A summary of a case not getting much mainstream attention... yet:
************
WASHINGTON – A U.S. senator has weighed in on the continuing controversy over Barack Obama's eligibility for office by saying he has never seen proof the new president was actually born in Hawaii.
"Well, his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven't seen any birth certificate," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., told constituents in Cullman County. "You have to be born in America to be president."
Where's the proof Barack Obama was born in the U.S. or that he fulfills the "natural-born American" clause in the Constitution? If you still want to see it, join more than 250,000 others and sign up now!
WND has reported on multiple legal challenges to Obama's status as a "natural born citizen." The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, states, "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."
Some question whether he was actually born in Hawaii, as he insists. If he was born out of the country, Obama's American mother, the suits contend, was too young at the time of his birth to confer American citizenship to her son under the law at the time.
Other challenges have focused on Obama's citizenship through his father, a Kenyan subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of his birth, thus making him a dual citizen. The cases contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born.
Here is a partial listing and status update for some of the cases over Obama's eligibility:
New Jersey attorney Mario Apuzzo has filed a case on behalf of Charles Kerchner and others alleging Congress didn't properly ascertain that Obama is qualified to hold the office of president.
Philip J. Berg, a Pennsylvania Democrat, demanded that the courts verify Obama's original birth certificate and other documents proving his American citizenship. Berg's latest appeal, requesting an injunction to stop the Electoral College from selecting the 44th president, was denied.
Leo Donofrio of New Jersey filed a lawsuit claiming Obama's dual citizenship disqualified him from serving as president. His case was considered in conference by the U.S. Supreme Court but denied a full hearing.
Cort Wrotnowski filed suit against Connecticut's secretary of state, making a similar argument to Donofrio. His case was considered in conference by the U.S. Supreme Court, but was denied a full hearing.
Former presidential candidate Alan Keyes headlines a list of people filing a suit in California, in a case handled by the United States Justice Foundation, that asks the secretary of state to refuse to allow the state's 55 Electoral College votes to be cast in the 2008 presidential election until Obama verifies his eligibility to hold the office. The case is pending, and lawyers are seeking the public's support.
Chicago attorney Andy Martin sought legal action requiring Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle to release Obama's vital statistics record. The case was dismissed by Hawaii Circuit Court Judge Bert Ayabe.
Lt. Col. Donald Sullivan sought a temporary restraining order to stop the Electoral College vote in North Carolina until Barack Obama's eligibility could be confirmed, alleging doubt about Obama's citizenship. His case was denied.
In Ohio, David M. Neal sued to force the secretary of state to request documents from the Federal Elections Commission, the Democratic National Committee, the Ohio Democratic Party and Obama to show the presidential candidate was born in Hawaii. The case was denied.
In Washington state, Steven Marquis sued the secretary of state seeking a determination on Obama's citizenship. The case was denied.
In Georgia, Rev. Tom Terry asked the state Supreme Court to authenticate Obama's birth certificate. His request for an injunction against Georgia's secretary of state was denied by Georgia Superior Court Judge Jerry W. Baxter.
California attorney Orly Taitz has brought a case, Lightfoot vs. Bowen, on behalf of Gail Lightfoot, the vice presidential candidate on the ballot with Ron Paul, four electors and two registered voters.
In addition, other cases cited on the RightSideofLife blog as raising questions about Obama's eligibility include:
In Texas, Darrel Hunter vs. Obama later was dismissed.
In Ohio, Gordon Stamper vs. U.S. later was dismissed.
In Texas, Brockhausen vs. Andrade.
In Washington, L. Charles vs. Obama.
In Hawaii, Keyes vs. Lingle, dismissed.
WND senior reporter Jerome Corsi had gone to both Kenya and Hawaii prior to the election to investigate issues surrounding Obama's birth. But his research and discoveries only raised more questions.
The governor's office in Hawaii said there is a valid certificate but rejected requests for access and left ambiguous its origin: Does the certificate on file with the Department of Health indicate a Hawaii birth or was it generated after the Obama family registered a Kenyan birth in Hawaii, which the state's procedures allowed at the time?
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
First-time CEO
Just had a beer with a friend who has been living off of a severance package for the past few months, and been approached to take the reigns of a mid-sized company. Great to see optimism persevering through the last two years of the press jaw-boning the economy down.
National Review's top 25 conservative movies
Interesting list... progressives would like several of these as well:
1. The Lives of Others (2007): “I think that this is the best movie I ever saw,” said William F. Buckley Jr. upon leaving the theater (according to his column on the film). The tale, set in East Germany in 1984, is one part romantic drama, one part political thriller. It chronicles life under a totalitarian regime as the Stasi secretly monitors the activities of a playwright who is suspected of harboring doubts about Communism. Critics showered the movie with praise and it won an Oscar for best foreign-language film (it’s in German). More Buckley: “The tension mounts to heart-stopping pitch and I felt the impulse to rush out into the street and drag passersby in to watch the story unfold.”
— John J. Miller
2. The Incredibles (2004): This animated film skips pop-culture references and gross jokes in favor of a story that celebrates marriage, courage, responsibility, and high achievement. A family of superheroes — Mr. Incredible, his wife Elastigirl, and their children — are living an anonymous life in the suburbs, thanks to a society that doesn’t appreciate their unique talents. Then it comes to need them. In one scene, son Dash, a super-speedy runner, wants to try out for track. Mom claims it wouldn’t be fair. “Dad says our powers make us special!” Dash objects. “Everyone is special,” Mom demurs, to which Dash mutters, “Which means nobody is.”
— Frederica Mathewes-Greene writes for Beliefnet.com.
3. Metropolitan (1990): Whit Stillman’s Oscar-nominated debut takes a red-headed outsider into the luxurious drawing rooms and debutante balls of New York’s Upper East Side elite. One character, a committed socialist, falls for the discreet charm of the urban haute bourgeoisie. Another plaintively theorizes the inevitable doom of his class. A reader of Jane Austen wonders what’s wrong with a novel’s having a virtuous heroine. And a roguish defender of standards and detachable collars delivers more sophisticated conservative one-liners than a year’s worth of Yale Party of the Right debates. With mocking affection, gentle irony, and a blizzard of witty dialogue, Stillman manages the impossible: He brings us to see what is admirable and necessary in the customs and conventions of America’s upper class.
— Mark Henrie is the editor of Doomed Bourgeois in Love: Essays on the Films of Whit Stillman.
4. Forrest Gump (1994): It won an Oscar for best picture — beating Pulp Fiction, a movie that’s far more expressive of Hollywood’s worldview. Tom Hanks plays the title character, an amiable dunce who is far too smart to embrace the lethal values of the 1960s. The love of his life, wonderfully played by Robin Wright Penn, chooses a different path; she becomes a drug-addled hippie, with disastrous results. Forrest’s IQ may be room temperature, but he serves as an unexpected font of wisdom. Put ’em on a Whitman’s Sampler, but Mama Gump’s famous words about life’s being like a box of chocolates ring true.
— Charlotte Hays is co-author of Somebody Is Going to Die If Lilly Beth Doesn’t Catch That Bouquet.
Warner Bros.
5. 300 (2007): During the Bush years, Hollywood neglected the heroism of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan — but it did release this action film about martial honor, unflinching courage, and the oft-ignored truth that freedom isn’t free. Beneath a layer of egregious non-history — including goblin-like creatures that belong in a fantasy epic — is a stylized story about the ancient battle of Thermopylae and the Spartan defense of the West’s fledgling institutions. It contrasts a small band of Spartans, motivated by their convictions and a commitment to the law, with a Persian horde that is driven forward by whips. In the words recorded by the real-life Herodotus: “Law is their master, which they fear more than your men[, Xerxes,] fear you.”
