AND TO THIS DELCARATION...........
One of my favorite movies is National Treasure, another in a long line of Jerry Bruckheimer masterpieces. Bruckheimer is a film-maker extraordinaire, and has proven time and again that excellent cinematic entertainment is possible without heaping gobs of gore, violence, or gratuitously overdone sex upon the viewers. Treasure is certainly fanciful, but is full of winsome adventure, romance, history, and humor, and is a great film for for all ages.
There is a pivotal scene in the movie where Ben Gates (Nicholas Cage) and his sidekick Riley are gazing at the original Declaration of Independence in the National Archives. While reading aloud an exerpt, Gates pauses to comment to his friend, "You know - people don't talk like that anymore".
South of Broad
Bibliophiles and readers rejoice - on August 11 Pat Conroy will release his latest novel entitled, South of Broad.
A journalist once asked Winston Churchill if he had read a colleague's last book. "I certainly hope so", chortled the irrepressible statesman. Contrary to Churchill's view of his associate's writing; I hope this is not Conroy's last book. But it is his first release in many years, and cause for great anticipation.
Less is More
As I have oft written, the laws of economics are immutable, and beyond the power of legislators and even Presidents to obviate. They operate inexorably and will not be mocked.
There are many reasons for our current economic and financial woes, but one of the foundational causes is that we have sent a generation of people into high political office that know nothing of economics. This was true of all three Bush Presidencies (41 and 42) and is certainly true of Obama and the current leaders of the U.S. Congress. One can consider almost any significant domestic policy initiative to see this, and none demonstrates it more clearly than the bloated and lurching monster that is staggering down Pennsylvania Avenue disguised as a national health care program.
