I guess the one big story that I got out of this short clip of the ABC Evening News, newscast was the economic report. The economy looked like it was in somewhat decent shape in January, 1978. The economy was growing and growing steadily. Jobs were being created and unemployment was falling. So I guess that would be the good news.
But the economy tanked by the spring of 1978 when interest rates started rising and inflation went up, which takes a big bite out of any economic growth that you may have. Because when inflation and interest goes up, so does the cost of living.
The other story having to do with tobacco. At the end of the piece you see why the Feds tend not be trusted on this issue because they try to have it both ways. On one hand they tell us about the dangers of smoking tobacco and that we shouldn’t do it especially minors. And if we do smoke, we should try to quit. While on the other hand they subsidize the tobacco industry through agriculture subsidies for tobacco farmers. Leaving Americans to ask a simple, but important question. Who’s side are they on.
The tight denim jean look has become so versatile the last ten years or so, that we now see sexy women wearing tight denim jeans in all sorts of settings. Wearing them in all sorts of outfits. Sexy women are now wearing tight denim jeans at the office, perhaps not everyday, but at the office. Where the settings there tend to be somewhat conservative and formal.
Sexy women wear them of course on the weekend, which has been around for over thirty years. Like when they are going shopping or going to museums or out to breakfast or lunch, even out to dinner. But they dress them up with a long sleeve t-shirt, blouse or sweaters. We see sexy women wearing tight denim jeans with suit Jackets, to work as well as other places.
Like out to dinner, we see sexy women going out and partying in tight denim Jeans, dressed up, but with also with tank tops and T Shirts. We see sexy women all over the place in tight denim jeans, at the airport, train station, library, book stores, ball games, concerts, almost everywhere. Tight denim jeans are no longer just considered to be casual pants, but instead they are now versatile. And of course my favorite, tight denim jeans with boots, under or over and with leather Jackets and tight t-shirts or tank tops.
From a guys point of view, the versatility of tight denim jeans and seeing sexy women wearing them with boots, is a beautiful thing because now we can see sexy women all over the place wearing this great combination.
The CBS Evening News looking at foreign news, which is what I wish network news did more of today. An actual sports story on a national nightly newscast involving Oakland Athletics owner Charlie Finley. And a story about the press and what stories the press should be covering. What stories that are worth reporting on and this one being about then Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater and what involvement his brother might have had with organize crime.
Some local New York State elections courtesy of WNBC-TV in New York City, which is naturally the NYC NBC affiliate there. Followed by NBC News coverage of some governors races and one Senate race in Mississippi. A short video with only about a minute of it or so covering national politics on any kind. So not much to go on for me at least just shy of third birthday in November, 1978 and obviously no personal memory of this night. But this is interesting in the sense that give you a little idea anyway of how politics was covered in America back then.
Two years ago when I started blogging about the Tea Party, I upfront blogged and predicted that the Tea Party was the Christian Right of the 1990s, with an economic libertarian message. But they still wanted to tell Americans how to live their lives and outlaw activities that are currently legal. Which is what we saw with Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign. Where once Newt Gingrich lost any hope of being a serious Republican Candidate.
A lot of Newt’s support went to the Santorum Campaign, that already had Religious and Neoconservatives with them. Two years later I’m back to believing what I originally believed. As some of the Tea Party leaders, like Sarah Palin and Representative Michelle Bachmann who are both Religious Conservatives, which has basically become the same movement. When I saw people like Rand Paul of Kentucky, guess who is father is. Senator Rom Johnson of Wisconsin and Mike Lee of Utah, all people with Conservative Libertarian leanings on Social Issues.
These are not big government Republicans, getting elected to the Senate. Then I was thinking they have problems with things like the Patriot Act, indefinite detention. And the Federal Government regulating marriage, I thought damn I was wrong about the Tea Party. And glad I was, good news for the Republican Party and even though I’m a Liberal Democrat. I believe in having two strong parties, because I don’t want to see America become a one-party state. Thats not good for liberal democracy.
Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann and Rick Santorum, even though Palin and Bachmann have lost influenced in the GOP, are 21st Century Religious-Right leaders. If Mitt Romney doesn’t get elected President in 2012, Rick Santorum will be the Frontrunner going into 2016. If he plays that right, which is all the evidence that you need to know that at least a big portion of the Tea Party has merged with Religious and Neoconservatives. And have become big government Republicans.
There are still Conservative Libertarian elements in the Tea Party. Senator Paul and Senator Lee are perfect examples of that, but when the Republican alternative to be President is Rick Santorum, that’s all you need to know that big government republicanism is alive and well in the GOP and not going anywhere The Tea Party when they first started had an opportunity to move the GOP back to Reagan conservatism.
