Posted on 06/13/2015 12:28:01 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
ON Saturday mornings, I love to watch reruns of the TV Western “The Rifleman.” Each show is a little moral fable, with Chuck Connors’s widowed rancher and crack shot, Lucas McCain, teaching his son, Mark, about actions and consequences.
If you neglect to do this now, you will pay a penalty later. If a corner is cut here, you will regret it there.
The president might want to catch some shows, as the lame duck’s chickens come home to roost.
At this pivotal moment for his legacy at home and abroad, his future reputation is mortgaged to past neglect.
Like Prufrock, Obama must wonder if the moment of his greatness is flickering.
The president descended from the mountain for half an hour on Thursday evening, materializing at Nationals Park to schmooze with Democrats and Republicans at the annual congressional baseball game.
It was the first time he had deigned to drop by, and the murmur went up, “Jeez. Now? Really?”
Obama has always resented the idea that it mattered for him to charm and knead and whip and hug and horse-trade his way to legislative victories, to lubricate the levers of government with personal loyalty. But, once more, he learned the hard way, it matters.
His last-minute lobbying trips for his trade package to the ballpark — with a cooler of home-brewed beer from the White House — and to Capitol Hill Friday morning to lecture Democrats about values reaped a raspberry from House Democrats.
The Democrats — even most of the Congressional Black Caucus, which Obama courted agressively and which has been protective of him — showed their allegience to themselves, their principles and their labor allies, and not to their aloof president.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“I also watch it on Saturday mornings, with a little scratch pad to keep track of how many people Chuck offs during the course of an episode.”
How can MoDo possibly enjoy watching The Rifleman when every episode highlights and promotes conservative values? I would have bet that the show would make her sick since everyone carries guns and there are relatively few minorities and no transexuals. As far as the body count, it is a western and Lucas only guns down bad guys that deserve it.
She’s a liar like all Washingtonians. Let’s put her to a Rifleman test!
Except that The Rifleman was at odds with both the producers and the critics over the amount of violence in the show. It’s why Peckinpah was fired. I must say that I watch it mostly as a camp classic preferring Wanted Dead or Alive as an alternative. Chuck Conners was no patch on the great Steve McQueen.
“Well, Mark would have hid under the chuck wagon while Lucas brought up his Winchester and blasted away without a by-your-leave.”
There are some episodes where Lucas is rather careless about shooting in town. Like one episode where he sets up some cans on a hitching post outside a store and then blazes away at them to impress some bad guy. I guess bullets cant penetrate tin cans in South Fork.
Paw! Paw!
“Can you imagine what would have happened if Lucas with Mark in tow had stumbled upon “Caitlyn” on the Main Street of Northfork?”
Well, I’m sure he would have tipped his hat to a “lady”, but after he found out the truth, I don’t know......;)
FR Rule “CZJ” satisfied, time index 2:46:57, 13 June 2015. Well done. Very well done, indeed. ;-)
“The president also showed his ineptness at vote counting, working the system and leveraging when he got only 54 votes in the Senate for gun curbs that 90 percent of Americans wanted.”
Uhm, what?!
It is an inspirational show, with great morality, and The Rifleman was a single dad, who read the bible at night, washed dishes, and kept a library, and while dirt poor, would not compromise his Christian values, and his Sheepdog willingness to always serve right, and to help those in need, and to protect those who were too weak to protect themselves.
Charlie: I’m dying with laughter over this. Thank you so very much for posting! You turned a bad day into something hilarious!
And managed to shoot the entire weekly cast of hired actors and extras within 30 minutes!
Chuck Conners said that on the average he killed about three people a show.
Now it did have a Moral Bent and a ending that made you think.
Let’s face it: Lucas WAS A NUT!
Ms. Dowd should have surely gone with Gun Smoke as a show of great restraint and probity. She’s listening to the wrong fans of tv westerns...
Only 3 people? He had an amazing ability to make it look like 24!
I like Dead or Alive, but Steve McQueen at that time, was no match for Chuck Connors, on screen.
McQueen obviously had the it factor but he was still over acting terribly in that series.
Watch how he sometimes is working too hard to dominate a scene, when he shouldn't, and often the effort to work in a small movement that he hopes will make him stand out in a scene, makes him look amateurish and vain, and some of his scenes of him hitting the ground after being knocked out, or shot, or whatever, are completely laughable as he hits and rolls, but will even roll back against what should be his passive momentum, all in an effort to make himself stand out more, to add oomph to the scene.
Those rolling scenes can be painful to watch.
Thanks for the quote. You learn something new every day. BTW, I loved your page.
So?
They were bad guys, and it made the show action oriented while life’s basic moral messages were delivered to the boys, to be tough and capable, and to use those powers to fight for right, and to protect those who need protecting.
The values that American men used to be taught, before the anti-hero was introduced.
Oh, please. I have no problem with Chuck Conners but he was a professional baseball player and Steve McQueen was a B’way actor and member of the Actor’s Studio. One of the greatest film stars of all times. How does that stack up to Mr. Conners?
You stick to your field of expertise, and I’ll stick to mine, OK? Until you take an acting course and get back to me, just. don’t. bother.
The Rifleman is PC?
How?
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