A cartoon on the cover of a German satirical magazine has evoked outrage among Catholics, as was clearly its intent. Story here.
Monthly Archives: April 2010
Is Dan Boyle the NHL’s Bill Buckner?
The NFL has Jim Marshall and his wrong way run in 1964. Major League Baseball has Bill Buckner booting a slow dribbler by Mookie Wilson leading to a Mets World Series championship. Now the NHL has Dan Boyle. After three periods of scoreless hockey, the San Jose Sharks and the Colorado Avalanche required extra time to decide the winner. Getting to overtime required an epic effort by Avalanche goalie Craig Anderson who had to stop 51 shots on goal. The Sharks’ goalie, Evgeni Nabokov only had to stop a paltry 17 shots on goal. Nothing truly tested Nabokov until his own teammate threw the puck toward the goal. Fifty-one seconds into the first overtime period Sharks Defenseman Dan Boyle attempted to backhand the puck around the net. Instead, the biscuit went to the basket, hit Nabokov’s stick and slipped into the goal. The Avs got the win and lead series two games to one. Check it out yourself, check-it-outers: It was an incredible game, which I listened to via streaming audio from 98.5 KFOX. Jamie Baker, KFOX’s hockey color commentator, went on and on during the game about how the Sharks “deserved to win” because they had so many shots
Slow Start for ‘Kick-Ass’ Shows Perils of Pandering
Producers of popular culture tend to evince the belief that the public strongly desires titillation, vulgarity, obscenity, violence, sexual references and depictions, and other such lurid matter. It is true, of course, that a little spice makes for a tastier meal, but often people go to habañero-laced movies in spite of these things, not because of them. Too great an indulgence in adolescent exhibitionism can often suppress the audience appeal of a work of culture. That’s apparently what happened to the new film Kick-Ass this past weekend. It had an unexpectedly weak first three days, finishing second
KindlingsFest 2010: Where Art & Ideas Intersect with Spiritual
KindlingsFest 2010 is a celebration of art and ideas where they intersect with the spiritual.
TCM Thrillers (April 19 – 25)
This week: * Monday—Edward G. has a nice deal on luggage. * Tuesday—Enjoy Harold Lloyd, with and without a voice. * Wednesday—Ultra-cool Steve McQueen’s socks need de-icing. * Thursday—Scatterbrained Lucille Ball vs. an organized criminal conspiracy; guess who wins. * Friday—HAL won’t open the pod bay doors. * Saturday—A fire fighter cooks the books. * Sunday—Crosby stiffs Hope, Hope stiffs Crosby, repeat, repeat, repeat …. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Monday—April 19th 2:00 AM—Cruel Story of Youth (1960) A high school student and her older lover support themselves through blackmail. 6:00 AM—Bullets for O’Hara (1941) A gangster’s wife helps the FBI nail her husband. 12:30 PM—Larceny, Inc. (1942) An ex-convict and his gang try to use a luggage store to front a bank robbery, but business keeps getting in the way. 6:00 PM—All Through the Night (1942) A criminal gang turns patriotic to track down a Nazi spy ring. ———- Tuesday—April 20th Harold Lloyd films from dawn to dusk. ———- Wednesday—April 21st 8:00 PM—The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) A bored tycoon turns to bank robbery and courts the insurance investigator assigned to bring him in. ———- Thursday—April 22nd 1:00 AM—Wicked, Wicked (1973) A detective hunts down a psycho killer drawn to women with long
‘The Redbreast’ Raises Interesting Moral Questions, With Few Answers
The most memorable thing about The Redbreast, however, is its revisionist treatment of the Norwegian occupation during World War II. A major character promotes the view that most of what we've read about the heroic Norwegian Resistance is manufactured mythology, and that the majority of Norwegians were happy collaborators, at least at the beginning. It should be noted that this character is not necessarily reliable, but there's little or no effort to refute him.
Mike Gallagher to Perform ‘Love Letters’ with Sally Struthers
On April 24 and 25, Mike Gallagher will be appearing at the Kentucky Repertory Theater in Love Letters with actress Sally Struthers.
