Jim and Ellen Hubbard, co-founders of the group, say the goal is to "celebrate American values" by "inspiring principles of individual freedom, rugged individualism and the triumph of the human spirit."
Kevin Vance of The Washington Times described the movie last month:
Jay Richards, the director of Acton Media, told an audience at a Heritage Foundation screening that the "point is that human beings create wealth; it's not a zero-sum game."
The film addresses the critics of capitalism while acknowledging that capitalism's defenders are sometimes too theoretical. "The Call of the Entrepreneur" discusses aspects of entrepreneurship in "moral" terms seldom used by libertarians.
"We consider 'God' a public word," Mr. Richards said.
Surely the most affecting part of the documentary -- which is to be broadcast on PBS later this year -- is the testimony of Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai, who escaped Mao's communist China as a 12-year-old in the 1950s. He eventually became a garment salesman. His job took him to New York where, in 1967, he was invited to the home of an elderly Jewish lawyer who handed him a copy of Friedrich Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom."
As Mr. Lai describes receiving the book, he becomes choked up, his eyes brimming with tears as he says, "That book changed my life." And some in the audience were choked up, too.
It may be hard for some people to believe that a discussion of economics can produce an emotionally powerful film experience, but the message and excellent cinematography of "The Call of the Entrepreneur" make it so. Two thumbs up.
-- Robert Stacy McCain, assistant national editor, The Washington Times
The words on the poster are simple: "My name is Shiri Negari and I would like to speak at Columbia too, but I was murdered when Iran gave money to Hamas to blow up the bus I was on."
Brendan Cooney of the anti-war site Counterpunch reported Tuesday that the poster featuring Shiri's photo was made by 30-year-old Manhattan lawyer David Zucker.
The wave of attention generated by Mr. Zucker's poster was not the first time Shiri was mourned by bloggers. Among those who noted the golden-haired Israeli's death in 2002 were Instapundit, Little Green Footballs, and Ed Driscoll.
Shiri Negari, 21, of Jerusalem, was one of 19 people killed in a suicide bombing at the Patt junction in Egged bus no. 32A traveling from Gilo to the center of Jerusalem.
The terrorist boarded the bus at 7:50 A.M. at the stop in Beit Safafa, an Arab neighborhood opposite Gilo, and almost immediately detonated the large bomb which he carried in a bag stuffed with ball bearings. The blast destroyed the front half of the bus, packed with people on their way to work and schoolchildren. Of the 19 victims, 17 were residents of the Gilo neighborhood; 74 people were injured.
So much for Shiri's death. What about her life? Shiri's family has set up a foundation to honor her memory, and a family member has granted permission to use this video tribute:
"Of all melancholy topics, what, according to the universal understanding of mankind, is the most melancholy?"
Death was the obvious reply.
"And when," I asked, "is this most melancholy topic most poetical?"
From what I have already explained at some length, the answer, here also, is obvious -- "When it most closely allies itself to Beauty: the death, then, of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world ..."
And so it is with that "rare and radiant maiden" whose beautiful face haunted Ahmadinejad at Columbia.
-- Robert Stacy McCain, assistant national editor, The Washington Times
Columbia gave Ahmadinejad the stage on Monday, and along with it a forum to rail at our world. But Columbia didn't, and won't, give his victims their turn to speak.
Michelle Malkin has added a new post about Shiri, and shares an e-mail from Shiri's cousin:
I wish to thank you for giving a stage to the memory of our Shiri, and let you know that even if you did it unknowingly, you contributed to making her memory alive which is something very important for us -- making sure she is not just another statistic in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Emphasis added.)
Michelle also shares an e-mail from David Zucker, who explains why he brought the Shiri poster to Columbia on Monday:
I did not know Shiri, just happened to come across her memorial site on Sunday when I was trying to figure out what type of sign to make when I got the idea to put a human face on the current debate. . . . I'm sure her family will get great solace from the fact that their daughter's memory is still alive.
