tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41746067064488539152024-03-17T20:04:24.894-07:00Save Send DeleteD Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.comBlogger977125truetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-82471296087640559632024-03-14T15:13:00.000-07:002024-03-14T15:16:10.586-07:00Cabrini 2024 Movie Review. Cabrini the film is as beautiful, and as provocative, as Cabrini the woman<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQgVg6P8BNmsEHi4cLQdR0APLph1f-KHEvqu0sWOXpaTuMoPE1kKOTxAiLsl2DZccF3kaizmD0GjosWm_PHhbNXAsDI95W6ejmmX6hxX9ZZePhmem-2wqZJJs8hHDMRKrbB1GyiJjJg6XdV2P9ZoiStDZGDqRiC3l9wqeiVs-iGLHWll27h101JGwiTDU/s1204/cabrini%20funeral.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="718" data-original-width="1204" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQgVg6P8BNmsEHi4cLQdR0APLph1f-KHEvqu0sWOXpaTuMoPE1kKOTxAiLsl2DZccF3kaizmD0GjosWm_PHhbNXAsDI95W6ejmmX6hxX9ZZePhmem-2wqZJJs8hHDMRKrbB1GyiJjJg6XdV2P9ZoiStDZGDqRiC3l9wqeiVs-iGLHWll27h101JGwiTDU/w640-h382/cabrini%20funeral.PNG" width="640"></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br></span><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Cabrini </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">2024<br></span></span><i style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Cabrini</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> the film is as beautiful, and as
provocative, as Cabrini the woman</span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">On Friday,
March 8 – "International Women's Day" – I stepped out into sunshine
and felt as if I'd just taken a spiritual shower. My soul tingled as cleansing
droplets pelted through. I was refreshed and renewed. I was walking on air. I
was ready to cope with the challenges that my life in Paterson presents to me,
from the garbage in the streets to the noisy car stereos blasting rap. I
resolved to be a better person. And, yes, I felt all of those things because I
had just seen <i>Cabrini. </i><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Cabrini </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">is a 2024 biopic of the Italian American
nun, Sister Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917). In 1946, Cabrini became the
first US citizen to be canonized. Cabrini accomplished this in spite of having
been dealt an inauspicious hand in life. Her parents were Italian farmers. She
was one of the youngest of many brothers and sisters – sources list between ten
and thirteen siblings. Only four of her siblings survived beyond adolescence.
Worldwide, youngest daughters of large, agricultural families have low status
and relatively low survival rates. On top of that, Cabrini was born two months
premature. She was afflicted with smallpox, malaria, and tuberculosis, which
compromised her lungs for life. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">When she was a
child, Cabrini made paper boats, outfitted them with violet flowers, and
launched them on the water. These were her early, imaginary
"missions." She yearned to preach Christ in China. Because of her
physical frailty, three orders of nuns refused to accept her. She founded her
own order. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A cardinal
dismissed her ambitions, reminding her that there had never been an independent
order of missionary women. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Cabrini
replied, "If the mission of announcing the lord’s Resurrection to his
apostles had been entrusted to Mary Magdalene, it would seem a very good thing
to confide to other women an evangelizing mission."<span></span></span></span></p><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2024/03/cabrini-2024-movie-review-cabrini-film.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-18683235482340347832024-03-08T04:46:00.000-08:002024-03-08T04:46:24.556-08:00The Boys in the Boat, The Peasants, and The Zone of Interest: Three Excellent New Films <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4wAmrdakXAPcXmagZe1vHISl0uEqXsLO4blHM8kdu2qgZMu0x64jRMkyPv_xe93dbyWGMT19QFAEqIzIscA2EJA6LHSs0BLy2kZoTg5Mwr5whCkBhfkGLK55OcsUxMIU63qAgDstLZmST46U9-axIJaXibo8k0rxEU_PhpndQy4RgU1T0YSfdyVvUmb0/s1107/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="970" data-original-width="1107" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4wAmrdakXAPcXmagZe1vHISl0uEqXsLO4blHM8kdu2qgZMu0x64jRMkyPv_xe93dbyWGMT19QFAEqIzIscA2EJA6LHSs0BLy2kZoTg5Mwr5whCkBhfkGLK55OcsUxMIU63qAgDstLZmST46U9-axIJaXibo8k0rxEU_PhpndQy4RgU1T0YSfdyVvUmb0/w400-h350/Capture.PNG" width="400"></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The Boys in
the Boat</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">, <i>The
Peasants</i>, and <i>The Zone of Interest</i>:<br></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Three great films best seen in a theater</span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Friend, I beg of you. Go to a theater
and see three great movies sometime soon: <i>The Boys in the Boat, The
Peasants, </i>and <i>The Zone of Interest. </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Leopold Staff, a Polish poet who
survived the Nazi occupation of Warsaw, said that "Even more than bread we
now need poetry, in a time when it seems that it is not needed at all."
Movies are democratic. They are accessible and they are communal. It's
fashionable to declare one's superiority by sneering at popular culture. It's
harder to sneer when you remember that Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a fearless
counter-jihadi, was inspired by Nancy Drew novels, and that <i>Top Gun </i>and <i>Saving
Private Ryan </i>drove military recruitment. Politics is downstream from
culture. The culture we support with our ticket-buying dollars is as important
as the candidates we support with our votes. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">We get something from publicly watching
a movie together with our fellow citizens. <i>The Major and the Minor </i>is a
1942 screwball comedy. I'd watched it a couple of times at home, alone, on a
small TV screen before seeing it for the first time in a jam-packed, Greenwich
Village art house theater. In that crowd of rollicking laughter, I suddenly
realized what a very naughty movie <i>The Major and the Minor </i>is. Its
double entendres had flown right over my head. While watching <i>Gone with the
Wind</i>, a loud and spontaneous sigh erupted when the camera zoomed in on
Rhett Butler's handsome face (see <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L4-Y_nPqMM"><span style="color: windowtext;">here</span></a>).
Gathering in the ladies room after a movie like that is a genre of
psychotherapy. While washing your hands you ask complete strangers, "Do
you think Scarlett and Rhett ever got back together?" You comfort and
enlighten each other and the world is warmer, more connected, less lonely and
tense. Mel Gibson's <i>The Passion </i>depicts Christ's torture, crucifixion,
and death in grisly detail. Three Muslim guys took seats directly behind me.
They were joking sarcastically. Clearly, they were in the theater to mock.
After the film ended, I turned around to check on them. One was doubled over,
distraught. His companions were rubbing his back and speaking softly to him. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The loss of public movie-going erodes
not just community, but also art. Ali's well is a famous, eight-minute scene in
<i>Lawrence of Arabia. </i>Most of what we see is a completely flat, lifeless,
tan desert landscape against a blue sky unbroken by any cloud. Two men draw
water from a desert well. A tiny dot appears on the horizon. Slowly we realize
that that dot is a man approaching on a camel. He shoots one of the men to
death. As we wait, and wait, and wait for the approaching man<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to arrive, we experience a fraction of the
desert: the emptiness, the boredom, the terror, the sudden and irrational
violence, the value system so very different from our own. That scene could
never move us in the same way on a small screen. And, when we are watching
alone on a small screen, we can fast forward through the parts we don't like,
like, say, the grim depictions of the Holocaust in <i>Schindler's List. </i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">My students, trained on media that
rushes and delivers jolts of violence and sex aimed at the lizard brain's
reward-squirting mechanisms, lack the ability to sit through a scene like Ali's
well. They also have trouble sitting through a complex lecture on current
events, or a long story of personal struggle told by a friend. Movies, like all
art, have the potential to train us to be our best selves. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The Boys in the Boat, The Peasants, </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">and <i>The Zone of Interest </i>are
three very different films, but they are all innovative, in different ways. <i>Peasants</i>
is so innovative another movie like it may never be made again. <i>Zone</i>
rewrote how the Holocaust will be treated in film, and how it will be
understood. <i>Boys </i>is rebellious, counter-cultural filmmaking in ways I'll
detail below. All three films have much to say about our current
politico-cultural landscape. Each addresses community. Each, given their visual
and auditory artistry and impact, should be seen in a theater.<span></span></span></p><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-boys-in-boat-peasants-and-zone-of.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-11613950290186912482024-02-29T13:50:00.000-08:002024-02-29T15:59:56.219-08:00Alan Dundes on the Qur'an <div style="text-align: left;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPq8mS7QTIzowTNCuKQjdrkshupe4FncwR79650lnbs2VCGqLpl9dh_L_npV4qvobmG4uHLWGaxdiStVvWYLXmNiEBZbQkqQLpGyAGyPjAP5x2yyg_eN6qm_xM9GPal-rZbVhcmb7h28yvaq91Qk7-U3pb-pXgD49-MOEOA5YiwUwCQO5NYwvMl4ej9F4/s400/dundes%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="245" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPq8mS7QTIzowTNCuKQjdrkshupe4FncwR79650lnbs2VCGqLpl9dh_L_npV4qvobmG4uHLWGaxdiStVvWYLXmNiEBZbQkqQLpGyAGyPjAP5x2yyg_eN6qm_xM9GPal-rZbVhcmb7h28yvaq91Qk7-U3pb-pXgD49-MOEOA5YiwUwCQO5NYwvMl4ej9F4/s16000/dundes%20(1).jpg"></a></div><br><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br>Fables
of the Ancients? Folklore in the Qur'an </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">by Alan Dundes<br><i> </i><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">"The
most renowned folklorist of his time" tackles the Qur'an</span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I'll
bet that everyone who knew him has a favorite Alan Dundes story. Here's a
couple of mine. To understand both, you have to know that Dundes was larger
than life in many ways, including physically. I somehow don't want to apply the
adjective "fat" to him, although, yes, he was. Some called him
"a tank," others, "a rhino." He was so formal and so
formidable that I resort to an old-fashioned word, "portly." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I
only ever saw him in a charcoal gray suit, white shirt, and dark tie. And he
knew <i>everything </i>about his field. Students would line up in chairs along
the back of his office wall. They would approach, timidly, one by one. They
would burble about their family's traditional Persian Nawruz celebration, or a
Yiddish joke, or a Peruvian children's game, that is, material that they had
stored in their mind's attic among their most intimate and cherished memories,
and that they thought belonged to them alone, and Dundes would immediately
provide the student with numerous citations to scholarly articles addressing
the very obscure factoid they thought they'd never fully understand. After
their encounter with Dundes, they walked out of his office into an expanded world,
a world of meaning and wonder in which they were playing a vital part every
time they told that half-remembered joke, every time they played that childhood
game. You aren't alone, the scholarship Dundes introduced students to said.
There are others who told the same joke, played the same games. There is a
meaning to all this; there is a story; it is dense and rich and everlasting.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">So,
yes, Dundes was big. And he was funny as hell. Hundreds of students registered
for his classes, which were held in an auditorium. He was up there on stage
making us laugh, and then inviting us to eye-opening, even outrageous
interpretations of every day events. He'd weave in something as ordinary as a
traffic sign, cite some Freud, tell a joke, and before you knew it your mind
was pinging around like an explorer's finger on a globe and you had the sense
that life is a wonderful mystery and this guy possessed many of the clues. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">One
day he introduced a particularly complex lecture. You had to hang on every word
to grok the unfolding revelation. When he finished, many of us thought we were
in the presence of the smartest guy on a campus with many Nobel Laureates. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">At
that moment, a young blonde asked a stupid question. Her question suggested to
us that she hadn't really been listening to the lecture, and that she didn't
care that she was revealing that she hadn't been listening to the lecture. Her
question insulted, and deflated, Dundes. Impatient, aware of his own worth
Dundes sniffed, "That was a stupid question." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We
all gasped. A minute before we had been surfing with him a wave of joyful
discovery. Her cluelessness, and his dismissal, crashed us onto a jetty's
boulders. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Dundes,
dark and massive, paced a few steps; the auditorium was so hushed we could hear
the stage floorboards creak beneath him. Dundes wasn't just arrogant. He was
also charming. His bonhomie returned. He stopped and turned to the young lady.
"I'm sorry," he said to her, in his most tender, grandfatherly aural
caress. "I shouldn't have said that. There's no such thing as a stupid
question." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We
exhaled. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Dundes
paced to the edge of the stage. He swung his bulk around dramatically and
shouted, "But that came pretty damn close!" <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We
exploded in laughter. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">One
of the regrets of my life is that I found it hard to interact with Dundes, and
he found it hard to interact with me. I'm blue collar. I swept floors and
swabbed toilets before and after his lectures to work my way through Berkeley
grad school. His father was a lawyer; mine, a coal miner. He went to Yale, I,
as he reminded me with typical bluntness, got my BA at an "undistinguished
state school." Dundes told a dumb Polak joke in class. I went to his
office and we yelled at each other. I operated on the assumption that he hated
me; it was only after I finished that I learned from someone else that he had
"pulled strings he didn't know existed" to get me funding.
Ironically, we shared a common ancestral homeland: Poland. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">My
second story took place more than a decade later, in 2005. I had my PhD, had
published work that I assessed was as good as the standard Dundes' superb
oeuvre had set for me, and, given that we were now thousands of miles apart and
communicating via email, I found it easier to talk to him. I thought that
maybe, just maybe, I might someday ask permission to address him by his first
name. I sent him an email asking for prayer for my academic career. He
responded in an email that enveloped me in a completely new atmosphere. I no
longer felt that I was one of a handful of students lining the back of his
office wall, awaiting my brief encounter with the great man. He spoke to me as
if I were his equal, even his intimate. He spoke about faith. I was overwhelmed.
