Valentine's Day is in a few days. I thought posting my top 8 comedy - romance movies would be appropriate. In romance, you must have a sense of humor. And as always, they are classic films.
Top 8 Romance-Comedy Films:
#8 Holiday Affair (1949)
#7 Living on Love (1937)
#6 The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
#5 The More the Merrier (1943)
#4 The Philadelphia Story (1940)
#3 Marty (1955)
#2 One Way Passage (1932)
#1 You Can't Take It with You (1938)
The latest report of fatalities from the earthquake is over 11,000.
Syria and Turkey were hit with a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Aid coming into the country has been difficult because of the political borders. It seems the world reacts and wants to help, but politics is getting in the way. Disasters like this always unite the world because of the humanitarian effort to save lives, and time is of the essence. Every minute that goes by, someone is dying under the debris.
The amount of technology, structural engineers, and First Responders worldwide could quickly speed up the whole process.
Please pray for the folks in this region.
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It has taken decades for our country to become a superpower, and a balloon has compromised our defense.
How and why did this happen?
Those in charge of our air defense have clearly failed to protect our nation's airspace. If this situation had been a battleship off the coast, I would hope we would have deterred the advancement of a foreign country into our waters. But I'm not sure this would happen now.
There should be more updates this week on this failure, but I cannot foresee any reason why this happened.
Photo: pixabay - susannp4
February 2nd
The Official Groundhog Day
An American tradition for 137 years.
I personally have never been to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. But from what I have seen, it is a big deal and months of planning.
Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, predicts 6 more weeks of winter (msn.com)
I don't believe in such folklore. But it seems like a fun event to experience. I wonder if other countries do similar events? Winter is one of those seasons where especially in the South, we are ready for it to end and the Spring season to begin.
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to be console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
What is up with this?
Finding secret documents.
I understand the importance and concern of secret documents being in an unsecured location.
Did this all of a sudden become the hobby of collecting for elected officials?
This has probably been going on since the founding of the United States. If former politicians took a souvenir series of documents, I would bet they are going through their occupied places and destroying papers as I write this post. And if that is the case, and the DOJ discovers they had documents and destroyed them, this would be a whole new controversy.
What about those responsible for securing and controlling the secret documents? Where is the chain of custody?
This will grow bigger and involve more people over the next few months.
Photo: pixabay - TheDigitalArtist
Film Friday - my top-rated movie couples in no particular order.
Vivien Leigh & Clark Gable
Barbara Stanwyck & Fred MacMurray
Katharine Hepburn & Humphrey Bogart
Elizabeth Taylor & Paul Newman
Myrna Loy & William Powell
Katharine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy
Donna Reed & Jimmy Stewart
Jane Russell & Robert Mitchum
Ingrid Bergman & Cary Grant
Jean Arthur & Gary Cooper
In recent news, Microsoft (10,000) and Amazon (18,000) laid off thousands of employees.
There was a time going back to the1950's 1960's you landed a job at a well-established company; you were set until you were ready to retire. But in today's economic-driven environment, it is more prevalent that the bigger the company, the more chance you have of being laid off. And the much smaller business is the one to retire from. Having a job has always been a necessary part of making a living to pay the bills, but if you're in the job market looking for the perfect job. I'll have to say they do not exist. There will always be a boardroom of decision makers to decide about layoffs or the large, more profitable companies with specialized teams to seek and find another company to buy out. The big fish eats the smaller fish reality, it's a brutal business.
My generation has experienced excellent companies that care for 20-year employees; I believe future generations will only experience working for a place for about 5 years.
Job security has been redefined as working at most 10 years in one place. Sad as it may seem, it's the truth.
Photo - pixabay - geralt
God gives every single one of our freedoms. This freedom is the ultimate freedom, but it comes with consequences.
The freedom of free will.
Our will is what drives us in our ability to choose to act on what is good or bad. God could easily have made us always be inclined to do good and never evil. But he gave us the freedom of choice of good or evil. Just as He did with Adam and Eve. The choice of good strengthens our faith when confronting the evil we experience daily. But the choice of sin has the consequences of the judgment of God. It also has been given to us internally, deep into our souls; this freedom is within each of us, and no country or government and take that away from you.
