Craziness Abounds

Everywhere I turn, something crazier than the last crazy thing I witnessed pops up.  It's gotten to the point that I don't believe a word I read or hear and almost choose to wait until history books are written on the subject so that I can get a more accurate picture of what I witnessed.  Of course, that's fraught with peril as well, because revisionist historians can skew facts through clever editorial choices to paint a different picture.

Where to start?

People are up in arms about the Christmas song Baby It's Cold Outside calling for radio stations to cease playing it because of, in their minds, its oversexualized overtones.  First, I disagree with this completely.  Second, one has to put the song in the context of the era in which it was written.  But third, why is this song villified when rap songs with far greater graphic passages are allowed on the air with no complaint from this group?  Why are those songs not facing protest in the name of the defense of women?  For people to get worked up over this mystifies me.

Next, let's take a look at the border situation.  The caravans from Central America have made it to our southern border...much to Mexico's, and specifically, Tijuana's, consternation.  Mexico, and particularly Tijuana, are now getting a taste of what the United States gets when thousands upon thousands of illegal aliens take up camp in a country where they don't belong.  But now it's gotten even more absurd:  Members of the caravan have offered to return to their countries of origin if the United States pays each of them $50,000.00 and agrees to end deportations of illegals in our country.  This is after a group of them filed suit in U.S. District Court claiming their constitutional rights were violated while they were in their home countries and Mexico.

President Trump met with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in the Oval Office yesterday.  The POTUS invited the media to film the encounter.  The Democrats wanted to negotiate in private.  The President said no.  There then ensued words in which Senator Schumer remined the President that elections have consequences.  The President then responded that Republicans took seats in Indiana and North Dakota.  Schumer later said that if the President was bragging about winning seats in Indiana and North Dakota, he's in big trouble.  I'm quite sure those soundbites are being ginned up for the 2020 elections.

Kevin Hart was tapped to host the Oscars.  Then some homophobic comments he made years ago were made public.  So he backed out.  Kyler Murray won the Heisman over the weekend.  The USA Today quickly published homophobic tweets he made when he was in his teens.  He hasn't given the trophy back.  Yet.

A rather heavy-set woman from Kentucky wowed the audience on The Voice.  She may not have had the best voice, but she clearly had one of the top three.  She didn't make the top three.

Protests have broken out in France over taxes that were levied on gasoline to pay for Green initiatives.  The protests have since spread to other issues.  This in the home of the Paris Accords.

The U.K. is in a political form of coitus interruptus.  It can't decide whether to follow through with Brexit or lump the whole thing.  Meanwhile, Ireland's left hanging, because if the U.K. Brexits, then there's a need for a hard border between the Republic and the rest of Ireland.  Yet the Brits declare the Irish are the ones who don't get it.

Democrats are licking their chops at the prospect of impeaching or, after his tenure ends, indicting the President, even though there are more pressing matters and he's done nothing to justify either impeachment or indictment.  Meanwhile, gas prices are nearing their lowest in ten years.

Office holiday parties are being cancelled due to concerns of sexual harrassment of women.

Wildfires have destroyed miles of California land and killed over one hundred people  If there's rain that could lead to mudslides in the areas denuded of trees.  Yet Californians continue to live there.

That wingbat socialist congresswoman from New York continues to prove once again that stupid is as stupid says.

The FBI is facing a massive investigation over its investigative practices of the President and Cankles.  The trouble is:  Who's going to investigate the FBI?

Conservatives are having a meltdown over the fact that Justices Roberts and Kavanaugh sided with the more liberal members of the Court in the Planned Parenthood case.  This is further proof that civilians have little clue how the Court operates.

China is backing down on the tariffs it places on American goods, yet the Democrats want the President removed.

Unbelievable.

(c)  The Truxton Spangler Chronicles 2018 

Sirius XM Meanderings...

Wow. 

Two and a half months it's been since I posted.  Time flies when you're having fun, have a new job and no longer are treated like a truant teenager....

But since I need to get back in the swing of things, before I address some of the socio-political happenings of late, I thought I'd visit Sisius XM radio.  I recently renewed my subscription and have been listening to various channels on my daily commutes.and have some thoughts on the pay-per-listen channel.

--  It occurred to me that several singers had or have morphed into divas.  I don't know if this is peculiar to singers, necessarily, but I find it odd that women like Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, Dionne Warwick, Beyonce, Whitney Houston and, to an extent, Jennifer Hudson, all have diva-like qualities.  I readily agree that they have great voices -- God-given, but human trained -- but is it absolutely necessary for them to act like they're God's gift to humanity?

--  I listen to the channels for the 70's, 80's and 90's.  If I don't like what's on one station, I turn it to the others until I find something I like.  One day I was listening to the 70's on Seven and Olivia Newton-John 's Please Mister Please came on.  Having just heard that the day before, I switched to the 80's on Eight, where one of her racier 80's hits -- I forget now which -- was playing.  I went back and forth between the two channels trying to determine if it was the same woman singing...

--  Speaking of playlists, I've noticed that Sirius stations seem to have monthly set lists.  On the 70's on Seven, I heard Brandy by Looking Glass throughout the month of October.  Then it was gone.

--  Back when they were popular, I never listened to boy bands like New Kids on the Block, the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync.  After their heydeys, certain members branched out and began acting or appearing in TV shows, so I got to know their names and faces.  Even so, I couldn't tell you to which bands Joey Fatone, Lance Bass and Donnie Wahlberg belonged.

--  Karen likes to listen to comedy channels when we travel.  The problem with them is that it seems that the stations will put just about anyone on there if he or she appeared at a comedy club, no matter how funny they were or weren't.  Sometimes, the routines are uproarious, and nothing gives me greater pleasure than watching my girl guffaw.  But sometimes we look at each other wonderingly due to the lack of humor.

--  On my rides to the office every morning I listen to Golic & Wingo.  This is a holdover from the days of Mike & Mike, which I truly enjoyed.  I'm not bothered by the fact that Greeny is no longer there; I usually preferred Golic's comments, finding comedic relief from Greeny on occasion.  Trey Wingo's fine, but Golic's son needs to shut up.  He prattles on to hear himself talk.  He's one of those guys who thinks he's funnier than he really is.  It's painful sometimes to have to listen to him when he misuses words because he wants to show off his vocabulary.

--  Another comment about Golic & Wingo is that it's entirely too football-heavy.  The world does not revolve around the NFL.

--  How is Nina Blackwood still alive, much less working in radio?  Her voice sounds awful.

--  For that matter, has Martha Quinn grown up yet?

--   I tend to not listen to talk radio, but every once in awhile I'll turn on Fox News just to hear news.  The people talking over each other is annoying.

(c) 2018 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles.   

Allegations of Sexual Misconduct

Just when you thought things couldn't get any loopier, the Democrats reached into their bag of tricks and brought out the Anita Hill defense to the vote on confirming Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be the next SCOTUS Justice.  Some woman who's now a (very liberal) professor has come forth (to Senator Diane Feinstein, six weeks ago, who held onto the letter until after the Judiciary Committee hearings were over) claiming that in the late 80's, when Kavanaugh was seventeen and she was fifteen, he engaged in something that she was convinced could have been rape.  That there are myriad questions about this story isn't surprising:  Why did she wait so long?  Why did no one else bring this up?  Hasn't the statute of limitations run on this?  Can she remember where it happened?  Was she too drunk to remember things accurately?  Etc., etc., etc.

I'm not going to dissect the allegations or the denial.  This has to play out in the normal course, with hearings and testimony.  Perhaps the woman's telling the truth and Kavanaugh is a closet rapist masquerading as a jurist.  Or perhaps this is another tactic to derail Kavanaugh's candidacy, or at least slow it down, until after the midterms, when the Left believes it will retake the Senate and make nominating judges to serve on the SCOTUS dicier for President Trump.  I tend to think this is nothing more than a political tactic -- let's see how this woman is lionized by the #MeToo movement after this plays out -- but I could be wrong.

Even so, today's dose of insanity comes from one of the avowed opponents of Judge Kavanaugh's nomination:  Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii.  She declared today

But really, guess who is perpetuating all of these kinds of actions? It’s the men in this country. And I just want to say to the men in this country: just shut up and step up, do the right thing for a change...

Not only do women, like Dr. Ford, who bravely comes forward, need to be heard, but they need to be believed, Hirono added. We cannot continue the victimization and the smearing of someone like Dr. Ford

Well, I'm not sure where she found such a broad brush to issue this call to arms.  Sure, after what Harvey Weinstein, Charlie Rose, Louis C.K. and others did, it's open season on male boorishness, not to mention sexual crimes against women.  I'm all in favor of this.  For years, I complained that women would make any excuse for a guy as long as he was good looking, had a lot of money or a lot of power, because those were the three things I lacked (OK, Karen, good eyewear too....).  These guys would do all manner of things to women in whom I had an interest but their misdeeds were always excused.  Meanwhile, guys like me, who treated women with gentlemanly manners, were derided as effeminate, gay even, and watched our dreams walk off with others. 

But I digress.

What's loathsome about the Senator's comments is the ridiculous stupidity of it.  Men in this country.  True, men are committing these crimes.  So are women, usually with school-aged boys, but that's another matter.  The trouble with this comment is that it suggests that all men are capable of doing these things, which is ludicrous.  Not all men were raised to be rapists, no matter what Jodie Foster thinks, and many, many men detest these crimes as much as anyone. 

But it's the second part that is most irksome.  These women need to be believed.  Well, when they're telling the truth, sure.  But how do we know that they're telling the truth and just don't have an axe to grind?  What about due process and equal protection?  Don't men deserve the same civil liberties?  If a man's guilty of sexual crimes, lock him up.  I have no truck with that.  But this rush to judgment based on accusations coming from one side is dangerous.

Why do I say that?  Well, I wonder if the senator from Hawaii ever heard of the Duke lacrosse rape case.  If not, she can read about it here:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-investigates-the-duke-rape-case/

Or how about the University of Virginia frat/Rolling Stone rape case:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/business/media/rape-uva-rolling-stone-frat.html

And even if drugs and alcohol aren't involved, women can conjure up rape for other reasons:

https://abc7ny.com/ex-college-student-sentenced-for-false-rape-accusation/4039403/

Senator Hirono, what do you have to say to these young men who were falsely accused of rape?  Should they be tainted by false accusations simply because they're men?  Should everyone have simply believed the liars in these three cases and put the young men in jail? 

This political stunt has far-ranging consequences.  The Left, deranged as ever, doesn't care what collateral damage there is as long as Judge Kavanaugh doesn't get confirmed.  For them, the end justifies the means.  And assuming another spot on the Court opens up during President Trump's administration, what other sordid tactics will the Left employ?  Will they drag out Anita Hill III?

Hiding behind this platitudinous excrement is unbecoming a U.S. Senator.  Unfortunately, it's become part of the playbook.

(c) 2018 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Some People Just Can't Let Go

My alma mater gave an ethics award to former President Obama last week.  Needless to say, I'm less than proud of my school -- the University of Illinois -- for its misguided action, however politically motivated and necessary it was.  And for ethics, of all things.  But I digress.

It seems that the last administration is having trouble moving on.  We know that Cankles is still dealing with her campaign loss two years after the fact.  In which of the five stages of grief she finds herself is confusing, because she just keeps keening about it.  Joe Biden takes swipes at the President and suggests that he'd like to duke it out with the President.  I'm not sure the country's ready for geriatric boxing.  But two people who are having an exceeding tough time letting go are former President Obama and his second erstwhile Secretary of State, John Kerry.

Obama, in his remarks made accepting Illinois' butt-kiss, took credit for the economy's rebound under Donald Trump.  What's interesting about that is he scoffed at then-candidate Trump's optimism about the economy, suggesting rhetorically

“Well, how exactly are you going to do that? What exactly are you going to do? There’s no answer to it,” Obama said, referring to Trump's campaign rhetoric.

“He just says, 'Well, I’m going to negotiate a better deal.' Well, what, how exactly are you going to negotiate that? What magic wand do you have? And, usually, the answer is he doesn’t have an answer.”

Given that statement, it's fair to assume that Obama thought there was no chance that President Trump could revive the American economy.  Yet last week,

“When you hear how great the economy’s doing right now, let’s just remember when this recovery started,” Obama said. 

He's come out with statements critical of President Trump at home and abroad, trying to play it sly and not mention the President in some accounts, and in others making thinly-veiled comments critical of President Trump.  What's unusual about this behavior is that rarely, if ever, have retired Presidents criticized sitting Presidents.  President Bush hasn't criticized Obama -- although he has criticized President Trump -- President Clinton didn't criticize Bush, and on down the line.  But Obama has even stated that the American people would have voted for him a third time if they could have.  That assumption, like all assumptions, takes liberty with the facts.

Meanwhile, John Kerry flirts with prison.  Unlike either Biden or Obama, Kerry doesn't seem to have political aspirations at age seventy-four, but he claims not to have ruled out another run for president.  If that's the case, he may want to familiarize himself with the Logan Act.  Succintly, the Logan Act states:

The Logan Act (1 Stat. 613, 18 U.S.C. § 953, enacted January 30, 1799) is a United States federal law that criminalizes negotiation by unauthorized persons with foreign governments having a dispute with the United States.

This week, Kerry was advising the mullahs in Tehran how to outlast President Trump.  Considering that President Trump has blasted the Iran deal and tensions between the two countries are simmering, it would seem there is a dispute, thereby invoking the Logan Act.  Still, Kerry seems to think he's a diplomat without a portfolio and talks with foreign governments, advising them how to thwart this administration's positions.

Much like the antifa whom they refuse to repudiate, Obama and Kerry seem to think that they have the moral imperative, which in turn blesses any action they take or any utterance they make.  In our republic, once an administration is over, it's over.  No shadow presidents or diplomats.  These two, however, eschew protocol and let their wonky moral compass guide them.  Aided and abetted by a compliant MSM who refuses to drill down on the emerging details of corruption and abuse that existed during his administration, Obama flaunts his undeserved status as the MSM's darling and acts the bully.

In many ways, President Trump doesn't display presidential timber, much to my chagrin.  I've complained continuously about his tweeting, for example.  But Obama, although by far the more polished politician of the two, is doing a discredit to this country that threatens to wound it even deeper.  His insidious, invidious attacks on this administration, coupled with his former secretary of state's rogue actions, show a disrespect for the country they claim they are trying to protect.  In fact, by showing our enemies and our allies that this is a house divided invites disrespect and, possibly worse.

They need to stop this and go home.

(c) 2019 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

The Alternative

Those of us who voted for President Trump have been vilified by the Left for our vote.  We've been called all manner of names, had our intelligence and sanity questioned -- not to mention our patriotism -- and been relegated to a status just below that of the noble earthworm.  Because there are some unsavory people that support the President, we are guilty by association.  Never mind that every president is supported by people from the margins; in this case, as Cankles infamously declared, we all come from the same basket of deplorables.

For the purposes of this post, I'm willing to stipulate -- only for the purposes of discussion -- that some of the charges against the President are true.  That he's a philanderer who uses coarse language and isn't a politician I'll admit.  Sometimes he equivocates.  But he hasn't put anyone in concentration camps, isn't a racist and hasn't guided the country any closer to war than his predecessors.  Still, for the opposition, he's the anti-Christ.

My question, though, to those who so hate our president is What was the alternative?  In their eyes, Cankles was the embodiment of all that was hopeful and good -- the female Obama, as it were.  Yet, as we're discovering with Obama, not all is as it seemed.

First, Cankles never had a single achievement that benefited the nation or, for that matter, any of the states she called home.  As senator, I'm unaware of a single law of any consequence that she authored or championed -- either by herself or in concert with another legislator -- that helped anyone.  Her entire political career was about gaining the spotlight, training it on herself and making herself attractive to the electorate.  .

But she also engaged in activities that, if not directly harmful to the Republic, certainly didn't further its cause.  Notoriously, she got four men killed in the consulate in Benghazi, Libya...and then lied about it.  She acted truculently when testifying, asking What does it matter? She referred to those voters who opposed her as deplorables, thereby alienating half the electorate.  She cleared the way for Russia to buy military-grade uranium.  She allowed people access to the country in exchange for donations to the CGI -- the Clinton Global Initiative -- that many have deemed to be bribes.  The CGI was later found to have received donations from countries that are openly hostile to women and members of the LGBTQ community -- people whom Cankles claims to champion.  She ran a homebrewed server out of her house and funneled her official emails thtrough this server, thereby jeopardizing the security of this country.  All the while she defended her actions, brushing them off as though they were part of a vast, right-wing conspiracy that she derided when she and her serial rapist husband Slick Willy occupied the White House.  She and Slick Willy then made boatloads of money after leaving the White House (and stealing from it) but claimed they were dead broke.  Then again, she also claimed to have come under sniper fire in Sarajevo, a widely derided claim that was easily debunked by video evidence of her deplaning in then-Yugoslavia.

