End ED — From the Left!
It’s no secret that expelling the U.S. Department of Education is something that a lot of libertarians, and conservatives who haven’t lost their way, would love to do. What’s not nearly so well known is that there are also people on the left who dislike ED. Now, they don’t dislike it because it and the programs it administers clearly exist in contravention of the Constitution, or because its massive dollar-redistribution programs have done no discernable good. They dislike it because, especially since the advent of No Child Left Behind, it strong-arms schools into doing things left-wing educators often disagree with or resent, like pushing phonics over whole language, or imposing standardized testing. Many also truly believe in local control of schools, though often with power consolidated in the hands of teachers.
Case in point is a guest blog post over at the webpage of the Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss. The entry is by George Wood, principal of Federal Hocking High School in Ohio and executive director of the Forum for Education and Democracy. He writes:
Everybody dislikes bureaucracies, but for different reasons. The “right” complains they are unresponsive, full of “feather-bedders,” and a waste of taxpayer money. The “left” complains they are unresponsive, full of people who are too busy pushing paper to see the real work, and too intrusive into local, democratic decision-making. Maybe we should unite all this new energy for making government more responsive and efficient around the idea of eliminating a bureaucracy that was probably a bad idea in the first place.
Remember that the Department of Education was a payoff by President Jimmy Carter to teacher unions for their support. Before that, education was part of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
That’s where I propose returning it. Here are several reasons why:
First, the current structure of the national Department of Education gives it inordinate control over local schools. The federal government provides only about 8% of education funding. But through through NCLB, Race to the Top, and innovation grants, they are driving about 100% of the agenda. Clearly this is a case of a tail wagging a very big dog.
Second, by separating education from health and welfare, we have separated departments that should be working very closely together. We all know, even if some folks are loath to admit it, that in order for a child to take full advantage of educational opportunities he or she needs to come to school healthy, with a full stomach, and from a safe place to live.
But the federal initiatives around education seldom take such a holistic approach; instead, competing departments engage in bureaucratic turf wars that, while fun within the Beltway, are tragic for children in our neighborhoods.
Third, whenever you create a large bureaucracy, it will find something to do, even if that something is less than helpful. After years of an “activist” DOE, we do not see student achievement improving or school innovation taking hold widely. We have lived through Reading First, What Works, and an alphabet soup of changing programs with little to show for it.
In fact, DOE has often been one of the more ideological departments, engaging in the battles such as phonics vs. whole language. Who needs it?
Who needs it, indeed!
As I have touched upon repeatedly since last week’s election, now is the time to launch a serious offensive against the U.S. Department of Education. I have largely concluded that because of the wave of generally conservative and libertarian legislators heading toward Washington, as well as the powerful tea-party spirit powering the tide. But this is a battle I have always thought could be fought with a temporary alliance of the libertarian right and educators of the progressive left who truly despise top-down, one-size-fits-all, dictates from Washington. There are big sticking points, of course — for instance, many progressives love federal money “for the poor” — but this morning, I have a little greater hope that an alliance can be forged.
The other weekend in San Antonio over 600 people gathered for the 50th anniversary re-premiere and celebration of one of the great American-themed epics of the early 1960s, John Wayne’s The Alamo. People came from far and wide to watch a director’s cut of the film on the River Center Imax screen and attend a dinner, concert and museum exhibit at the real Alamo featuring costumes, props and art work from this 1960 classic.
Seeing The Alamo on a big screen where it was meant to be experienced really emphasizes the powerful imagery that has helped this film endure for fifty years. Wayne’s Alamo defenders are as one biographer described, “…an undisciplined group of rugged individualist from Tennessee and Texas who love freedom and resent authority.” Sounds like a bunch of lovable Tea Party members to me. That innately American sense of unbridled freedom celebrated in The Alamo is one of the reasons the film still resonates so well with so many people here and even abroad.
Made during the heyday of widescreen roadshow epics like El Cid and Lawrence of Arabia, Wayne’s film has always been a highly popular DVD title for the financially ailing MGM/UA. The biggest movie star ever, Wayne directed, produced and starred in this uniquely American story. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, contrary to unsubstantiated claims of box-office failure the film was actually one of the top ten domestic grosser of 1960-61, but The Alamo’s then huge $12,000,000 budget initially cut into its profit margin and could have bankrupted Wayne. The film set box-office records in London, Paris, Rome and Japan eventually earning a then $28,000,000 world-wide during its initial 1960-61 release.
Unfortunately Wayne sold United Artists his participation in the future profits of the film. He so believed in the power of the Alamo story that he had mortgaged his own home, other real estate and even his family cars and reluctantly agreed to star in the epic in order to bring it to the screen his way. At the time Wayne told the press, “I’ve gambled everything I own in this picture – all my money… and my soul.”
