Monthly Archives: October 2007

New Film Exposes the “Dark Side of Environmentalism”

October 31, 2007
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New Film Exposes the “Dark Side of Environmentalism”

The one big advantage environmental activists have is the presumed purity of their motives. They claim they only want to protect the earth from a few particularly greedy people, and they say their efforts benefit everybody. That’s their story, anyway, and they’re sticking to it. The reality is a far different matter, as the acclaimed documentary filmmakers Phelim McAleer and Patricia McElhinney make clear in their film Mine Your Own Business, now available on DVD. The film is billed as presenting “The Dark Side of Environmentalism,” and it succeeds brilliantly. Seldom have Western environmental activists been shown in all their abundant arrogance, smugness, and paternalism.

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The Problem of Democracy

October 30, 2007
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The Problem of Democracy

Are democracy and free markets inherently hostile to each other? That’s the question Brian Anderson takes up in his new book, Democratic Capitalism and Its Discontents, my review of which appears in the Nov. 6 issue of National Review, currently on sale at newsstands and online. In my view, the problem is with democracy, not markets. Finding any faults with democracy is undoubtedly a bizarre thing in our time, but it is clear to me that the contradictions that seem to be inherent in democratic capitalism are in fact inherent in democracy itself, and that market capitalism is the victim of democracy, not an abuser. Hence my thought, taking after that of the American Founders, is that where democracy interferes with freedom, it is democracy that ought to give way. I recognize that this proposition may sound rather radical, and I shall defend it further in future, but in the meantime, here’s my review of Brian Anderson’s book, which will give you a sense of the outlines of the argument:

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Oscar Hopefuls in Box Office Freefall

October 29, 2007
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Oscar Hopefuls in Box Office Freefall

The horror-suspense movie Saw IV handily won the weekend’s movie box office competition, selling $32 million worth of tickets. The appeal of the series depends on the ingenious ways in which a serial killer dispatches his victims. In short, it is basically decadent but rather compelling, as it delivers what the audiences are expecting, in unexpected ways. The Steve Carell comedy Dan in Real Life, from Disney’s Touchstone imprint, came in second, at $12.1 million. The rest of the top five were, in order, 30 Days of Night (which experienced a two-thirds drop from its opening weekend the week before), The Game Plan, and Why Did I Get Married? Depressing, antiwar Oscar pursuers did poorly. Michael Clayton came in sixth, with $5 million, and Rendition ran eleventh, bringing in just $2.3 mil.

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Sopranos Producer Defends Series’ Controversial Ending

October 27, 2007
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David Chase, producer of The Sopranos, says that the widely debated ending of the series’ final episode is no mystery at all. The series simply ends without any resolution at all, the producer said, referring to the cut to a blank screen that occurs in the middle of a family gathering at a diner, as USA Today reports: Chase insists that what you saw (and didn’t see) is what you get. "There are no esoteric clues in there. No Da Vinci Code," he declares. So that appears to be that: the series ending, which bewildered and disappointed most viewers, was chosen deliberately. It’s another vivid case proving the stupidity and dramatic wrongness of fashionable ambiguity.

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“Samantha Who?”, “Back to You” Doing Well

October 25, 2007
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“Samantha Who?”, “Back to You” Doing Well

The ratings for the new season’s TV shows are starting to solidify, and the results are clarifying successes and failures. Fox has renewed the Kelsey-Grammer-Patricia Heaton sitcom has been picked up for the fulll season, as the network has asked for an additional eleven episodes for a total of twenty-four. The most highly rated new sitcom, however, is ABC’s Samantha Who?, starring Christina Applegate as an amnesia victim who discovers that she was a terrible person in her previous life and decides to try to reform. ABC has asked for six additional episodes and is reportedly leaning toward committing to a full season. The same network’s Cavemen, by contrast, has continued its ratings free-fall, and ABC has not asked for additional episodes. ABC has picked up the well-reviewed Pushing Daisies for the full season, which finished second in its time slot last night despite suffering a 15 percent audience dropoff compared with the previous week.