She also defended that man when allegations were brought by not one but several women of improprieties ranging from mere indiscretions to rape, vilifying the accusers and deriding their accusations.  This from a woman who claims to champion women.  Her thirst for glory knows no bounds.

In short, she's a vainglorious do-nothing who uses her elevated platforms to promote herself under the guise of doing things for other people.  Were she actually effective, there might be some things people can point to as her accomplishments, but when challenged to name any, her supporters can simply point to her elected positions as accomplishments.  Being named class president doesn't mean anything other than that a person won a popularity contest.

President Trump, on the other hand, managed a successful business, warts and all.  He ain't perfect, and many of us who voted for him will readily concede that.  Yet, he's at least one thing she ain't:  She's not a career politician whose only goal is self-enrichment.  President Trump, who was born with silver spoon in his mouth, knows how to treat the hoi polloi.  Cankles, who came from the hoi polloi, acts like she wants to put as much distance between her and it as she can -- while using the very people she detests to help her do it.  And yet her fawning supporters still cry of her horrific campaign loss because it denied her the (inevitable) result of being the first female president of the United States.

So I renew the question: What was the alternative?  A narcissistic career politician who did nothing for the people whom she represented and made herself rich off their backs married to a serial rapist whom she defended to assure her political ascension? 

I'll take President Trump over that any day of the week.

Hell, I'd have taken the devil over that.

(c) 2018 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Pittsburgh

Last weekend Karen and I visited Pittsburgh to see my beloved Cubs tangle with the Pirates.  I was curious to learn about Pittsburgh and see the city, but my real motivation was to see PNC Park, a stadium I'd seen countless times on television.  The ballpark didn't disappoint at all; it was everything I thought it would be, and more.  But Pittsburgh itself was a revelation.  It was such a pleasant surprise that Karen and I are making plans to visit again next year in the fall.

First, getting into Pittsburgh is a bit of a task.  Had Theseus been sent into Pittsburgh to slay the Minotaur, Ariadne wouldn't have had enough thread to help him navigate the labyrinth.  Pittsburgh, to twist Churchill's phrase, is a puzzle inside a maze inside that labyrinth.  Part of this determination comes from the fact that Pittsburgh has over 470 bridges -- not including foot bridges and railway bridges, as we were told on our boat tour.  It's little wonder that the some national or international bridge association has its yearly meeting in this city year after year.

That slight annoyance aside -- and it must be slight only for visitors, because the denizens seem to be able to navigate well and safely enough -- Pittsburgh is truly an enjoyable city.  Nestled at the confluence of the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, Pittsburgh actually has three layers, as it were.  The middle layer is what Karen and I referred to as Downtown, with the northern and southern layers are more residential in nature.

The architecture in the downtown area is, in a word, exquisite.  I'd forgotten that Pittsburgh was once the epicenter of the steel and glass industry.  The Andrews, Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon, and others made piles of money out the piles of coal and iron ore in them thar hills.  Driving through various neighborhoods -- aimlessly it would seem, as we knew not where we were going, only where we wanted to go -- we came upon magnificent houses that showed the wealth of a by-gone era.  Sadly, there were dilapidated houses in other parts of the city as well.  But Pittsburgh, at one time, knew wealth.

The downtown architecture was a blend of the old and the new, tastefully.  Its narrow streets reminded me of New York City and Karen of Boston, so it had an almost neighborly feel to it, unlike the broad avenues of Chicago or perhaps Los Angeles.  Pittsburgh, thankfully, lacked the noise of either of those metropolises and the neverending scaffolding of New York City.  It has a small town charm in a big-ish city, something that the larger urban areas fail miserably when they attempt to do it.

The separation of the city into three distinct strata makes for some confusion for visitors, with north shore being one of them simply because, depending on how one views the city, there are at least four different interpretations.  Getting lost in a tunnel is frustrating, simply because the tunnel leads one to another section of town that isn't visible from one side of it, therefore making a return trip more questionable.

The sights!  O' the sights!.  Seeing Pittsburgh from atop Mt. Washington, or from the Gateway Cruise ship, is something to behold.  The city has a charm and a character that is unique unto itself.  Some cities, such as Los Angeles, are boring to look at.  Others, like New York City, are perhaps interesting.  Perhaps out of parochial pride, others, like Chicago, are beautiful beyond compare.  Pittsburgh is closer to the last category, what with its unique topography and its skyline.

There are things in Pittsburgh that matter more to the locals than appealed to us.  We were told that Prantl's Bakery was great.  It's a bakery.  Getting to it was more trouble than it was worth.  The boat tour of the three rivers wasn't nearly as good as it could be, although it was a nice cruise.  Still, these are trifling complaints. 

I wonder what Pittsburgh is like in the winter, what with the steep climbs up and the sheer drops down the hillsides on the rivers.  It's probably quite the jewel in the middle of winter. 

Karen and I plan to go back next year during the fall to see the colors.  We usually go up north every year, but next year we'd like to spend more time in southwestern Pennsylvania and do a little exploring.  Pittsburgh will be our hub.  It turned out that Pittsburgh was a pleasant surprise. 

It would have been nice if the Cubs had won the game.  But even that couldn't detract from our visit.  The fireworks display after the game was the best that Karen and I had ever seen.  It was a fitting end to a wonderful trip.

(c) 2018 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

The Politicization of Funerals

With the recent deaths of Aretha Franklin and John McCain, there were two funerals last week.  There should have only been one, given that Ms. Franklin died on August 16 and wasn't buried until August 31.  At least they buried McCain within a week of his death; the people in charge of Ms. Franklin's funeral decided she needed a victory lap that culminated in a six or seven hour funeral with three wardrobe changes and two casket changes. 

Yet, there was one sinful similarity between the two funerals:  The use of the occasion to vilify the President of the United States. 

McCain and the President had their differences.  I'm unaware of any between Ms. Franklin and President Trump.  That there were bitter feelings between the two politicians is understandable, even if they were from the same party.  McCain did little to support his president and tried to detract from his administration every chance he could.  Ms. Franklin, although she sang at President Obama's inauguration, wasn't particularly vocal or involved in opposing the President.  She may well have disagreed with him, but she wasn't an activist in the mold of Michael Moore or Ashley Judd.

Still, both funerals were used by the decedents' followers to attack the President and his policies.  The most vocal of McCain's supporters was his daughter Meghan, who is known for her appearance on the liberal chatfest The View.  Ms. McCain is known for her brash and confrontational style on the show, often clashing with Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar.  At her father's funeral, she chastised the President in thinly veiled criticism, claiming that in her father's world, America was always great.  Nevermind that President Trump's slogan was directed at the devestations brought about by President Obama's policies, Ms. McCain saw fit to take a swipe at the President during what was a very painful time for her and her family.  President Trump had nothing whatsoever to do with her father's death; he wasn't a member of his family, nor did he have any involvement with her mother.  Still, Ms. McCain sought to politicize the eulogy of her father for no apparent reason other than spite.  Of the two funerals, this was the more surprising, given the source.

At Ms. Franklin's funeral, on the other hand, the politicization was readily apparent, with the Four Horsemen of the Political Apocalypse -- Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Bill Clinton -- were on the dais ready to deliver what were to be eulogies.  I didn't watch this funeral -- I don't even spend half that much time on sporting events these days, much less funerals -- so I don't know what any of them said, only that Reverend Al  reached out to punch President Trump in the nose. 

Is a funeral an appropriate place to engage in politics? As an Irishman, I am well aware that at the funerals of murdered Republicans, the IRA would rail about the invaders, but these situations don't involve foreign invaders murdering innocent civilians.  It's partisan politics at its most raw.  People on the Left are upset because their doyenne didn't cut it and they dislike the policies of the man who beat her.  I understand it, even if I don't agree with it.  But to subordinate the memory of a civilian beneath partisan politics with no war going on -- no matter what the putative Resistance claims -- is disrespectful, untoward and simply wrong.  Perhaps McCain is grinning about it, but I wonder if Ms. Franklin enjoys being used as a political pawn.

The more the Left engages in stunts like this, the more it alienates the populace.