His daughter Aissa has reflected, “I think making The Alamo was my father’s own form of combat. More then an obsession, it was the most intensely personal film of his career.” The Alamo’s beautiful female lead, Argentinean actress Linda Cristal once said, “John Wayne loved the Alamo like a man loves a woman once in a lifetime—passionately.”
Forty-something Christophe Lambert, who wasn’t yet born when The Alamo first hit movie screens, came all the way from France for the film’s new premiere and celebration. Former sergeant major of Britain’s famed 24th Regiment of Foot, Maurice Jones traveled from far off Wales where he runs The Alamo Film Forum, and there were a number of other British attendees. The Alamo is still very popular in Great Britain were it often plays at various retrospective film festivals. People also came from Germany, New Jersey, New York and not a few from California including Joe Musso, a highly respected storyboard and studio artist who has worked for everyone from Clint Eastwood to Alfred Hitchcock.
Other dedicated fans of this film cover a wide range of backgrounds from successful New Jersey radiologist Murray Weissmann, retired New York City Fire Captain and author Bill Groneman, professional musician Tony Pasqua, JPL technical writer Jerry Laing, history teacher Larry Grimsley and more then a few Texans of all stripes and persuasions. Youngest Wayne daughter Marisa and Duke’s granddaughter Anita LaCava Swift represented the family at the San Antonio event genuinely impressed by the incredible enthusiasm of the crowd. Like Wayne himself Marisa and Anita were always warm and receptive to The Alamo’s numerous fans.
Unlike the 2004 failed politically correct film version of the battle where 189 American, Texan, European and Tejano (Texas Mexican) patriots sacrificed their lives fighting against brutal Mexican dictator Santa Anna’s thousands, Wayne’s version celebrates the bravery and dignity of the common frontier people who settled this country. Wayne’s The Alamo has endured with viewers because it speaks so well to the value of our own treasured legends that have a strong basis in reality. He evoked the spirit of the battle of the Alamo, not the often now disputed “facts” as “interpreted” by modern revisionist historians with a definite far-left bias who keep poisoning the minds of the impressionable and uninformed.
The Alamo really captured that essence of America’s frontier peoples and even celebrated the dignity of the opposing Mexican army. Wayne shot one wonderfully realized scene that takes place right after the first failed attack against the old mission where Mexican Army camp followers look amongst the dead for their husbands and loved ones. One of Davy Crockett’s Tennesseans comments quietly, “Speaks well that so many are willing to die fighting for what they believe is right.” As a high school student I once watched a reissue of the film amongst a primarily Hispanic audience in San Jose, California. You could have heard a pin drop in the theater when during the same scene a wonderfully wrinkled, elderly female extra knelt over a fallen Mexican infantryman and made the sign of the cross.
The Alamo includes a large number of these kinds of magnificent scenes, and still some of finest battle footage ever put on film by director of photography William Clothier, John Wayne as Davy Crockett, a stellar performance by Lawrence Harvey as the Alamo’s stiff necked but brave commander William Barrett Travis and a knockout score by Dimitri Tiomkin. The beautifully realized Alamo set was as much a star of the film as any of the actors and Wayne wisely filmed it as such. Unlike most war films today where bloody gore splatters the screen, Wayne’s The Alamo, while graphic for its’ time never uses the violence of combat for shock and exploitive effect.
Over my mantle hangs a framed letter John Wayne personally wrote to me about The Alamo two years before his death in 1979. As a college student and huge fan of the film, tired of seeing it butchered on television screens I had naively written to him care of his company offices inquiring if we would ever again get to see the film as he intended it to be seen. Part of Wayne’s answer still resonates today:
“Our damned liberal friends are screaming about violence to take our minds off of the pornographic bad taste that is being made in the motion picture business by their confreres.”
Several weekends ago in San Antonio John Wayne’s spirit must have been looking down from afar and grinning ear to ear as the audience laughed in all of the right spots, paused in awe at the magnificent visuals and tapped their toes to the wonderful musical score. Remember the real Alamo and remember John Wayne’s The Alamo, because both still live on.
eric seiger
New Michael Jackson Track, 'Breaking <b>News</b>', In Quite Good Shocker <b>...</b>
Even Michael Jackson haters must be intrigued as to what the recently deceased pop-stars new single was going to sound like. There was a very good chance it wasn't going to be very good, what with MJ not being around long enough to ...
Meanwhile, also in the <b>news</b>…
This entry was posted in News and tagged alex carlile, david anderson, harrogate council, mike gardner. Bookmark the permalink or use the short url http://ldv.org.uk/22006 for twitter and emails. Follow any comments here with the RSS ...
