The Onion: Indiana Governor Insists Religious Freedom Law Has Nothing to do With Thing it Explicitly Intended to do

Source: This piece was originally posted at The New Democrat Plus

If I’m a governor of a state like Indiana, is passing laws to cut back on tourism and economic revenue really something that I would be interested in doing? Forget about me, because you could use anyone as an example for this. I mean what does Indiana have outside of Indianapolis, the Indianapolis 500 and a good NFL team and a good NBA team. Unless you love college basketball and auto racing why would you go to Indiana? To see how long to takes to get mugged, beaten, raped or murdered in Gary. Maybe go to a Notre Dame football game. But you’re a fan of Notre Dame like part of the alumni, you hate Notre Dame! And Notre Dame only plays six home games every year.

I don’t say these things to put Indiana down. But they do have a lot Christian fundamentalists who are stuck in the 1800s and actually still believe it is the 1800s. Because they don’t believe in calendars or anything. And that women shouldn’t be allowed to vote, let alone work. And that gays are terrorists and not just people who are attracted to their gender instead of the opposite sex. And that pre-marital sex should be not just be a crime, but punishable by death. Except for these small factors, I’m sure Indiana is a great place to live. Unless you’re gay, or practice a non-Christian religion, perhaps come from another country, or even state.

You would think any state house worth its salt would have an office or at least someone in charge of gauging the economic impact of laws that the legislature passes and the Governor signs. That seems like commonsense anyway and Indiana does have very good schools there. Like Notre Dame and Indiana. So you would think there would be somewhere there to tell Governor Mike Pence, “look Governor, if you sign this law, we may see boycotts of our fair state. And as a result lose some serious tax revenue. Because business’s and other states who don’t look down at homosexuality, marriage or otherwise won’t want to be associated with a state that they see as discriminatory.”

And maybe Governor Pence had that person like a state economist and perhaps economics professors at one of their fine schools tell him those things. And Governor Pence said, “you know what, homosexuality is a sin! That must be wiped out! As Michelle Bachmann said it is a threat to our national security and that includes Indiana. We don’t want dem folk here and we are going to wipe them out. Which is more important than whether business’s and other states want to do business in our state.” No, I’m not saying that Governor Pence actually said that. Well used those words exactly, but he does represent a lot of people who feel that way. And comes from that wing of the Republican Party.

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MGM Europe: North by Northwest (1959) Starring Cary Grant & Eva-Marie Saint

Source:The New Democrat

North by Northwest is my favorite movie of all time. Cary Grant is my favorite actor of all time and Alfred Hitchcock is probably my favorite director of all time. I have a couple of versions of this movie on DVD, saw it on Turner Classic Movies a couple of nights ago and again on DVD last might. I decided to write a blog about it today because I’ve been thinking about it a lot. This movie is Cary Grant, perhaps the best comedic actor of all time, at his best.

North by Northwest has all the ingredients of a great Hitchcock movie. A great plot, great writing, great cast, Hitchcock’s sense of humor, that Cary Grant shares, and James Mason. The very sexy and beautiful Eva Marie Saint (On the Waterfront, The Russians are Coming) has a big role in the movie. According to my father, she’s smarter, sexier, and more beautiful than Grace Kelly or Marilyn Monroe. She reminds him of my mother.

Then, there’s Jessie Royce Landis who plays Roger Thornhill’s (Cary Grant) mother, a great smart ass, even though she’s only four years older.

The movie is a Cold War thriller about a man, Van Damme (James Mason), who exports American weapons and national security secrets. Thornhill gets caught up in it, accidentally, and you have a great movie.

Thornhill is a charming playboy New York advertising man who’s just living his life as a very successful businessman. He’s kidnapped by Van Damme’s henchmen at a New York bar. They believe he has inside information about Van Damme’s organization.

The Van Damme crew tries to murder Thornhill but he gets away. He tries to get back in touch with Van Damme and instead connects with Lester Townsend, someone Van Damme had pretended to be. The Van Damme crew, trying to murder Thornhill, instead murder Townsend. They believe he also knows something about their organization that they want kept secret. Thornhill is now not only on the run from Van Damme and company but also from the NYC PD, the New York State PD, and the Feds.

Thornhill once again escapes and is now on the run from everyone because of the murder he didn’t commit. This time, he escapes by train where he meets Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) who just happens to be an undercover Federal agent pretending to work for Philipp Van Damme. She’s actually working to bring down Van Damme’s and his organization. She has Thornhill believing she’s on his side and helping him to escape. She’s actually just using him.

This movie starts in New York, moves to Chicago and then Indiana where the Van Damme crew tries to murder Thornhill and Thornhill is trying to meet the real George Kaplan to find out what this whole thing is about. The problem is that George Kaplan doesn’t exist. Back to Chicago Thornhill gets arrested again, thinking that he would be safer with the police than on the run. The Feds grab him instead and use him to help bering down Van Damme and company in Rapid City where Philipp Van Damme has a home.