— Michael Poliakoff, a classicist, is vice president for academic affairs at the University of Colorado.
Sony Pictures
6. Groundhog Day (1993): This putatively wacky comedy about Bill Murray as an obnoxious weatherman cursed to relive the same day over and over in a small Pennsylvania town, perhaps for eternity, is in fact a sophisticated commentary on the good and true. Theologians and philosophers across the ideological spectrum have embraced it. For the conservative, the moral of the tale is that redemption and meaning are derived not from indulging your “authentic” instincts and drives, but from striving to live up to external and timeless ideals. Murray begins the film as an irony-soaked narcissist, contemptuous of beauty, art, and commitment. His journey of self-discovery leads him to understand that the fads of modernity are no substitute for the permanent things.
— Jonah Goldberg
7. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006): Based on the life of self-made millionaire Chris Gardner (Will Smith), this film provides the perfect antidote to Wall Street and other Hollywood diatribes depicting the world of finance as filled with nothing but greed. After his wife leaves him, Gardner can barely pay the rent. He accepts an unpaid internship at a San Francisco brokerage, with the promise of a real job if he outperforms the other interns and passes his exams. Gardner never succumbs to self-pity, even when he and his young son take refuge in a homeless shelter. They’re black, but there’s no racial undertone or subtext. Gardner is just an incredibly hard-working, ambitious, and smart man who wants to do better for himself and his son.
— Linda Chavez is chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity.
8. Juno (2007): The best pro-life movies reach beyond the church choirs and influence the wider public. Juno was a critical and commercial success. It didn’t set out to deliver a message on abortion, but much of its audience discovered one anyway. The story revolves around a 16-year-old who finds a home for her unplanned baby. The film has its faults, including a number of crass moments and a pregnant high-school student with an unrealistic level of self-confidence. Yet it also exposes a broken culture in which teen sex is dehumanizing, girls struggle with “choice,” and boys aimlessly try — and sometimes downright fail — to become men. The movie doesn’t glamorize much of anything but leaves audiences with an open-ended chance for redemption.
— Kathryn Jean Lopez
9. Blast from the Past (1999): Revolutionary Road is only the latest big-screen portrayal of 1950s America as boring, conformist, repressive, and soul-destroying. A decade ago, Hugh Wilson’s Blast from the Past defied the party line, seeing the values, customs, manners, and even music of the period with nostalgic longing. Brendan Fraser plays an innocent who has grown up in a fallout shelter and doesn’t know the era of Sputnik and Perry Como is over. Alicia Silverstone is a post-feminist woman who learns from him that pre-feminist women had some things going for them. Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek as Fraser’s parents are comic gems.
— James Bowman is a movie critic.
10. Ghostbusters (1984): This comedy might not get Russell Kirk’s endorsement as a worthy treatment of the supernatural, but you have to like a movie in which the bad guy (William Atherton at his loathsome best) is a regulation-happy buffoon from the EPA, and the solution to a public menace comes from the private sector. This last fact is the other reason to love Ghostbusters: When Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) gets kicked out of the university lab and ponders pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities, a nervous Dr. Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) replies: “I don’t know about that. I’ve worked in the private sector. They expect results!”
— Steven F. Hayward is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
New Line Productions
11. The Lord of the Rings (2001, 2002, 2003): Author J. R. R. Tolkien was deeply conservative, so it’s no surprise that the trilogy of movies based on his masterwork is as well. Largely filmed before 9/11, they seemed perfectly pitched for the post-9/11 world. The debates over what to do about Sauron and Saruman echoed our own disputes over the Iraq War. (Think of Wormtongue as Keith Olbermann.) When Frodo sighs, “I wish none of this had happened,” Gandalf’s response speaks to us, too: “So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”
— Andrew Leigh is a screenwriter and producer in Los Angeles.
12. The Dark Knight (2008): This film gives us a portrait of the hero as a man reviled. In his fight against the terrorist Joker, Batman has to devise new means of surveillance, push the limits of the law, and accept the hatred of the press and public. If that sounds reminiscent of a certain former president — whose stubborn integrity kept the nation safe and turned the tide of war — don’t mention it to the mainstream media. Our journalists know that good men are often despised by the mob; it just never seems to occur to them that they might be the mob themselves.
— Andrew Klavan is the author of Empire of Lies.
13. Braveheart (1995): Forget the travesty this soaring action film makes of the historical record. Braveheart raised its hero, medieval Scottish warrior William Wallace, to the level of myth and won five Oscars, including best director for Mel Gibson, who played Wallace as he led a spirited revolt against English tyranny. Braveheart taught that freedom is not just worth dying for, but also worth killing for, in defense of hearth and homeland. Six years later, amid the ruins of the Twin Towers, Gibson’s message resonated with a generation of American youth who signed up to fight terrorists, instead of inviting them to join a “constructive dialogue.” Liberals have never forgiven Gibson since.
— Arthur Herman is the author of How the Scots Invented the Modern World.
14. A Simple Plan (1998): A defining insight of conservatism is that whatever transcendent inspiration there may be to moral principles, there is also the humble fact that morality works. Moral institutions and customs endure because they allow civilization to proceed. Sam Raimi’s gripping A Simple Plan illustrates this truth. Bill Paxton plays a decent family man who lives by the book in every way. But when he’s cajoled into breaking the rules to get rich quick, he falls under the jurisdiction of the law of unintended consequences and discovers that simple morality is not simplistic, and that a seductively simple plan is a siren song if it runs against the grain of what is right.
— Jonah Goldberg
15. Red Dawn (1984): From the safe, familiar environment of a classroom, we watch countless parachutes drop from the sky and into the heart of America. Oh, no: invading Commies! Laugh if you want — many do — but Red Dawn has survived countless more acclaimed films because Father Time has always been our most reliable film critic. The essence of timelessness is more than beauty. It’s also truth, and the truth that America is a place and an idea worth fighting and dying for will not be denied, not under a pile of left-wing critiques or even Red Dawn’s own melodramatic flaws. Released at the midpoint of Reagan’s presidential showdown with the Soviet Union, this story of what was at stake in the Cold War endures.
— John Nolte blogs at BigHollywood.Breitbart.com.
20th Century Fox
16. Master and Commander (2003): This naval-adventure film starring Russell Crowe is based on the books of Patrick O’Brian, and here’s what A. O. Scott of the New York Times said in his review: “The Napoleonic wars that followed the French Revolution gave birth, among other things, to British conservatism, and Master and Commander, making no concessions to modern, egalitarian sensibilities, is among the most thoroughly and proudly conservative movies ever made. It imagines the [H.M.S.] Surprise as a coherent society in which stability is underwritten by custom and every man knows his duty and his place. I would not have been surprised to see Edmund Burke’s name in the credits.”
— John J. Miller
17. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (2005): The White Witch runs a godless, oppressive, paranoid regime that hates Santa Claus. She’s a cross between Burgermeister Meisterburger and Kim Jong Il. The good guys, meanwhile, recognize that some throats will need cutting: no appeasement, no land-for-peace swaps, no offering the witch a snowmobile if she’ll only put away the wand. Underlying the narrative is the story of Christ’s rescuing man from sin — which is antithetical to the leftist dream of perfected man’s becoming an instrument for earthly utopia. The results of such utopian visions, of course, are frequently like the Witch’s reign: always winter, and never Christmas.
