

“A young doctor continues to date a beautiful showgirl in spite of warnings that her three previous marriages ended badly for her past husbands.”

From IMDB

“Dr. Don Reed falls in love with a nightclub singer named Niki Carroll despite the warnings of his seriously ill father and her ex-boyfriend who both tell him she is not good for him. Niki accepts his marriage proposal, but Don’s father dies when he hears the news. The newlyweds take an exotic honeymoon cruise with the inheritance money. During the cruise, Don becomes enraged when he sees Niki kissing another man and he accidently pushes him overboard. Niki convinces Don to keep his mouth shut and since no one saw the incident he gets away with murder. Niki eventually grows tired of him. She tells him that she is going to leave him. She also wants all his money or else she will tell the police about the murder. Niki also dumps her band leader boyfriend, but instead of accepting this he strangles her. The police call Don to the scene. He examines his wife’s body in the bedroom and discovers that she is still alive. Believing that the band leader is going to take the rap for murder, Don finishes her off. When he rejoins the police he is shocked to learn that the police knew that Niki was still alive. They had told the bandleader she was dead in order to calm him down. The police then inform Don that they like to finish questioning her. (TV.com)”

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour_ The Complete First Season - Madman Entertainment (Australia, 2013 - Google Search

Source:Amazon– Alfred Hitchcock’s TV baby.

From The Hitchcock Zone

“Diana Dors – How Long Has This Been Going On”

_ - 2021-11-06T165242.852

Source:Ramon Bautista– English Muffin Diana Dors on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in 1963.

From Ramon Bautista

“Diana Dors – Just One Of Those Things (The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, 1963)”

Diana Dors - Just One Of Those Things (The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, 1963)

Source:Mark Moyer– English Muffin Diana Dors on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, in 1963.

From Mark Moyer

“Diana Dors: Just One of Those Things”

Diana Dors

Source:ENCORE– English Muffin Diana Dors starring on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in 1963.

I think Run For Doom is Alfred Hitchcock at his best because you see the full-scale of what he wanted to give his audience. A suspense/thriller involving people who were not saints or angels and not devils either, but real people who tend to be somewhere in between. With clever writing and a lot of humor and the female lead being a goddess. A gorgeous ,sexy woman who is also very adorable and yet very clever and witty. Which is Diane Dors at her best, Jayne Mansfield who was also on this series and several other women who appeared on this series.

Run For Doom is about a nightclub singer with a bad history of marriages and relationships where the men in her life do not survive the relationship. And she walks away with a lot of money from the experiences.

Diana Dors plays Nikki Carroll the nightclub singer and she’s performing one night and is introduced to a young doctor. Dr. Don Reed played by John Gavin and they naturally hit it off. Reed being a doctor is probably Nikki’s main interest him, but he’s a young doctor who doesn’t have a lot of money yet.

Dr. Reed has an ailing very wealthy father and his relationship with Nikki goes well enough for him to want to marry Nikki. Reed has gotten several warnings about Nikki’s history with men and her dead husbands and is warned not to pursue her. But I guess he’s blinded by his love for a woman who doesn’t love him and decided to propose and marry her anyway.

Reed’s father dies after finding out that his son is going to marry Nikki and now Reed is a very wealthy man. And naturally Nikki looses personal interest in Reed and looks to get out of the marriage.

Nikki has something that she can blackmail her husband on: Dr. Reed accidentally killed someone on their honeymoon by pushing a man over the cruise boat that they were on. And they didn’t bother to report the incident. Nikki tells the doctor to give her his money or she’ll report the killing to the police.

Nikki also has a long-term on and off again boyfriend who wants her back. And knows what she is up to with her husband and decides to step in to get a piece of the action. And they have a physical struggle that leads to him strangling her and thinking he killed her.

To be honest with you: Diana Dors was the main reason why I’m so interested in this show. But it is a very entertaining and at times a pretty funny show as well. With Diana playing a woman that is so cunning personally and bright and yet she looks too sweet and cute to hurt, let alone kill anyone. And yet she has a history of dead boyfriends and husbands. But in this marriage she is the one who doesn’t survive the affair.

