Old Film Critics Never Die

It  is probably true that old film critics never die, they just slump face down into their box of popcorn.

You get to be a certain age and so much of what passes for movie entertainment these days seems simply lost on me.

And while I would never make a prediction on what movies will actually win Academy Awards, it is probably a reasonable bet to suggest what films will at least be nominated for something.

That is certainly true with “Winter Bone,” which the Marigold of Macy’s and I saw last night. Like last year’s “Hurt Locker,” which was shot on a budget of about $1.25, so too is this movie about a young woman trying to find her father, who has apparently jumped bail, in order to save the family home, was shot in the Ozarks for a paltry $2 million.

Still, it’s a pretty good guess “Winter Bone” stands of good chance of being nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (Debra Granik), Best Actress (Jennifer Lawrence), Best Supporting Actor (John Hawkes) and Best Screenplay (Granik and Anne Rossellini).

This is just a great movie, capturing the grittiness and destitution of the Ozarks and the tribal nature of the people who scratch out an existence amid such grinding poverty.

Most of these performers are relative unknowns, with a few television credits to their names. And so it is always fun, if you are a movie buff, to see something like this – a director, an actress and an actor – all on the verge of a break-out performance.

In the old days, when I actually reviewed film and television for a livng, I would rate productions on a star basis. In this case I would have given “Winter Bone” an easy three and a half-stars. By the way, if you take my recommendation and decide to see this movie, you will never quite look at a squirrel in the same way again.

For Better Or …

Eighteen years ago today I became Mr. Bombshell of the Balkans.

It’s interesting because later this afternoon, Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky will say their “I do’s” at a posh estate in upstate New York.  Barbra Streisand and Steven Spielberg are rumored to be guests. In all, the whole affair – sorry, bad word choice perhaps when it comes to a Clinton – is estimated to cost between $2 million and $5 million.

Good grief, the portable toilets for the guests will run $15,000.

Eighteen years ago, the Sunflower of Saks and I tied the knot,in Las Vegas at the Little Chapel of the Bells, in a company of a my brother and his then girlfriend and a minister who was a cross between an Elvis impersonator-in-training and Jimmy Swaggert.

Now to be sure the Clintons are very wealthy and they hang out with other wealthy types and yes perhaps there is an expectation that the marriage of their only child should be a grand and lovely event. Fine, no problem.

But really now, could these two wacky, crazy, coo-coo-in-love kids still manage to get married, have a nice reception and all the rest for say, a lousy, stinking $500,000?

This is hardly an original thought, but cannot a case me made today that two many young couples spend more time preparing for the wedding than they do preparing for the marriage?

Long ater the tony Port-A-Johns have been carted off, Mr. and Mrs. Mezvinsky are going to have to get on with the business of husband and wife.

We got married in relatively humble, albeit tacky, surroundings. But we are no less married than the Mezvinksys.

Here’s what I hope for the new couple. That after they’ve been married for 18 years and experieinced the ups and downs, the good times and the bad, the truimphs and the setbacks that they will be able to look at each other, as I have done so many thankful times and say: “I would do it all over again.”

Mein Dummkopf

Maybe it is a matter of age. Maybe I’m just getting grumpier.

But the older I get, the bigger a particular pet peeve of mine continues to grow and annoy.

With the passage of time, it has become ever more socially acceptable – and rarely challenged – for people to treat World War II and the extermination of six million Jews in the Holocaust as little more than a punchline.

The latest is movie director Oliver Stone, who sees a conspiracy behind every box of popcorn. Meeting with a bunch of critics the other day, Stone argued the murder of six million Jews in Hitler’s ovens gets so much attention simply because of Jewish control over the mass media.

Uh, not quite. The murder of six people innocent people gets so much attention because – now pay attention Ollie – it involved the murder of SIX MILLION people. Sheesh!

But wait! Stone wasn’t even remotely finished, suggesting Hitler, while yeah sure a craze,  hideous villain, also had his bright side, too, who had a lot of support from the world’s industrialists. “Hitler is an easy scapegoat,” the noted historian Oliver Stone continued. “We can’t judge people are only bad or good.”

Now that sort fo logic might apply to your mother-in-law, but Adolf Hitler is certainly in a class by himself.

Because of this single man, the world was plunged into a nightmare it still has not fully recovered from, resulting in the deaths of tens of millions of people.

This sort of stuff, echoed far too frequently, sadly demonstates what a woeful misunderstanding of history so many people have today.

We see it in our political discourse, with Barack Obama often compared to Nazism. Insanity.