And not only give Republicans but also Independents people to get behind. And move the party passed Bush Neoconservatism but with all the big government positions. They’ve now come out in favor of like outlawing pornography and same-sex marriage from the Federal level. They are now just the Christian Right of the 1990s. But with a conservative economic message.
Sen. John F. Kennedy was an Irish Catholic Northeastern Liberal Democrat. Running for President in 1960 and then being nominated by the Democratic Party as their presidential nominee, in a country that was overwhelmingly Protestant. That was fairly ignorant when it came to Catholicism and didn’t trust Catholics. And had a lot of miss givings about Catholicism and were worried that a Catholic President would try to establish some type of Catholic theocracy, that would govern the United States.
So because of the ignorance about Catholicism in America, Senator Kennedy had to answer some questions and lay out his beliefs when it came to Church and State how his religion affects his life in 1960. I wrote a blog about this a few weeks ago on FRS FreeState on Blogger , after former Sen. Rick Santorum now a Republican presidential candidate, commented on Senator Kennedy’s speech about Church and State.
Where Senator Santorum said that the JFK Speech made him want to “throw up”. And said that Freedom of Religion and Separation of Church and State is exactly that, that we as Americans have the Freedom of Choice in whether to practice religion or not. But that we are a constitutional republic in the form of a liberal democracy. And we are govern by a Constitution, I believe the greatest Constitution in the World. As far as the amount of individual liberty it guarantees and protects. That we are not a theocracy and government can’t get involved in religion. Other than to protect it.
If it’s a Theocracy you want to live in, based on your own religious beliefs and be governed by that, and not a constitutional republic, then I suggest you consider moving to the Islamic Republic of Iran. or the Islamic Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Because to be able to live in a country like that in the United States, would take a Constitutional Amendment in this country. Because we are a constitutional republic in the form of a liberal democracy. Not a theocracy, with Separation of Church and State.
Unfortunately we have this long tradition in our public education system of feeling the need to tell people that they are great. Or doing real well, we pass students off to the next grade whether they can read and spell their own name or not. Because the feeling is that holding back or not putting them through summer school, or having tougher educational standards, will hurt their self-esteem and that would be worst. Or we may see more students drop out of high school, because they don’t believe they can do the work.
We rather have people graduate high school, even if they don’t have the skills to be a high school graduate, than hold them back and make sure they get those skills. So their high school diploma is worth more than a piece of paper. And look how well we are doing with that, we have Americans who can’t name the current Vice President of the United States. And I’m sure not all of these people live in South Carolina or the broader Bible Belt. We also have Americans who don’t know where the Pacific Ocean is. Wouldn’t surprise me if some of these people live on the West Coast. But probably not beach homes, because they couldn’t afford them.
Brian Billick who use to coach the Baltimore Ravens had a theory of coaching. About what to do when a player screws up. He said “you can put it gently and say you know what that’s not what I was looking for on that play and hopefully you’ll do better in the future”. Or you can tell them “god dammit you fucked up buddy”. Just put it on the line and let them know exactly how they messed up.
“And this is not what I’m looking for and you’re going to have to be better in the future”. But then tell them how they screwed up and show them what you want done instead. And if they continue to screw up, find a replacement for them. Because when you reward failure, you just get more of it. But if you teach and reward success, you get more of that as well. It’s the tough love approach to life that I prefer. Lay it out on the line so you know where you are. And then you can adjust.
Self-esteem is only worth as much as its worth, if you have reason to have high self-esteem, then you should have that. But if you’re not doing very well, then you need to know that or have someone show you where you are lacking. So you can figure out what the problem is and improve yourself. And not get overconfident and think you are better than you are. Because that’s how we let ourselves down.
Jimmy the Greek reminds me of Richard Nixon at least in one sense and he reminds me of Richard Nixon’s great quote at his White House farewell address in 1974. Where President Nixon said “that you’ll never know what it is like to be at the top of the mountain until you’ve been in the deepest valley”. Meaning you’ll never know what it is like to be on top until you are on the bottom. Both men were at the top of their professions and both fell to the bottom. Like falling off of a mountain and hitting the ground.
Jimmy the Greek was at the top of his profession, the gaming industry, perhaps the top sports better in the United States. He was so hot and successful and even popular that he lands himself a gig at the number one sports show in the country the old CBS’s NFL Today. The top pre-game show in the country in the 1970s and 80s. With Brent Musburger, Irv Cross, Phyllis George the best pre-game show not just in this period, but still all-time as far as popularity, commentary, the interviews, the people they brought on.