You can also see this post at FRS FreeState, on WordPress.

Posted in Classic Hitch, Originals | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Queen Latifah: Jaclyn Smith Ageless Beauty

Source:The Daily Press

The title says it all about one of the best overall looking women of all time. Here’s a women whose going to be 70 in October, 70 years old. A gorgeous and still baby-faced adorable red-head who if anything is actually sexier now than she was in the late 1970s when she became a star on Charlie’s Angels. Her and Raquel Welch, they seem to refuse to age. As Raquel has put it several times, looking good is her job. That is what she does and has all the motivation to look good and take care of herself, because it is how she makes her living as a businesswomen and someone with her own fashion business now. I believe Jaclyn Smith is in the same category. That looking good and fashion is her business. And the best way I think she believes she can promote that is looking as good as she possibly can herself.

There isn’t a better women that could have coined Ageless Beauty, or could have had that term named for her better than Jaclyn Smith. She’s been in Hollywood , the entertainment business and fashion industry, for over forty years now. Before I was born I’m sure, which makes me feel a little younger and yet she still looks 10-15, maybe even twenty years younger than she actually is. Here’s a women who was born at the end of World War II which was seventy years ago and she looks better today than probably most women young enough to be her daughter. And I’m sure many women young enough to be her granddaughter as well. She’s the definition of ageless beauty and 10-15 years from now will probably still be modeling her own products, because she’ll be able to give people personal experience that they work.

This is going to sound corny, but so what, because it’s so true. You’re as young as you feel and age really is only a number. I’ve seen men and women in their late thirties and early forties who are going gray already. Men that young, going bald who look 10-15 years older than they actually are. From either drinking and smoking too much, or both, perhaps using harder drugs, not eating right, not exercising, not managing stress, etc. And I’ve seen men women who actually are as old in years as younger people, who look as old as they actually are, who look as young as the younger people who’ve aged too fast. And why is that, because time machines haven’t been invented yet. The younger looking healthier looking people like Jackie Smith, take care of themselves. They enjoy life while actually taking care of themselves. Instead of seeing how hard they can live before they die.

Posted in Hollywood Goddess, The Daily Press | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lionsgate: Goodnight and Good Luck (2005) Edward R. Murrow vs. U.S. Senator Joe McCarthy

Attachment-1-1754

Source: Lionsgate

Source:Lionsgate

If I had to rate Goodnight and Good Luck on a scale of 1-10 with ten being the highest, I would give it a 9-9.5. And I saw the movie again a couple of nights ago in preparation for this blog. The only reason I wouldn’t give it a ten, is because it was a ninety-minute movie about one of the most important times during the Cold War between America and Russia and their allies on both sides. This movie should’ve been at least two-hours if not three and they would’ve been able to cover so many more aspects about the McCarthyism in the 1950s.

If you are familiar with the 1950s in America and the so-called red scare about communism and Communists in America, then you are also familiar with U.S. Senator Joe McCarthy and the Army McCarthy hearings that supposedly investigated supposed Communists inside of the U.S. Government. A complete fishing trip inside of an empty bathtub, because Chairman McCarthy and his team didn’t have much if anything to go on. Other than guilt by association. Senator McCarthy saw this as his ticket to the White House after President Dwight Eisenhower.

Edward R. Murrow the anchor and managing editor of CBS News’s See it Now, the CBS nightly newscast before the CBS Evening News, knew what communism was and who were the actual Communists. Because he covered World War II in Europe. And didn’t believe that Americans who weren’t Communists should be stuck with the label of Communists. And he and Fred Friendly and their team at See it Now, without having the backing of CBS News and the broader CBS network, decided to go after McCarthyism and expose Joe McCarthy for what he was. Which was a political opportunist and a right-wing fascist. Who saw Americans who didn’t look at the world the way he did as Un-American.

Murrow and Friendly expose Joe McCarthy for what he really was by going after him the way any good news organization would. By using the truth against McCarthy. Using his own words and documents against the Senator. And with Murrow doing a nightly editorial after their reporting on the McCarthy hearings about dangerous fascism and guilt by association is. And George Clooney who plays Fred Friendly and David Strathairn who plays Ed Murrow, do a great job of showing who the real Friendly and Murrow and the See it Now crew take down Senator Joe McCarthy.

