MTV’s Abortion Special Raises the Only Question Worth Debate
December 29, 2010 at 11:00 am | Posted in NewsRealBlog | Leave a commentTags: abortion, eugenics, Hollywood, Human Rights, MTV, NewsReal Blog, No Easy Decision, Right to Life, The Concession Stand, Unborn
by Walter Hudson, contributed to NewsReal Blog
Late Tuesday night, MTV provided viewers with a candid look into the decision of a teenage mother to terminate the life of her unborn child.
No Easy Decision, MTV’s special spun off from 16 and Pregnant, followed Markai Durham as she came to the agonizing conclusion to have an abortion. With a frankness rarely seen anywhere on television, No Easy Decision presented a vivid, unsparing look at something that’s not just an “issue,” but a harrowing decision.
With that description, Entertainment Weekly perpetuates the view of abortion as a conscientious if tragic act which can be justified by circumstance.
It is enlightening to consider how we might regard a variation of Markai’s scenario. For instance, would we regard Markai’s deliberation as “a harrowing decision” if she considered killing a newborn? Of course we wouldn’t. Why? Because it is generally accepted that a newborn baby is a human being with an inherent right to life. Acknowledging this brings us to the only question of any real import in the abortion debate. Are the unborn human? Accounts of Durham’s struggle, as portrayed on MTV, highlight that question and why all of us have a vested interest in the answer.
Deist “Doonesbury” Snipes God on Christmas Day
December 28, 2010 at 11:00 am | Posted in NewsRealBlog | 1 CommentTags: atheism, Christianity, Christmas, Deism, Doonesbury, Garry Trudeau, God, NewsReal Blog, The Concession Stand, Theism
by Walter Hudson, contributed to NewsReal Blog
Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau offered readers an odd Christmas Day sentiment, prompting NewsBusters to accuse him of hating God.
A female social worker is chatting with a female soldier and asking her if she gets support out in the field. They have this exchange:
SOLDIER: Yes, ma’am, I talk to our chaplain.
SOCIAL WORKER: Good. A chaplain can be a good resource.
SOLDIER: Mine yells at God a lot.
SOCIAL WORKER: He deserves it. In my extremely humble opinion
Whether Trudeau is an avowed atheist is not immediately apparent. Regardless, he references a common and rhetorically powerful argument used by atheists to advance their position, the problem of evil. A good god would not produce a world with evil in it. This argument is fascinating because it moves from an attack upon the existence of God to an attack upon the person of God. In this way, it demonstrates that some avowed atheists are not atheistic at all.
NYT Abandons Journalism: Compares Jon Stewart to Edward R. Murrow
December 27, 2010 at 11:00 am | Posted in NewsRealBlog | Leave a commentTags: bias, Edward R. Murrow, health care, Hollywood, jon stewart, journalism, Media, NewsReal Blog, objectivity, The Concession Stand, Walter Cronkite
by Walter Hudson, contributed to NewsReal Blog
Former Nightline anchor Ted Koppel rocked the proverbial boat in November. Responding to Keith Olbermann’s brief suspension for making a few undisclosed campaign contributions, Koppel wondered why MSNBC was bothering to feign a lack of bias.
…when Olbermann draws more than 1 million like-minded viewers to his program every night precisely because he is avowedly, unabashedly and monotonously partisan, it is not clear what misdemeanor his donations constituted. Consistency?
Koppel railed against the trend in news media toward opinion-shaping and away from the reporting of fact. Koppel hit a nerve, evoking defensive replies from the cable news crowd.
Now, in an unwitting vindication of Koppel’s argument, The New York Times sees fit to knight The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart for “advocacy journalism” on behalf of the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010.
Whitewashing “Thor:” Why the Council of Conservative Citizens Is Anything But
December 22, 2010 at 10:00 am | Posted in NewsRealBlog | 1 CommentTags: American Resistance, Conservatism, Council of Conservative Citizens, David Horowitz, Hollywood, Jared Taylor, Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, NewsReal Blog, race, Racism, The Concession Stand, Thor
by Walter Hudson, contributed to NewsReal Blog
“Racism” is among the most abused words in the English language, bandied about with reckless abandon, applied inappropriately to disparage and denigrate when intelligible argument fails. As Stanley Kurtz points out in his outstanding exposé Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism, the Left has inflamed racial tensions as one would stoke the fires of an engine, channeling its energy toward their radical cause.
Be that as it may, conservatives must acknowledge that genuine racism remains an ugly reality . Unfortunately, some of it is espoused by professed conservatives. The combination of conservative political identification with racist assertions presents an effective threat to the right’s credibility in the political discourse. That threat must be answered.
One of the organizations imputing its racist views upon the whole of conservatism is the so-called Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) which rose out of the segregationist Citizen Councils among the Southern states during the Civil Rights era. The CCC is in the news this week, making hey over the casting of a black man in Marvel Studio’s forthcoming theatrical release Thor.
