Honoring September 11th: The Restart of History

“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!” – Michael Corleone, Godfather Part III

True story:  As a young man just out of law school, I was consumed with politics.  I even went to work on the Hill (Capitol, that is, Washington, DC) and in journalism.  But at some point in the ’90s, my interest faded away.

Francis Fukuyama wrote a then-notorious book called The End of History, published in 1992, shortly after the Soviet Union’s collapse.  He argued that the age-old ideological struggles over what constitutes the best form of government were over, and the undisputed universal champion was Western liberal (in the classic, free-market sense) democracy.

I grew up during the latter stages of the Cold War, when the existential threat of nuclear war hung over and colored almost everything.  It made politics seem vital to one’s very survival.  And I found the debate between capitalism and communism hugely compelling. (more…)

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Tags: 9/11, Clash of Civilizations, cold war, Politics, Soviet Union
Posted Sep 11th 2009 at 1:51 pm in Culture, Featured Story, Military, Politics | 22237815 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/aleigh/2009/09/11/honoring-september-11th-the-restart-of-history/Honoring+September+11th%3A+The+Restart+of+History2009-09-11+20%3A51%3A51Andrew+Leigh

Treasonous Teddy: Chappaquiddick Only the Beginning

As Gloucester in Henry VI beguiled like the mournful crocodile, so the political praises and tears for the late Democratic Senator from Taxachusets mouthed by his enemies have diminished and signaled the time for candor. Teddy Kennedy was a cheat, a proven liar, a shameless demagogue and a probable murderer. Those character traits were well known. But did you know he was a security risk dropped from the US Army intelligence school and a genuine traitor who offered Cold War US nuclear arms negotiation secrets to the Soviet Union if it would help the Democrats beat Ronald Reagan and further his own presidential ambitions?

That’s why my blood went to full boil a couple of days before he died when I glanced at the TV in a rural Bates motel — been staying in a lot of those lately — and saw Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz laud the youngest Camelotian as the greatest Senator and humanitarian of all time from the deck of Geraldo Rivera’s berthed yacht in Martha’s Vineyard. Dershowitz went on to tell the FOX mustachioed-one how he had rushed to Teddy’s aid with expert legal skills “in his hour of need” after Kennedy had left his date, Mary Jo Kopechne, to die in a Chappaquiddick Island tidal pond during the summer of 1969. Dershowitz’ considerable skills aside, the fact that full media attention was diverted from Kennedy by the coming Moon landing and walk to take place two days later probably helped the Kennedy fixers regroup and save his political hide. (more…)

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Tags: Alan Dershowitz, Andropov, Chappaquidick, cold war, Forbes
Posted Sep 2nd 2009 at 12:45 pm in Featured Story, Politics | 214574134 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dgifford/2009/09/02/moon-over-chappaquidick/Treasonous+Teddy%3A+Chappaquiddick+Only+the+Beginning2009-09-02+19%3A45%3A29Dan+Gifford

The Cold War At Home

The news is really unbelievable these days. All that I once thought were core American values and traditions are now being washed away in a sea of propaganda and political attacks from the radical Left, which now rules supreme and knows it. The Left in power is now waging an ideological war not only against conservatives, but any dissenting Americans who get in their way. Worst of all, they are using the full machinery of the government and their Lefty media lapdogs to do it all, and in the same fashion as Ahmadinejad’s government is demonizing the Green protesters in Iran.

It is chilling to witness, in the United States of America of all places. Civil political discourse is a thing of the past. You cannot oppose ObamaCare without being a swastika-waving corporate Nazi stooge. Never mind the fact that no one will tell us exactly where all the hospitals, doctors, and nurses to treat 50 million new patients will magically materialize from, or how it will all be paid for.
(more…)

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Tags: Cap and Trade, Cap-and-Tax, cold war, DHS, FCC
Posted Aug 31st 2009 at 7:12 am in News, Politics | 212846125 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jtsimpson/2009/08/31/the-cold-war-at-home/The+Cold+War+At+Home2009-08-31+14%3A12%3A14John+T.+Simpson

Do The Warhol—Part 3: The Velvet (Underground) Revolution

“They say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” —Andy Warhol

"I adore America and these are some comments on it. My image is a statement of the symbols of the harsh, impersonal products and brash materialistic objects on which America is built today. It is a projection of everything that can be bought and sold, and practical but impermanent symbols that sustain us." —Andy Warhol, 1962

Americans love rebels, even without cause or clue. Enough hip, smart, young people who are tired of having their faces and futures pushed into to sewage of bad ideas, pointless existences, and totalitarian ideologies, with strong support and encouragement, could really make a difference in the world. In contemporary context, they would be true anti-heroes, rebelling against the brave new world of ersatz freedom and the all-powerful fascist state, against crushing conformity and the annihilation of the rights of the individual.

