These are dear friends from our Atlanta neighborhood days and for us it was our 27th year of going to Litchfield Beach, South Carolina which is some 87 miles north of Charleston.
Bottom left photo and left to right first row: Mary Anne Hudnall, Joanne Majeska,Gail Davidson, Lynn. 2d row: Drew Davidson, Gil Hudnall, Ric Majeska Bob Hamilton,Myself and Susan Hamilton.
We rent a five bedroom house on the beach, generally each couple fixes one dinner and we eat out two nights.
Top left photo and middle right photo is my third 85th birthday celebration at Litchfield.
Before going to Litchfield we went to Atlanta to stay with our dear friends, The Habers. Lynn arranged for a special private dinner at my favorite Atlanta Restaurant and invited several dear friends. to join us. It was both a surprise and a very thoughtful, wonderful evening. Lynn is an amazing and thoughtful wife. Lynn prepared a gentle roast entitled "Happy 85th." I am beyond lucky.
From Atlanta we proceeded to Louisville for our granddaughter's shower. Emily is getting married in August to Landon who she has known from her early school days.
On the way to Louisville we stopped in Nashville to visit our grandson, Emily's brother, Kevin who is completing his contract as a TV investigative reporter with Chanel 4 (NBC affiliate.) Kevin's new position will be with the Louisville affiliate of CBS and, in addition to continuing his investigative reporting, he will be trained to be a weekend anchor. Kevin's wife, Andy had already left for Louisville with Archer, their magnificent pooch.
Kevin took us to a great local bakery for lunch.
From Nashville we drove to Louisville and while there Lynn arranged for an 85th birthday dinner at our daughter (Amy) and son in law(Steve's) condo. They gave me an Apple Lap Top as a birthday gift. We were joined by our oldest daughter (Debra) and her husband (Martin) and their son (Elliot) and daughter-in-law (Elizabeth) and Olivia, our first great grandchild.
Lynn had arranged with a local chef to use her recipe's of my favorite foods. It was a very special evening and dinner which even included my favorite candies. My oldest daughter, Debra, assisted by my editor-daughter, Lisa, prepared a wonderful "recap" of my life and Lisa flew my grandson, Henry, in from California, as a special treat.
The next day Steve, our son-law, took the men for a tour of a downtown Artisinal Rye Distiller (Peerless Distilling Co.) The owner, Corky Taylor, is the fourth generation and told about his family and the history of the distillery. His great grandfather was Jewish, came from Europe and eventually owned The Parker House Hotel in Chicago, along with several banks and a major distillery in Tennessee.
Corky's father sent him to McCaullie Military school (Chattanooga, Tenn.),a sport competitor of my own prep military school, (Ga. Military Academy /College Park, Ga.) Corky's initial roommates were the Allman brothers as well as Al Gore. Corky's father was the military aid to Gen. Patton (his role was portrayed in the movie "Patton") and Patton gave Corky's father his famous coral handle pistol as a reward for outstanding/loyal service.
Before Corky opened the Peerless Distiller he worked on Wall Street with Jeffries.
The actual tour was conducted by a young employee.
Peerless is a rye whiskey and they currently produce some 2000 cases a year. Each bottle sells for between $125 to $135 and remains in it's ash barrel for 4 years The distillery was so clean you could eat off the floor. Corky mentioned this in his talk. His military influence.
Kentucky produces over 90% of the nation's bourbon and now artisinal rye seems to be on the rise.
It was a very interesting day and I have no doubt Peerless Rye, which has already been declared the best of its kind, will thrive.
After we left Louisville we drove to Litchfield but when we came to Clinton, N. Carolina it was Sunday and we stopped at The Blue Ocean Restaurant. The time was around 1:15 so the place was packed with after church customers.
A few observations:
The restaurant holds probably some 300 people. The tables were filled with black and white families, all dressed in their Sunday finery. Most of the waitresses were white. The scene could have been a painting by Normal Rockwell.
Clinton is a small college town and the black families were comprised of fathers and mothers, with grandparents and children. The same was true of tables with the white families. You don't see this as much when you go to big urban communities because far too many, particularly black families, are lacking a father. I had just finished "Sapiens" and it discussed man's evolution from hunter to farmer and subsequently urban dweller and how the modern family has broken apart.