“Harry Potter” Actress Assaulted, Under Threat of Honor Killing
December 21, 2010 at 9:00 am | Posted in NewsRealBlog | Leave a commentTags: Harry Potter, Hollywood, Honor Killing, islam, NewsReal Blog, The Concession Stand
by Walter Hudson, contributed to NewsReal Blog
It’s been a while since I read through the Harry Potter novels. One thing I recall is the ingenious way in which their content matures along with their characters. Author J.K. Rowling effectively conveys the transition from innocence and wonder to the world-weariness of adulthood.
You may recall a scene from the first book, The Sorcerer’s Stone, in which a newly ten-year-old Harry is introduced to the world of magic by the affable and enormous Hagrid. Between otherworldly marvels, Hagrid offers an understated warning.
First – and understand this Harry ‘coz it’s very important – not all wizards are good.
Indeed, a substantial number of wizards throughout the novels are bad. Not just bad, many are tyrannical, murderous, even genocidal. Rowling deserves credit for introducing young readers to the concept of evil.
Of course, the lesson is only worthwhile if applied to the real world. Many among us remain like the ten-year-old Harry, having to be reminded that not all people are good. To that end, a teachable moment has manifest involving a young actress from the Harry Potter films.
Michael Moore vs. WikiLeaks: “SiCKO Was Not Banned in Cuba”
December 20, 2010 at 9:00 pm | Posted in NewsRealBlog | Leave a commentTags: censorship, Communism, communist, Cuba, Hollywood, Michael Moore, NewsReal Blog, SiCKO, The Concession Stand, Universal Health Care, Wikileaks
by Walter Hudson, contributed to NewsReal Blog
In 2002’s Red Dragon, a prequel to Silence of the Lambs, FBI agent Will Graham lures a killer called “The Tooth Fairy” out from hiding by leaking an offensive profile to a tabloid reporter. Enraged by his public characterization as impotent and pathetic, “The Tooth Fairy” targets the reporter as his next victim.
A similar snare has lured the odious Michael Moore out from whichever rock he resides under between deceitful “documentaries.” Over the weekend, a story broke regarding his 2007 film SiCKO. A WikiLeaks revelation indicated the film had been banned in Cuba. Several blogs and mainstream media sources ran with the story. Enraged by his public characterization as impotent and pathetic, Moore stood to correct the record. In so doing, he added credence to his well-established role as communist propagandist.
‘Sicko’ had just been playing in Cuban theaters. Then the entire nation of Cuba was shown the film on national television on April 25, 2008! The Cubans embraced the film so much so it became one of those rare American movies that received a theatrical distribution in Cuba. I personally ensured that a 35mm print got to the Film Institute in Havana. Screenings of ‘Sicko’ were set up in towns all across the country.
Pay attention, because this may be the only time I ever write this. Michael Moore is right.
Penélope Cruz Controversy Reveals Duplicity in Immigration Debate
December 20, 2010 at 12:00 pm | Posted in NewsRealBlog | 1 CommentTags: Anchor Babies, anchor baby, Cultural Marxism, Hispanic Conservatives, Hispanic Immigrants, Hispanic Republicans, Hispanics, Hollywood, Immigration, Javier Bardem, NewsReal Blog, Penelope Cruz, Political Correctness, Somos Republicans, Tactics of the Left, The Concession Stand
by Walter Hudson, contributed to NewsReal Blog
Providing us with another convenient excuse to share an image of the radiant Penélope Cruz, some readers responded with indignation to last week’s post regarding the actress and her unborn child. The source of their angst was a position taken in defense of the term “anchor baby.” A conservative Hispanic group, Somos Republicans, took a hard stance against FOX News Latino for using the term in reference to Cruz’s unborn child, equating it to epithets like “wetback.”
The counter-argument was simple. An epithet’s only purpose is to demean. The term “anchor baby” references a relevant concept in our political discourse, the birthing of children in the United States for the purpose of benefiting from their citizenship. It is therefore not an epithet, and likely opposed by amnesty advocates not because it demeans, but because it effectively conveys an idea damaging to their position. The call for FOX News Latino to apologize is thus an example of political correctness, an attempt to stifle debate by dictating which ideas may be expressed.
Whether any individual or group finds a term offensive is beside the point. Arguments are won and lost on their merits, not emotional reactions. The information provided by our readers in support of Somos Republicans only bolsters the claim that they are leveraging political correctness in lieu of a substantive argument.
