The Phil Donahue Show: Ayn Rand Interview (1979)

Posted on September 29, 2012 by Ederik Schneider

Source:Real Life Journal

This is a classic interview, because you had two very intelligent people with lots of followers, who both had a message to deliver. But came from very different sides of the political spectrum. Ayn Rand, being a Libertarian/Objectivist and Phil Donahue being a Progressive/Socialist even. Two people with very different beliefs on what the role of government is. Especially the role of the Federal Government. Ayn, whose see government’s role as basically doing nothing more, than to basically protecting our freedom and constitutional rights. And Phil Donahue, believing that government should be doing a lot for its people. That there’s only so much we can expect that the private enterprise can do for the people.

The Phil Donahue belief I guess, is when people have a lot of economic freedom, we see too much income inequality, that we should tolerate in a democracy. And that we need a strong Federal Government to provide the human services, that we shouldn’t trust private enterprise to do for the people. And if that means having high taxes to pay for these human services, so be it. If that means we get good public services from all of these taxes. So this was a discussion between two people, who have very different views in what the role of government is and what it should be doing for its people. But two people who are very intelligent and can make their case very well in how they look at the world ideologically.

The best thing that I could probably compare this interview with today, it would be like Ralph Nader interviewing Ron Paul, or vice-versa. Two men that are actually pretty similar when it comes to social freedom and civil liberties. But are very different in what they see the role for the Federal Government as it relates to the economy. Ron Paul basically believing that people should be able to keep and spend as much money as they make and be able to spend it as they see it, as long as they aren’t spending that money hurting people. Ordering hits and that sort of thing. And Ralph Nader, believing that a country is a community and to be a member of this community, we should all have to pay a price for it. To make this community as strong as it can be. Similar to Rand-Donahue.

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CBS News: Walter Conkrite- Interviewing President John F. Kennedy (1963)

Posted on September 29, 2012 by Erik Schneider

Liberal Democrat

Source:CBS News– President John F. Kennedy (Democrat, Massachusetts) being interviewed by CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite, in 1963.

Source:The Daily Press

“CBS-TV Interview With President John Fitzgerald Kennedy On Sept. 2, 1963”

From President John F. Kennedy

In September, 1963, CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite sat down with President John F. Kennedy and interviewed him up in Massachusetts, to talk about the issues he was dealing with.

Jack Kennedy, knew the power of TV about as well, or better than anyone in the 1960s and even 1950s. So he probably wanted to do this type of interview and to layout for the country what he was working on and wanted to accomplish. This interview happened fourteen months before the 1964 presidential election. And just a little over two months before he was assassinated and in late 1963.

President Kennedy, had an economy that was weakening and was trying to get a jobs plan through Congress. That included a large tax cut that cut taxes across the board. Including bringing the top rate down from 90 to 70% and the bottom rate from 25 to 20%. And this economic plan contributed to creating the economic boom of the 1960s.

President Kennedy was also dealing with civil rights and making sure that Federal Court orders were being carried out. And that African-American students were able to go to once segregated schools and so-forth.

And this is the time that President Kennedy came out strongly in favor of civil rights and introduced a civil rights bill to Congress. And of course President Kennedy was also dealing with the United States early involvement in the Vietnam Civil War as well.

President Kennedy, had a lot on his plate to deal with in 1963 and it would’ve been nice to see him at least try accomplish all the things that he wanted to do to deal with these issues.

A lot of what President Lyndon Johnson got passed in Congress was finishing off the agenda that President Kennedy put forward and sent to Congress. But was unable to get through the House and Senate.

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HLN: Showbiz Tonight Countdown- Best Burnett Ever!

Posted on September 26, 2012 by Derik Schneider

Source: The Daily Journal

One of the best variety comedy shows of all-time, sort of like a half-hour Saturday Night Live. Speaking of SNL, SNL gets a lot of credit for being such an original variety skit-comedy show that other shows have tried to follow and make their own versions of it. And all of that is true, but Carol Burnett, was essentially the same thing, but came out 6-7 years earlier in the late 1960s, instead of 1975 with SNL and was on CBS instead of NBC. And you could make a case that Carol Burnett herself and her show with his her great cast and writers, inspired shows like Saturday Night Live and later In Living Color, MADD-TV and other skit comedy shows. Because of how good it was, how original it was, the topics it covered. That it wasn’t about sending a political, or cultural message, but about making fun of everyday American life.