I also thought about Hillary's derogatory comment about "deplorables." The citizens of Clinton fit that categorization but to my mind they are the backbone of our nation. I don't want to over-romanticize but the customers of Blue Ocean are God fearing, hard working and solid. They probably own guns and certainly own and read bibles .
As for the food, it was fantastic , plentiful and very reasonable. In fact, if you produced a current church program you got a 10% discount. Service was outstanding.
As soon as I was able, I left the major federal highways and took the blue back roads and also noted many of the small towns we drove through were coming back. Their modest downtown areas were tree lined, with new street lights etc. While we were still driving in Kentucky we took a detour to explore Midway College/University and had dinner in Berea at the Daniel Boone Hotel's restaurant. Berea College was established to educate and provide vocational training for Appalachian students. Berea charges no tuition and provides work for its students to help them defray their remaining educational costs. Students wait on the tables, built the furniture in the hotel's bedrooms etc. Berea is known for its nursing school.
America is coming back based on new building we observed. Louisville is actually booming and has become a destination city for those who want to go on the State's Bourbon Tour just as Alabama has become known for their Golf Tour.
Meanwhile, the super sensitive liberal management of Starbucks caved to a PC'ism Racist charge and The NFL told players they cannot kneel on the field but can hide in the dressing room during the playing of our Anthem. The college that caved to students who drove whites off campus is suffering from the backlash and the firing of Professor Weinstein, who decided he would stay on campus and teach. He was subsequently fired and demanded and received $500,000, because his rights were shredded by a feckless university administration.
This year, as in the recent past, liberal commencement speakers were 4 to every conservative one but I believe liberalism has gone too far and we are fast reaching a Tipping Point and a reversal is forming. The college that fired the professor has lost returning students, applications are down and financial contributions from alumni have caved.
Meanwhile, it would appear Obama-Trump haters were so concerned he would win over their anointed queen they did some strange things regarding surveillance of his campaign. (See 1 and 1a below.)
If I am wrong, then you can bend over and kiss America good bye.
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Below are a series of historical responses/come backs.
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When I get the time I am going to try my hand at reviewing "Homo Deus" written by the author of "Sapiens" which I reviewed in a previous memo.
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A letter to the world written many years ago but still relevant. (See 2 below.)
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Dick
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1)
A new report claims that a significant number of rank-and-file FBI agents are chomping at the bit to expose Obama-era leaders, alleging corruption and even criminal violations of the law.
These agents are signaling that the only way they can safely and legally blow the whistle is if Congress subpoenas them individually to provide information about their former bosses.
“There are agents all over this country who love the bureau and are sickened by [James] Comey’s behavior and [Andrew] McCabe and [Eric] Holder and [Loretta] Lynch and the thugs like [John] Brennan–who despise the fact that the bureau was used as a tool of political intelligence by the Obama administration thugs,” Joe DiGenova, a former United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, told the Daily Caller.
“They are just waiting for a chance to come forward and testify.”
In a statement to the Daily Caller, an unnamed FBI agent claimed, “Every special agent I have spoken to in the Washington Field Office wants to see McCabe prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. They feel the same way about Comey.”
“All Congress needs to do is subpoena involved personnel and they will tell you what they know. These are honest people. Leadership cannot stop anyone from responding to a subpoena. Those subpoenaed also get legal counsel provided by the government to represent them,” the agent added.
Former FBI Assistant Director James Kallstrom made similar statements when asked last December about morale at the bureau.
“Well, I think there’s a lot of patriots that have had it up to here with what’s going on, and they’re going to step forward and tell people what the shenanigans have been,” Kallstrom told Fox News’ Stuart Varney. “How they shut down the Clinton Foundation investigation, how other things were done that are so anti-what the FBI and the United States and this country is about.”
Paul Sperry of RealClearInvestigations reported last Thursday that Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz has “found ‘reasonable grounds’ for believing there has been a violation of federal criminal law in the FBI/DOJ’s handling of the Clinton investigation/s,” adding that the top watchdog official has “referred his findings of potential criminal misconduct to Huber for possible criminal prosecution.”
