Whoa! It’s been a long day.

I can’t even tell you how hot it was today. Mainly because I was too busy trying to avoid throwing up from the heat and stress while engaging in one of America’s greatest summer pasttimes, taking the kids to an amusement park.

This time it was “Sesame Place,” and we were there for fun, and for a “Hi-5” concert. Well… At least we got to see “Hi-5.”

We saw Hi-5 not once, but twice! And on top of that, it turns out that we are all staying at the same hotel! In addition to that, it turns out that we’re all also staying on the same floor of the same hotel!

I found that out last night, while my two girls (ages 5 and 2) and I were standing near the elevator, waiting for my wife to come out so that we could go find something to eat. To keep my girls amused, I showed them a really cool toy; the ice machine! And we had lots of fun pushing the little handle and watching ice fall out.

From there we moved on to the art of catching the ice with one hand (because you have to use the other hand to push the little dispense button, of course) so that you could eat it. But I digress.

It was at this point, while lecturing my girls on the finer points of not stuffing too much ice in our mouths and not stomping our feet in the little puddles which sometimes form around ice machines, when a person walks out of his room and walks over to the elevator. I wasn’t paying attention, I was way too busy passing my secrets on to the next generation.

But then, the elevator arrived and the young man stepped into the elevator, turned, and pushed the button to go down to the lobby. I looked up just to say hello (I’m friendly that way) and did a double take. Yup, sure enough, it was Curtis, one of the Hi-5 cast members. I think he recognized the fact that I had just recognized him, and he smiled back. I just said hello and then the doors closed and that was that.

I thought to myself, “that was cool,” and went back to my tutoring. But when I told my wife a few minutes later, her eyes just about bugged out (which, I’ve got to think, really has to hurt).

If you’ve read my other posts on Hi-5, you’ll know that Julie and the kids are the groupies. I’m just more of an admirer. I think that, if you have young kids, this is a group worth turning your television on for. I like their music and I especially like their message.

And, as the past two days have shown me, these are just plain NICE people.

I got a friendly smile and a hello from Curtis last night, then Julie saw Shaun last night while he was checking in and had a nice conversation with him.

This morning, as we were heading out to breakfast, we all saw Karla and we had a friendly conversation with her all the way down to the lobby. Then, earlier this evening after the concerts at the park, I saw everyone but Kimee in the lobby gathering to do something together.

As I was walking by Shaun, I told him that we enjoyed the shows today and rather than just smile, say ‘thank you’, and let me continue walking on, he smiled, said thank you, asked me my name, mentioned that he had met Julie, and had a friendly conversation with me.

As I said, these are just nice people. And the casual conversations I’ve had so far with some of the cast members has been much more fun and interesting to me than watching them in action on stage. Don’t get me wrong, they are terrific on stage, as I’ve mentioned in past posts. But for me, this was an opportunity to see how they handled their fans (and casual admirers like myself).

One other thing about today before I go to bed (Julie and the kids are all passed out already and I should follow their wise example).

Today was a really HOT day, and to be quite honest, I had a horrible day. The character breakfast we attended this morning was, in my opinion, just blah. The rides, though fun, had lines, which you would expect; but even some of Sesame Place’s wading areas had lines!

To make matters worse, my head began to ache dully right around 10:30am, stayed with me for about 3 hours, then turned into a monster of a headache, the kind which makes you want to just pass out on a bed, or the sidewalk, which ever is more convenient.

Julie had obtained tickets for us to see two shows today. We saw Hi-5’s first show at noon and their last show at 4:15. In the first show, it was apparent that the Sesame Place concert venue had a lot of rules. They even had security people around to keep the kids from getting out in front of the stage!

Now, I can understand that you might want to have security personnel around to protect the children, but to keep them in line? Yeah, I’m sure all those 2 to 5-year-olds looked like they could be quite the trouble-makers!

I shouldn’t be so hard on the Sesame Place staff, but it just seemed a bit silly to me. Normally, with Hi-5 concerts, the kids love to dance in the aisles or even form a Pre-K mosh pit in front of the stage.

So, anyway, after the 12pm show ended, Hi-5 left the stage area and we, the audience, went out to play in the park. But later, for the 4:15 show, something happened. During the show, the kids all seemed to just kind of move towards the stage. For some reason, the security personnel and event staff of Sesame Place didn’t do anything to stop them, so a big group of kids formed.

I was out for most of that concert, in the bathroom, I’m ashamed to say, trying not to throw up. But when I came back in briefly during the middle of the show, the kids were out in front of the stage. Then, later, when I came back at the very end of the show, the kids were all cheering and waving and the it looked as if an official Hi-5 Mosh had been in full swing. The Hi-5 cast was right there, at the edge of the small stage, smiling and shaking hands and saying hello.

