A film hailed as the top conservative movie in 25 years enjoyed two showings in D.C. recently, this summer at the Goethe-Institute – the German cultural center in Washington, D.C. – and again last week at The Heritage Foundation’s new House-side building. For Heritage, it was beginning of a new conservative film club they’ve started – yet another reason why it’s great to live in D.C. The club was inspired by a February 2009 list of the top 25 conservative films of the last 25 years that National Review writer and BH contributor John Miller (no relation, people) compiled. The movie, “The Lives of Others,” was the list’s number one film. 

For those unfamiliar with the 2007 Foreign Film Oscar winner “The Lives of Others,” it is a German thriller about the Stasi in 1984 East Germany, the then-Communist German Democratic Republic. The Stasi, GDR’s Ministry of State Security, enforced Party policy and loyalty of speech and action. The goal of the Stasi was to know everything, and they did so through an extensive network of agents and informants that touched the lives of everyone in the GDR. 

In “The Lives of Others,” a strong, mournful Soviet-influenced string soundtrack accompanies an equally Soviet-influenced plot. East Germany’s lone socialist playwright with both talent and loyalty, Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), becomes the target of heavy surveillance when a high-up GDR official falls for his actress girlfriend, Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck) and wants him removed. Loyal socialist Stasi Captain Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) oversees the surveillance operation to find fault with the socialist artist. But as the hypocrisy of his GDR comrades drives him from faith in the Party, and the faultlessness of his playwright subject leaves him sympathetic, Wiesler begins to question his allegiances, and as Dreyman grows subversive, Wiesler is forced to make a choice – between a Party of falsehood and a man of merit.  (more…)

Please enjoy this excerpt from the first and second chapters of “The First Assassin.”

CHAPTER ONE

Saturday, February 23, 1861

When Lorenzo Smith heard the chugging of the train, he felt for the revolver at his side. His fingers met its smooth handle, hidden beneath his black coat. Then he found the short barrel and the trigger below. Smith had reached for it a dozen times in the last hour, but he wanted to be certain that the gun was still there. It will make me a hero, he thought. It will change history.

Listening for the rumble of the train had been difficult. A loud mass of people waited for its arrival at Calvert Street Station. Smith did not know how many were there, but they must have numbered in the thousands. The noisy throng spilled from the open-ended depot onto Calvert and Franklin Streets. Inside the station, where Smith stood, shouts bounced off the walls and ceiling. This place of tearful departures and happy reunions had become a hotbed of agitation.

The train’s steam whistle pierced the din of the crowd. The engine would pull into Baltimore on schedule, at half past noon. Heads bobbed for a view. Smith struggled to keep his position near the track. He had picked it two hours earlier, when the flood of people was just a trickle. He was not sure precisely where the train would stop, but he thought he had made a good guess about where the last car might come to a halt. He wanted to be within striking distance. (more…)

God-kings are not new on the stage of human history, nor do they exclusively occupy the dusty corners of the distant past. One need only look to the Japanese worship of Emperor Hirohito during World War II to see that an industrialized, modern country can still vest in its leaders supernatural authority. And there are far more subtle ways of making divinity out of men as well.

The Apostle Paul was warned two-thousand years ago that, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Certainly his intention was to illuminate to the self-righteous that they do not live up to an actual standard of perfection, but perhaps there is more. For as surely as a man might be blind to his own failings, there seems to be some propensity in man to be selectively blind to the failings of others as well. This selective blindness may have many causes and find many expressions.  Some in our society carry cultural guilt and fear of accusations of bigotry that cause them to hold entire social, racial, and religious groups to different standards of judgment than others.  Still, it is the elevation of individuals above common scrutiny that creates idols of men. Whether it is a rock-star or actor, sportsman or elected leader, holding any man above reproach is folly, for in ceding to anyone our power to critique them, we grant them power man was not meant to have. (more…)

I received an email telling me to check out the responses to my Hollywood Heroes column and was overwhelmed and gratified to see so many respond in such a positive fashion. I guess most Soldiers, such as myself, go about our business and don’t expect too much in return. It’s a part of our ethos, as many of you commented, and therefore my aforementioned surprise at the great posts.

Accurate mortar fire lands on Taliban positions thanks to SSG Vile’s Mortar Ballistic Computer Skills

One of the many personal emails I received was from Staff Sergeant William Vile’s former battalion commander. Then-Sergeant Vile is the hero in my first Boots on the Ground Report and I purposely kept his name out of the piece because I remember how embarrassed he was by all of the attention he received from my team and me as we medically evacuated him from the Korengal Outpost to Bagram Airfield Combat Surgical Hospital. (more…)

Since the economy is in the crapper, I figured I’d use a crapper to demonstrate why!