(c) 2018 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Cultural Rambings Redux, II

Here are some more things I neglected to include in Cultural Ramblings Redux:

--  While driving to work the other day I heard a British voice pitching a new and improved toothbrush.  At first, I thought it was another of the annoyingly frequent Brit pitchmen hawking products in America.  But as I listened I realized that this person was claiming to be the inventor of the Quip toothbrush, which he touted as being better than what was already on the market.  Then it hit me:  What parallel universe caused a Brit to invent a toothbrush?

--  We see all the signs about looking out for motorcycles.  Frankly, I worry about motorcyclists when I'm driving, fearful not that I'll hit them so much as I won't see them or they'll fall in front of me and I'll run them over.  Lately, I've been on our interstates where the speed limit is 70 mph and I'm doing about 80 mph -- don't judge me -- and a motorcycle, usually a crotch-rocket, will zoom past me as if I'm standing still and be a quarter mile ahead of me within twenty seconds.  I've also had motorcycles weave in and out of lanes from behind me without little warning.  I'm very concerned about the safety of all motorists, and not just motorcyclists.

--  Can't wait for the new television season to begin.  I mean, there are about four or five shows that I anxiously await, but they're just old favorites.  I haven't seen any promos for new shows and doubt I'd be enticed anyway.

--  Why doesn't the News change its generic name to the Opinion?

--  I'm so tired of pick-up trucks.  I'm sure they have a purpose, but on the expressways they're dangerous nine times out of ten. 

--  I miss dirty rice.  Long story.

-- I don't understand women news anchors.  They want to be taken seriously as journalists, yet more and more their pasts pop up showing that they posed scantily clad for this magazine spread or that.  It's not as if being attractive physically and intelligent are mutually exclusive, but if the goal all along was to be on the news, why degrade oneself by posing for men's magazines where the last thing on anyone's mind is the news?

--  I still don't understand why, if the United States is comprised of fifty states, when a fast food joint like Wendy's has a promotion, the promotion is not good in Alaska or Hawaii.  When those two states joined the Union, was there something special in their admission that forbade promotions from being extended beyond the Lower Forty-Eight to those new states?

--  The mid-term elections are this year.  O' goody, more political ads.

--  Custer and Mosby had an epic fight the other night.  Custer is getting old, quickly, and Mosby is feeling his oats.  Breaking up a bulldog fight is no picnic.  Having to break up two fights is unpleasant.

--  I can't wait for fall.  Summer hasn't been too horrible this year, but I just like fall over summer.  From what I'm reading, though, winter could be brutal.

--  I can't recall when it took as long to bury someone as it's taking to bury Aretha Franklin. 

--  Karen watches Wicked Tuna.  I used to pay more attention.  What got to me was how these supposedly impromptu interviews with the captains and crew were so obviously scripted. 

--  Mountain Men, on the other hand.  Where was this show when I was young enough to have done something like this?

-- I enjoy writing with fountain pens, but I have to learn how to do so more cleanly.

--  We eat at both Moe's and Qdoba.  I like chips and queso.  I prefer Moe's chips and Qdoba's queso.  Figures.

--  No matter how hip it may be, I cannot and will not read books on Kindle or any other electronic device.  That's not snobbishness on my part; I have trouble reading anything beyond an email online.  I much prefer hardbound books over paperbacks.  That's snobbishness.

--   Attorney advertising leaves me cold.  It's the nature of the beast, but professionally, I despise it. Personally, some of the ads are hilarious.

(c) 2018 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Hyperbole Leftist Style

Since President Trump's election, the Left has been in a tizzy.  Everything he says or does is wrong, somehow, no matter how good it is for the country.  Certainly, there is room for honest disagreement, but the Left thinks that everything the POTUS does is wrong, hence their disagreements are borne in honesty.  Accordingly, because they claim the moral imperative, and because they're the only people, in their minds, who not only bear the responsibility but also the burden of defending the honor, integrity and existence of the country, whatever means necessary to oppose the President and his policies is fair, whether it be violence, distraction, delay...or rhetoric.

A couple of weeks ago, President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court.  This would be the second Justice to be replaced by the President.  In the run-up to the 2016 election, the SCOTUS was one of a number of hot-button issues, what with the ages of the present Justices well-known.  Karen was excited more than anything at the prospect that Donald Trump would be choosing future SCOTUS justices.  She had good reason to be excited.

Neil Gorsuch is a judge of exceptional ability.  He's not partisan by any means.  He's low-keyed and well educated.  His nomination should not have been the fight that it was.  Still, the Democrats mounted such a delaying action that Republicsns chose the nuclear option and changed the rules requiring a two-thirds majority, or sixty votes, to a simple majority, or fifty-one votes, to approve a nominee.  Justice Gorsuch was approved via this method.

Now nominee Brett Kavanaugh is making his rounds in Congress, meeting the senators and submitting his materials for their review.  It's an arduous process; why anyone would want to go through this is beyond me.  To have that level of public scrutiny over all aspects of my professional and personal life just isn't worth it to me.  Yet Judge Kavanaugh as agreed to be the nominee, and now he's paying the price.

Last week Senator Corey Booker said this about Judge Kavanaugh:

There is so much at stake here; this has nothing to do with politics. This is to do about who we are as moral beings. And so I wanna call on everybody. I’m not here to tell folk just what they should know, I’m here to call on folk to understand that in a moral moment, there is no neutral. In a moral moment, there is no bystanders. You are either complicit in evil, you are either contributing to wrong, or you are fighting against it.

There’s a saying from Abraham, the face in one of the Psalms, “yay though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death…” We are walking through the valley of the shadow of death. But that doesn’t say, though I sit in the valley of the shadow of death. It doesn’t say that I’m watching on the sidelines of the valley of the shadow of death. I’m walking through the valley of the shadow of death, I’m taking agency. I’m going to make it through this crisis.

And so I’m calling on everyone right now who understands what’s at stake, who understands who Kavanaugh is, Maya Angelou says it, when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

He has shown us who he is when he rules on a woman’s right to control her own body. He has shown us who he is in his perceptions that corporations are more powerful and more important than people. He has shown us who he is on the abilty for workers to organize. He has shown us who he is on civil rights and voting rights. So the question isn’t who he is, the question is who we are. In a moral moment, will we do nothing?

To put it mildly, this is crazy.

In the first place, when he's confirmed as a Justice, Judge Kavanaugh will be one of nine votes.  He will be the most junior Justice on the Court.  He may have a vote, but the way the Court works means that he will vote first every time a vote is taken, until another Justice is appointed.  So he's not even a swing vote; he starts the voting.

Second, his record belies everything Booker alleged.  If the senator had taken the time to read through the 900,000 pages of materials that had been submitted -- which he obviously didn't, even if he's related to Evelyn Wood -- he'd see that the judge is nowhere near the evil being Booker alleges.

But that would detract from the message:  Conservatives evil, liberals good.  To use phrases such as complicit in evil ranks right up there with Michael Moore's likening of Trump supporters as enablers of rape.  It's highly irresponsible and dangerous.

The Leftists are beating a drum about Roe v. Wade being overturned, even though there is no case on the docket for the next term involving abortion.  They seem to be confusing the legislative with the judicial branches which is understandable given the fact the Left favors activist judges who interpret the Constitution to fit their whims.

But it's the rhetoric at issue here.  Complicit with evil?  Seriously?  That's tantamount to likening the man to Hitler, and nothing in his record suggests such behavior.

This rhetoric, when combined with the violence of the antifa that the leading Leftist politicians refuse to condemn publicly, will lose the election for them.  It's absurd, it's wrong and people with functioning grey matter will turn away the longer these statements are made.

(c) 2018 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Cultural Ramblings Redux

I've been mulling over some of the less important features of life recently, and since I don't have the time to launch into the tirade I'd planned, here goes:

--  I'm not a huge Nickelback fan by any means -- I can't even spell it right half the time -- but what's behind this inside joke everyone seems to throw around bashing the group?  Did they do something heinous about which I'm unaware?  Is there music routinely panned?

-- The retirement of Flo from the Progessive ads is long overdue.  Other companies have ridden the horses they put before the public for long periods of time, and others -- hello, Snapple -- have retired their spokespeople way too early.  Flo was cute at first but she's turned into someone who is the only person who finds herself funny.  The bits she does to pitch the insurance programs seem more like platforms to pitch Flo, with Progressive there only incidentally.  If she's trying to showcase her talents for a greater gig, it ain't working.

--  Is SNL relevant any more?