Such things can and do happen.  Some might say they happened in the nineteen-sixties.  And they did—in Czechoslovakia. (more…)

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Tags: anti-communism, Charter 77, cold war, Culture, Gerald Ford
Posted Jul 25th 2009 at 10:57 am in Art, Classic Hollywood, Politics | 18150215 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/sgraves/2009/07/25/do-the-warhol%e2%80%94-part-3-the-velvet-underground-revolution/Do+The+Warhol%E2%80%94Part+3%3A++The+Velvet+%28Underground%29+Revolution2009-07-25+17%3A57%3A10Scott+Graves

July 4, 2009…What Are We Celebrating Today, Exactly?

I’m one of the last liberal believers in American Exceptionalism, and as I look around the political and media landscapes around me, I’m damn lonely. Not just liberals, but conservatives – like Andrew Bacevitch – seem to be shedding any idea that America is more than just another country with bigger shopping malls than most.

I don’t agree, and I think it matters that I be right and they be wrong.

It matters because in a world where the power of images and ideas is becoming stronger every day – where people defend themselves against men with guns by using cellphone cameras – we seem to be fresh out of ideas.

There’s a physical war going on out in the world with us on one side – and on the other a group allied in large part by their rejection of our beliefs as much as their rejection of our power. They are fighting us with bullets and bombs – and with YouTube videos, discussion forums, and impassioned manifestos. They believe, alright. If you ask them, they will clearly tell you that they do and tell you in what. (more…)

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Tags: 4th of July, abraham lincoln, American Exceptionalism, Andrew Bacevitch, Beyond Survival
Posted Jul 4th 2009 at 5:27 pm in Politics | 17680238 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mdanziger/2009/07/04/july-4-2009what-are-we-celebrating-today-exactly/July+4%2C+2009...What+Are+We+Celebrating+Today%2C+Exactly%3F2009-07-05+00%3A27%3A16Marc+Danziger

The Most Powerful Weapon

During the Cold War, a slew of movies came out that dealt with the possibility of a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union. This is not surprising since the atom and hydrogen bombs were the most powerful weapons ever devised by man. Well, almost.

I’ll get to that somewhat nervy assertion in a bit, but first a little background.

Among the cinematic slew released during those years of cold, are two of my favorite films, Dr. Strangelove and Fail-Safe. Both dealt with strikingly similar themes, unintentional nuclear holocaust, yet in entirely different tones.  But cold war themes weren’t that varied by their very nature, since inevitably the worst case scenario was the best case plot device and nothing brings down the house like bringing down the house.

With that said, still, there’s so much similarity between the two stories that law suits were indeed filed and production schedules slowed. This worked out to Stanley Kubrick’s advantage as his Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was released almost a year ahead of Sidney Lumet’s Fail-Safe. In my opinion Kubrick’s is a better film than Lumet’s and not due to slowed schedules, either. But both are magnificent, and because of their approaches to the topic, very different  and essential part of the genre. (more…)

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Tags: 2001: a space odyssey, a6m zero-sen, an american in paris, army motion picture unit, Auschwitz
Posted May 6th 2009 at 9:56 am in Entertainment, Politics | 1284064 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smann/2009/05/06/the-most-powerful-weapon/The+Most+Powerful+Weapon2009-05-06+16%3A56%3A35Schizoid+Mann

DVD Review: Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous With Destiny

Hosted and narrated by Newt and Callista Gingrich, “Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous With Destiny” looks at the life and varied careers of America’s 40th President and would make an excellent primer for anyone interested in what made the great man tick and the incredible legacy he left behind. Well paced and insightful, the 90 minute documentary presents a number of brand new interviews with, to name a few, Bill Kristol, Fred Barnes, James Baker, Linda Chavez, Bill Bennett, P.J. O’Rourke, Michael Reagan and Edwin Meese, along with ABC newsman Sam Donaldson, who had the White House beat during Reagan’s two terms, biographer’s Douglas Brinkley and Lou Cannon, and Poland’s Lech Walesa.

