Notorius!

Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant - amazing movie, the dialogue is so sharp, the camera work amazing. Hitchcock used several long shots in film, one where Grant and Ingrid kiss, then stop, then kiss, then look into each others' eyes, kiss, breathe on each other (my god!!! sexy!!!) and then walk away to the door, almost kiss and then Grant leaves. The shot took 4 hrs, of shooting, reshooting. Another great shot, at the big party after the wedding, the interior of this house built for the movie, camera at top of long staircase, comes down as if suspended in air, focusing on Ingrid's evil Nazi husband (Claude Rains) but the shot is wrong suddenly, the camera is on husband's jacket, not his face, then he moves and the camera continues to focus...on Ingrid's hand, and the key she is holding (to the secret wine cellar). What a shot! The movie ends with the long winding staircase, the one we know is so high from that earlier long shot. The ending is wow! Great ending. A great movie, made for a fraction of what films now cost to make, with great acting, great script - 1946 and Ingrid was just 31 - I would have to say Ingrid Bergman is the most beautiful woman in the world. (wait, there are beautiful women in slippery rock so lets say Ingrid is one of the most beautiful women in the world).

My Brother is an Only child

Great movie set in early 1970's Italy, two brothers, both concerned for the "working man," one is fascist and the other communist. The fascist brother eventually rejects fascism when he experiences it personally (his friends wanted to fire bomb his brother's car) and finds a way of helping working people, by fighting government corruption. The best scene for me was when the communist college student organization put on a symphony concert featuring Beethoven's 9th symphony (one of the viola players is the sister). Anyway, the communist brother gives an introduction, about how Beethoven fought for the workers (?) and how the symphony has been "defascistized" for this performance. as the music plays, it becomes apparent that the fascists plan to raid the concert and beat up people (thats what fascists do) and it comes to the part of the 4th movement when the guy is supposed to sing, and he sings, "Mao, Marx and Lenin, fought the state for working man...." Its funny because the singing part always annoys me, I mean I love the ode to joy melody, but the words are frederick Shiller's not Beethoven's, and the singing part goes on and on and I think could be easily 15 min shorter. anyway, when I heard the word "Mao..." I knew what happened: the commie students rewrote shiller's words, in part for ideological reasons, but perhaps they found the original words as annoying as I do! the movie was ok, I especially liked the Italian cars from the 60's and 70's, those tiny Fiats.

US Government becomes Wall Street Bank

This story is amazing - i wonder how I can explain the difference between the current US economy and a fascist economy. I will have to think about this some.....

UPDATE: Here is definition of economic fascism from Internet source - its probably too vague but I find this disturbing when you read the following article (Fascists claimed to provide a realistic economic alternative that was neither laissez-faire capitalism nor communism. An inherent aspect of fascist economies was economic dirigisme, meaning an economy where the government exerts strong directive influence, and effectively controls production and allocation of resources.In general, apart from the nationalizations of some industries, fascist economies were based on private property and private initiative, but these were contingent upon service to the state.
Fascism also operated from a Social Darwinist view of human relations. Their aim was to promote "superior" individuals and weed out the weak.In terms of economic practice, this meant promoting the interests of successful businessmen while destroying trade unions and other organizations of the working class. Historian Gaetano Salvemini argued in 1936 that fascism makes taxpayers responsible to private enterprise, because "the State pays for the blunders of private enterprise... Profit is private and individual. Loss is public and social." Finally, fascism was highly militaristic. As such, fascists often increased military spending significantly, and their main reason for economic development was the wish to have a strong economy backing a strong military. Fascist governments encouraged the pursuit of private profit and offered many benefits to large businesses, but they demanded in return that all economic activity should serve the "national interest".) Doesn't this sound like a description of current US economy, that is the bail out of mortgage industry, and also sound like military policies of Pres. Bush, esp the notion of private corporations contracting services for the military?

The Federal Reserve was scrambling to prevent a "contagion" from infecting the nation's financial system when it took unprecedented actions to back a Bear Stearns rescue package and provide emergency loans to big Wall Street firms.

The Federal Reserve released documents Friday providing insights into its private deliberations in March that led to those controversial decisions. The Fed's actions came when credit and financial problems were intensifying, threatening to paralyze the entire financial system and plunge the economy into a recession.

Given the financial markets' fragile condition at that time, the Fed said it felt compelled to intervene because an "immediate failure" of Bear Stearns would bring about an "expected contagion."

