Europe Turns Right

Democracy, EU, Europe, Islam, Journalism, Multiculturalism

I’m proud to say that my people, those who are based in The Netherlands, turned out for the great Geert Wilders, and are celebrating a tremendous win for the brave Dutchman. “a whopping 17 percent of the vote in the Netherlands went to the Wilders anti-Islamic Freedom Party.”

The Christian Science Monitor preferred a broad-brush indictment of Wilders as a “far-right politician.” To the Dutch who elected him, he’s a hero. I guess his constituents believe in halting the Islamic takeover of the Netherlands. Bad form, I know. My family too is funny that way; they don’t much appreciate the rising assaults on Jews and Jewish businesses that have coincided with an ongoing, generous influx of Muslim immigrants. “Xenophobia” in journalistic parlance.

Unlike the American hard-right, Wilders is a friend of Israel.

About the EU’s efforts to concentrate power while obliterating the ancient nations of Europe, not enough bad things can be said. I tried to cover it in “Adieu to the Evil EU.“

Comrades Castro And Chavez Fear Competition…

America, Barack Obama, Business, Capitalism, Communism, Economy, Socialism

FROM BARACK OBAMA. “Fidel, careful or we are going to end up to [Obama’s] right,” Chavez joked on a live television broadcast.” More via Reuters:

“Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday that he and Cuban ally Fidel Castro risk being more conservative than U.S. President Barack Obama as Washington prepares to take control of General Motors Corp.”

“During one of Chavez’s customary lectures on the ‘curse’ of capitalism and the bonanzas of socialism, the Venezuelan leader made reference to GM’s bankruptcy filing, which is expected to give the U.S. government a 60 percent stake in the 100-year-old former symbol of American might. …”

“During a decade in government, Chavez has nationalized most of Venezuela’s key economic sectors, including multibillion dollar oil projects, often via joint ventures with the private sector that give the state a 60 percent controlling stake.”

“Obama has vowed to quickly sell off General Motors once the auto giant is back on its feet, but the government will initially control the company after a $30 billion injection of taxpayer funds.”

Not-So-Wise Latina

Debt, Ethics, Morality, The Courts

Sonia Sotomayor has a “fail” on FICO. Unless Barack has intervened, her credit score is probably abysmal. How “wise” can this Latina lady be if she’s financially reckless? Moreover, and with all the talk of her extraordinary empathic powers, The American Thinker wonders how Ms. Sotomayor will be capable of “empathizing” with “tens of millions of Americans who do have investments, 401Ks, and personal savings,” since “after so many years of highly paid professional work, [she] has no savings or investments”:

“Sotomayor’s annual earnings come to $196,000 a year ($170,000 a year as an appeals judge and $26,000 for part-time teaching). She has served as an appeals judge for 17 years. This service was preceded by lengthy tenure at a corporate law firm of Pavia and Harcourt, where she was a partner, and presumably was well compensated.

Yet after a career that has spanned 25 years, Ms Sotomayor only has one thousand dollars in net savings. As reported in the New York Post, Sotomayor’s bank account holds $31,985. Her credit cards debts are $15,823, and she has $15,000 in unpaid dental bills. That leaves her with $1,162. Sotomayor’s total assets, revealed as $708,068, consist almost entirely of equity in her Manhattan apartment. The judge’s financial filing does not disclose what percentage of this figure is unrealized gain, but it must be sizable. In other words, other than home equity, Ms Sotomayor is essentially broke.”

Updated: DVD Distractions

Art, Celebrity, Film, Hollywood

I’ve been promising The Judge a list of reasonable DVD distractions.
We folks might not be able to afford a shopping trip to Paris, as the one Michelle Obama, the Royal Grandma and Girls took courtesy of the taxpayers, but we can all kick back with a reasonable film and some home-made popcorn, and try and forget our odious overlords for a short while.

Here are a few picks, ranked from best to worst.

1) “Doubt” with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams. Excellent performances and a powerful lesson about gossip. I liked the analogy of a slashed feather cushion. The feathers fly away, irretrievable like gossip. I don’t know about Christianity, but a Jew is prohibited from bad-mouthing another. Of course, this is a sin we all commit.
I suspect the story was also meant to poke at the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church. However, that minor folly can easily be ignored.

2) “Changelin.” With the edification of our friend Thomas Szasz, we covered the topic in a previous blog.

3) “Hard 8”: excellent acting. This 1996 film is a real old-school flick. The characters are well-developed, the plot unexpected, and an emphasis placed on what drives the protagonists. When I say the storyline was good, I mean this: Most film scripts these days offer such thin gruel for stories that, I don’t know about you, but by the time 10 minutes have passed, I’ve figured out the next 1.5 hours.

4) “Gone Baby Gone.”. A respectable directorial debut from Ben Affleck. More than respectable: this was a good, gripping story. It brought into sharp relief the damage self-righteous, know-it-all do-gooders can cause.

5) “The Stone Merchant”: Starring Harvey Keitel as an Italian convert to Islam for whom terrorism is a religious duty. This [is] a highly improbable tale, which also features F. Murray Abraham, Jordi Molla and Jane March.”
It’s barely passable.

6) “Rain.” An obviously obscure movie, since I am unable to find a trace of it online. And, no; it’s not this “Rain.” The “Rain” I saw was a torrid, Oedipal tale of a woman who kills her husband, and, unbeknown to her, has an affair with her … son. She resolves the latter conflict as ruthlessly as the former (husband). It’s well acted, but morbid.

7) “Lakeview Terrace“ with Samuel L. Jackson is poor, but even poorer is our #eight, “Righteous Kill.” Robert De Niro can do no wrong in my eyes: he’s always good. Al Pacino, on the other hand, is the most overrated actor living. He can’t act, even though he has had the benefit of good roles. He bellows and screams and gesticulates and annoys the hell out of me. But you may be more patient than I with Pacino’s once-you’ve-seen-one-you’ve-seen-’em-all performances. He gives me a fat headache. The script is weak too.

Have fun.

Update (June Eighth): I must have seen “October Sky” at the same time Dan did, and had the same thoughts he expresses hereunder. It’s a true story. I loved it so much, I looked-up the title and hero at the time. The young man went on to great achievements.
There is another fine film I stumbled on in the manner Dan described. It’s with Robert Redford as a frontier man; fabulous too. Anyone recall the title? In fact, I think the Judge will find the last two films mentioned the best of the bunch.