Suddenly I had to relearn how to interact with him. I devoted quiet time to
contemplating how to respond to this new Prof. Dundes. And then a friend phoned
me and said that he thought that the<i> New York Times</i> obituary for Alan
Dundes had been too short<i>.</i> Dundes had collapsed and died of a heart
attack while teaching a class he had once taught me, and so many others. To the
last, I never got to say all of what I wanted to say to him, in the way that I
yearned to say it.<span></span></span></p><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2024/02/alan-dundes-on-quran.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-70646566433069225712024-02-23T04:41:00.000-08:002024-02-23T04:41:15.535-08:00The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America by Coleman Hughes. Book Review. <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrUoFpBG7ly85rDKy8GTTFg-h4Mmuu7KzjB7w2NviVYywacP8wZDIyK3AB-CVMVitfQCniI03qDmWwCSmcGjQHLgdrGlcLi8veacOsX-OH0cPsF5HsvrvkpYnx5ndjKWoWPa6Tma-xCQ7-rpSZLJ8F8DIQ5jQBdvtzh3jBbT2pdrTky-Gff68_DExRUCE/s908/Coleman-Hughes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="875" data-original-width="908" height="616" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrUoFpBG7ly85rDKy8GTTFg-h4Mmuu7KzjB7w2NviVYywacP8wZDIyK3AB-CVMVitfQCniI03qDmWwCSmcGjQHLgdrGlcLi8veacOsX-OH0cPsF5HsvrvkpYnx5ndjKWoWPa6Tma-xCQ7-rpSZLJ8F8DIQ5jQBdvtzh3jBbT2pdrTky-Gff68_DExRUCE/w640-h616/Coleman-Hughes.jpg" width="640"></span></a></div><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind
America<br></i></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Coleman
Hughes is a charismatic spokesman for good ideas</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The
End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America </i>was published on
February 6, 2024, by Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Thesis was
established in spring, 2023 in order to publish "urgent idea-driven
nonfiction by thought leaders, journalists, and experts with a strong point of
view." The book is 235 pages long, inclusive of appendices, notes, and
index. The pages are small. The font is not. The book is a quick read. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The
End of Race Politics </i>has been very positively blurbed by the intellectual
celebrities Steven Pinker, Sam Harris, John McWhorter, and Glenn Loury. The
average rating of its sixty-four Amazon reviews is 4.8 out of five stars. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Author Coleman
Hughes was born in 1996. He grew up in the chic suburb of Montclair, New Jersey,
home of Stephen Colbert, Christina Ricci, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_from_Montclair,_New_Jersey"><span style="color: windowtext;">other celebrities</span></a>. He graduated from
Columbia in 2020 with a degree in philosophy. He has previously worked for the
Manhattan Institute and as an editor at its <i>City Journal. </i>Hughes hosts a
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ColemanHughesOfficial/videos"><span style="color: windowtext;">YouTube channel</span></a>. He is an atheist, he is
handsome, he speaks in a calm and methodical way, and he is black. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The
End of Race Politics </i>argues against ideas promoted by prominent race
hustlers like Ibram X. Kendi, Robin DiAngelo, and the leaders of Black Lives
Matter. Hughes argues for a colorblind society, the triumph of merit over
Affirmative Action, and uplift for black people starting with rigorous charter
schools. Hughes harnesses social science research to buttress his points. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">For
decades, I've been reading work that pushes back against leftist approaches to
race. Almost twenty-five years ago, I read <i>Hating Whitey </i>by David
Horowitz. It was as if the scales fell from my eyes. I'm purposely using the
"scales fell from my eyes" cliché because my experience was cliched.
I was a graduate student at the time, who had spent most of my life on school
campuses and in left-wing organizations. Horowitz was speaking truths that were
buried, and silent, deep inside me. Truths that I didn't think anyone was
allowed to say. Truths that, once I saw them in print, changed me forever. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I went
on to read authors dubbed "black conservatives." Shelby Steele's
fever-pitch outrage encased, like a stiletto in a velvet-lined box, in Steele's
elegant prose, rendered him my "most quoted" black conservative
author. Jason L. Riley's deployment of key statistics; Larry Elder's
in-your-face boldness; John McWhorter's fearless integrity; Glenn Loury's
firehose of facts; Thomas Sowell's wide-ranging consideration of middleman
minority theory; and Candace Owens' outrageous willingness to state what we all
know to be true, that George Floyd was a lousy role model: all these authors
and all their gifts produced page-turning works and must-watch videos. I
remember individual pages from their work where I encountered something I'd
never known before, or was invited to put ideas together in a way that I never
had before. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The
End of Race Politics </i>was not, for this reader, that kind of work. It is,
though, the ideal book for a certain kind of reader. Hughes' style is calm and
methodical. He's like Mr. Rogers without the personal warmth. Unlike Steele, he
does not recount personal stories that engender rage or sorrow. Steele yearned
to be a batboy as a youth but was denied because his skin color excluded him
from segregated ballparks. Steele describes white academics robbing him of his
own accomplishments. "You didn't get to where you are today because of
your own efforts," white liberals insisted to Steele. "You are where
you are today because of white liberal benefaction." There's none of that kind
of engaging and instructive anecdote in Hughes' book. The book is, for the most
part, impersonal and dry. Ideas are clearly if unexcitingly expressed in
simple, unadorned prose that should be transparent even to high school readers.<span></span></span></p><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-end-of-race-politics-arguments-for.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-30611605125943086312024-02-15T07:11:00.000-08:002024-02-15T15:50:08.285-08:00The Zone of Interest 2023: Movie Review <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirO_Hi-qEO5_7tEHKdiO0-suBSRRRTnM7EtcR3km9dZojGwlSc_KNcz-pzuXFa5nHUr0-vje-HAWbqlGw_07WzcilSMfXM-JkrKzZGTtz_DzzxR_PFdln8J89jSxQaAR9vTAkTslEspRjphdWv9WmwtCtA6RCOkl5fodkRitnsxSKAEmt9-mHU3jFM2Ms/s384/The_Zone_of_Interest_film_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="259" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirO_Hi-qEO5_7tEHKdiO0-suBSRRRTnM7EtcR3km9dZojGwlSc_KNcz-pzuXFa5nHUr0-vje-HAWbqlGw_07WzcilSMfXM-JkrKzZGTtz_DzzxR_PFdln8J89jSxQaAR9vTAkTslEspRjphdWv9WmwtCtA6RCOkl5fodkRitnsxSKAEmt9-mHU3jFM2Ms/w432-h640/The_Zone_of_Interest_film_poster.jpg" width="432"></a></div><br><p></p><p></p><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The Zone of
Interest </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">2023<br> <o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">A Masterpiece from a TV Commercial
Director </span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Friend, please do something for me. Put
this article aside and find the nearest theater showing <i>The Zone of
Interest. </i>Walk into the theater knowing as little as possible about it. Then
return to this article so we can exchange notes. I need to talk about this
movie with others.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The Zone of Interest </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">is going to generate a great deal of
talk. There will be debates and podcasts. There will be university courses and
peer-reviewed scholarly articles. There will be a backlash industry
pooh-poohing every accolade the film receives. If you wait too long, your
chance to have your own experience of the film may slip out of your hands. You
may feel, "<i>The Zone of Interest </i>is its own industry. Seeing it
would be too much like homework. I'd prefer the latest superhero movie."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">You may be thinking, "Another
Holocaust film. They're just are fishing for an Academy Award! Why can't we
have movies about other atrocities? And I don't like watching people being
tortured." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">First, there is no torture, and almost
no violence, in this movie. I cry at movies and I didn't cry while watching <i>Zone.
</i>Days later, while merely thinking about it, I cried. I had nightmares. Even
in my nightmares, there was no blood. There were merely well-groomed, clean
people behaving in accord with their value system, their character, and their
mental defenses. And we need Holocaust movies because the Holocaust was a big
deal. And we can have movies about other atrocities, too, like <i>Twelve Years
a Slave </i>and <i>Killers of the Flower Moon. </i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Zone </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">is universal and timeless, like W. H. Auden's poem "Shield
of Achilles," which uses Jesus' crucifixion and Achilles' shield to
discuss twentieth-century atrocity. Both Auden's poem and <i>Zone</i> say as
much about slavery or the Cambodian Killing Fields or the Gulag as films
directly addressing those topics. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I recommend <i>Zone </i>to every
thinking adult<i>. </i>I say "thinking" because a subset of viewers
are not getting this movie. There are some negative fan reviews online. These
say that the film is "boring." "Nothing happens," they
complain. "There is no plot." Bless their hearts. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Thinking adults are capable of
observing. "To observe" implies an increase in cognitive activity
from "to watch." If you know how to observe, you will get <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zone. </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron, winner of four
Academy Awards, said, that <i>Zone </i>is "probably the most important
film of this century, both from the standpoint of his cinematic approach and
the complexity of its theme." And if you are thinking, "Oh, this
movie sounds too artsy-fartsy. I like more direct fare," don't let that
stop you. Glazer got his start in that most democratic of forms, the TV
commercial, where he depicted drinking a Guiness beer as tantamount to being a white
stallion emerging from ocean surf. Glazer knows how to create images that
penetrate to your lizard brain. He wields that magic here, not to sell beer,
but to bring you closer to yourself, your own lowest fears and highest prayers.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">In the article, below, I will summarize
the plot, and then discuss the filmmaker, his approach, and the history he
addresses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <span></span></span></span></p><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-zone-of-interest-2023-movie-review.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-57361993226318683202024-02-09T05:10:00.000-08:002024-02-09T05:10:41.544-08:00Freud's Last Session: A new film misses the real Freud, the real Lewis, the real Atheism, and the real Christianity <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaZfI9vCr7MWwBDEdPUR-5Weth-6Vo_77ys5v-xCPqxk85UwvNP6lHu1tFGWtwnK32nw5FML2_Ox6GaEbofjyyp2GNZtBV8LBODSgY4cie17NK0v3usSOgsqK_0IiXBn_KIMDWqD1uFcp-0CH-R1Bk1UxUgOtQzdLA_IM47wcoTb6wz1iDi8SkBJzJs5g/s2880/p26211471_v_v13_aa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2880" data-original-width="2160" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaZfI9vCr7MWwBDEdPUR-5Weth-6Vo_77ys5v-xCPqxk85UwvNP6lHu1tFGWtwnK32nw5FML2_Ox6GaEbofjyyp2GNZtBV8LBODSgY4cie17NK0v3usSOgsqK_0IiXBn_KIMDWqD1uFcp-0CH-R1Bk1UxUgOtQzdLA_IM47wcoTb6wz1iDi8SkBJzJs5g/w480-h640/p26211471_v_v13_aa.jpg" width="480"></a></div><br> <p></p><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br></span></i></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Freud's Last
Session<br> </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">A new film misses the real Freud, the
real Lewis, the real Atheism, and the real Christianity </span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Freud's Last Session </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">was released on December 22, 2023, by
Sony Pictures Classics. The two-hour film depicts a fictional 1939 debate
between an 83-year-old Sigmund Freud and a 40-year-old C. S. Lewis, the Oxford literature
"don," or university teacher, who would go on to write the
bestselling children's book series, <i>The Chronicles of Narnia</i>. Sir
Anthony Hopkins stars as Freud. Matthew Goode plays Lewis. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Freud's Last Session </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">is not a bad film, but it's not a
particularly good one, either. And the film doesn't accurately represent either
Freud's atheism or Lewis' faith. The film depicts Freud as an intellectual
giant who positions science against faith. Lewis, in contrast, is reduced to
sputtering in the face of the great man. In real life, as opposed to reel life,
Freud's atheism rested, not on science, but on his own arrogance and
ethnocentric bigotry. In this, Freud is a perfect, if anachronistic, exemplar
of today's New Atheists.<span></span></span></p><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2024/02/freuds-last-session-new-film-misses.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-87617418023797198602024-01-25T16:28:00.000-08:002024-01-25T16:28:25.296-08:00Empire of God How the Byzantines Saved Civilization by Robert Spencer Book Review <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC1DMUihPMJnWYAAv5q-9d74QwPwXzxMiDTk6QWQmf-1Bnd5OQtYpq7DCEheE6JMZ1jx2SjXpdsV0A32GR1x1Ql5JI_RriWD9Rr9D-E7XFOGJnTInjgjL8mmxl7aRKoKeJ3uop2xSrw3sC66OpOd9BkSEhphUakp1nW0w4DPAqMToDJ2EhcsHB0RXYZGQ/s1500/81lC1jQCMhL._SL1500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1007" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC1DMUihPMJnWYAAv5q-9d74QwPwXzxMiDTk6QWQmf-1Bnd5OQtYpq7DCEheE6JMZ1jx2SjXpdsV0A32GR1x1Ql5JI_RriWD9Rr9D-E7XFOGJnTInjgjL8mmxl7aRKoKeJ3uop2xSrw3sC66OpOd9BkSEhphUakp1nW0w4DPAqMToDJ2EhcsHB0RXYZGQ/w269-h400/81lC1jQCMhL._SL1500_.jpg" width="269"></a></div><br><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Empire of
God: How the Byzantines Saved Civilization<br></span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Robert Spencer
invites the reader to a fascinating, forgotten world </span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Empire of
God</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> was published by
Bombardier Books in November, 2023. The book is 400 pages and includes
twenty-one pages of black-and-white illustrations. There are extensive
footnotes but unfortunately no index. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Spencer is
fully deserving of a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Those who tell the truth
about Islam risk their lives. Witness the fates of Theo Van Gogh, Salman
Rushdie, Samuel Paty, Molly Norris, Hitoshi Igarashi, and a <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11830621/Teacher-suspended-showing-pupils-cartoon-Prophet-Mohammed-hiding.html"><span style="color: windowtext;">former teacher</span></a> at Batley Grammar School. We
