Winner: Mr. Ron Burcham

“As many of you are aware I’ve set up a program to encourage visitors of the Coffee Coaster (CC) site to contribute Replies to columns and reviews. The writer of the ‘best’ Reply for a given month receives a $20 payment. This month, May 2012, Ron Burcham of Michigan is the winner with his comment(s) on the Movie Review: Taking Chance. He has told me to reinvest the gift into the site, and buy him a beer next I see him, which I shall happily do. The second and third place winners, Randy Uzarek and David Spencer, please go ahead and sign up using the Perke Diem button in the image on the right (on the homepage). All my other readers, please take part in the contest for June, give me a ‘Leave a Reply’ on any column or review.”

1st: Comment to Taking Chance

Brian,

[responding to my paragraph:

The movie, and movies like this one, makes me consider what, in fact, our American soldiers fight and die for in any of the wars. They are my countrymen. And I would have to say their deaths serve to remind us that wars such as Iraq and Afghanistan—and Vietnam, and possibly even WW1, WW2, and Korea—are fought for no valid reason whatsoever (only to serve deep unseen financial interests)… and that these men therefore suffer and die solely to remind us to root out the causes of such wars and such pointless suffering.]

I’ll go you one better and say that no war since 1812 was necessary or was not the result of chicanery on the part of a president, the congress or the media.

As an example let’s take a quick look at WWII.

In 1939 the American public was adamant about not wanting to get involved in another European war. The British were not especially liked, partly because they were a colonial power. Without going into the details, FDR managed to out maneuver and neutralize the anti-European war opposition at home.

FDR wanted to go to war against Germany. (Having over 300 Soviet agents inside the federal government at the time may have had something to do with that [see The Venona Report]) Through various machinations at sea he attempted to get Hitler’s navy to engage American ships. Hitler’s orders were that no German man-of-war was to take on any American vessel and that if fired on it was to leave the area immediately. Eventually there was conflict at sea but that wasn’t what got us into the war.

Two things conspired to get the U.S. into the war, the Tripartite Act and the Eight Step Memorandum written by a Naval Intelligence Officer, Cmdr. McCullom. He wrote the memorandum as a plan to draw the Japanese into a shooting war with the U.S. Roosevelt used the eight steps to manipulate Japan into firing the first shot in the Pacific knowing that if the U.S. declared war on Japan that Hitler, would, by the terms of the Tripartite Act, be required to declare war on the U.S., thus giving the U.S. cause to declare war on Germany and be seen to the world as the wronged victim.

For the machinations used to get the U.S. into WWI read Griffin’s The Creature from Jekyll Island.

Ron Burcham

2d: Comment to Movie Review: Parenthood

Excellent review, my friend,

Everyone at some point in time has a family in the sense that they give fatherly advice even if they’re not a father, per se. All are family, whether functional or dysfunctional. The movie covers a broad spectrum of different types of marriages. Some we know will not survive, but we know life will go on. As we all know, if you just stand in line to ride the coaster, the fun or horror belongs to everyone else. You may as well take a shot.

Randy Uzarek

3d: Comment to Guest: Magic at the Michigan Theater

Hey, Brian thanks so much for posting my experience at the Michigan. It was an awesome night of magic for sure. I am writing a li’l ditty on this amazing woman bass player Tal Wilkenfeld. She plays with Clapton, Jeff Beck. Not only is she talented beyond belief but she is just 18. Coming at you soon. Until then, keep perking and keep up the good fight my brother some of us actually like this country….just not in the state it is. Later.

David Spencer

From Past Months

Comment regarding Guest Column: Lawless Roads:
The everexpanding torture matrix
by Chris Floyd,
April 9, 2012

Brian,

Though I favor a preponderance of the liberal view I’m not lock step in the ideology. Your concerns with Obama’s willingness to acquire powers outside the Constitution are precisely those which I find unacceptable, too. He not only assumed those unConstitutional powers, practices and crimes of Bush/Cheney and their administration but expanded those in the NDAA legislation and failed to act to hold that administration accountable via an impartial investigation and prosecution for possible crimes.

We still have spying on the populace at large, rendition, the “Patriot” Act. etc. Now not only Jose Padilla but now Pvt. Bradley Manning, two US citizens, indeterminately imprisoned without proof, or charges, held as terrorists/traitors without access to an attorney habeas corpus or protections of their other civil rights as citizens. But I don’t see a Congress, Supreme Court, or other presidential candidate that is willing to stand up and defend the Constitution [editor’s emphasis] to which they take an oath to protect and defend.

Gerry Dunn

[Editor’s note: Like, Ron Paul is not ‘willing to stand up and defend the Constitution to which he takes an oath…’ What planet are you on, Gerry, you been living in a cave or freeze-dried and doin’ hard time? (What’s the name of the psychological syndrome where someone from the left does not see a blazing fact so blindingly obvious?)]

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