Category Archives: Politics

Movie Review: Sound of Freedom

SoundOfFreedom

Image, Angel Studios.

My wife and I just got back from seeing “The Sound of Freedom,” a thriller originally produced in 2018 but shelved by Disney. It was eventually picked up by independent Angel Studios, and is now in theaters.

It’s a movie about human trafficking. It follows the true story of two children kidnapped in Honduras and whisked away to Colombia. The younger brother was rescued by law enforcement in the United States, and the agent involved took it upon himself to rescue the older sister, still in Colombia. I’m sure this true story is embellished somewhat for the silver screen. But given the societal decay we are currently witnessing, it is very plausible. It’s a story where the good guys win.  And it should be noted that the good guys include Colombian law enforcement and military.

Variety’s review of the movie dismisses the veracity of the story as “insane nonsense.”  Nonetheless, the reviewer goes on to say, “let’s assume that, like me, you’re not a right-wing fundamentalist conspiracy theorist looking for a dark, faith-based suspense film….  You needn’t hold extreme beliefs to experience ‘Sound of Freedom’ as a compelling movie that shines an authentic light on one of the crucial criminal horrors of our time, one that Hollywood has mostly shied away from.”

I agree that the movie is worth seeing.  It’s an exciting thriller, and it carries a powerful message that I need to research further.  And it’s worth seeing now.   It was shelved by a major studio, and it doesn’t have the financial backing of the Hollywood Industrial Complex.  If it’s going to be successful, and it’s deserving of success, then it needs to make its mark at the box office now.

You can buy tickets online at angel.com/freedom.  Eventually, I’m sure it will be available for streaming, but I think it’s important to show that a movie like this can do well at the box office in first-run theaters.  There are a lot of crappy movies these days, and the way to make Hollywood change its tune is to show support for well made entertaining movies with an important message.

Tickets in most theaters run about $12 per person, and we realize that for some people, that cost is simply prohibitive.  If you can’t afford it (or if you’re not sure it’s worth it), then millions of free tickets are available.  The movie is being promoted on a “pay it forward” basis.  Many people (including me) saw the movie for free because someone who had already seen it gave them a ticket.  They are then encouraged to buy tickets for someone else.  So if you’re not sure it’s worth it, the same link, (angel.com/freedom) allows you to get your tickets at absolutely no cost or obligation.  If you like the movie, and if you are able, then you can buy a ticket for some stranger, just like some stranger bought a ticket for you.  When you get to that site, you can click on either “Buy Tickets” or “Claim Free Ticket.”  After seeing the movie, if you wish, you can return to that site and buy tickets for someone else by clicking “Pay It Forward.”

If you are on the fence, here is the official trailer for the movie:

Image, Angel Studios.

Image, Angel Studios.

If you’re a right-wing conspiracy buff, then you’ll definitely like the movie. But even if, like the Variety reviewer, you’re don’t fit in that category, you will still find it a compelling film.  And if you’re like me, you’ll want to educate yourself on the problem of human trafficking.  The movie’s tag line (and the name of one of the Spanish-language songs in the soundtrack) is “God’s children are not for sale.”  Let’s make it so.

Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a tomatometer rating of 88%, with an audience rating of 100%.  The movie is rated PG-13, mostly for the violence (although not gratuitous violence), sexual content, and “smoking throughout.”  Most of our readers will chuckle at the capabilities of GPS tracking devices shown in the movie.  But they’ll nod in agreement at the capabilities of the VHF handheld radios used by both the good guys and the bad guys.

 

 



First National Presidential Radio Address: 1923

Screenshot 2023-06-06 12.26.41 PMToday marks the 100th anniversary of the first time an American president addressed the nation through a hookup of multiple radio stations.

President Warren Harding was on a tour of much of the continental United States, as well as the Territory of Alaska. While in Kansas City, he gave the speech over WDAF in that city. It was also picked up by WGY in Schenectady, NY, WEAF in New York City, and KDKA in Pittsburgh. The wire service story above appeared in the Casper (WY) Daily Tribune, June 22, 2023. It was estimated that about a million Americans heard the speech.



Flag Day 1923

1923Jun14WashTimesToday is Flag Day in the United States, the anniversary of the adoption of the U.S. flag by the Continental Congress on June 14, 1777. A hundred years ago today, Flag Day 1923 saw the convening in Washington of the National Flag Conference, an assembly of a number of patriotic organizations, such as the American Legion and the Boy Scouts of America.