To disgree with Obama on health care, or the stimulus, or any other public policy is just swell. But Obama hasn’t sent anyone off to an oven, or annexed Austria or brought the world to the brink of conflict. He just wants a universal health care system folks – that’s it.

The tragedy of Oliver Stone’s stupidity is that he’s hardly a lone – ignorant voice. And if you don’t believe that, come read my email sometime. If you have the stomach for it.

Not Dead Yet

To the vast audience of two or three readers of these scribblings out there, my apologies for not posting more frequently. Frankly, I simply haven’t had the time.

Such is the price of being a graduate student.

Since January, I’ve been rushing to complete my studies for a masters in mass communications out at USF, which as any of you who have been down this path yourselves know, involves considerable reading and writing many, many papers. And along with teaching out at the university and preparing my Times column, well, there simply hasn’t been much time to dedicate to this blog.

To date, I’ve complete 30 hours of course work and have only one more cognate course (in education), my comps and the completion of my thesis and at long last I’ll be finished.

At the moment, I have  a brief respite before the fall term begins and so at the urging of the Bombshell of the Balkans, I’ll try to post a bit more frequently to the one or two readers who every  now and then visit this space.

Three quick idle thoughts.

I had the pleasure of meeting Daniel Schorr on a several occasions when he either spoke to or was a guest at the Holocaust Remembrance Esssay Project banquet that the Sunflower of Saks organizes every year in Washington.  He was a  very charming man and with his passing, we are once again reminded of those old glory days when CBS News was indeed the crown jewel of broadcast journalism.

Also, two book recommendations. I just finished reading “A Traitor To His Class,” a wonderful book by the historian H.W. Brands on the life and times of FDR. If you are a history buff, this should be a must read.

And finally, Alexander Zaitchik’s book on Glenn Beck-  “Common Nonsense – Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance” is a terrific book on this certifiably insane and dangerous silly person. And – ahem – the book also includes a brief section on my dealings with Beck, which constitutes a shameless plug.

So while I’m at it, I should also mention I’m included as well in Kitty Kelley’s new book on Oprah – shameless plug two.

I’ll try to weigh in later this week for the dining and dancing pleasure of the none of the regular visitors to this space.

You Talkin’ To Me? You Talkin’ To Me?

To my legions of fans – both of them – out there, my apologies for not posting for the past few days.

But when you’ve been twisted into a fetal position, sucking gin out of the bottle with a straw, it’s not that easy to unfurl oneself.

I suppose the reason for my wanting to just crawl under the nearest barstool until I was more in the bag than John Daly meets “The Lost Weekend,” has had something to do with the on-going insanity of the health care debate – the town meetings, which have turned into something out of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” the crazier than Ezra Pound radio pundits spewing more disinformation than the birther wackos, the endless commercials suggesting Barack Obama is plotting to send Luca Brasi after your beloved grandmother.

But perhaps the most surreal image has been the arrival of protesters showing up at town hall meetings attended by Obama armed with handguns and assault rifles. And – amazingly – it’s all perfectly legal.

Now any of you who might have read my scribblings over the years know I have always been a strong advocate for more stringent gun control. And these scenes of armed morons showing up at presidential events only helps to support my beliefs.

To be sure, the gun nuts all have valid permits to walk around with their little guns, a replacement perhaps for their Viagra needs.

But if the government can restrict the airspace over Washington and anywhere else the president of the United States may be appearing as a national security measure, why is it then that that folks walking around with guns cannot also be restricted from getting within miles of a locale when the president may be speaking?

At the same time, while these buffos claim they are only exercising their Second Amendment rights by showing up at these town hall events decked out with their Rambo starter kits, it certainly has to be something of an intimidating sight for some people who merely want to stand on a street corner and petition their government without having to worry about “The Taxi Driver’s” Travis Bickle standing next to them.

The Secret Service and local law enforcement assigned to provide protection and crowd control at these events have enough on their hands to do their jobs without also having to contend with right-wing extremist dolts also showing up to feebly demonstrate how faux macho they are.

Let’s be honest here. If you are so paranoid, so insecure, so delusional about black helicopters following you to the loo, that you need to parade around at public events displaying weapons to compensate for your manhood, you are probably in need of government-funded mental health treatment.

Or put another way, in their own feeble manner, these militiamen from the Planet Zircon 12 are unwittingly making a case for government health care for all – especially the Deliverance crowd.

Cue the dueling banjos.

As for my legion of fan – I’ll try to post with greater regularity.

