LA Progressive: W.J. Rorabaugh- 'Hippies Won The Culture War'

Source:LA Progressive- 1960s Hippies and American freedom fighters.

Source:The Daily Review

“As blue jeans, beards, body adornments, natural foods, legal marijuana, gay marriage, and single parenthood have gained acceptance in mainstream American society in recent years, it is now clear that the hippies won the culture wars that were launched nearly fifty years ago. It was in the mid-1960s that one of America’s oddest social movements, the hippies, suddenly appeared.”

From LA Progressive 

“The New Culture Forum’s brand new publication “The Long March Through The Institutions: How the Left Won the Culture War” may be downloaded free of charge from our website:The New Culture Forum." 

Source:New Culture Forum- talking about Liberals won the Cultural War.

From The New Culture Forum 

The one thing That I like about the 1960s culturally other than the music, the movies and Jim Morrison, were the Hippies.

And as much as todays so-called Progressives claim to love the Hippies and respect them, the Hippies represent the opposite of what today’s so-called Progressive represent.

Hippies, Liberals were true, because they were anti-establishment and pro-individualism. Today’s so-called Progressives, are anti-individualism and pro-big government to the point that they want government to check what people eat, drink and even what we can say to each other with their so-called political correctness movement.

Today’s so-called Progressives are not anti-establishment: to the contrary, they support the biggest establishment in the world: its called the U.S. Government and think it’s too small.

Hippies back in the mid 1960s (let’s say) at least were true Liberals, because they were individualists. They got the memo, or bothered to look at the calendar and figured out that it was no longer 1959 and that the 1950s was finally over. They were born either post-World War II, or during that war and did not remember any of it and decided that they did not have to live their lives of their parents and grandparents.

Hippies knew the 1940s and 1950s was not so swell after all. That mom did not have to stay home and raise the kids, while dad came home every night Between 6-7 and said: “Honey, I’m home! What’s for dinner? I’m starved. Gee, what a day. ” (Or something like that from Leave it to Beaver) Thank God that was before my time. Hippies / Liberals, we’re tired of black and white TV, or sitting around in the living room listening to the radio and were looking for a different lifestyle.

There’s a discussion among historians about when the Counter Culture actually began. Some people say 1965 with the start of the anti-war movement. I point to the 1963 March on Washington as not just one of the most important times and best times in American history, but where you literally had a million people from all over the country from all sorts of races, ethnicities, cultures, lifestyles, who were anti-establishment and were all looking for a better and different America.

If there was one point in history that I wish I was old enough to have been there and experienced it would be the 1963 March on Washington. The dawning of a new America where you had all sorts of different Americans all together at the same place having a good time together and enjoying each other with all sorts of great entertainment groups all together.

These Americans were looking for their own place in America and the freedom to be individuals. And not feel they need to work at their father’s factory, or his company, or get married and stay home and raise kids.

If you were a women back then while your husband went to work and earned a living for his wife and kids. Gays came out of the closet in the thousands in the 1960s. And according to the Christian-Right, America has-been going to hell ever since. As they’ve forgotten one of their own commandments: “Love your neighbor as yourself own.” In other words: treat others as you would treat yourself. Show respect to the other people as you want to be respected. These values are mainstream today, but fifty years ago America was going through, well a Cultural Revolution.

Romantic couples having pre-marital sex, living together before they were married. Perhaps better known as domestic partnerships, unmarried couples raising their kids together, homosexuality, marijuana, women working and managing business’s, men who cooked and spent a lot of time with their kids, marijuana, I mean all of these things are mainstream today. (More examples of why the Christian-Right believes America is going to hell)

But these cultural changes were started back in 1963 and then a mid-1960s by the people who were literally trying to change America if not the world. Not the New-Left from the late 1960s that literally wanted a different form of government for the United States and a completely different economic system and force democratic socialism if not communism on the country. The Hippies, wanted to create a new culture in America and new way of life.

The reason why the Hippies and Liberals won the Culture War has nothing to do with new arguments, or these different ways of debating issues. It has to do with the children and grandchildren of the Hippies are now grown up and experienced their parents and grandparents attitudes when it comes to things like tolerance and multiculturalism and integration and have decided that there’s nothing wrong with people living differently as long as they aren’t hurting innocent people with what they’re doing.

They know and are friends of people from other races, ethnicities, cultures, religions and even sexualities and know that they’re good people too. So why put them down, or look down upon them simply for being different from how they Are and how they were born. It took 1-2 generations of people for Liberals to win the Culture War, but we did and America is not going back to the 1950s.

Alison Martino: James Dean Mysteries & Scandals

Source:Alison Martino- Rebel Without a Cause.

Source:The Daily Review

I guess I sort of see James Dean as the male version of Jayne Mansfield. (No, I'm not trying to be insulting) As a very talented entertainer, but someone who lacked personal discipline and self-confidence. I believe another good comparison to Jim Dean would be Jim Morrison. Again, talented entertainer who got as most out of their young lives as they could until they died. The Lizard King, was an alcoholic and probably addicted to illegal drugs as well and Dean was more of an adrenaline junky I guess who was always moving fast and couldn't slow down. A Rebel Without a Cause, a famous movie. but it could be the biography of Jimmy Dean. He was way ahead of time culturally and when it came to style. Was probably born ten years too early as far as the lifestyle that he lived.

I'm not an expert on James Dean, but the information I've seen on him is that he's a pop culture superstar. People love him, because he was cool. I mean lets face it, he died at 24 and had just three film credits under his belt. Not exactly a deep resume to go on and to judge his life by. People like Dean because he was cool, he was real, he was honest, he played himself in his movies, he seemed like he wasn't acting, but being a real person instead. In many ways reminds me of the great actress Kim Novak who had the ability to literally become the person that she was playing. She also had some luck there, because a lot of the roles she had were very similar to who she was in real-life. Jim Dean is a lot like that, but of course without as deep of a resume. So there's a lot to like about Dean and easy to see why so many people still love him.

The North Star: M. Harlan Hoke- Regime Change: Ditch The Green Party for Socialist Campaigns

Source:Green Party USA-

Source:The New Democrat 

I started blogging about this four years ago when Occupy Wall Street came out and argued that how about the so-called Progressives in America like the Progressive Caucus in the Democratic Party, combined with the Green Party and the Democratic Socialist Party, all came together and formed one Democratic Socialist Party. The Green Party is already the first, or second largest third-party in America. Competing right now with the Libertarian Party. (For that coveted prize) You take the Bernie Sanders coalition in and outside of the Democratic Party, the Progressive Caucus in Congress and the Jill Stein supporters in the Green Party and might have a party big enough to at least get in the presidential debates. Get on most of the ballots of most of the states in the country.

I believe right now the reason why we don't have more lets say New-Left, (to be nice) or Far-Left (to be real) members of Congress in either the House, or Senate at the state and local levels in office, is because they are so spread out. You have 4-5 at least social democratic parties in America who aren't Marxist and they tend to believe in the same things and yet they end up running against each other in different campaigns. As well trying to run a credible campaign against the Democrat and Republican that they have to beat to win that office. Instead of having all of these Social Democrats run against each other in the general election, run against each other in Democratic Socialist, or Social Democratic primary instead. And have one person with one larger party behind them to take on the Democrat and Republicans.

Democratic socialism, is at its highest peak in popularity really since at least the New Deal era and the 1940s. Why not take advantage of that which is what I would be asking my fellow Democratic Socialists and Social Democrats, if I was one of them and not a Liberal instead. How about one Bernie Sanders, or Jill Stein running for president instead of having two people who agree on most of the issues running against each other. And the same thing with Congressional races and state government races and everything else. That way you combine all your resources from a large group of small contributors and social democratic business people. To take on the Democrat and the Republican instead of essentially running against yourself while trying to beat the Democrat and Republican and perhaps a Libertarian who emerges, all at the same time.
Source:ENAA

Lifetime: Intimate Portrait- Angie Dickinson (2003)

Source:Lifetime- Intimate Portait Angie Dickinson.

Source:The Daily Review

"Angie Dickinson 2002 Intimate Portrait"

From Lifetime

"Angie Dickinson is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in the films Rio Bravo and Dressed to Kill, and for starring on television as Sergeant Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson on the 1970s crime series Police Woman." 

Source:Movie Legends- Angie Dickinson

From Movie Legends

When I think of Angie Dickinson I’m staring at those eyes and locked into that voice. She reminds me a of smaller Gena Rowlands, another woman who just looks and sounds incredible, but who is also a hell of an actress. A true goddess who is both hot and baby-faced adorable where they don’t seem to age and always look like very young woman even if they’re in their forties and fifties. Gena is a bigger and taller Angie, but she might be just as adorable. When you look this great and you also can act and make people laugh and sing, you’ll never have to worry about finding a job in Hollywood. Just as long as you don’t piss off the wrong people. And an actress will always be able to be either on TV, or doing movies, or both.

There two movies and perhaps a certain TV show that you’re familiar with when I think of Angie Dickinson. Ocean’s Eleven from 1960, where she plays the wife of compulsive gambler Danny Ocean (played by Frank Sinatra) and The Chase from 1966 where she plays the girlfriend of the sheriff. (played by Marlin Brando) She has a small part in Ocean’s, but a key one and has a great scene where she tells of Danny’s mistress on the phone. When the mistress is confessing to her that she’s seeing her husband. And Angie tells the mistress that, “what you’re saying just makes me want him more.” She has a much bigger role in The Chase where she’s the girlfriend of the sheriff and is very close to Marlin in that movie.

But I believe Angie’s Dickinson’s most important accomplishment to Hollywood is Police Woman. Where she plays a police detective sergeant in that movie. That show comes out in 1974 three years before Charlie’s Angels and she plays this gorgeous sexy smart detective sergeant on that show. Who leads police investigation’s and kicks ass at the same time. Police detective shows with female leads now are common and have been since the 1990s. But a big reason for that was Police Woman and Angie Dickinson. She showed that you could look like a goddess and also be smart and professional and do important jobs in society and be in charge. And because of Angie NBC, CBS and ABC, (and perhaps even FOX) are always looking for that new hit female detective show.

Angie is simply one of the cutest, hottest, sexiest actress’s with the great voice to match of all-time. I could listen to her read from a phone book, or a tennis rule book and I would end up being fascinated with that bland material that would be great reading material for insomniacs if it was read by just about everyone else. But she makes everything look and sound interesting simply because of who she is. She was great on the Alfred Hitchcock Hour in the early 1960s, playing a woman who simply marries men for money and tries to get her latest boyfriend to murder her husband. She’s a true Hollywood Goddess in the sense that she’s an incredibly attractive woman, but also a great actress. And she’s one of the top actress’s of her generation and in the business today.

CBS News: 60 Minutes Presents Crime and Punishment: The Capture of James Whitey Bulger

Source:CBS News 60 Minutes with a look at Irish-American mobster James Whitey Bulger.

Source:The New Democrat

James Whitey Bulger
To say that James Whitey Bulger is not your average criminal would be like saying that Larry Bird isn’t your average basketball player. (Another famous Boston figure) I’m not a criminologist obviously and yes it also snows in Minnesota, (thanks Captain Obvious) but Whitey is a criminal genius. And if he gets to spend any real-time outside of his cell in the hell hole that he’s going to die in his fellow inmates are going to be able to learn a lot from him. Unless they’re serving life without in prison as well. Here’s a guy whose guilty of at least nineteen murders and yet up until recently hasn’t spent much of his life in prison. He’s been on the streets for most of his life.

Neo-Nazis
I think the only way you can become a Nazi especially as an adult is like the guy in this story. Is that by in large you’re a good person and you’re doing well in life, but suddenly you find yourself out of work and your bills are piling up and you go years without at least a full-time job. You lose your home and perhaps now living a one-room apartment, or maybe in the basement of your parents home. And you’re trying to figure out where you go from there and you run in people you should have nothing to do with. And they start telling you about the dangers of the other races. In this case non-Caucasians in America especially non-Anglo Saxons. I have a hard time believing that a good person whose grown up with people from other races and ethnicities would suddenly become a racist for no apparent reason.

CBS News: Baseball Great Yogi Berra Dead at 90

Source:CBS News-

Source:The Daily Review

I think it would be fairly easy just to write a piece about Yogi Berra featuring a lot of his great one-liners. But we're talking about one of the top 3-5 catchers in the history of Major League Baseball. And yes he was a great comedian, but how many catchers do you know of that were great behind the plate who also have a career 285 bating average with 358 home runs and 1430 RBI. At least statistically we're talking about a better hitting catcher than Johnny Bench who is still the best all around catcher of all-time. Yogi is at least the best all around catcher pre-Johnny Bench who came up with the Cincinnati Reds in 1967.

As far as his humor I love people who put things in a very direct way telling it exactly how it is and using humor with it. Especially when they're not making fun of someone, or some group of people. Who can say ironic things and stuff that they know can't be true, but do it so well and intentionally that you have to laugh at it. Like the Yogi line about baseball being 90% half mental. Well anyone with a basic understanding of mathematics knows that can't be true. But he was so clever about how he said that, that you had to laugh at that. Or saying obvious things, but doing it with perfect timing that again you have to laugh. "When you come to a fork in road, take it."

"You can observe a lot just by watching." Which of course sounds like Captain Obvious under attack and everyone must duck, or get hit in the head with useless information that they've known since they were born. But if you're not someone who tends to be very good about knowing your surroundings and tend to miss things that are right in front of you, that little piece of obvious information can help you. And tell you to pay attention so you don't miss what is going on right in front of you.

"It aint over till it's over." Good message for players who are down a lot in a game, but still have time to turn it around. And instead of thinking, "damn we suck! We're not only going to get blown out, but we might not bother to score!" You would have Yogi saying something like, "relax, I know its 6-0, but its only the 3rd inning. Besides I got a guy in there who can actually pitch now. So just relax and play the game right and we'll get back in it." Telling his players there's a reason why a World Series is seven games and games themselves are nine innings, because you don't win those things early on.

Yogi Berra, again one of the top 3-5 catchers of all-time, but similar to Billy Martin and Phil Rizzuto if he wasn't playing and managing baseball, he could have been a great comedian and talk show host as well. Because of his ability to put things exactly as they are with a little touch of great wit. Which is what great one-liners are. The ability to use common sense to make fun of life and even people in life. The ability to state the obvious without someone saying,"no shit Einstein! You got any other brand new discoveries you would like to share with us?" And because of that and I think especially the humor he's going to be missed for a long time.

Lifetime: Intimate Portrait- Dame Elizabeth Taylor

Source:Lifetime Network with a biography of Dame Elizabeth Taylor.

Source:The Daily Review

Liz Taylor is the Jim Brown, John Unitas, Babe Ruth, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Frank Sinatra, the person in her profession that everyone who comes after her his judged by. The greatest at what she does. Are you as good as Elizabeth Taylor as an actress? If you are, well now you’re the best, but if you’re anything close to her even light years from her you know you’ve made it. If you’re in her class, or just a few classes back from Liz Taylor you’ve made it. You’re not just a successful actress, but you’re a great actress. I’ve gone back and forth between Liz and Lauren Bacall when I try to decide who’s the best actress of all-time, because you could make a great case for either and I’m blogging now about Liz, so I’m going to make her case.

But I’ve just don’t know of another actress whose funnier, one of the funniest people who has ever come out of Hollywood. As she said she’s an instinctive and if you’re a great instinctive actress you are also a great improv actress, because you go off of feel about who you’re playing and where the role and the movie, or show is going. That is Liz Taylor and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Which isn’t a question, but a movie) Is a perfect example of that where she’s playing a women whose losing her mind and going crazy if not already there. Its is a very serious role and movie and yet she and Richard Burton are very funny in that. And maybe that’s just because they were working with each other and the chemistry they had. But they made that movie a great movie by themselves.

When it comes to dramatic actress’s I don’t know of a better actress. Again Virginia Woolf, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Butterfield 8, The V.I.P.’s again with Burton and The Sandpiper again with Burton. She’s great at making very serious roles in serious movies seem very entertaining and even funny. Virginia Woolf, is a very serious graphic even movie with this couple that looks like they’re getting ready to divorce, because of how they argue and the clean shots that they throw and land at each other. And of course with Liz’s character going insane as the movie moves along and yet they were both hysterically funny together in this movie. She might be the best improvisational actress of all-time as well and Lauren Bacall does very well in this area as well.

Liz Taylor very similar to Ava Gardner took charge of her life and lived her life exactly the way she wanted. And essentially said the hell with the future and the consequences and lived her life her way. I think that’s how a women is married 6-7 times, or whatever it was and drinks and eats too much. She lived a roller coaster life including all the tragedies that she suffered around her husband Mike Todd dying and other loved one around her dying. But with all the ups and downs that she had in her life she lived a great 79 years that has millions of people who love her and will always love her. And we’re also talking about one of the two best actress’s ever. And when you live a life-like that and enjoy so much and have so much success with so many people who love you, what do you have to complain about. She lived a great life and had a great roller coaster ride.
Source:Lifetime