— Tony Woodlief writes for World magazine and blogs at tonywoodlief.com.
18. The Edge (1997): Screenwriter David Mamet uses a wilderness survival story about friendship, betrayal, and forgiveness to present a few truths rarely seen in movies: Knowledge has its limits, fortitude is a weapon against hardship, and honor can motivate even the shallowest man to great sacrifice. Some have interpreted the film as a Cold War allegory because it features a menacing bear. The main characters (played by Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin) understand that there is neither wisdom nor nobility in waiting for others to save them, and that they must take responsibility for their own lives and souls. Life is unfair, but to challenge life on its own terms is an exhilarating reward, no matter the outcome.
— Michael Long is a director of the White House Writers Group.
19. We Were Soldiers (2002): Most movies about the Vietnam War reflect the derangements of the antiwar Left. This film, based on the memoir by Lt. Col. Hal Moore (played by Mel Gibson), offers a lifelike alternative. It focuses on a fight between an outnumbered U.S. Army battalion and three North Vietnamese regiments in the battle of Ia Drang in 1965. Significantly, it treats soldiers not as wretched losers or pathological killers, but as regular citizens. They are men willing to sacrifice everything to do their duty — to their country, to their unit, and to their fellow soldiers. As the movie makes clear, they also had families. Indeed, their last thoughts were usually about their loved ones back home.
— Mackubin Thomas Owens, a Vietnam veteran, is a professor at the Naval War College.
20. Gattaca (1997): In this science-fiction drama, Vincent (Ethan Hawke) can’t become an astronaut because he’s genetically unenhanced. So he purchases the identity of a disabled athlete (Jude Law), with calamitous results. The movie is a cautionary tale about the progressive fantasy of a eugenically correct world — the road to which is paved by the abortion of Down babies, research into human cloning, and “transhumanist” dreams of fabricating a “post-human species.” Biotechnology is a force for good, but without adherence to the ideal of universal human equality, it opens the door to the soft tyranny of Gattaca and, ultimately, the dystopian nightmare of Brave New World.
— Wesley J. Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute.
21. Heartbreak Ridge (1986): Clint Eastwood’s foul-mouthed Marine sergeant Tom Highway makes quick work of kicking Communist Cubans out of Grenada. And, boy, does “Gunny” hate Commies. Not only does he kill quite a few, he also refuses a bribe of a Cuban cigar, saying: “Get that contraband stogie out of my face before I shove it so far up you’re a** you’ll have to set fire to your nose to light it.” A welcome glorification of Reagan’s decision to liberate Grenada in 1983, the film also notes how after a tie in Korea and a loss in Vietnam, America can finally celebrate a military victory. Eastwood, the old war horse, walks off into retirement pleased that he’s not “0–1–1 anymore.” Semper Fi. Oo-rah!
— James G. Lakely is managing editor of InfoTech & Telecom News at the Heartland Institute.
22. Brazil (1985): Vividly depicting the miserable results of elitist utopian schemes, Terry Gilliam’s Brazil portrays a darkly comic dystopia of malfunctioning high-tech equipment and the dreary living conditions common to all totalitarian regimes. Everything in the society is built to serve government plans rather than people. The film is visually arresting and inventive, with especially evocative use of shots that put the audience in a subservient position, just like the people in the film. Terrorist bombings, national-security scares, universal police surveillance, bureaucratic arrogance, a callous elite, perversion of science, and government use of torture evoke the worst aspects of the modern megastate.
— S. T. Karnick blogs at stkarnick.com.
Universal Studios
23. United 93 (2006): Minutes after terrorists struck on 9/11, Americans launched their first counterattack in the War on Terror. Director Paul Greengrass pays tribute to the passengers of United 93 by refusing to turn their story into a wimpy Hollywood melodrama. Instead, United 93 unfolds as a real-time docudrama. Just as significantly, Greengrass provides a clear depiction of our enemies. United 93 opens as four Muslim terrorists pray in a hotel room. Several hours later, the hijackers’ frenzied shrieks to Allah mingle with the prayerful supplications of United 93’s passengers as they crash through the cockpit door and strike a blow against those who would terrorize our country.
— Andrew Coffin is director of the Reagan Ranch and vice president of Young America’s Foundation.
24. Team America: World Police (2004): This marionette movie from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone is hard to categorize as conservative. It’s amazingly vulgar and depicts Americans as wildly overzealous in fighting terror. Yet the film’s utter disgust with air-headed, left-wing celebrity activism remains unmatched in popular culture. As the heroes move to stop a WMD apocalypse, they clash with Alec Baldwin, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, and a host of others, whom they take out with gunfire, sword, and martial arts before saving the day. The movie, like South Park itself, reveals Parker and Stone as the two-headed George Grosz of American satire.
— Brian C. Anderson is editor of City Journal and author of South Park Conservatives.
25. Gran Torino (2008): Clint Eastwood directs and stars in the ultimate family movie unsuitable for the family. He plays Walt Kowalski, a caricature of an old-school, dying-breed, Polish-American racist male, replete with post-traumatic stress disorder from having served in the Korean War. Kowalski comes to realize that his exotic Hmong neighbors embody traditional social values more than his own disaster of a Caucasian nuclear family. Dirty Harry blows away political correctness, takes on the bad guys, and turns a boy into a man in the process. He even encourages the cultural assimilation of immigrants. It feels so good, you knew the Academy would ignore it.
— Andrew Breitbart is the proprietor of BigHollywood.Breitbart.com.
1. The Lives of Others (2007): “I think that this is the best movie I ever saw,” said William F. Buckley Jr. upon leaving the theater (according to his column on the film). The tale, set in East Germany in 1984, is one part romantic drama, one part political thriller. It chronicles life under a totalitarian regime as the Stasi secretly monitors the activities of a playwright who is suspected of harboring doubts about Communism. Critics showered the movie with praise and it won an Oscar for best foreign-language film (it’s in German). More Buckley: “The tension mounts to heart-stopping pitch and I felt the impulse to rush out into the street and drag passersby in to watch the story unfold.”
— John J. Miller
2. The Incredibles (2004): This animated film skips pop-culture references and gross jokes in favor of a story that celebrates marriage, courage, responsibility, and high achievement. A family of superheroes — Mr. Incredible, his wife Elastigirl, and their children — are living an anonymous life in the suburbs, thanks to a society that doesn’t appreciate their unique talents. Then it comes to need them. In one scene, son Dash, a super-speedy runner, wants to try out for track. Mom claims it wouldn’t be fair. “Dad says our powers make us special!” Dash objects. “Everyone is special,” Mom demurs, to which Dash mutters, “Which means nobody is.”
— Frederica Mathewes-Greene writes for Beliefnet.com.
3. Metropolitan (1990): Whit Stillman’s Oscar-nominated debut takes a red-headed outsider into the luxurious drawing rooms and debutante balls of New York’s Upper East Side elite. One character, a committed socialist, falls for the discreet charm of the urban haute bourgeoisie. Another plaintively theorizes the inevitable doom of his class. A reader of Jane Austen wonders what’s wrong with a novel’s having a virtuous heroine. And a roguish defender of standards and detachable collars delivers more sophisticated conservative one-liners than a year’s worth of Yale Party of the Right debates. With mocking affection, gentle irony, and a blizzard of witty dialogue, Stillman manages the impossible: He brings us to see what is admirable and necessary in the customs and conventions of America’s upper class.
— Mark Henrie is the editor of Doomed Bourgeois in Love: Essays on the Films of Whit Stillman.