Wednesday Morning Fly By: NHL and Phantoms <b>News</b> - Broad Street Hockey
Today's open discussion thread, complete with your daily dose of Philadelphia Flyers news and notes... Remembering Pelle Lindbergh: [Flyers Faithful]; Looking at Peter Laviolette's impact on the Flyers: ...
eric seiger
End ED — From the Left!
It’s no secret that expelling the U.S. Department of Education is something that a lot of libertarians, and conservatives who haven’t lost their way, would love to do. What’s not nearly so well known is that there are also people on the left who dislike ED. Now, they don’t dislike it because it and the programs it administers clearly exist in contravention of the Constitution, or because its massive dollar-redistribution programs have done no discernable good. They dislike it because, especially since the advent of No Child Left Behind, it strong-arms schools into doing things left-wing educators often disagree with or resent, like pushing phonics over whole language, or imposing standardized testing. Many also truly believe in local control of schools, though often with power consolidated in the hands of teachers.
Case in point is a guest blog post over at the webpage of the Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss. The entry is by George Wood, principal of Federal Hocking High School in Ohio and executive director of the Forum for Education and Democracy. He writes:
Everybody dislikes bureaucracies, but for different reasons. The “right” complains they are unresponsive, full of “feather-bedders,” and a waste of taxpayer money. The “left” complains they are unresponsive, full of people who are too busy pushing paper to see the real work, and too intrusive into local, democratic decision-making. Maybe we should unite all this new energy for making government more responsive and efficient around the idea of eliminating a bureaucracy that was probably a bad idea in the first place.
Remember that the Department of Education was a payoff by President Jimmy Carter to teacher unions for their support. Before that, education was part of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
That’s where I propose returning it. Here are several reasons why:
First, the current structure of the national Department of Education gives it inordinate control over local schools. The federal government provides only about 8% of education funding. But through through NCLB, Race to the Top, and innovation grants, they are driving about 100% of the agenda. Clearly this is a case of a tail wagging a very big dog.
Second, by separating education from health and welfare, we have separated departments that should be working very closely together. We all know, even if some folks are loath to admit it, that in order for a child to take full advantage of educational opportunities he or she needs to come to school healthy, with a full stomach, and from a safe place to live.
But the federal initiatives around education seldom take such a holistic approach; instead, competing departments engage in bureaucratic turf wars that, while fun within the Beltway, are tragic for children in our neighborhoods.
Third, whenever you create a large bureaucracy, it will find something to do, even if that something is less than helpful. After years of an “activist” DOE, we do not see student achievement improving or school innovation taking hold widely. We have lived through Reading First, What Works, and an alphabet soup of changing programs with little to show for it.
In fact, DOE has often been one of the more ideological departments, engaging in the battles such as phonics vs. whole language. Who needs it?
Who needs it, indeed!
As I have touched upon repeatedly since last week’s election, now is the time to launch a serious offensive against the U.S. Department of Education. I have largely concluded that because of the wave of generally conservative and libertarian legislators heading toward Washington, as well as the powerful tea-party spirit powering the tide. But this is a battle I have always thought could be fought with a temporary alliance of the libertarian right and educators of the progressive left who truly despise top-down, one-size-fits-all, dictates from Washington. There are big sticking points, of course — for instance, many progressives love federal money “for the poor” — but this morning, I have a little greater hope that an alliance can be forged.
The other weekend in San Antonio over 600 people gathered for the 50th anniversary re-premiere and celebration of one of the great American-themed epics of the early 1960s, John Wayne’s The Alamo. People came from far and wide to watch a director’s cut of the film on the River Center Imax screen and attend a dinner, concert and museum exhibit at the real Alamo featuring costumes, props and art work from this 1960 classic.
Seeing The Alamo on a big screen where it was meant to be experienced really emphasizes the powerful imagery that has helped this film endure for fifty years. Wayne’s Alamo defenders are as one biographer described, “…an undisciplined group of rugged individualist from Tennessee and Texas who love freedom and resent authority.” Sounds like a bunch of lovable Tea Party members to me. That innately American sense of unbridled freedom celebrated in The Alamo is one of the reasons the film still resonates so well with so many people here and even abroad.
Made during the heyday of widescreen roadshow epics like El Cid and Lawrence of Arabia, Wayne’s film has always been a highly popular DVD title for the financially ailing MGM/UA. The biggest movie star ever, Wayne directed, produced and starred in this uniquely American story. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, contrary to unsubstantiated claims of box-office failure the film was actually one of the top ten domestic grosser of 1960-61, but The Alamo’s then huge $12,000,000 budget initially cut into its profit margin and could have bankrupted Wayne. The film set box-office records in London, Paris, Rome and Japan eventually earning a then $28,000,000 world-wide during its initial 1960-61 release.