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues initially moved on March 14 to provide temporary emergency financing to investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. through an arrangement with JPMorgan Chase & Co. Two days later, as the nation's then-fifth-largest investment bank teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, the Fed agreed to provide backing for up to $30 billion for a deal in which JPMorgan would take over the troubled company.

That same day — March 16 — the Fed said it would let big Wall Street firms go directly to the Fed for emergency loans, a privilege only commercial banks had previously enjoyed. It was the broadest use of the Fed's lending powers since the 1930s.

The Fed's decision to take this action was "based on recent, rapidly changing developments," the documents said. "These developments demonstrated that there had been impairment of a broad range of financial markets" that Wall Street firms rely on for financing.

There was fear that other Wall Street firms could fall into jeopardy, sending problems cascading through the financial system.

Democrats in Congress and other critics contend the Fed's actions are akin to a government bailout and are putting billions of taxpayer dollars at risk.

However, Bernanke has defended the actions, and in appearances on Capitol Hill has said he doesn't believe taxpayers will suffer any losses.

The Fed's financial lifeline in JPMorgan's takeover of Bear Stearns was subsequently changed to $29 billion and — most recently — to $28.82 billion.

Confederates in the Attic

This is a great book, by Tony Horwitz. Tony is a war correspondent who took a year off and traveled the South finding out why Southerners have such an obsession with the Civil War. The best chapter is the interview with Shelby Foote. I didnt know Foote is not a historian, he is a novelist who was asked to write a narrative of the war (an easier read than most history books) and the result was a 20 yr effort that resulted in three volumes. Foote was interviewed by Tony in Memphis, and it turns out that Foote has his phone number listed in the phone book, and answers the phone himself. It rings all day. He answers, "Hello?" then he says "You're speaking to him..." since no one can believe they just called Foote's listed number and got him on the first ring! Tony asks him questions, but Foote answers as though these are the same old questions everyone asks him. So he tries to draw Foote out.

Foote sings a ditty about Abraham Lincoln:
Abraham Lincoln was a son of a bitch
His ass ran over with a seven year itch
His fist beat his dick like a blacksmith's hammer
While his asshole whistled the Star Spangled Banner.

Too funny! He said as a boy growing up in the South he memorized hundreds of terrible songs about Lincoln, but could only remember that one. He also said:
The battle flag (stars and bars) "stood for law, honor, love of country," but has now become a banner of shame and disgrace and hate."

Also, "I'm living to see another terrible thing, the South joining the party of Lincoln."

Also this, read carefully: "What has dismayed me so much is the behavior of blacks. They ar fulfilling every dire prophecy the KKK made. It's no longer safe to be on the streets in black neighborhoods. They are acting as if the utter lie about blacks being somewhere between ape and man were true."

Foote lives in Memphis, where the police pick up the dead bodies every morning, and school children get shot walking to school by errant bullets from drug dealers. I remember one instance, at a school event, shots rang out, and Major in the Memphis Police (a dad, dressed in street clothes) got out of his car with his police gun to investigate, when a uniformed police officer (new guy) arrives, tells him to "drop the gun" and then shoots the Major. ???? Police shooting each other? Memphis reminded me of Maputo the capitol city of Mozambique, great potential but corruption and violence holds it back.

Anyway, Foote also said that he goes to Shiloh every year, on the anniversary of the battle, arrives 5 am, so he can walk the battlefield as the sun rises, so he can see and experience the conditions that the soldiers had. he comes from the south, from Corinth, and starts at Shiloh church, ends at the national cemetary where Grant slept under a tree in a storm the first night of battle. Sherman found Grant under the tree, sherman nervous as usual, tells Grant we sure got a beating today. Grant says, stoically, "We'll whip 'em in the morning..." I dont know if Grant was confident, or exhausted, but his attitude convinced Sherman that all was not lost. and the union whipped them in the morning as Grant said. (Grant was not always that Stoic: after the first day of the Wilderness Campaign, he went in his tent, threw himself down on his cot, and weeped... Maybe he weeped for the killing, or maybe just relief that he fought Gen. Lee, his army stayed together, and he met the first test of Union commander, not getting whipped like a wet puppy by Bobby Lee.

I miss living in the South, esp the pine forests of Georgia. I should have enjoyed Athens GA more while I was there, but I was struggling with grad school, no money, wearing clothes I had left over from high school, and was convinced my goal of being an academician was impossible, doomed to failure. Perhaps I will go on my own Southern battle tour this summer, starting at Gettysburg, and driving south.

