Well everyone, we made it. Thanksgiving is over, as Hanukkah continues, the combo of which will not happen for another 77,000 years. We know for sure we won’t be here then, but what we can do is make sure the next several generations is free from the leftism which is crippling our nation. As you all know, I’m grateful every day I wake up in this amazing country. And to top that off, every day I get to talk with you, and work through all sorts of media to, hopefully, help our mission to take our country back from the Big Smug Jerky bureaucracy Obama keeps trying to jam down our throats.
So, Monday is December 2! Another week to begin again our commitment to everything that matters. And the things that matter– our ability to enjoy our lives with family and friends — requires a government that’s off our backs, a free market, and the ability to keep as much of the fruits of our labor as possible. We take it one day at a time and never lose focus, while making sure we laugh as often as possible. Of course it’s preferable we’re laughing at Obama, but laughing in general is good, too 🙂
I do hope you all have had a lovely weekend so far. I’m sad my alma mater USC lost to the Bruins on Saturday, but there will be another chance to redeem ourselves. Please do comment here and let us know what you’ve been up to. I know the weather has been tough for many of you as well. I hope you’re taking it easy, being careful and reflecting on all the precious things in life.
Speaking of which, topping the news is the death of actor Paul Walker. A rising star, Walker, most famous for starring in the “Fast & Furious” films, was killed in a horrible car accident, along with another man. There’s really nothing left of the Porsche he was in. I know people tend to think they’re immortal, but this should be a reminder to everyone to take nothing for granted and that life is precious. He was just 40 years old. Here’s a photo of the wreck. You can’t even tell it’s a car. There’s a tarp over a portion of the mangled twist of metal. I’m guessing that’s where the two victims were located.
My God. MT @nycjim: Wreckage of “Fast & Furious” actor Paul Walker’s Porsche http://t.co/ZgaaBoby0x pic.twitter.com/uZpNQ0JYSS
— Tammy Bruce (@HeyTammyBruce) December 1, 2013
Actor Paul Walker, who gained fame as an undercover detective in the hugely successful “The Fast and the Furious” franchise, was killed Saturday in a car accident in Valencia, his representatives confirmed.
The single vehicle crash occurred about 3:30 p.m. in the 28300 block of Rye Canyon Loop. Deputies from the Santa Clarita Valley sheriff’s station and the Los Angeles County Fire Department arrived to find a vehicle engulfed in flames. Two people in the vehicle were pronounced dead at the scene.The cause of the accident is under investigation, said sheriff’s Deputy Kim Manatt.
According to a statement on his Twitter account, Walker, 40, was attending a charity event to aid Filipino victims of Typhoon Haiyan for his organization Reach Out Worldwide, formed in 2010 as a quick response first-aid organization.
“It is with a truly heavy heart that we must confirm that Paul Walker passed away today in a tragic car accident while attending a charity event for his organization Reach Out Worldwide,” the statement read. “He was a passenger in a friend’s car, in which both lost their lives. We appreciate your patience as we too are stunned and saddened beyond belief by this news.”
If you’ve got a person in your life who thinks speeding is a blast, or that nothing can ever harm them, make sure they see this story and the pictures of the wreck. It should be a wakeup call. Pray for that young man and his family.
Amazing football feat – watch this astonishing end of game run by Auburn! http://t.co/W23YXkKHqf
— Steve Forbes (@SteveForbesCEO) December 1, 2013
The ObamaCare website is supposed to be working for losts more people this weekend (dozens?). How does it look so far? Not good.
White House Misses HealthCare.Gov Fix Deadline
Security expert: HealthCare.gov’s threat to private data ‘still limitless’
ObamaCare’s Plans Are Worse
How the Affordable Care Act raises prices and limits medical choices.
