Reaction Video to John Denver's "Annie's Song"

I don't know if you are a fan of these reaction videos that are all over YouTube, but this is one of my favorites. This is one of my Top 10 songs of all-time, a nearly perfect marriage of lyrics, vocals, instrumentation, and arrangement. I've lost track of how many times I've heard this song, but it never failed to move me to tears. Part of that may be the stunning delivery, his purity of voice, and a realization of the history behind this song. But whatever the reason, this may be the greatest love song I've ever heard. 

NOTE: In retrospect, perhaps, a tie between this song and Gordon Lightfoot's song, "If I Could Read Your Mind" for the title greatest love song. 

Either way, both songs always pierce the core of my heart each time I listen to them. Let me know if either of these songs have that effect on you or maybe list your favorite love song in the comments below. 

Until next time . . . 

Atlanta Braves | Halfway Through The 2023 Season

The Atlanta Braves are going into the second half of the MLB season with a shot at breaking records.

The team entered the All-Star break with a 60-29 record, the best in all of baseball and on pace for 109 wins. That's just seven off the 2001 Seattle Mariners' record-breaking 116-win season. Are we saying the Braves are going to reach that incredible mark? We are not. But still, the team's dominance is something to behold. Here's just a sampling of Atlanta's incredible 2023 season, by the numbers.

The Braves have a history that's the envy of most other franchises, but this season is special even by those lofty standards. For one thing, they reached 60 wins in just 88 games, which ties the record for the fastest to 60 wins in franchise history. The kicker here is that the teams they tied weren't even called the Braves at the time. We have to go all the way back to the 1893 and 1884 Boston Beaneaters, who later became the Atlanta Braves, to hit that mark.

God Bless The USA

 

Freedom Of The Press

"The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of the government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell. ... [W]e are asked to hold that ... the Executive Branch, the Congress, and the Judiciary can make laws ... abridging the freedom of the press in the name of 'national security.' ... To find that the President has 'inherent power' to halt the publication of news ... would wipe out the First Amendment and destroy the fundamental liberty and security of the very people the Government hopes to make 'secure.' ... The word 'security' is a broad, vague generality whose contours should not be invoked to abrogate the fundamental law embodied in the First Amendment. The guarding of military and diplomatic secrets at the expense of informed representative government provides no real security... . The Framers of the First Amendment, fully aware of both the need to defend a new nation and the abuses of the English and Colonial governments, sought to give this new society strength and security by providing that freedom of speech, press, religion, and assembly should not be abridged.[16]"

From Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black's opinion that elaborated on his view of the absolute superiority of the First Amendment | June 30th, 1971

For more information on this Supreme Court decision, click HERE.