Rush? It’s Just Health Care, Not The London Blitz

This may come has something of a shock to that big tub of foaming at the mouth goo otherwise known as Rush Limbaugh, but it’s just a health care plan bubelah, not the invasion of the Sudetenland.

But there was the Mr. Dithers of the lunatic fringe the other day attempting to compare Barack Obama with (oh dear) Adolf Hitler simply because the president of the United States wants to reform the nation’s health care system.

Limbaugh’s ham-handed demagoguery notwithstanding the drive-by bloviator, talk radio’s answer to Crazy Guggenheim, has revealed himself to be a dumber than a sack of Sarah Palins when it comes to having even the remotest understanding of history.

For the average Joe Blow, being more clueless about World War II than an Irish Setter is merely a social embarrassment. Being the host of a national radio program and exposing that sort of illiteracy borders on the terrifying.

It is all too easy – and common – these days to accuse people we might disagree with as Nazis, or in this case comparing the leader of the free world with one of the most evil mass murderers who ever lived.

Disagre with Obama’s health care plan if you will. That’s fine. There’s plenty in the initiative to take issue with. No problem. That’s America. That’s democracy. That’s free speech.

But Obama as Hitler? Please.

It’s a bit scary to ponder this, but didn’t Rush Limbaugh ever take a history class? Did he not have relatives who perhaps fought in World War II? Or did all those drugs really rattle his brain?

The era of the Third Reich and its Axis co-conspirators were ultimately responsible for some 60 million civilian and military personnel deaths. The Holocaust alone claimed some six million lives, including more than one million children. 

All Barack Obama wants to is reform health care. He’s not interested in bombing Pearl Harbor, or subjecting London to the blitz, or laying seige to Russia.

The inherent danger, of course, by so blithely injecting Hitler into the health care debate diminishes the horror of World War II. When the murder of six million Jews becomes a punchline in public policy discourse, it trivializes the memories of those who died and the service of the men and women of this nation who fought and sacrificed to end the terror of Nazism.

Limbaugh should spend more time with veterans of WWII and ask them how they feel about having their service reduced to a political one-liner. He should spend time with Holocaust survivors, listen to their stories of what they witnessed and endured and then ask himself if a beef with a president over a single-payer system rises to the level of the Warsaw Ghetto.

My father flew 50 combat missions in World War II and although he passed away more than 30 years ago, I rather doubt – as conservative as he was – he would equate the carnage, the misery, the death of his friends with the on-going health care kerfuffle.

It’s  pathetic Limbaugh doesn’t understand that. It’s tragic he so publicly revels in his ignorance.

And yes, that rumbling you just heard were the souls of Arlington rolling over in their graves.

Mel Martinez Pulls A Palin

Really now, with the remote possible exception of  being Paris Hilton, is there a cushier job than serving as a United States senator?

You only work three days a week. People bow and scrape before you. You get to take junkets all ove the word on the taxpayer dime. You get a nice office. And for all practical purposes once you’re elected, unless you get caught in a bathroom stall acting randy, you’re pretty much set for life in the job.

And yet, it all just too terribly too much work for Florida junior (in more ways than one) Sen. Mel Martinez, who announced this week, he was pulling a Palin and walking away from from Washington before his first term had even ended.

Martinez had said a few months ago he wouldn’t run for a second term in 2010, complaining about having to fly back and forth from Florida to Washington, as if he never realized there was a commute involved when he first sought the senate gig back in 2004. Cue the violin strings.

Okay, fair enough I suppose. Perhaps the thought of having to sit next to the smarmy likes of Arizona’s Jon Kyl, or that crazy nut, South Carolina’s Jim DeMint, was enough to send Martinez packing.

Still, Martinez also knew that when he ran for office it was for a six year term. When his constituents voted for him, it was with the expectation he would honor the commitment to serve a full six years. And he welshed on the deal.

This isn’t so much about politics as simple good manners. You could probably make a case that there are few honors in public service more coveted than serving as a United States senator, even given a workload that would barely tire Maynard G. Krebs.

The rumor mill is already speculating Florida Gov. Charlie Crist would do well to appoint one of his predecessors, Bob Martinez to keep the seat warm until Crist can get elected to the job himself next year. That only makes sense and it would be a savvy appointment.

Now in his early 70s, Bob Martinez represents no political threat to pursue the job himself. He knows Washington, having served in a number of capacities over the years, including a stint as drug czar.  And Crist could appoint an Hispanic to replace an Hispanic. It’s a win-win for Crist.

However if you are Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, who lost the senate primary fight with Mel Martinez in 2004, or Betty Castor, the Democratic Party senate candidate who lost to Martinez in the general election, you have to feel a bit stiffed.