are not allowed to know this teacher's name. Muslims forced him to run for his
life and disappear. His erasure, we shall learn, has happened not just to
individuals, but to entire civilizations. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Even Pope
Benedict XVI felt it necessary to back-pedal after, in a university lecture,
merely quoting Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos. In 1391 this emperor
observed, "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you
will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the
sword the faith he preached." After the papal lecture, Muslims attacked
churches in Israel, Gaza, and Iraq. In Somalia, Muslims murdered Sister
Leonella Sgorbati, who worked at a children's hospital. In Iraq, they beheaded
Father Ameer Iskander, a priest. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">In spite of
Islam's suppression of free speech, free inquiry, and the human conscience,
Spencer goes where others dare not go. If I were queen, I would offer a tax
benefit to any citizen who mastered three essential Spencer books: <a href="https://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-critical-quran-explained-from-key.html"><i><span style="color: windowtext;">The Critical Qur'an</span></i></a><i>, </i><a href="https://www.frontpagemag.com/history-jihad-muhammad-isis-danusha-v-goska/"><i><span style="color: windowtext;">The History of Jihad</span></i></a><i>, </i>and <a href="https://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2021/09/did-muhammad-exist-nah.html"><i><span style="color: windowtext;">Did Muhammad Exist?</span></i></a><i> </i>I'm not
queen, but everyone – Muslims most of all – should read these books. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Nowadays,
unsupported claims of "genocide" are tossed around as propaganda
tools and exchange goods. <i>Empire of God, </i>draws attention to an actual
biological and cultural genocide: the religiously-mandated Islamic erasure of
the Byzantine Empire, its faith, its language, its awe-inspiring monuments, and
its people.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Spencer was
baptized as a Melkite Greek Catholic. "Melkite Greek Catholics," he
explains, "are an Eastern church very similar to the orthodox churches but
in communion with Rome …<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>my family is
from what is now Turkey … My grandparents shortly after World War I were
offered the choice of conversion to Islam or exile from the land where they had
lived for many hundreds of years … they came to the United States … Their
experiences involved some violence and some killings of some of the family
members … [But] they spoke in a uniformly positive fashion about life over
there and made me become quite fascinated with it such that I took the first
opportunity I could when I went to college to read the Koran and to begin
studying Islamic theology and history."<span></span></span></p><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2024/01/empire-of-god-how-byzantines-saved.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-8955199822518409582024-01-18T19:50:00.000-08:002024-01-18T19:51:03.613-08:00Is God Real? By Lee Strobel. Book Review. <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNofy5LQeX8fB5vgrawvrmFwSixtPDg5aQU4N4KFve2JrWzo2G7Buh02v5iS7qlUnjpTY61qwIXRIKTCfji_KMuqGRrnM-WqwdWZqtTqBtuQ_hijtAnx2vmTH3z_SB-qCV5s4kEFHW0fmwjFAe1O_AuoPZhb0_s5hKhEeNaz-INkFroxGWX-eDbTOna7o/s592/Capture.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="592" data-original-width="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNofy5LQeX8fB5vgrawvrmFwSixtPDg5aQU4N4KFve2JrWzo2G7Buh02v5iS7qlUnjpTY61qwIXRIKTCfji_KMuqGRrnM-WqwdWZqtTqBtuQ_hijtAnx2vmTH3z_SB-qCV5s4kEFHW0fmwjFAe1O_AuoPZhb0_s5hKhEeNaz-INkFroxGWX-eDbTOna7o/s16000/Capture.PNG"></span></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br> <i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif">Is God Real?
Exploring the Ultimate Question of Life </span></i><span face="Arial, sans-serif">by Lee Strobel</span></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-family: arial;">A bestselling
author's new book offers a tantalizing taste of reasonable support for belief
in the divine. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif">Is God Real?
Exploring the Ultimate Question of Life </span></i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif">was published by Zondervan in October, 2023. The book has
256 pages, inclusive of twenty-seven pages of notes, fourteen pages of study
questions, and an eight-page bibliography. Author Lee Strobel holds a BA from
the University of Missouri and a Master of Studies in Law from Yale. Strobel
was an investigative journalist for fourteen years. He won a public service
award for his coverage of the Ford Pinto crash trial. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-family: arial;">About forty
years ago, Strobel's life dramatically changed direction. His wife converted to
Christianity. Strobel was an atheist and he did not approve of his wife's new
path. He determined to use his investigative skills to prove Christianity
wrong. Instead, he discovered that there is evidence to support Christianity.
At age 29 he converted, left journalism, and became an apologetics author.
Several of Strobel's forty-plus books are best-sellers. In total, his
publications have sold fourteen million copies.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-family: arial;">It's easy to
see why Strobel's books sell so well. His writing is smooth and easy to read.
Though Strobel's work could be understood by the average reader, he tackles
life's big questions. In a typical Strobel book, he provides a brief sketch of
his own reasons for wanting to explore a given spiritual quandary. He then
travels to a university campus to present his confusion and curiosity to a
world-class expert. Strobel interrogates these men who have devoted their lives
to the material he is researching. Strobel, ever the investigative journalist,
asks the kind of questions we would ask if we were in those elite settings.
Strobel records these conversations in question-and-answer format. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-family: arial;">In books like <i>The
Case for Christ, The Case for a Creator, The Case for Faith,</i> and <i>The
Case for Heaven, </i>Strobel includes extensive bibliographies that direct the
reader to further resources. For example, in <i>Is God Real? </i>Strobel's
bibliography directs the reader not just to popular publications of Christian
presses like Zondervan, but also to hefty tomes published by scholarly and
secular houses like Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press,
Cornell University Press, Michigan State University Press, and HarperOne.<span></span></span></p><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2024/01/is-god-real-by-lee-strobel-book-review.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-50175815923024859442024-01-08T05:53:00.000-08:002024-01-08T05:53:46.021-08:00Anyone But You 2023 Movie Review <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk83R7a_HX3Oz1m3CavPv0w68uXWfRtHKoGDnNXTvQoKYJhIZs19l5Q2lMgg3huRaMdSTGolUDyWppqCi5g1XiWxuzLWqElQagX6VZDgl2y2N0eavGuDHOIknNYvvhTRvvLdkNi30kPyvKsDgvbwvM46-fJk2RgLND51LxFs2C201ArRbwqNJK5dvU_SA/s674/Capturekkk.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="674" data-original-width="563" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk83R7a_HX3Oz1m3CavPv0w68uXWfRtHKoGDnNXTvQoKYJhIZs19l5Q2lMgg3huRaMdSTGolUDyWppqCi5g1XiWxuzLWqElQagX6VZDgl2y2N0eavGuDHOIknNYvvhTRvvLdkNi30kPyvKsDgvbwvM46-fJk2RgLND51LxFs2C201ArRbwqNJK5dvU_SA/w534-h640/Capturekkk.PNG" width="534" /></a></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">"Anyone
but You" has gotten bad reviews. I hesitated to see it, but see it I did,
and I'm glad I did. I loved it. I laughed out loud throughout the film. I was
touched by the central relationship. I enjoyed the Australian scenery and the
light and breezy tone of the film. The leads are gorgeous and they scamper
about in minimal, or no, clothing.<br /> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Even so, there's very little sex and you
could watch this movie with a mother or a daughter. Glen Powell radiates
bemused charm. Subtle quotes and a few comic bits scattered throughout the film
allude to Shakespeare's "Much Ado about Nothing."<br /> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The whole cast seems to be having a good
time. Dermot Mulroney, as the father of the bride, is very funny in his intense
commitment. GaTa and Bryan Brown are adorable as heavy handed and all too
obvious plotters. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">"Anyone but You" begins with a
very believable dilemma. Bea (Sydney Sweeney) needs to use a bathroom in a
coffee shop. Ben (Glen Powell) rescues her by pretending that they are
together, so she can occupy his place at the front of the line, and gain quick access
to the bathroom key. They click and spend the night together, but it's purely
platonic. A misunderstanding ensues, and they end up hating each other. They
are invited to a destination wedding in Australia, and the other guests, just
like in "Much Ado about Nothing," conspire to get them together. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I cared about their relationship from
that opening scene. I laughed at the physical comedy and the hijinks. I was
touched by their easily bruised egos and fear of intimacy. There's a highly
unlikely scene where they fall into water and are rescued, and Bea soothes Ben
by singing a song she knows he likes. Bea's tender care for Ben touched me. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Romantic comedy / travelogue films like
this are not supposed to be realistic except in the broadest sense. We all fear
intimacy when we sense that we are vulnerable to someone who is not as taken
with us as we are with them. We all have to feel our way and take risks to find
the right person. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Is the movie realistic in that we have perfect
bodies like this movie's stars? Or live in super slick apartments and do
morning ab crunches on spotless Australian beaches? No. That part is pure
escapist entertainment, and I loved it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">What could have been better? Ben is a
great guy, and the plot gives Bea ample reasons to fall in love with him. Bea
is a bit more complicated. She comes across, in Sydney Sweeney's performance,
as depressed and lost. Sweeney, as Bea, doesn't smile much and she doesn't have
a north star. She doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. If these two
get together, this viewer worried that Ben would have to devote his life to
cheering Bea up. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Bea's mother was a meddling PITA and I
wished the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>movie had delivered a pie in
her face, or something. Claudia and Halley, the couple whose destination
wedding Bea and Ben attend, are undeveloped and uninteresting. The movie's
ending is forced and overdone. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Maybe this film deserves more of a seven
out of ten stars than eight out of ten stars, but it was just what I needed on
a dark winter's day, so I'm giving it eight, and also to make up for the
totally mean-spirted negative reviews from Grinches who can't appreciate the
light hearted fun, charm, and physical beauty "Anyone but You" serves
up in ample supply.</span></p><p></p>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-1834507644567580792024-01-08T05:46:00.000-08:002024-01-08T05:46:00.626-08:00American Fiction 2023 Movie Review <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIAsZwyk3Nu7H6SGcaMD0DAHnEQAcBuoJ_mFpHGJo8HVWEETK18VNaXRQRHZtRr1njcRR3X8j15_FaVvVFmru8zRs4AxNYKNq2PD9cnBQCXiMHtrHZNnVZP5AKiIGPlMDNs3JWEYrUuzTWXQlOriFWesRsz91DqTQ94gdVY31YrFcj1u66FfCS59NSCwk/s660/Capturerrr.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="660" data-original-width="465" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIAsZwyk3Nu7H6SGcaMD0DAHnEQAcBuoJ_mFpHGJo8HVWEETK18VNaXRQRHZtRr1njcRR3X8j15_FaVvVFmru8zRs4AxNYKNq2PD9cnBQCXiMHtrHZNnVZP5AKiIGPlMDNs3JWEYrUuzTWXQlOriFWesRsz91DqTQ94gdVY31YrFcj1u66FfCS59NSCwk/w450-h640/Capturerrr.PNG" width="450"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">American
Fiction </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">2023<br><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> <br></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">A new film indicts white powerbrokers'
exploitation of black literature </span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">American Fiction </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">is a comedy-drama film. It premiered in
September, 2023, at the Toronto International Film Festival where it won the
People's Choice Award. <i>American Fiction</i> opened wide on December 22,
2023. It<i> </i>stars Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae, Sterling K.
Brown, and Leslie Uggams. Wright is Thelonious "Monk" Ellison, a
novelist and college professor; the other characters are his family and
colleagues. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">American Fiction </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">is directed by Cord Jefferson. Jefferson
is a former journalist. He moved on to writing for TV, including for <i>The
Good Place. </i>He is the recipient of an Emmy for writing, and an NAACP Image
Award. <i>American Fiction </i>is his directorial debut. Cord Jefferson also
wrote the screenplay for <i>American Fiction.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> </span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Professor Thelonious "Monk"
Ellison's novels are literary works that aspire to universal themes – that is,
Monk intends his books to be appreciated by any reader, of any ethnicity. Monk
reworks ancient Greek mythology into modern tales. Monk's novels are not
selling well, so he pens what he thinks the market wants from a black author,
that is a book titled <i>My Pafology, </i>a fake memoir that depicts the
criminal career of Stagg R. Leigh, a killer and fugitive from justice. Comically
stupid and venal white publishers, literary judges, and filmmakers embrace <i>My
Pafology</i>. This is because, as one black character says, "White people
think they want the truth, but they don't. They just want to feel
absolved."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Paula Baderman (Miriam Shor), a shallow,
flaky, but shrewdly acquisitive white publishing executive at a prestigious
publishing house, offers Monk a $700,000 advance for <i>My Pafology</i>. Her
colleague, John Bosco (Michael Cyril Creighton), also white, is a stereotypical
effeminate gay man. He quivers with childish delight over <i>My Pafology. </i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">White judges determining the next winner
of a prestigious literary award tap <i>My Pafology. </i>White author Jon Daniel
Sigmarsen (Bates Wilder) is a rough-hewn, blue-collar, salt-of-the-earth type
and he appreciates the "realness" of <i>My Pafology. </i>Wiley (Adam
Brody), a young white filmmaker, is busy with his latest project, <i>Plantation
Annihilation</i>. In this film, a white couple (the male will be played by Ryan
Reynolds) moves to a Southern Plantation, where they are murdered by the
vengeful ghosts of slaves. Wiley meets with Monk. He embraces Monk – whom he
believes to be the criminal Stagg R. Leigh – in a mock black-hoodlum-style hug.
