The Patriot Post® · Let's Stop Joining Groups
Lately, because of Obama’s recent attempt to punish Israel while pretending to be an innocent bystander by abstaining while 14 other nations did his back-stabbing for him, the United Nations has been very much on my mind.
Based on my email, it has also been uppermost on the minds of my readers. One person wondered why we don’t drop out and form a new organization consisting solely of our allies. Frankly, I’m not sure which ones those would be. Inasmuch as France, Britain and New Zealand, all had a hand in knifing our most consistent ally, Israel, what makes them so wonderful?
Frankly, I don’t even know why we continue to be involved with NATO. I can see the advantage to the other members, who would like us to save their bacon, as we’ve done in the past, if Putin decides he wants to fully restore the former Soviet Union. I mean, if Mexico or Canada were to go nuclear and invade us militarily, does anyone imagine that Belgium, Italy or Spain, would come racing to our rescue?
Even the U.N. won’t go through the motions of setting up a peace-keeping mission at the border to prevent Mexico from recapturing the Southwest one illegal alien at a time.
And what the heck is with Britain? I read that Prime Minister Theresa May criticized John Kerry — and by extension, Barack Obama — for the administration’s “unbalanced approach” regarding Israeli settlements.
That’s fine. But why, then, did Britain do their bidding by joining with the other 13 nations on the Security Council to condemn Israel and banish Jews from Jerusalem?
And why is it that so many nations in the West refuse to condemn Arabs and Muslims for the bloody havoc they’re wreaking throughout the world? Instead, they throw open their doors to the barbarians, pretending that those fleeing the butchery in the Middle East aren’t themselves butchers, eager to not only bite the hand that feeds them, but to massacre the men, rape the women and murder the children.
I simply see no point in joining organizations that end up costing us a king’s ransom and inevitably turn on us. I don’t even see the point to one-sided treaties, which force us to fight and protect others, but garner us nothing in return except the responsibility to risk American lives to save foreign ones. Besides, why would we ever wish to squander blood and capital to protect Europe, a continent swarming with socialists and jihadists?
Trading with those who see the advantage of trading with us is one thing, but why do we require treaties to do what should be in our mutual interest? As Trump has pointed out, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has been a disaster for the U.S., and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would be another.
The one thing you never want is for government bureaucrats to get involved in something that calls for adult supervision. That is why I am so happy that Trump is proposing that those engaged in procurement for the military should not then go to work for those defense firms they’ve been negotiating with, at least not until enough years have passed to make it virtually a lifetime ban. That should finally put a stop to those sweetheart deals the Pentagon is famous for, that inevitably lead to cost overruns amounting to billions of tax dollars.
It’s bad enough that civil servants get to negotiate their contracts with political hacks who, at no cost to themselves, are only interested in obligating the unions to pay them back in campaign contributions, volunteers and votes.
Another reader shared my dismay at my being passed over when it came time for Trump to name his Press Secretary. I had confessed that I wasn’t sure I wanted the job if it called for me to dress up each day in a suit and tie, no matter how much I would have loved to taunt the White House Press Corps.
As Marie wrote, speaking for millions, I believe: “I think you would have been great. It would have been awesome to see you in a tropical shirt instead of a stuffy suit and tie. After all, it’s the Press, not the Queen.”
I’m only guessing, but I believe Marie understood I would also be wearing my tennis shorts and tennis shoes, Queen or no Queen.
Frankly, I’m getting a little tired of the standard dress code. Every time I turn on my TV, every pundit and politician is wearing the same uniform. Do they really think the dark suits and red ties are fooling anyone? We know they’re a bunch of arrogant fatheads.
Speaking of which, I always thought it was the height of fatuousness when crooners like Dean Martin and Tony Bennett would be performing in Las Vegas, and at some point, they would feel compelled to loosen or remove their bowties in order to impress a bunch of vacationing farmers, ironworkers and plumbers and their wives, that they were working up a sweat singing “That’s Amore” or “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”
Another reader, knowing of my love of film scores, asked who I thought was the best of those who have scored movies down through the decades. I told her that, based on the range of his work, I thought that was probably Elmer Bernstein. Nothing stopped the guy. He could whip out a jazz score for “The Man with the Golden Arm” and “Walk on the Wild Side,” and then compose a rousing western score for “The Magnificent Seven,” and then amaze us with the lyrical themes for “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
But then there are those like Hugo Friedhoffer, John Green and Maurice Jarre, who were always competent, but would then astound me — and perhaps themselves — by creating something as wonderful as the music for, respectively, “The Best Years of Our Lives,” “Raintree County” and “Witness.”
One can only wonder if the material particularly inspired them or if they were mentally or emotionally in the exact right place at the time to achieve their masterpieces.
Speaking of movies, we are now within spitting distance of the Academy Awards. The bone I have to pick with the voting members of the Academy isn’t that they nearly always select some over-long piece of pretentious baloney as the Best Picture, and it certainly has nothing to do with occasionally not nominating blacks or Hispanics for acting Oscars. Racial quotas, after all, have no place when it comes to awards or to anything else. Otherwise, I’d like to file a complaint that I don’t see any short, bald, 77-year-old Jews playing basketball in the NBA.
My complaint is that comedy and comedic actors, writers and directors, are always shortchanged. Occasionally, a comedic performance will win. Marisa Tomei (“My Cousin Vinny”) and Kevin Kline (“A Fish Named Wanda”) copped Best Supporting Actress and Supporting Actor awards a few years back. Also, in the 30s, Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert both won as Best Actor and Actress for “It Happened One Night.” But that was more a romance than a comedy.
But look at all the great funny performances that weren’t even given the recognition of a nomination. The Academy didn’t think twice about snubbing Charles Grodin (“Midnight Run”), Joe Pesci (“My Cousin Vinny”), Steve Martin (“Roxanne,” “All of Me”), Bill Murray (“Groundhog Day”), Fredric March (“Nothing Sacred”), Ginger Rogers (“Bachelor Mother”) Peter Falk (“The In-Laws”) or Irene Dunne (“My Favorite Wife”).
I could go on and on because the list of oversights and snubs is endless. But it is, perhaps, even more telling that even though she won four Oscars, Katherine Hepburn never won for any of her comedies. Worst of all, Cary Grant, arguably the greatest comedy actor of all time, received his lone nomination for the sure cure for insomnia, “None but the Lonely Heart.”
The only explanation for these brain-freezes is that 90% of the members of the Motion Picture Academy are Democrats. That being the case, I suppose it would be absurd to expect they’d vote any more sensibly when it comes to Oscars than they do when it comes to Presidents.