Scott W. Johnson is a Minneapolis attorney. For more than fifteen years Johnson has written with his former law partner John H. Hinderaker on public policy issues including income inequality, income taxes, campaign finance reform, affirmative action, welfare reform, and race in the criminal justice system.
Both Hinderaker and Johnson are fellows of the Claremont Institute. Their articles have appeared in National Review, the Weekly Standard, the New York Times, and newspapers from Florida to California.
Johnson is one of the founding members of the blog Power Line, named by Time its (first and only) Blog of the Year in 2004 for its role in the exposure of Dan Rather's fraudulent 60 Minutes II hit piece on President Bush.
Johnson lives with his family in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the University of Minnesota Law School. He can be reached by phone at (612)414-6464.
Scott W. Johnson
When Elvis met Nixon
by Scott W. JohnsonToday is the anniversary of the birth of Elvis Presley, who was born on this date in 1935. Elvis died of a life of excess and drug abuse at an absurdly young age. He had been a superstar for more than 20 years by the time he died, entombed in his own celebrity.
When Elvis, Scotty and Bill found their way to the heart of American music with their recording of “That’s Alright, Mama” in 1954, they (and Sun Records owner/producer Sam Phillips) knew they had done something special. Elvis found the heart of America — the place where country, blues, and gospel meet — many times over in his music. Indeed, after his artistic decline in the ’60s, he willed himself to a second period of creative genius and genuine accomplishment at the end of the ’60s and early ’70s. Am I wrong in thinking that listening closely to the music all by itself can make us love our country more?
With his superb two-volume biography of Elvis, Peter Guralnick has made himself the essential chronicler of Elvis’s story. Guralnick of course tells the true story of the day in December 1970 when Elvis met Nixon in the White House. The story of the visit provides insight into Elvis’s patriotism as well as comic relief in the denoument of Elvis’s life.
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
| 
The Eternal Return of Hollywood Politics
by Scott W. JohnsonI recall an article in the New York Times entertainment section that heralded the forthcoming release of three overtly political films in what must have been the fall of 1979. (My memory might be playing tricks on me. I have searched in the Times’s archives in vain for the article; if you can track it down, please let me know.) The author of the article noted the usual lack of success experienced by such overtly political films, but purred with excitement that the upcoming trio of films might change things. In the event the three films proved successful, Hollywood might get serious about using the medium to educate the masses.
I say it must have been 1979 because, as I recall, one of the three films previewed in the article was Richard Lester’s “Cuba,” starring Sean Connery. “Cuba” was a dud released in December 1979. The enthusiastic Amazon entry by Marshall Fine at least honestly notes that it is “one of Sean Connery’s least-seen films.” I went to see the film at the Grandview Theater in St. Paul because of the Times article, and I can testify that there is good reason for the film’s status as “one of Sean Connery’s least-seen films.”
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Follow Us on Twitter
Subscribe via RSS
Tips & Feedback