Category Archives: Pop-Culture

UPDATED: MUNICH (and More)

Film, Hollywood, Pop-Culture, Psychiatry, Terrorism

This is the time of the year when one desperately needs relief from the fare television offers. It’s essential to make a trip or two to Blockbuster during the holiday season for some mindless entertainment—which is a step up from the stomach-turning, sappy, deeply silly Xmas films whose screening began as early as late in November.

As it is, it’s impossible to watch the assorted estrogen-oozing action dramas and crime series inflicted on the TV viewer. The phony heroine lords it over meek meterosexuals with fussy falsettos. Men know their place. Dare-devil women run the show, which makes the show dull, because 90 pounds of botoxic, silicone-plumped flesh in stilettos can’t run very fast (in real life, and I’m a sucker for reality). And you just know that back on terra firma, the 200 pounder she’s cuffing with seeming ease would have flung her as far as the equator, or coshed her to death.

A leading man is invariably a mentalist (I don’t know what that is), a gentle doctor suffering from low-sperm count, or a buffoon (“Burn Notice”).

Did you know that Daniel Wroughton Craig is quite a capable actor? Since I’m not a fan of the film industry, discovering that the latest James Bond is more than a Pierce Brosnan (although not nearly as good looking) or a Timothy Dalton and Roger Moore was a pleasant surprise.

I mention Craig, as we were watching Munich, directed by Steven Spielberg, and based on a book by Canadian journalist George Jonas, Barbara Amiel’s first husband.

Munich has a decent script and actors, their main attribute being that they are not American, so the acting is understated, not ego-centered and embarrassing. A bit of that unique Israeli humor is captured occasionally. Munich “shows how a squad of assassins, led by former Mossad agent Avner (Eric Bana), track down and murder a list of Black September members thought to be responsible for the eleven Israeli athletes’ murders. The second part of the film, which depicts the Israeli government’s response, has been debated a great deal by film critics and newspaper columnists. Spielberg refers to the film’s second part as “historical fiction,” saying it is inspired by the actual Israeli operations which are now known as Operation Wrath of God.”

Daniel Craig plays Steve, the South African get-away driver. He manages a heavy South African accent the likes I’ve never heard before. At first, I did not recognize him and thought Craig was an obscure actor from the Old Country. From their non-existent acting repertoire, younger American actors exclude accents. (It’s “too much like hard work, besides; doesn’t’ everyone speak English with an American accent?”) An East European dialect in “Law and Order SVU” sounds like the “Direct TV” commercial.

The depiction of the Munich massacre is hard to take for those of us who remember the lack of German security, the free pass that government gave the butchers, and the same peoples’ decision to continue the fun and games in the aftermath of the gruesome murders.

An excellent series also well-worth renting is “In Treatment.” Reading the credits, I saw the words, “Betipul,” which is Hebrew for “In treatment.” It figures that these nuanced portraits of people in therapy were adapted for the small screen from a foreign script. It has nothing of the Oprah, Phil filth—the two charlatans whose worldviews guide interpersonal relationships in the US.

Wikipedia confirms that, “The program’s format, script and opening theme are based on, often being word for word translations of, Hagai Levi’s successful Israeli series BeTipul, which won every possible award for a drama series at the Israeli Academy Awards.” I seldom watch TV becasue I get so bored. “In Treatment” is riveting TV. It’s deep but not labored.

UPDATE (Dec. 18): My thanks to Nora for fleshing out the context of Munich’s release. You can see how far behind I am in my film viewing. As we were watching, I did mutter to my husband about the facts that had been omitted (see above). It’s my understanding, however, that both Spielberg and Jonas are pro-Israel. Jonas most certainly is. And Spielberg is behind an enormous Holocaust project, so he is most sensitive to the arguments for Israel’s founding and survival. The Palestinians were definitely the butchers of the film; Israelis were the bunglers—I did get the impression of a inexpert mission, but then technology was primitive in those days.

To repeat, the Israelis were the sympathetic parties in the plot. Any statement to the contrary in the German press must have been a product of that press’ wish-fulfillment projections. Some of “the other side” came through in the rather smug, second-rate arguments presented during a chance meeting between the Israeli protagonist and a Palestinian terrorist. The Israeli came out on top.

All in all, it’s a decent effort. The horrific replays of the Munich massacre displayed the heroism of some of the Israeli athletes. Perhaps not enough.

The "Real Rush" Joins The Blogoshpere

Celebrity, Communism, Film, Hollywood, Intelligence, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Media, Pop-Culture

My good friend and WND colleague Erik Rush has joined the blogosphere. Erik is the author of the column titled, “The Other Rush.” But he’s the “Real Rush” to me. Erik’s is a great-looking blog. I’m looking forward to checking it out daily.

Beings super squeamish, however, I almost fainted at the image Erik has posted of a Hollywood celebrity undergoing the mandatory commie programming. From the spouse this photo will elicit the kind of laughter he lets out when we’re watching one of our a favorite programs, “1000 Ways to Die.” (Mr. Rush likes it too.)

Or “Thinning The Herd,” as we call it. (You just know that the writers and editors of “1000 Ways to Die” would have adopted that title, but there’s just so much these good folks can get away with.)