Michelle's new post generated still more blog tributes, including Soccer Dad who quotes the physician who treated Shiri after the bombing:
I'm 52, and like most Israelis I serve in the army too. I have seen my share of tank injuries, unrelenting cancers and traffic accidents.
Shiri's death was the first time I ever cried at losing a patient.
"It's a nightmare that will never go away. I'm so angry. I just can't accept the fact that I will never see Shiri again.
"It's not even that she was killed because of an unavoidable natural disaster. It's simply because of people's cruelty. This is something I just can't live with."
Shiri lived with her family in Gilo, Jerusalem. The residents were the target of the bus attack.
Gilo, home to 60,000-70,000 Israelis, is a Jewish settlement built on West Bank land captured by Israel in 1967, and has long been a target for attack by Palestinian militants. ...
And who was the "militant" who murdered Shiri and 18 other people on that bus? The BBC explains:
Mohammed al-Ghoul, the suicide bomber who killed Shiri was recruited by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has been responsible for many attacks against Israeli civilians. ...
According to the Israeli army, over the past two-and-half years [i.e., 2000-2003], Hamas has killed more than 240 Israelis and wounded 1,400 others in 73 suicide bombings.
Sharon Negari is adamant that Shiri will not become just another statistic.
"Shiri was a unique girl. She inspired people with her energy and smile. She was a symbol of life and we want it to stay that way," says Sharon. .... (Emphasis added.)
That 2003 BBC article was headlined "When will it end?" The quite recent answer from Hamas is, "Not yet":
The Israeli Border Police averted a major disaster on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish Year, after they found a suicide bomber's belt in a southern Tel Aviv apartment, it was reported on Saturday [Sept. 22]. . . .
After an IDF raid in Nablus (Shechem) last week and the capture of senior Hamas terrorist Nihad Rashid Hasan Shakirat, Shakirat led authorities to Mahed Ashur, a resident of Nablus who worked in Tel Aviv and who already transferred the belt to the Israeli city. . . .
A commenter yesterday said the Negari family was originally from Iran. I e-mailed Shiri's cousin Dvir, who replied:
Shiri's dad was born in Iran -- he is part of a large Jewish family that immigrated from Iran to Israel (and also to the US) about 40 years ago.
Esther -- Shiri's mother, although with European roots, also knows to speak fluent Farsi. Esther travelled to Iran after marrying Shiri's dad to meet his family and this is where she learned the language.
Before Khomeini's revolution, the relationships between Israel and Iran where normal and warm. Such visits were possible.
Esther's father came from a Jewish family in Poland. Most of his family (9 out of 11 brothers) was murdered in concentration camps during the holocaust.
Therefore, like many other young Israelis -- Shiri was a "mixture" of east and west, combining the Jewish heritage of immigrants coming from different parts of the world (which implies that the food is great and diverse -- Persian rice with European gefilte fish ... )
So in fact, Shiri's story is the micro-story of the state of Israel. This is why in my view she is also the symbol of the tragedies that accompany our lives here.
Her name was Shiri Negari, and she was beautiful. Her photo appeared on a poster at today's Columbia University protest. Michelle Malkin, who has a photo of the poster, says: "Absolute moral authority."
"In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country," Ahmadinejad explained. The laughter of thousands of Columbia students floated across South Lawn, where a big screen had been set up to accomodate the overspill. It was natural, I suppose, that the tragic truth of Ahmadinejad's statement was not registered: Homosexuals do not exist in Iran because Iran routinely hangs homosexuals.
-- RSM
UPDATE 5:20 p.m.
The Washington Times' Betsy Pisik files an updated report from Columbia University:
Who knew that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could be such a captivating speaker?
The Iranian president, known for his circuitous Biblical and historical references that never really get to the point, held Columbia University's students and faculty for almost 90 minutes this afternoon as he rambled over everything from Palestinian pain to the horror of terrorism to the hegemony of the three western nations on the UN Security Council.
