Publisher's Note: This is the second installment in Diane Rufino's series on what forged "Our Founding Principles" to birth this once great land. These are serious times that we find ourselves in. I pray that we can muster the same integrity, which our Founding Fathers possessed, to fight our way out of the deep dark hole that we now occupy.

The term "Founding Fathers" of the United States includes many great and courageous and wisely forward-thinking men. They include:

— Those men who framed , wrote, and signed our Declaration of Independence in 1776.

— Those men who framed , wrote, and signed our US Constitution in 1787.

— Those men who worked tirelessly to promote the Constitution's virtues and to help secure it... Read More

Publisher's Note: As we initiate this ongoing series; this chaptered treatise on what made America a once great nation, we examine our nation's first document. Diane Rufino submitted this first edition in this voluminous history of how we began, and I expect we will read a good bit from, and by her in the future.

Intoduction to the Declaration of Independence:

On July 4, 1776, the 13 colonies signed the Declaration of Independence, although they had no yet won their independence from Britain in the Revolutionary War. It was not until October 19, 1791 that Lord Cornwallis, leader of the British forces, surrendered to General George Washington at Yorktown. In their desire to be severed from Britain and to be a free nation, a declaration... Read More

A Splash of Hope Painted Upon a Bleak Landscape

This is a story that, at first, one may question whether it should even be told. At the end of the film, one realizes that it had to be told, if only to give hope that there can be an unlikely hero in most all circumstances. Her family depended on it, whether they realized it or not, and Ree Dolly aimed to deliver come Hell or high water.

Nineteen year old actress Jennifer Lawrence played 17 year old Ree Dolly as if she knew exactly who the poor child was, and who she had to become in order to survive in the foothills of the Missouri Ozark Mountains amid the various tribes of drug making, drug dealing, and drug using White Trash that inhabited the secluded hills and hollows, just north ... Read More

When the Father Spawns a Bad Seed

We all pay. In this instance it was those that were brought into the family of David Marks. Matrimonial bliss ... not hardly.

The film opens with the strikingly masculine figure of a woman in a bad blond wig struggling with heavy packages enveloped in an assortment of containers on an old county road bridge in the deep of a very dark night: Foreboding of evil tidings, foreshowing events that symbolize depravity that is the psyche of the bad seed of an emotionally detached father.

The relationship that shaped the outcome of this film did not begin as one who wrought to sow the sentiment of a young couple destined for damaged lives. It began as most relationships that work: Full of kindness, cons... Read More

Forces Beyond All Control Clash in the Jungle

One man sought redemption, the other sought parity for the weak, powerless. Together they found themselves working for the Lord against those who were called to represent Him - the Holy Catholic Church. In the end two of the three knew God. The other was irretrievably lost.

"The Mission" was not as much a film about the delivery of God to the primitive natives of the Paraguayan rain forest as it was, primarily, a mission to discover the truth that guides men's souls. Father Gabriel, played by Jeremy Irons, the Jesuit Priest who settled one of the remote Spanish Missions in this new South American land, was committed in his quest to bring the Passion of the Christ to these Guarani people.... Read More

Life is not Poetic

It is altogether something else entirely. It is a misidentified path to the wrong side of the well for most, and a constant struggle to keep on the straight and narrow for most everyone else.

Enlightened humans endeavor to rise above the human condition, but most slip back into the tragedy of the mire as if somehow magnetic to is malevolent tides that are there to ensnare us all, and surely drown some us. The film "Leaves of Grass" is less to do with Walt Whitman's opus, and more of a discussion of this aforementioned human condition, and yet still a comedy of sorts.

Darkened to coal is the comedy of this film that is an acting tour de force for Edward Norton, who plays both roles of identical twin brothers: On... Read More

Ridley Scott Plays to Robin's Strengths

Timeless tale told well would be an understatement; but, was it told well enough to placate the most ardent critic, who expected far too much? Possibly not.

How can the professional critic be satisfied with this version of such an ancient story when there was such a limited up side to producing the perfect film? When such a well financed picture is perfectly cast, with the perfect action director, Ridley Scott, would it shine like a diamond? Well, "Robin Hood" did not; but that's okay with me. There are few perfect films.

Perfect films become timeless classics, whether they receive outstanding reviews or no, and whether they are remembered in the awards rush when often the better film is pass... Read More