Obamacare website off to a rocky start on crucial deadline day
Video: Ellison Barber: Medicaid Expansion Under Obamacare ‘Not Financially Sustainable’
Other News:
North Korea ‘restarts’ nuclear reactor, atomic watchdog warns
Family says American detained in North Korea in good health, US urges release
Please do add in comments whatever’s stuck in your craw, or news you’d like to comment on. And how was your Thanksgiving? 🙂
In my early 20’s, I was a passenger in a car that wrecked. Single-car accident. The driver was showing off. Slid off the road and hit a tree. Seatbelts held us, but the car was destroyed. That taught me a lesson I’ve never forgotten. A ton of metal hurtling at high speed is nothing to be trifled with. It’s a million times the power of a flying fist, and you take a flying fist seriously. Every since, I’ve taken driving very seriously. Honestly, I’ll almost never get in a car with another driver. Because most people take it far too lightly. No, I’ll hold my life in my own hands, thank you very much. Eyes on the road, hands on the wheel. Drive steadily, predictably. Look for the idiots to do idiot things. Being right isn’t enough. Being right does no good when you’re also being dead. Yield when it’s expedient.
Who needs a Porsche when it merely pulls you to your doom? One look at that photo, and the word that it’s a 1-car crash, and you know these people killed themselves.
Helps to develop a mental firewall between the throttle and your emotions.
What a special blessing my family had this Thanksgiving. My Mom was home with us, and healthy (6 months in remission). Last year, my family spent Thanksgiving in the hospital after learning 2 days earlier my Mom had myeloma cancer and the bone in her upper left arm had fractured. She learned she had cancer 2 weeks prior, and told no one. She said it was a “burden” she didn’t want to put on her family at Thanksgiving. You see, my Father had passed 3 years earlier, 4 days before Christmas.
Needless to say, we are so grateful and thankful to God and the prayer she received throughout her healing process. Her incredible Doctors and true healthcare professionals were simply amazing throughout her treatment. The people who work in this field are angels on loan from God. She never had to concern herself, or worry about the cost of her treatment, medication, radiation, or chemo therapy because she has very good insurance. She only had to concentrate on her healing. Six months after the process began; we were given the word that she was in remission in May of this year.
When I think of the horror of OCrapoCare, and the stress it will put on people with serious and terminal illnesses (and their families), it’s nothing short of criminal. So yes, we will fight and scream and hit back and shake people from their OBummer stupor until they wake up to the tyranny that has taken over our country. I’m with you, Tammy. I so appreciate this forum, and the fellowship of the TAMs. I’ve learned so much and am looking forward to Nov, 2014. Until then, we gird our loins, take up our sword, and fight! As Tammy says: “Never forget… We’ve faced worse.”
Kitten, prayers/blessings to your mother.
Here are some pics of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, via NY Post.
http://nypost.com/2013/11/28/the-2013-macys-thanksgiving-day-parade/#1
No, I was not there. Too cold!
But, I once took my kids to another uniquely NYC event: The Wednesday Night Pre-Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Blowing Up of Balloons. Each balloon was placed in the street, and each one took up an entire block. An enormous amount of work went in to this, of course, but seeing it up close was impressive.
🙂 Thanks, Shifra.
Interesting take on the parade: watching the balloons “come to life”. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is a unique staple in American life, but let’s face it, it wouldn’t be the same without the balloons.
I may be the only person in the world who didn’t know who Paul Walker was, but regardless of his fame, it’s a very tragic loss at such a young age. This is eerily reminiscent of another unfortunate car crash almost 60 years ago also involving a Porsche, but hitting another vehicle: James Dean. He was only 24 at the time. His passenger and the driver of the other vehicle survived. (Geez, should we ban Porsches?)
Prayers to the families of both victims.
Chuck, I too heard of him for the first time last night, when I saw the headlines… and yes, a tragic loss.
By the way, Tammy, Syd looks quite lovely 🙂
I’m glad I’m not the only one, :-).
Syd is a cutie.
Chuck and Shifra, while I never saw any of the Fast & Furious movies, I did see Paul Walker in another of his lesser known films: “Eight Below”. It was a heartwarming story about 8 sled dogs who were left to fend for themselves in the Artic when a military convoy left the base before the brutal winter set in. Paul played the lead role. I believe it was based on a true story. Anyway, a great movie. I won’t tell the ending for those who may not have seen it.
Oh, and I concur…Sydney Bruce is a cutie!
Something wrong when death of one actor in #fastandfurious movie gets more attention than all of those killed in #fastandfurious debacle.