BTW- Gettysburg is a fantastic place, you can walk the whole city, it is compact, you can walk the battlefield. When i was there with noah, I stayed at the Holiday Inn on the main street, got up in morning, ran to the battlefield, ran Pickett's charge, and returned to motel. BTW, Pickett's Charge looks like half a mile when you stand where Lee observed the battlefield, it is up hill, but doesn't look like it. the hill increases in degrees as you get closer to the copse of trees Lee was aiming at. running it was longer than I expected, and harder: by the time I got to the copse of trees, I was out of breath (and I was a trim long distance runner then, about 10 years ago).

El Orfanato: The Orphange

I am not one for horror films, but this one is amazing. One of the producers is Guillermo del Toro, who directed Pan's Labyrinth and Devil's Backbone. he is not the director for this movie, but you can feel his influence. Very complicated story, and the ending is very surprising, but there are hints throughout the film but you don't get it until the very end. Scary, frightening, beautiful, sad all in one. I thought it was over, such a sad movie, but then the film continued for another 3 minutes and the ending had a beautiful touch to it. On IMDB message board someone asked, will there be an english version made? Dear buddha, I hope not: this movie is perfect as is, I hope no one makes an "english" version, like all those japanese horror films made into english versions. This film comes from NetFlix, I dont know if you can rent it anywhere else.

Amazing catch by "ball girl" in minor league game! YUP ITS A FAKE

Is this a real catch??? did this really happen? If this is a real, non edited clip, then that young woman has a career in front of her...

Yes its a fake, more on this as I find out about it...

June 22nd Biking in Pittsburgh - examples of Sustainable neighborhoods.

Here is the first of a series of pictures taken in Pittsburgh, showing examples of sustainable programs. For more pictures go to my Facebook album.

NetFlix - great deal - thanks Derek for the advice!

So I wanted to see the remastered Fellini film, La Dolce Vita. In fact, it came out couple years ago, played in an independent theater in Pittsburgh, but I missed it. Anyway, I saw "Divorce Italian Style," and in the movie a defense attorney said that his client was influenced by immoral films, and showed in court, part of La Dolce Vita. So Fellini was was parodying his own movie! I loved it, really funny. In fact, Divorce Italian Style was so funny, I am still thinking about it - I wasn't expecting such a profoundly funny movie. Anyway, I wanted to see La Dolce vita, but it costs like $30 from barnes and noble dot com, so I checked NetFlix - for $8.99 a month, I get unlimited movies! Plus, they have ALL titles! I ordered La Dolce Viga two days ago, it arrived! My friend Derek Martin told me NetFlix was a great deal, he is right! Good Advice!

My flying lesson cancelled: FAA and State Troopers investigate crash

Glider Plane Goes Down In Grove City
Two Passengers Suffer Minor Injuries

POSTED: 5:44 pm EDT June 15, 2008
[NEWSVINE: Glider Plane Goes Down In Grove City] [DELICIOUS: Glider Plane Goes Down In Grove City] [DIGG: Glider Plane Goes Down In Grove City] [FACEBOOK: Glider Plane Goes Down In Grove City] [REDDIT: Glider Plane Goes Down In Grove City] [RSS] [PRINT: Glider Plane Goes Down In Grove City] [EMAIL: Glider Plane Goes Down In Grove City]
GROVE CITY, Pa. -- Two people were hurt Sunday when their glider plane went down at the Grove City Airport in Mercer County.

The two people aboard the plane suffered minor injuries. Their identities were not immediately released.

There's no word on what caused the crash.

UPDATE: ITS FRIDAY AND THE SUN IS OUT AND i AM FLYING AT 1:00 PM MAYBE COUPLE HOURS.

Three videos of Pittsburgh

Here is a video of the penthouse deck of the Penn Garrison lofts - great scene of PNC Park where "da bucs" play. I was thinking of renting a loft there, but now I am thinking of staying in slippery rock and instead buying an airplane - the airplane makes a lot of sense but I am too tired to explain it convincingly right now.

Here is a video of the three rivers art festival - final day. More food than art. I didn't go in the middle of the art because I had the bike along. The Alcoa building is visible, made out of aluminum of course. I was at the penthouse once, during an academic conference, it was great walking in front of the picture windows at the city, incredible view. It was the National Assoc of Schools of Public Affairs and Admin, a very boring conference, but the Univ of Georgia was hosting the reception and I was invited by the Dean who remembered I was an alumnus and was nearby in slippery rock - the reception was great.