4. Forrest Gump (1994): It won an Oscar for best picture — beating Pulp Fiction, a movie that’s far more expressive of Hollywood’s worldview. Tom Hanks plays the title character, an amiable dunce who is far too smart to embrace the lethal values of the 1960s. The love of his life, wonderfully played by Robin Wright Penn, chooses a different path; she becomes a drug-addled hippie, with disastrous results. Forrest’s IQ may be room temperature, but he serves as an unexpected font of wisdom. Put ’em on a Whitman’s Sampler, but Mama Gump’s famous words about life’s being like a box of chocolates ring true.
— Charlotte Hays is co-author of Somebody Is Going to Die If Lilly Beth Doesn’t Catch That Bouquet.
Warner Bros.
5. 300 (2007): During the Bush years, Hollywood neglected the heroism of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan — but it did release this action film about martial honor, unflinching courage, and the oft-ignored truth that freedom isn’t free. Beneath a layer of egregious non-history — including goblin-like creatures that belong in a fantasy epic — is a stylized story about the ancient battle of Thermopylae and the Spartan defense of the West’s fledgling institutions. It contrasts a small band of Spartans, motivated by their convictions and a commitment to the law, with a Persian horde that is driven forward by whips. In the words recorded by the real-life Herodotus: “Law is their master, which they fear more than your men[, Xerxes,] fear you.”
— Michael Poliakoff, a classicist, is vice president for academic affairs at the University of Colorado.
Sony Pictures
6. Groundhog Day (1993): This putatively wacky comedy about Bill Murray as an obnoxious weatherman cursed to relive the same day over and over in a small Pennsylvania town, perhaps for eternity, is in fact a sophisticated commentary on the good and true. Theologians and philosophers across the ideological spectrum have embraced it. For the conservative, the moral of the tale is that redemption and meaning are derived not from indulging your “authentic” instincts and drives, but from striving to live up to external and timeless ideals. Murray begins the film as an irony-soaked narcissist, contemptuous of beauty, art, and commitment. His journey of self-discovery leads him to understand that the fads of modernity are no substitute for the permanent things.
— Jonah Goldberg
7. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006): Based on the life of self-made millionaire Chris Gardner (Will Smith), this film provides the perfect antidote to Wall Street and other Hollywood diatribes depicting the world of finance as filled with nothing but greed. After his wife leaves him, Gardner can barely pay the rent. He accepts an unpaid internship at a San Francisco brokerage, with the promise of a real job if he outperforms the other interns and passes his exams. Gardner never succumbs to self-pity, even when he and his young son take refuge in a homeless shelter. They’re black, but there’s no racial undertone or subtext. Gardner is just an incredibly hard-working, ambitious, and smart man who wants to do better for himself and his son.
— Linda Chavez is chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity.
8. Juno (2007): The best pro-life movies reach beyond the church choirs and influence the wider public. Juno was a critical and commercial success. It didn’t set out to deliver a message on abortion, but much of its audience discovered one anyway. The story revolves around a 16-year-old who finds a home for her unplanned baby. The film has its faults, including a number of crass moments and a pregnant high-school student with an unrealistic level of self-confidence. Yet it also exposes a broken culture in which teen sex is dehumanizing, girls struggle with “choice,” and boys aimlessly try — and sometimes downright fail — to become men. The movie doesn’t glamorize much of anything but leaves audiences with an open-ended chance for redemption.
— Kathryn Jean Lopez
9. Blast from the Past (1999): Revolutionary Road is only the latest big-screen portrayal of 1950s America as boring, conformist, repressive, and soul-destroying. A decade ago, Hugh Wilson’s Blast from the Past defied the party line, seeing the values, customs, manners, and even music of the period with nostalgic longing. Brendan Fraser plays an innocent who has grown up in a fallout shelter and doesn’t know the era of Sputnik and Perry Como is over. Alicia Silverstone is a post-feminist woman who learns from him that pre-feminist women had some things going for them. Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek as Fraser’s parents are comic gems.
— James Bowman is a movie critic.
10. Ghostbusters (1984): This comedy might not get Russell Kirk’s endorsement as a worthy treatment of the supernatural, but you have to like a movie in which the bad guy (William Atherton at his loathsome best) is a regulation-happy buffoon from the EPA, and the solution to a public menace comes from the private sector. This last fact is the other reason to love Ghostbusters: When Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) gets kicked out of the university lab and ponders pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities, a nervous Dr. Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) replies: “I don’t know about that. I’ve worked in the private sector. They expect results!”
— Steven F. Hayward is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
New Line Productions
11. The Lord of the Rings (2001, 2002, 2003): Author J. R. R. Tolkien was deeply conservative, so it’s no surprise that the trilogy of movies based on his masterwork is as well. Largely filmed before 9/11, they seemed perfectly pitched for the post-9/11 world. The debates over what to do about Sauron and Saruman echoed our own disputes over the Iraq War. (Think of Wormtongue as Keith Olbermann.) When Frodo sighs, “I wish none of this had happened,” Gandalf’s response speaks to us, too: “So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”
— Andrew Leigh is a screenwriter and producer in Los Angeles.
12. The Dark Knight (2008): This film gives us a portrait of the hero as a man reviled. In his fight against the terrorist Joker, Batman has to devise new means of surveillance, push the limits of the law, and accept the hatred of the press and public. If that sounds reminiscent of a certain former president — whose stubborn integrity kept the nation safe and turned the tide of war — don’t mention it to the mainstream media. Our journalists know that good men are often despised by the mob; it just never seems to occur to them that they might be the mob themselves.
— Andrew Klavan is the author of Empire of Lies.
13. Braveheart (1995): Forget the travesty this soaring action film makes of the historical record. Braveheart raised its hero, medieval Scottish warrior William Wallace, to the level of myth and won five Oscars, including best director for Mel Gibson, who played Wallace as he led a spirited revolt against English tyranny. Braveheart taught that freedom is not just worth dying for, but also worth killing for, in defense of hearth and homeland. Six years later, amid the ruins of the Twin Towers, Gibson’s message resonated with a generation of American youth who signed up to fight terrorists, instead of inviting them to join a “constructive dialogue.” Liberals have never forgiven Gibson since.
— Arthur Herman is the author of How the Scots Invented the Modern World.
14. A Simple Plan (1998): A defining insight of conservatism is that whatever transcendent inspiration there may be to moral principles, there is also the humble fact that morality works. Moral institutions and customs endure because they allow civilization to proceed. Sam Raimi’s gripping A Simple Plan illustrates this truth. Bill Paxton plays a decent family man who lives by the book in every way. But when he’s cajoled into breaking the rules to get rich quick, he falls under the jurisdiction of the law of unintended consequences and discovers that simple morality is not simplistic, and that a seductively simple plan is a siren song if it runs against the grain of what is right.
— Jonah Goldberg
15. Red Dawn (1984): From the safe, familiar environment of a classroom, we watch countless parachutes drop from the sky and into the heart of America. Oh, no: invading Commies! Laugh if you want — many do — but Red Dawn has survived countless more acclaimed films because Father Time has always been our most reliable film critic. The essence of timelessness is more than beauty. It’s also truth, and the truth that America is a place and an idea worth fighting and dying for will not be denied, not under a pile of left-wing critiques or even Red Dawn’s own melodramatic flaws. Released at the midpoint of Reagan’s presidential showdown with the Soviet Union, this story of what was at stake in the Cold War endures.
— John Nolte blogs at BigHollywood.Breitbart.com.