They really seemed to just love having the kids right there, dancing and singing along and, well, acting like kids. And the kids LOVED being close to the cast and then having the cast come up to them to greet them. It was very heartening to see, especially after spending the better part of an hour in a bathroom stall trying to talk my stomach out of doing what it was seriously thinking of doing.

Earlier in this post I mentioned that we went to Sesame Place today to have fun and see Hi-5. Well, I had a horrible day, but despite everything, I was very happy to see my kids having so much fun at the concert. I’m a Dad, which means, I love my children. And like a selfish loving Dad, I want everyone else to love my kids too. I think the Hi-5 cast sincerely loves kids, and that is yet another thing I admire about them.

Later, Julie told me that the Sesame Place staff hadn’t changed the rules, it was just that the kids really wanted to be near the stage and a bunch of them had walked out and stayed there. Even my youngest, Marleigh, eventually joined them.

I thought to myself, “well, what do you know, power to the little people.” And thus, you have the title of this post. Am I original or what?

Don’t answer that!

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

I’m a huge fan of Opinionjournal.com, mainly because one of my favorite columnists resides there. His name is James Taranto and, in addition to periodic columns which he posts, he posts a regular column during the work week entitled, “Best of The Web Today.” This column is da bomb!

A periodic subsection of Taranto’s column is entitled “Great Orators of The Democratic Party,” in which he outlines some of the legendary statements made by great Democratic leaders in the past, then contrasts that with some of the silly stuff that DNC leaders are spouting now. Here is a great example of Taranto’s “Great Orators” column:

Great Orators of the Democratic Party

• “One man with courage makes a majority.”–Andrew Jackson
• “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”–Franklin Roosevelt
• “The buck stops here.”–Harry Truman
• “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”–John Kennedy
• “I went back and reread the whole New Testament the other day. Nowhere in the three-year ministry of Jesus Christ did I find a suggestion at all, ever, anywhere, in any way whatsoever, that you ought to take the money from the poor, the opportunities from the poor and give them to the rich people.”–John Kerry*

*The haughty, French-looking Massachusetts Democrat,
who by the way promised 121 days ago to release his military records.

Well, it seems the GOP has gotten smart (or finally bought into a darned good idea), and put up their own “Great Orators of The Democratic Party” political ad.

I’ll tell you, this ad is GOOD! Just press the play button below and see for yourself:

Brilliant!

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

***Hat tip to Bill Hobbs***

Though the former Newsweek and New York Times Magazine editor’s book, “The Truth About Hillary” has yet to be released, it has already reached number one on Amazon. Does that make it a good book? Hardly, but the debate that has grown around the release of this book is interesting, to say the least.

Liberal critics have already begun to call this book, “a right wing hit piece.” But is it? If you look at Mr. Klein’s credentials, you see that he’s worked for two of the biggest left-leaning media establishments in the country, Newsweek, and the NY Times.

Is it a left wing hit piece then? Perhaps an example of liberals killing their own wounded?

I think the whole argument is ridiculous actually. This is, plain and simple, a hit piece. It doesn’t matter WHO it is hitting, really, what matters is that it’s really just full of sleaze.

Yes, sleaze. A low but popular form of the media that I like to call, “the main-sleaze media.” These books are, as Bill O’Reilly accurately pointed out on his Fox News show last night, easy to write:

Writing a book or article that slams somebody is simple. Just line up the person’s enemies and let fly. They do that stuff to me all the time and to every other successful person in the media or politics.

Exactly right. Unfortunately, sleaze often sells even better than sex. In some ways, this kind of sleaze, the kind you’ve seen hurled at people like Mr. O’Reilly, President Bush, President Clinton, Rush Limbaugh, and now Senator Clinton, is a form of pornography. It’s chock full of lurid details, and salacious rumors. Stuff that, unfortunately, people love to read.

Is any of this garbage uplifting in any way? Does it teach us anything of value? These kinds of books are the fast food of literature; they are fun to consume, but you feel less healthy rather than more at the end of it.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love fast food. I went out today and had a Big Mac and fries and I loved every bite! But, as one of my high school Social Studies teachers often said, “the things are nothing more than death balls.”

Here’s the difference; when I eat one of my “death balls,” I’m only hurting myself. When people go out and buy books like “The Truth About Hillary,” in which Mr. Klein reportedly makes the outrageous claim that Chelsea Clinton was conceived through an act of intra-marital rape, the damage is far broader.