Unfortunately Wayne sold United Artists his participation in the future profits of the film. He so believed in the power of the Alamo story that he had mortgaged his own home, other real estate and even his family cars and reluctantly agreed to star in the epic in order to bring it to the screen his way. At the time Wayne told the press, “I’ve gambled everything I own in this picture – all my money… and my soul.”
His daughter Aissa has reflected, “I think making The Alamo was my father’s own form of combat. More then an obsession, it was the most intensely personal film of his career.” The Alamo’s beautiful female lead, Argentinean actress Linda Cristal once said, “John Wayne loved the Alamo like a man loves a woman once in a lifetime—passionately.”
Forty-something Christophe Lambert, who wasn’t yet born when The Alamo first hit movie screens, came all the way from France for the film’s new premiere and celebration. Former sergeant major of Britain’s famed 24th Regiment of Foot, Maurice Jones traveled from far off Wales where he runs The Alamo Film Forum, and there were a number of other British attendees. The Alamo is still very popular in Great Britain were it often plays at various retrospective film festivals. People also came from Germany, New Jersey, New York and not a few from California including Joe Musso, a highly respected storyboard and studio artist who has worked for everyone from Clint Eastwood to Alfred Hitchcock.
Other dedicated fans of this film cover a wide range of backgrounds from successful New Jersey radiologist Murray Weissmann, retired New York City Fire Captain and author Bill Groneman, professional musician Tony Pasqua, JPL technical writer Jerry Laing, history teacher Larry Grimsley and more then a few Texans of all stripes and persuasions. Youngest Wayne daughter Marisa and Duke’s granddaughter Anita LaCava Swift represented the family at the San Antonio event genuinely impressed by the incredible enthusiasm of the crowd. Like Wayne himself Marisa and Anita were always warm and receptive to The Alamo’s numerous fans.
Unlike the 2004 failed politically correct film version of the battle where 189 American, Texan, European and Tejano (Texas Mexican) patriots sacrificed their lives fighting against brutal Mexican dictator Santa Anna’s thousands, Wayne’s version celebrates the bravery and dignity of the common frontier people who settled this country. Wayne’s The Alamo has endured with viewers because it speaks so well to the value of our own treasured legends that have a strong basis in reality. He evoked the spirit of the battle of the Alamo, not the often now disputed “facts” as “interpreted” by modern revisionist historians with a definite far-left bias who keep poisoning the minds of the impressionable and uninformed.
The Alamo really captured that essence of America’s frontier peoples and even celebrated the dignity of the opposing Mexican army. Wayne shot one wonderfully realized scene that takes place right after the first failed attack against the old mission where Mexican Army camp followers look amongst the dead for their husbands and loved ones. One of Davy Crockett’s Tennesseans comments quietly, “Speaks well that so many are willing to die fighting for what they believe is right.” As a high school student I once watched a reissue of the film amongst a primarily Hispanic audience in San Jose, California. You could have heard a pin drop in the theater when during the same scene a wonderfully wrinkled, elderly female extra knelt over a fallen Mexican infantryman and made the sign of the cross.
The Alamo includes a large number of these kinds of magnificent scenes, and still some of finest battle footage ever put on film by director of photography William Clothier, John Wayne as Davy Crockett, a stellar performance by Lawrence Harvey as the Alamo’s stiff necked but brave commander William Barrett Travis and a knockout score by Dimitri Tiomkin. The beautifully realized Alamo set was as much a star of the film as any of the actors and Wayne wisely filmed it as such. Unlike most war films today where bloody gore splatters the screen, Wayne’s The Alamo, while graphic for its’ time never uses the violence of combat for shock and exploitive effect.
Over my mantle hangs a framed letter John Wayne personally wrote to me about The Alamo two years before his death in 1979. As a college student and huge fan of the film, tired of seeing it butchered on television screens I had naively written to him care of his company offices inquiring if we would ever again get to see the film as he intended it to be seen. Part of Wayne’s answer still resonates today:
“Our damned liberal friends are screaming about violence to take our minds off of the pornographic bad taste that is being made in the motion picture business by their confreres.”
Several weekends ago in San Antonio John Wayne’s spirit must have been looking down from afar and grinning ear to ear as the audience laughed in all of the right spots, paused in awe at the magnificent visuals and tapped their toes to the wonderful musical score. Remember the real Alamo and remember John Wayne’s The Alamo, because both still live on.
eric seiger
New Michael Jackson Track, 'Breaking <b>News</b>', In Quite Good Shocker <b>...</b>
Even Michael Jackson haters must be intrigued as to what the recently deceased pop-stars new single was going to sound like. There was a very good chance it wasn't going to be very good, what with MJ not being around long enough to ...