Wiley salivates over what he imagines to be the details of Monk's criminal
career. Wiley assumes that Monk is on the run for committing a murder. An
ambulance stops outside the restaurant where they are meeting and Monk, worried
about the health of a family member, runs out of the restaurant. Wiley is
delighted, because he assumes that Stagg R. Leigh, the hoodlum on the run, left
the restaurant because he heard what he thought was a police siren. <i>My
Pafology's</i> success proves that white powerbrokers in publishing and
entertainment are all racists who oppress black people by choosing to promote
novels and films that depict black people as urban criminals who speak
non-Standard English and have non-traditional names.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">American Fiction </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">is based on <i>Erasure, </i>a 2001 novel
by Percival Everett. Everett is an award-winning writer and Distinguished
Professor of English at the University of Southern California. Like Monk, the
main character of <i>American Fiction, </i>Everett has reworked ancient Greek
myths into his novels. Everett's novels focus on race. For example, <i>I Am Not
Sidney Poitier </i>depicts the race-related misfortunes of a character who is literally
named "Not Sidney Poitier."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Prof. Everett has accumulated some
interesting online reviews on his teaching from his former students including
the following. "We did not have any assignments other than a journal which
was turned in at the end of the year. Every class consisted of him saying hello
and then turning on a western movie … ordered pizza for us for quite a few
times during class … Take this class if you want an easy A (very close to zero
responsibilities all semester.) Really, he wants to be friends with you … He took all of us to brunch once instead of
having class. I mean, movies during class, no homework, no paper, no
exams."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">American Fiction </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">has received rhapsodic reviews from
professional reviewers and fans alike. On January 1, 2024, <i>American Fiction </i>has
a 92% professional reviewer score and a 96% audience score at <i>Rotten
Tomatoes</i>. <i>Salon's </i>D. Watkins writes, "This brilliant film not
only destroys the single Black narrative, it obliterates it – and puts pressure
on every single film dealing with race that will come after." Jonathan W.
Gray at <i>The New Republic </i>says "An unflinching and seriously funny
examination of how the alchemy of race operates throughout the USA's culture
industry." Peter Travers at ABC News insists, "Cord Jefferson’s
slashingly funny satire of Black literary stereotyping is one of the best and
boldest American comedies in years with a dynamite performance by an
Oscar-ready Jeffrey Wright. You won't look at race on screen in the same way
again." The <i>Washington Post's </i>Ann Hornaday named <i>American
Fiction </i>the year's best film. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Fan reviews at the Internet Movie
Database are similarly enthusiastic, but even fans who award <i>American
Fiction </i>high scores introduce a note of disappointment. One review that
awards the film 8 out of 10 stars says, "<i>American Fiction</i> has a
great premise … But it somehow didn't completely land for me … it was the
domestic drama part of the film that didn't completely work for me. The movie
spends a lot of time on all the ways that Jeffrey Wright feels overwhelmed by
his life's responsibilities, and it sags in some of these parts, and makes the
movie feel a little bit like a slog. And I don't know that I ever completely
believed the character played by Sterling K. Brown." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I saw the trailer for <i>American
Fiction </i>about a month ago and I immediately knew I had to see the film. In
the trailer, Jeffrey Wright, in suit and tie, enters an elegant meeting room.
Onstage the beautiful Issa Rae, playing novelist Sintara Golden, is being
interviewed by a worshipful white woman. The white interviewer asks Golden how
she came to write her bestseller, <i>We's Lives In Da Ghetto. </i>Golden
replies in perfect Standard English. "Too few books were about my people.
Where are our stories? Where's our representation?" As Golden speaks,
audience members nod heavily. The worshipful white interviewer begs,
"Would you give us the pleasure of reading an excerpt?" <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Golden reads, switching from Standard
English to Ebonics. "'Yo, Sheronda. Girl you be pregnant again?' 'If I is,
Ray Ray is gonna be a real father this time.'" <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The awe-struck audience rises for a
standing ovation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Given this trailer, I thought that <i>American
Fiction </i>would be a fearless satire of the marketing of urban underclass
lifestyles and values. I thought it would be funny. I thought it would take
risks. I thought it would be a challenge for both black and white audiences to
watch. I thought it would be something really new. I was disappointed on all
counts. <i>American Fiction </i>is one of those movies about which one can
truly say that if you've seen the trailer, you've seen the best parts of the
movie. Had I not intended to write a review, I would have walked out of <i>American
Fiction. American Fiction </i>is, to this viewer, inept, cowardly, and shallow.
It committed the cardinal sin of any artwork. It bored me.<span></span></span></p><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2024/01/american-fiction-2023-movie-review.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-28269548105494184882023-12-21T12:51:00.000-08:002023-12-21T12:51:06.808-08:00A Polish Politician Extinguishes a Hanukkah Menorah. What do you do when the worst stereotypes seem to be true?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLKNEbA8lBfwryrAsWAPcLPxIE77ntfuGmtFsmapu5UMJAosOTlhEHO1i2g5U6T5uk9sqI3lw3i4OMV-oOWgJ5Wn28ZBqLiqY7NAW2u2LMwy7uubOTIjydc_7SqG4-1ma_xcn2jrqMSZ4wVMfLuolUOFYnX0-O6653hMfseByV3K-A-0sSnu0oVzFhuxU/s880/410235379_10228150658664987_343761607243866326_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="880" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLKNEbA8lBfwryrAsWAPcLPxIE77ntfuGmtFsmapu5UMJAosOTlhEHO1i2g5U6T5uk9sqI3lw3i4OMV-oOWgJ5Wn28ZBqLiqY7NAW2u2LMwy7uubOTIjydc_7SqG4-1ma_xcn2jrqMSZ4wVMfLuolUOFYnX0-O6653hMfseByV3K-A-0sSnu0oVzFhuxU/w640-h400/410235379_10228150658664987_343761607243866326_n.jpg" width="640"></a></div><br><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">A Polish
Politician Extinguishes a Hanukkah Menorah<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">What do you do when the worst
stereotypes seem to be true? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Grzegorz Michal Braun is a 56-year-old
Polish parliamentarian. On Tuesday, December 12, 2023, <a href="https://twitter.com/sebastiantvn24/status/1734603768451444741"><span style="color: windowtext;">Braun used a fire extinguisher</span></a> to snuff out
the candles on a Hanukkah menorah erected in the Polish Parliament, the Sejm
(pronounced "Same<i>"</i>). Warsaw Rabbi Shalom Stambler and Deputy
Speaker of Parliament Piotr Zgorzelski had lighted the candles. The rabbi was
accompanied by two of his children, ages 7 and 11. Chabad Rabbi Stambler has
been lighting Hanukkah candles in the Sejm for the past seventeen years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">A Jewish woman, Dr. Magdalena
Gudzinska-Adamczyk, physically confronted Braun and attempted to stop him. He
sprayed her in her face and she required medical attention. She displayed
courage in spite of being a petite woman, smaller than Braun (photo <a href="https://bieganski-the-blog.blogspot.com/2023/12/we-salute-courage-of-dr-magdalena.html"><span style="color: windowtext;">here</span></a>). She <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/12/europe/poland-lawmaker-extinguishes-hanukkah-candles-parliament-intl/index.html"><span style="color: windowtext;">later said</span></a>, "I have stopped feeling
safe in this country." Dr. Gudzinska-Adamczyk also <a href="https://www.oursundayvisitor.com/cardinal-ashamed-after-lawmaker-puts-out-hanukkah-candles-in-polands-parliament/"><span style="color: windowtext;">said</span></a>, "This is my religious symbol, I
have the right to defend it, because we live in a free, democratic country. And
no one has the right to direct a powder extinguisher in my face because I am
defending my religious symbol." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Attempting to justify his crime
immediately afterward, Braun <a href="https://tvpworld.com/74763431/grzegorz-braun-a-useful-idiot-of-the-kremlin-or-just-an-idiot"><span style="color: windowtext;">said</span></a>, "Those who take part in acts of
satanic worship should be ashamed … There can be no place for the acts of this
racist, tribal, wild Talmudic cult on the premises of the Sejm … You are not
aware of the message of this act innocently called Hanukkah … I am restoring a
state of normality by putting an end to acts of satanic, racist triumphalism
because that is the message of these holidays." His statement was booed by
other parliamentarians. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Braun's antisemitic vandalism was
immediately and widely condemned, including by members of his own party. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">"All decent people think exactly
the same thing, this is an unacceptable thing, this must never happen again.
This is a disgrace," said Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who assumed office
on December 13, 2023. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Poland's Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich
told <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/far-right-polish-lawmaker-uses-fire-extinguisher-hanukkah-candles-parliament-2023-12-12/"><span style="color: windowtext;">Reuters</span></a> by telephone that Braun's actions
were not representative of Poland and that he was "embarrassed" by
them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">"I declare that I am ashamed and
apologize to the entire Jewish community in Poland," said Cardinal
Grzegorz Rys. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Mariusz Blaszczak is chairman of the <i>Prawo
i Sprawiedliwosc</i>, or Law and Justice Party Parliamentary club. Law and
Justice is a right-wing party; it recently lost its parliamentary majority.
Blaszczak <a href="https://www.pap.pl/en/news/deputy-speaker-should-quit-if-mp-not-expelled-menorah-attack-says-pis-mp"><span style="color: windowtext;">said</span></a> that "Braun should be expelled
from Confederation," that is, Braun's own party should expel him. "If
he is not expelled, it will mean Krzysztof Bosak [the head of Braun's party]
stands by him, and he [Bosak] should step down as deputy speaker of the Sejm …
There is no justification for the attack because it was an attack on Poland …
It is an attack conducted by a man who is either completely irresponsible or
someone who acts to the detriment of our country." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Piotr Glinski, former Deputy Prime
Minister and current Sejm member also <a href="https://wiadomosci.wp.pl/przekraczamy-straszne-granice-glinski-komentuje-skandaliczne-zachowania-brauna-6973021211380352a"><span style="color: windowtext;">spoke</span></a> on behalf of Law and Justice. "I
am turning to the Confederation community," he said, addressing Braun's
party. "We are crossing a terrible line in politics … This is aggression
not only on religious grounds, but also on interpersonal grounds. There were
little children there. This is not to be defended and not to be spun."<span></span></span></p><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-polish-politician-extinguishes.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-30847065790544956252023-12-14T05:43:00.000-08:002023-12-14T17:55:30.347-08:00Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock's Gender Service for Children: Hannah Barnes' new book demolishes trans extremism<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfDIbvxb8q6rVWYk-X2uU6K9SFvHU7JgyMXAPn4wD4EKLZBjbSG-f4tl6-VQzDp9rvtf5XEx9VAsLs91t5QwnEVvL2N4_riWGZ_lNRKmlmNwjuFpY3QtL-Rok_ymaXTwSGNodUC-Q99M4bywouT52TyNsY20EuXENQ1IHEq0GxrSJMsW3MxWEXCfdOkZo/s500/9781800753396-us.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="326" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfDIbvxb8q6rVWYk-X2uU6K9SFvHU7JgyMXAPn4wD4EKLZBjbSG-f4tl6-VQzDp9rvtf5XEx9VAsLs91t5QwnEVvL2N4_riWGZ_lNRKmlmNwjuFpY3QtL-Rok_ymaXTwSGNodUC-Q99M4bywouT52TyNsY20EuXENQ1IHEq0GxrSJMsW3MxWEXCfdOkZo/w418-h640/9781800753396-us.jpg" width="418"></a></div><br><p></p><p><br></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Time to
Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock's Gender Service for
Children<br></span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Hannah Barnes' new book demolishes trans
extremism</span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Swift Press describes itself as an "independent
press." In February, 2023, three-year-old Swift Press published <i>Time to
Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock's Gender Service for
Children. </i>Author Hannah Barnes is, according to her online bio, "an
award-winning journalist at the BBC's flagship current affairs program <i>Newsnight</i>
… Hannah has specialized in investigative and analytical journalism." My
review copy of <i>Time to Think </i>is 445 pages long, inclusive of 59 pages of
notes and an eight-page index.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Before Swift Press accepted <i>Time to
Think</i>, it had been rejected by twenty-two publishers. <a href="https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2023/03/02/surprise-tavistock-expose-had-difficulty-finding-a-publisher/"><span style="color: windowtext;">Some publishers</span></a> praised Barnes' proposal as
an important story that needed to be told, but not by them, because the
transing of children was a "sensitive" and "controversial"
topic and if they published the book they would face backlash. Barnes says that
"Swift did not require my manuscript to be scrutinized by sensitivity
readers, nor did they ask me to change a word."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Thank the Lord for Swift Press.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I have never read another book that so
thoroughly smashes to smithereens a powerful ideology. Those who understand
trans extremism as a fad and social contagion await an event called "peak
trans." Peak trans is that tipping point when trans extremism reaches its
greatest power, after which it begins to diminish. <i>Time to Think </i>will
contribute to peak trans. No rational person can read this book and not think
twice about the transing of children. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Barnes is not anti-trans. She uses
chosen pronouns and supports transing for some children. In interviews, she
places distance between herself and "right-wingers" who want to, as
one interviewer put it, "kill all trans people." Barnes includes
brief accounts of some former GIDS patients who are happy with transitioning. Barnes
presents without criticism speakers' reasons for insisting that they are the
sex opposite to their own. Males are "really" female because they
wear fingernail polish and high-heeled shoes, or because they dance ballet and
hate sports. Females are "really" male because they prefer rough and
tumble sports to Barbie dolls, or because they were interested in computers. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Barnes is not an ideologue. In
interviews, she is a soft-spoken woman in unglamorous attire. She speaks slowly
and hesitantly and often stutters as she appears to be searching for the least
controversial way to state an astounding fact. Barnes looks a lot like that
girl in high school science class who wore no make-up and paid a lot more
fascinated attention than anyone else to the anatomy of the dissected frog.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Time to Think</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> could have been written by a robot.
