Thought for Today

"Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place."

~~~~~ Frederic Bastiat

Thought for Today

"Lord, deliver me from the man who never makes a mistake, and also from the man who makes the same mistake twice."

~~~~~ Dr. William J. Mayo

Thought for Today

"The atmosphere of libraries, lecture rooms and laboratories is dangerous to those who shut themselves up in them too long. It separates us from reality like a fog."

~~~~~ Alexis Carrel

Thought for Today

"The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river."

~~~~~ Ross Perot

Thought for Today

"Miracles happen to those who believe in them."

~~~~~ Bernard Berenson

Thought for Today

"Indifference is harder to fight than hostility, and there is nothing that kills an agitation like having everybody admit that it is fundamentally right."

~~~~~ Crystal Eastman

America – The Movie

Last Sunday evening, I was one of the fortunate few hundred people who was invited to attend a preview of Dinesh D'Souza's new movie, America, in Nashville. To my surprise and delight, Dinesh was there, along with his beautiful and talented daughter, Danielle, already a published author whose first

book came out two years ago – while she was still a high school student. Dinesh spoke before and after the movie, then took a few questions from the audience. Afterward, he and Danielle waited in the theater lobby and greeted each one of us individually. No doubt, his hand was quite sore by the end of the evening.

When my turn came, I thanked Dinesh for the opportunity to watch the movie, then told him that in my opinion, it is a masterpiece. I then chatted briefly with Danielle, and advised her that she should be very proud of her father. (She assured me that she is.)

Why do I believe that America is a masterpiece? Because maybe once in a century, an author creates a work so powerful that it induces a major change in our entire social structure.

One such work is the 48-page pamphlet Common Sense, written by Thomas Paine and first published anonymously in January, 1776. Right from the start, it was enormously popular. Eventually, hundreds of thousands of copies were printed and distributed -- amazing in view of the fact that at the time, the thirteen original colonies had a total population of only about 2.5 million people. At least one newspaper printed the pamphlet in its entirety for the convenience of its subscribers. Throughout the colonies, there were public readings of Common Sense in order that those who were unable to read could also receive its message. Its impact on the American public cannot be overstated. Common Sense developed the necessary popular support which permitted the American Revolution to succeed in the face of overwhelming odds against the most powerful military of its time.

Next came Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, first published in 1854. Once again, the work quickly became a monster hit. During the 19th Century, Uncle Tom's Cabin far outsold every other book on the market with the sole exception of the Bible. Although a work of fiction, the book so inflamed the public's emotions on both sides of the slavery issue that 7 years after its publication, the Civil War broke out. In due course, slavery was ended and the Constitution was amended to guarantee full voting rights to all citizens regardless of the color of their skin.

Dinesh's movie America is a monumental cinematic accomplishment which packs an enormous emotional wallop. In an age when fewer people read serious books, printed material, while certainly influential, can no longer generate the same degree of public interest as Common Sense and Uncle Tom's Cabin, particularly when it swims upstream against the prevailing intellectual current. Nowadays, in order to reach the public, it is necessary to go to them directly – over the heads of the intelligentsia and the media – with a powerful multimedia message. Dinesh has succeeded admirably. If a small fraction of the American people watches this film and absorbs its message, the effect will be electric. The fraction of the public with a burning desire to restore the American republic and the determination to see this unprecedented challenge through to a successful conclusion will reach critical mass. American ingenuity will take care of the rest. If we are sufficiently determined to rid ourselves of our present soft tyranny and restore Constitutional government to the United States, we'll figure out how to do it as we go.

It is vitally important that we all demand that our local theaters obtain and show America as soon as possible after its July 2, 2014 release date, then convince as many friends, relatives, and acquaintances as we can to go with us to watch it. If we're successful, we'll be able to recapture the Senate this November, stop any further encroachment on our freedom, and begin the arduous task of cleaning up the huge mess which Obama and the Democrats -- with far too much help from the milquetoast country club Republicans -- have made. The major part of the job will have to wait until January 20, 2017, when we hope to see the Obamas leave our White House for the very last time and be replaced by a Republican who intends to honor his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution – so help him (or her), God!