Meanwhile, also in the <b>news</b>…
This entry was posted in News and tagged alex carlile, david anderson, harrogate council, mike gardner. Bookmark the permalink or use the short url http://ldv.org.uk/22006 for twitter and emails. Follow any comments here with the RSS ...
Wednesday Morning Fly By: NHL and Phantoms <b>News</b> - Broad Street Hockey
Today's open discussion thread, complete with your daily dose of Philadelphia Flyers news and notes... Remembering Pelle Lindbergh: [Flyers Faithful]; Looking at Peter Laviolette's impact on the Flyers: ...
eric seiger
eric seiger
eric seiger
New Michael Jackson Track, 'Breaking <b>News</b>', In Quite Good Shocker <b>...</b>
Even Michael Jackson haters must be intrigued as to what the recently deceased pop-stars new single was going to sound like. There was a very good chance it wasn't going to be very good, what with MJ not being around long enough to ...
Meanwhile, also in the <b>news</b>…
This entry was posted in News and tagged alex carlile, david anderson, harrogate council, mike gardner. Bookmark the permalink or use the short url http://ldv.org.uk/22006 for twitter and emails. Follow any comments here with the RSS ...
Wednesday Morning Fly By: NHL and Phantoms <b>News</b> - Broad Street Hockey
Today's open discussion thread, complete with your daily dose of Philadelphia Flyers news and notes... Remembering Pelle Lindbergh: [Flyers Faithful]; Looking at Peter Laviolette's impact on the Flyers: ...
eric seiger
End ED — From the Left!
It’s no secret that expelling the U.S. Department of Education is something that a lot of libertarians, and conservatives who haven’t lost their way, would love to do. What’s not nearly so well known is that there are also people on the left who dislike ED. Now, they don’t dislike it because it and the programs it administers clearly exist in contravention of the Constitution, or because its massive dollar-redistribution programs have done no discernable good. They dislike it because, especially since the advent of No Child Left Behind, it strong-arms schools into doing things left-wing educators often disagree with or resent, like pushing phonics over whole language, or imposing standardized testing. Many also truly believe in local control of schools, though often with power consolidated in the hands of teachers.
Case in point is a guest blog post over at the webpage of the Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss. The entry is by George Wood, principal of Federal Hocking High School in Ohio and executive director of the Forum for Education and Democracy. He writes:
Everybody dislikes bureaucracies, but for different reasons. The “right” complains they are unresponsive, full of “feather-bedders,” and a waste of taxpayer money. The “left” complains they are unresponsive, full of people who are too busy pushing paper to see the real work, and too intrusive into local, democratic decision-making. Maybe we should unite all this new energy for making government more responsive and efficient around the idea of eliminating a bureaucracy that was probably a bad idea in the first place.
Remember that the Department of Education was a payoff by President Jimmy Carter to teacher unions for their support. Before that, education was part of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
That’s where I propose returning it. Here are several reasons why:
First, the current structure of the national Department of Education gives it inordinate control over local schools. The federal government provides only about 8% of education funding. But through through NCLB, Race to the Top, and innovation grants, they are driving about 100% of the agenda. Clearly this is a case of a tail wagging a very big dog.
Second, by separating education from health and welfare, we have separated departments that should be working very closely together. We all know, even if some folks are loath to admit it, that in order for a child to take full advantage of educational opportunities he or she needs to come to school healthy, with a full stomach, and from a safe place to live.
But the federal initiatives around education seldom take such a holistic approach; instead, competing departments engage in bureaucratic turf wars that, while fun within the Beltway, are tragic for children in our neighborhoods.
Third, whenever you create a large bureaucracy, it will find something to do, even if that something is less than helpful. After years of an “activist” DOE, we do not see student achievement improving or school innovation taking hold widely. We have lived through Reading First, What Works, and an alphabet soup of changing programs with little to show for it.
In fact, DOE has often been one of the more ideological departments, engaging in the battles such as phonics vs. whole language. Who needs it?
Who needs it, indeed!
As I have touched upon repeatedly since last week’s election, now is the time to launch a serious offensive against the U.S. Department of Education. I have largely concluded that because of the wave of generally conservative and libertarian legislators heading toward Washington, as well as the powerful tea-party spirit powering the tide. But this is a battle I have always thought could be fought with a temporary alliance of the libertarian right and educators of the progressive left who truly despise top-down, one-size-fits-all, dictates from Washington. There are big sticking points, of course — for instance, many progressives love federal money “for the poor” — but this morning, I have a little greater hope that an alliance can be forged.