That's not an insult. <i>Time to Think </i>is dispassionate. It has all the literary
style of a workplace report in a three-ring binder; there's no tugging at
heartstrings, and no real narrative drive. There is just a series of facts. In
spite of Barnes' clinical approach, a roomful of readers would not be silent;
rather, the room would resound with the sound of gasps, hands slapping
foreheads, and outraged cries of, "<i>How could they</i>?"<span></span></span></p><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2023/12/time-to-think-inside-story-of-collapse.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-70141292037841493852023-12-07T12:46:00.000-08:002023-12-07T17:33:11.853-08:00Israel and Hamas: For the Shocked and Confused <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrNDWQYwvm7VzzjgrqPzcMkyIkah_MJ_OJ50PB3AwRnUbg5__Ttaz5sOF0-bk24JbFEjSmMTlHvBhxjWZk8H3EK9QyZz9Jal_mAEsoYr8ZGx21X3eeg-K379qBk8k-R6k8AyJpbzgByvYTOlur1eDnttXbxTTCXHsOdnFUUw96ZTlykDp-YDynisdTEsU/s1357/Screenshot%202023-12-07%20154511.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="878" data-original-width="1357" height="414" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrNDWQYwvm7VzzjgrqPzcMkyIkah_MJ_OJ50PB3AwRnUbg5__Ttaz5sOF0-bk24JbFEjSmMTlHvBhxjWZk8H3EK9QyZz9Jal_mAEsoYr8ZGx21X3eeg-K379qBk8k-R6k8AyJpbzgByvYTOlur1eDnttXbxTTCXHsOdnFUUw96ZTlykDp-YDynisdTEsU/w640-h414/Screenshot%202023-12-07%20154511.png" width="640"></a></div><br><p></p><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Hamas' October
7 attack on Israel: a primer <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Some friends on social media remain
unclear about the following. What did Hamas do in Israel on October 7? Why have
so many around the world responded with anti-Semitism? Let's take these
questions one at a time. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">What did Hamas do in Israel on October
7? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and
murdered, tortured, and kidnapped defenseless Israeli men, women, and children,
ordinary civilians doing ordinary things like eating breakfast.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The extensive evidence of Hamas'
atrocities includes the corpses of a father and child tied together with wire
and then <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/tied-up-burnt-alive-israels-forensic-teams-study-bodies-after-hamas-carnage-4487713">burned
alive</a>, and <a href="https://www.the-express.com/news/world-news/115766/hamas-israel-war-bodies-children-tied-together-gaza">twenty
children tied together</a> and burned; bodies with hacked off limbs and gauged
out eyes; and bodies bespeaking gang rape so severe that victims' <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/israeli-official-hamas-raped-women-grandmothers-children-so-violently-they-broke-victims-pelvis">leg
and pelvic bones were broken</a>. First responder <a href="https://twitter.com/BenjaminSales/status/1719531771736252566">Asher
Moskowitz</a> found a baby that Hamas had cooked to death in an oven. The oven's
heating element was still attached to the corpse. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Captured terrorists offered full confessions.
One <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/foxs-yingst-hamas-terrorist-told-israeli-interrogators-too-graphic">said</a>,
"We became animals. We did things that humans do not do." <a href="https://twitter.com/AdamMilstein/status/1716519449275015459">One
confessed</a> that the corpses of young women were raped. Stephen D. Smith <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/international/4307298-i-watched-the-footage-of-the-oct-7-attack-in-gaza-this-isnt-war-this-is-genocide/">reports
that</a> there was "an instruction to bring back the dead body of an IDF
soldier and posthumously crucify him."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Hamas made and shared, via social media,
videos. They <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/10/10/grandmother-remembered-facebook-killed-hamas-israel-tapper-intv-vpx.cnn">videorecorded
the murder of a helpless grandmother</a>, and posted the video on her Facebook
page, so that her loved ones would watch. A child hostage was forced to watch
Hamas videos. If the child cried, Hamas members pressed a gun to the child. In
videos, terrorists shoot household pets dead.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Ben Shapiro posted <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-b5ZOEcLOM">a compilation</a>. A YouTube
poster responded. "As a US Iraq war Vet I started to watch this episode
and stopped … I've seen a lot, done a lot but I caved … Tears streamed down my
face as I watched without stopping, without looking away, gritting my teeth ...
If I could return to the battlefield and join your brothers and sisters and do
what I could to avenge/protect/free those that are captured I would in a
heartbeat … I salute Israel … I bow my head in prayer multiple times throughout
the day that this evil will end."<span></span></span></p></div><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2023/12/israel-and-hamas-for-shocked-and.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-25161933096700313782023-11-30T05:57:00.000-08:002023-12-01T03:37:56.593-08:00Rustin 2023 Movie Review <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyVe5tIIEAIAKGVwQT04ocA9cgebLSVahDawqlU6nUZTXZ9tbgiG9E1lT43jZev2pGqQti5xJrXhxWCoDf8OCxG6ZUTdAlYoqIm4M5AwSaRAI4EHMdR3IlqxQ8arpmnNBEuar1w07Y9lVqwtMYW1Ix46KjS_ixkc5YOI-jrVNfZ7AQSkUycVVK_dztpfA/s2222/Rustin+5.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2222" data-original-width="1482" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyVe5tIIEAIAKGVwQT04ocA9cgebLSVahDawqlU6nUZTXZ9tbgiG9E1lT43jZev2pGqQti5xJrXhxWCoDf8OCxG6ZUTdAlYoqIm4M5AwSaRAI4EHMdR3IlqxQ8arpmnNBEuar1w07Y9lVqwtMYW1Ix46KjS_ixkc5YOI-jrVNfZ7AQSkUycVVK_dztpfA/w426-h640/Rustin+5.jpeg" width="426"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Rustin </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">2023<br></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">A new Netflix film draws attention to a
"lost prophet."</span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I didn't plan on watching Soviet
Communism die, but I did. The child of Polish and Slovak immigrants, I had
traveled to my ancestral homelands a few times before I left to study for a year,
1988-89. I didn't know in advance that I'd be attending meetings with Jacek
Kuron, the "godfather of the Polish opposition," or marching in the
street chanting "Soviets go home," or running from riot police and
being tear gassed and shot with water canons. On November 9, 1989, the Berlin
Wall fell. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I returned to the States. Before
shouting slogans at communism's riot police, I had previously been a Peace
Corps volunteer, a nurse's aide, a volunteer with the Sisters of Charity, an
inner city teacher, and a door-to-door canvasser. I'd had ample opportunity to
consider how one "saves the world," or to be less grandiose, how one
attempts to right wrongs. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I'd learn to distrust what I dubbed "virtue
celebrities." My rule: the more a person in our group became known for his
"compassion," the less reliable that person was in the trenches. You
can't predict in advance who the hero will be once you are in a foxhole.
Chances are it won't be the person whose face is Velcroed to reporters'
cameras. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">In the all-night strategy sessions
debating how to right wrongs, two moments stand out. The first moment occurred
one night in Nepal when we were sitting around the Momo Cave, a dingy
hole-in-the-wall where men drank <i>raksi, </i>a foul moonshine. A beautiful
young Peace Corps volunteer, accompanying herself on guitar, began singing a
song written by Donovan about Saint Francis of Assisi. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">"If you want your dream to be<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Take your time, go slowly<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Do few things but do them well<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Heartfelt work grows purely."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I thought, my God, that's it. We all
wanted to "save the world," to perform some grand gesture. We couldn't
bring clean water to every Nepali village, but we could teach one kid to read.
In Poland, we used to say, "Everybody wants to die for Poland, but who is
willing to live for Poland?" Who was willing to do the thankless,
anonymous, unglamorous day-to-day work? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The second moment occurred in a living
room in Bloomington, Indiana, when I found myself sitting face to face with
Lech Walesa. Walesa was the son of a man imprisoned and ultimately killed by
Nazis. Walesa was himself a former auto mechanic, shipyard electrician, TIME
man of the year, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Polish president. By the time I
met Walesa in 1998, the Soviet Union was an historical fossil and Poland was
doing better and better everyday. I asked Walesa how Poland had avoided the
traps so many other post-revolutionary populations had fallen into. He didn't
hesitate. He immediately and thoroughly credited Christianity for Poland's
revolutionary and post-revolutionary successes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <span></span></span></span></p></div><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2023/11/rustin-2023-movie-review.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-44462949981881417532023-11-16T09:31:00.000-08:002023-11-30T05:51:02.767-08:00Tough Crowd: How I Made and Lost a Career in Comedy by Graham Linehan. Book Review. <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHuFi3ll-se27XkG4U2vVt93NLzWzH2_axHewQ7sjkVfF8_pvf_p6Ce17apdYBYEOVSTefSTd19XStptPLr_tb_4RxV_1i6IUAEbpuhHi66sJMCdzF447awFqrcogiQqkE2GP46iXtHC91xBEYJ-z_ZnEcXceBiszJ9LBmrzEbgjePlqGRLGU2bK3KPqQ/s1810/64fed89b02a57f9aa0d962f2_Screenshot%202023-09-11%20at%2010.04.32.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1810" data-original-width="1211" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHuFi3ll-se27XkG4U2vVt93NLzWzH2_axHewQ7sjkVfF8_pvf_p6Ce17apdYBYEOVSTefSTd19XStptPLr_tb_4RxV_1i6IUAEbpuhHi66sJMCdzF447awFqrcogiQqkE2GP46iXtHC91xBEYJ-z_ZnEcXceBiszJ9LBmrzEbgjePlqGRLGU2bK3KPqQ/w428-h640/64fed89b02a57f9aa0d962f2_Screenshot%202023-09-11%20at%2010.04.32.png" width="428"></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br></span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Tough Crowd:
How I Made and Lost a Career in Comedy<br> </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Graham
Linehan's memoir is, by turns, horrific, informative, and a hero's journey </span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Graham Linehan
is 55-year-old Irish writer and director of sitcoms. He's the winner of five
BAFTA awards, that is awards from the British Academy of Film and Television
Arts. He has also won awards from the Writers' Guild of Great Britain and the
Irish Film and Television Academy. In recent years, Linehan has made public
statements disagreeing with trans extremism. For this, he has been canceled.
Friends and colleagues rejected and abandoned him. Work dried up. His marriage
ended. The LGBT website <i>Pink News, </i>he reports, has published 75 hit
pieces on him – they've published more since that tally. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">On October 31,
2023, Eye Books Limited released, in the US, Linehan's memoir, <i>Tough Crowd:
How I Made and Lost a Career in Comedy. </i>The book is 288 pages long. It
includes black-and-white photographs. Most of the book addresses Linehan's
comedy career and comedy and popular culture in general. Much of the book is a
meditation on the impact of the internet. The second half of the book addresses
Linehan's canceling and the extent of trans extremism in the UK. Irish identity
in the twenty-first century and Linehan's jaundiced view of Catholicism are
constant themes. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Linehan created
<i>The IT Crowd, </i>a British sitcom that ran 2006-2010, with a farewell
broadcast airing in 2013. In an episode entitled "The Speech," there
is a comedic fight between Douglas (Matt Berry) and April (Lucy Montgomery).