As shown by this clipping from that day’s Washington Times, President Warren G. Harding addressed the assembled delegates. The main order of business was the adoption of a code of etiquette surrounding the display of the flag.  That code was ultimately enacted by Congress in 1942 as the U.S. Flag Code.



Book Review: War Diaries by Volodymyr Gurtovy

My friend Volodymyr “Wlad” Gurtovy, US7IGN, has published a book about his experiences living in Kyiv, Ukraine, in the middle of a war. Wlad, like me, is an attorney, and lived a middle-class existence similar to mine, until Russia invaded eastern Ukraine in 2014. He and his family then relocated to Kyiv, but with Russia’s 2022 invasion, he was once again in the middle of the war. His wife and teen son and daughter evacuated to Poland, where they were able to find an apartment, thanks in part to the generosity of friends in America and elsewhere.

He remained behind, partly because he was prohibited by law from leaving, but mostly because he felt the need to stay behind and defend his native land.

The most compelling part of his book is his account of the mundane details of life in the middle of a war. Wlad lives in a fifth-floor apartment building in the middle of a city of 2.8 million (prewar population). Some days, the supermarkets are open, and some days they are not. The mail continues to go through, but some days, it’s too dangerous to go to the post office to pick it up.  Power, water, and heat are sometimes turned on, but they’re often unavailable. When he needed dental work, he was surprised to find the dental office near his home open, staffed by dental students.  There are even a few accounts of his visits to court on behalf of some pro bono client.  To me, the descriptions of how he navigates this dystopia are fascinating, especially since his life prior to the war wasn’t too different from mine.  Many who follow this blog have an interest in emergency preparedness, and I’m sure they will also find this book compelling.

Of course, since Wlad is a ham, radio is a main character in the story. He gets much of his information from the broadcast radio, and one of his main roles has become that of radio repairman so that others can remain in touch when their radio has problems. He also recounts listening in directly to Russian pilots and both Russian and Ukrainian troops.

As the title suggests, it’s written in chronological format, and you’ll have a hard time putting it down, wondering what’s going to happen the next day.

The book is available at Amazon, as a paperback, hard cover, or Kindle.

If you feel moved to provide additional assistance to Wlad’s family, please see our crowdfunding campaign to help with their needs at GoFundMe or GiveSendGo.

 



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1947 Radio Listings

1947May26RadioListingsSeventy-five years ago tonight in Washington, here were your choices for radio entertainment. Prime-time offerings included Lum ‘n Abner and the Lone Ranger, as well as news commentary from Elmer Davis.  And Benny Goodman appeared on the Victor Borge show.

For those wanting to dig deeper into current events, you could tune in at 8:05 to Senator John L. McClellan and Martin Popper of the National Lawyers Guild discussing whether the communist party should be outlawed. If that was no good, at 8:15, you could tune the dial to Rep. Gerald W. Landis talking about pending labor legislation.

The listings appeared in the Washington Evening Star, May 26, 1947.



1962 Kids’ Table

1962MarPMtableUnless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve noticed that inflation is once again a thing, and prices of just about everything are skyrocketing. But the kids shouldn’t suffer just because politicians can’t get their act together. And if the kids need a nice table, then you can provide them with one at zero cost.

You simply find a cardboard box of sufficient size. (Before you take it, make sure there’s not another victim of the economy living in it.) With a sharp knife (perhaps the Opinel pocketknife we previously reviewed), you simply cut away everything that doesn’t look like a table, as shown in the self-explanatory illustration.

Your parents and grandparents had a lot of interesting stories about how they had fun during the Great Depression, and now your kids will be able to do the same thing. This idea is from the March 1962 issue of Popular Mechanics.



1941 Homemade Toys

1941OctToy1Chances are, the hot new toy that you planned on buying Junior for Christmas is stranded somewhere in a flotilla of container ships off the coast of Long Beach. Maybe they’ll break the logjam before Christmas, but as our Secretary of Transportation had to admit, we probably shouldn’t count on it.

But despite the official concessions of gloom, there’s no reason why ineptitude needs to spoil Christmas. If you get to work now, you can make toys that are far superior to the unobtainium Chinese imports. And for the younger children on your Christmas list, you can’t go wrong with these colorful animals from the October 1941 issue of Popular Science.