The Carol Burnett Show, covered and had everything and they weren’t about politics at least in the sense they were trying to push some political message. It was simply about entertainment and what was going on in America at the time especially as it related to pop culture. And always looking for the funny side of everything they covered. They mad fun of politicians, movies, TV shows, actors, musicians, weren’t worried about political correctness and pleasing everybody. But great comedians who all had similar sense of humors, great chemistry, who liked each other loved working with each other. And in that sense at least it reminds me of Seinfeld and was better than Saturday Night Live, that generally looks at politics from a political slant. Carol Burnett, was simply about making people laugh and doing it in a classy way and having a great time at it.

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David Kelley: Ayn Rand & The Rebirth of Liberty (1991)

Posted on September 26, 2012 by Ederik Schneider
David Kelley

David Kelly

Source:FreeState Now

In the last ten years or so, we’ve both lost and gained freedom in America. We lost some of our privacy rights during the Bush Administration. With the Patriot Act and indefinite detention, but have gained some of those rights back, as it relates to same-sex marriage, homosexuality in general, where anti-homosexual laws have lost steam and popularity in the country. Same-sex Marriage has become legal in some states. Even some Republicans now believe that employers shouldn’t be allowed to discriminate against people based on their sexuality. Sodomy laws have been struck down, the country is now split on marijuana and it may win legalization in some states in 2012.

Free Speech continues to be defended and upheld in the Supreme Court, as much as Neoconservatives and Progressives have tried to weaken it. So we’ve seen a mix bag when it comes to freedom in America the last ten years. But the last ten years or so the country has moved towards individual freedom and embracing it, as well as non discriminatory policies. And we are becoming even more of a nation at least as how Americans looks at politics, that wants government out of our homes and wallets.

Individual freedom, is something that has to continue to be spoken up for and defended. Or like anything else once its taken for granted, it will be taken away, from people on the right and left that believe that individual freedom is dangerous. And we need the state to lay down what’s acceptable. Even when it comes to how Americans live their own lives, because once they have individual freedom, we may end up making what statists on the right and left see as mistakes that are bad for the country. “And that cannot be allowed to exist, so we need restrictions on how people live their lives, so government can protect people from themselves at their expense.” Not my point of view, but a statist point of view.

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President John F. Kennedy & His Generals

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Ederik Schneider

Source:FreeState Now

Its pretty clear that President Kennedy’s generals didn’t respect him as Commander-in-Chief at least not at first. President Kennedy, was a liberal internationalist and Cold Warrior, but in the liberal sense. That you need to be strong at home, as well as abroad. That liberal democracy and liberty, are things worth fighting for. But that America, can’t do everything by ourselves and can’t police the world by ourselves. That there’s a limit to even what American power can do, even military power. And that we have to use all of our resources as a country. Military, economic, our people, our freedom, our media and show people who live in authoritarian states, what American freedom is like. And what they’re missing living under an iron curtain. Which is called diplomatic as well as political power. Which is what liberal internationalism, liberal foreign policy and liberal cold warriors were about.

President Kennedy’s generals, his Joint Chiefs, would probably be called Neoconservatives today. Even though they were working for a Liberal Democratic President, in a Liberal Democratic administration and a Liberal Democratic National Security Council. They believed, you judge strength, by how tough you talk, how much you spend on your military and what you say you’re going to do. They were always a military first and perhaps only group. Who believed diplomatic and economic power were signs of weakness. Does any of this sound like a previous administration? And I could also add shoot first and ask questions later. Does that sound like the Iraq War of 2003? And that was never Jack Kennedy, who hated communism and authoritarianism as much as anyone as a Liberal Democrat. But was much smarter and realistic about how he approached it.

President Jack Kennedy, against his generals in 1961 and 62, sounds to me like John Kerry, vs. Dick Cheney today. The liberal negotiator and freedom fighter, vs the tough talker. Who believes that authoritarianism in other countries should be wiped out, period. “Do that first and figure and then figure out what comes later, if you can. But it eliminating the authoritarian regime which is what is important.” And its a good thing that someone as cool and smart as Jack Kennedy, who also happened to be a Liberal Democrat, was President during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Because it was his approach which is what ended it. Had the Neoconservatives been in charge back then, maybe we end up going to war with Russia in the 1960s.