April – the character, not the actress who plays April – is a man who
identifies as a woman. Douglas becomes uncomfortable dating April, and he
breaks up with her. April is crushed to be rejected. At first she pleads in a
hyper-feminine way for Douglas to recognize her as a woman. Douglas, apparently
distraught and speaking in an exaggerated melodramatic style, insists that the
two must part. April changes from sad to enraged and punches Douglas in the
face. The two engage in highly choreographed, hand-to-hand combat typical of an
action movie. The setting enhances the comedy. They are duking it out in a
sterile laboratory as masked, white-coated workers look on. Eventually their
fight breaks through a wall and into the resolution of another subplot in this
episode. The combatants crash onto the stage where another character is
delivering a speech she's been anxious about. The scene is funny. It can be
viewed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biGgiBO0uPM"><span style="color: windowtext;">here</span></a>.<span></span></span></p><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2023/11/tough-crowd-how-i-made-and-lost-career.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-18330054199680458822023-11-09T17:49:00.001-08:002023-11-09T17:49:03.534-08:00How We Understand Anti-Semitism <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZNXbtBSJ0x4sQ3LARarhijWqQsmEZMgNOahbf3-mtIA128AObUaPq6GgJvOp5YIUsjPFSia7l-q5vFYiM4Jj0dUUYX6FiInbFkbxZVsUpxvac5SwcFTUu052P1ClWCJ0OiqXH5pTQwDlzvRDOz_iA17sJl8itx578rE6Rr70pc7DHt5Ea3mrinaM8fdI/s658/Alfred_Dehodencq_-_Execution_of_a_Jewess_in_Tangiers_c1861.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="658" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZNXbtBSJ0x4sQ3LARarhijWqQsmEZMgNOahbf3-mtIA128AObUaPq6GgJvOp5YIUsjPFSia7l-q5vFYiM4Jj0dUUYX6FiInbFkbxZVsUpxvac5SwcFTUu052P1ClWCJ0OiqXH5pTQwDlzvRDOz_iA17sJl8itx578rE6Rr70pc7DHt5Ea3mrinaM8fdI/w640-h448/Alfred_Dehodencq_-_Execution_of_a_Jewess_in_Tangiers_c1861.jpg" width="640"></a></div><br><p></p><p></p><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">How We
Understand Anti-Semitism, Christianity, and Islam<br> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Let's avoid popular misconceptions </span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The atrocities Hamas committed on
October 7, 2023, and subsequent worldwide support for the genocidal "judenrein-from-the-river-to-the-sea"
ideology revealed the prevalence of widespread anti-Semitism. Terrorism has a
worldwide reach. The Israel-Hamas war affects international markets and
geopolitics. Anyone on the planet, Jewish or not, might suffer from
anti-Semitism. It is important, therefore, to understand anti-Semitism.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">This essay rejects supernatural or
genetic explanations for anti-Semitism. Jews are not a different species of
human being. Humans are more alike than different. Children born black or
white, Muslim or Jewish, offer the same potential. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Both anti-Semites and philo-Semites
repeat the same formulaic phrases: "Jews are the most persecuted minority,"
and "Anti-Semitism is the world's oldest hatred." Anti-Semites like
these phrases. There must be something wrong with Jews, they insist, since Jews
are hated everywhere. My friend Alex, a philo-Semite, repeats these phrases as
well. He sees them as proof of a unique and romantic quality to Jewishness. The
pharaohs of ancient Egypt, the seventeenth-century Ukrainian leader Bogdan
Chmielnicki, and Hamas are all identical because they all killed Jews. I
disagree. The pharaohs, seventeenth-century Ukrainians, and Hamas are not magical
reincarnations of each other. They had different motivations, methods, and
goals. No supernatural thread connects them. To understand them, one must
understand their particular historical context, not presumed supernatural
curses. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Anti-Semitism isn't the world's oldest
hatred, nor is it the hatred with the highest body count. Misogyny has a longer
history and has claimed more victims. The <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/06/29/attitudes-about-caste/#:~:text=The%20caste%20system%20has%20existed,including%20whom%20they%20can%20marry."><span style="color: windowtext;">caste system</span></a> in India "has existed in
some form for at least 3000 years." Recent estimates are that there are
200 million Dalits, aka untouchables. The suffering Dalits have endured is
unspeakable. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Westerners, living in a world strongly
affected by Christendom, associate anti-Semitism with Christianity. The
standard approach is to blame Christianity, the religion, and to ignore
historical context. If discussing anti-Semitism among Muslims, the standard
position is to argue that historical context, rather than religion, caused the
anti-Semitism. This essay argues for a reverse of these approaches. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">These approaches distort reality. When
Christianity is understood as inherently anti-Semitic, Christians, even those
who support Israel, are assessed as inescapably anti-Semitic. Anthony Weiner is
a former congressman who currently broadcasts via WABC. In October, 2023, he
made a comment that shocked me. I requested clarification. Did he really say
that "Christians support Israel because they want all the Jews to be in
one spot so that God can kill them all more easily"? Weiner did not
respond with a yes or a no, but with a link to a <i>Washington Post</i> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/05/14/half-of-evangelicals-support-israel-because-they-believe-it-is-important-for-fulfilling-end-times-prophecy/"><span style="color: windowtext;">article</span></a>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">In the "Christianity is
anti-Semitic" worldview, Christians who are not anti-Semitic are
understood to be "modernized." In this view, the more Christian you
are, the more anti-Semitic you are, and the more "modern" or
"secular" you are, the less anti-Semitic you are. Data does not
support this assumption. In Russell Middleton's peer-reviewed publication,
"Do Christian Beliefs Cause anti-Semitism?" Middleton concluded that
"Religious orthodoxy was uncorrelated with anti-Semitism" and that
"the well-springs of anti-Semitism today" may be "largely
secular." A 2019 <a href="https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/247937/americans-views-israel-remain-tied-religious-beliefs.aspx"><span style="color: windowtext;">Gallup poll</span></a> suggested that those who attend
church regularly are more likely to be sympathetic to Israel. "Highly
religious Americans continue to be much more sympathetic toward Israel than
those who are less religious." Worldwide anti-Semitic protests in autumn,
2023, are not populated by visibly Christian protestors. Rather, these
protesters appear to be more Woke than Christian. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">This distortion of Christians and
Christianity matters. Some start from this false assumption and go on to apply
a distorted lens to Islam. That distorted conclusion goes like this,
"Christians were anti-Semitic when they were devout, but as they
modernized they became less anti-Semitic." We can't assume that anything
like this process will change the hearts and minds of Muslims.
"Modern" Muslims might turn out to be just as anti-Semitic as
"old-fashioned" Muslims. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">This essay will argue that to understand
anti-Semitism among Christians, one must factor in historical context. To
understand anti-Semitism among Muslims, more attention must be paid to
religion.<span></span></span></p><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2023/11/how-we-understand-anti-semitism.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-34936553250889402072023-11-02T17:08:00.003-07:002023-11-02T17:08:33.505-07:00Splinters from a Broken Heart: Israel, Hamas, and Social Media <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1zuiBUiJ16j7O1FKDli9ptu4Xqp4ZZSEPn0pyYzS35288MLEBFELNoRmwJodDkY6n__muUT79EAqUBHrAykia7aym5-0prvfUvoQjJ1ThnQD2MY4422560qIM2ezwyWsGCX4Axd2Xytgq-PUkAgR-2sEE5QFyOiJGOKPWxpHCH5l1vkwtZ3_Dphs1eaE/s930/shutterstock_2250989357-930x520-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="520" data-original-width="930" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1zuiBUiJ16j7O1FKDli9ptu4Xqp4ZZSEPn0pyYzS35288MLEBFELNoRmwJodDkY6n__muUT79EAqUBHrAykia7aym5-0prvfUvoQjJ1ThnQD2MY4422560qIM2ezwyWsGCX4Axd2Xytgq-PUkAgR-2sEE5QFyOiJGOKPWxpHCH5l1vkwtZ3_Dphs1eaE/w640-h358/shutterstock_2250989357-930x520-1.jpg" width="640"></a></div><br> <p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Splinters from
a Broken Heart<br> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Israel, Hamas,
and social media </span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Pieter Bruegel
the Elder was a sixteenth-century star in the Dutch and Flemish Renaissance.
He's most often associated with paintings of peasants and other common people
doing everyday things: hunting in the snow, ice-skating, dancing at a wedding,
eating, sleeping, and playing children's games. In one painting, a peasant is
doing what peasants have been doing for over ten thousand years. He is plowing.
The earth rises up in furrows. The horse trudges forward. The plowman keeps his
gaze directed at the ground beneath his feet. On a terrace beneath the plowman,
a blank-faced shepherd, surrounded by sheep, leans on his staff and directs his
gaze toward the sky. Further down, a fisherman casts out his line. In the
distance, the wind puffs the sails of a galleon. Only after learning the name
of the painting does the viewer search the scene beyond these prominent
features. And there the viewer finds them: two pale, naked legs are plunging
into the water. This is "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus." Icarus
was a character in Greek mythology. His father manufactured wings so his son
could fly. The wings gave way and Icarus fell to earth. Many other artists have
depicted Icarus' fall. They usually place him in the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Design-Toscano-Lament-Replica-Painting/dp/B007KDCKGM?th=1">center</a>.
Bruegel did not. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">In 1938, almost
four hundred years after "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus," poet
W.H. Auden visited Belgium's Royal Museums of Fine Arts. He wrote a poem about
the paintings he saw there. Auden observes that the Old Masters were never
wrong in their artistic depictions of human suffering. In Nativity scenes,
there are some children who don't much care about the birth of the Messiah;
they are off ice-skating. In scenes of martyrdom, "the dogs go on with
their doggy life and the torturer's horse scratches its innocent behind on a
tree." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">And then there
is that boy falling out of the sky. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.35pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">"the
ploughman may<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.35pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">have
heard the splash, the forsaken cry,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.35pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">but
for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.35pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">as
it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.35pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">water,
and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.35pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">something
amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 28.35pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">had
somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The human
ability to ignore shocking data and to carry on with the business of every day
life is an important survival skill. Perhaps nothing is as shocking to an
individual as losing a loved one to death, and yet we get up the next morning,
make breakfast, clock in at work, and march dully forward into a future void
where our departed loved one will never again play any part. The problem is, of
course, that evil people count on this human ability to stroll past atrocity.
The internet seemed, at first, to promise that that most precious of
commodities, human attention, would be focused on wrongdoing. Evil people, thus
exposed, would hesitate to commit crimes, or would stop committing crimes once
those crimes were filmed and witnessed by others.<span></span></span></p><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2023/11/splinters-from-broken-heart-israel.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-57413690037495301252023-10-25T12:44:00.001-07:002023-10-27T05:45:23.635-07:00"Fair Play" 2023 on Netflix <p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIFGJ6f95JEpwR4xLzlVZkT1YQoIUu18qaIfU57vz51Sn2Z1BLcBUw8OyYlFOXn8vibv1coC5qz5sNrBVSh64RC0PMbANImh2Bjy2rcY946nVxJ_uwn5cDR4zawo680cuTnHcFGhB7TWQiYMYYL7sHFze0Q5yiEMCArtVjDohr2HFpi7U9khclE1ud6Gc/s378/Fair_play_2023poster.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="378" data-original-width="255" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIFGJ6f95JEpwR4xLzlVZkT1YQoIUu18qaIfU57vz51Sn2Z1BLcBUw8OyYlFOXn8vibv1coC5qz5sNrBVSh64RC0PMbANImh2Bjy2rcY946nVxJ_uwn5cDR4zawo680cuTnHcFGhB7TWQiYMYYL7sHFze0Q5yiEMCArtVjDohr2HFpi7U9khclE1ud6Gc/w432-h640/Fair_play_2023poster.png" width="432"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="By Netflix - IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74558500" target="_blank">Source</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br></p><div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i>Fair Play </i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">on
Netflix Speaks Deep Truths about Men, Women, and Capitalism ...</span></div><div style="text-align: left;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">or
so says mainstream media</span></div><p></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Mainstream
media have touted </span></span><span style="color: black;"><i>Fair Play</i></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;">,
a 2023 Netflix selection,</span></span><span style="color: black;"><i> </i></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;">as
a cerebral new film by an emerging filmmaker who speaks important
truths about capitalism, relationships between men and women,
misogyny, and the state of American manhood. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><i>Fair Play</i></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;">
was directed and written by 36-year-old, Los Angeles native Chloe
Domont. Domont graduated from the Tisch School of the Arts at New
York University with a BFA in Film and Television. </span></span><span style="color: black;"><i>Fair
Play </i></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;">stars
28-year-old Phoebe Dynevor. Dynevor is a British actress who starred
in Netflix's </span></span><span style="color: black;"><i>Bridgerton,</i></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;">
a mixed-race, R-rated, bodice-ripper set in Regency England.</span></span><span style="color: black;"><i>
</i></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Co-star
Alden Ehrenreich is a 33-year-old American actor from Los Angeles.
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><i>Fair Play's</i></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;">
interior scenes were shot in Belgrade, Serbia. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;">I
watched</span></span><span style="color: black;"><i> Fair Play </i></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;">with
a real, live, American male who works in the corporate world. At the
end of the film, our metaphorical jaws were on the metaphorical
floor. "What the hell was that?" he asked. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;">"Another
straw in the wind indicating the decline of Western Civilization,"
I replied. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Warning:
this review will reveal the entire plot of </span></span><span style="color: black;"><i>Fair
Play, </i></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;">including
the ending.<span></span></span></span></span></p><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2023/10/fair-play-2023-on-netflix.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-28772474421865270892023-10-19T16:53:00.000-07:002023-10-20T03:54:11.944-07:00Killing the Witches: Book Review <p class="MsoNormal"><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyLT52QHWdSL7gqbQMcjBi4ZyMjjPk0llilxhtC_6PFGtXRE1OzRtZ2CrZVIe0arvZiEcO1VgpMggx1-ZP76wjx6txESwu1oXBjkyHfGMeBnbiy00UZRZOx-AF1Un5cAupY29lFKKz-e9p7A8tL7WqbZSFfKDUzY3NGRthtkKQiMXvkx6BmSDAGt1yh4I/s726/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="483" data-original-width="726" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyLT52QHWdSL7gqbQMcjBi4ZyMjjPk0llilxhtC_6PFGtXRE1OzRtZ2CrZVIe0arvZiEcO1VgpMggx1-ZP76wjx6txESwu1oXBjkyHfGMeBnbiy00UZRZOx-AF1Un5cAupY29lFKKz-e9p7A8tL7WqbZSFfKDUzY3NGRthtkKQiMXvkx6BmSDAGt1yh4I/s16000/Capture.PNG"></a></i></div><i><br></i><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Killing
the Witches: The Horror of Salem, Massachusetts </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">by Bill O'Reilly and Martin
Dugard<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">This
book is just about a perfect read<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">St.
