“I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.” Shakespeare’s words ring literally true in Andrew Niccol’s cinematic marriage of ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ with ‘Robin Hood.’

‘In Time’ takes place in a future where physical aging has been genetically altered to end at 25. At that time, a year begins to count down on your arm. When your time runs out, you die. If you can earn or steal more time, you can extend your life infinitely. In this world, people are divided in time zones based on their wealth, and Timekeepers – half cop, half agents of order – ensure that no one breaks the rules and advances illegally.

Justin Timberlake plays Will, a struggling factory worker who has been gifted over a century of time by Henry (Matt Bomer), a man who has grown tired of living. With his new wealth and knowledge, Will goes to New Greenwich, the lap of luxury, intent on stealing time from the wealthy to distribute to the masses – time that has been stolen from them through manipulated markets that ensure the rich earn more time while the poor continually struggle to make it through each day. There, he meets Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried), the daughter of Philippe (‘Mad Men’s’ Vincent Kartheiser), who owns an eternity of time. When Timekeepers track Will to New Greenwich and try to arrest him for supposedly stealing the minutes and murdering Henry, he kidnaps Sylvia and goes on the run, racing against not only the Timekeepers but a dwindling clock.

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I’ll never forget the first time I caught the Discovery Channel’s long-running series “Dirty Jobs.” It was 2005, the year the show premiered, and we were visiting my dad who was already a fan. Truth be told, I wanted no part of the show. First, some background…

My father has spent his life keeping fighter jets flying in the Air Force, fixing your cars, keeping your nursing homes up to code, and remodeling your homes. At 72, there’s still nothing he can’t do, and that includes building a three-car garage from scratch and doing so all by himself. Over fifty-plus years, my father’s hands have been dirty and yet the idea of joining a union is unthinkable to him. He’s self-taught and too disgusted by the very idea of receiving something for nothing to want anything to do with the spoiled, entitled, collective mindset that infects most unions today. Therefore, I was shocked to learn that, because he felt it looked at the world of those who do physical labor for a living in a very entertaining and respectful way, there was a reality show he was enthused about .

If you recall, things were a lot different in pop culturedom in the year of our Lord 2005. This recent flurry of reality programming that portrays working class Americans and entrepreneurs as the everyday heroes they are were still on the horizon, and popular culture was still very much enamored by young, hip urbanites. When you saw blue collar men on television or in films, they were usually the butt of the joke — the moron, the buffoon, the clueless, the creep, the ignorant, the guy with the butt crack who  fixed Rachel, Monica and Phoebe’s sink to hysterical canned laughter.

I was so sick of this, so tired and disgusted with elitist Hollywood and their heroic lawyers, professors, and journalists, that the thought of watching some snarky, superior television host mock and belittle those doing “dirty jobs” — or as I like to call it, the work that keeps the world turning — was the last thing I wanted to see.

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Funny how this cynical new ABC series (produced and starring the rich, no doubt) assumes average Americans are more interested in taking revenge on the rich instead of becoming rich themselves. It’s also also interesting that the show is set in the Hamptons as  opposed to, say… Hollywood?

Revenge, which ABC entertainment Group Paul Lee called one of “our internal favorites” earlier in the day, is billed as a contemporary reimagining of The Count of Monte Cristo. The drama centers on a mysterious young woman, played by Emily VanCamp, who is welcomed into a rich Hamptons community filled with people who don’t know she’s there to exact revenge on the people who had destroyed her family.

“We’re dealing in a particular time right now in American history where I think the average American is going to want to see a takedown of the rich,” says star Madeleine Stowe.

Added creator/executive producer Mike Kelley, “Revenge is such a great story engine. It’s really a jumping off point.”

Is everyone on the show working for minimum wage? Gee, I hope so. Otherwise, that would be hypocritical.

How about this pitch for a new ABC series…

Title: “OPERATION: MATT DAMON”

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So Tom Brokaw just appeared on Morning Joe (named after a sex act), to discuss the boost in gun sales since the Arizona shooting.

Brokaw explained this upsurge as a bunch of scared lemmings stockpiling their guns in “underground bunkers” in case new laws arrive to ban them.

He elaborated somewhat…

“In Arizona they have a wide open system. I would be nervous about going into a bar or restaurant in Arizona on a Saturday night where people can carry concealed without permits.”

You would be nervous?

That’s the point, Tom.

You should be nervous. And by “you,” I really mean, generally, any jerk who comes in to start trouble at the bar. That’s the beauty of guns, or the threat of guns – it’s a natural motivator to lighten up, back off, and mind your own beeswax.

And let’s not forget, people bought those guns, to protect themselves. As John Lott Jr., points out, a major factor in determining how many people are harmed by a lunatic killer is the time frame between the start of the attack and when another gun arrives. The quicker it gets there, the faster the crime spree ends.

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The Democrats, after getting their butts kicked all through July, are trying to change the momentum by raising the bloody flag of class warfare. Last Friday the House of Representatives voted 237-185 along party lines to enable financial regulators to limit Wall Street pay and bonus packages they deem inappropriate. The new regulation would affect firms worth over $1 billion, whether or not they got government bailout funds. The Washington Post and AP both asserted the House was responding to looming “populist anger,” although polls suggest recent public concern has been over spending and health care. 

Class warfare rests on the assumption, usually well disguised and used very selectively, that capitalist profits are a rip-off, a heist, “unearned.” In his recent health-care pitch, President Obama declared insurance companies are “making record profits,” a questionable claim but presumably identifying both the evil enemy and the room for government to save money, if you buy that the government can deliver something as good for the same cost.   (more…)