20th Century Fox
16. Master and Commander (2003): This naval-adventure film starring Russell Crowe is based on the books of Patrick O’Brian, and here’s what A. O. Scott of the New York Times said in his review: “The Napoleonic wars that followed the French Revolution gave birth, among other things, to British conservatism, and Master and Commander, making no concessions to modern, egalitarian sensibilities, is among the most thoroughly and proudly conservative movies ever made. It imagines the [H.M.S.] Surprise as a coherent society in which stability is underwritten by custom and every man knows his duty and his place. I would not have been surprised to see Edmund Burke’s name in the credits.”
— John J. Miller
17. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (2005): The White Witch runs a godless, oppressive, paranoid regime that hates Santa Claus. She’s a cross between Burgermeister Meisterburger and Kim Jong Il. The good guys, meanwhile, recognize that some throats will need cutting: no appeasement, no land-for-peace swaps, no offering the witch a snowmobile if she’ll only put away the wand. Underlying the narrative is the story of Christ’s rescuing man from sin — which is antithetical to the leftist dream of perfected man’s becoming an instrument for earthly utopia. The results of such utopian visions, of course, are frequently like the Witch’s reign: always winter, and never Christmas.
— Tony Woodlief writes for World magazine and blogs at tonywoodlief.com.
18. The Edge (1997): Screenwriter David Mamet uses a wilderness survival story about friendship, betrayal, and forgiveness to present a few truths rarely seen in movies: Knowledge has its limits, fortitude is a weapon against hardship, and honor can motivate even the shallowest man to great sacrifice. Some have interpreted the film as a Cold War allegory because it features a menacing bear. The main characters (played by Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin) understand that there is neither wisdom nor nobility in waiting for others to save them, and that they must take responsibility for their own lives and souls. Life is unfair, but to challenge life on its own terms is an exhilarating reward, no matter the outcome.
— Michael Long is a director of the White House Writers Group.
19. We Were Soldiers (2002): Most movies about the Vietnam War reflect the derangements of the antiwar Left. This film, based on the memoir by Lt. Col. Hal Moore (played by Mel Gibson), offers a lifelike alternative. It focuses on a fight between an outnumbered U.S. Army battalion and three North Vietnamese regiments in the battle of Ia Drang in 1965. Significantly, it treats soldiers not as wretched losers or pathological killers, but as regular citizens. They are men willing to sacrifice everything to do their duty — to their country, to their unit, and to their fellow soldiers. As the movie makes clear, they also had families. Indeed, their last thoughts were usually about their loved ones back home.
— Mackubin Thomas Owens, a Vietnam veteran, is a professor at the Naval War College.
20. Gattaca (1997): In this science-fiction drama, Vincent (Ethan Hawke) can’t become an astronaut because he’s genetically unenhanced. So he purchases the identity of a disabled athlete (Jude Law), with calamitous results. The movie is a cautionary tale about the progressive fantasy of a eugenically correct world — the road to which is paved by the abortion of Down babies, research into human cloning, and “transhumanist” dreams of fabricating a “post-human species.” Biotechnology is a force for good, but without adherence to the ideal of universal human equality, it opens the door to the soft tyranny of Gattaca and, ultimately, the dystopian nightmare of Brave New World.
— Wesley J. Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute.
21. Heartbreak Ridge (1986): Clint Eastwood’s foul-mouthed Marine sergeant Tom Highway makes quick work of kicking Communist Cubans out of Grenada. And, boy, does “Gunny” hate Commies. Not only does he kill quite a few, he also refuses a bribe of a Cuban cigar, saying: “Get that contraband stogie out of my face before I shove it so far up you’re a** you’ll have to set fire to your nose to light it.” A welcome glorification of Reagan’s decision to liberate Grenada in 1983, the film also notes how after a tie in Korea and a loss in Vietnam, America can finally celebrate a military victory. Eastwood, the old war horse, walks off into retirement pleased that he’s not “0–1–1 anymore.” Semper Fi. Oo-rah!
— James G. Lakely is managing editor of InfoTech & Telecom News at the Heartland Institute.
22. Brazil (1985): Vividly depicting the miserable results of elitist utopian schemes, Terry Gilliam’s Brazil portrays a darkly comic dystopia of malfunctioning high-tech equipment and the dreary living conditions common to all totalitarian regimes. Everything in the society is built to serve government plans rather than people. The film is visually arresting and inventive, with especially evocative use of shots that put the audience in a subservient position, just like the people in the film. Terrorist bombings, national-security scares, universal police surveillance, bureaucratic arrogance, a callous elite, perversion of science, and government use of torture evoke the worst aspects of the modern megastate.
— S. T. Karnick blogs at stkarnick.com.
Universal Studios
23. United 93 (2006): Minutes after terrorists struck on 9/11, Americans launched their first counterattack in the War on Terror. Director Paul Greengrass pays tribute to the passengers of United 93 by refusing to turn their story into a wimpy Hollywood melodrama. Instead, United 93 unfolds as a real-time docudrama. Just as significantly, Greengrass provides a clear depiction of our enemies. United 93 opens as four Muslim terrorists pray in a hotel room. Several hours later, the hijackers’ frenzied shrieks to Allah mingle with the prayerful supplications of United 93’s passengers as they crash through the cockpit door and strike a blow against those who would terrorize our country.
— Andrew Coffin is director of the Reagan Ranch and vice president of Young America’s Foundation.
24. Team America: World Police (2004): This marionette movie from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone is hard to categorize as conservative. It’s amazingly vulgar and depicts Americans as wildly overzealous in fighting terror. Yet the film’s utter disgust with air-headed, left-wing celebrity activism remains unmatched in popular culture. As the heroes move to stop a WMD apocalypse, they clash with Alec Baldwin, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, and a host of others, whom they take out with gunfire, sword, and martial arts before saving the day. The movie, like South Park itself, reveals Parker and Stone as the two-headed George Grosz of American satire.
— Brian C. Anderson is editor of City Journal and author of South Park Conservatives.
25. Gran Torino (2008): Clint Eastwood directs and stars in the ultimate family movie unsuitable for the family. He plays Walt Kowalski, a caricature of an old-school, dying-breed, Polish-American racist male, replete with post-traumatic stress disorder from having served in the Korean War. Kowalski comes to realize that his exotic Hmong neighbors embody traditional social values more than his own disaster of a Caucasian nuclear family. Dirty Harry blows away political correctness, takes on the bad guys, and turns a boy into a man in the process. He even encourages the cultural assimilation of immigrants. It feels so good, you knew the Academy would ignore it.
— Andrew Breitbart is the proprietor of BigHollywood.Breitbart.com.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Diversity in the legal profession
I was just asked to provide a proposal that detailed, among other things, the demographics of my staff and our efforts to expand diversity. Noble ideals, but we don't by policy collect race demographics in order to respect privacy, another noble ideal. Which progressive ideal will win this year?
Rancher ordered to pay illegals $77,000
This rancher noticed streams of people moving across his people each day, so decided to show his shotgun to scare them off. Tisk tisk.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: February 19, 2009
12:00 am Eastern
By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
Sixteen illegal aliens who sued an Arizona rancher, claiming he violated their civil rights and falsely imprisoned them by holding them at gunpoint on his property along the border, have lost their case.
Roger Barnett (photo: Southern Poverty Law Center)
The federal lawsuit against Douglas, Ariz., rancher Roger Barnett, his wife, Barbara, and his brother, Donald, took place before Judge John Roll in U.S. District Court. A verdict was declared Tuesday. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, or MALDEF, represented the five female and 11 male illegal aliens.