The other weekend in San Antonio over 600 people gathered for the 50th anniversary re-premiere and celebration of one of the great American-themed epics of the early 1960s, John Wayne’s The Alamo. People came from far and wide to watch a director’s cut of the film on the River Center Imax screen and attend a dinner, concert and museum exhibit at the real Alamo featuring costumes, props and art work from this 1960 classic.
Seeing The Alamo on a big screen where it was meant to be experienced really emphasizes the powerful imagery that has helped this film endure for fifty years. Wayne’s Alamo defenders are as one biographer described, “…an undisciplined group of rugged individualist from Tennessee and Texas who love freedom and resent authority.” Sounds like a bunch of lovable Tea Party members to me. That innately American sense of unbridled freedom celebrated in The Alamo is one of the reasons the film still resonates so well with so many people here and even abroad.
Made during the heyday of widescreen roadshow epics like El Cid and Lawrence of Arabia, Wayne’s film has always been a highly popular DVD title for the financially ailing MGM/UA. The biggest movie star ever, Wayne directed, produced and starred in this uniquely American story. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, contrary to unsubstantiated claims of box-office failure the film was actually one of the top ten domestic grosser of 1960-61, but The Alamo’s then huge $12,000,000 budget initially cut into its profit margin and could have bankrupted Wayne. The film set box-office records in London, Paris, Rome and Japan eventually earning a then $28,000,000 world-wide during its initial 1960-61 release.
Unfortunately Wayne sold United Artists his participation in the future profits of the film. He so believed in the power of the Alamo story that he had mortgaged his own home, other real estate and even his family cars and reluctantly agreed to star in the epic in order to bring it to the screen his way. At the time Wayne told the press, “I’ve gambled everything I own in this picture – all my money… and my soul.”
His daughter Aissa has reflected, “I think making The Alamo was my father’s own form of combat. More then an obsession, it was the most intensely personal film of his career.” The Alamo’s beautiful female lead, Argentinean actress Linda Cristal once said, “John Wayne loved the Alamo like a man loves a woman once in a lifetime—passionately.”
Forty-something Christophe Lambert, who wasn’t yet born when The Alamo first hit movie screens, came all the way from France for the film’s new premiere and celebration. Former sergeant major of Britain’s famed 24th Regiment of Foot, Maurice Jones traveled from far off Wales where he runs The Alamo Film Forum, and there were a number of other British attendees. The Alamo is still very popular in Great Britain were it often plays at various retrospective film festivals. People also came from Germany, New Jersey, New York and not a few from California including Joe Musso, a highly respected storyboard and studio artist who has worked for everyone from Clint Eastwood to Alfred Hitchcock.
Other dedicated fans of this film cover a wide range of backgrounds from successful New Jersey radiologist Murray Weissmann, retired New York City Fire Captain and author Bill Groneman, professional musician Tony Pasqua, JPL technical writer Jerry Laing, history teacher Larry Grimsley and more then a few Texans of all stripes and persuasions. Youngest Wayne daughter Marisa and Duke’s granddaughter Anita LaCava Swift represented the family at the San Antonio event genuinely impressed by the incredible enthusiasm of the crowd. Like Wayne himself Marisa and Anita were always warm and receptive to The Alamo’s numerous fans.
Unlike the 2004 failed politically correct film version of the battle where 189 American, Texan, European and Tejano (Texas Mexican) patriots sacrificed their lives fighting against brutal Mexican dictator Santa Anna’s thousands, Wayne’s version celebrates the bravery and dignity of the common frontier people who settled this country. Wayne’s The Alamo has endured with viewers because it speaks so well to the value of our own treasured legends that have a strong basis in reality. He evoked the spirit of the battle of the Alamo, not the often now disputed “facts” as “interpreted” by modern revisionist historians with a definite far-left bias who keep poisoning the minds of the impressionable and uninformed.
The Alamo really captured that essence of America’s frontier peoples and even celebrated the dignity of the opposing Mexican army. Wayne shot one wonderfully realized scene that takes place right after the first failed attack against the old mission where Mexican Army camp followers look amongst the dead for their husbands and loved ones. One of Davy Crockett’s Tennesseans comments quietly, “Speaks well that so many are willing to die fighting for what they believe is right.” As a high school student I once watched a reissue of the film amongst a primarily Hispanic audience in San Jose, California. You could have heard a pin drop in the theater when during the same scene a wonderfully wrinkled, elderly female extra knelt over a fallen Mexican infantryman and made the sign of the cross.