1a) The Real Constitutional Crisis
1a) The Real Constitutional Crisis
The FBI and Justice Department continue evading congressional oversight.
By Kimberley A. Strassel
Democrats and their media allies are again shouting “constitutional crisis,” this time claiming President Trump has waded too far into the Russia investigation. The howls are a diversion from the actual crisis: the Justice Department’s unprecedented contempt for duly elected representatives, and the lasting harm it is doing to law enforcement and to the department’s relationship with Congress.
The conceit of those claiming Mr. Trump has crossed some line in ordering the Justice Department to comply with oversight is that “investigators” are beyond question. We are meant to take them at their word that they did everything appropriately. Never mind that the revelations of warrants and spies and dirty dossiers and biased text messages already show otherwise.
We are told that Mr. Trump cannot be allowed to have any say over the Justice Department’s actions, since this might make him privy to sensitive details about an investigation into himself. We are also told that Congress—a separate branch of government, a primary duty of which is oversight—cannot be allowed to access Justice Department material. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes can’t be trusted to view classified information—something every intelligence chairman has done—since he might blow a source or method, or tip off the president.
That’s a political judgment, but it holds no authority. The Constitution set up Congress to act as a check on the executive branch—and it’s got more than enough cause to do some checking here. Yet the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation have spent a year disrespecting Congress—flouting subpoenas, ignoring requests, hiding witnesses, blacking out information, and leaking accusations.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley has not been allowed to question a single current or former Justice or FBI official involved in this affair. Not one. He’s also more than a year into his demand for the transcript of former national security adviser Mike Flynn’s infamous call with the Russian ambassador, as well as reports from the FBI agents who interviewed Mr. Flynn. And still nothing.
Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, is being stonewalled on at least three inquiries. The House Judiciary and Oversight committee chairmen required a full-blown summit in April with Justice Department officials to get movement on their own subpoena. The FBI continues to block a fuller release of the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia report.
Not that the documents that Justice sends over are of much use. Mr. Grassley this week excoriated the department for its routine practice of redacting key information, and for similarly refusing to provide a “privilege log” that details the legal basis for withholding information. His team recently discovered that one of the items Justice had scrubbed from the Peter Strzok-Lisa Page texts was the duo’s concern that former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe had a $70,000 conference table. (Was it lacquered with unicorn tears?) A separate text refers to an investigation that the White House is “running,” but conveniently blacks out which one. The FBI won’t answer Mr. Johnson’s questions about who is doing the redacting.
This intransigence is creating an unprecedented toxicity between law enforcement and Congress, undermining what has long been a cooperative and vital relationship. It is also pushing lawmakers ever closer to holding Justice Department officials in contempt or impeaching them. Congress hasn’t impeached a member of the executive branch (presidents excepted) since the 19th century. Let’s agree such a step would amount to a real crisis. And the pressure to use these tools to get disclosure is growing, as congressional Republicans worry about losing their oversight authority in the midterms, and suspect the Justice Department is stringing them along for that very reason.
Which is why Mr. Trump was right to order that Justice comply with Mr. Nunes’s demands for documents about the alleged FBI spy Stefan Halper and other information related to the catalyst of this investigation. As president, he has a duty to protect the reputation and integrity of the Justice Department—even from its own leaders. Forcing officials to comply with legitimate congressional oversight is far better than sitting back to watch those same officials singe the institution and its relationship with Congress in a flame of impeachment resolutions.
Mr. Trump has an even quicker way to bring the hostility to an end. He can—and should—declassify everything possible, letting Congress and the public see the truth. That would put an end to the daily spin and conspiracy theories. It would puncture Democratic arguments that the administration is seeking to gain this information only for itself, to “undermine” an investigation. And it would end the Justice Department’s campaign of secrecy, which has done such harm to its reputation with the public and with Congress.
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2) An Open Letter to the World
Dear World,
I understand that you are upset by us, here in Israel. Indeed, it appears that you are quite upset, even angry.