--  Growing up, The Gong Show was hilarious to our teenaged minds.  Chuck Barris portrayed the somewhat aloof emcee, and the Unknown Comic even made it to our honors Spanish class one day, bringing out teacher to tears when she walked into the room to find a class full of students wearing paper bags over their heads.  The reincaration with Mike Myers is a lame effort that exists simply to give Mr. Myers an excuse to effect a British accent and act goofy, since the Austin Powers franchise seems to be kaput, and to allow three erstwhile celebrities the chance to prove how hip and urbane they are as judges.

--  A sign that the apocalypse may be upon us:  Dr. Pimple Popper.  I bet her med school classmates are so envious of her now...

--  Autumn is fast approaching and so is the new TV season.  God help us.

--  Karen told me about an offer from our cable provider to get HBO and Cinemax for $15 per month for a year.  Years ago I might have jumped at it.  Now, I'm ambivalent about it at best.

--  If one is a male celebrity these days, isn't he frantically running through his memory bank to see whom he may have sexually assaulted or even acted rudely to in a suggestive manner?  It seems that not a week goes by without yet another charge of unacceptable behavior surfaces.

-- Speaking of watching one's back, what in the world would possess a guy to date Taylor Swift?  Wasn't Alanis Morrissette enough of a warning?  Taylor Swift has made a cottage industry out of revenge songs against exes.

--  And speaking of Taylor Swift, I'm glad to read that she and former bestie Katy Perry have patched up their differences.  That I even know this is attributable to the gossip magazines Karen keeps in the bathroom, which can be considered a link to the importance of that story.

--  I detest the term bestie.

--  Although it's sports related, this is humorous in a cultural aspect:  So I decided to see my Cubs when they're in town and chose not to attend the game that was a Harley-Davidson night because I don't like dodging cycles as they weave in and out of traffic, typically from behind me in my blind spot.  So I chose the next night and bought my tickets.  The hometown team just announced a couple of weeks ago that the game for which I bought tickets was now going to be Gay Pride Night.

(c) 2018 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Whining Democrat Style

In the law there's an adage about argument. When one has the law on her side, she is to argue the laws.  When she has the facts on her side, she is to argue the facts.  When she has neither the law nor the facts on her side, she is to yell louder than her opponent.

That is what the Left is doing these days.

Surprised by the stunningly bad campaign run by the doyenne of the Democratic party and the unexpected win by Donald Trump in the 2016 elections and unable to admit that it was as much their fault for losing as it was President Trump's tactics that brought him to win, the Left has engaged, since the election, in a strategy that is devoid of substance but chock-full of distraction and empty rhetoric.

According to the Left, the POTUS and his followers are nothing but sexist, racist homophobes bent on keeping poor people in chains.  Did they learn nothing from the backlash that was had when Cankles referred to us as Deplorables?  While this language may stir their base, the Left is hardly convincing many independents to go over to their side.

Riots, violence and protests involving very graphic and vulgar rhetoric are staples of their campaign.  Lately, however, they've turned to public shaming of Trump administration employees, claiming that they are complicit with the policies with which they disagree.  From not allowing them to eat at public restaurants in peace to asking them to leave said restaurants to throwing eggs at Trump supporters -- and worse -- these actions evoke pre-war Nazi Germany which, ironically, is how they themselves are describing the Trump administration and his supporters.

Talk about projection.

Even congressmen are getting in the act.  Maxine Waters, stooping to new lows even for elected officials, is calling on people to harass Trump administration in public.  This amounts to a call for mob action, since these employees are entitled to private lives even when they're out in public.  Legally, should anything happen to these peoples, the statements Ms. Waters is making may be actionable.  The trouble with that is twofold:  Litigation would give these cretins a platform and may also expose the plaintiffs to judges appointed by Clinton and Obama; all bets are off if that happens.

Since his election, there have been calls by the famous and the not-so-famous to assassinate President Trump.  Kathy Griffin infamously sacrificed her career to pander to her audience by standing with a mock-up of the President's severed head.  Peter Fonda just took it on the chin publicly when, in support of the removal of detention centers and the end of family separation, he called for Barron Trump to spend a night in a detention center away from his parents but with pedophiles and other criminals.  Thinking himself immune to criticism and safe from reprisal, he learned the hard way that conservatives are fed up:  His personal information was quickly spread over the internet, with every address, every phone number, every piece of contact information made public.  He also undercut the very argument in favor of open borders -- that the people streaming over our borders are just innocent refugees looking for a better life -- by implying that there are pedophiles and criminals in the detention centers. 

Actions have consequences.  Conservatives have had this preached to them for nearly a year and a half now.  Much like a tracer bullet, which shows not only where the shot is going but whence it came, their actions, no matter how well-intentioned they believe them to be, are bringing them unwanted consequences.  Their tactics are eerily reminiscent of the Brownshirts of pre-war Germany.  Roughing up opponents, heckling speakers, preventing opponents' rallies -- these things were done by the Nazis.  There has even been at least one attempted murder by a deranged liberal. 

During the Obama era, when plenty of things were suspected to have been done wrong, the conservatives kvetched but largely kept the protests civil.  Not so the liberals.  Overreacting as only liberals can, egged on by the coastal elites that are comprised of many in the entertainment industry with platforms far more substantial than the average citizen, these people act as if they're repelling barbarians and ousting them from the castle walls.  Civil discourse does not involve such conduct as the liberals engage in.  Their whining has become not only annoying, but dangerous.

I hope and pray that when the liberals resume power in however many years that may be, the country rights the ship and returns to the era when only the words were rough.

(c) 2018 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Year of the SCOTUS

All right, vacation's over.  In truth, it wasn't a vacation but a combination of being overly busy at work, out of town on the weekends and without a computer for the last so many months.  But I have a couple of days whereby I can write, and so I will.

In the last couple of the days, the Supreme Court of the United States -- otherwise known as the SCOTUS -- has delivered opinions in 5-4 decisions upholding the travel ban put in place by President Trump, striking a decision that required a Christian family planning center to inform clients about abortion as an option and striking down the requirement that state employees must pay certain union dues even if they don't belong to the union.  In each case, the conservative position was upheld by the Court.  Personally and professionally, I saw each outcome before it happened, meaning that I thought that would be the proper result.  That each outcome was what it was is both shocking and refreshing.

Many on the Left are complaining that the SCOTUS is bought and paid for by conservatives.  Oddly, when decisions went their way during the Obama Administration, there was no equivalent gnashing of teeth and rending of garments.  Chris Matthews, whose career is best defined as political gadfly, was apoplectic at the first two results.  Here's hoping the Janus decision on union dues pushed him over the edge.

What's as surprising as well as troubling is the dissent in the travel ban case reads as if it's out of the Left's playbook.  Invoking Korematsu, the execrable 1940's decision allowing the internment of Japanese-Americans on the basis of national security, Justice Sotomayor railed at the anti-Muslim bias of the travel ban, invoking then-candidate Trump's comments about Islamic terrorism.  Nevermind that the ban, on its face, was neutral in that regard and, as any lawyer would point out, the first level of inquiry of any statute is the plain-language of the statute. 

The hysteria on the Left is entertaining, because it's equivalent to a child whining when it doesn't get its way.  To be sure, disappointment and sadness are to be expected, but the Left's rhetoric -- which in recent days has reached historic lows, a topic for another upcoming post -- smacks of hysteria.

That hysteria is about to go into overdrive.  Today, on the heels of the trio of SCOTUS decisions, Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement.  Assuming the POTUS's nominee is approved by the Senate, which necessarily will happen because the Democrats misplayed the Gorsuch nomination forcing the Republicans to invoke the nuclear option, conservatives will have a 6 to 3 majority in the SCOTUS.  That majority will increase sometime in the next two years, in all likelihood, because Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg is older than Justice Kennedy and has been rumored to be in ill health.

Of course, nothing is written in stone.  Anyone with any sense of history about the SCOTUS will recall Dwight Eisenhower's ill-fated appointment of Earl Warren as Chief Justice in 1953.  Justice Warren led what many believe was one of the most liberal and activist Courts in its history.  Many conservatives have complained that Chief Justice Roberts suffers from the same malady, not being nearly as conservative as they expected him to be when he was appointed.  Ideally, this means that the nominee is independent in thought and action and not doing the President's bidding.  Time will only tell, but for now it doesn't look good for the Left.