And here is market square and the USX building, terrible sunlight, and all of a sudden the B 17 that was flying around pittsburgh appears - i heard it first, four radial engines are hard not to hear, esp with my airplane ears. I saw the B 17 twice but couldn't get my camera out fast enough from my fanny pack, and stop pedaling the bike too. The sun was so bright I couldn't see what I was filming, so I didn't zoom in on the plane because I wasn't sure if I was even filming it. dam.

All in all a great father's day biking in the burgh, my nose is sunburnt, and I went too far, my legs are mush. Monday morning 9 am I fly some more with Noel in the ratty Cessna 152 - i can't wait. I can't explain my love of flying - no one in my family has anything to do with airplanes. Obviously the "meme" of flying has something attractive to me, it could be the noise (I love the noise of engines) or the mechanics of it (I enjoy mechanical things, working on my old saab, studying how the instruments on an airplane work, looking at different airframe designs and comparing them and so forth...)

Biking on Father's day

top picture is Brewer's Bar and Restaurant, across from Pittsburgh Brewing Company where Iron City Beer is made, then a close up of the Brewer's Bar and Hotel, looks grim but I didn't have the nerve to go in and order a boilermaker (beer with a shot of whiskey dropped in the mug - pittsburghers drink real man's drink, none of this white wine wussy crap) - then comes a bike lane on Liberty Ave. looking westward toward strip district and "dahntahn." Next picture is the Original Oyster Shop, oldest restaurant in pittsburgh (1878) located in Market Square. And finally scene from strip district, selling clothes on the sidewalk. I was approached by a guy who wanted $20 for a karaoke machine, with an extension cord still attached to it...since it was obviously hot, I declined, then the guy said he and his daughter need to eat, so I gave him the $10 I keep in my fanny pack. Pathetic.

How wealthy are you?

I am the 38,838,479 th richest person in the world. I am richer than 99.36% of the world's population. To find out how rich you are (and feel guilty for it) go here.

Marcello Mastrioannia and Divorce Italian Style

This is a great comedy, filmed in Sicily, about a man who is in love with his cousin, but he is already married. Turns out, Sicilian courts are lenient on crimes of passion, so he figures if he can get his wife to be unfaithful, and kill her in the middle of her affair, he might actually get off with no prison time! As the plot unfolds, he is successful beyond his wildest dreams. the lead is played by Marcello Mastrioanni and he is great! He combs his hair slick back, in fact wears a do rag to tame his hair, and he smokes with a cigarette holder. Woody Allen parodied this film genre in Everything You wanted to Know About Sex but were Afraid to Ask in the skit about sex in public places, and in Play it Again Sam, in the scene where he and his friend are Italian bakers and they fight over the same woman. Marcello's character is played on Saturday Night Live by Bill Hader, who is an Italian TV interviewer who talks in rapid Italian, smokes, and his producers are off stage smoking and eating sausage and playing cards. hader dresses and acts like Marcello Mastrioanni - its very clever, and dead on "Mastrioanni genre 1960's" really funny. I searched the internet and couldn't find a video clip of him doing the skit. but very funny. In the movie, at one point a roman catholic priest gives a sermon on how society has crumbled morally because of the horrible movies made, and he refers to La Dolce Vita, a film a couple years earlier by....you guessed it, marcello Mastrioanni.!!!! Really funny, he is satirizing his own movies and pop culture spin! Great movie and I really enjoyed it.

Friday is flying day!

