Olympic Athletes from Russia for 2018 Winter Olympics
Due the doping ban on Russian Federation, the 169 clean Russian athletes marched as neutrals in red and grey uniforms as neutrals. Any gold medal winning "Olympic Athletes of Russia" will be feted with the raising of the Olympic flag and anthem. While the 2,952 athletes participating in the Pyeongchang games are the best winter sport athletes in the world, but only a few make it up to the medal stand to receive their glory. For most, marching in the Winter Olympics opening ceremony is the highlight of their careers.
This makes Eric Liddell's admonition about glory all the more poignant. What is particularly noteworthy of Eric Liddell is not that he was the the Flying Scotsman was the first British Gold Medal winner in track from 1924, or that he was the basis of the film Chariots of Fire (1981), or his steadfast Sabbath keeping, but for dying as a missionary in a Japanese internment camp in China in 1945. We should all be inspired to run a good race in life and doing our best.
Traditional Marriage is under assault not only in the United States. Recently, the Mexican Supreme Court has sought to impose Same Sex Marriage.
Nuevo Lordeo Archbishop Gustavo Rodriguez Vega considered this court ruling a call for faithful Catholics to the ramparts. This is in a country which fought La cristiada, a widespread rebellion against the secularist, anti-Catholic government of President Plutarco Elías Calle to enforce anti-clerical laws in the Mexican Constitution of 1917. This struggle was depicted in "For Greater Glory" (2012) starring Andy Garcia.
Sadly, the risk of martyrdom to defend one's Christian faith is no longer a far fetched prospect in America.
Along with his acting career, Gary Sinise has been a big booster of military and veterans' causes. Sinise combined his love of music with a beloved character from the film "Forest Gump" (1994) . The Lt. Dan Band plays cover music concerts for the USO and charities like Operation Iraqi Child under the banner: "Honor. Gratitude. Rock & Roll".
Last spring, husband and wife veteran filmmakers Phelim McAleer and Anne McElhinney were publicizing their feature documentary Fracknation as the murder trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell was occurring in Philadelphia. McAleer was amazed at the lack of coverage of a prolific serial killer that murdered two women in botched late term abortions in unsanitary conditions, used a brutal snipping technique to kill a thousand children beyond the legal limit for abortion and also dealt prescription drugs.
Yet the national mainstream media ignored the Gosnell case, dismissing it like a local murder case while lavishing attention on the concurrent Jodi Arias murder trial. McAleer did man on the street interviews in California to learn about what the public knew about sensational murder trials.
As Katherine Graham, the former publisher of the Washington Post, proclaimed: "What we cover and what we don't matter a lot...The power is to set the agenda." Fox News commentator Greg Gutfeld recently speculated about the reasons why most of the mainstream media (including Fox) did not cover the Gosnell trial closely:
"The reason why they don't do this one is not because the evil is so grotesque. It's that it's too close to a moral choice they've made. That's what it's about. It's not that like, ah it's so hard to do something on this man who butchered babies. It's because it's too close to the pro-choice mindset."
However, McAleer and McElhinney were so haunted by the Gosnell trial that they backed away from other crowd-source funded projects so as to make a movie about Gosnell. Yet Anne & Phelim Media encountered more velvet gloved censorship by Kickstarter, which claims to not curate projects but would not allow them to describe their dramatized movie idea as being about a mass murderer who killed a thousand children as it allegedly violated community standards which Kickstart "encourages and (selectively) enforces". McAleer believes that it is within Kickstarter's right to not facilitate funding but that it should be forthright that it is due to the project matter not a transparent lie about community standards which it does not enforce for sundry other offensive projects.
So they moved their crowd-source funding efforts to Indiegogo, where they have raised $1.2 million of a fixed target $2.1 million. If they do not make their designated funding mark by May 12th, the money reverts back to the prospective investors.
There is already an excellent documentary film 3801 Lancaster, which interviews victims of Gosnell's House of Horrors. So McAleer and McElhinney want to make dramatized version of the Gosnell story which would run on the Lifetime Movie Network rather than a feature documentary to reach a wider audience.