I think the SCOTUS reached the right decisions on these three cases.  I don't have a vested interest in any of the outcomes beyond that of any American citizen.  As an attorney I think the right result obtained.

It will be interesting to see how the rest of the Year of the SCOTUS plays out.

(c) 2018 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Ugly Beauties II

It's been awhile, but I've seen too many guys online with their tongues hanging out about certain women that caused me to scratch my head and say to myself, Really?  Margaret Wolfe Hungerford knew of what she spoke when she wrote that Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but with some of these women, I think many men need to get to the optometrist, stat.

Kate Upton:  I know I'm in the minority on this one.  She's cute.  She can be sexy.  And she's clearly bodacious.  But she just doesn't do anything for me.  Again, I'm in the minority, but no matter how sassy she is, she holds next to no appeal for me.

Anna Kournikova:  How I admitted this woman from the first list escapes me.  She's about as plain as plain can be.  Sure, she's fit and she's blonde, but beyond that...what?  She wasn't even that good of a professional tennis player.

Rhonda Rousey:  When she was the hottest ticket in women's MMA, people oohed and aahed about her. Granted, compared to many in that sport, she's not butt ugly like they are, but she ain't pretty at all.  On top of that, she's rude.  In no way is this woman attractive, let alone beautiful.

Savannah Guthrie:  There are so many anchors who are better looking than this woman.  I can only hope that her hiring was done on merit and not looks.  Mind you, I don't like her regardless, but if anyone considers her a beauty, they're seriously deluded.

Anna Koimann:  This is the American version of Anna Kournikova.  Another blonde, perky, fit woman, she's just not attractive.  At best she's cute.  But to read legions of men online, she's the second coming of Marilyn Monroe.  I wish I could go all Lloyd Benson on them, but I never knew Marilyn Monroe.  Ms. Koimann seems like a very nice woman, but not only is she not beautiful -- I might be willing to go to cute if paid enough -- she doesn't seem to have a lot of wattage upstairs, either.  She does seem to be very nice, if that's any consolation.

Samantha Smith:  Another Fox News anchor, Ms. Smith once posed languorously for racy shots in a bikini.  Now she wants to be considered a hardcore newswoman.  I suppose the plight of women trying to make their way in that business is harder than it is for men, but I have trouble taking her seriously after seeing those shots.  She ran track for LSU; isn't that enough exposure?  To top if off, she just isn't attractive.  She ain't ugly, but she's not beautiful by any stretch.

Kristen Stewart:  Ah, the actress for whom so many fake vampires and werewolves died.  She's on the Tara Reid career path, letting herself go precipitously.  Fortunately for her, it isn't a long way to the bottom, because whatever attraction she might have had was gone by the time hit her twenties.

Jennifer Lopez:  The Latina Kate Upton, another one where I'm in the minority.  I like Latinas just fine, but I can think of dozens of Latinas far prettier than Ms. Lopez.  She can look good at times, but by no means is she in the pantheon of beautiful women, no matter how many shocking dresses she wears in public.

Kerry Washington:  The self-proclaimed member of the Obama administration has men throwing themselves at her in her show, and all I can wonder is, why?

Adriana Lima:  There used to be beautiful Victoria's Secret Angels.  Then they just starting picking tall women with thin bodies.  Ms. Lima qualifies as an exotic version .  She's attractive, I suppose, but she isn't in the same class of Angels of yesteryear.

Miranda Kerr:  See Adriana Lima, above.  What was Orlando Bloom thinking?  Then again, he's with Katy Perry now, so his judgment unquestionably is suspect.

Emily Ratajkowski:  This woman cam to prominence in the Robin Thicke's video Blurred Lines.  I've never seen it.  I'm not a Robin Thicke fan.  But this woman...is evidence that to most guys, boobs trump all.  She's not pretty.  She's not attractive.  She's not cute.  She's got a pair of boobs and is willing to titillate at various stages of undress.  Perhaps she's a genius and a very nice person.  But a looker she ain't.  Of all the women on this list, this is the woman who's supposed charms I understand the least.  But good for her.

Anna Paquin:  When she was young, she was cute. Then she grew up.  Age is a tough taskmistress.

Katie Holmes:  She may be cute, but what caused Tom Cruise to jump on a couch on national television and Jamie Foxx to risk Cruise's opprobrium?  She's not all that.

And there you have the 2018 class of Ugly Beauties.

(c) 2018 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Top Twelve War Movies of All Time (So Far)

I'm a consumer of good war movies.  Not action movies, per se, but movies in war settings, hopefully from actual battles that were fought.  I've seen a heck of a lot of war movies, although by no means every one ever made, so I think I'm somewhat qualified to put out my own list of the top twelve war movies of all time. 

There are other movies that people regard as war movies that are nothing of the kind:  Kelley's Heroes, which I consider a joke, and The Dirty Dozen, which is a fun movie but historically inaccurate.  Fictional history doesn't make the cut here.

My requirements for these movies are that they are based on historical fact, have plenty of battle scenes and don't stray too far into fictionalization.  Just because it doesn't make this list does it mean that a particular movie is unwatchable; I just can't put it in what I'd consider the Hall of Fame of War Movies.

In reverse order, then, these are my Top Twelve Movies of All Time (So Far):



12.  The Patriot:  Yeah, it can be slow at times, but the action scenes are great.  And any movie that shows the Brits losing is just fine by me.  It's an amalgam of incidents in which Francis Swamp Fox Marion was involved, and it shows just how asymmetrical warfare was first visited on a standing army.

11.  Wake Island:  For the sheer heroism of the action, this movie gets a place in the rankings.  To be honest, no one is quite sure what exactly happened on the island, given how the Nips took care of the captured garrison.  Still, it captures what is generally regarded as the official history of what took place on that fated island.

10.  Objective:  Burma:  This is a thinly-veiled story of Merrill's Marauders which, apparently, generated a lot of controversy with the Brits when it was released because (go figure) it didn't brag enough about the Chindits.  That issue aside, it's a great action movie.

9.  13 Hours:  This isn't really a war movie, but since it involves one heck of a siege and battle scenes, it gets on the list.  The story of the assault on our consulate in Benghazi, it shows the resolute defense by a handful of ex-military security forces against a few hundred well-armed thugs who wanted to make a statement on the anniversary of the attacks on September 11.

8.  Pork Chop Hill:  One of the few movies about the Korean War and one of the even fewer good ones, this shows the absolute insanity of that war at ground level.

7.  The Battle of the Bulge:  One of the few very good movies about World War II made in the 60's.  Interestingly, it almost completely avoids any depiction of the higher-ups, concentrating on the men who actually fought the battle.

6.  Sink the Bismarck:  Loathe as I am to include a Brit movie, I have to be fair. This is one of the finest depictions of naval warfare ever made. 

 5.  Gettysburg:  Martin Sheen's almost gay rendering of Robert E. Lee notwithstanding, this is the best movie about the Civil War for a couple of reasons:  It's audacious and largely accurate.  That it gives credit to Brigadier General John Buford, who made the crucial decision to locate the line of defense around the town of Gettysburg, is of everlasting credit.  And that it was filmed on the actual location is phenomenal.  Watching Ted Turner, who financed the movie, get killed in it is also a plus.

 4. Platoon:  This qualifies -- just barely -- because it's based on Oliver Stone's experiences as an infantryman in the Vietnam War.  The gruesome honesty of the battle scenes is almost overwhelming at times.  Although it might seem as if some of the actions are exaggerated, my reading suggested that a lot of things were toned down.  The killing of Willem Dafoe's character Elias is one of the most chilling in war movie history.

3. Saving Private Ryan:  If it weren't for the unevenness of the anti-war messaging contrasted with the full-on battle scenes and some very poor editing (why is Captain Martin heaving heavier mortar rounds when the shot clearly shows lighter hand grenades on his belt?), this would rank higher.  The unflinching depiction of the assault on Omaha Beach is classic.  The climactic scene defending that bridge is one of the greatest in war movie history.  And Adam Goldberg's character's Mellish's struggle and ultimate death is the most frightening in war movie history.

2. Zulu:  It pains me to add yet another Brit war movie, but until the arrival of the number one movie on this list, this was the best war movie I'd ever seen.  It's a depiction of the gallant stand made by some 150 wayward Brits in Rorke's Drift in South Africa against upwards of 4,000 Zulus who had just decimated another British army at Isandlwana.  The action scenes are top-notch and the emotion is palpable.  The film is also noteworthy for being the debut of Michael Caine.