If Mel Martinez wasn’t all that crazy about being a senator, about fulfilling his obligations, why did he even bother to run in the first place? His cutting and running before his term ended is a disservice to his party, a slap in the face to the many Floridians who supported him and an embarrassment to the Cuban-American community who so rightfully took pride in seeing one of their own become the first member of the United States Senate, only to have him quit on them.

To be sure, it is not easy for Republicans who held power for so long to now find themselves as back-benchers. But that’s politics. That’s life.

As for Mel Martinez, who stumble-bummed his way through his senate tenure, he’ll probably be best remembered that when the going got tough, Mel Martinez ran away and shafted his party, his supporters and his state.

Some legacy.

Maybe If He Had Murdered A Nun …

Let me see if I understand this.

Michael Vick, who servd hard time for running an illegal dog fighting gambling ring gets out of the slammer and 20 minutes later gets reinstated in the National Footbal League to pursue his career. Oakie-dokie, got that.

But Pete Rose, who has been banned from baseball for the past 20 years because of gambling offenses still remains on baseball Commisioner Bud Selig’s Elba. Huh?

Selig quickly knocked down speculation earlier this week, that maybe, just maybe he might be entertaining the possibility of reinstating Rose, in the wake of news reporting legends such as Hank Aaron and other Hall of Famers had been lobbying for Charlie Hustle’s rehabilitation.

And why not.

Throughout professional sports, athletes have been involved with drugs, steriod abuse, spousal battery and even the odd,occassional vehicular homicide with precious little consequence to their careers than a slap on the wrist and maybe a few games on suspension.

Isn’t it time to give Rose a break?

A quick qustion. Does anyone seriously doubt if Pete Rose was a younger man and still of of some value to a team on the field, his gambling trangressions would have long ago been forgiven and he would be in uniform somewhere?

But Rose has a number of problems.

First, he is by all accounts a fairly dreadful, boorish, selfish oaf of a human being. So much for the sympathy factor.

And at 68 he offers zero value to any major league baseball team certainly not as a player and hardly as a coach.

Or put another way, Rose has less leverage in making his case for reinstatement than a mob hit target trying to negotiate a change in plans.

Pete Rose did a horrible thing. He bet on baseball and lied about it. And not only did he do some time in the slammer, he will probably never be elected to the Hall of Fame, despite a solid on-field career. On top of all of that, on top of the loss of income, his reputation, his future, Peter Rose has served a 20-year banishment from the one love of his life – baseball.

Isn’t this a strong case for enough is enough?

Pete Rose didn’t try to strangle his coach. He didn’t do drugs. He didn’t get tanked up, get behind the wheel of a car and kill somebody. He didn’t rape anybody. He didn’t beat up his wife.  He didn’t, as Marv Albert did, sexually assault a woman and barely missed a beat in hs broadcasting career.

He did gamble. He did bet on baseball. But there s no evidence he ever was complicit in throwing a game.

He was, yes, an idiot.

But the Hall of Fame is filled with all manner of unpleasant people not the least of whom is Ty Cobb, a degenerate racist.

If Michael Vick, who participated a dog fighting ring, who abused animals, who particpated in a massive gambling operation can be welcomed back into the NFL huddle – and make no mistake, someone will sign him – then surely there must be a ounce of compassion that can be extended to a 68-year-old man who did dumb things.

Pete Rose, even if were to be reinstated, is unlikely to ever see the inside of the Hall of Fame as a member. Fair enough.

But he certainly has paid his debt to society and the game he gave his life to. And that, at least, ought to have earned him a ticket back into the sport’s good graces.

And Elvis Is Alive And Well In Akron

As long are there the Glenn Becks, the Sean Hannitys, the Rush Limbaughs, the Lou Dobbs of the world, there will never be any shortage of rubes, lemmings, fellow travelers and other complete imbeciles will follow them to the end of their collective drools.

If ever there was a completely insane, blithering issue polluting the landscape of social discourse in this country it is this groveling movement afoot arguing Preisdent Barack Obama holds his office illegally because he is not a citizen of the United States.

Sigh.

They are called “Birthers,” who persist in holding onto the notion Obama is not a legitmate citizen of the nation despite voluminous evidence to the contrary. Obama’s 1961 Hawaiian birth certificate is a matter of public record. Hawaiian state government officials have repeatedly vouched for the legality of the birth record.

And indeed, there is even a public notice of Obama’s birth in Hawaii, which was printed in the local papers within a day the bi-racial bouncing bundle of joy entered the world.

Part of the delusional Birther argument against Obama’s right to hold office is grounded in the notion his father was indeed a Kenyan citizen when his son was born. But that is irrelevant since the future president: A) was born in the United States and B) his mother was a U.S. citizen, thus confering American citizenship on the newborn infant.

And yet, these wackos continue their subterranean crusade, which is predicated on utter balderdash, with a pinch of claptrap and a smidgen of hooey.

So why does this idiocy continue to have life?

The reasons are two-fold. First, as Press Secretary Ronbert Gibbs noted the other day, anyone can register an Internet address and promulgate any blather they want. And yes, I’ll save some of you the trouble, that is exactly what I have done as well.

Secondly, the Birther debate allows those who simply don’t like Obama because of his race a thinly veiled issue to provide cover from the obvious charge of racism at play here.

And of course, there is the whole right-wing Old Yeller-Foaming-At-The Mouth-Drive-By-Bloviator cabal, who have found a red meat issue for their dumber-than-an-anvil followers to latch onto.

As long as there is an Internet, as long as there are faux conservative blubberers, as long as there are people who barely have a functioning brain stem, movements like the Birthers will always exist.

After all, there are people who believe Elvis is alive. There are people who believe man never landed on the Moon. There are people who believe the sun revolves around the Earth. There are people who believe 9/11 was really the handiwork of the U.S. government. There are people who believe all manner of urban myths – simply because some other dope sent them an e-mail.

And these people drive. And they own guns, too! How scary is that?

There is no evidence that will convince the Birthers Barack Obama holds his office legally. None. Zippo. Nada. They are stooges who make Moe, Larry and Curly look like Nobel laureates.

Some of these Birther bozos claim they puraue this fool’s errand, because they want “their country back.”

Well, they are more than welcome to immigrate back the Planet Zircon 9 whenever they ant. Have a nice trip.

Doc? Leave The “Satire” To The Pros

For the record Dr. David McKalip wants everyone to know he really isn’t a racist pig. Really he’s not, cross his heart and hope to die, honestly, really, no kidding. Trust him on this one.

Well, whatever Doc, but we can all probably agree, McKalip is a huge raving, imbecile from central casting.

Besides, how could anyone remotely suggest McKalip has any prejudicial tendencies? After all, he only sent out an e-mail message to bunch of his pals, including an image  depicting President Barack Obama as a witch doctor in a loin cloth with a bone through his nose with the words “ObamaCare, coming soon to a clinic near you.”

“I am not a racist,” McKalip insisted as his racist email went viral. No, of course not.

Well, that works for me. How about you?

How could anyone remotely construe as racist depicting any black man, not to mention the president of the United States, in a stereotypical image as a witch doctor, complete with a bone through his nose? No doubt, this was meant as  nothing more than good, clean fun.  

McKalip has become an active participant in opposing the Obama Administration’s efforts to reform health care in the United States. He also helped organize the right-wing inspired “tea party” rallies in Florida in recent months. And the good doctor – who is not a racist by the way – is also president-elect of the Pinellas County Medical Association in addtion to serving on the board of the Florida Medical Association.

How proud these groups must be to have this non-racist helping to lead their organizations.

Eventually, when he was held up across the rest of the nation as the poster child for – to put it kindly – racial insensitivity, McKalip grudgingly apologized for being a creep, but not before trying to weasel out of his predicament by arguing to the St. Petersburg Times he was being accused of racism simply because “I’ve been so effective in pointing out how the government plans are going to hurt patients in very serious ways … the only way they can neutralize my message is to discredit me personally.”

Not really, Doc. You pretty well neutralized your message by delivering it through a cyber hood.

Please. There is no question there is plenty of fair debate to be had over the Obama health reform proposals.

But for someone who presumably is a medical professional to resort to racially inflamatory images to make his case in opposition to the health care bill might suggest the good doctor is terminally dense.

This was no more a a piece of satire than painting a swastika on a synagogue and marching up and down in front of the  temple in a brown shirt and jackboots with a straight arm salute. Hardy-har-har.

McKalip blamed “liberals” for the backlash to his email, which would seem to be awfully cowardly.

Indeed, there is no evidence Al Franken put a gun to McKalip’s head and forced him against his will to send out a racist email; no evidence Bill Maher slapped the doctor around until he agreed to depict Obama with a bone in his nose; no evidence Jon Stewart absconded with McKalip’s children until he agreed to picture the president in a loin cloth.

Nope, sorry Doc, you did that allllllll on your own.

You did the damage to your integrity, your reputation, your standing in the medical profession.

And now it is up to you to heal yourself.