Denzel Washington on Providence and Promise

There are a lot of things for which Hollywood is known.  If Hollywood culture is to be encapsulated by a single word, a few examples come to mind.

 "Extravagant" might be a universally applicable word.  "Progressive" or "enlightened" might come to mind if you're of a leftish bent, "privileged" or "aloof" might come to mind if you're a conservative.  But regardless of which end of the ideological divide you occupy, it's pretty safe to say that one thing Hollywood is not known for is the humility of its prominent denizens.

That is not to say, however, that humility does not exist among them, exemplified by singularities so rare that they warrant shock and awe.  Such a singularity is Denzel Washington.

His latest is a profound message by any standard.  

It is a message to aspiring young actors about the "power of hard work and the importance of faith:"

I pray that you all put your shoes way under the bed at night so that you gotta get on your knees in the morning to find them.  And while you're down there, thank God for grace and mercy and understanding. We all fall short of the glory, we all got plenty.  If you just start thinking about all the things you've got to say thank you for, that'll be a day.

He goes on:

True desire in the heart for anything good is God's proof to you sent beforehand to indicate that it's yours already.  So the desire you have, that itch that you have to be whatever it is that you want to be... that itch, that desire for good is God's proof to you sent already to indicate that it's yours.  You already have it.  Claim it.

I won't try to dissect these quotes and assign political or spiritual meaning to them.  His words speak enough.  And regardless of what meaning you take away from them, it's difficult to deny -- these words are a powerful expression of conviction and humility, worthy of respect.

Thanks, Denzel.  If nothing else, it's a reminder of a simple truth that I, for one, too often forget.

See the video here.

William Sullivan

Al Sharpton's Amusing Problem with Teleprompters

This is hilarious.  Well, once you get past the fact that Al Sharpton is somehow a relevant media voice after having been a complicit instigator whipping up anti-Semitic mobs which murdered innocent people.  And the fact that his claim to fame is predicated on stoking fears of racism in cases where young, black, supposed "victims" were proven to be liars, thereby ruining the lives of the wrongfully accused.  Oh, and that he's an insufferable tax cheat and therefore a hypocrite who does not pay his "fair share" to provide ballast to the redistributive agenda he espouses with vitriolic race rhetoric.

But once you get past all of that, this is hilarious.



William Sullivan

Obama's Great Jailbreak: Indeed, Mr. President, No Los Queremos, No Los Necesitamos

Federal officials have released hundreds of murderers, sex-offenders, and drunk drivers onto the streets on which you drive, where your sons and daughters live.

So why? Was this some mass pardon which only applied to people of one specific demographic, outside of the rule of law, and contrary to everything that the word "law" means in any practical sense?

Well, for lack of a better explanation... yup.  This president, and his administration, has "knowingly" released these offenders into the populace, undoubtedly emboldened by Americans' apparent lack of concern for anything he does which bastardizes the concept of his limited role as our federal representative.

So why not shoot the moon?  America doesn't care.

I could run through the litany of grievances -- his circumvention of constitutional protocol, targeting political enemies in an election year, spying on your phone calls, groping your nether-regions at the airport and all that, but in the immortal words of our potential next president -- what difference, at this point, does it make?

Well, this matters more than your rising premium costs for your family's healthcare that you're taking on the chin.  Criminals are being released onto the streets for no other purpose than to advance a political agenda.  The IRS may not have targeted you for your contrary and subversive opinions which threaten this administration, but I can assure you, the criminals released in this little political ploy have no such discriminating tastes.  You will be driving on those same streets, and your daughters will encounter them if luck has it that they are so unfortunate.

It can't be described any more succinctly than this, uttered by Texas Republican Lamar Smith: "This could be considered the worst prison break in American history, except it was sanctioned by our president and perpetrated by our own immigration officials."

Okay, it could have been more succinctly described, because everything after the "except" is utterly irrelevant.  It is a jail-break which uniquely benefited illegal aliens who broke the law not only to enter this country, but broke laws which should have kept them incarcerated and off the streets.

If this administration cannot fulfill that simplest of tasks which benefits all Americans, what confidence can we have in it, however noble some idiots naively assume to be its purpose?

Consider the words of Jessica Vaughn, Policy Studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies, who says:

We keep hearing from the administration that they are focused like a laser against the worst of the worst, convicted criminals, as their top priority. On the other hand, they are releasing, at a rate of about 100 per day, aliens from their custody with criminal convictions, and many of them are serious convictions.

Her comment seems as if she were surprised. Or if she imagined people might care.

How cute.

William Sullivan