Upon viewing “The Nun’s Story” (1959) the other night on TCM, one is certain that such a film could never be made today. There are: no half dressed strumpets parading, no explosions, and no exaggerated drama that comes from the meanderings of a shallow soul testing the elastic limits of gutter life. In fact, the […]
What is termed Social Media can be a vast desert of sorts: an endless vista of parched and barren land, interspersed at sparse intervals by the occasional refreshing oasis. Negotiating Facebook’s plethora of silly cat memes and the photographs of another’s impending supper are the spiritual equivalent of a diet of Splenda packets – a […]
Given my druthers, being on the receiving end of a policeman’s sidearm is not the way that I would prefer shuffling off this mortal coil. However, there is a profound difference in suffering that indignation as an innocent, or in the malicious act of attempting to wrestle an officer’s instrument of mortal judgment from his […]
They say that in order to make them laugh, you need to know how to make them cry. Robin Williams was of this mold. While he charmed and delighted with his frenetic style of comedic mayhem, his best roles were sad, contemplative, and serious. His roles in: “Awakenings,” “The Fisher King,” and “Dead Poets Society,” […]
It is the stuff that nightmares are made of. Science fiction is replete with tales of creatures rising up out of the earth — abducting and murdering humanity in terrifying fashion when their doom was least expected. The film Tremors introduced us to “graboids:” monsters that could pluck Kevin Bacon from a lawn chair while […]
By the first decade of the fifth century B.C., Darius the Persian had grown exceedingly proud, and the insolence of that power lifted his eyes to the West for the acquisition of greater empire. Thus, he sent heralds throughout Greece asking for “earth and water” – tokens of submission to gratify his hunger for the […]
“This is a generation which knows no fear. It is the generation of the missile, the tunnel and suicide operations.” –Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas PM Waging a war with moral trilobites is always nasty business, and no nation state knows this truth more fully than Israel in its current conflagration with Hamas. The Gaza regime […]
Though Arab and Jew are by lineage the rival sons of Abraham, any connection binding their brotherhood seems to have evaporated long ago in the arid climes of a region that gave birth to monotheism by way of the crucible of environment — a landscape more fiercely accommodating to scorpions and birds of prey. Solitude […]
In differentiating between those significant distinctions that comprise the tribes of men, there is little we can learn by considering solely the hue of one’s skin or geographic locale. In fathoming a civilization’s ruling essence, we are obligated to consider the hierarchy of values that cultures hold dear in their heart of hearts: those propositions […]
The nature of Schadenfreude can be manifested in many interesting and perverse forms. I must admit that savoring the long-awaited comeuppance of an American regime, albeit a Progressive one that has breached its constitutional limits and grasped at powers that the Founders had judiciously restrained from its clutches by force of law, carries with it […]
