Finally, to close out today's flurry of postings, due to my working at the computer most of the day and needing an occasional break: the view from our backyard patio.

I think I might try and post a weekly flower shot from our garden or some other place of interest. This week's offering from our garden is the Little Business Daylily (Hemerocallis) which actually looks a lot more like an Autumn Red Daylily. All I know is that Little Business was the name on the pot and, in this case, was what the person at the nursery called it.

Drew and some of his new found friends.

A movie entitled White Chicks is in theatres right now. The plot revolves around two black FBI agents dressing up as white girls and going undercover. While not my particular cup of tea, it no doubt has its funny moments as the two main characters go through their fish-out-of-water experience.

Given the premise of the movie, I couldn't help but be reminded of Spike Lee's 2000 movie entitled Bamboozled where, according to IMDB, a frustrated African American TV writer proposes a blackface minstrel show in protest, but to his chagrin it becomes a hit. As shown in the screenshots below, the movie contains actual blackface performers.

A Google search for fraternity and blackface will reveal the annual ritual of stupid suburban white boys with myopic understandings of American culture putting on blackface resulting in (despite the obvious First Amendment right to make an ass out of yourself) their subsequent suspension, required apology, coerced contribution to the local negro college fund and/or mandatory attendance at cultural sensitivity training for them and their housemates.

In light of White Chicks and Bamboozled, can someone explain to me and all future pledges what the rule is with regard to blackface/whiteface--without utilizing some politically correct subjective or double-standard? I'm really good at following and advocating rules. I just want to know what the rule is and I can't figure it out. Is it like the "n" word? Blacks can do it with impunity, but whites can't. The problem with such a rule is that racism will always exist as long as double-standards continue to exist.

Many college campuses have promulgated speech codes in an attempt to provide guidance as to what is and is not acceptable. Invariably, such codes are blatant illegal censorship in direct conflict with the First Amendment. Fortunately, groups such as FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) have been successful in publicizing such illegal codes, defending alleged violators and in getting the illegal restrictions rescinded.

Can someone give me one instance, just one, where someone complaining about being offended was required to attend in-sensitivity training because they were just too darn sensitive instead of the standard reaction of requiring sensitivity training for the alleged offender? Surely, in all the instances of alleged insensitivity, there has been at least one where the offended person unreasonably reacted to something that was otherwise innocuous and the collective reaction of everyone involved was to recommend to the offendee a little insensitivity training.

Perhaps this is the answer. Provide incoming freshmen, not with sensitivity training, but rather a thorough course in the First Amendment along with a healthy dose of insensitivity training. Then when the frat boys put on their blackface, they can be properly mocked for the idiots they are and everyone--frat boys and offendees alike--can go about their studies without all of the usual hoopla, administrative hearings and other interruptions. I won't hold my breath.

Thanks to my employer, we all got to enjoy five days and four nights (really just four days and four nights) at the Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas last week.

Drew enjoyed the pillow chocolates but like a true Danz, he wasn't satisfied with just one.

Drew wasn't much for keeping his sunglasses on.

A lifeguard in training: working on the tan and getting thrown into the air.

For reasons that are obvious to those who know me, I am providing the following two links without comment:

The Smoking Gun Archive

Tulsa Today Article

If I ever have a daughter, these are the swimsuits she will wear:

Obviously, I'm just kidding...like I'd ever let my daughter go swimming!

For the record, these are real swimsuits that are available for purchase.

Two world leaders of the 1980s were the United States President Ronald Reagan and the Iranian Shiite fundamentalist cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Reagan was elected in 1980, took office in January 1981 and remained president for eight years until 1989. In January 1979 the Shah of Iran was forced to flee the country and the Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile in France to become the spiritual and political leader of Iran. He ruled Iran until his death in June 1989.

Whatever your thoughts about Ronald Reagan, you cannot deny the incredible solemnity, grace, beauty, class and style in which President Reagan's funeral was conducted. Do you remember what the Ayatollah Khomeini's funeral was like or were you ever taught about it in school? Probably not. In fact, there is surprisingly little about it even on the internet and even fewer photographs. Below are two I found from a GIS (Google image search) using the terms: Ayatollah, Khomeini, and funeral.

Here is how the politically correct Time magazine described it:

"The funeral of the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini ignited an emotional outpouring from his fanatical followers that Westerners found as bizarre, frightening -- and ultimately incomprehensible ***

While the Ayatullah's body lay in state inside a refrigerated glass box, the crowd of mourners in Tehran became so thick that eight were reportedly crushed to death. The next day, as a helicopter brought the open wooden coffin containing Khomeini's remains to the city's Behesht-e Zahra cemetery, nearly a million mourners thrust forward in the blistering heat and choking dust, many wailing and pounding their heads as they groped to touch the body and snatch a piece of the linen burial shroud.

Some managed to surge past a force of Revolutionary Guards, clambering into the casket to plant kisses on the Imam's face. The corpse spilled to the ground, bare feet protruding from beneath the white shroud. As the Guards beat back the crowds, firing shots in the air and spraying fire hoses, other soldiers shoved the body and coffin back into the chopper. It lifted off with the casket hanging precariously out the door.

Some five hours passed before there was another, successful attempt to deliver the body to its final resting place, this time encased in a metal coffin. Again arms flailed and chants of "Death to America!" filled the air as the helicopter touched down. Although barricades held most of the crowd at bay, the Guards were forced to make a frantic push past the outstretched hands to deliver the coffin to the grave site. At the last instant, the metal lid of the casket was ripped off, and the body was rolled into the grave, in keeping with an Islamic tradition that requires that the dead be interred in only a shroud. The grave was quickly covered with concrete slabs and a large freight container to prevent delirious mourners from exhuming the corpse. By the end of the ceremony, more than 440 people had been hospitalized and an additional 10,800 had been treated for injuries."

6/19/89 TIMEMAG 38 (emphasis added).

I won't pretend to be able to say anything unique or prophetic about President Reagan that others haven't already said. Suffice it to say, Ronald Reagan was one of the greatest presidents ever, easily among the ranks of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt. No other person can be attributed so much responsibility for bringing liberty and freedom to so many people. One must simply be too young or willfully ignorant of history not to realize the extent to which we now literally sleep safer at night due to his guiding leadership. Winner of the cold war, visionary economist, an American patriot who turned a nation around, his accomplishments are unparalleled.

In 1991, I was extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to meet President Reagan. I was involved with the Adam Smith Foundation which presented him with an award for the incredible success of his supply-side economic policies. For the record, he was articulate, spontaneous, and absolutely commanded the attention of everyone in the room as he related several anecdotes and stories and discussed his award and our organization--there were zero signs, not even a hint, of Alzheimer's disease, which he later developed. God Bless Ronald Reagan.

Welcome to the newly redesigned Danzfamily.com homepage. Extra-special thanks to Julie of BlogMoxie for her design assistance. She really nailed it far beyond my expectations! The old homepage was simply too static for what I want to do. For those familiar with the old home page, links to the rest of the website can still be found on the left under "navigate." Here's what the old design looked like:

The new design will allow me/us to more easily provide our friends & family with news and information. Among other things, in the column on the left you will find a random photo along with a random quote. I also anticipate the new design will be a soapbox for my rants and, ultimately, it's cheaper than professional therapy. So, come back often and please don't hesitate to leave comments if you are so inclined. Take care.