Barnett's attorney, David Hardy, said the judge completely dismissed the cases against Barbara and Donald after the illegals claimed conspiracy.
"There was no evidence," he told WND. "The most they could show about Barbara was that she showed up after the incident, and Donald wasn't even there. He did sometimes cooperate with Roger in turning over illegals, but he wasn't there that day. And there was no proof of conspiracy, so the judge chucked it out."
Many of the aliens are residents of Michoacan, Mexico. Four live in Illinois, one resides in Georgia and another in Michigan. All of the plaintiffs currently living in the U.S. listed pseudonyms in the lawsuit due to "fear of adverse action based on immigration status."
Ten of the illegal alien plaintiffs didn't show up to the trial, but the remaining six said they were given permission to re-enter the United States and testify against Barnett.
"That was a shocker to me. All the ones who testified said that they were here legally and that their attorneys had done the paperwork," Hardy said. "There's nothing like your government backing you."
Illegal aliens trudge through Barnett's property
According to the complaint, Barnett, who owns 22,000 acres along the border in southeastern Arizona, approached the group of illegals on an all-terrain vehicle March 7, 2004. He allegedly began yelling at them in English and broken Spanish while aiming his gun at the group. While Barnett's dog barked at the intruders, the illegal aliens accused him of ordering the dog to attack. One of the women said the rancher kicked her because she refused to get up. The jury ruled in favor of Barnett on the battery charge as well.
Barnett detained the trespassing illegals until Border Patrol agents arrived. The lawsuit claimed that the rancher never told the illegals they were trespassing and failed to post a sign notifying them that they were on private property.
MALDEF claimed the family attacked, harassed, threatened and held the illegals against their will, because they were motivated by racial and class-based discrimination. The complaint said the Barnetts allegedly caused the group "severe emotional and mental distress," including fear, anxiety, humiliation, stress, frustration and sadness. Each illegal alien sued for $1 million in actual damages and $1 million for punitive or exemplary damages.
(Story continues below)
MALDEF and its attorneys lost track of three of the plaintiffs entirely, Hardy said. The organization hired nine attorneys for the illegal aliens. Three were from big commercial firms in New York City.
Border Patrol confiscates drugs illegals attempt to transport into U.S.
The group also flew a psychologist to Arizona from Chicago to testify that the illegal aliens suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
"We don't know where they're getting their money, but it's a lot," Hardy said. "They dropped $19,000 on the psychologist for his examination and $150 an hour to show up for trial."
He continued, "We tore him up pretty good, though. We tore up all of the other witnesses, too."
The rancher was held liable for limited damages involving assault and emotional distress. Two illegal aliens were given $1,000 plus $10,000 in punitive damages each. Two more received $7,500, plus $20,000 in punitive damages each.
"It's interesting since most of them don't speak English, but they claim that Roger, who has almost no command of Spanish, was able to use full sentences like, 'If you go, my dog is hungry, and he's hungry for your butt,'" Hardy said. "Roger couldn't put that sentence together."
He said the judge left out one part of instruction to the jury that should have been included, and it will be the basis of their appeal.
"The law is skeptical of infliction of emotional distress because everybody gets their feelings hurt at times," he said. "So one of the requirements was that whatever is done must be so severe that the average person would be physically disabled by the distress – suffer a complete mental breakdown. The judge wouldn't put that in the instruction. That's straight Arizona law."
Also, two of the plaintiffs received $1,400, and two were awarded $1 each for assault. The term "assault" is legally applied when a person has simply put someone in fear of a harmful contact. According to the attorney, Barnett did carry a gun, but the judge did not include their self-defense argument in the instructions to the jury – another basis for appeal.
All together, the illegals received only $77,804 of the $32 million they requested – and Hardy believes that award will be thrown out in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
"It was 95 percent victory for us," he said. "What they really wanted were the first two civil rights claims because if they got those, they got attorney's fees. With nine attorneys working on the case, I'm sure their fees were $500,000 to $1 million."
Roger and Barbara Barnett with Border Patrol while they detain illegal aliens on the family's ranch
Meanwhile, Hardy said Barnett's ranch is still a hotspot for illegals who want to get into the U.S.
"They all testified that they were going to pay $1,800 per head to get in," he said. "It's right on the other side of the border, across from Douglas, Ariz.
"A guy was telling us that he had seen these dusty cars in Mexico, and they would offer to take you across to the U.S.," Hardy said. "One of them had written in the dust: 'Barnett's ranch.'"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: February 19, 2009
12:00 am Eastern
By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
Sixteen illegal aliens who sued an Arizona rancher, claiming he violated their civil rights and falsely imprisoned them by holding them at gunpoint on his property along the border, have lost their case.
Roger Barnett (photo: Southern Poverty Law Center)
The federal lawsuit against Douglas, Ariz., rancher Roger Barnett, his wife, Barbara, and his brother, Donald, took place before Judge John Roll in U.S. District Court. A verdict was declared Tuesday. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, or MALDEF, represented the five female and 11 male illegal aliens.
Barnett's attorney, David Hardy, said the judge completely dismissed the cases against Barbara and Donald after the illegals claimed conspiracy.
"There was no evidence," he told WND. "The most they could show about Barbara was that she showed up after the incident, and Donald wasn't even there. He did sometimes cooperate with Roger in turning over illegals, but he wasn't there that day. And there was no proof of conspiracy, so the judge chucked it out."
Many of the aliens are residents of Michoacan, Mexico. Four live in Illinois, one resides in Georgia and another in Michigan. All of the plaintiffs currently living in the U.S. listed pseudonyms in the lawsuit due to "fear of adverse action based on immigration status."
Ten of the illegal alien plaintiffs didn't show up to the trial, but the remaining six said they were given permission to re-enter the United States and testify against Barnett.
"That was a shocker to me. All the ones who testified said that they were here legally and that their attorneys had done the paperwork," Hardy said. "There's nothing like your government backing you."
Illegal aliens trudge through Barnett's property
According to the complaint, Barnett, who owns 22,000 acres along the border in southeastern Arizona, approached the group of illegals on an all-terrain vehicle March 7, 2004. He allegedly began yelling at them in English and broken Spanish while aiming his gun at the group. While Barnett's dog barked at the intruders, the illegal aliens accused him of ordering the dog to attack. One of the women said the rancher kicked her because she refused to get up. The jury ruled in favor of Barnett on the battery charge as well.
Barnett detained the trespassing illegals until Border Patrol agents arrived. The lawsuit claimed that the rancher never told the illegals they were trespassing and failed to post a sign notifying them that they were on private property.
MALDEF claimed the family attacked, harassed, threatened and held the illegals against their will, because they were motivated by racial and class-based discrimination. The complaint said the Barnetts allegedly caused the group "severe emotional and mental distress," including fear, anxiety, humiliation, stress, frustration and sadness. Each illegal alien sued for $1 million in actual damages and $1 million for punitive or exemplary damages.
(Story continues below)
MALDEF and its attorneys lost track of three of the plaintiffs entirely, Hardy said. The organization hired nine attorneys for the illegal aliens. Three were from big commercial firms in New York City.
Border Patrol confiscates drugs illegals attempt to transport into U.S.
The group also flew a psychologist to Arizona from Chicago to testify that the illegal aliens suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
"We don't know where they're getting their money, but it's a lot," Hardy said. "They dropped $19,000 on the psychologist for his examination and $150 an hour to show up for trial."