While Reagan’s childhood, Hollywood career, and two terms as California Governor are covered, the meat of the focus is on Reagan’s handling of the Cold War. Through the interviews and Reagan’s own handwritten diaries, we’re given an insider’s look at the beat by beat history in what proved to be, much to everyone’s surprise, including many of Reagan’s allies, an astonishingly successful quest to put the Soviet Union on “the ash heap of history.” (more…)

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Tags: Callista Gingrich, cold war, David Bossie, Newt Gingrich, ronald reagan
Posted Mar 11th 2009 at 6:33 am in Reviews | 7722243 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/03/11/dvd-review-ronald-reagan-rendezvous-with-destiny/DVD+Review%3A+Ronald+Reagan%3A+Rendezvous+With+Destiny2009-03-11+13%3A33%3A21John+Nolte

Hillary Presses the Red Button–Again

The perpetually bumbling Obama administration wrote the wrong word on a gift for Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. It was a plastic red button on a black base with the Russian word “peregruzka” printed above it, as Politico.com reported: (more…)

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Tags: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, cold war, georgia, Hillary Clinton
Posted Mar 7th 2009 at 1:08 pm in Political Humor, Politics | 7496689 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jgorin/2009/03/07/hillary-presses-the-red-button-again/Hillary+Presses+the+Red+Button--Again2009-03-07+21%3A08%3A53Julia+Gorin

Watch Out For ‘Watchmen’

Editor’s Note: This piece was originally published Jan. 7th. It returns today for obvious reasons, but also for the benefit of new readers. The original post and comments can be found here.  

Last summer, Joss Whedon (yes, he’s my master now), caused a minor sensation with his Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. One of the reasons the musical comedy about a would-be super-villain’s miserable love life was so successful — other than Whedon’s pact with Satan whereby he traded his soul, his mint condition Giant Size X-Men # 1 and a lifetime supply of HoHos in exchange for mystical word-talent – was that Whedon was standing on the shoulders of Alan Moore, the author of the landmark comic book Watchmen. More than anyone else, Moore is credited with “deconstructing” the comic book super-hero, and he probably deserves that credit. Though like with all great artistic innovators, Moore had his influences in this regard. Every artist has in his background a mob of ghostly helpers bigger than the crowd of phone technicians in that Verizon commercial. For instance, Marvel Comics (where my first loyalties lie, for the record) had already broken considerable ground in humanizing its heroes long before Moore started writing. Peter Parker, after all, was a terrible dork. (more…)

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Tags: alan moore, cold war, JFK, Nixon, Reagan
Posted Mar 5th 2009 at 7:45 am in Entertainment, Politics | 7305845 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jgoldberg/2009/03/05/watch-out-for-%e2%80%98watchmen%e2%80%99/Watch+Out+For+%E2%80%98Watchmen%E2%80%992009-03-05+15%3A45%3A56Jonah+Goldberg

Getting Louder With Steven Crowder: Whiny Americans and Crazy Russians.

I’ve been housesitting for a real estate agent in Simi Valley for the past couple of weeks, which is (as many of you know) home to… The late, great, Ronald Reagan. The man was most certainly (as the youngin’s say) a “badass.”

Let’s face it. It takes a fuzzy pair to stare down a chap like Gorbachev.

Have you ever tried to stare down a Russian? It’s virtually impossible. They have cold, lifeless eyes. Eyes that pierce straight through you… They have the devil’s eyes. (more…)

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Tags: cold war, poverty, ronald reagan, russians
Posted Jan 24th 2009 at 11:00 am in Media Criticism, Politics | 2961739 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/scrowder/2009/01/24/getting-louder-with-steven-crowder-whiny-americans-and-crazy-russians/Getting+Louder+With+Steven+Crowder%3A+Whiny+Americans+and+Crazy+Russians.2009-01-24+19%3A00%3A24Steven+Crowder