Category Archives: Film

Updated: The Real Huge Hogs in the Baldwin Blowup

Celebrity, Family, Feminism, Film, Hollywood, Law

What are the chances that Alec Baldwin’s daughter is a “rude, thoughtless little pig“?

If most of America’s kids and all Hollywood’s adults and their little hogs fit the description—then I’d say Baldwin was on the money.

What is the likelihood the family courts in this country have denied the actor his legal custodial rights? Given the family court system’s stellar record in railroading an overwhelming majority of petitioning dad, I’d say Baldwin’s case against the courts is as credible as his case against his daughter’s conduct. (I bet you that the incriminating tape of the actor trying to discipline his daughter long-distance was leaked to the media by the alleged little pig.)

As to those flapping like black crows over Baldwin, telling us that words are as bad as bruises, and demanding Baldwin be arrested or slapped with a restraining order (as if his access to the kid is not already severely restricted): How did my father put it? This is the Age of the Idiot.

As to Baldwin himself: He’s intense (that’s good), witty, and extremely well-spoken (as opposed to most of his interviewers). He is also fired up about fathers’ lack of rights, and would make a fine spokesman for this cause.

Our Feminism Archive is here.

Update: Thanks Alex for bringing up Baldwin’s acting. I’m a fan too. He has a presence—and in particualr, he can be terrifying. I love that. I enjoyed his performances in films such as “Malice,” and “The Edge.” But then I like a well-performed thriller with a good story.

Oh The Hypocrisy: Iranian Islamists Vis-a-Vis '300'

Film, Islam, The Zeitgeist

The Iranian government is angry about the depiction of ancient, Zoroastrian Persia in the film “300.” The Greek accounts of the Greco-Persian wars are certainly replete with description of despotic, luxuriating and effeminate Persians, versus tough, freedom-loving European. But, “Herodotus, the most important Greek chronicler of the Persian empire,” writes Christopher de Bellaigue in The New York Review of Books, found “much in the Persians to praise.” So did Reza Shah and son; they hated Arab culture and identified themselves completely with pre-Islamic Persia.

Not so the clerics who came to power after the Islamic revolution in 1979; they endeavored to expunge the Achaemenids, the Sassanids, and Zoroastrianism from Iran’s historical memory. To Islamists, history begins with Mohammad and his exploits; all that went before doesn’t count.

Shortly after the revolution, Islamic mobs in Iran tried to Talibanize Cyrus’s tomb. Persian names were changed to Islamic names, and references to the Achaemenid kings were banned on the state broadcaster. In post-revolutionary Iran, children were no longer named Darius or Cyrus (but Mo and Hussein, like one presidential candidate).

Oh The Hypocrisy: Iranian Islamists Vis-a-Vis ‘300’

Film, Islam, The Zeitgeist

The Iranian government is angry about the depiction of ancient, Zoroastrian Persia in the film “300.” The Greek accounts of the Greco-Persian wars are certainly replete with description of despotic, luxuriating and effeminate Persians, versus tough, freedom-loving European. But, “Herodotus, the most important Greek chronicler of the Persian empire,” writes Christopher de Bellaigue in The New York Review of Books, found “much in the Persians to praise.” So did Reza Shah and son; they hated Arab culture and identified themselves completely with pre-Islamic Persia.

Not so the clerics who came to power after the Islamic revolution in 1979; they endeavored to expunge the Achaemenids, the Sassanids, and Zoroastrianism from Iran’s historical memory. To Islamists, history begins with Mohammad and his exploits; all that went before doesn’t count.

Shortly after the revolution, Islamic mobs in Iran tried to Talibanize Cyrus’s tomb. Persian names were changed to Islamic names, and references to the Achaemenid kings were banned on the state broadcaster. In post-revolutionary Iran, children were no longer named Darius or Cyrus (but Mo and Hussein, like one presidential candidate).

'300': Not A Top Pick With Metrosexuals

Ancient History, Critique, Film, Hollywood

“The 300 and their brothers-in-arms were not only Greek heroes, but ours as well. Yet the most absurd —and obscure —argument against this proposition contended that the Spartans could not have been fighting for individual liberties, since they themselves were part of a militaristic, collectivist, statist society. The Spartans fought so that their women and children would not be enslaved and they not slaughtered by the Persians. The right not to be slaughtered and the right not to be enslaved —what, pray tell, are they, if not the ultimate individual rights? To claim members of a flawed society cannot fight for individual liberties is a non sequitur.”

The excerpt is from my new WorldNetDaily column, “‘300′: Not A Top Pick With Metrosexuals.” (WND’s title.)

I hope this addresses some of the critical comments BAB readers leveled at me in an earlier discussion. My libertarian critics (at least those who are on the right side of the Lincoln debate) might want to consider, in this context, whether they would philosophically disqualify members of the Confederate States as legitimate defenders against indisputable Northern aggression, because some Southerners owned slaves (384,000 whites out of more than 8 million, to be precise).