Martin's Press released <i>Killing the Witches: The Horror of Salem,
Massachusetts </i>on September 26, 2023. The book is 291 pages long, inclusive
of an index. My copy has, strangely, no table of contents, and, unfortunately,
no bibliography or endnotes. <i>Killing the Witches</i> is the thirteenth book
in the "killing" series. The cover describes O'Reilly as the author
of eighteen #1 bestsellers. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I
never watched O'Reilly's Fox TV show. I'm a woman and a Catholic, and there are
controversies in his career that trouble me. I mention my own feelings here
because I want anyone who isn't an O'Reilly fan to know – I loved this book. It
was pretty close to a perfect read. I wish there were more books like it. If
you are at all interested in the Salem witch trials and their echoes, including
down to the twenty-first century, and you want a reader-friendly account, buy
the book right now. The rest of this review will encourage you to do just that.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Killing
the Witches: The Horror of Salem, Massachusetts </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">is a misleading title. The
first 144 pages directly address the Salem witch trials. Pages 145-231 address
colonial America, the Revolution, and the new United States, with a focus on
the biography of Ben Franklin. In this portion of the book, the authors discuss
how various Founding Fathers felt about the question of freedom of religion,
and how the legacy of the Salem witch trials influenced their worldview. Pages
232-263 recount the alleged 1949 demonic possession and exorcism of 13-year-old
Ronald Hunkeler of Cottage City, Maryland, and also William Peter Blatty's 1971
book <i>The Exorcist, </i>and the 1973 William Freidkin film of the same name.
A three-page "Author's Note" relates witch hunts to contemporary
cancel culture. A six-page "Afterword" describes Salem, the tourist
destination, today. A six-age "Postscript" describes the final days
of Ben Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Patrick
Henry, and John Adams. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">All
of this has been covered in other books. What makes <i>Killing </i>stand out?
The book's style. <i>Killing </i>could be read by an intelligent eighth grader.
The vocabulary is basic. There are no attempts at deathless eloquence. There is
no attempt to manipulate the facts to support some overarching pet theory.
There's minimal editorializing. The authors allow the facts to rattle, provoke,
and horrify the reader; the authors don't tell the reader how to feel or how to
interpret the facts. You could read this book on a train or in the smallest
room in the house. These are not put-downs; they are compliments.<span></span></span></p><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2023/10/killing-witches-book-review.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-60227288264035563442023-10-12T16:48:00.002-07:002023-10-12T16:48:17.831-07:00Understanding Hamas Atrocities and Hamas’ Glee in Sharing Videos of Those Atrocities<p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQFvjG4UZ789DLK-kgSZLsEZiwHgnWSCoDv-5XEJ6DzKMITG-or79ebrwsuShpp59V_-oq1YogISWrqLWdk4TPUpM1DWpM45HJL0YxMdXyUjDSCAiUDlKwZVHylFXc-9DT9Vnx7sQ8x95l0vmuOuZopCuQnlN83QhutSCnTQ8Qef3ibrAC8ZBFG1Ngwpw/s818/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="818" data-original-width="672" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQFvjG4UZ789DLK-kgSZLsEZiwHgnWSCoDv-5XEJ6DzKMITG-or79ebrwsuShpp59V_-oq1YogISWrqLWdk4TPUpM1DWpM45HJL0YxMdXyUjDSCAiUDlKwZVHylFXc-9DT9Vnx7sQ8x95l0vmuOuZopCuQnlN83QhutSCnTQ8Qef3ibrAC8ZBFG1Ngwpw/s320/Capture.PNG" width="263"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.wikiart.org/en/zdzislaw-beksinski/untitled-498" target="_blank">source</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br></p><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Understanding
Hamas Atrocities and Hamas’ Glee in Sharing Videos of Those Atrocities<br></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">A 2011 book by
the son of a Hamas co-founder offers unique insights</span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 10.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 10.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">On October 7,
2023, Hamas mounted a surprise attack against Israeli civilians. Hamas did not focus
on military sites. Hamas embarked on a grand guignol torture tour. Elderly
women, young women, babies, toddlers, men, the handicapped, a wheelchair-bound Holocaust
survivor, were stripped, raped, paraded, mutilated, decapitated, stepped on, spat
on, taunted, and burned alive. Bodies of the dead were dramatically desecrated.
Women were raped next to the corpses of their friends and then executed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 10.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 10.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Daily Wire's Ben
Shapiro compiled video and photographic records of these atrocities against defenseless
civilians. He was able to do so because the Hamas torturers were very proud of
their accomplishments, and they posted video on social media. <i>The Face of
Absolute Evil </i>can be viewed on YouTube <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-b5ZOEcLOM">here</a>. If YouTube removes
the video, you can see it at <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/">the Daily
Wire site</a> or at <a href="https://rumble.com/v3o3iwz-ep.-1824-the-face-of-absolute-evil.html">Rumble</a>.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 10.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 10.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Westerners
inculcated in the Judeo-Christian tradition were confused. They found all these
features confusing: Hamas war crimes, those crimes' extensive documentation by
Hamas criminals, and Hamas war criminals proudly sharing evidence of their
atrocities via the worldwide web. Hamas' audiences, around the world, cheered
these atrocities. They ululated, the sound Arab women make when celebrating.
They chanted "Allahu akbar," roughly translated as "Allah is
greater than other gods." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 10.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 10.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">All these
behaviors struck Western observers, not just as disgusting and evil, but also
as irrational and self-destructive. The entire October 7 attack defied logic.
Hamas knew it would not claim territory or achieve its stated goal, the "obliteration"
of Israel. Hamas knew that Israel would strike back, with American and international
support. Hamas knew that hundreds, if not thousands of Arab Muslims would
perish in Israeli counterstrikes. Hamas knew that it might be inviting a
nuclear war that would take the lives of millions of innocents, Muslim and non-Muslim
alike. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 10.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 10.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Social media
used the word "animals" to describe the Hamas attackers. In fact, of
course, Hamas attackers are human beings, and all the war crimes they committed
are acts that human beings commit. Non-human animals do not, typically, devote
their time to torturing their fellows, and then bragging to others about that
torture. Non-human animals have better things to do with their time.<span></span></span></p><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2023/10/understanding-hamas-atrocities-and.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-76789531514241714902023-10-08T06:39:00.000-07:002023-10-08T06:39:40.204-07:00May God Grant Israel a Rapid and Complete Victory, Security, and Peace <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB9GKLT9aWBm-lkaG6ifWuERkj7WGYgp0Z0JnHaDXp1KvjtfQT2rkAI9x4-gFo24q24czyeKUfW3_axH4JUTwDb2SUBg8kX_ycLNb7VI2ByFLAlD1kNJMO9oMgIWBuQPvTriWaJjlo8d9l8s3-Vo-3yTLYfbl1f6iN9y6xfgrnPmGrvFSJ_upJgWWdlJE/s1035/387734716_2046401339034285_8255474043406497642_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1035" data-original-width="1035" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB9GKLT9aWBm-lkaG6ifWuERkj7WGYgp0Z0JnHaDXp1KvjtfQT2rkAI9x4-gFo24q24czyeKUfW3_axH4JUTwDb2SUBg8kX_ycLNb7VI2ByFLAlD1kNJMO9oMgIWBuQPvTriWaJjlo8d9l8s3-Vo-3yTLYfbl1f6iN9y6xfgrnPmGrvFSJ_upJgWWdlJE/w640-h640/387734716_2046401339034285_8255474043406497642_n.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The Nazis carried out the Holocaust, largely, in Nazi-occupied Poland. Auschwitz, Birkenau, Treblinka, Majdanek, Belzec, Chlemno, Sobibor, The Warsaw and Lodz Ghettos were all in Nazi-occupied Poland.<br /><br /> "The German Nazis deported to Auschwitz at least 1.3 million people of more than 20 nationalities. Of that amount, 400 thousand were registered and incarcerated in the concentration camp as prisoners while 900 thousand were murdered in the gas chambers on arrival. Jews constituted 85% of all deportees and 90% of those who were murdered." <a href="http://70.auschwitz.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=89&Itemid=173&lang=en" target="_blank">source</a><br /><br />Poland did not do this; Nazi Germany did this. But this happened on Polish soil. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">We Poles and Polonians can respond to this heavy burden of history by doing whatever we can to resist genocidal murderers, especially genocidal murderers of Jews. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">As an American, I support my country's significant support of Israel. I vote for candidates who support Israel. I reject isolationists. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">As an individual, I have little power. I can use my pip-squeak voice to speak big truths. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">There is a right side and a wrong side when it comes to conflict between Israel and Arab Muslims. Israel is the right side. Arab Muslims who attack Israel, and who commit the atrocities we see now, are on the wrong side. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Please note that your news sources may not be covering the atrocities Arab Muslims are committing. Please do some research and discover what's really going on. This is a war carried out through the torture, murder, and desecration of the elderly, women, and children. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Israel has a right to exist. See my piece "Coming Out as Pro-Israel on Faceook" <a href="https://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2021/05/coming-out-as-pro-israel-on-facebook.html">here</a>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Israel's Arab Muslim opponents are not reasonable people seeking solutions to limited points of contention. They are genocidal and they are profoundly anti-Semitic. The Hamas Covenant calls for the "obliteration" of Israel and for Islam to dominate the world. See <a href="https://embassies.gov.il/holysee/AboutIsrael/the-middle-east/Pages/The%20Hamas-Covenant.aspx" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">It is not anti-Arab or anti-Muslim to state these basic facts. It is anti-Arab and anti-Muslim to avoid these basic facts. Israel is not a serious threat to Muslims or to Arabs. See for example <a href="https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexternal-preview.redd.it%2FDjssQKBv7rlyWvgYiSC4nVUR97u3Ql9onbaucNe_8Eo.jpg%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3Dc92158729d67c3af796d84e96be77387823f2c0b" target="_blank">this chart</a> Muslims nations pose a far greater threat to their neighbors and to their own populations than Israel poses to them. Iran and Iraq, Civil War in Yemen and Syria, genocide in Darfur, have all taken far more Arab Muslim lives than Israel has in defending herself. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">There are more Muslims and / or Arabs on the street today celebrating the attack on Israel than took to the streets to protest the allegedly genocidal actions of China against Uighurs. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Why? Because attacks on Israel are not about Arab rights or Muslim rights. They are about genocidal anti-Semitism.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">For all these reasons this Polish American and all decent people worldwide hope and pray for a rapid and complete victory for Israel, and security and peace for Israel. </span></p><p><i><span style="font-family: arial;">Am Yisrael Chai!</span></i></p>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-7212007064850054542023-10-05T07:12:00.003-07:002023-10-05T18:43:26.181-07:00The Sound of Murder: Broken Windows Policing Could Have Saved One Life <p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigyq6eP19jqXKtTQzDpIuFyNcmeAvnOp_x_23uYGBd1kcjx0-5Ryzrp9vGHHI9m2KxzMxcZYDAmCbZNgnqJ8QOQBwWVDJtLY1TEcF81PWq5NRyBoOP3zv_a3vdow-sOIKihuUKHfRnxSGbxiEyVMa6kys09Zf9gt0ntnsVB4R8BEGztb_n1L5inbIEVek/s1920/Black-and-white-boy-child-face-259269.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1920" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigyq6eP19jqXKtTQzDpIuFyNcmeAvnOp_x_23uYGBd1kcjx0-5Ryzrp9vGHHI9m2KxzMxcZYDAmCbZNgnqJ8QOQBwWVDJtLY1TEcF81PWq5NRyBoOP3zv_a3vdow-sOIKihuUKHfRnxSGbxiEyVMa6kys09Zf9gt0ntnsVB4R8BEGztb_n1L5inbIEVek/w640-h426/Black-and-white-boy-child-face-259269.jpg" width="640"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black-and-white-boy-child-face-259269.jpg" target="_blank">Source</a></td></tr></tbody></table></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The Sound of
Murder<br></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Broken windows policing and emphasis on
family could have saved one life</span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">On Saturday, September 2, 2023, I woke
from sleep at four a.m. and looked out my window in search of the waning moon. Media
had described the second full moon of August as a "blue moon" and a "super
moon" and I hadn't yet seen it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I saw some black men partying on the sidewalk
around Costello Park. Lately the park has become a site of all-night parties. Men
gather on the sidewalk after sunset and remain till near dawn. I'd estimate
about fifteen partiers. They sit on milk crates and metal chairs that Paterson,
as part of a renovation, using taxpayer dollars from wealthier towns, placed in
Costello Park. The metal chairs have been dragged out of the park onto the
sidewalk for the all-night parties. Eventually these chairs, one by one, are
disappearing entirely. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Car stereos blast rap music. There are
kids in this building, black kids, Hispanic kids, poor kids. I grew up poorer
than these kids, but I never had to struggle for sleep against intrusive noise
pollution. I never had to sleep through classes in school because there was so
much noise in the street the night before. Loud street parties were just not
done. In my hometown, fathers left for work before we left for school. They worked
hard all day. They arrived home in worn blue uniforms stained with dirt and grease.