If you read through my archives, you’ll find numerous articles critiquing former President Clinton and Senator Clinton, but one thing I’ve respected about them is the pains they’ve always taken to give Chelsea as normal a life as possible. Have Bill and Hillary shown any greater unity than when it comes to protecting their daughter and giving her a chance at her own future?

Which means, if the rumor is true regarding Mr. Klein’s book, that this particular piece of sleaze is all the more despicable.

And the fact that this man’s book is number one on the Amazon list disturbs me. What does that say about us? The book is not yet even available for purchase!

Those of you who would call yourselves conservative, as I call myself; you do understand, don’t you, that this kind of book is a form of theft, don’t you? Mr. Klein, no doubt a very accomplished journalist, has abandoned his own talent, and has chosen instead to feed off of the notoriety of the Clintons.

It is, in a sense, a form of wealth redistribution.

And we avidly consume this stuff… No wonder mainstream journalists look down on us.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

First impressions are important mainly because too many people put way too much faith in them.

Sayings like, “never judge a book by it’s cover,” are the ideal. But the saying, “you’ll never get a second chance to make a first impression,” is the unfortunate reality of our world. Really, though, the saying should be along the lines of “make your first impressions count, because the vast majority of humanity will never take the opportunity to revise the opinions they form from that first encounter.”

What can I say, I’m an equal opportunity offender, and I think one of the most memorable mistakes I ever made was while I was still in college. I went to a small, liberal arts college in Southern Maryland called, St. Mary’s College (SMC). Even today SMC remains fairly small, but in the mid 1980’s, when I attended, it was just 900 people, even smaller than my High School.

Small enough, for sure, so that you could recognize just about every face on campus. And the tradition was (and hopefully still is), that you always greeted others when you crossed them on the way to or from classes. As a matter of fact, you could always tell the newbies from the rest because they never said hello to anyone as they walked by. But usually even the newbies learned to be social and say hello before too long.

So, it was my Freshman year, first semester, and I too had quickly learned to be social and say hello to people while walking around campus. One day, while walking to one of my classes, I crossed paths with another guy who, I was to later learn, was also a Freshman in his first semester. The problem was, when I looked over to smile and say hello, he walked by, his gaze firmly fixed towards the ground, with a look that, to me, said, “don’t bother me.”

Okay, that was a BAD first impression. But I made the situation worse because, in my head, I immediately wrote him off as someone who was unfriendly. I did what we all do, told myself a few stories about what the guy might be like. After that, when I saw him in the future, I never really gave him a second glance. I had read him, judged him, and moved on with my life. At least, that is, until second semester.

I don’t remember clearly all the details, but I do remember with crystal clarity walking into a new class one morning, looking for a seat to take early in the second semester, not really seeing anyone around me. Suddenly, I heard a very cheerful and friendly voice say, “hey, how’re you doing?” I looked over as I was walking to a desk to say hello in return and was shocked to see the guy who I had once written off as “sullen and unfriendly.”

Immediately a little voice in my head said, “David, you’re SUCH an idiot!”

I felt terrible. I had written off someone I never even knew, in a manner that I truly loathed when exhibited in others.

Earlier in my life, I had promised that I would NEVER do to others what had been so often done to me; arrogantly judging someone without really knowing them. That’s why I was so incredibly angry with myself; I had treated this person as I had myself been often treated in the past.

So, you think I’m being overly dramatic? If you do, then you and I will have to agree to disagree. I hate being judged so quickly, and I hate that attitude when I find it manifesting in my own life. I loathed it then, I loathe it today.

And yes, as you read through all my other blog postings you can probably find some examples of that type of behaviour.

Just so you know, the person whom I had misjudged (and, in so doing, mistreated) gave me another chance to treat him as I should have treated him the FIRST time I met him. And we wound up becoming good friends.

As a matter of fact, we even roomed together during our Sophomore and Junior years, before he went on to become a Resident Assistant in a nearby Dorm. He was one of my best friends throughout college and remains one of my best friends to this day. A guy with a great family and a heart of gold.

And I almost blew it. I almost missed out on a friendship that has made a difference in my life.

Thank God for second chances!

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

I’ve said before that one of the reasons the Blogosphere has become so popular is because the MSM overall is doing such a poor job. As it turns out, the data seems to support my contention. The LA Times today noted a recent Gallup Poll Survey which found that public trust in the media has fallen to all-time lows:

Those having a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in newspapers dipped from 30% to 28% in one year, the same total for television. The previous low for newspapers was 29% in 1994. Since 2000, confidence in newspapers has declined from 37% to 28%, and TV from 36% to 28%, according to the poll.