Indeed, every few years you seem to become upset by us. Today, it is the "brutal repression of the Palestinians"; yesterday it was Lebanon; before that it was the bombing of the nuclear reactor in Baghdad and the Yom Kippur War and the Sinai campaign. It appears that Jews who triumph and who, therefore, live, upset you most extraordinarily.
Of course, dear world, long before there was an Israel, we - the Jewish people - upset you.
We upset a German people who elected Hitler and upset an Austrian people who cheered his entry into Vienna and we upset a whole slew of Slavic nations - Poles, Slovaks, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Russians, Hungarians and Romanians. And we go back a long, long way in the history of world upset. We upset the Cossacks of Chmielnicki who massacred tens of thousands of us in 1648-49; we upset the Crusaders who, on their way to liberate the Holy Land, were so upset at Jews that they slaughtered untold numbers of us.
For centuries, we upset a Roman Catholic Church that did its best to define our relationship through inquisitions, and we upset the arch-enemy of the church, Martin Luther, who, in his call to burn the synagogues and the Jews within them, showed an admirable Christian ecumenical spirit.
And it is because we became so upset over upsetting you, dear world, that we decided to leave you - in a manner of speaking - and establish a Jewish state. The reasoning was that living in close contact with you, as resident-strangers in the various countries that comprise you, we upset you, irritate you and disturb you. What better notion, then, than to leave you (and thus love you)- and have you love us and so, we decided to come home - home to the same land we were driven out 1,900 years earlier by a Roman world that, apparently, we also upset. Alas, dear world, it appears that you are hard to please.
Having left you and your pogroms and inquisitions and crusades and holocausts, having taken our leave of the general world to live alone in our own little state, we continue to upset you. You are upset that we repress the poor Palestinians. You are deeply angered over the fact that we do not give up the lands of 1967, which are clearly the obstacle to peace in the Middle East. Moscow is upset and Washington is upset. The "radical" Arabs are upset and the gentle Egyptian moderates are upset.
Well, dear world, consider the reaction of a normal Jew from Israel. In 1920 and 1921 and 1929, there were no territories of 1967 to impede peace between Jews and Arabs. Indeed, there was no Jewish State to upset anybody. Nevertheless, the same oppressed and repressed Palestinians slaughtered tens of Jews in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Safed and Hebron. Indeed, 67 Jews were slaughtered one day in Hebron in 1929.
Dear world, why did the Arabs - the Palestinians - massacre 67 Jews in one day in 1929? Could it have been their anger over Israeli aggression in 1967? And why were 510 Jewish men, women and children slaughtered in Arab riots between 1936-39? Was it because Arabs were upset over 1967?
And when you, dear world, proposed a UN Partition Plan in 1947 that would have created a "Palestinian State" alongside a tiny Israel and the Arabs cried "no" and went to war and killed 6,000 Jews - was that "upset" caused by the aggression of 1967? And, by the way, dear world, why did we not hear your cry of "upset" then?
The poor Palestinians who today kill Jews with explosives and firebombs and stones are part of the same people who when they had all the territories they now demand be given to them for their state -attempted to drive the Jewish state into the sea. The same twisted faces, the same hate, the same cry of "itbach-al-yahud" (Massacre the Jew!) that we hear and see today, were seen and heard then. The same people, the same dream - destroy Israel. What they failed to do yesterday, they dream of today, but we should not "repress" them.
Dear world, you stood by during the holocaust and you stood by in 1948 as seven states launched a war that the Arab League proudly compared to the Mongol massacres.
You stood by in 1967 as Nasser, wildly cheered by wild mobs in every Arab capital in the world, vowed to drive the Jews into the sea. And you would stand by tomorrow if Israel were facing extinction. And since we know that the Arabs-Palestinians dream daily of that extinction, we will do everything possible to remain alive in our own land. If that bothers you, dear world, well think of how many times in the past you bothered us. In any event, dear world, if you are bothered by us, here is one Jew in Israel who could not care less.
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This may come as a surprise to some but this letter to the World is not recent, although it could be. It was written sometime before his assassination in November of 1990 by a man I had the honor and privilege to know and befriend in 1969 as a member of the Jewish Defense League, Rabbi Meir Kahane.
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