I am leaving earth for a couple hours friday. I have a biennial flight review with my instructor, Noel, (who is 72 yrs old, we would have flown earlier this week but his blood pressure was too high and couldn't get a medical certificate, but his doc gave him something and its ok now so the doc passed him). Anyway we are off 10 am in a cessna 152, a plane he says "its kinda ratty but it'll do." He said to look for him on the ramp: "I'm an old man with white hair and a white beard." Santa? he sounds like a real character, the exact kind of instructor I want. I mean, you don't want some narcissistic prick who has no sense of humor. We will go over basic navigation, turns, climb descend. I think I will need a 3rd hour to get signed off, some hood time. Turns out I have over 13 hrs. of instrument time. I should really consider going for my commercial rating along with instrument rating (most pilots who get Instrument rating without getting commercial do so because they don't have the overall hrs, I have about 260 total time, which is enough.) I read that pilots who just go over 250 hrs are dangerous because they actually think they know everything and have a tendency to get sloppy - I will remember that. 152's are fun planes but they don't have much power esp. for slow flying connected to instrument training. Noel says he doesn't do much plane instruction, he is more into glider instruction. They fly gliders out of Grove City airport - I might consider that. UPDATE: Noel and I flew for about 45 min. The plane (it is kind of ratty) had a wasp nest in the fuel air tube, we had to run a wire in the tube, and then add more fuel to use weight to flood wasp crap out, didn't work, so Noel put his mouth over the fuel filler on top of the wing (this involved standing on a ladder) and he blew into the fuel tank, wasp crap came out the air hole, and then the fuel went back in his face. He had to wash off after that. We finally got rolling and did some turns, climbing, descending, and one landing. Whew! I was rusty. I need at least a couple more landings. Noel is career Air Force mechanic and flight engineer, Air frame and power plant licensed, also licensed instructor. He has seen it all. Alot of fun!

"One True Thing"

Somehow I really like this film, so much so I have watched it 7-8 times and still want to see it again. Its about a college prof, George Gullen (John Hurt), who is adored by his daughter Ellen (Rene Zellweger) and his wife Kate (Meryl Streep). Kate comes down with cancer and she is the key to the story. She is the "one true thing," the person whose "light brings out the life in everything around her, including me" or so said George when he first met her. the story is told from POV of flashback, ellen is being interviewed by the district attorney because someone gave the mom an overdose of pain killer. Its a great story, i wish I wrote it (yeah right) but I have never understood why I like it so much. the mom has this buddha like quality, she understands the shortcomings of everyone around her, but somehow holds the whole family, including her husband, together. She really does bring out the life in everyone around her. As kate says, It's so much easier to be happy. It's so much easier to choose to love the things that you have, instead of always yearning for what you're missing, or what it is that you're imagining you're missing. It is so much more peaceful.

The Principality of Sealand

Here is the history of the country of Sealand, the ultimate tax free hide out from all nations and secret police. Soon to sponsor an on - line casino. This story is really over the top, complete with invasion, prisoners of war, treason, national athletes - fun reading!

How to destroy Earth

So I'm sitting in my office thinking, if mass and energy are the same (E = MC squared), how much energy is contained in earth's mass? (this is an example of the random thoughts I have during office hours, then a student shows up and wants to know if I drop the lowest grade, or if there is extra credit....). I found out that the mass of earth is 5,973,600,000 millions of trillion kilograms, and that einstein's constant is 3 (10)to the 8th squared. So lets say E = 6(10)to the 24th, times 3(10) to the eighth squared, which becomes 18 (10) to the 40 th kilograms,or
180,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms of energy. I dont know what this means, other than that is more energy than I can comprehend - one big explosion i guess. How much energy is given off by a super nova? I will have to look that up. (from the net: "If 10 kilograms of matter spontaneously turned into energy there would be enough energy to power a 100 Watt light bulb for 300 million years" - so if earth exploded the energy released would light a 100 watt bulb for eternity?)

The destruction of one kilogram would liberate nearly 1017 joules, 4.2 joules equals one ton of TNT, so earth's destruction would liberate the equivalency of 4.36 (10) to the 34 power tons of TNT. Hiroshima atomic bomb was approx 15000 tons of TNT, or earth destruction the equivalent of 3(10) to the 30th hiroshima atomic bombs, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atomic bombs.

Now I can sleep at night, knowing how much energy the destruction of earth's mass would release.

In searching the web for such useful information I cam across this:
How to destroy the Earth )

Annihilated by an equivalent quantity of antimatter

You will need: An entire planet Earth made from antimatter


Fissioned

You will need: a universal fission machine (e.g. a particle accelerator), an unimaginable amount of energy


Sucked into a microscopic black hole

You will need: a microscopic black hole.


Cooked in a solar oven

You will need: Means for focusing a good few percent of the Sun's energy output directly on the Earth.

And so forth, follow the link to the site, its fascinating reading!

Fire in Texas: Governor's Mansion all but destroyed

I am shocked to hear about the fire in the Texas Governor's mansion. This structure was ante-bellum (as they say in the south) meaning it was built before the War against Yankee Agression (so history textbooks refer to this as the American Civil War). There is a mansion in Alabama, the White House, which served as both Governor's mansion and the official residence of President Jefferson Davis until a home was arranged for him in Richmond,Virginia. Fire officials suspect arson. This is an irreplaceable home, and supposedly some of the damage is so severe that officials are not sure if it can be recovered. I really love old homes, and actually had the Governor's masion in Texas on my list of historical places I wanted to visit but haven't gotten around to yet. This is a real shame. Gov. Sam Houston was the second (or first) person to occupy the house.