Posted in Originals, Political Cinema | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Tyra Banks: Coyote Ugly (2000)

Tyra Banks

Source:Tyla– Tyra Banks, hot in Coyote Ugly

“I feel like I do have the dance moves, as long as no one choreographs me and tells me exactly how to dance,” replied Tyra.

She then joked that she was “tempted” to get dance lessons with renowned choreographer Derek Hough ahead of the sequel, adding: “I’m asking you now, Derek. Can you choreograph that for me?”

The original movie (as if you needed reminding!) follows aspiring songwriter Violet Sanford (portrayed by Piper Perabo) as she pursues a music career in New York City.

Working at bar Coyote Ugly to make a little extra cash on the side, Violet is welcomed into a family of all-singing, all-dancing female bar workers.”

From Tyla 

tyra banks in coyote ugly

Source:Yep– Tyra Banks in Coyote Ugly (2000)

“Trya Banks in Coyote Ugly.” Dancing on the bar. ”

From Yep

I believe this was the first scene in Coyote Ugly where the bar was open. And Violet played by Piper Perabo walks in for her tryout or audition and sees the women on the bar in action. And she comes from somewhat of a culturally conservative background, which is one of the reasons why she goes to New York and sees these gorgeous sexy women. And Tyra Banks perhaps being the best looking of these women dancing on the bar.

And I’m not saying that Tyra is a great actress, I would argue that she’s not and fairly limited as an actress, but this scene wasn’t so much acting. But sexy women especially Tyra dancing on the bar and she looked as great and did as well as any professional Coyote dancer I believe at the real Coyote bar. And watching her dancing in those tight leather jeans and boots and it is the first scene where you get to see the bar in action, you knew you were watching one hell of a good sexy movie.

You can also see this post at The Action Blog, on WordPress.

You can also see this post at FreeState Now, on Blogger.

Posted in Coyote Ugly, Originals | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Sony Pictures: Love Has Many Faces (1965) Starring Lana Turner

IMDB_ love has many faces (1965) film - Google Search

Source:IMDB– Lana Turner and Hugh O’Brien. Do we have your interest yet?

“Rich playgirl Kit Jordan (nee Katherine Lawson Chandler) is in Acapulco vacationing with her current husband, Pete Jordan, formerly an American beach boy working the Acapulco shores for rich women. Meanwhile, the body of one of Pete’s fellow beach boys, Billy Andrews, washes to shore. On his wrist is a bracelet engraved with “Love is thin ice.” The police investigate whether it was murder or suicide. Conflict arises when Billy’s old girlfriend, Carol, makes a play for Pete, and beach boy Hank tries to score with Kit, and the stability of the marriage is put to the test.”

From IMDB

“A merry-go-round of love interests and romantic intrigue, LOVE HAS MANY FACES stars Lana Turner as a millionairess married to a beach bum (Cliff Robertson). Filmed on location in exotic Acapulco, Turner is ravishing in scene after scene wearing amazing Edith Head-created outfits.”

Sony Pictures_ Love Has Many Faces (1965) Starring Lana Turner _ The Daily Post

Source:Movie Trailer– Lana Turner and Cliff Robertson.

From YouTube Movies

I just love Lana Turner and Stefanie Powers, as well as Ruth Roman. With three beautiful , a baby faces like this (blonde, hot redhead, and brunette) they have the cutest facial expressions and mannerism’s you’ll ever see and put them together in a movie together and have them in the same scene and what else would you want to see.

By the way, Ruth Roman is very beautiful and cute in this movie and I believe a very underrated actress and babe in Hollywood. And by the way, Love Has Many Faces is a very good movie. I saw it twice this week in preparation for this post. And I’ll get into what I saw and nor just Lana, Stef, and Ruth.

Love Has Many Faces is essentially about the American gigolo. Three men now working in Acapulco, Mexico which is absolutely gorgeous looking for their next meal tickets.