He continued, "We tore him up pretty good, though. We tore up all of the other witnesses, too."
The rancher was held liable for limited damages involving assault and emotional distress. Two illegal aliens were given $1,000 plus $10,000 in punitive damages each. Two more received $7,500, plus $20,000 in punitive damages each.
"It's interesting since most of them don't speak English, but they claim that Roger, who has almost no command of Spanish, was able to use full sentences like, 'If you go, my dog is hungry, and he's hungry for your butt,'" Hardy said. "Roger couldn't put that sentence together."
He said the judge left out one part of instruction to the jury that should have been included, and it will be the basis of their appeal.
"The law is skeptical of infliction of emotional distress because everybody gets their feelings hurt at times," he said. "So one of the requirements was that whatever is done must be so severe that the average person would be physically disabled by the distress – suffer a complete mental breakdown. The judge wouldn't put that in the instruction. That's straight Arizona law."
Also, two of the plaintiffs received $1,400, and two were awarded $1 each for assault. The term "assault" is legally applied when a person has simply put someone in fear of a harmful contact. According to the attorney, Barnett did carry a gun, but the judge did not include their self-defense argument in the instructions to the jury – another basis for appeal.
All together, the illegals received only $77,804 of the $32 million they requested – and Hardy believes that award will be thrown out in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
"It was 95 percent victory for us," he said. "What they really wanted were the first two civil rights claims because if they got those, they got attorney's fees. With nine attorneys working on the case, I'm sure their fees were $500,000 to $1 million."
Roger and Barbara Barnett with Border Patrol while they detain illegal aliens on the family's ranch
Meanwhile, Hardy said Barnett's ranch is still a hotspot for illegals who want to get into the U.S.
"They all testified that they were going to pay $1,800 per head to get in," he said. "It's right on the other side of the border, across from Douglas, Ariz.
"A guy was telling us that he had seen these dusty cars in Mexico, and they would offer to take you across to the U.S.," Hardy said. "One of them had written in the dust: 'Barnett's ranch.'"
Monday, February 16, 2009
Obama's sunshine pledge, and what 1 trillion is
June 22, 2007 - Manchester, N.H.:
"When there is a bill that ends up on my desk as the president, you the public will have five days to look online and find out what's in it before I sign it," he said. His campaign called the idea the "sunshine before signing promise."
Barack Obama
********************
Before this bill is signed, actual federal obligations are already $65.5 trillion – exceeding the gross domestic product of the entire world.
The Obama administration economic stimulus package is going to force the Treasury to borrow approximately $2.5 trillion in 2009 and another $4 trillion in 2010, with the result of increasing the current $10 trillion national debt by 65 percent in just two years. If the Obama administration increases the national debt by 65 percent every two years, the debt will be $16.5 trillion in 2010 and $27.225 trillion by 2012, the year of the next presidential election.
Let's consider the real meaning of these numbers:
- If you had gone into business on the day Jesus was born, and your business lost a million dollars a day, 365 days a year, it would take you until October 2737 to lose $1 trillion.
- $1 trillion dollars divided by 300 million Americans comes out to $3,333 per person.
- One trillion $1 bills stacked one on top of the other would reach nearly 68,000 miles into the sky, about a third of the way from the Earth to the moon.
- Earth's home galaxy, the Milky Way, is estimated to contain about 200 billion stars. So, if each star cost $1, $1 trillion would buy five Milky Way galaxies full of stars.
"When there is a bill that ends up on my desk as the president, you the public will have five days to look online and find out what's in it before I sign it," he said. His campaign called the idea the "sunshine before signing promise."
Barack Obama
********************
Before this bill is signed, actual federal obligations are already $65.5 trillion – exceeding the gross domestic product of the entire world.
The Obama administration economic stimulus package is going to force the Treasury to borrow approximately $2.5 trillion in 2009 and another $4 trillion in 2010, with the result of increasing the current $10 trillion national debt by 65 percent in just two years. If the Obama administration increases the national debt by 65 percent every two years, the debt will be $16.5 trillion in 2010 and $27.225 trillion by 2012, the year of the next presidential election.
Let's consider the real meaning of these numbers:
- If you had gone into business on the day Jesus was born, and your business lost a million dollars a day, 365 days a year, it would take you until October 2737 to lose $1 trillion.
- $1 trillion dollars divided by 300 million Americans comes out to $3,333 per person.
- One trillion $1 bills stacked one on top of the other would reach nearly 68,000 miles into the sky, about a third of the way from the Earth to the moon.
- Earth's home galaxy, the Milky Way, is estimated to contain about 200 billion stars. So, if each star cost $1, $1 trillion would buy five Milky Way galaxies full of stars.
Valetine's Day at GLADD
From their website...
***************************
Valentine's Day Media Kit
media center > resource kits > Valentine's Day Media Kit
February 8, 2008
[ send to friend ]
Valentine's Day Media Kit 2007
Valentine's Day Media Kit En Español
BACKGROUND
Valentine’s Day receives a great deal of media attention. Print and electronic press outlets nationwide share the romantic stories of couples proclaiming their love for one another. However, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) couples are often excluded from Valentine's Day media coverage—and LGBT couples of color receive even less attention in both mainstream and people of color media. GLAAD hopes that the following resources will help you produce Valentine's Day stories that reflect the true diversity of our society by including LGBT couples in the coverage of this romantic holiday.
LANGUAGE
LGBT people and relationships are often excluded by the kinds of language media professionals choose to use. Consider the language used to describe couples in general: Does it assume that all couples are heterosexual? Does it allow for non-traditional families? Does it subtly endorse opposite-sex relationships while marginalizing same-sex commitments? GLAAD encourages media to use words and descriptions that can be universally applied to all couples – gay and straight – and that respect the significance of their commitments.
LGBT people use a variety of terms to describe their relationships and significant others, including: partner, spouse, girlfriend/boyfriend, lover, husband/wife, companion, same gender loving couples (for couples from communities of African descent), marriage, partnership and family, among others. We encourage you to ask people which term they would like you to use. Also, please do not put quotation marks around the description, as this implies the described relationship is somehow illegitimate.
GLAAD’S Media Reference Guide contains a comprehensive glossary of LGBT-related terminology. http://www.glaad.org/media/guide/index.php
NEWSPAPERS ACROSS THE COUNTRY RECOGNIZE SAME-SEX UNIONS
A growing number of newspapers are committed to reporting on weddings, civil unions and commitment ceremonies for gay and lesbian couples. Five years after persuading The New York Times to open its Weddings/Celebrations pages to same-sex couples and launching its Announcing Equality campaign, GLAAD now reports that 883 newspapers – nearly 60 percent of all daily newspapers in the United States – now accept wedding and/or commitment ceremony announcements for gay and lesbian couples. That number has increased 584 percent since it was first measured in late 2002, when only 69 newspapers said they would print such announcements.
For additional information on GLAAD’S Announcing Equality Campaign, visit http://www.glaad.org/action/campaigns_detail.php?id=3945
DIVERSITY
In reporting on LGBT couples, please also remember that they are as diverse as the rest of society, crossing lines of gender, race, age, income, class, family structure, religion, geography and political affiliation. We encourage you to reflect this diversity in your coverage.
Below, you will find statistics and demographic information on couples in communities of color, including Asian-Pacific Islander (API) communities, Latino communities and communities of African descent.