So, where’s the spin? The LA Times staff went on to mention that “other institutions fared far worse this year.” For example:

Confidence in the presidency plunged from 52% to 44%, with Congress and the criminal-justice system also suffering 8% drops. Confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court fell from 46% to 41%.

This, of course, is dodging the issue, don’t you think? Telling us that the President, with a far higher approval rating than the MSM, has suffered a worse loss so far this year? Especially considering the fact that any President’s approval rating normally fluctuates in this manner, whereas, the MSM has seen a loooooong and steady decline for at least the past three decades!

Still don’t think the LA Times is spinning its heart out? Take a look at their closing paragragh:

Read another way, and stretching things a bit [emphasis mine], the numbers aren’t quite as bad for newspapers. Of those surveyed 24% say they had “very little” confidence in them, while 1% said “none.” By far the highest number, 46%, said “some confidence.” This means (looking on the somewhat brighter side) that 75% had some, quite a lot, or a great deal of confidence in newspapers.

This is exactly the kind of spin that has engendered such mistrust in the MSM in the first place! The editorial staff of the LA Times took the numbers provided by Gallup, repackaged them with some broad assumptions, and then tried to say something like, “we’re actually doing much better than you think.”

Of course, even a lowly pajama-wearing blogger such as myself knows this to be a bunch of bull. The fact is, the 46% who expressed “some” confidence might have been thinking of Fox News, or the WSJ, or National Review.

Lumping all those numbers together in an attempt to paint a rosy picture when the real story is that the long steady decline of trust in the MSM continues is just plain dishonest. And the thinking behind such a silly hypothesis seems like something a grade-schooler would concoct.

No offense meant to grade-schoolers, of course. At least most at the grade school level will grow and mature, and will one day leave that kind of thinking behind… What’s the plan for the ones who wrote this article?

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

The recent ruling regarding the use of marijuana for medical purposes is a perfect example of a federal government whose courts seem all too willing to overstep the bounds of the Constitution. Here is a brief excerpt from the Washington Post on the issue:

In a 6-3 decision Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that federal officials have the authority to prosecute those who use marijuana for medical purposes. This includes those who reside in states that permit it, creating an unclear guideline in which the laws themselves remain untouched but those who practice medical marijuana use are not shielded by the state. What practical effect will this have on medical marijuana use? What is the next step in the battle over this controversial practice?

Now, I’m not the biggest advocate of marijuana being used for medicinal purposes… As a matter of fact, I’m not an advocate of marijuana in any way, shape, or form. But the people of the state of California voted by a large majority in 1996 to allow its use for medicinal purposes.

So, in one fell swoop, the US Supreme Court nullified the will of the majority of Californians, not in striking down the law, but in its ruling to allow federal officials to prosecute anyone in possession of marijuana, even though the state itself authorizes some doctors and patients to use it.

Confused? Me too.

One thing is clear; liberals, many of whom supported California’s medical marijuana initiative, should now FINALLY understand why conservatives get their underwear in a twist when the federal courts take liberties which are not theirs to take. The Tenth Amendment specifically reserves powers not listed, such as criminal law enforcement, to the states; right?

I’m only 40, so I don’t claim to be the oldest and wisest guy around (though, some, if asked, will tell you what a wise guy I am), but one thing I know to be true based on everything history teaches us, governments always seek to grow, take on more power, and, of course more authority. Now, if you happen to be an advocate of big government, then you are likely okay with this.

But here’s the problem… As government gets bigger and more powerful, it also gets more intrusive. In this case, this larger, more intrusive government, which also happens to currently be more conservative, has a greater ability to interfere with your life.

So, for you liberals out there, would you rather have a larger, more powerful, more intrusive conservative federal government, that can interfere and put an end to state initiatives that you see as important, or a smaller, less intrusive one? Personally, I would rather have a smaller less intrusive government, be it conservative or liberal. And I say that as a guy who lives in a pretty liberal state!

But if I ever get overly fed up with my state and local government being TOO liberal, I can always move to a more conservative state. And for my liberal friends, if you don’t like your state government because it’s too conservative, you can move to where I live.

But if our federal government gets too intrusive, AND happens to be conservative at the same time… Will liberals maintain their gung-ho attitude towards big government? Lets hope not.

Government works best when it’s a partnership between the people and those they elect to represent them. I hope now liberals understand a little bit better why conservatives feel very uneasy about the damage that can be caused by unchecked activism in the courtroom. I’m not sure that this recent Supreme Court decision is ground-breaking in terms of it’s intrusiveness, but the Supremes did undermine the will of a large majority of Californians, and that should be a cause of concern for liberals and conservatives alike.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com