He assured the crowd that the Holocaust really happened, even as he denied the existance of homosexuals in Iran.
"We do not have this problem. Who told you that?" he asked rhetorically, answering -- or not -- a student's query about why so many women and homosexuals have been put to death in Iran.
That line a got a lot laughs, just as the reference to the "monolithically selfish superpower" drew hearty boos.
Of course he defended Tehran's uranium enrichment efforts as peaceful precursors to nuclear power, a resource his country needs.
In the space of an hour, Mr. Ahmadinejad hit all the emotions from playfulness to scholarly to what appeared to be genuine hurt.
Mr. Ahmadinejad delayed his prepared remarks to chastise "the dear gentleman" who introduced him to the spill-over audience with unusually harsh language.
Columbia President Lee Bollinger -- surely amping his skepticsm in response to a week's worth of vilifying editorials and headlines like the NY Daily News priceless "The Evil Has Landed " -- roasted Mr. Ahmadinejad's historic denial of the Holocaust as "brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated."
In defending Colombia's decision to invite the Iranian leader to speak, Mr. Bollinger noted, "Mr. Ahmadinejad, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator," a line that drew sustained applause.
There were a few supporters of the appearance, but the opposition was far louder and more visible.
Iranian expats waved the green-white and orange flag of their homeland, insisting he does not represent the Iranian people.
And at least 200 students lounged in the early autumn sunshine to listen to speakers denounce Mr . Ahmadinejad at a campus-approved microphone on the central quad.
Steven Michael Gruber stood outside Columbia's Broadway gates, where police were checking the student ID of every entrant.
He had taped his 1982 Columbia Master's diploma in international affairs to a placard and was offering to sell it for 50 cents.
"Yes I do believe in freedom of speech," Mr. Gruber said, but he is protesting the university's invitation "to a man who is an enemy of the United States."
He said the right of free speech should not be extended to "people who want to kill me, or countries that do not have diplomatic relations with the United States." Free speech is not honored at Colubia anyway, he added, because the Minutemen were not allowed to speak on campus and ROTC recruiters are not welcomed either.
At least one counter-protester has hung a poster with a picture of President Bush morphing into a mushroom cloud, labeled "the real nuclear threat."
One woman student said of Mr. Ahmadinejad: "I would like to hear what he has to say before I hate him."
UPDATE 3:55 p.m.
The Columbia Spectator reports that "the University is now being flooded with calls to congratulate Columbia on the Ahmadinejad invitation" -- perhaps a reaction to President Bollinger's introduction ... ?
Ahmadinejad smiled as Columbia President Lee Bollinger took him to task over Iran's human-rights record and foreign policy and Ahmadinejad's statements denying the Holocaust and calling for the disappearance of Israel.
"Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator," Bollinger said, to loud applause.
He said Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust might fool the illiterate and ignorant.
"When you come to a place like this it makes you simply ridiculous," Bollinger said. "The truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history."
I was against the invitation, I still am. I am no great fan of Bollinger's. But, I must give credit where due. His opening statement is about as hard-hitting and tough as one could hope for. ... If the video of Bollinger's statement is distributed throughout the Middle East in general and Iran in particular it could have a very positive effect.
Columbia University President Lee Bollinger has been criticized for being soft on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but ... wow ... that introduction didn't pull any punches.
"Iran will not attack any country," Ahmadinejad told The Associated Press after being asked if it would ever make a first strike against Israel. Iran has always maintained a defensive policy, not an offensive one, he said, and has "never sought to expand its territory."
He said he did not believe the U.S. was preparing for war.
"I believe that some of the talk in this regard arises first of all from anger. Secondly, it serves the electoral purposes domestically in this country. Third, it serves as a cover for policy failures over Iraq."
In a 30-minute interview at a hotel near the United Nations, Ahmadinejad struck a consistently soothing tone. He said Iranian foreign policy was based on humanitarian concerns and seeking justice, and that it is not in its interest to stir up problems for its neighbors.