Alas, as fabulously brutal and graphic as Erik has been in “Why Entertainers Go Left: The Real Story,” I’m less inclined to the school of thought that holds liberalism to be a mental disorder, or a condition developed under duress. Sadly, because it has such strong emotional appeal—the masses seem to experience a rush at the ideas of collectivization and confiscation—left-liberalism is probably the default position of humanity. A hostility to reason and reality guarantees liberalism’s top-dog position in political philosophy. This, of course, relates strongly to intelligence, but, dammit Erik, that’s too much to brood over on the Sabbath.

I strongly recommend Erik’s important new book, with this unbeatable title: “Negrophilia: From Slave Block to Pedestal – America’s Racial Obsession.” When I catch my breath, I will treat you to a Mercer Interview (click the Interview Category in the Search Window for a sample) with Erik about “Negrophilia.”

Beck’s Left The Building

Glenn Beck, Media, Pop-Culture, The Zeitgeist, Uncategorized

Glenn Beck believes that the blackboard has made him a philosopher king, a teacher. Most of the Glenn Beck Show, unfortunately, is now devoid of useful information. it wasn’t always so. I was, as you recall, a big Beck fan. Since I require information—news, data—I opt for Hardball. A horrible prospect, I know, but Chris Matthews’ currency, however debauched, is the news of the day. The same cannot be said for the Beck hour. Hardball also gets me the progressive perspective. I have to keep abreast of Left-liberal thinking on the issues, since it is never intuitive.

From Beck you get the following:

Sighs.
Nods.
Lots of self-affirmation (Glenn said this and that years ago).
More ego announcements and exhortations to TiVo upcoming segments
Mention of George Soros (who also recognizes Glenn for the threat he is)

Today Beck was pushing for an answer his rapt audience was unable to give him because, mercifully, they do not “think outside the box” like he does (he kept trying to get them to be as “creative”). Beck asked those present in the studio what could transpire when Germany, forced to bailout out Europe, felt backed to the wall. Of course, knowing how he thinks (and he has maligned the Europeans in the past), I knew that what Glenn wanted to hear was this: given their history, the productive and pedantic Germans could well turn to fascism if forced into an economic corner.

In the past, Beck has attempted to provide historical information. Now he only alludes to the need to know history so as not to repeat it, study it, buy books about it (his).

Other repetitive themes:

Dark times are ahead (well, dah!)
Help your neighbors.
Pray
Be true to yourself.
Be honorable
Sign up for my …

I don’t watch Oprah. Why would I watch her conservative, male counterpart? I want the old Beck back but that bloke has left the building and is levitating high above it.

I guess Judge Napolitano, on at 5:00PM at Fox Business, makes up for it all.

Braggadocio Broadcasting

Anti-Semitism, Glenn Beck, Judaism & Jews, Media, Pop-Culture, The Zeitgeist

Glenn Beck was once informative and edgy. No longer. These days the Fox News Talker is mostly tedious, windy, preachy and plain spaced-out. “Spooky Dude” is a sobriquet Beck uses to describe his latest personal nemesis, George Soros, about whom he intones for hours on end, aided by the usual indecipherable charts. Beck is one spooked-out dude.

Beck is too boring and marshals too few facts to persuade me of anything he says these days. However, no matter the number of fatuities Beck disgorges in one session, one thing is clear: he is not an anti-Semite. Beck is no hater; he’s a nice guy. He has just become so fat-headed that he believes his own hype. A muddle-headed man who has deluded himself about being a philosopher king will ad lib himself into trouble.

Our man from La Mancha is aping Bill O’Reilly. BO’s show revolves around BO and his encounters. The mental midgets of The View will pick a fight with BO, and BO will devote the week to discussing the implications for the nation of his squabble with some bitches. Their body language he’ll dissect (“analyze” is his term for wanking on-air with junk science), his body odor his expert will break down; he’ll invite guests on to praise him and damn the dames, and vise versa, on and on.

But even BO picks up on more news items, these days, than does Beck, whose hour is bereft of any information. Beck, once a humble man, has adopted Bill O’Reilly’s braggadocio broadcasting. (Warning, Glen: that’s un-Godly!)

So now the Jewish, liberal establishment is having a go at Beck for rambling incoherent about Soros.

This is what happens when one let’s the ego take over, as Glen has done. It all began when Glen discovered that Soros had donated money to combat the Beck tidal wave. Thereon-in Beck was like a man possessed; high on his own importance for drawing Soros’ attentions. The dybbuk did not pay dividends.

On November 12, Simon Greer, president and CEO of Jewish Funds for Justice, went on Countown [sic] with Keith Olbermann to discuss Glenn Beck evoking anti-Semitic sterotypes [sic] to attack a prominent Jewish philanthropist and Holocuast [sic] survivor. In his three-day “Puppet Master” series, Mr. Beck accused Geroge [sic] Soros of “helping send the Jews to the death camps” when he was 13 years old. There has been an overwhelming response condemning Mr. Beck’s grotesque falsehoods from Abe Foxman calling it “horrific” to Elan Steinberg calling it “monstrous.”

If you’re interested (I’m not) read more about the developments on this badly spelt website.

EGO TV has taken a predictable tumble. I don’t agree with a word he says, but Simon Greer seems a sincere, refined man. This is more than one can say of Countdown Keith, into whose trap Talker Beck stepped.