Carnage That College Ignores
Guest writer Malcolm Kline notes that U.S. academia routinely ignores the enormity of the crimes of Communists while harping on the faults of the United States. Storied Soviet dictator Josef Stalin once famously said that one man’s death is a tragedy, a thousand is a statistic. He and his successors compiled so many human statistics that the unfortunately few academics and intellectuals who are trying to ascertain the true number are still working on it. “One cannot discuss the past, present, or future while they lay there unacknowledged,” University of Pennsylvania historian Alan Charles Kors pointed out in a speech to the Atlas Foundation last November. “We are surrounded by slain innocents and the scale is wholly new.” “This is not the thousands of the Inquisition, it is not the thousands of American lynching, this is not the six million dead from Nazi extermination.” Kors is the co-founder of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). “The best scholarship yields numbers that the mind must try to comprehend—scores and scores and scores and scores of millions of bodies, all around us,” Kors said on November 9, 2009. “Martin Malia, author of The Soviet Tragedy, with only partial views of
‘Criminal Minds’ Episode Borders on Contemptible
Last Wednesday’s installment of Criminal Minds, “A Right of Passage,” is a perfect example of Hollywood’s unending infatuation with liberal-progressive causes strained through a politically correct filter and served up just in time for the present administration’s anticipated new push for amnesty for illegal aliens. A series of decapitations along the volatile border with Marxico prompts the Behavioral Analysis Unit to board their cool Gulfstream execujet and chase after this malefactor. Santa Muerte (The Saint of Death), a legendary figure among the locals, is reputed to be responsible, but our invariably secular FBI agents know better. Somebody’s killing members of a politically privileged ethnic group, and even at Mach 0.9 our heroes can’t get there fast enough. Considering how chaotic the southern U.S. border is reported to be, the occasional murder should come as no surprise. But if it isn’t Santa Muerte, then who could it be? Senior Agent David Rossi (Joe Mantegna) opines that it probably isn’t the Minutemen because that would be bad PR for them. Thanks for that insightful analysis, Agent Rossi: The Minutemen are constrained from murdering each and every illegal alien solely because it wouldn’t look good on the six o’clock news—patriotism, humanitarian impulses, Christian charity, and
Lady Gaga Goes It Alone
I’m not sure that we need to know this, and I am well aware that not too long ago such a thing would be the norm instead of a surprise, but the rock-disco singer Lady Gaga has announced that she is celibate (at present). What’s more, she is advising young people to follow her example, MTV reports: Forget that ride on the disco stick … at least for now. That’s the message Lady Gaga is sending to her fans, telling them that they should follow her example and live a celibate lifestyle. . . . “I can’t believe I’m saying this — don’t have sex. I’m single right now and I’ve chosen to be single because I don’t have the time to get to know anybody,” she said while visiting England to help promote MAC’s Viva Glam campaign, which supports global HIV and AIDS projects. “So it’s OK not to have sex, it’s OK to get to know people. I’m celibate, celibacy’s fine.” Gaga said her celibacy is something she wants to “celebrate” with her fans, extending her oft-repeated message to her “little monsters” that they should be secure in their own skin and not shy away from being different. “It’s OK
Woods Criticized for Televised Outbursts of Foul Language
Is it acceptable to be tired of Tiger Woods? I certainly am. I watched some of Sunday’s Masters coverage, and I was disgusted by Woods’s numerous childish outbursts when his shots didn’t go as he wished. His complaint of “Tiger Woods, you suck!” was a sentiment I could agree with, but I found his shout of “Jesus!” offensive, as I’m sure many others did. If he’s such a Buddhist nowadays, as he claims to be, he should be angry at his own god, not mine. I understand that much is at stake during these tournaments and that none of us is perfect in language usage or anything else, but when you know that you’re going to be heard by millions of people, it’s your responsibility to keep a lid on it. Plus, do you really want to look like a jerk? Other golfers restrained themselves, and Woods should be expected to do so as well. Especially given that he promised to do so. That so annoyed CBS golf announcer Jim Nantz that he criticized Woods on WFAN radio yesterday: If I said what he said on the air, I would be fired. I read in the USA Today and it
Healthcare ‘Reform’ Brings Future Debt Relief to Artists
In The Intellectuals and the Masses, citing Clive Bell’s Civilization, John Carey describes the “conditions favourable to the preservation of the gifted few.” “Connoisseurs of pure form cannot be expected to earn their own living, for ‘almost all kinds of money-making are detrimental to the subtler and more intense states of mind’ required for artistic appreciation. Consequently, people of taste and discernment must be supported by public funds. They alone will be fully educated, and the state will make them regular and ample allowance throughout their lives.” According to Carey, Bell was describing a world where the intellectual and artistic elite cannot be expected to take on the full responsibilities of adulthood, which, to many, would include paying your bills. Moving forward from the early 20th century when Bell was writing to the early 21st century we are fairly close to reaching Bell’s utopia. Tacked onto the healthcare “reform” law is an enhanced Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. It is bad enough that some low level bureaucrats shouldn’t have to repay their debts after some number of years losing your paperwork. How much worse is it that artists should be placed above bourgeois marketplace tactics, freeing them from “almost all
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