Pete Jordan (played by Cliff Robertson) already has his meal ticket Kit Jordan his wife. Who should’ve been called Kitty or Kitten because she was so adorable in this movie. One of Pete’s old friends, a fellow gigolo washes up dead on an Acapulco beach. This guy also has a connection with Kit and was wearing a bracelet that she gave him. So now Pete and Kit are suspects for the Acapulco police in this murder investigation.

Carol Lambert (played by Stefanie Powers) is the girlfriend of the dead gigolo and comes down to Acapulco from America to find out what happened to her boyfriend. Pete not only has to worry about he and his wife as murder suspects in this investigation, but also has a rival who wants his wife (Hank Walker, played by Hugh O’Brien)  and old friend of his wife.

During this whole investigation and scene you have a married couple Pete and Kit Jordan who’ve been married for about a year and yet they’ve argued like they’ve been married for thirty-years. And have two or three kids together who are all in or out of college. And thinking about divorcing each other. In that sense this movie reminds of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe (starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton) but perhaps not as funny.

During this whole movie I’m wondering if Pete actually loves his rich wife or not, or did her marry her because she’s rich. They are clearly attracted to each other and share a mutual respect. But they socialize with other people and have other potential love interests.

Pete has his old friend’s girlfriend Carol and Kit has Hank. Or are Pete and Kit using each other and trying to make each other jealous to perhaps try to bring them closer to each other. All this going on during a murder investigation where they are both suspects in it. And then throw in the clever writing and humor and you have a very good movie.

Posted in Classic Movies | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Economist: ‘German-Americans: The Silent Minority’

 

German-American

Source:Ask Ideas– “Proud To Be German American. Happy German-American Day.”

“ON A snow-covered bluff overlooking the Sheboygan river stands the Waelderhaus, a faithful reproduction of an Austrian chalet. It was built by the Kohler family of Wisconsin in the 1920s as a tribute to the homeland of their father, John Michael Kohler, who had immigrated to America in 1854 at the age of ten.”

From The Economist 

“Museum exhibit at Salem, VA. About 300,000 German-Americans were designated as “enemy aliens” and 11,000 put into internment camps during WWII, contrary to their rights as U.S. citizens according to the Constitution. This could happen again to anyone, and in fact is what the USA PATRIOT ACT was set up to do, arbitrary enemy designation, without grand jury indictments or due process, only suspicion from high up in government.”

From Blue Ridge WV

Unconstitutional German-American Internment during WWII

Source:Blue Ridge WV– Concentration camps happened to German-Americans as well, during World War II.

I think I completely agree with this article from The Economist that I just read. Which is saying something because I don’t agree with them on everything. I tend to like their information and analysis, but tend to disagree with their solutions. They are a center-right publication after all. But as a German-American myself, as the name Erik Schneider would indicate, an asteroid sized clue there, we do tend to go unnoticed as an ethnic group in America. And I’m not sure if that is because we’ve been in America so long. The eighteen-hundreds for a lot of us, or because we’ve accomplished so much as a people who is goes unnoticed.

The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives John Boehner, the highest ranking full-time member of Congress and that includes the Senate Pro Tempore and the Vice President of the United States, is a German-American and a proud one. And a distinct one, I mean you might as well paint the German flag on his face, he looks so German. And yet you wouldn’t know it unless you are familiar with the German people and German names and physical characteristics and so-forth. We’ve created so much for this country as far as technology, food, culture, public servants, Dwight Eisenhower for example. And yet we tend to go unnoticed as a people and perhaps get taken for granted.

When Nancy Pelosi became the first Speaker of the House in America back in 2007, she was mentioned as being the first female Speaker and Italian-American Speaker. But when John Boehner becomes Speaker four years later, nothing is mentioned about him being a German-American who also happens to be the Speaker. Same thing with Newt Gingrich back in 1995. Newt was mentioned as being the first Republican Speaker elected since 1953, but not for being a German-American. And again I think this goes to the success of our people that we are expected to do well and accomplish big things. And Americans just aren’t surprised when we do.

Posted in Originals, The Economist | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment