Killing Russians As Revenge for Viet Nam

Posted on 22/04/2015 by Grumpa Joe

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Two weeks ago in a discussion with my Lion friends the subject of Charley Wilson’s War came up. I remembered seeing a movie by that name, but could not remember what it was about. Two days later my friend Rod dropped off a book with the same title. I finished reading the story today, and feel compelled to express myself about it. Before I do I have to say that the reason I couldn’t remember what the story was about from watching the movie is because the story is way too big to cover in a two hour movie. The producers chose to concentrate on Charley’s womanizing and his relationship with a specific CIA agent named Gust Avrakotos. Both Wilson’s womanizing and Gust’s CIA association are major parts of the story, but their involvement in driving the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan and the eventual downfall of the USSR was complicated and confusing in the film.

Here is my opinion. All presidents from George Bush the second and every president after him should read this piece of history. Had Bush absorbed the message of Jihad played out in the story he would have thought three times before declaring war on Afghanistan. In Obama’s case it is worse. He is a muslim sympathizer yet he fails to recognize the drive and fervor of jihad. His foreign policy regarding muslim nations would have to be different if he understood the message of this book.

The Russians spent billions under the guise of liberating Afghanistan, but they really wanted to own Afghanistan and to open a path to the Indian Ocean. They lost 28,000 young men, and their engagement is compared to our Viet Nam. They killed over a million muslim jihadists, and they might have won had the CIA not gotten involved.

What was the message I got? That muslims on a jihad are crazy zealots for revenge and for driving infidels from their countries. Almost as soon as the door hit the last Russian in the ass as he left Afghanistan, the mujahideen shifted to the USA as their new enemy. It hasn’t stopped since then, and we all know that things are not getting better.

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This book is an interesting and enjoyable read. The history covered is relatively obscure because the USA, namely the CIA kept it so covert that neither the Afghans or the Russians knew we were involved.

The second thing I got from the book is that a single Congressman with abilities similar to those of Charles Wilson who wanted revenge for the Russian involvement in Viet Nam against us could appropriate so much money for a program that was never approved by Congress, or the President. In my opinion Charley Wilson was a hero  for bringing down the Russians, but he should be in jail for how he went about doing it. The reason he never went to jail is that he had too many other Congressmen in his pocket.

In retrospect, what Charley Wilson did amounts to peanuts compared to what Obama does daily in the name of redistributing wealth.

Filed under: Book Review, Conservative, Government, Movie Review, politics | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

True Story Based on Historical Facts

Posted on 09/02/2015 by Grumpa Joe

Whenever I have writer’s block I do a movie or book review. Last week, Peg and I went to the movie complex to see the Theory of Everything only to discover it was gone. We missed it, and now must wait until it comes out on DVD, or to On Demand. Instead we watched the Imitation Game. A thoroughly entertaining story about how the British broke the German message code during World War Two. The central character Alan Turing is a nerdy genius mathematician type who is gay. At the time Britain had very strict (and stupid I might add) laws on homosexuality. I’m convinced the British Secret Service knew of the Nerd’s sexual preference when they hired him, they chose to bury the fact and expunged his record of any reference to his gayety in the interest of National Security. To make a long story short, the nerdy genius mathematician solves the secret of the German Enigma codifier, and invents the computer in the process. Long after the war, a detective goes to look for evidence on the Nerd to say he is gay. He suspects the man is, but can’t prove it because Turing’s military file is empty.

The detective did as all good detectives do, he stayed with the case until he found the evidence he needed to arrest the Nerd. The sad end to this movie is that the man responsible for saving England from losing to the Germans and for saving an estimated fourteen million lives was convicted of being gay. Turing faced a long prison sentence or a long hormonal treatment. Which do you think he chose? Now, I am not a pro-gay person by any means, but I do believe that people have a right to choose how they want to live. It just seemed sad to me that the Nerd didn’t get any slack from the English system. Had he lived in the USA our President Obama would have hung the Medal of Honor around his neck, and directed Arnie Duncan to include gayness in social studies text books in grades K through 12. At the same time, he wold have directed Eric Holder to ignore all laws ever written, including the bible, about gayness.

Benedict Cumberbatch who played the Nerd did an excellent job of making me believe he was gay, a nerd, a mathematical genius, and weird person.  Kiera Knightly played an equally genius mathematician type, but was not in the least nerdy or weird. She played the role delightfully. The British Secret Service guys were excellent bad-good guys who keep the pressure on Turing throughout the story.

This is a good true story, based on historical facts. Go see it.

Filed under: Education, family, Government, Movie Review | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

Writing Is Hard Work for An Amateur

Posted on 01/02/2015 by Grumpa Joe

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My blog posts have been few lately because of a project I began a few months ago. Last July I saw a documentary movie called America, Imagine the World Without Her? Written and directed by Dinesh D’Souza the movie is a very good chronicle of how Obama is changing America. I walked away from the film thinking D’Souza failed to answer the title question for me. I came home and wrote a movie review. I poled my readers and asked if they would like to hear my version of what the world would be like if America (USA) never existed. The results were overwhelmingly in favor of hearing my answer.

I began write a short story of what I thought might have happened if the Revolution of 1776 had failed. The intent was to make it a simple blog post. This story is not simple, there is too much history to consider. Instead of writing a bunch of boring historical facts and theorizing what would be different had they not happened is mind-boggling. My story has evolved into a novel and is absorbing me completely. I am not a novel writer, in fact, I have trouble writing short essays for this blog, but I will answer the question. The working title for my work is British American Colonies. At this point I am about forty percent complete and dreaming up plots and sub plots, with lots of characters. I have so many twists in the story, that I had to draw maps, keep character logs, and a chapter summary log to keep myself focused. I don’t know if any other writers do that kind of stuff, but I do. When you begin without an outline or any type of organized approach the story evolves as the words flow.

My goal is to complete the book by mid-year for publishing. The least I will do is self-publish on Kindle. One way or another this story is going to the public, that is, if I live long enough to make it happen. At my age anything can happen in a single heart beat.

Wish me luck.

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This Story Left Me Crying

Posted on 28/01/2015 by Grumpa Joe

During the course of my years on Earth I have seen many war movies. Beginning with WWII to Korea to Viet Nam, To Iraq, to Afghanistan, and some I have forgotten. Many of the WWII films were rah-rah propaganda movies that formed my opinion about the Germans and the Japanese.  Nevertheless, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Rory Calhoun, all became super heroes in my mind. Today, I saw American Sniper and cried. In December I watched a short promo clip on the movie and decided this is one I had to see. My intuition was correct. I am glad I saw the film. The story is true and chronicles a true American from Texas. Raised in the country by strict parents who taught their sons not to start trouble, but if they were in trouble, or if one theirs was in trouble to come to their defense, and to end it. Kyle watched the twin towers fall after radical Islamists flew commercial airliners into the building. The incident caused him to serve his country, the rest is history.

It was easy to understand why this film has six nominations for Academy Awards including best picture of the year. It is easy to understand why the Academy nominated Bradley Cooper for best actor. I’ve seen Cooper in a couple of films, and each time I liked the way he played his character. In American Sniper he plays the role of Chris Kyle believably. To me if an actor can make me believe he is the character in the story he has succeeded in his craft. Cooper does so expertly. He also had to gain a lot of weight and muscle to look like a Navy Seal. He did that too.

His story is not all peaches and cream. Kyle’s drive to protect his fellow Marines from harm comes with a price to his own psyche. It became very clear that he progressively changed with each of his four tours of deployment. I give the VA doctor who finally out-physched him by suggesting that there are plenty of vets at home that he can protect.   The Doctor convinced him to use his energy to help fellow veterans disabled with PTSD. Kyle threw himself into the effort and that is what finally caused his death.

The Marines used Kyle as a sniper, and he was very good at it. However, Kyle did not think sniping saved enough people and he also served to conduct ground missions to clear the enemy from local hiding places. He was a well-rounded soldier.

There have been several people who made themselves news worthy by jumping on the Kyle story for their own benefit. It is my opinion that these people should lose their citizenship in the USA and be given one way tickets to live with the enemy in ISIS held territories. Who are these People?

1. Jesse Ventura, ex Navy Seal, professional wrestler, and former Governor of Minnesota accused Kyle as a liar. “Kyle wrote in his book, also titled American Sniper, about an incident in which he punched out a man in a bar for badmouthing the U.S. military. In a subsequent appearance on The O’Reilly Factor, Kyle identified Ventura as that man.” Ventura sued the Kyle estate for defamation, and won. Jesse continues to bad mouth Kyle as a liar, and not a hero. Leave it alone Jesse, the man is dead and your wrestling career is over, find a job shining the shoes of Liberal politicians.

2. Michael Moore, Documentary film producer and over eater made derogatory comments about Kyle. Still upset over his uncle being killed by a sniper during WWII, Moore resents making snipers into heroes. I have news for you Mr. Moore, a sniper is a weapon just like a hand grenade, or a bomb. The military uses the most effective weapon to get the job done. Kyle was acting out his orders. Oh Sure he could have turned down the assignment and been court martialed, but why even join the military if you refuse assignments.?

3. Seth Rogan, coward extraordinary who proudly made a movie about assassinating North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and then went into hiding when North Korea hacked Sony Corp computers. In response, Sony took the movie off the market because of fear of retribution from North Korea.  Rogan compared American Sniper to Nazi propaganda.

4. Howard Dean, former Doctor, Governor of Vermont, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and a failed candidate for President. Is an outspoken Socialist who is so far left in his thinking he cannot understand another point of view like Conservatism. He invoked a lot of furor when he said the following:

“There’s a lot of anger in this country. And the people who go see this movie are people who are very angry,”

He was referring to Tea Party people when he said there is a lot of anger in this country. I agree with him, but the anger came after his comment not before.

American Sniper is a biography, a historical perspective, a documentary on the effect of war on the soldier, and his family, and an anti-war film all rolled up in the story of one man’s life.

We should all be proud of men like Chris Kyle who lived to protect us.

Filed under: family, liberals, Movie Review | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Teaching Street Smarts

Posted on 20/11/2014 by Grumpa Joe

Kee-rraap it is cold outside. My walk today was longer than usual, but also faster than normal. Longer because the biting cold wind against my rosy cheeks stung to high heaven, and fast because my motor wanted to get me the hell into the warmth. It has been almost three years since I have enjoyed such extreme temperature. The past two years in Arizona conditioned me for a low of fifty-five. A minus two degree windchill is fifty-seven degrees lower than I can withstand. Nevertheless, I am staying in Frankfort this winter so I need to get out for some conditioning, and I got it.

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Yesterday was worse because the high temperature peaked at eighteen degrees. At least today, it is a balmy twenty-eight. The wind chill has been the killer on both days. What saved yesterday was seeing a delightful movie. Peggy and I watched “Saint Vincent.” It is what I call a sleeper. I haven’t heard people talking about it, yet it spoke to me when I reviewed the films playing this week. I totally enjoyed the story and the characters. The actors were cast perfectly for their roles.

This film is a comedy, which is what I wanted to see, and I did laugh at some of the stuff going on, but I cried too. Somehow, when I cry, it cannot be funny. The theme of the story dealt with broken homes, bullying, family bankruptcy, aging, grief, desperation, and survival.

Bill Murray plays the part of Vin (Vincent Mac Kenna) a Viet Nam era vet who lives alone, and dislikes people. He smokes too much, drinks too much, and gambles too much, but he is the hero of the story. He becomes a caretaker for the smart kid Oliver who just moved in next door, and whose mother Maggie(Melissa Mc Carthy) works too much to get by. Needless to say, Vin’s tutoring of Oliver (the smart kid Jaden Lieberher) cannot be classified as politically correct. The education Vin gave Oliver falls into the subject of “street smarts.” Oliver handles it well, but his errant father doesn’t want Oliver to be near Vin, even though the father hasn’t donated a penny to his well-being. All the father did was to complicate the story, which I loved, but Oliver and his mother did not.

There are some lessor characters in the story like Father Geraty (Chris O’Dowd) who teaches Oliver at Saint Patrick’s Catholic school. There is also Daka, (Naomi Watts) Vin’s hired and pregnant girl friend who is his occasional underpaid companion, and Vin’s bookie Zucko (Terrence Howard) who only wants Vin to pay him back. Put these people into the mix along with a good storyline and one has a very entertaining story.

To me the star of this movie is Oliver. The kid is perfect for the part, and he is an excellent actor too. I nominate him for Best Supporting Actor for the 2015 Oscars.

See the movie on Tuesday at Marcus for five bucks. I saw it on Wednesday for seven, but it was worth it. Six-fifty for a small pop-corn is worse than three sixty-nine for a gallon of gas where is the Occupy Wall Street crowd on that one?

 

Filed under: family, grief, health care, Humor, Movie Review, Society, Warm and Fuzzy | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

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