A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Photo Credit: NBC Will Americans ask Trump to be a candidate for a third mandate even if it violates the constitution? Seriously? If by “Americans” you mean all U.S. citizens of legal age to vote and who actually participate in local, state, and nation-wide elections, of course not. If by “Americans” you mean  Trump supporters,  it greatly depends on how educated, ethical, and well-informed they are. I’m pretty sure that many Republicans would not violate the 22nd Amendment, the Constitutionally mandated two-term limit on Presidents that their own party introduced in Congress in 1947 and became the law of the land on February 27, 1951. After all, one of the alleged values that conservatives hold dear is the constitutionality of laws and upholding them, so it would be hypocritical (to say the least) if all of a sudden the vast majority of the GOP were to tear up the Constitution in order to, in effect, make Donald J. Trump President-for-life. I’m also certain tha...

Why do people think Osama bin Laden still lives? It depends on who is saying that Osama bin Laden is still alive. Basically, no one in Al-Qaeda even remotely clings to this fantasy. Days after bin Laden was killed and given a burial at sea courtesy of the U.S. Navy in May of 2011, the terrorist organization issued a communique that said their “Sheikh” was dead and that  Ayman al-Zawahiri,  bin Laden’s Egyptian second-in-command, was now in charge. In the Muslim world, there are some conspiracy theorists who claim bin Laden was not dead, but that he was hiding somewhere out of reach of the Americans. However, since bin Laden has not issued any proclamations via recordings or videos as he used to do before SEAL Team Six deep-sixed the man in Operation Neptune Spear, this just seems to be either idiocy or wishful thinking on the “bin Laden is alive” camp’s part. As for  Americans  who say bin Laden is not dead? Well, either they are misinformed conspiracy t...

Apollo 11 Mission Insignia.  "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." - Astronaut (and Mission Commander) Neil A. Armstrong, July 20, 1969 It was 50 years ago today (at 20:17 UTC) that the lunar module Eagle, carrying Mission Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) Buzz Aldrin, landed on the surface of the Moon. Six hours and 39 minutes later, before a worldwide television audience, Armstrong emerged from the Eagle and, uttering the now-famous phrase, "That's one small step for man....," became the first human to set foot on Earth's only natural satellite. At that moment, the Space Race that began on October 4, 1957 with the Soviet Union's successful launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, into orbit, was over. After trailing the Russians in various milestones  - Soviet cosmonauts were the first to fly into space, to perform a spacewalk, and launch a woman into orbit - the landing of Apollo 11 wa...

Tempus fugit. That, my dear readers, is Latin for "time flies." Today is Friday, July 19, 2019. Another regular work-week is about to come to an end. Just a few days ago it was Monday. Where did the time go? My mom, about 10 years before I was born, at Laguna de Tota in Colombia. One of my cousins says he went there recently and found that the boat in the photo at the top left still exists.  Tempus fugit. Four years ago today, exactly, it was a gray, rainy Sunday afternoon. My mom had died in the pre-dawn hours and by seven-thirty in the morning the people from the funeral home had come for her body. The last time I saw Mom at our townhouse in East Wind Lake Village, she was being wheeled outside on a gurney, with a train of people that included my older half-sister and two of her cousins. The nurse from the Catholic hospice trailed behind, no doubt eager to get home after spending 16 hours keeping a watch on my mother. I sat on the edge of the sofa, too tired...

© 1995, 2003 Capitol Records Hi, there, Constant Reader. Normally, you would be reading a product review or a topical essay based on one of my Quora answers, or even a personal reminiscence from the Land of Ago. But today is the 18th day of July (not a happy day for me, since Mom was in her deathbed in our Miami home four years ago and I am still trying to come to terms with that and many other changes in my life), so I think I'll just put together a list of Posts to Come and then take a break from writing for the rest of the day. I'm not sure when, exactly, I will get around to writing and posting any of the following reviews, but this is what is on my to-do list as of today: The Beatles Anthology DVD box set John Adams HBO Miniseries The Family, by Ed Sanders Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns - Inning Eight: A Whole New Game ©2010 PBS Distribution And, of course, I'll probably write about the 50th Anniversary of the Moon landing, the foibles of th...

From the Earth to the Moon finally gets the Blu-ray treatment. © 2019 Imagine Entertainment and HBO Home Entertainment  Yesterday marked the 50th Anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, the third manned flight to the Moon and the first to land on Earth's closest celestial neighbor and only natural satellite. There were the usual commemorative segments on the morning and evening newscasts, and social media was littered with tributes to Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.  Fittingly, Imagine Entertainment and HBO Home Entertainment chose July 16, 2019 as the "drop date" for the long-awaited Blu-ray disc (BD) set of From the Earth to the Moon, a 12-part docudrama about mankind's greatest adventure: Project Apollo.  Produced by Tom Hanks, Ron Howard, and Brian Grazer, From the Earth to the Moon premiered on HBO in the spring of 1998, seven months before the 30th Anniversary of Apollo 8's historic "first...

Why is Kathleen Kennedy still president of Lucasfilm despite the rumors that she was going to be replaced? Because “rumors” are usually not facts. Let’s first define the word “rumor” so that there is no misunderstanding, okay? Per Merriam-Webster’s  Definition of RUMOR Definition of  rumor (Entry 1 of 2) 1 :  talk or opinion widely disseminated with no discernible source 2 :  a statement or report current without known authority for its truth 3 archaic:  talk or report of a notable person or event Now that we’ve defined  rumor,  let’s get to the heart of the matter. It seems that the Original Poster of this prime example of an insincere question does not care at all for the new  Star Wars Sequel Trilogy,  which is Lucasfilm’s second post-George Lucas Era  Star Wars  project (the first being, of course,  Star Wars Rebels,  which aired for four seasons on Disney XD between 2014 and 2018). He offers a b...