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AlterNet: Opinion: Lynn Stuart Parramore- ‘Are You Ready For a Post Masculine World?’

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Derik Schneider

AN

Source: This piece was originally posted at FRS Daily Journal: AlterNet: Opinion: Lynn Stuart Parramore- ‘Are You Ready For a Post Masculine World?’

Men who needs them? A Far-Left pipe dream where men are not even welcome, or where masculinity disappears, or where all men are essentially gay. I find it ironic that people on the Far-Left who are so anti-male man-haters, tend to be somewhat dykish even and have masculine characteristics themselves. Even though they claim to be anti-masculinity. They see football, boxing, interest in cars, tools, gambling, checking out attractive women and I could go on, but I have other things I would like to accomplish in my life, but they see all of these activities as somehow sexist. Even though a lot of American women, straight even, like football, boxing, cars, tools, gambling, etc and are some of the most feminine, beautiful and sexy women you’ll ever see.

It is not so much masculinity that the man-hating sexist Far-Left doesn’t like. Well they don’t like masculinity, but it’s male masculinity and male heterosexuality that they don’t like. But if women are a Dyke, no problem, because she’s just being who she was born as. According to Socialists on the Far-Left who don’t like masculinity when it comes from straight men. You’ll never see straight men, or women who are to the right of Socialists, democratic or otherwise, which is only most of the world, try to put down female femininity. Because we love women, especially straight women. At least coming from a straight man. We love who they are and how versatile that they are. That they’re cute, beautiful, well-built, funny, but they’ll also stand up for themselves and watch sports with the guys.

There straight women who like sports and there are straight men such as myself, who like soap operas. If they’re funny, well-written, well-done and seem to have some broader point other than, ‘who is Jake going to stab in the back now.’ Or whoever the character is. Without straight men and yes we tend to be masculine which is a common characteristic about straight men and something that straight women tend to like about us, we would have a country of gay men and overly adorable and feminine straight women who never grow up. We would be a national day care center and kindergarten class. With no one to fix the cars when they break down, police the streets, defend the country and so-forth. Because all the men would be makeup artists, or clothing designers. Well I guess the dykes could handle the male responsibilities. It would be a strange universe where everyone who enters who use to live on Planet Earth would think they drank too much, or got too high the night before.

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Longines Chronoscope: U.S. Senator Everett M. Dirksen (1952)

Posted on September 23, 2012 by Rik Schneider
U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen R, Illinois

U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen R, Illinois

Source:The Daily Post

Members of Congress in both parties are always looking to weaken executive power. Especially since president’s are always looking to increase executive power. Which is what this debate is about and what Senator Dirksen was trying to do to have the members of this board having to all be approved by the U.S. Senate. During the 1930s the Roosevelt Administration under the New Deal, created all sorts of new programs, boards, agencies that had jurisdiction over the economy. And what Senator Dirksen wanted to do was to have these boards and board members have to be approved by the Senate. With both the Senate and House having Congressional oversight over these boards.

Many of these boards and agencies that were created by the New Deal were permanent boards and agencies. The President can put together short-term commissions and boards to study issues and come up with policy proposals and these things are put together all the time. But these commissions don’t have subpoena power generally and can’t issue new rules and regulations that business’s and individuals have to comply with. So what Senator Dirksen wanted to do here with this board since it was permanent with regulatory power was to have the members be approved by the Senate and have to report to Congress. Both the House and Senate.

This interview was done in 1952 when the country was at peace for the most part even though we were involved in the Korean Civil War. And the economy that was in depression for most of the 1930s and came out of that and recovered in the 1940s thanks to World War II. And Senator Dirksen’s line about fake prosperity had to do with the fact that the American economy was booming at this point, because we were at war and had so many me oversees and fighting. Which created millions of jobs at home with so many men out of the country. Plus with all the middle class jobs that were created at home to fight World War II and then later the Korean War. And I guess Senator Dirksen was saying that America wouldn’t have the prosperity at home if we weren’t fighting abroad.