It is easy for seaboard elitists to dismiss a film about Gosnell as just being by religious zealots with pro-life propaganda, which is a touch charge to apply to McAleer and McElhinney. In addition, this dismissive instinct ignores how Dr. Gosnell was a racist as he gave his white patients much better and cleaner abortion services than his clients of color.
A film about Gosnell must also include a political angle. Former Governor Tom Ridge (R-PA) was elected as chief executive of the Keystone State as a moderate Republican. The governor's office made it clear that the Commonwealth should do nothing to impede abortion services, so Gosnell's clinic was not properly inspected for 17 years, despite gruesome reports and several deaths.
Gosnell's clinic was raided because Gosnell was writing prescriptions like a pell mell pill mill for Oxycotin and the ilk. That raid permitted police to stumble upon an unsanitary abortion butchery, where Gosnell kept severed limbs as trophies.
Hearing the filmmakers promote their project, it is clear that they yearn to tell a compelling true story about a prolific American serial killer and pull back the curtain on details which a progressive public would rather ignore.
If one wishes to help actuate the Gosnell movie project, one can contribute to the efforts at www.gosnellmovie.com. Those who contribute $25 will get a DVD of the film. But the filmmakers also implore people to contribute anything to show that people care.
Mickey Rooney (ne Joseph Yule, Jr), who had been in show business for virtually his entire life, died at the age of 93 in North Hollywood, California. Rooney was a childhood star who starred in over 300 films and television shows. Rooney was honored with two Academy Awards, one for his role in Boytown (1938) and an honorary Oscar in 1983 for fifty years in the movie industry.
Rooney also earned an Emmy in 1981 for his portrayal of "Bill" about a mentally disturbed man struggling with deinstitionalization.
Despite his enormous acting talent, Rooney led an erratic off-screen life. Film historian Jeanine Basinger opined: "Mr. Rooney had talent to burn, and he burned it...He has done everything there is to
do in show business, all with equal success, and it might be said, equal
failure.” He was married eight times, struggled with substance abuse, womanizing and gambling.
While some may turn askance at Rooney's messy personal life, it is remarkable how Rooney became an evangelical Christian late in life and continued to share his faith until his passing. In the 1970s, Rooney shared how his Christian conversion occurred in the coffee shop of a Lake Tahoe casino when an angel, disguised as a busboy, whispered "Mr. Rooney, Jesus Christ loves you very much." After that encounter, Rooney became an active member of the Center for Spiritual Living (a.k.a. Church of Religious Science), founded by Ernest Holmes.
Rooney also relished his relationship with Boys Town, the orphanage in Omaha, Nebraska founded by Servant of God Monsignor "Father" Edward Flanagan in 1917, who is now being investigated by the Vatican for sainthood. The film Boystown was a fictionalized retelling of the "City of Little Men", with Rooney in his first dramatic role portraying troubled youth Whitey Marsh and Spencer Tracy in the role of Father Flanagan. Father Flanagan dedicated his life to the belief that there is no such thing as a bad boy and the film dramatized the mission.
[L] Fr. Flanagan and [2nd from R] Mickey Rooney reading first draft of Boys Town script (1938)
After Boys Town finished filming in ten days and was quickly turned around for release, MGM movie mogul Louis B. Mayer wanted to scrap the film because the grim tale of crime and poverty was too different from MGM's typical fair. Mayer reportedly exclaimed: "It will never sell. There's no sex. There's no songs." To persuade the MGM studio head, Rooney retorted: "It's a song of freedom. It's a song of rehabilitation. It's a song of
youth, no matter what color or faith you are. It's about praying. It's
about living a good life."
Mickey Rooney took great pride in his association with Boys Town as exhibited in 2003 when he was named Mayor For Life at a ceremony in Girls and Boys Town in Omaha.
[L] Mickey Rooney and wife of 35 years Jan Chamberlain at Boys Town in 2003
As Rooney was promoting the Treasure Train (2011), he testified about his Christian faith and spoke with great affection about being the Mayor of Boys Town.
So as we mark Mickey Rooney's passing, it is worth considering the values from Boys Town that there is no such thing as a bad boy and how dedication to Christ can clarify one's life.