1. We Were Soldiers:  I can't help it.  If this movie comes on TV, I watch it.  No matter how many times I've seen it, I'll watch it.  Mel Gibson is excellent as Hal Moore, Sam Elliott is perfect as Basil Plumley and the supporting cast is excellent. Even the inclusion of the women on the home front works.  The battle scenes are marvelously done and the accuracy to the book on which it's based is superb.  The only drawback is that the movie only recounts the first half of the book.  After Hal Moore left the battlefield with his troops, the Americans who replaced them were ambushed and slaughtered, just as Moore feared would happen.

Special Mention:

The Pacific and Band of Brothers:  The only reason these two productions aren't included above is that they're mini-series.  Both are exceptional and deserve to be included.

Honorable Mention:


The Longest Day

Midway

Patton

Wake Island

The Tuskegee Airmen

Glory

(c) 2018 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Random Thoughts and Ponderings

So far, 2018 has stunk.  I don't remember a year that started off so poorly:  Two cars lost within two days, with one needing to be replaced; one broken toe; one crown loosened; business suits held captive since before Christmas by the dry cleaner because it lacks the staff to get things done; and news today that a dear friend has pancreatic cancer, but needs heart surgery before they treat the cancer.

Is it 2019 yet?

So in an attempt to distract from all the doom and gloom, here are random thoughts and ponderings:

--  This summer as I drove back from court on the other side of the state, I heard an ad for Wendy's offering for fifty cents a small Wendy's Frosty.  The thing that struck me was that the offer was limited to people in the continental United States -- the lower 48 -- but not available in Hawaii or Alaska.  One can question whether Frosty's are popular in Alaska -- this was during the summer -- but what about those two states excludes them from these promotions?  Wendy's isn't the only outfit that excludes them.  Can't they get the ingredients there in sufficient quantities?  Are there special trade restrictions? 

--  The Super Bowl is in a couple of weeks.  Typically, Karen and I go to a movie.  But we've been so disgusted by Hollywood's treatment of the President that we're not planning on going to a movie this year.  At least I don't think we are.  So what should we do?  And don't say home repairs, because...

--...last weekend we nearly killed ourselves doing home repairs.  We have a couple of more things to do, but I've been promised that we're resting this weekend.

--  I find the hysteria over the President's injudicious comment about certain countries entertaining.  On the one hand, it was perhaps uncouth, but when one is in a closed-door meeting with other legislators, a certain degree of privacy should be expected.  Even so, it's not the worst comment ever made, and there's truth behind it.  Still funnier is the explanation for the hysteria:  We shouldn't denigrate these people (he didn't; he denigrated the countries from which they come) because they're fleeing horrible circumstances.  Um, that's the point.  One genius even tried to defend the hysteria by saying that the President is obviously racist because he lumped the entire continent of Africa in one bucket, while there are very good countries like South Africa (very biracial), Egypt (largely Arabic) and Morocco (again, largely Arabic) on the continent.

--  Funnier still is the handwringing over the announcement of President Trump's physical.  The reactions range from incredulous to mocking.  Unless the POTUS is on his deathbed, I don't care.

--  Keep an eye out for more condemnation from the Brits about the Republic of Ireland and the border between the Republic and the Six Counties.  Tensions are mounting, largely because of the disaffected Protestant community in the Counties.

--  Why is it that certain groups with whom people have a problem are labeled as hate groups while others, with whom these same people agree, who do worse than the alleged hate groups, are not labeled as such?

--  I'm fully supportive of women being able to work without being harassed, and I'm fully supportive of equal pay for equal work, and I applaud the bravery of women who have come forward to accuse their abusers, but I hope as a society we're ready to hit back when false accusations surface.  There are other examples -- the UVA frat rape story in The Rolling Stone, for example, or the Duke lacrosse team members -- where false accusations have ruined men's lives.  I don't care much for Matt Damon, but he does have a point, however ill-timed.

--  So there's a conservative movement afoot in California to split the state in two, divorcing the coastal liberal section from the rural conservative section.  I'm not sure that this will be politically possible.  Better to wait for the big one to take the coast and its liberals awy.

--  Both Hawaii and Japan has false alerts about incoming ICBM's within the last week.  I say it's too unusual to be coincidence for human error to have occurred.  North Korea may be trying some white noise to decrease the efficiency of our alert system, or trying to see how quickly it reacts.  Expect more false alerts in the near future.

--  I think Ellen DeGeneres can be very generous, but she can be cruel in the search for humor.  Her new game show has funny moments, but she apparently has the dumbest audiences I've ever seen.  And they all scream.  All of 'em.

--  Why would anyone in his right mind elect this Manning person to be a United States Senator?

--  My wife makes the best shepherd pie.

--  I deleted a friend from Facebook after announcing that I would distance myself from anyone who engaged in political name-calling.  She posted a meme that likened Trump supporters to jock straps.  I don't think she even notices I unfriended her.  Bumping into her in town might be interesting.

(c) 2018 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Marriage and Home Repairs

Throughout history, man has sought answers to explain how best a marriage can survive the rocky shoals upon which it has been known to founder:  Infidelity, money problems, illness, addiction, abuse, children -- you name it.  Psychologists, men of the cloth, marriage counselors and simply friends and family have warned young couples of the challenges marriages face and tried to prepare them as best they could.  Myriad permutations explain either the success or demise of a marriage.  Factors serious and simple combine and then it's up to the couple to face them as they will.  Sometimes they fall back on the examples they saw in their own parents, other times they rely on the advice of others, and yet again they may simply rely on prayer and themselves to see them through. 

Of all the sage advice people have given couples, of all the threats to their marriages couples can anticipate, one rarely if ever mentioned is one that doubtlessly plays out in homes throughout not only the United States but the rest of the world as well.

Home repairs.

I say this not because our marriage is on the rocks or because we've come back from the brink of divorce due to home repairs.  I say this knowingly because every time a home repair project ensues, blood pressures rise, tensions rise and tempers flare.  This is due in large part to my inexperience and incompetence crossed with my wife's experience and competence. About the only thing I have on her in the field of home repairs is brawn.  Everything else positive falls on her side of the ledger. 

It's a recipe for turmoil.

As I may have mentioned before, I grew up with a father who taught me next to nothing.  If the phrase children should be seen and not heard is true, my father would probably have suggested that not being seen was even better.  Because I was the oldest child, it fell to me to assist him whenever he took on a home improvement task  Pretty much unskilled in these matters himself, his frustration didn't take long to boil, and I was usually serving my highest and best use when it came for him to have someone on whom to take out his frustrations.  As a result, I never learned anything.

The crime in all of this is I come from a family of tinkerers.  Not Tinkers, although I suppose that's possible, but tinkerers.  My maternal grandfather, according to family lore, took apart and put back together a Model T when he was a teenager.  One would think I'd have a modicum of mechanical ability.

Not true.  For me, DIY doesn't mean Do It Yourself, it means Damage It Yourself or, in a worse-case scenario, Destroy It Yourself.    I'm always worried that I'm going to burn the house down, flood it or bring it down by unwittingly removing the one structural linchpin on which the entire house rests.

Karen is very supportive.  No one's had a more supportive wife.  But patience only lasts so long with mortal beings.  Eventually, she gets tired of my tantrums -- which are directed at uncooperative inanimate objects, a father who was worthless when it came to teaching his son anything and YouTube videos, which lie.  Still, she's not wrong.  It has to be oppressive after a while.

I've put in toilets -- one of which, contrary to YouTube's lofty promises, took me four days instead of three hours.  I've gotten a stripped piece of pipe out of a showerhead...after three days of intermittent attempts.  I've taken down the stairs to the deck, but the onset of winter and Karen's broken ribs prevented me from trying to install the new ones.  That cheery prospect awaits me this spring...

...For months, Karen's been wanting cabinets installed in the laundry room on the walls over the washer and dryer.  O', and she wanted a new light fixture to replace the old one in the entryway that caught on fire a couple of weeks ago.  Since we're in need of the space in the laundry room and we need a roof over our head, neither request was asking too much.  In fact, both made much sense.  But I faced both of these with trepidation with good reason.

The light fixture worried me on two fronts.  First, I typically swear off anything dealing with electricity or plumbing.  On the rare occasion when we've dealt with an electrical issue, fights have erupted over flipping the breakers in the electrical box.  Combine its location -- north side of basement -- with the location of the stairway -- south side of basement -- and my poor hearing and the Keystone Kops would do a better job of it.  Add to that Karen's expertise and experience with electrical matters -- long story -- and this is just a tinderbox for fights...pun unintended.  Second, Karen fancied an LED fixture.  Neither of us understood what this meant until we began the project.

