printFrom “Once There Was A Christmas Story,” Now on WND.COM:
“Set in the 1940s, ‘A Christmas Story’ depicts a series of family vignettes through the eyes of 9-year-old Ralphie Parker, who yearns for that gift of all gifts: the Daisy Red Ryder BB gun.
This was boyhood before ‘bang-bang you’re dead’ was banned. Family life prior to ‘One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads’, and Christmas without the ACLU.
If children could choose their families, most would opt for the kind depicted in this film, where mother is a homemaker, father is a regular working stiff, and between them they have zero repertoire of psychobabble to rub together. …
Lucky is the little boy who has such a family. Luckier still is the lad who has both such a family and…a BB gun…”
POSTSCRIPT: Bob Clark, the director of this magical movie, and his son, were killed by an illegal alien. This says as much about modern-day America as does the dissolution of the prototypical family unit depicted so magnificently in “A Christmas Story.”
My libertarian manifesto, Broad Sides: One Woman’s Clash With A Corrupt Society, is back in print. The Second Edition features bonus material. Get your copy (or copies) now!
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL,
ilana
My God, the director and son were killed by an alien?? Need we anymore signs of the times? Lord bless their family.
My whole family loves this movie and watches it with pride every Christmas. I’m happy to say our town still features reindeer, bells, and Christmas tree symbols on the light posts, as well as numerous Nativity scenes. As far as I’m concerned, any offended liberals can wear tinsel over their faces if they don’t want to see this.
A Merry Christmas to you Ilana, and a huge Huzzah! for your book going back in print. Bonus material too? That means a rebuy for me.
God love you for writing this. If we have one singular issue in this country it is the dissolution of the nuclear family. Your daddy should be proud Ilana. Merry Christmas to you!
Ilana, your news has just spoiled my Christmas. Unlike earlier indulgences into Socialism, I think that the financial cancer has metastasized and that this country is heading to the financial equivalent of the “Big Crunch”. [In astrophysics terms, it is the opposite of the Big Bang and it is where everything collapses and nothing can be viewed past that event]. Any Republican “reforms” on the “reform” will only add even MORE to government, as has been the history of Republicans since 1930.
Thinking back to your column on “A Christmas Story” – the pre-New-Deal generation that believed in savings and economic self-reliance is gone now. Even the children from that generation are now retirees hooked on Medicare and Socialist Insecurity.
Perhaps we should all just get drunk or high or LOBOTOMIZED and be optimistic like the Reason magazine “libertarians” who ignore the annual $ 2 trillion deficits and rhapsodize on how much smut can now fit on the new generation of I-pods, etc.
What comes after the Big Crunch? – Warlordism, anarchy, totalitarianism, 3rd world living standards, freedom – hard to predict.
The decline of the family unit in America is truly a sad situation. I think that’s why many of the old, family-orientated sitcoms are still syndicated and DVD favorites. It shows how the family should be, since many families aren’t like that anymore. I agree that the breakdown of the family unit is a root cause to many of society’s ills, not to mention the lack of Biblical morality that governs each individual outside of their family unit. Children have parents that are older than them for a reason: they don’t know enough to make decisions for themselves. Giving children more power, control, and privacy has proven disastrous, since much has been given without requiring them to bear the consequences for their decisions. The “Leave It To Beaver” life does mean security to a child. The single, matriarchal parent family is the new dysfunctional norm. I’m single, never married, w/no kids; but it’s amazing how many ignorant people think that if you’re not married, divorced a few times or at least have some kids out of wedlock, then you’re not normal. It’s intriguing how many people my life bothers. I’d rather my norm than theirs any day. I’ve seen stats. that talk about the A. American family unit being in crisis. I can vouch for that, because the amount of desirable Black men, by Biblical standards, is almost a extinct.
Merry Christmas to you also Ilana.
Dear Ilana
I thoroughly enjoyed your column on The Christmas Story movie. The movie AND your column resonate with me for very personal reasons. These days I’m always encouraged to know that I’m not alone with these convictions. Thank you for writing your piece.
Merry Christmas!
Tom
Memo To Erudites:
Great column Ilana! I was chuckling all the way through because four weeks ago, the day after Thanksgiving, our whole family went out into the country for our annual “Turkey Shoot” with the family’s collection of sidearms, rifles, the Mossberg, and a coupla’ boxes of clay pigeons, all of whom have been sent to ‘clay pigeon heaven’…
One of our ‘funnest’ photos is of 9-year-old Rachel kneeling on the firing line to cock her–you guessed it–Red Ryder BB gun. Yes, this motley crew consisting of nurses, landscape architects, a U.S. Naval SeaBee, a U.C. Berkeley Grad (the Mossberg owner–hates Berkeley) a missionary, a minister, and a seminary student working on a masters in cultural anthropology would be dismissed at a distance as a ‘bunch of rednecks’. Actually, we just enjoy recreational target shooting. The old 60 caliber, black powder, Dragoon (pirate pistol) is great fun.
The assault on the family continues evidently… haven’t several reported lately about the marriage penalty in the Unhealthy Careless Deformed Legislation?
About 2 thousand a year in premiums for two people earning 30k apiece, or 60 k for the year. But if those SAME people are married… OVER $11,000 IN PREMIUMS FOR THE SAME COVERAGE ?!?!
The left wants to entirely detonate the nuclear family. The more dismantled and dysfunctional the country, the more power they have.
Great column! My family and I love this movie, and watch it every Christmas. I hope you and your family had a Merry Christmas yesterday.
Happy and Healthy New Year to all my BAB Friends! Especially to Ilana! Only the best for all of you – and to our nation, and the Western way of life.