If we succeed, future historians will note that our previously scattered and ineffective efforts were given focus and force by a movie conceived by a creative genius who was born in India, but who, like so many millions of others, elected to immigrate to the United States and become a proud American citizen – Dinesh D'Souza.

Thought for Today

"It is a good rule never to see or talk to the man whose words have wrung your heart, or helped it, just as it is wise not to look down too closely at the luminous glow which sometimes shines on your path on a summer night, if you would not see the ugly worm below."

~~~~~ Rebecca Harding Davis

Thought for Today

"The secret of long life is double careers. One to about age sixty, then another for the next thirty years."

~~~~~ David Ogilvy

Thought for Today

"I am more and more convinced that our happiness or our unhappiness depends far more on the way we meet the events of life than on the nature of those events themselves."

~~~~~ Wilhelm von Humboldt

Thought for Today

"There is a contest old as Eden, which still goes on – the conflict between right and wrong, between error and truth. In this conflict every human being has a part."

~~~~~ Matthew Simpson

Thought for Today

"The dead of midnight is the noon of thought."

~~~~~ Anna Letitia Barbauld

Thought for Today

"If you can't answer a man's arguments, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names."

~~~~~ Elbert Hubbard

Thought for Today

"If we cannot by reason, by influence, by example, by strenuous effort, and by personal sacrifice, mend the bad places of civilization, we certainly cannot do it by force."

~~~~~ Auberon Herbert

Thought for Today

"As an inspiration to the author, I do not think the cat can be over-estimated. He suggests so much grace, power, beauty, motion, mysticism. I do not wonder that many writers love cats; I am only surprised that all do not."

~~~~~ Carl Van Vechten

Thought for Today

"Well I just figure any man who risks his neck to save a dog's life isn't going to kill someone for gold teeth."

~~~~~ Alvin Adams

Thought for Today

"One finds limits by pushing them."

~~~~~ Herbert Simon

Thought for Today

"It is a grave matter to enter a war, without adequate military preparation; it may prove fatal to come into peace, without moral and religious preparation."

~~~~~ Rabbi Louis Finkelstein

Thought for Today

"One's age should be tranquil, as childhood should be playful. Hard work at either extremity of life seems out of place. At midday the sun may burn, and men labor under it; but the morning and evening should be alike calm and cheerful."

~~~~~ Thomas Arnold

Thought for Today

"You may gain temporary appeasement by a policy of concession to violence, but you do not gain lasting peace that way."

~~~~~ Anthony Eden

Thought for Today

"Nothing is so boring as having to keep up a deception."

~~~~~ E. V. Lucas

Thought for Today

"Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow."

~~~~~ William Pollard

Thought for Today

"If I have to go around telling everyone how great I am, then there's something wrong with my act."

~~~~~ Les Paul

Thought for Today

"The Court is most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or design of the Constitution."

~~~~~ Byron White

Thought for Today

"Try as hard as we may for perfection, the net result of our labors is an amazing variety of imperfectness. We are surprised at our own versatility in being able to fail in so many different ways."

~~~~~ Samuel McChord Crothers

Thought for Today

"None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free."

~~~~~ Pearl S. Buck

Thought for Today

"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest."

~~~~~ Adam Smith

Thought for Today

"Sticks and stones will break our bones, but words will break our hearts."

~~~~~ Robert Fulghum

Thought for Today

"Never be haughty to the humble or humble to the haughty."

~~~~~ Jefferson Davis

Thought for Today

"Dissatisfaction with possession and achievement is one of the requisites to further achievement."

~~~~~ John Hope

Thought for Today

"To secure peace is to prepare for war."

~~~~~ Carl von Clausewitz