They ate dinner, they watched TV for a short while, and then they snored in
comfortable chairs till wives or kids gently roused them and ushered them to
bed. These hard-working men needed sleep, and the town was quiet at night. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I mentioned the noise in a Facebook post.
I met Merlin when I was a grad student at UC Berkeley. Merlin is handsome, witty,
and charismatic. He's a PhD, polyamorist, international bon vivant, and Burning
Man veteran. He lived on Grizzly Peak, 1,400 feet up in the Berkeley Hills,
where even small homes cost over a million dollars. As night follows day,
Merlin said that my mentioning Paterson's noise was racist. Only a white
supremacist would gripe about loud and obscene rap from car stereos all night
long.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">"Noise pollution loudest in black
neighborhoods" announced <a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2017/07/25/noise-pollution-loudest-in-black-neighborhoods-segregated-cities">a
2017 headline</a>. "This is yet another study that shows that communities
of color bear a disproportionate burden of pollution … [noise pollution] makes
things worse for everybody," UC Berkeley researchers reported. What does
it do to children's little bodies to emerge into a world of car stereos, police
sirens, screams, crashes? Noise pollution damages children's minds and bodies
in all the ways described <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-07/documents/ochp_noise_fs_rev1.pdf">here</a>.
And the all-night partiers don't just pollute with noise. They leave trash like
paper plates and plastic bottles scattered on the sidewalk around the park. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I didn't see the moon on September 2. I
had been at the window for less than a minute. I returned to bed. I heard a
crash. My nerves burst into flames; my muscles stiffened; my breath became
rapid and shallow; my stomach clenched and poured out acid. I have become very
familiar with this bodily response to stressful stimuli. I'm an adult and can
try to quell this response with practiced prayer and meditation. I know that
Paterson's majority minority children are too young to master these skills and,
as a teacher, I know that they suffer in ways that I don't. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I investigated the apartment. I couldn't
find the source of the crashing sound. I went back to bed and tried to sleep. I
had to get up early the next morning to work. Sleep eluded me. Again, at work,
all day, I'd be fighting to stay alert, to rein in my dyslexia and spell words
correctly. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">In the morning light I saw the broken
glass and the shattered pane. Someone had thrown a rock at my window, just
after I had looked out that window in search of the moon.<span></span></span></p><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-sound-of-murder-broken-windows.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-11240761418378074992023-09-26T07:13:00.004-07:002023-09-28T18:41:07.657-07:00Christian Cooper "Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World" <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJFFkVBTnS2GUojrneUqsmwP0khDIcry9IIJICkXW83PYbgGl0jODGNSfqgVxwuMBKNQlXlUcmXXgoLOMHWXv0y7IxuzJ2k_OiA_9dGcqVN6SuTnsu0JeFi3brwJj_KYPOHWZtMq2XrckoyWR5feU68DvtxSLoWOYsFI730-NAioNB7ElXffTTsbzJXD4/s615/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="615" data-original-width="409" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJFFkVBTnS2GUojrneUqsmwP0khDIcry9IIJICkXW83PYbgGl0jODGNSfqgVxwuMBKNQlXlUcmXXgoLOMHWXv0y7IxuzJ2k_OiA_9dGcqVN6SuTnsu0JeFi3brwJj_KYPOHWZtMq2XrckoyWR5feU68DvtxSLoWOYsFI730-NAioNB7ElXffTTsbzJXD4/w266-h400/Capture.PNG" width="266"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">That Infamous
Central Park Birdwatcher Writes a Memoir<br></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Christian
Cooper's superhero name is Captain Cry Bully </span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">As a teacher in
front of a class I saw my students as their fellow students did not see them. The
pale girl with thin hair looked as if a stiff wind might shred her. If others
noticed her at all, they wrote her off as "shy." In fact cancer had
monopolized thirty percent of this teen's time on planet earth. She was taking
college classes on the off chance that she might survive long enough to have a
career. A middle-aged German immigrant performed better than her peers. This
apparent superhuman hid vulnerabilities. In addition to school, she had work,
and daily visits to her hospitalized son after his nearly fatal accident. The
very handsome Circassian lad assured me that his parents would kill him if they
knew he was gay and did not believe in Allah. There was the smiling,
effervescent baker who had to rise at three a.m. Without parents or
scholarships, she was paying her own way and lived in rock bottom poverty. All
these students were white. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I grew up poor;
my mother lost three babies; four of my siblings died young. One of my
childhood friends was so malnourished and neglected that doctors tell him his
life span will be shortened. Three of his grandparents died in the Gulag. One
escaped. My friend now lives in a comfortable suburb. How? <a href="https://archive.org/stream/SaroyanW.TheTimeOfYourLife.APlay./Saroyan%20W.%20The%20Time%20of%20Your%20Life.%20A%20Play._djvu.txt"><span style="color: windowtext;">William Saroyan</span></a> described my friend's
trajectory. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">"Work.
Work all my life. All my life, work. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">From small boy
to old man, work. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">In old country,
work. In new country, work. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">In New York.
Pittsburgh. Detroit. Chicago. Imperial Valley. San Francisco. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Work. No beg.
Work." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">A getaway for
him is, if he can squeeze it in, an hour's walk in a wooded area. He has so
many dreams but work eats up the limited time he has left. He's a white man. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">When I was a
nurse's aide, I had to catheterize a beautiful, young athlete who looked like
Michelangelo's David. His final act in a functioning body was to dive into
water. Some kink in the physics of that dive paralyzed him from the neck down.
He was a white man. In Nepal I helped nuns from the Sisters of Charity collect
the elderly from the streets where their families dropped them off to die. We
washed countless lice and fleas out of their clothing with cold water from a
pump in the courtyard.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Humans are
social animals and evolution has equipped us with compassion. Decent people
like you and me want to address suffering so we donate to charitable
organizations, we volunteer, we visit nursing homes, we lend an ear and a
shoulder, we pray. Morally retarded people do something else with suffering.<span></span></span></p><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2023/09/christian-cooper-better-living-through.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-12965392905825863992023-09-20T11:31:00.002-07:002023-09-22T04:57:26.775-07:00Amazon Manipulates Reviews and Sends Malware Link to Reviewer -- Because I Didn't Like Two Hot Books <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGfprp3spCDgObG3Wl-HbaUY3dZFELgI54PuLrrN27_SDySq1i589w_ijpM8vUbsk3qnEAz6Og9_yj8YA_xgEjpWkNGw0xxUPLOYkI58MurZmb5Gx8gk_x7KTVXRBWa4j1goTntw3Fa4uIOSs6gQj2MIpzKHs600mihtfbuUo4ouLzC_1vhhZWecaWytM/s788/Capture1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="434" data-original-width="788" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGfprp3spCDgObG3Wl-HbaUY3dZFELgI54PuLrrN27_SDySq1i589w_ijpM8vUbsk3qnEAz6Og9_yj8YA_xgEjpWkNGw0xxUPLOYkI58MurZmb5Gx8gk_x7KTVXRBWa4j1goTntw3Fa4uIOSs6gQj2MIpzKHs600mihtfbuUo4ouLzC_1vhhZWecaWytM/w400-h220/Capture1.PNG" width="400"></a></div><br><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Amazon
Manipulates Reviews and Sends Malware Link to Reviewer<br> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Because
I Didn't Like Two Hot Books </span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Sometime
during the summer of 2023, I posted a review of Elliot Page's memoir <i>Pageboy
</i>on Amazon. I take words seriously, even the words that constitute Amazon
reviews. Language can convey truth; language can empower lies. The difference
between truth and lies is the difference between life and death. In my faith,
Satan is the father of lies. God is the logos, the Word; God is truth and the
truth sets us free.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Elliot
Page's <i>Pageboy </i>is a poorly written book. I said so in my review. I said
this because bad writing matters. "Writing clearly is thinking
clearly." Writing poorly underwrites destructive behavior. Identifying bad
writing is a worthwhile use of time. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I'm
thinking of a novelist who earned his PhD writing about theater. This short,
physically handicapped novelist didn't deal in bullets or fisticuffs, but he
was Hitler's right-hand. Without Joseph Goebbels' speeches, movies, school
curricula, and book burnings, Nazism would have found it more difficult to
achieve its diabolical ends. On the other end of the ethical spectrum, we have
the words of the Ten Commandments; we have the Beatitudes; we have crusading
novelists like Harriet Beecher Stowe who helped end slavery. Yes, words and how
we use them matter a great deal. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">In
my review of <i>Pageboy, </i>mindful of current speech codes, I did not refer
to Elliot Page as "she." Rather, I focused on, as I said in the
review, "sentence structure, punctuation, narrative flow, and
coherence." I received a cheerfully-worded email telling me that my review
was up, thanking me for the review, and providing a link that allowed me to
visit the review. I did so. I saw the review on Amazon. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">A
few days later I thought of the review again, clicked on the link Amazon
provided, and saw an error message. "That page does not exist," the
message said, or words to that effect. I had received no notification from
Amazon that the review would be removed. I received no explanation as to why it
was removed. I received no warning telling me that if I posted another honest
review of a poorly written book, I would be banished from Amazon forever. I
received no instruction on how to write reviews that Amazon would not delete. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Perhaps
a month after that, I again attempted to review a book on Amazon, Christian
Cooper's <i>Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the
Natural World. </i>Again, I received a cheery notification from Amazon telling
me that my review was posted. I clicked on the link Amazon sent and I saw the
review. Again, a few days later, I clicked on that same link and got the same
message. "This page does not exist." Again,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I received no notification, and no
explanation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I
shrugged. I was resigned. I moved on with my life. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">On
September 7, 2023, weeks after the above events, my inbox was flooded with
approximately one hundred emails from Amazon. The emails that I read before
deleting them all said the same thing. "Thank you for reporting a fake
review," or words to that effect. This made no sense. I hadn't been
reporting fake reviews at Amazon. At the end of this avalanche of spam from
Amazon came the final email. That final email informed me that all of my
reviews, reviews going back almost thirty years, had been removed. I would
never again be allowed to post reviews on Amazon, not for books or for anything
else. If I bought a spatula that was a really good spatula, I could never say
that on Amazon. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I
was offered a link to click. I clicked on the link and was sent to the main
Amazon page. There was I invited to click on another link. Computer expert
friends warned me <i>not </i>to click on the link Amazon sent me. It was a scam
link to malware. Someone at Amazon had used my account to generate a series of
false reports of fake reviews, and then to ensnare me into clicking on a
malware link.<span></span></span></p><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2023/09/amazon-manipulates-reviews-and-sends.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4174606706448853915.post-10538343751975733172023-09-13T11:27:00.000-07:002023-09-15T09:10:54.547-07:00The Devil and Bella Dodd by Mary Nicholas and Paul Kengor. Book Review <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSsxY16Dcy1Z00wCya23TwTrO7g-Tu-D0lQxeyW7FllGvFjd12X7RD4hP29jmd1V6O3tUK6UghY6tsKSDMFVnNovrW_AIAEeOEPzt4WJ7_dl452cmeRdbNu_Y63wOTSRgLltn9DmeI633y7_svR531S-T55if3EQMaRoFWbIFR1aBRgthBqvUBZMioFFE/s913/Screenshot%202023-09-13%20142425.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="611" data-original-width="913" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSsxY16Dcy1Z00wCya23TwTrO7g-Tu-D0lQxeyW7FllGvFjd12X7RD4hP29jmd1V6O3tUK6UghY6tsKSDMFVnNovrW_AIAEeOEPzt4WJ7_dl452cmeRdbNu_Y63wOTSRgLltn9DmeI633y7_svR531S-T55if3EQMaRoFWbIFR1aBRgthBqvUBZMioFFE/w400-h268/Screenshot%202023-09-13%20142425.png" width="400"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><i>The Devil and
Bella Dodd<br></i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;">How
the Most Important Female Communist in the US Found God and Rejected
the Devil </span></span></span></div>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><i>The Devil and
Bella Dodd: One Woman's Struggle Against Communism and Her Redemption
</i></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;">is
a 2022 account of the career of Bella Dodd (1904-1969), once "the
most important female communist in the United States." Author
Mary A. Nicholas is a physician and research librarian. Her
co-author, Paul Kengor, is a political science professor, bestselling
author, think tank director, and a visiting fellow at the Hoover
Institution. Tan Books is a Catholic publisher. </span></span><span style="color: black;"><i>The
Devil and Bella Dodd </i></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;">is
422 pages long, inclusive of an index, a bibliography, and extensive
footnotes. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Bella
Dodd's life story is so astounding that if it were fiction, readers
could be forgiven for thinking that it could never have happened in
real life. Maria Assunta Isabella Visono came to the US when she was
five years old. She had been living with foster parents. Her parents
and many siblings had already immigrated to the US, possibly when
Dodd was two years old. She used the name "Bella" and
eventually married a man named Dodd. The marriage ended because of
her commitment to the Communist Party. Dodd received degrees from New
York University and Columbia, an Ivy League school – remarkable for
a female Italian American immigrant from a poor family. She became a
professor, lawyer, and organizer. She described herself as a key
figure who injected the Communist Party's agenda into American public
education. She claimed that she had placed over a thousand Party
followers into Catholic seminaries. She began to have doubts about
the Party in the 1940s. Her deteriorating attitude prompted her to be
expelled in 1949.<span></span></span></span></span></p><a href="http://save-send-delete.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-devil-and-bella-dodd-by-mary.html#more">Read more »</a>D Goskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com0