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Posts Tagged ‘DiCaprio’

Robert Davi

Burnt Offerings: Teaching Our Children — Pride in Going Red, White and Blue

by Robert Davi

On March 26, I was watching the Kids’ Choice Awards with my 8-year-old twins on Viacom’s Nickelodeon, which for 30 years has been the No. 1 entertainment brand for kids. It was dedicated to the Big Green Help environmental campaign and “going green” for Earth Day awareness. Leonardo DiCaprio was honored for his green work. Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson was the host, and my fellow Hollywood stars and musicians came out in full force.

An impressive commitment was shown to keeping the message of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” as a battle cry for our youths’ participation in protecting Mother Earth from global warming and pollution. My children were enthusiastic. I was confused. Something bothered me, and I could not put my finger on why – until Memorial Day weekend.

It started on Saturday morning, when I took my 8-year-old son, Nicholas, who is a Cub Scout, to the Los Angeles National Cemetery. About 2,700 Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, from Cub to Eagle, convened to place flags on more than 84,000 gravesites of America’s finest. It was a moving, profound experience.

One would expect a lot of running and playing among these youngsters as they performed their task. But, no. At each site, they stood at attention, recited the name of the service member and then saluted. Within two hours, 84,000 flags proudly waved in the gentle breeze. (more…)

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Posted May 31st 2009 at 9:10 am in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics | 11 Comments

Mike Long

“It takes backbone to live the life you want.”

by Mike Long

When I was 31, I realized that I shouldn’t be a systems analyst. I hadn’t set out to be that and it had become (quite literally) painfully clear that I could not be happy in that life. I had a middle-class income, interesting and often brilliant colleagues, and a path to more money and more responsibility. But none of that could outweigh the crushing sense that I was not doing what I ought to be doing.

With my wife and little son, I moved from Nashville to Washington, DC to become a writer and speechwriter. It seemed a foolish gamble to everyone but me. I was happy from then on–happy down to the bones. That probably would have been enough, but eventually my success (as I count success) brought some of the more traditional benefits. They’re nice, but they weren’t necessary. What mattered was finding the backbone to live the life I chose. (more…)

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Posted Jan 27th 2009 at 10:22 am in Reviews | 58 Comments

Ben Shapiro

Can Movies Lose Wars?

by Ben Shapiro

This is a tale of two cultures.  Both cultures are faced with the threat of Islamic terrorism.  Both have watched their soldiers fight and die.  Both have watched their citizens burn alive. 

But one culture has rejected a far-left film establishment that seeks to undermine its war on terror – the other has embraced it.    

The first culture – the culture that rejects its morally relativistic artists – is America.  The second culture – the culture that accepts and encourages its morally relativistic artists – is Israel. 

Hollywood may make tons of movies like In the Valley of Elah, Rendition, and Stop-Loss, but those movies tank.  Tel Aviv makes similar movies, and those movies are considered the greatest film achievements of the Jewish State. 

There’s a reason for that: while Hollywood believes American exceptionalism is passé, most Americans disagree.  By contrast, Tel Aviv believes that Zionism is passé – and that post-Zionist attitude has infected much of the Israeli populace. 

It’s no wonder that America is winning its war on terror, while Israel is losing hers. 

(more…)

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Posted Jan 6th 2009 at 4:33 pm in Entertainment, News, Politics | 55 Comments