The Death of SUV's - about time

"For a generation, pickups and SUVs have symbolized a rugged, oversized, no-holds-barred American lifestyle. Tuesday, automakers made it clear that consumers are hitting the brakes on their love affair with the hardiest, roomiest -- and thirstiest -- vehicles." What bullshit. Those SUV's were terrible off road vehicles. Look at some of them from the rear, the suspension hangs down and would get hung up off road, in some cases the bottoms of the shock absorbers were about 6 inches or less off the ground. the only real off road vehicles were the 4 wheel drive trucks, and the hummer. All the other SUV's were designed for false security, a big, heavy vehicle will protect the family. SUV's are top heavy, they handle terrible, they do not have the same crash protections as cars - that's right, cars are expected to be more crashworthy than SUV's, because they are "trucks" and the crash worthiness of cars do not apply. So if you drive a chevy trailblazer (or whatever its called) my corolla survives a head on crash with a barrier better than your trailblazer. I checked out SUV's when one of my sons wanted to buy one, they look cool (sometimes) but drive awful, handle awful, brake terrible, crash dangerously. I remember back in Oklahoma, when I worked for a health care corp, out chief financial officer (a hopeless okie) adopted a child and he went out and bought a Ford Explorer so his wifey and child would be safe driving to the shopping mall...what an idiot.

Many experts now say the rollover propensity of the SUV is more to blame for fatal accidents than faulty tires.

I looked up front crashes for explorer and Ford has greatly improved the performance since the explorer first came out: a 60 mph front crash (into stationary object) would total the explorer and buckle the frame underneath the driver, but driver would only have leg injury, no head injury. So ok, the explorer is finally as "safe" as a car like a Taurus ("safe" is a relative term in a 60 mph crash...)

Movie: The Beautiful Country

I show a film in my Political Film class, called Three Seasons which I have discussed earlier in this blog, and when I researched the movie I was directed to another film about vietnam, The Beautiful Country. I have never heard of it before, it was never released in US, Nick Nolte has a small cameo role in it, and I never got around to finding it on internet and buying it (I have since joined NetFlix which is the ONLY way to preview movies - NetFlix is genius) but I found it in the 3 for $10 bin at the local Movie Gallery. I had to see the end five times before I was satisfied that it really ended that beautifully - I can't get over how intense this film is, I mean tears in my eyes throughout the film and the ending is so peaceful, beautiful. I won't give away any spoilers here, but this is truly an amazing film. "Bihn" is a young man who is half American, half Vietnamese, he is discriminated against, told he is "ugly" (since he is not genetically pure) and his mother gives him money to take a boat (illegally of course) to escape Vietnam (this is 1990's). you can only imagine the deprivation he experiences. But it is worse than I could imagine. He eventually makes it to the US, "The Beautiful Country," and searches for his father. There is an incredible spiritual message in the film - at one point the movie Wall Street was playing on a television, Michael Douglas is giving his speech about "greed is good!" and contrast that with the ending. I mean, when you strip away all the veneer of our lives, what is the one thing that is most important? Love. We search for all sorts of stuff that will make us happy, the perfect job, a power career (most of my students who want to "go to law school" want to go because they are from a working poor rural western PA family and want to be POWERFUL as an adult, the equate that with success and happiness...boy are they ever wrong) and like me, my ultimate airplane (yes I have been thinking about it, just checked out a bank that gives 15 yr loans, 10% down, just under 6% interest, I could buy a used Piper Warrior for about $360 a month) or my ultimate job location (somewhere near NYC or cape cod) - - but none of that stuff is what makes life meaningful. Love. Like the love between a mother and her child, or a father and his child, or in the case of this movie, the love a son has for the father he never knew. I have sent the used copy to my son Nathan, but the new copy from Barnes and Noble will be here soon, if anyone wants to borrow it - this is a definite political film movie for the fall semester.

Young Hillary Clinton

Here is the evolution of Hillary Clinton, turns out even in elementary school she had problems with contested elections! I liked the part where she suggests her homeroom class President might just get assassinated, and when she talks about her husband's campaign (Hillary, you dont have a husband, you are ten years old!).