All you need is a band saw or jig saw, and a single piece of 3/4 inch plywood 12 by 24 inches. The plywood might be more expensive than usual this year, but it’s probably sourced in North America, and you shouldn’t have much trouble tracking it down. If you don’t already have the saw, keep in mind that they’re also waiting off the coast of California, so you’ll want to get that right away before everyone else gets the same idea.

1941OctToy3Complete plans are found on page 178 of the magazine, which you can read at this link. Instructions are also given for the bases and storage box, as shown below.  The pattern for cutting the animals is shown at left (click on the small image for the complete full-size version).  You simply trace the design onto a piece of 1/2 inch graph paper and use that to cut.  When you’re done, the animals should be painted in bright colors, and the magazine reminds readers to “be sure to use nonpoisonous, washable, enamel” paint.

When finished, the set will keep youngsters happily occupied for many hours. As the magazine points out, the toy teaches how to discriminate between colors, recognize the various animals, develop creative instinct, and rewards the child with a sense of accomplishment, all factors recognized as essential to proper development. Chances are, the Chinese toy doesn’t have all of these advantages.1941OctToy2

 



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1961 Speed Mail

1961AprPESixty years ago, the U.S. Post Office tried something that Popular Electronics, in its April 1961 issue, called “Electronic Speed Mail.” The official name for the service was just “Speed Mail,” but it was an early hybrid of electronic mail (or more accurately, facsimile) and snail mail.

The Post Office Department envisioned having centers in 71 cities strategically located across the country. To write a letter that would be delivered the same day, a sender would write the letter on a special form provided by the post office, taking care to write only within the lines. The form was likened to the special “V-Mail” form of World War II, with which letters were microfilmed stateside and delivered to Army Post Offices where they were printed and delivered, or vice versa. In this case, the message form was sealed and deposited into the mails. At the local post office, it was fed in, still sealed, to a facsimile machine. The machine opened the mail, scanned it, and placed it into a sealed container. After the operator was sure that the message had been properly sent, the batch of message forms was destroyed.

The scanned message was then sent via the Echo 1 satellite to the closest post office to the recipient. There, the message was printed and sealed into a window envelope with only the recipient’s address and return address showing. Again, the entire process took place without human eyes seeing the message.

An example of the message blank is shown below. This one bears a message sent from Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield to Vice President Nixon, late in 1960. (Even though the message was sent crosstown in Washington, it was relayed via Chicago to demonstrate the service’s capabilities.)

When the Kennedy Administration took office, newly appointed Postmaster General J. Edward Day (best known for the creation of the ZIP code) was less enamored with the system, and no further efforts were made to promote it. The Western Union Mailgram service (“the impact of a telegram at a fraction of the cost”) was introduced nine years later in 1970, and allowed rapid mail service. Messages were sent by Western Union to the nearest post office, where they were printed and delivered the same day received.



1941 Inagural

1941InnaguralParade1941Innagural2Eighty years ago today, NBC Radio covered the third inagural of FDR with the help of a 25 watt FM transmitter. During the parade, receivers atop the Washington Monument and the dome of the Capitol. The pickup at the Washington Monument is pictured here, and clearly features a National HRO receiver not unlike the model we previously showed.

This item appeared in the January 27, 1941, issue of Broadcasting, which also carried the item at left detailing the work of radio amateurs from the Washington Radio Club. The hams handled 509 pieces of traffic for Red Cross first aid teams with battery-powered 2-1/2 meter radios.



1920 Voting Machine

1920NovPSA hundred years ago, on November 2, 1920, this gentleman was casting his vote, for either Warren G. Harding or James M. Cox in the 1920 Presidential Election. (I suppose he might have been voting for Eugene Victor Debs, but he doesn’t look like a socialist.)

Whoever he voted for, he cast his vote on a lever-type voting machine, probably manufactured by the U.S. Standard Voting Machine Company. These were commonly in use for many decades thereafter, and when I first voted in 1979, it was in a machine that looked almost like this one. The voter pulled a lever to close the curtain, which unlocked the voting levers. When the voter is finished he (or she, since this was the first election after the ratification of the 19th Amendment) opened the curtain, which caused a counter at the back of the machine to increment for the candidate selected. When the polls closed, the election official unlocked the back of the machine (which locked the levers on the other side) and looked at the count for each candidate.

The picture appeared on the cover of Popular Science, November 1920, and the accompanying article proclaimed that the machines would insure an honest election. The article detailed all of the nefarious things someone could do with paper ballots, and proclaimed that “the machine is honest, and its honesty is fully protected from those who would destroy it.”