Last night I attended the opening of Musical Theatre West's production of "Anything Goes" at the Richard and Karen Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts in Long Beach.  Belle Callaway as Reno Sweeny gripped the audience with her performance belting the lyrics in Ethel Merman's style.  The show's familiar Cole Porter songs "You're the Top", "It's De-Lovely", "Anything Goes" to name a few, made me want to tap my toes and sing along.  (I did on the inside!)  The dancing was excellent.  While performing the title song, "Anything Goes" the company had the audience clapping an cheering. 

I found these lyrics written in 1934 from the title song "Anything Goes" interesting:

"Good authors too who once knew better words,
Now only use four letter words
Writing prose, Anything Goes."


I find it ironic that in 1934 they thought profanity was an issue in good writing!  What would Porter think today with lyricists and playwrights not only dropping the F-bomb but using it prolifically?  I don't like to go to theatre and be assaulted for two hours as I was viewing David Mamet's play "Romance".  It was anything but romantic and used the F-bomb as nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs in every-other sentence. 

With "Anything Goes" you don't have to worry about profanity or sexual content.  An evening of good music, singing, comedy and romance is in store.  After the show, John Massey, Jr., who plays comedic Moonface Martin, told me that his four children were in the audience.  If you're in the Southern California area July 8-23, I encourage you to go and take your family to see "Anything Goes" for a classic night of theatre.

Border Agents Guilty of Taking Bribes: Part II

The Los Angeles Times always angers me so much so that I once canceled my free subscription and told them exactly why!  For local news I rely on the Long Beach Press Telegram, part of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group http://www.langnews.com/ with several community based daily papers.

This morning I opened my Press Telegram to the "California, the Nation and the World" section.  Bulls in Pamplona, Angelides will okay Gay marriage, and at the bottom of the page "Border agents plead guilty to taking bribes."  I was angry that this article, which is important to national security, was AT THE BOTTOM THIRD OF THE PAGE BELOW THE FOLD!!!!

I took a deep breath, had another cup of tea and decided that before I blogged I should look online to see what the Los Angeles Times wrote. 

www.latimes.com, not on front page, as expected.  Hmm, "In China, Corruption Can Be A Death Sentence" interesting, since corrupt US Border Agents might get 18 years.  Let's see, California/Local section, scroll down, "La Raza Forum Targets Immigration" scroll down, "Times Past:  1880 L.A. Mayor shoots prowler" (no joke) scroll, scroll...Ah!  The 23rd article down on the list:  "Border Patrol Agents Admit Aiding Smugglers"  55 words, 61 if you count the headline.  That's it.  No detail.  In print, was this placed so most readers wouldn't even notice it? http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sbriefs8.1jul08,1,2417986.story?coll=la-headlines-california&ctrack=1&cset=true 

Once again, the editors at the Los Angeles Times proved are not serious about Illegal Immigration or the War on Terror; only divulging our Country's investigation tools that can lead to the destruction of US Citizen's lives here and abroad.

After my deep breath, tea and findings of the non-reporting on the part of the Los Angeles Times, I want to commend the Press Telegram for taking this issue seriously and devoting 370 detailed, informative words.  http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_4025793

And the winner is...The Little Local Paper

Mario Alvarez and Samuel McClaren got caught with their "hands in the cookie jar" not once but several times! The pair accepted bribes from smugglers totaling nearly $200,000 according by the AP article published in the Long Beach Press Telegram this morning.  http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_4025793.  Each pleaded guilty to one count of bribery and one count of filing a false tax return and are expected to get 18 years at sentencing on Sept. 29.  From E. Spagat's article:

"These are Border Patrol Agents who smuggled illegal aliens," Said U.S. Attorney Carol Lam.  "It doesn't get much worse than that." 

I agree.  Why were the only charges for bribery and filing a false tax return?  Aren't there other laws that apply to these sworn agents who according to the complaint took an illegal alien to Wal-Mart for release instead of deporting to Mexico and brought smugglers to the U.S. in a government vehicle?  Yes, they did it for money, but we are at war and these acts are aggressions against the United States to which they swore an oath.  The penalties are too light. 
 

To the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and New York Daily News:
 
Heed the words of the wise Mil Blogger, Chaplain (Captain) Brad P. Lewis.  From "Training for Eternity" Chaplain Lewis' last post on November 8 2005:


We are a nation at war. Our enemy is both tenacious and intelligent. He will do whatever he can to defeat us and will exploit every possible bit of information to inflict damage on the US and our allies. Even the most seemingly innocuous comments can be used by the enemy to harm us or our interests. Operational Security continues to be an issue for our Armed Forces. Therefore, it is with a heavy heart that I must back away from the blogging community for an indefinite period, perhaps permanently. It would be easy to point a finger and blame someone or something but I won’t do that. It would also be easy to kick and scream about my rights or my desires, but that would be inappropriate. I love my soldiers and want to do what is best for them; even if it means not doing something that I love, like writing.  http://chaplain.blogspot.com/