This is one of the best action suspense comedies you’ll ever see.
MN Europe: Alfred Hitchcock- North by Northwest 1959 Trailer

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HBO Films: Magic & Bird a Courtship of Rivals

Source:The New Democrat 

This film is about the two men who saved the National Basketball Association in the 1980s. And to know that, you have to be familiar with the NBA back in the late 1970s. The fact that the NBA finals were shown on tape-delay television means the game is played at one point. The network back then was CBS and CBS Sports, which recorded the game and broadcast it. The game was played at 8 or 9 pm, but then CBS Sports aired the game at midnight after the local TV news.

Regarding Earvin Magic Johnson’s and Larry Legend Bird’s second or third season, sports fans wanted to see the NBA again and their ratings were back up and all of their games are now being shown live. The reason for this is that both players were great to see, but why were they great to see: Because of what they were about, which wasn’t themselves but their teams and winning. All they were interested in was winning, and as the great NBA basketball head coach Pat Riley said, Magic and Legend were about team first and team last and everything else in between and nothing else.

The only thing that Magic and Legend cared about was winning and the fact that they were the two best. Players, at least of their generation playing for the two best teams of this era, and playing in opposite conferences, Larry Bird playing for the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference, and Earvin Johnson playing for the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference, and for either to win the NBA finals, most likely they would have to beat the Celtics or Lakers. It meant for the two best team players of all time to win the championship. They would have to beat each other to do that.

I am not sure whether Larry Bird and Earvin Johnson would have been as great as they were had they not played in the same era and were from the same generation. Had they been clearly the best players of their era without anyone to push them for the top and had the Celtics been the best team of this era without the Lakers to push them and vice-versa I am not sure they would have been as great as they were without the other player and team pushing them. Because part of Legend’s and Magic’s greatness was the other pushing them to make them as great as they were: the competition of the rivalry.

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NBC Sports: FBS 1992- Pennsylvania Nittany Lions @ Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Full Game

Source:Notre Dame Fighting Irish– playing the Penn State Nittany Lions in 1992.

“On Nov. 14, 1992, the Fighting Irish met the Penn State Nittany Lions on a snowy Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium. Trailing 16-9 with 25 seconds remaining, Notre Dame quarterback Rick Mirer (‘93) threw a touchdown pass to Jerome Bettis to pull the Irish within one point. In the days before overtime, head coach Lou Holtz elected to go for the win. He drew up a two-point conversion play on the sidelines, and as they say, the rest is history. Mirer found Reggie Brooks (’93) in the back of the end zone, lifting Notre Dame to a 17-16 victory.”

From the Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Penn State-Notre Dame, was one of the better college football rivalries in the 1980s and early 1990s. And it’s just a shame that they still aren’t playing. And I believe one of the weakness’ of Notre Dame not being part of a conference because a lot of their big rivalries wouldn’t have to end, because of where they are located, if they could’ve been in the Big Ten or Big East. And never have to stop playing Michigan or Purdue or Penn State or West Virginia, Syracuse, Boston, because they would likely be in the same conference as most if not all of these teams.

The Big East, would make a great comeback in football if Notre Dame was part of it. And they bring back Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Syracuse. Add Penn State and perhaps Buffalo and you would have a great conference with Notre Dame as perhaps the top program in it.

You can also see this post at FRS FreeState, on Blogger.

You can also see this post at FRS FreeState, on WordPress.

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NBC Sports: FBS 1993- Pittsburgh Panthers @ Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Full Game

Source:NBC Sports– WR Lake Dawson would also go on to play in the NFL for the Kansas City Chiefs.

“Notre Dame handed Pittsburgh a stinging defeat as the Irish marched to a 44-0 victory.

The full game is available for a limited time only exclusively on The Fighting Irish Youtube channel. For more games check out the full “The Vault: ND on NBC” playlist.”

From the Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Talk about your total mismatches: the Pittsburgh Panthers have a great football tradition, at least until went downhill in the early 1990s and were no longer a winning program, let alone a consistent bowl team or national championship contender. Perhaps the main reason why head coach Johnny Majors left the Tennessee Volunteers, where he built a consistent Southeast Conference contender there in the 1980s, was to rebuild the Pittsburgh Panthers football program.

And then you look at the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, where they were a bowl team every year under head coach Lou Holtz, except his first season in 1986, won the national championship in 1988, contended for the national championship in 1989 and were looking to win another championship in 1993, and are playing the Pittsburgh Panthers who entered this game at 1-3. It’s hard to see how the Panthers can even compete with the undefeated Irish, especially at Notre Dame.

You can also see this post on Blogger.

You can also see this post at FRS FreeState, on Blogger.

You can also see this post at FRS FreeState, on WordPress.

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