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New Spillane Novel on the Way

October 25, 2007
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New Spillane Novel on the Way

Mystery writer Mickey Spillane, whose hugely successful crime novels disturbed critics and infuriated left-liberals, left four unpublished novels behind when he died last year at the age of 88. This Tuesday the first of them will go on sale, published by Hard Case Crime for $6.99. Spillane wrote the first eight chapters, out of eleven total, and his friend Max Allan Collins finished it, based on extensive notes and conversations with Spillane. Spillane wrote more than 30 books that were published during his lifetime, and they sold more than 130 million copies. Readers liked the clear distinctions between good and evil in the narratives, and appreciated the moral complexity of the choices detective Mike Hammer and Spillane’s other protagonists had to make in working to bring criminals to justice.

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New Film “Bella” Rejects Latin Stereotypes

October 24, 2007
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New Film “Bella” Rejects Latin Stereotypes

Guest critic Rebecca Cusey reviews the new film Bella: Eduardo Verastegui, a square-jawed leading actor out of Mexico and lead actor in the new movie Bella, had it all. He had conquered the Spanish speaking world, first with Mexican pop group Kairo, then on telenovelas. Hollywood noticed him, and offers were pouring in for American roles. But Verastegui had a crisis of conscience. He wanted something more than the roles usually offered to Latinos. In an interview with Ryan Seacrest, he said, I realized that Latinos, since the ’40s and to today, have had negative stereotypes, always the bandito, the criminal, the liar, and if you are good looking, you are the Don Juan, Latin Lover, in other words, the womanizer-liar, who just use women as objects.

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The Truth About Jena

October 24, 2007
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A fascinating article in today’s Christian Science Monitor shows that the media got everything wrong in the Jena 6 story, which was portrayed as an example of racism in the South and of injustice toward blacks. Craig Franklin, a local journalist from Jena, demolishes what he calls "Media Myths About the Jena 6" in the story. It is a must read, and the facts it adduces constitute a powerful indictment of the mainstream media and the race baiters who continually try to take advantage of such situations. Some excerpts: 

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Homosexual Activists Attack Obama Supporter

October 23, 2007
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Homosexual Activists Attack Obama Supporter

A homosexual activism group has called on presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) to disassociate himself from a gospel singer who believes homosexual behavior is a choice and not a biological compulsion. Donnie McClurkin, who is scheduled to be among a group of gospel singers raising money for Obama at a concert in South Carolina this weekend, has drawn homosexual activists’ ire by saying, "Sexuality, everything is a matter of choice," as quoted by AP. The AP story quotes McClurkin as saying he disapproves of discrimination against homosexuals: "What people do in their bedrooms and who they are as human beings are two different things," he said. That is not a sufficient concession for the activists, however, and they have called for Obama to kick him out.

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Viva Laughlin Cancelled

October 23, 2007
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Viva Laughlin Cancelled

CBS has cancelled Viva Laughlin after just two episodes, in response to very low audience numbers. The series, as noted earlier on this site, was a strange and thoroughly awkward combination of drama, mystery, and musical sequences. It’s a pity that the producers decided to retain the musical sequence gimmick from the British show on which the series was based, Viva Blackpool, because the story material was decent and certainly workable, and the positive portrayal of an entrepreneur at the center of the show was a very good development.

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Horror Film, Comedies Strong in Weekend Box Office; Political Thriller “Rendition” Struggles

October 22, 2007
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Horror Film, Comedies Strong in Weekend Box Office; Political Thriller “Rendition” Struggles

The new horror movie Thirty Days of Night led the weekend U.S. movie box office—and garnered four times as large an audience as the political thriller Rendition, in both films’ first week of release.

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The Oppressive Realities of the Sexual Revolution

October 21, 2007
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The Oppressive Realities of the Sexual Revolution

One of the most important presumably unintended consequences of the Sexual Revolution of the second half of the twentieth century has been the increasing dominance of male desires and a corresponding diminution of the value of women’s ways of viewing sex. The opening of all doors ensures that men, who by nature tend to pursue a variety of sexual partners, will drive the agenda, and women, who are by nature better fitted for long-term partnerships, will simply have to accommodate them. Perpetuation of the species ensures that men who spread their genetic characteristics widely will greatly affect the gene pool, and women who are able to take care of their children well—which at least in earlier times was much easier if a man was around to help—will be similarly successful. Hence there is an innate tension in relations between the sexes: there are centrifugal forces at work, but at its best human sexuality ties couples and families together. The development of moral codes pertaining to such matters helped the species thrive. What both men and women give up in freedom they obtain in greater success in contributing children for the future.

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