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David Von Pein: ABC News JFK Assassination As it Happened-11/22/1963

Posted on September 22, 2012 by Erik Schneider
ABC News

ABC News

Source: The Daily Press

ABC News, was such a small operation in the early 1960s. Sorta like the baby sister or baby brother of NBC and CBS News. They didn’t become a major operation at least until the late 1960s or early 70s, when Howard Smith took over as the anchor of the ABC Evening News. And probably not even a major competitor as far as first being in news when it came to the TV networks until the late 70s and early 80s. When Nightline with Ted Koppel came on the air and covered the Iranian Hostage Crisis.

ABC News, won a lot of rewards for their depth coverage of the Iranian Hostage Crisis. It made Ted Koppel a star and household name and if you look at this coverage of the JFK assassination, you don’t see a clear anchor of this coverage. It looks more like a news update or something. When CBS News went on the air, with this story, Walter Cronkite when their number one anchor, broke in right away to report this story. And the same thing with NBC News with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, they went their main people their stars. You don’t see that with ABC News.

With what ABC News had to work with back then and again being in third place out of the three networks and being so far back it looked like fifth place, I think they actually did pretty well. And were on top of the story. They were the so-called CW or My-TV, whatever that is, or even FOX. Being so small that they didn’t even have a news division, or weren’t interested in news at all. FOX, of course now has a news obviously. ABC, was a national TV network back then, but didn’t have the affiliates and ratings that CBS and NBC did.

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AP: Raw Video: Judge Denies Request to Stop Anti-Muslim Trailer

Posted on September 20, 2012 by Erik Schneider

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This post was originally posted at FRS FreeState on Blogger

If this actress in this movie was misled about this movie that she was in, then she probably has a good case. That she should take to court and sue the makers of this movie over that and be rewarded compensation for that. Assuming she didn’t know that she was going to be part of an islamaphobic film and I don’t know if she was misled or not, but as far as getting the movie shut down, over that, that simply won’t happen.

We have a First Amendment in this country that protects Freedom of Speech, which movies would clearly come under, because they clearly have speech in them. And when they are in documentary form, they are delivering a message and perhaps intended to inform people about the subject matter that the film is covering. And seeing speech that you love or hate, is part of sharing and living in a liberal democracy of three-hundred and fifteen million people. We can control what we see and hear, but can’t shut people up on our own.

Suing people might be part of the American Way in America, but free speech is clearly the American Way and has to be protected. Whether its peaceful speech, hate speech, accurate speech or inaccurate Speech. It’s not the job of government to protect us from what they may see as dangerous speech. We have the freedom to make these decisions for ourselves.
Occupy May Day Protest

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Brave New Foundation: Law & Disorder: How the System Really Works

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Derik Schneider
RIP Dennis Farina

RIP Dennis Farina

Source: Brave New Foundation: Law & Disorder: How the System Really Works

A lot of these law enforcement shows about the justice system, all though most of them are entertaining, only focus on a small percentage of the crimes. But again we are talking about entertainment here. Who would want to watch a show that’s about shoplifting, or traffic stops, drunk driving an so-forth. People need to be able to differentiate between reality and entertainment and many times they are not the same thing. But even if the law enforcement shows showed the criminal justice system for what it is that it a lot about drug crimes and drug offenders and that a lot of these supposed crimes happen in African-American communities in urban areas, these shows would be accused of racism. For always highlighting young African-American men as suspects and criminals.

If these law enforcement shows showed the criminal justice system for what it really is, that it is basically about low-level felonies like shoplifting and misdemeanors, who would watch? Again I get back to the entertainment factor here. A lot of these shows as far as the crimes and how the detectives and prosecutors do their jobs even though they aren’t completely accurate, are at least realistic. As professionals in the criminal justice system will tell you. And even though they do tend to concentrate on a low percentage of crimes that are committed in America, they tend to do a good and accurate job. And they are realistic in the sense that crimes in America are committed by all Americans as far as ethnicity and race. And they don’t focus on one racial, or ethnic group in America.

Again to go back to Hollywood and reality it’s not the job of Hollywood to show exactly what life if like and the subjects that they cover. There job is to be entertaining and hopefully realistic. Smart viewers want both, but unfortunately for lot of Americans they simply want to be entertained when they are watching TV. And even if these shows don’t show the criminal justice system for exactly what it is, again its Hollywood and if you’re a smart person you’re going to anyway how realistic the show is anyway by how informed you are about how the country works. And how much you know about current affairs in America including criminal justice, or whatever the issue is.

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