The Alamo includes a large number of these kinds of magnificent scenes, and still some of finest battle footage ever put on film by director of photography William Clothier, John Wayne as Davy Crockett, a stellar performance by Lawrence Harvey as the Alamo’s stiff necked but brave commander William Barrett Travis and a knockout score by Dimitri Tiomkin. The beautifully realized Alamo set was as much a star of the film as any of the actors and Wayne wisely filmed it as such. Unlike most war films today where bloody gore splatters the screen, Wayne’s The Alamo, while graphic for its’ time never uses the violence of combat for shock and exploitive effect.
Over my mantle hangs a framed letter John Wayne personally wrote to me about The Alamo two years before his death in 1979. As a college student and huge fan of the film, tired of seeing it butchered on television screens I had naively written to him care of his company offices inquiring if we would ever again get to see the film as he intended it to be seen. Part of Wayne’s answer still resonates today:
“Our damned liberal friends are screaming about violence to take our minds off of the pornographic bad taste that is being made in the motion picture business by their confreres.”
Several weekends ago in San Antonio John Wayne’s spirit must have been looking down from afar and grinning ear to ear as the audience laughed in all of the right spots, paused in awe at the magnificent visuals and tapped their toes to the wonderful musical score. Remember the real Alamo and remember John Wayne’s The Alamo, because both still live on.
eric seiger
eric seiger
New Michael Jackson Track, 'Breaking <b>News</b>', In Quite Good Shocker <b>...</b>
Even Michael Jackson haters must be intrigued as to what the recently deceased pop-stars new single was going to sound like. There was a very good chance it wasn't going to be very good, what with MJ not being around long enough to ...
Meanwhile, also in the <b>news</b>…
This entry was posted in News and tagged alex carlile, david anderson, harrogate council, mike gardner. Bookmark the permalink or use the short url http://ldv.org.uk/22006 for twitter and emails. Follow any comments here with the RSS ...
Wednesday Morning Fly By: NHL and Phantoms <b>News</b> - Broad Street Hockey
Today's open discussion thread, complete with your daily dose of Philadelphia Flyers news and notes... Remembering Pelle Lindbergh: [Flyers Faithful]; Looking at Peter Laviolette's impact on the Flyers: ...
eric seiger
eric seiger
New Michael Jackson Track, 'Breaking <b>News</b>', In Quite Good Shocker <b>...</b>
Even Michael Jackson haters must be intrigued as to what the recently deceased pop-stars new single was going to sound like. There was a very good chance it wasn't going to be very good, what with MJ not being around long enough to ...
Meanwhile, also in the <b>news</b>…
This entry was posted in News and tagged alex carlile, david anderson, harrogate council, mike gardner. Bookmark the permalink or use the short url http://ldv.org.uk/22006 for twitter and emails. Follow any comments here with the RSS ...
Wednesday Morning Fly By: NHL and Phantoms <b>News</b> - Broad Street Hockey
Today's open discussion thread, complete with your daily dose of Philadelphia Flyers news and notes... Remembering Pelle Lindbergh: [Flyers Faithful]; Looking at Peter Laviolette's impact on the Flyers: ...
eric seiger
New Michael Jackson Track, 'Breaking <b>News</b>', In Quite Good Shocker <b>...</b>
Even Michael Jackson haters must be intrigued as to what the recently deceased pop-stars new single was going to sound like. There was a very good chance it wasn't going to be very good, what with MJ not being around long enough to ...
Meanwhile, also in the <b>news</b>…
This entry was posted in News and tagged alex carlile, david anderson, harrogate council, mike gardner. Bookmark the permalink or use the short url http://ldv.org.uk/22006 for twitter and emails. Follow any comments here with the RSS ...
Wednesday Morning Fly By: NHL and Phantoms <b>News</b> - Broad Street Hockey
Today's open discussion thread, complete with your daily dose of Philadelphia Flyers news and notes... Remembering Pelle Lindbergh: [Flyers Faithful]; Looking at Peter Laviolette's impact on the Flyers: ...
eric seiger
New Michael Jackson Track, 'Breaking <b>News</b>', In Quite Good Shocker <b>...</b>
Even Michael Jackson haters must be intrigued as to what the recently deceased pop-stars new single was going to sound like. There was a very good chance it wasn't going to be very good, what with MJ not being around long enough to ...
Meanwhile, also in the <b>news</b>…
This entry was posted in News and tagged alex carlile, david anderson, harrogate council, mike gardner. Bookmark the permalink or use the short url http://ldv.org.uk/22006 for twitter and emails. Follow any comments here with the RSS ...
Wednesday Morning Fly By: NHL and Phantoms <b>News</b> - Broad Street Hockey
Today's open discussion thread, complete with your daily dose of Philadelphia Flyers news and notes... Remembering Pelle Lindbergh: [Flyers Faithful]; Looking at Peter Laviolette's impact on the Flyers: ...
eric seiger eric seiger
eric seiger
eric seiger
eric seiger
New Michael Jackson Track, 'Breaking <b>News</b>', In Quite Good Shocker <b>...</b>
Even Michael Jackson haters must be intrigued as to what the recently deceased pop-stars new single was going to sound like. There was a very good chance it wasn't going to be very good, what with MJ not being around long enough to ...