Mickey Rooney had his own ideas about his last wish. In his 1991 autobiography "Life Is Too Short", Rooney ruminated about his short stature. Rooney wrote: “I've been short all my life. And if anyone wonders what my dying wish
will be, they can stop wondering. That will be easy. I'll just tell
them, ‘I’ll have a short bier.’ ”
This maxim MUST be true as it was shown in Animal House (1978). But whether or not you has a goading tempter and a condescending cherub on your shoulder, the real question is to whom do You answer.
The horrific testimony about Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, who is being tried for
the murder of seven newborns and a Bhutanese female refuge after a botched abortion has shown that ideology isolates opinion on mass murder. While America is outraged over the cruel killing and maiming that the Boston Marathon Bombers inflicted, the media had to be shamed into briefly covering a doctor who's groundbreaking technique was to snip the spinal cords of infants after being born to "ensure fetal demise" and storing dozens on jars of dismembered body parts on shelves.
Kermit Gosnell's attorney Jack McMahon
Through his lawyer Jack McMahon, Gosnell claims that: "Everybody's made him the butcher, this, that and the other thing
without any trial, without anything being exposed to the public and
everybody's found him guilty, that's not right".. Furthermore, the Gosnell's legal mouthpiece asserted that: "This is a
targeted, elitist and racist prosecution of a doctor who's done nothing
but give (back) to the poor and the people of West Philadelphia." If that were the case, why did Gosnell's defense not bring it up in trial--after all, the two year gag order was moot in court. Instead, the Gosnell defense rested without calling a single witness.
The lack of curiosity in the Lamestream Media over the testimony for the House of Horrors at 3801 Lancaster is understandable as political partisans who do not want the sacrament of abortion on demand to be endangered.
But even for those who fervently support the right of a mother to an unborn baby, they should be concerned at the basically unregulated health and sanitary conditions and disparate treatment of their desperate customers.
Public health officials found unsterile medical instruments, with rusty and outdated equipment covered with dust. Gosnell admitted that perhaps 20% of his procedures were on women after their 24th week, which is in violation of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania law. In fact, during trial a worker at the clinic testified that Gosnell joked that one baby that he aborted was big enough to walk him home.
The clinic had a string of violations which were never corrected. Then Pennsylvania Health officials stopped inspecting for ten years for what observers might conclude were willful political ignorance about protected procedures.
There was testimony that rang of medical malpractice of women being injured by careless surgical technique on the cervix. And then the clinic had non-licensed individuals, including a 15 year old high school student aiding in surgeries.
When Gosnell applied to become a member of the National Abortion Federation, the Evaluator reported that the records were a mess, that patients were not properly informed of medical risks, that anesthesia was misused and that equipment was not available. While the invigilator from NAF rejected Gosnell's establishment terming it the worst abortion clinic that she ever inspected, this cornucopia of snafus was not reported to authorities. So much for caring about womens' health or civic duty.
It is rich to hear Gosnell's defense talk about racism and targeted treatment when Gosnell himself gave disparate treatment to white women as it was the "way of the world" because they might report him, unlike his Black and Asian clientele.
If the Lamestream Media would do its job, there would be little need to have a slew of summer Horror flicks as all one would need to do is review Gosnell trial coverage. However the elite liberal media reports on what it cares about, ignores the rest while disparaging journalists who do not follow the party line. For those who can stomach the gory details, it is worth watching the documentary 3801 Lancaster (2013) by director David Altrogge.
Today is Guy Fawkes day in the U.K. Now it seems to be treated just as another bank holiday to enjoy carousing and light fireworks.
Despite the 400 years that separates them, the Gunpowder Plot is analogous to the Islamists attacks on 9/11/2001.
History shows that the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 stemmed from a reactionary religious partisans trying to decapitate the tyrannical government which prevented freedom of conscience.
Such themes were thematically updated in the "V for Vendetta" comic book that was adapted into a feature film in 2006.
What is particularly noteworthy of Eric Liddell is not that he was the the Flying Scotsman was the first British Gold Medal winner in track from 1924, or that he was the basis of the film Chariots of Fire (1981), or his steadfast Sabbath keeping, but for dying as a missionary in a Japanese internment camp in China in 1945. 
