It has been widely mis-reported in the government media that the acting president has received The Nobel Peace Prize. Since I couldn’t believe such a prestigious organization would honor non-achievement so publicly, without the recipient or recipients’ direct involvement in international terrorism, I investigated.
Sure enough, I was right! It was not the group in Oslo but rather a consortium of pizza pie gourmets in Naples, Italy that bestows this award for “Annual volume of tomato pie consumption by a world citizen,” to quote a spokesperson. The confusion which has occurred throughout the civilized world is apparently a result of the similarity in names. The award actually won by the current White House occupant is The Nobelli Piece Prize. Notice the differences in spelling. Despite the confusion, this is an historic occasion since it marks the first time the prize has been awarded to anyone weighing less than 350 pounds.
This prestigious award was originated in 1972 by Alfredo Nobelli, owner and operator of Nobelli’s Pizza Parlor and Car Wash in St. Louis, Missouri. Alfredo was originally from Naples and immigrated to America as an illegal in 1971. The following year he financed the first “Piece Prize” out of gratitude to his newly adopted country, with money saved from his welfare checks. It is not clear whether Mr. Nobelli ever became a citizen or even got a green card. He could not be reached for comment.
There seems to be no connection between the now famous pizza parlor and Rush Limbaugh’s desire to by the St. Louis Rams, even though he has frequently used the phrase, “Mmm, mmm, mmm!” I believe this reference has more to do with the political indoctrination of students in a New Jersey public school than with the consumption of tomato pies, with or without pepperoni.
Remember — the buck starts here!
R.S.F.
Humorist Arnold Glasgow once wrote, “A friend is someone who laughs at your jokes when they’re not so good and listens to your troubles when they’re not so bad.” But what happens when a friend starts giving you bad advice? The acting president has been running into that for some time now with his close, warm, personal friend [CWPF] “Totus”. “Totus” is a ‘Bamaprompter.
Let me make something perfectly clear to those who might otherwise get the wrong impression — he speaks neither for me nor for the vast majority of American people. We owe apologies to no one. The ugly chip on his shoulder speaks for ‘Bama alone. He and “Totus” have become dangerous embarrassments — two of the Three Stooges. Since he has difficulty forming coherent sentences without help, we must conclude that the formerly faithful ‘Bamaprompter has run amok and is feeding him bad information. Maybe his contemporaries can ‘roll’ him like a hooker with a jon in a cheap hotel but not so the people of this nation. Americans love freedom and have always stood strong against tyranny, whatever its origins.
One Small Step
Ghostly black and white images danced across the television screen as a roomful of friends and I bore witness to one of the greatest accomplishments of humankind. It was history in the making and we were living it! Men were walking on the moon! Those grainy pictures were the fulfillment of a dream for every ten year old kid who ever peered out of a window cut in a big cardboard box or watched Flash Gordon conquer the Clay People at the Saturday movie matinee. They were the fulfillment of a challenge by a young president whose life was snuffed out before he could see that his words had successfully inspired a nation to such incredible deeds.
Today is the 40th anniversary of that first moon landing, when men soared into space using precarious technology born of Snoopy’s leather flying cap and carrying less computing power than is found in today’s average $25 calculator. Buzz Aldren, Michael Collins and Neil Armstrong were explorers — true heroes, men of vision driven by fierce pride. Back then, America was driven by fierce pride. Where has it gone?
Somewhere in the 40 years since Apollo 11 we have lost our way, mired in the quicksand of failing social programs in the name of bettering life on Earth, all the while robbing men of their dignity and building a false government dependency. Such political misdirections are gradually transforming dreams and pride into guilt and stagnation. America is now being painted as a problem in the world instead of a solution. Even an activist president colors with a broad brush that masks our greatness.
Sufficient time has now passed so as to relegate moonwalks and other significant victories to mere paragraphs in history books, read by new generations that have never experienced greatness — some of which even doubt and debate the very existence of these accomplishments. The final irony is the use by non-believers of the many spinoffs from the space program, like laptop computers and cell phones, as they question the merit or even the reality of our moon journey. Believe me kids, we were there and we were there first! The proof will clutter the craters of that heavenly body for centuries.
Winning the space race not only inspired America but played a part in defeating the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Now that we’ve discovered it’s not made of green cheese, there is a renewed interest in going back to the moon — generated by other countries, places such as China and India. The other night, I heard one of our congressmen express the hope that we would “go all out” to participate and not just graciously accept a second place finish. I thought, “Whoa! We were ALREADY first, a long time ago. It’s the next country that’s gonna’ be in second place!” [This is the same mentality that overlooks the fact that America was attacked on 9/11 and goes straight to criticizing our assault on the Taliban, wherever they may be].
When it comes to the moon, we’ve already ‘been there, done that’. I see no particular reason to go back and would rather we set our sights on Mars. Let the other guys fall over each other for runner-up positioning on Earth’s natural satellite. I’d like to feel the pride and exhilaration of great national accomplishment once again. Moreover, our country needs to feel it. Forty years ago it inspired and united our nation, in fact [for a moment] the world. Those kids with all the answers could use a reality check, too.
Today we celebrate America’s first moon walk. No, it wasn’t the late Michael Jackson, he came later. It was imagination come to life. It was three incredibly brave pioneers who crossed, not the western prairie in covered wagons, but the sea of space in a tiny capsule — to walk on that silvery disc in the nighttime sky that casts long shadows on new fallen snow, lights the way for starry-eyed lovers and kindles sparks of inspiration in the hearts and minds of men.
R.S.F.