Somehow, Karen opted not to try both projects on Saturday, which helped, because after we tried the light fixture, trying to put up the cabinets would have been a nightmare.  The fixture was so compressed in its size that neither of us could get our hands in between the fixture and the light box to attach the wires.  Then the screws didn't come out far enough to attach the pan to the ceiling, which necessitate a trip to nearby Lowes.

(I forgot to mention that I'm one of Lowe's favorite and least favorite customers.  Many of its patrons that I see there are clearly tradesmen or people who have tried these things a time or two.  At least they know the difference between a lug nut and a hex nut.  Lowe's must like me because I'm always there to buy things from them because I don't know what I have or what it's even called.  They must hate me because they have to explain things in idiot friendly terms that they don't have to use for most of their customer base.)

After I returned with the screws of the right length, we struggled mightily to get everything attached and put together.  The LED light looked more like something that could go inside a computer.  There were no lightbulbs whatsoever.  The instructions, which we did read -- more of those anon -- told us to keep our mitts off the "lights," but that was well nigh impossible unless we'd been born Japanese.  So when we finally got the light in and were starting to feel exultant, our ecstasy soured when after turning the power back on we got a whole lot of nothing.

Instructions written for these things border on the meaningless.  Because of the heavy emphasis on STEM teaching, simple communicative skills have deteriorated to the point where we're barely ahead of cavemen.  Written communication is almost worse.  The instructions written for products DIYers are to use are so vague and/or contradictory and assume an understanding of basic mechanics as to be positively osmotic.  Trying to decipher the instructions sometimes takes more time than the actual installation.

That ended a noble but failed attempt on the next to last day of 2017 to install a light fixture.  We salved our wounds by watching Game of Thrones out of order because the rental place gave us the wrong disc.

The last day of 2017 found us installing cabinets.  Karen was positively giddy as she disconnected the dryer and washer and moved them away from the wall where we'd be trying to hang the cabinets.  Karen'd found them at Habitat For Humanity and got a great deal on them.  Stylish they're not; function was all we were going for.  Part of her giddiness was rooted in cleaning up underneath the moved appliances -- who are we kidding?  Karen is in love with Mr. Clean -- but also because her long-held dream of cabinetry in the laundry room was one small step closer. 

I watched the video she'd been pestering me to watch -- aside from my lack of confidence in YouTube videos, I've found that unless I watch them shortly before I start the project, I forget crucial steps in the process (not that it matters, ultimately) -- and dutifully put up the 1" x 4" as a guide.  We got it level and then started finding the studs.

Studfinders have come a long way, apparently.  This first cabinet's installation worked like a charm.  Even with two math-challenged DIY'ers at the helm, we were able to figure out not only where the studs were, but also where to drill the pilot holes in the cabinets.  In fact, the first cabinet went up deceptively easily.  About the only thing that went wrong was that I didn't follow directions (remember, I always miss something from the video) and screwed the screws in all the way instead of leaving them just a little bit out.  I also may have stripped one screw.  I was waiting for the inevitable crash but surprisingly, it never came.  Add to that that few cross words passed between us and one would have thought we'd just finished building the pyramid of Cheops.

We took a break and then resumed.  The second and last cabinet would be more of a challenge because the pipes for the water were eerily located in the vicinity of where we expected a stud to be.  There was also the prospect of electrical wiring in the neighborhood, because an outlet was only a few inches to the right of the hose hook-up. 

Karen was in charge of the stud-finding (I could insert a pun here...but who'd believe it?) because of her experience and expertise...or my inexperience and incompetence, take your pick.  It shortly became worrisome, because the studfinder that had worked so magnificently on the first cabinet was mysteriously failing us now.  If this had been me, the studfinder would have been in a thousand pieces, dashed against the far wall for failing me.  Karen's patience won out and she eventually found a stud.  But to do this, we had to use our lifeline, her cousin's husband and DIYer extraordinaire Robert, who guided us from Kentucky as to how to locate the errant studs. 

No good deed goes unpunished, and our good deed of getting the first cabinet installed mostly without a hiccup came back to haunt us.  Words were exchanged -- well, not really.  I cursed myself and my incompetence while Karen fumed at my childishness -- and we finally located the studs, using a method that I can only call the Swiss Cheese Method of stud finding.  By the time we got done spelunking for studs, our wall resembled Swiss cheese.  Robert's method of locating studs had guided us to drilling pilot holds a quarter inch in either direction until we hit paywood.  Well, eight or nine holes later, we had our studs, and a perforated wall.  Thankfully, the cabinet would cover the holes. 

The gods of DIY weren't done with us yet, however.  In exchange for making the first cabinet's installation relatively easy, the second one would be filled with travail.  After doing so well -- and ingeniously, if I do say so myself -- in marking where our pilot holes should be drilled in the cabinet to affix it to the studs, this process mirrored our attempts to find the studs in the wall.  By the time the two remedial math students finished with this cabinet, it had a surfeit of markings and holes to remind us what amateurs we really were.  Despite this, and full in the knowledge that this cabinet was destined not to hold fine china but doggie diapers, we pressed on and got the thing up on the wall.  Miracle of miracles, it held!  Nothing came crashing down, no wall peeled from the studs.  DIYers of the World Rejoice!  We had our cabinets.

Almost. 

Being the perfectionist that she is, Karen noticed a couple of (smallish) gaps that existed between the cabinets and between the first cabinet and the wall.  Had this been a bachelor pad, I'd have called it good.  Because Karen wants it to look not so icky, we made plans to remediate the gaps, but mercifully Karen decided it could wait until another day.  We still had to shim the cabinets to make them even and, although they ain't perfect, they ain't too bad.

Karen's happy with the result (imperfections notwithstanding).  I'm relieved.  It's been two nights since they were installed and I haven't heard a crash in the night like I was anticipating. 

We cleaned up the area and put back the tools that were only for this project and then resumed playing catch-up with Game of Thrones.  At least now we knew how the season ended.  How they got to that point was still a mystery.

The new year for us is as intrepid as ever.  We visited Lowe's again, who weren't happy to see us because we returned the LED light without a receipt.  The store credit was fine, because we found a conventional light for twice the cost and stuff to fix the cabinet's gaps.  We may even have gotten more for the return than we were entitled -- shhhhhhhh -- and returned to the Casa de DIY to put this up.

For as difficult as the first attempt at installing a light fixture was, this was comparatively easier.  This fixture was built for people from the West to install it.  I'd say we had that sucker installed inside of a half hour.  With the first installation, we didn't have the wires connected for over an hour.  Sometimes, the old ways are better.

Power was returned and the light worked so well it can be seen from outer space. 

The tally of our weekend, therefore, amounts to this:

                One set of cabinets installed.

                One wall preserved.

                One light fixture installed.

                One house not burnt down.

               Game of Thrones caught up. 

               One glorious fire in the fireplace on New Year's Day.

               One Rose Bowl watched.

               One marriage still intact.

In truth, were it not for the LED lights, the fuse box's location and the wandering studs in the wall, the projects would have been infinitely easier.  Unfortunately, the faithless YouTube videos don't give any such warnings.  Much like pre-marriage counseling, YouTube only covers the foreseen, and precious little of that.  It's a testament to Karen's patience and experience that these things got done.  I actually enjoyed myself putting up the cabinets.  Before this triumph, my signal accomplishment was getting that piece of stripped pipe out of the showerhead pipe.  This feels better because there's more utility to the finished project.  I also have a better understanding of what can be done and what should be done.  In fact, I'm looking forward to the next project that doesn't involve electrical work or plumbing.

Besides, it's a lot less confusing than trying to keep track of who's who on Game of Thrones. 

So my beautiful wife is still my beautiful wife, and our beautiful home continues to improve with her vision and knowledge and my brawn.  I figure by the time we leave it it'll be in far better shape than when we bought it.  I'll take some pride in the fact that we put the improvements in ourselves and didn't just pay someone to do it.  Sure, Robert helped with his guidance.  Without that we'd have been lost.  And I don't feel like Tom Hanks in Cast Away after he made fire.  But there's something satisfying about DIYing it, fear or no fear.

And what's best I did it with my wife.  With whom I'm still married.

(c) 2018 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles