Category Archives: Film

Cheney's Pickle/Katrina Commission's Redundancy

Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Film, Media

The press grilled White House Spokesman Scott McClellan over the delay in reporting the Vice President’s shooting accident. Aren’t we fortunate these intrepid men and women never lose sight of what’s important? Invading Iraq? “Misspeaking” about WMD? Dissing the Danes? Deficit spending? Get out of here! Dick Cheney’s embarrassment over spraying a pal with birdshot—now that’s a scoop. I will say this: it is clear Cheney is a hazard to his friends as well.

“US government ‘failed’ on Katrina” screeched the headlines. And we needed a commission and a 600-page document to tell us this? The reporters who covered the Katrina calamity rather well for a change are telling us, with a straight face, what was apparently inconclusive. Oh, come off it! What they should be doing is screening the best satire ever written about the state: “Yes, Minister” and “Yes, Prime Minister.” There, the delicious Sir Humphrey explains what a commission of inquiry aims to achieve. Since I can’t find the direct quote, here is a summation by someone who knows his satire:

The main function of any commission is to delay decision-making until the people, in their infinite wisdom, have moved on to the next Shane Warne/Schapelle Corby/Big Brother eviction. Then, by the time the commission hands down its findings, the people have forgotten the original issue and the politicians can safely put the report in a cupboard and get on with” other abuses.

Cancel cable; Get the series.

‘A Christmas Story’: Nullified by the State

America, Film, The State, The West

Set in the 1940s, the film “A Christmas Story” depicts a series of family vignettes through the eyes of 9-year-old Ralphie, 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.

The excerpt is from my new WorldNetDaily column, ‘A Christmas Story’: Nullified by the State. Comments are welcome.

'A Christmas Story': Nullified by the State

America, Film, The State, The West

Set in the 1940s, the film “A Christmas Story” depicts a series of family vignettes through the eyes of 9-year-old Ralphie, 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.

The excerpt is from my new WorldNetDaily column, ‘A Christmas Story’: Nullified by the State. Comments are welcome.

‘Midnight Express’

Film, The Zeitgeist

That “Midnight Express” didn’t make Time’s All-Time 100 Movies confirms my opinion of the magazine. (Thankfully that 1952 classic, “Ikiru,” made the cut. I’m a big fan of Akira Kurosawa’s work. You bought that last statement? It was a joke; I was just mimicking the pretentious pseudos at Time.)

These days, a man’s home is considered the government’s castle. The case of Cory Maye, unjustly placed on death row for defending his home during a drug bust (the intrepid Tom Knapp elaborates on the case here, as does Radley Balko) conjures the achingly beautiful words of the convicted protagonist in “Midnight Express”:

“Mr. Prosecutor, I just wish you could stand right here where I am standing and feel what that feels like…cause then you’d know something you don’t know—you’d know what mercy means, Mr. Prosecutor—and you’d know the concept of a society is based on the quality of its mercy, of its sense of fair play, its sense of justice…”