Exercise your God-given right of free will. But be sure it is with deep thought because the wrong choice has consequences.
Photo - pixabay - geralt
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 film directed by Frank Capra. The main characters, Jimmy Stewart (Mr. Smith), Jean Arthur (Saunders), and Claude Rains (Sen. Joseph Paine), are the main characters.
It's one of my favorite movies. The story goes as Mr. Smith is elected as Senator and goes to Washington with a great sense of doing some good for a country he loves. He discovers early the deep corruption of the senior politicians who try to oust Mr. Smith because he is not going according to the rules of corruption within the political world. But he resists and continues to fight for the truth and the duties of his position. And with persistence, he prevails and becomes a model Senator.
Politics, especially at the higher levels in Washington DC, have a certain amount of corruption, and I'm sure there are a few "Mr. Smiths" in the office today, or at least I would like to believe. Politicians should represent the people who elect them, but that does not necessarily reflect everyone because some didn't vote for the elected. But the majority rules, and if you live in a district where your representatives do not reflect your values, you should move to another city or state. In America, we can elect those who best represent our values.
The FAA Flight System is down; what is up with that?
How could a powerful computer system go entirely down?
And according to the reports, it is the first time this has happened.
And with that said, they have had plenty of time to install redundancy systems, so if one fails, the other should kick in without delay.
This goes much deeper than what we are hearing. The disruption of flights today will take days to recover from and to return to normal operation. There should have been lessons learned Airlines from the breakdown of Southwest Airlines during Christmas. But again, how does this happen, and why wasn't it fixed?
Clearly a lot of unknowns. In the next few weeks, more reports will come about what really happened.
Photo: pixabay - JESHOOTS-com
Listening to the wisdom of older generations is a treasure we should not take for granted.
We have all experienced a relative who talks about the old days, the days when they were younger, the days of glory, some might say. And sometimes, these stories are repeated. But in a way, it's a good thing.
Throughout history, families have passed down their stories from generation to generation.
This sharing of stories even goes back to biblical times. The passing of the Word of God through oral tradition has given us today the foundation of Christianity, specifically the Bible. Also, the writing from the Saints has been passed down in the same way.
Take time to listen to those who have a story to tell, no matter how small or great, because this is who we are and what we do as the people of God to care and take the time out of our busy days to listen to an old-timer share their part of history.
Photo - pixabay - beauty_of_nature
The House is now under the political control of the Republicans. But it is undecided who will be the next speaker. So, at this point, I'm going to be critical of the conservatives. They have had plenty of time to debate this among themselves. I know politicians have always been about power and control, which goes for any political party.
But, come on! You would think after all the years of the Pelosi dynasty. The republicans could easily have someone in mind to clearly take control as Speaker of the House. I can see from most news reports that the agenda of what needs to be done is somewhat agreed on by most congressional republicans.
What is the big delay? The longer this goes on, the more division within the Republican Party will add to the democrats being critical of conservatives.
Photo: pixabay - TheDigitalArtist
What will the new year bring?
So many forecasters predicting what 2023 will bring to us.
But as I've said, they can say all they want, but no one knows. But some predictions are standard every year the financial markets, the weather, the Sun comes up and sets every evening, and the list goes on and on.
What will the first significant event be in 2023?
The year 2022 has come to an end.
Here are some of the most viewed posts for each month this year.
February: The Federal Drug Program
Photo: pixabay - geralt
The past severe cold weather brought many cardinals to my feeders; more in this picture could not capture them in the frame.
The world's infrastructure is weak. As we go through the winter months, the weakness begins to demonstrate how behind we are in electricity and water management.
The recent freezing weather has stressed our systems and sometimes caused a complete breakdown in the age when we can develop new technologies overnight.
Why can't we manage our utilities?
I am nowhere close to having any knowledge of this topic, but those in the industry could create a failsafe system, or is this done on purpose (putting on my tin-foil hat). It does not make any sense! Suppose one does not have a power backup system. In that case, one would live in the 1800s as a pioneer in the west, with no electricity, limited water supply, communications, and limited travel. This should not happen in the technology age.
Photo: pixabay - GDJ