Sunday NY Post editorial about giving Thanks and remembering much worse hardship such as, the Frozen Chosin. The day after Thanksgiving Day 1950, China sent 8 Divisions into Korea and surrounded our First Marine Division. Fighting 30 below temps., our Marines fought 78 miles through enemy lines to break out of the situation. http://nypost.com/2013/11/30/the-frozen-thanksgiving-of-the-chosin-few/
Sunday NYP book review; The History of the Kiss by Marcel Danesi. In addition to kiss history, focused on how kissing has been publicized by movies and answers the question, how many frogs do you have to kiss to find your prince. The first big ‘movie’ to publicize kissing; Romeo and Juliet. http://nypost.com/2013/11/30/the-art-history-and-meaning-of-the-kiss/
“…Kissing was the sole subject of one of the first films ever created, Thomas Edison’s 47-second short film “The Kiss,” from 1896, which featured an impassioned lip lock between two veteran Broadway actors….“It caused an uproar, as citizens called for police action wherever it showed, urging the authorities to charge even those attending with engagement in obscenity.”…Edison, as sharp a marketer as he was an inventor, understood what he was really selling and advertised the movie with the tagline, “They get ready to kiss, begin the kiss, and kiss and kiss and kiss in a way that brings down the house every time.”…Kisses could even cure typecasting. Before a smoldering kiss scene in 1921’s “The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse,” famed screen idol Rudolph Valentino,…had been generally cast as a villain….The honor for the greatest number of kisses in one film goes to 1926’s “Don Juan,” a film that demonstrated “the growing obsession with the kiss among society at large already in the 1920s.” The film’s star, John Barrymore,…kissed…for a grand total of 191 kisses.”…the “movie censorship board” deemed any kiss longer than three seconds to be off-limits. So in 1946’s “Notorious,” the director had Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman break what would have been a considerably longer kiss into segments, having “the two lovers pull back, nuzzle, speak against each other’s mouths, kiss again for three seconds and repeat the whole thing.”…“It has been estimated,” Danesi writes, “that before marrying, the average American woman has kissed 79 men.”…”
And lastly, Dec. 1 is World AIDs Day, so Starbucks is donating 10 cents of every barista blended beverage. 2 sips of the caramel brulee made it home.
The National Museum of the Marine Corps (NMMC), in Quantico, VA, has a fantastic exhibit of the Korean War, with a section dedicated to the Chosin Reservoir. The story of the Battle of Chosin Reservoir is narrated by Bernard Shaw, former CNN anchor and also former Marine. If you have a chance, next time you are in the DC area, visit the NMMC. It’s a great way of learning our history through the battles that the Marines have so bravely fought.
Beautiful picture of Syd Tammy 🙂 I’m sure Santa will fill her stocking with lots goodies this Christmas !
Concerned about Gov. Walker’s recent statements that austerity is not the answer making things work is (by removing impediments). And he gives examples including Governors’ focus on eduction. I’m good with removing impediments (regulations and depts.), however each State must have a balanced budget. So if federal gov’t budget was close to balanced then no problem with that statement. But with the ballooning debt that sounds like, there is no pain necessary as long as we are smart. That’s the same message as Obama, Smart Government. Would like to hear examples of removing impediments.
And different topic, another Democrat has closed his twitter account to the public (open to his closed circle) because he slammed a Republican hispanic woman running for Congress from NH. Liberals are so into free open transparent speech. http://www.nationalreview.com/article/365178/war-conservative-minorities-john-fund
On Paul Walker: He seemed like a fun spirit, generous with his time and good fortune and I am not surprised that he WASN’T driving in that tragic event.
I cannot say that I followed him, absorbing every factoid on the social media, but I noticed he picked projects that were fun or even Disney-esque in a way. I especially remember Eight Below Zero and The Skulls. These depended not an actors good looks, but on actions that exemplify the traditional Western idea of a man. The Skulls demonstrated the extreme of how painful siding with the truth can be.
Of note too was how we weren’t subject to his private life or the painful abuse of the microphone to convey know-nothing politics.
For all of this, Paul Walker, and entertainment, I thank you.