Christmas in July...?...

My new puppy has kennel cough...so I stayed up with her in our casita (read garage converted into studio) so my wife and other dog could sleep undisturbed through the night...  The point is:  my resulting insomnia led to an all-night-into-early-morning sojurn through old movies on TCM...pre-war comedies, wartime musicals...all great stuff...leading to this morning's showing of the Preston Sturges film CHRISTMAS IN JULY...made in 1940, when this country was still struggling to remove itself from the Great Depression...

In one of the opening scenes, Dick Powell (playing a guy with big dreams but a dead-end, low paying accountancy job) is daydreaming at his desk, and his supervisor (played by wonderful character actor Harry Hayden) calls him into his office.  Hayden's character gives Powell a pep talk.  The gist of it is that Powell has to think of himself as a success, or he never will be one.  The gem of this speech is as follows (with apologies to Sturges, who says it a little differently and a lot better):

"No system can succeed if only one-half of 1% of the parts are a success, while the rest of the parts are failures!  All parts must be successful for the system to succeed!"

I sat there dumbstruck.

Here, coming off the screen in a film made 72 years ago, reflective of a time where economic struggle and the fear which accompanies it were spread across all classes in this country, was a razor-sharp and cogent message for our time.

If ever there was a message for the Democrats and Progressives to adopt in this fight against the Right-Wing, class-warfare mongers who want to see more wealth distributed to the wealthiest while the rest of us are left to scramble for the crumbs, this is it!

Please, Lord, let somebody on the DNC have been watching TNC this morning, and take this message to President Obama, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and all the other warriors in this battle, and let their speechwriters and ad campaign managers get the soundbite of Harry Hayden's speech from this film, and play that 10-15 seconds over and over and over again on every station in this country.

Then, it would turn out that the title CHRISTMAS IN JULY would be particularly meaningful, if it turned out that Preston Sturges' words gave a great gift to the Progressive cause in the defeat of the Republicans in the upcoming election.

At the risk of pissing of the NRA...

Twelve dead, 52 wounded...  Anyone who has ever handled a weapon, let alone been faced by someone shooting at them, knows the kind of massive firepower required to accomplish this kind of damage in a matter of less than three minutes...  That's what some psychotic, worthless coward did to a movie audience in Aurora, CO at midnight tonight...and then--as one would expect from a coward--didn't even have the balls to shoot it out with arresting officers.  Just surrendered meekly...so now we have to feed and house this little weasel bastard for the next God-knows-how-many years, while his defense will probably be paid for by the National Rifle Association...

When the hell are we going to stop pussyfooting around the goddamned NRA (No Rational Association) and stop defending the "constitutional right" to own assault weapons?  Screw the "Second Amendment"!  It has nothing whatsoever to do with the right to go to a sleazebag death merchant at a "gun show", or a "sporting goods' shop, and purchase an AR-15 with a 100-round magazine and all the necessary hardware to modify it to full automatic, and to go online and purchase body armor which should be reserved to SWAT officers!!  The purchase of the items should be, if not totally illegal, red flags to all law enforcement agencies (including Homeland Security) and put the purchaser on a close-watch list. 

I am so damned sick and tired of the American Public--even more so of American politicians--rolling over and playing dead, like possums, in the face of hate and death mongers like the NRA, and Ted Nugent, and all the other right-wing-facist-motherf**kers who are puking their vitriol all over Fox, and their badly-written blogs, and everywhere else they can get access.  Take their frigging assault rifles, shove them up their butts and pull the trigger, and see if they still defend your right to bear arms.

In the interim, stay home--  Malls, theatres, parks...any place of public assembly...are the hunting grounds for all the psychofreaks with their AR-15s, Uzis, AK-47s and whatever other "arms" they can "bear" as part of their "constitutional right" under the Second Amendment.   Just don't expect them to fulfill the true meaning of that amendment:  the right to be part of a militia, in defense of their country.  That would require actual balls, something that all of them seem to lack.

Aaron, we have missed you...

Just viewed, courtesy of a friend's post (thank you Betsy Scholl) the opening of the new
Aaron Sorkin show NEWSROOM....

I don't get HBO, so can't view the show as it airs, but seeing this piece makes me want to call
DIRECT TV and change my subscription.  This is writing at its best, with ensemble acting
to match.  Not since WEST WING have I seen this kind of quality--which makes me believe
that the public, in its predictable reality-tv-soaked stupor, will reject both the message and the
messenger and the show will be canceled after one season.

I wish I wasn't such a pessimist... more than that I wish I could have a shot at being part of
this ensemble, even in the smallest of roles.  It would be an honor to work with these people
--and that, at this point in my life, might just be enough to change my attitude and outlook on life.
Slim shot, but who knows?

At all events, kudos to all involved in this groundbreaking show.