The Greek goes from being at the top of the gaming industry and sports broadcasting profession, to at the bottom and for what, because of a stupid ignorant comment that he made about African-American athletes. Saying that they “are naturally superior athletes because of how they were bread from slavery”. Breaded from slavery, it sort of sounds like someone talking about how animals are raised. Not the way you would talk about human beings. And because of that moment of stupidity he goes from the top of his profession, to someone who people didn’t want to associate with and be with.
The Republican Party back in the 1980s and even before that going back to the 1930s and even farther than that, were a real conservative party. And why Libertarians use to be Republicans. The GOP were the get big government out of my wallet and bedrooms party. That Big Government shouldn’t be involved in free adults private lives. That people should be able to make their own decisions and then be responsible for the decisions that they make.
This was a party that could compete in the Northeast and Midwest and West. Back in the 1960s and before that, it was the Democratic Party that represented the Dixiecrats, the Christian Right and Neoconservatives. All these people who are now Religious and Neoconservative Republicans. The Republican Party use to be about both economic and personal freedom. Not just economic freedom for business and religious freedom for Christians, but the whole scale. That government shouldn’t tell people how to live their lives. And outlaw things just because they don’t like them, that was for limited government.
A party that believed in fiscal responsibility, strong, but limited defense. And a limited internationalist foreign policy. That was about defending American interests not trying to police the World. How times have changed, this was the party of Dwight Eisenhower, Bob Taft, Tom Dewey, Everett Dirksen, Barry Goldwater, Gerry Ford, Ron Reagan, Bob Dole. And today Olympia Snowe and Mitt Romney and many others would feel very welcomed in the GOP, where today they are now considered too liberal.
The Republican Party of yesterday that was about individual liberty. And a classical conservative party. Today is a Religious and Neoconservative Party that believes they know best how Americans should live their own lives. That as much as they claim to love America, they don’t seem to love Americans and want to take the country back to the 1950s. So much to the point that Rick Santroum emerges as the presidential alternative to Mitt Romney. Because other Republicans like Mitt, like GOV. Mitch Daniels. Again who would’ve fit in perfectly with the GOP thirty years ago, and has a solid conservative record, is considered too liberal to run for President in the GOP today.
The Republican Party has become so Neoconservative and even authoritarian that Northeastern republicanism is dying in the GOP. Where Sen. Olympia Snowe who looks pretty conservative by traditional Republican standards, is essentially getting kicked out of the GOP. And not running for reelection, because she’s worried about a primary challenge from the Far-Right. Even though 20-30 years ago, she would’ve fit in very well in the GOP. And considered a Conservative Republican. But today’s GOP is so far to the right, that conservative looks liberal to them. So Sen. Snowe no longer fits in.
If the media back then reported on public officials private lives as they do today, John F. Kennedy never becomes President of the United States. JFK was Bill Clinton on steroids when it came to having affairs with women other than his wife. It is not just the multiple women, but multiple women at the same time and a different women on each night and a new women that had connections to really dangerous and powerful people who had goods on Jack Kennedy that could’ve brought down his political career. Like how JFK was elected President in 1960 with the mob’s role in the Illinois election.
To look at it now I think it is somewhat amazing that the most powerful man in the world had so many people who all had the goods on them that could’ve brought him down or used him to blackmail him to get the President to layoff on their illegal operations. It is also somewhat amazing that a President of the United States could be so irresponsible with not only his own personal life, but then risk not only his own political career which is his business. But allow for that it affect how he did his job as President of the United States and having to make his own personal affairs part of his administration’s business.
But even with all of Jack Kennedy’s personal baggage, if anything his administration was tougher on people who had the goods on him, so to speak like the Italian mafia and actually went hard against the mafia and put forward policies that brought down the mafia over the years. The mafia could’ve told President Kennedy “we have the goods on you, so you better not mess with us, or we’ll release what we have on you to the media”. They had the goods on JFK, but JFK’s brother Robert Kennedy was a different story where they didn’t have anything on him. And RFK was also Attorney General of the United States. And his Justice Department went after the organize crime real hard.
You could say that Jack Kennedy was simply too irresponsible to be President of the United States. That his private life was simply too dangerous for him to be President. And again if his private life were public back then, he probably doesn’t get elected President and I’m not sure he would get elected President today with the same lifestyle. Because his private affairs wouldn’t of been private and the people would really know what kind of man JFK was.
But the fact is as President he was very responsible in the job and in the White House, (when he was working) and his Justice Department actually went hard and brought down people who could’ve really hurt him politically. And I’m sure part of that had to do with the fact that he had the goods on some of these organize crime people as well. Similar to Bill Clinton the man in public was much different from the man in private. The man in private is reckless, but the man in public is responsible and does his job the best that he can do it.
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