The Religious Legacy of “Tron”
December 18, 2010 at 9:30 pm | Posted in NewsRealBlog | Leave a commentTags: Christianity, Deism, Ecumenicalism, Hollywood, Jeff Bridges, Judaism, New Age, NewsReal Blog, religion, The Concession Stand, Tron, Tron: Legacy
by Walter Hudson, contributed to NewsReal Blog
Featuring computer graphics which where state-of-the-art in 1982, Disney’s Tron became a cult classic among science fiction fans. While the film has not aged well, its high-concept has contributed to its endurance.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Tron was its role as religious allegory. The film depicted a computer-generated world where programs were created in the image of their human users. Those users were thus viewed as deities from the programs’ perspective. The villains in the film were aberrant programs who sought to wrest control of the system in which they operated. To this end, they propagated the idea that the users did not exist. When programmer Kevin Flynn is pulled into their digital realm, he takes on the role of religious avatar, challenging the programs’ paradigm.
The long-awaited sequel, Tron: Legacy, takes the allegory much further. The Judeo-Christian references are quite bold for a modern Hollywood production. Yet the writers are clearly not attempting to evangelize a particular faith. Quite the contrary, the religious legacy of Tron is an ecumenical mix of various faiths which dispenses with the notion of an all-powerful God. The film suggests that creation is an unpredictable phenomenon which can baffle and surpass its creator. As we consider how this plays out, be warned, there will be spoilers.
Censorship Is Not Always Bad
December 16, 2010 at 6:00 pm | Posted in NewsRealBlog | Leave a commentby Walter Hudson, contributed to NewsReal Blog
Imagine you are an American military veteran who has been injured in combat overseas. You have seen some of your friends cut down in the bloom of their youth, giving “the last full measure of devotion” for their cohort and their country. Throughout your network of friends and family, you know of countless others who have sacrificed, whether of themselves or through a loved one, to serve their country and the values upon which it was founded. Now you lie in a bed at a Veteran’s Affairs hospital in downtown Los Angeles, trying to work through your loss of function one day at a time. A nurse enters your room and throws open the curtains at the window, letting in the morning sun. As your eyes adjust to the light, you note from across the way a mural painted along a wide stretch of building. It is a depiction of the coffins of fallen soldiers. Draped across each, where a flag would normally lay, is an oversized dollar bill.
This hypothetical situation is likely what popped into the mind of Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) director Jeffrey Deitch when he first beheld the above work of Italian “street artist” Blu. The work had been commissioned by the MOCA without any consideration of content. Blu was simply provided the north wall of the MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary to adorn as he pleased, and chose to craft the depiction of coffins draped in dollar bills. In an effort to demonstrate sensitivity to the community, Deitch decided to have the work whitewashed. Predictably, the “street art community” has cried out in protest, accusing the MOCA of censorship.
It is censorship, and that’s okay. Censorship is one of those words which has an undeservedly negative connotation. While the free and open exchange of ideas is certainly healthy, there are responsible and irresponsible ways to go about it. The owners of mediums which transmit those ideas are within their rights to discern responsible use and prohibit irresponsible use. That is precisely what Deitch did. Continue Reading Censorship Is Not Always Bad…
FOX Claims Penélope Cruz Will Bear “Anchor Baby,” Latino Republicans Protest
December 15, 2010 at 12:00 pm | Posted in NewsRealBlog | Leave a commentTags: Anchor Babies, anchor baby, Cultural Marxism, Hispanic Conservatives, Hispanic Immigrants, Hispanic Republicans, Hispanics, Hollywood, Immigration, Javier Bardem, NewsReal Blog, Penelope Cruz, Political Correctness, Somos Republicans, Tactics of the Left, The Concession Stand
by Walter Hudson, contributed to NewsReal Blog
Our political discourse suffers from an impasse prohibiting genuine progress. That impasse is political correctness or, more accurately, cultural Marxism. It is the priority of emotion over reason. It is the assertion that, if someone is offended by an argument or the language used to articulate it, the argument is inherently incorrect. It is a retarding force upon intellect.
Political correctness is an effective force because most decent people do not want to offend and will make what seem to be reasonable concessions in order to maintain civility. There is also a tendency to confuse arguments based on emotion with arguments appealing to emotion. For instance, the argument against the Ground Zero Mosque appeals to the emotional impact its construction will have upon survivors of the Islamist attacks of September 11, 2001. That is not the argument’s basis, however. If Imam Rauf’s claim that he desires to build bridges between the West and Islam is correct, his insistence upon a course which agitates is illogical.
Political correctness is used like a sucker punch to unduly handicap one side of a debate. It is a tactic which emerged from the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School in the early 20th century, with the objective of destroying our existing culture. We must therefore wonder why an ostensibly conservative organization would employ the tactic.
¡Somos Republicans!, a Hispanic group, has taken issue with Fox News Latino’s use of the term “anchor baby” in a headline referencing actress Penélope Cruz. She and husband Javier Bardem are opting to deliver their son in the United States rather than in Spain.
Continue Reading FOX Claims Penélope Cruz Will Bear “Anchor Baby,” Latino Republicans Protest…
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