Meanwhile, also in the <b>news</b>…
This entry was posted in News and tagged alex carlile, david anderson, harrogate council, mike gardner. Bookmark the permalink or use the short url http://ldv.org.uk/22006 for twitter and emails. Follow any comments here with the RSS ...
Wednesday Morning Fly By: NHL and Phantoms <b>News</b> - Broad Street Hockey
Today's open discussion thread, complete with your daily dose of Philadelphia Flyers news and notes... Remembering Pelle Lindbergh: [Flyers Faithful]; Looking at Peter Laviolette's impact on the Flyers: ...
It has always been my advocacy to help other people about relationships and how to deal with it. While doing some research I passed by this forum/discussion with topics about relationships and decided to register so I can make suggestions and hoped to help people there.
As I register, I was so amazed to find out that this site pays you for doing some discussions. The site is called MyLot. It is basically similar to other networking sites. You can add friends, send messages, make some comments etc. You can make discussions of your own and make responses on other people's discussion. The only difference is by making discussions, making responses and using the site as often as you can, you earn money. Yes, the site pays you for doing that.
It got me thinking for a while. Is this the evolution of forums and social networking website? If it is, that would be great. People will not only enjoy discussions and making friends online but also make money out of it.
The website "MyLot dot com" works like this. After you successfully register, you can now earn money in four ways.
The first one is through discussions; you make a discussion and you response to other discussions. The site will pay you just by doing that. This is very simple especially when you enjoy doing it.
Second, you can earn more through referrals. You will be given a link after you join MyLot which you can use to invite friends, relatives or people you don't know simply by clicking on that link to sign up on MyLot. You will get a bonus of 25% of that mylot user's earnings.
Third, you can also earn from doing some tasks. This is the unique part in MyLot. It has a Task Dashboard where in you can view available task created by MyLot and other partners which you can accept and do. It can be any task. You can choose the easiest or the complicated ones. After completion of the task, if approved, you will get compensated.
Last but not the least; you earn money through rewards given by MyLot. A box will appear on your screen congratulating you and stating your Reward amount. This reward is given from time to time for simply using MyLot naturally and by using the MyLot Search in the same manner you use Google or Yahoo. Just a reminder: MyLot can detect abuses in using the MyLot Search. If detected, your account will be terminated without notice and therefore forfeits your earnings. So be careful with this one.
All of these making money online opportunities in a single site make it fantastic! You do what you enjoy most while being compensated. That's the beauty of MyLot. Join now and be a part of this great opportunity.
eric seiger
New Michael Jackson Track, 'Breaking <b>News</b>', In Quite Good Shocker <b>...</b>
Even Michael Jackson haters must be intrigued as to what the recently deceased pop-stars new single was going to sound like. There was a very good chance it wasn't going to be very good, what with MJ not being around long enough to ...
Meanwhile, also in the <b>news</b>…
This entry was posted in News and tagged alex carlile, david anderson, harrogate council, mike gardner. Bookmark the permalink or use the short url http://ldv.org.uk/22006 for twitter and emails. Follow any comments here with the RSS ...
Wednesday Morning Fly By: NHL and Phantoms <b>News</b> - Broad Street Hockey
Today's open discussion thread, complete with your daily dose of Philadelphia Flyers news and notes... Remembering Pelle Lindbergh: [Flyers Faithful]; Looking at Peter Laviolette's impact on the Flyers: ...
eric seiger
New Michael Jackson Track, 'Breaking <b>News</b>', In Quite Good Shocker <b>...</b>
Even Michael Jackson haters must be intrigued as to what the recently deceased pop-stars new single was going to sound like. There was a very good chance it wasn't going to be very good, what with MJ not being around long enough to ...
Meanwhile, also in the <b>news</b>…
This entry was posted in News and tagged alex carlile, david anderson, harrogate council, mike gardner. Bookmark the permalink or use the short url http://ldv.org.uk/22006 for twitter and emails. Follow any comments here with the RSS ...
Wednesday Morning Fly By: NHL and Phantoms <b>News</b> - Broad Street Hockey
Today's open discussion thread, complete with your daily dose of Philadelphia Flyers news and notes... Remembering Pelle Lindbergh: [Flyers Faithful]; Looking at Peter Laviolette's impact on the Flyers: ...
eric seiger
Hey, I even have looking your article and that helped me to put in writing my article about golden apple fruit you want to have a test on my article.
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