The Washington Times' Betsy Pisik is at the scene as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is set to speak at Columbia University, and protesters are making their feelings known:
Steven Michael Gruber is selling his 1982 Columbia Master's diploma in international affairs for 50 cents in protest of an appearance at the university today by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Mr. Gruber is one of about 200 demonstrators who have gathered on the uptown Manhattan campus ahead of Mr. Ahmadinejad's arrival for an early afternoon questino-and-answer session with students and faculty.
"Yes I do believe in freedom of speech," Mr. Gruber says, but he is protesting the university's invitation "to a man who is an enemy of the United States."
"Columbia is a place of free speech, but not to people who want to kill me, or countries that do not have diplomatic relations with the United States," he adds. He says free speech is not honored anyway at Columbia, which refused to allow a leader of the Minutemen to speak on campus and does not permit ROTC representation on campus.
A tumultuous but peaceful crowd had already gathered to await the Iranian leader's appearance, waving flyers and large Iranian flags on the sidewalk outside the gates to the campus at 116th Street and Broadway. At least one counter-protester has hung a poster with a picture of President Bush morphing into a mushroom cloud, labeled "the real nuclear threat."
Security officers are checking the ID of everyone seeking to enter the campus, where another 200 or more protesters are gathered on the steps in front of the main administration building. A large screen television monitor has been posted on a lawn to accomodate those who cannot get into the Journalism Building to see the speech.
The daily student newspaper, the Columbia Spectator, has published an eight-page special insert in which students debate the decision to let Mr. Ahmadinejad speak.
One woman student said: "I would like to hear what he has to say before I hate him."
UPDATE 12:30 p.m.
Not only does he get invited to Columbia, he gets a long interview with "60 Minutes":
Ayn Rand said evil is made possible by the sanction you give it, withdraw your sanction.
Meanwhile, the dean of Columbia Law School weighs in:
A high-quality academic discussion depends on intellectual honesty but, unfortunately, Mr. Ahmadinejad has proven himself, time and again, to be uninterested in whether his words are true. Therefore, my personal opinion is that he should not be invited to speak. Mr. Ahmadinejad is a reprehensible and dangerous figure who presides over a repressive regime, is responsible for the death of American soldiers, denies the Holocaust, and calls for the destruction of Israel. It would be deeply regrettable if some misread this invitation as lending prestige or legitimacy to his views.
Just checked my e-mail inbox again, and was once more disappointed to find that Columbia University President Lee Bollinger still has not invited me to lecture students there. I suppose President Bollinger has similarly disappointed many others -- rumor has it that Ann Coulter is crushed by Bollinger's refusal to honor her with the distinction he has bestowed on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Over the weekend, I reported (and blogged) about Columbia alumnus David Horowitz's reaction to Ahmadinejad's appearance at Horowitz's alma mater:
"Why are they inviting the Persian Hitler to Columbia? ... It's a disgrace. ... What Columbia is doing is giving moral support to genocide, and as an alumni, I am deeply ashamed." ...
University President Lee Bollinger has said the Ahmadinejad invitation is in keeping with "Columbia's long-standing tradition of serving as a major forum for robust debate."
Naming a list of current and former Bush administration officials, Mr. Horowitz said, "Just ask yourself ... do you think any of those people would be invited to Columbia by the president of the university under the pretext of a 'robust debate?' "
In surveying reaction to the Adhmadinejad-Columbia affair -- which continues to roil the blogosphere -- two points stand out quite prominently.
First, reaction to Ahmadinejad seems to be filtered through a domestic political lens. Those who hate President Bush and oppose the war in Iraq tend to describe opposition to Ahmadinejad as neocon warmongering ginned up by the "Republican noise machine." Consider for example, this "open letter" from a Columbia anti-war group:
We fear the demonization of Ahmadinejad, because we think this demonization contributes to the likelihood of war. In the current climate, with many on the political right in the U.S. and Israel pushing for air strikes, a campaign against Ahmadinejad is dangerous, regardless of the intentions of most involved. . . .
The right-wing media, from Fox News to the New York tabloids, has already jumped on the event, and will spin it to favor their cause.
This kind of "enemy-of-my-enemy" logic led one DailyKos diarist to write about her "little crush" on Ahmadinejad:
There are certainly many things about Ahmadinejad that I abhor -- locking up dissidents, executing of gay folks, denying the fact of the Holocaust, potentially adding another dangerous nuclear power to the world and, in general, stifling democracy. Even still, I can't help but be turned on by his frank rhetoric calling out the horrors of the Bush Administration and, for that matter, generations of US foreign policy preceding.
Keep it up, boys. There's attack ads in them thar hills.
Beyond partisan politics, however, is a second obvious point about the reaction to the Ahmadinejad-Columbia affair, namely the way it is being framed as a campus free-speech issue, as if the Iranian president were just another outspoken "activist" type on the college lecture circuit. For example, here is an "open letter" from Columbia's student leadership:
In a university setting, no view is too disreputable to be excluded -- the goal of a university is to hear and present a wide array of opinions so that they may be challenged and debated in the spirit of free speech and the pursuit of knowledge. . . .
The entire campus community must have the opportunity to actively engage President Ahmadinejad in order to achieve true academic freedom and discussion.
Debate, discussion, free speech, "true academic freedom" -- am I the only one who detects in this language the implicit idea that Ahmadinejad has a First Amendment right to lecture at Columbia, and that any criticism of Bollinger's decision to invite Ahmadinejad amounts to an infringement of "true academic freedom"?
By that line of reasoning, anyone who hasn't been invited to lecture at Columbia has been denied their right to free speech, and if Bollinger invited Charles Manson or Sirhan Sirhan to deliver next year's commencement address, no friend of "true academic freedom" could dare complain.
The U.S. military accused Iran on Sunday of smuggling surface-to-air missiles and other advanced weapons into Iraq for use against American troops. . . .
Military spokesman Rear Adm. Mark Fox said U.S. troops were continuing to find Iranian-supplied weaponry including the Misagh 1, a portable surface-to-air missile that uses an infrared guidance system.
Other advanced Iranian weaponry found in Iraq includes the RPG-29 rocket-propelled grenade, 240 mm rockets and armor-piercing roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, Fox said.
Surely, Columbia students will hear "a wide array of opinions" from Ahmadinejad about that. Expect updates.
-- Robert Stacy McCain, assistant national editor, The Washington Times
It was a coin-flip, really, between her and the Coppertone Girl. But does Miss Coppertone really think her "wardrobe malfunction" gimmick is enough to compete against Little Debbie's famous Swiss Cake Rolls?
Advertising Week 2007 is September 24th-28th in New York City. But the fun begins right now. Cast your vote for America's Favorite Advertising Icon and Slogan now through September 24th. That's right. You have the power to triple the Doublemint Twins' lead, crown the Burger King or sing the praises of the California Raisins.
I'm finding it hard to believe that Juan Valdez was voted into the Walk of Fame before Captain Crunch -- does Juan even have a green card?
As much as we love our favorite advertising icons, there is a serious point to make about ads. Advertising makes consumers aware of product brands but, it is important to note, ads do not create demand. You cannot sell a lousy product simply by hyping it up with lots of advertising. This was the lesson Ford learned 50 years ago with the Edsel.
A product that doesn't live up to the hype won't get word-of-mouth recommendations, which are the most valuable advertising in the world. Now, go buy some of those Little Debbies -- trust me.
Anita Thompson, widow of famed gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, was in Washington for a book signing Thursday at Olsson's, where I filed a brief report:
"He was not writing for professors, he was writing for his people," Anita Thompson told a crowd of about 40 people at Olsson's bookstore on Seventh Street NW, talking about her new book, "The Gonzo Way: A Celebration of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson."
Now a student at Columbia University, Mrs. Thompson said her professors are "not as welcoming" as Mr. Thompson, whom she credited as "the one who introduced me to literature."
Mrs. Thompson, 34, worked as an editorial assistant for the famed author of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" before their marriage in 2003.
"When I first met him, I didm't know who he was. He was just a guy I had a crush on," she said, adding that her family initially "freaked out" at her decision to marry a man 35 years her senior.
Thompson's legend seems to have been misunderstood by some of his fans, she explained:
"A lot of young people are under the assumption that if you do a lot of cocaine and drink a lot of Wild Turkey, you, too, can write like Hunter S. Thompson," she told the audience that included Richard Cusick of High Times magazine and R. Keith Stroop, founder of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
Her husband, she said, believed in originality, and didn't believe anyone should try to be like anyone else -- especially not like Hunter S. Thompson.
Here's video of an old interview in which Thompson was asked about the the difficulty of living up to his image:
After the book-signing, Mrs. Thompson and several of her husband's old friends adjourned to a nearby pub, where they were served by waiter Kevin Carlson, 29, who said he was honored to have such an opportunity. When he was 22, Carlson said, his best friend bought him a copy of Thompson's "Rum Diary" as a gift, and he's been a fan ever since. Mrs. Thompson responded by giving the waiter a gold-tone pin with her late husband's fist-and-dagger "Gonzo" logo.
-- Robert Stacy McCain, assistant national editor, The Washington Times
It is a common complaint that newspapers don't report the good news. And on this, the sixth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, you can see a good example of that.
Why? Because it's politics, it's war, it's conflict. Peaceniks vs. the Pentagon, Left vs. Right, Democrats vs. Republicans. That's the kind of story that gets big headlines on the front page -- and lots of links from bloggers (1,670 posts as of 11 p.m. Monday).
Now, if possible, take yourself out of the mentality of the news junkie, the competitive reporter, the political activist. That is to say: Don't think like a Beltway insider.
In that mindset -- as just an ordinary citizen -- suppose you were driving near a college campus on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, and saw spreading across the lawn nearly 3,000 small U.S. flags:
At college and university campuses across America today, that's exactly what people will be seeing, thanks to Young America's Foundation's 9/11 Never Forget Project. U.S. flag memorials like that one are part of activities conducted by hundreds of student volunteers.
Remember, you're just an ordinary citizen driving past the campus and you see those thousands of flags and maybe you think, "Hey, that's pretty neat. The kids who did that must be really proud, patriotic Americans. Wonder who organized that?"
Don't look to the mainstream press for information. Want to guess how many newspapers had reported on the 9/11 New Forget Project as of 11 p.m. Monday? According to a Google News search, exactly one:
Flags and prayers will be part of memorials planned tomorrow at colleges and universities across the country to remember the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Students at more than 150 campuses will participate in the Young America's Foundation's "9/11 Never Forget Project."
Among the projects planned at several schools are the creation of memorials featuring 3,000 small flags, each flag representing one of those killed by the terrorist hijackers who destroyed the World Trade Center in New York, hit the Pentagon and crashed a fourth commercial jetliner in Pennsylvania.
Frankly, that was a very easy story to write. YAF sent out an informative press release. Any reporter could have called YAF's offices (the number's easy enough to remember, 800-USA-1776) to get more information, and done a nice little feature about those flag memorials and prayer vigils for the 9/11 anniversary.
Not a lot of work for a nice little story. But it seems no one else bothered to do it. Why? Dare anyone suggest ... bias? Consider the laudatory coverage lavished on the "Rock the Vote" project (that Google search returns 168,000 hits).
As National Review reported, Rock the Vote campaigned in 2004 on a pretty obvious liberal message: "If the younger generation doesn't vote, the environment would be destroyed, America would soon have a draft, and government funding for higher education would be eliminated." And in 2005, Rock the Vote actively lobbied against President Bush's plan for Social Security reform.
The left-leaning politics of Rock the Vote doesn't prevent the press from providing effusive coverage of the group, presenting it as a universal voice of the young generation. But YAF is a conservative group, and the 89 percent Democratic press corps thinks conservatives are "controversial," so YAF doesn't get that kind of treatment.
Bias, however, cannot fully explain why the 9/11 Never Forget Project is being ignored by most news organizations on this anniversary. The bias against reporting good news also about ego. Big-shot reporters don't do "happy news." The scoop, the exclusive, the leaked document, the "sources close to the investigation said" kind of story -- that's what the big shots want.
Sigh. Anyway, at least now readers of The Washington Times know that, out there in America, some patriotic college kids are flying the flag today. And isn't that good to know?
And here's a nice video about the project, from YAF:
-- Robert Stacy McCain, assistant national editor, The Washington Times
From the looks of things, she barely wanted to be there last night.
Scott says he doesn't want to pile on. But hey, even the staid Associated Press is pouring on the snark:
As in most train wrecks, it was hard to focus on just one thing as the Britney Spears disaster unfolded on MTV's Video Music Awards. There was just so much that went wrong.
Out-of-synch lip-synching. Lethargic movements that seemed choreographed by a dance instructor for a nursing home. The paunch in place of Spears' once-taut belly. At times she just stopped singing, as if even she knew nothing could save her performance.
Designed to drum up excitement for her upcoming album, Spears' kickoff to the Video Music Awards on Sunday night became another example of how far she has fallen. (Emphasis added.)
"I was a terrible student. ... I had no work ethic," cartoonist Peter Bagge said Wednesday night, describing his school days to an invitation-only crowd at the Washington offices of Reason magazine. "I never met an adult who encouraged me to be a cartoonist."
Despite (or perhaps because of) that lack of encouragement, Bagge has made his living as a cartoonist for more than 20 years, creating the Hate Comics series and contributing to Mad, among other projects (including a Spider-Man parody published by Marvel.)
"I really hated 'Doonesbury,' " Bagge said, describing his youthful taste in cartoons. But he said he experienced "a lightbulb over my head" the first time he encountered the underground comics of Robert Crumb. "He obviously was going mad. ... I said, 'This is exactly what I want to do.' "
Having grown up the son of a "Goldwater Republican," Bagge said his libertarian sensibilities were honed during his experience attending art school in New York City. "Artist types are obsessed with the First Amendment ... but when you get to the Second Amendment, they slam on the breaks."
Bagge hits the throttle on the "right to keep and bear arms" in the latest issue of Reason, with his cartoon essay, "The Right to Own a Bazooka."
-- Robert Stacy McCain, assistant national editor, The Washington Times
Rumor No. 1: Leonardo di Caprio and Russell Crowe are coming to Washington this week for filming of director Ridley Scott's "Body of Lies." There was already a casting call for extras.
So here we are, my husband and I, on our way to the Summer of Love/40 celebration in Golden Gate Park. . . .
Dressed in our tie-dyes (this is what we wear all the time, we haven't changed). . . .
We are still young Hippies at heart. It's dismaying to pass a mirror and see a person who is almost 60. . . . We're the Woodstock generation. . . .
We have donated thousands to Dem races all over the U.S. and we look forward to the 2008 election. . . . We will host Dem house parties in the Central Valley, in our gated community with lakes and golf courses.
(Hat tip: Jammie Wearing Fool)
It's weird -- 1967 is now as far in the past as 1927 was in the Summer of Love. But in 1967, you didn't have 50,000 people turning out to celebrate the glories of bathtub gin and hot jazz.
Dreams of eternal youth seem peculiar to the Baby Boomer generation. They sure made some great music, though . . .
-- Robert Stacy McCain, assistant national editor, The Washington Times
