That’s a conclusion to be drawn from this Super Bowl commercial, in which the so-called Green Police arrest citizens in their homes for overheating a hot tub, using the wrong light bulb, and basically doing anything that the Alvatar himself wouldn’t approve of (all set to a light-hearted soundtrack). The company will probably say the whole thing’s tongue in cheek. I think it’s creepy.
[HT: Execupundit]
I’m not a diehard football fan. In fact, the only moments that I caught of the Super Bowl were the final three minutes, by which point the Saints pretty much had a lock on it, and a few seconds of the halftime show, which looked like an infomercial for something called Seniors Gone Wild.
It was…odd.
Last night I heard Dinesh D’Souza talk about what he describes as the New Atheists (e.g., Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins) and the tactics they use to try to discredit Christianity. D’Souza, who wrote the fantastic What’s So Great About Christianity, is a very skilled speaker; it’s easy to see how he could hold his own in a debate against someone as eloquent and erudite as Hitchens.
Some lessons that those on the Right, or at least those not on the secular Left, should heed, and which Mr. D’Souza so adeptly displayed:
Another suggestion: Learn how to debate. This doesn’t mean you pursue a vocation like Mr. D’Souza’s and get on the speaker’s circuit. It means simply knowing how to get a point across and, if the truth is on your side, how to hold your own.
For the record, I’m still learning all of these things.
Dennis Prager explains the lack of men (as opposed to males) in America and why that lack is a bad thing for women.
[For more wisdom students won't gain in a regular college, visit Prager University.]
The Onion has the scoop behind the new Apple tablet.
Here’s an interesting piece on the author of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its sequels. I haven’t read any of them — crime stories set in Sweden don’t exactly call out to me, although the smoking hot babe on the covers may make me reconsider their literary merit. It always does.
If I had made Avatar, I’d have cast Al Gore as the savior of Pandora and called it Alvatar.
“Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.”
I didn’t watch too many episodes of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, thereby probably contributing to its lower-than-expected ratings, but much of what I did see was pure genius. Of course, I’m biased, since I’ve been a fan of Conan from his Late Night days. He was (is) nicer than Letterman, more off-the-wall than Leno, and he had (has) a talent for making interviews with even the most astonishingly boring guests fun. But while I think his humor transferred well to Los Angeles, I still associate him with New York. Whatever happens, here’s hoping his next show isn’t in a 7-Eleven parking lot.
The end of the world (as we know it) seems to be the reigning theme in culture right now, from movies (The Book of Eli, 2012, Legion, The Road) to fashion shows. I don’t know the reason for it all; I recall that the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago tried to diagnose this end-times fascination, and, if memory serves, attributed it to fears of political and foreign affairs instability.
Whatever the explanation, it’s too early to panic. We’ll know the apocalypse is here when a Paris fashion show features clothes that look normal.
As Hollywood continues to veer Leftward (Avatar opens Friday), the Internet seems the natural medium through which conservatives, libertarians, and all other non-Leftists can present their politically-charged movies.
The Dirty Bomb Diaries, according to this reviewer, isn’t an overtly political show — it’s about a young woman surviving, as the title implies, a dirty bomb detonation – but it has things conservatives can appreciate, like the idea that you can’t rely on the government to save your life. (That the trailer shows the young woman buying a gun for protection is a bonus.)
The DBD is, thus far, distributed solely through the Internet. We’ll see if it makes it to network TV at some point.
Can an advertisement be a call to arms? Let’s hope this one is.
I agree with Execupundit: The criticism the ad is generating is truly “wimpish.”
Stephen, that is:
BANGOR, Maine – Author Stephen King and his wife are donating money so 150 soldiers from the Maine Army National Guard can come home for the holidays.
The latest from megadirector James Cameron is getting raves from across the pond, while John Nolte plays contrarian:
…The result is “Avatar,” a sanctimonious thud of a movie so infested with one-dimensional characters and PC clichés that not a single plot turn – small or large – surprises. I call it the “liberal tell,” where the early and obvious politics of the film gives away the entire story before the second act begins, and “Avatar” might be the sorriest example of this yet. For all the time and money and technology that went into its making, the thing that matters most – character and story – are strictly Afterschool Special.
Let’s hope Mr. Nolte is wrong about the movie being a ”thinly disguised, heavy-handed and simplistic sci-fi fantasy/allegory critical of America from our founding straight through to the Iraq War” — although his track record for spotting Leftist messages in films is near impeccable.
Still, perhaps the most troublesome part is that the filmmakers decided to turn this actress into a computerized character. Have they no shame?
[HT: Big Hollywood]
Robert Avrech writes some of the best (if not the best) concise biographies of early Hollywood stars at his invaluable site Seraphic Secret. Here, via Big Hollywood, he takes a look at Lupe Velez, the glamorous actress best known as the Mexican Spitfire. (Before reading this piece, I knew next to nothing about her; now I want to see all her films.)
Here she is dancing with Gary Cooper:
