One would be hard-pressed to find a better example of Liberal Fascism than the move by liberal politicians to ban Chick-fil-A from their jurisdictions because of the owner's opinion on gay marriage. In fact, stop looking. This will do for a long, long while.The flap has all the hallmarks of an absurd, ginned-up controversy by liberals and the media they control.
My daughter and I were talking about comics last night, as we tend to do. The particular occasion this time was a nasty, nihilistic bit of business called Wanted, by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones, which she and I had read over the break. Yes, we understood that it was supposed to be a reductio ad absurdum version of the "dark/gritty" trend in the last couple of decades in comics -- note that the supervillains wipe out the heroes in 1986, the year of Dark…
Political rhetoric in the United States has always been feverish and low on scruples. That’s the nature of democracies. Yet there has arisen a new atmosphere in the past decade, and it is not a result of right-wing talk radio. It is instead a legacy of the 1960s New Left, which held that purity of purpose justifies any tactic short of murder.
The popular TNT series The Closer begins its final season this week (Mondays, 9 p.m. EDT). Series producer James Duff is preparing a spinoff called Major Crimes. Closer star Kyra Sedgwick says that she wants a “really dark” ending to the show but expects Duff to demur, though the season will include a good deal of trouble for the crime-solving protagonist, according to USA Today:
I had long ago sensed this on the basis of his last few albums and interviews, but it’s good to see it confirmed. The Toronto Sun reports that in his last years before his murder by a demon-possessed madman, John Lennon expressed support for Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan and baited left-wing radicals who held opinions he had forsaken. Lennon’s former personal assistant tells about this in the new documentary Beatles Stories, the article reports. So that’s what he meant by “Starting Over”! Read the…
Yes, I’m a bit a bit late to the party, I know, but It’s So Easy to enjoy this Paul McCartney performance of a Buddy Holly classic. Rolling Stone has the goods here, where you can listen for free.
by Warren Moore One of the neat things about having attended HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC, last weekend was the chance to discover comics I hadn’t read before, placed somewhere outside the mainstream. One that I liked quite a bit is Blink, by a guy who calls himself Max Ink, and both the cartoonist and his creation are based in Columbus, Ohio. His artistic influences include Eisner and Watterson, his musical influences include progressive rock (especially Yes — one story is entitled “Time an a Few…
At First Things, David Mills explains the harm of false prophets, and he recommends the traditional Christian way of thinking about the end times: In being directed to reflect on the end of history, we are being directed to reflect on the men and women we ought to be. . . . The world will still try to make such reflections look weird and uncool, but how weird and uncool can it possibly be to be a saint? Recommended: “Families and False Prophets”
The final season of the excellent TV drama series Friday Night Lights has begun on network television, Fridays at 8 p.m. EDT. Having seen the final season when it ran on DirecTV this past fall and winter, I can confirm that it’s well worth watching. Two things that make the show stand out: its realistic depiction of the role of religious faith in American life, and its insightful, sympathetic description of a complex and regularly challenged but successful modern marriage.
It might not seem particularly necessary given that the Onion Sports Network is already broadcasting and is very funny, but Norm MacDonald is the funniest guy in the world, so I’m going to watch Sports Show with Norm MacDonald , Tuesdays on (the usually odious) Comedy Central at 10:30 EDT. Recommended.
Progressive rock superband Yes has finished production work on their first new album in a decade and plans to tour in support of it this year. Longtime Yes singer, lyricist, co-songwriter, and inspirational leader Jon Anderson will not be participating in the album or tour. Bassist and band co-founder Chris Squire reports that Benoit David has taken over lead vocal duties for the band after having toured with Yes in 2008 while Anderson struggled with health problems that had precluded the band from touring for…
The long-running UK mystery-crime series Midsomer Murders (shown on U.S. TV for several years and still available on DVD) was immensely popular and widely admired by fans and critics alike. The show’s producer got in a good deal of trouble recently, however, for saying that MM’s avoidance of race- and sexual-behavior-based characters and story lines was part of its appeal. As MM producer Brian True-May noted, the show’s refusal to shoehorn such elements into its stories made sense because
On the very weekend that all of Hollywood was preparing for the Academy Awards to celebrate the English-language cinema’s most prestigious and ambitious products (a very weak crop this year, it must be observed), audiences stayed away from the theaters (ticket sales were 20 percent lower than the same weekend last year, and it was the twelfth consecutive week of lower revenues than last year), and the top box office draw was the prestigious critically despised 3-d animated film Gnomeo and Juliet. You just have…
By Mike Gray . . . the Holy Grail of artificial intelligence (AI) has always been human language. Because contexts and reference frames change constantly in ordinary life, speaking human language, like playing Jeopardy!, is not easily reducible to an algorithm. Could you pass the Turing Test—that is, “when an interrogating judge [isn't] able to distinguish between a computer and a human being hidden behind a curtain”?
Taken 2—er, Unknown—finished at the top of the U.S. box office this weekend, bringing in about $3 million more than expected. The sci-fi thriller I Am Number Four did about $3 million worse than anticipated, finishing second. And Gnomeo and Juliet keeps on going strong. It’s gnome-eriffic. Why do Neeson’s crime thrillers do so well?
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