LGBT Asian Pacific Islander Couples
The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, a UCLA-based think tank, has conducted extensive research on the U.S. Census and what it reveals about LGBT couples of color. According to the 2005 Williams Institute study: “Asians and Pacific Islanders in Same-Sex couples in California: Data from Census 2000,” (http://www.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute/publications/APIs%20in%20same-sex%20couples%20in%20the%20US.pdf) research found that:
The 2000 Census identified more than 38,000 API people in the United States as living with a same-sex partner. More than half of these couples are raising children.
California had the largest number of cohabitating API same-sex couples (13,288), followed by New York (4,775) and Hawaii (2,186).
API same-sex couples in the United States are slightly more likely to be male couples; fifty-four percent of all API same-sex couples are male couples.
LGBT Communities of African Descent Couples
According to the 2004 Gay & Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute’s study: “Black Same-Sex Households in the United States: A Report from the 2000 Census,” (http://www.thetaskforce.org/reports_and_research/blackcouples_census) research found that:
There are approximately 85,000 black same-sex couples in the United States.
The top ten metropolitan areas in the United States with the largest number of black same-sex households are: New York, Washington DC-Baltimore, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Detroit, San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, Houston and Miami.
Black female same-sex couples raise non-biological (fostered or adopted) children at the same rate as black married opposite-sex couples.
LGBT Latina/o Couples
In the 2005 National Gay & Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute’s study: “Hispanic and Latino in Same-Sex Couple Households in the United States: A Report from the 2000 Census,”(http://www.thetaskforce.org/reports_and_research/HispanicLatino_households) research found that:
The 2000 Census identified 105,025 same-sex Latino households.
Individuals in Hispanic same-sex couples report similar countries/regions of origin to those in Hispanic married opposite-sex couples, including: Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Central America and South America.
In the 2005 Williams Institute study: “Latino/as in Same-Sex Couples in California: Data from the Census 2000,” (http://www.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute/publications/Latino-as%20in%20same-sex%20couples%20in%20california%20-s.pdf) research found that:
There are more Latino/as in same-sex couples in California than in any other state; more than 30 percent of the 147,000 Latino/as in same-sex couples identified in the United States live in California. There are also more than 33,000 Latino/a children being raised by same-sex couples in California.
Other LGBT Demographics
The 2006 Williams Institute study: “Same-sex Couples and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Population: New Estimates from the American Community Survey,” (http://www.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute/publications/SameSexCouplesandGLBpopACS.pdf) also found that:
The number of same-sex couples in the United States grew by more than 30 percent from 2000 to 2005, from nearly 600,000 couples in 2000 to almost 777,000 in 2005. The institute concluded that most likely as stigma associated with same-sex partnering and homosexuality in general decreases, more same-sex couples are willing to identify themselves as such on government surveys like the American Community Survey.
The largest percentage increase in the number of same-sex couples was reported in the Midwest, an area that had relatively few same-sex couples in the 2000 Census.
The ten states with the largest percentage increase include: Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Colorado and New Hampshire.
STORY POSSIBILITIES
Please consider integrating LGBT couples into your Valentine's Day feature story. You might cover topics such as:
- Couples looking back at how they met
- Valentine's Day weddings and anniversaries
- Dating trends (meeting online, dating services, blind dates, etc.)
- Massachusetts’ marriage anniversary
- Vermont and Connecticut civil unions anniversaries
- Valentine's Day events for singles
- Long-distance relationships
- Surprise marriage proposals on Valentine's Day
- Retired couples re-igniting romance
- Planning a Valentine's Day getaway
- Couples' favorite poems, songs, vacation spots, etc.
- Choosing the perfect Valentine's Day gift
- High school sweethearts
- Celebrity couples and break-ups
- Wedding-day successes and disasters
- Balancing romance and family obligations
- Workplace romances
- Bi-national couples’ stories
- An entertainment-related profile on the film Gray Matters, a new romantic comedy to be released on February 14 about a woman who discovers she is gay
- Making Valentine’s Day dinner reservations – especially at the last minute
-Finding a babysitter on Valentine’s Day
Also:
- Include romantic lesbian/gay-owned restaurants in your area in your list of Valentines Day dating recommendations.
- Include lesbian/gay-themed comedies or dramas in your list of all-time most romantic movies.
-Report on National Freedom to Marry Day events across the country (Feb. 12 - See RESOURCES below for additional information).
- List relationship development books for same-sex couples in features about keeping romance alive.
- Talk to local jewelry stores, wedding planners, bakeries, florists and other companies that offer services and products for same-sex couples' commitment ceremonies.
- Talk to pastors who conduct same-sex ceremonies at inclusive churches, particularly in communities of color.
RESOURCES & INFORMATION FOR INCLUSIVE COVERAGE BY TOPIC:
LOCATING LGBT COUPLES FOR INTERVIEWS
For help in finding LGBT organizations or couples in your local media markets, please contact a member of GLAAD’s Media Field Strategy Team.
You may also want to contact the organizations listed in the MARRIAGE and CIVIL UNIONS sections below.
MARRIAGE
Asian Equality
Andy Wong
Coalition Manager
(415) 341-6415
awong@caasf.org
http://www.asianequality.org
Freedom to Marry
Samiya Bashir
Communications Director
(212) 851-8418
samiya@freedomtomarry.org
http://www.freedomtomarry.org
Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders - GLAD (Massachusetts)
Carisa Cunningham
Director of Public Affairs and Education
(617) 426-1350
ccunningham@glad.org
http://www.glad.org/
Lambda Legal
Lisa Hardaway
Director of Media Relations
(212) 809-8585 ext: 266
LHardaway@lambdalegal.org
http://www.lambdalegal.org
Mass Equality
Marc Solomon
Campaign Director
(617) 878-2300
Marc.Solomon@massequality.org
http://www.massequality.org/
Marriage Equality
http://www.marriageequality.org
(877) 571-5729
[NOTE: Marriage Equality also has chapters in California, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington. Visit their Web site’s “chapters” link for more information.]
National Black Justice Coalition
Herndon Davis
Director of Communications
(202) 349-3755
hedavis@nbjc.org
http://www.nbjcoalition.org/
Unid@s, the National Latina/o LGBT Human Rights Organization
Pedro Julio Serrano
Spokesperson/Portavoz
787.602.5954
pserrano@thetaskforce.org
www.unidoslgbt.org
CIVIL UNIONS
Vermont Secretary of State - Vermont Guide to Civil Unions
http://www.sec.state.vt.us/otherprg/civilunions/civilunions.html
Love Makes a Family (Connecticut)
Anne Stanback
Executive Director
(860) 525-7777
anne@lmfct.org
http://www.lmfct.org
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE MEDIA IMAGES
Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)
Rashad Robinson
Senior Director of Media Programs
(646) 871-8017
robinson@glaad.org
http://www.glaad.org
COMMITMENT CEREMONY/MARRIAGE RESOURCES
International Commitment Ceremonies Registry
http://www.unionoflove.com
Rainbow Unions
http://www.rainbowunions.com
NATIONAL FREEDOM TO MARRY DAY
Lambda Legal
Lisa Hardaway
Director of Media Relations
(212) 809-8585 ext: 266
LHardaway@lambdalegal.org
http://www.lambdalegal.org
PUBLICATIONS
GLAAD’S MARRIAGE EQUALITY RESOURCES MEDIA KIT
This publication provides facts, statistics and media spokesperson contact information – resources to help journalists assess the real impact of marriage equality on the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families, whose stories should be a part of any coverage of this issue.
http://www.glaad.org/media/resource_kit_detail.php?id=3457
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
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Valentine's Day Media Kit
media center > resource kits > Valentine's Day Media Kit
February 8, 2008
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Valentine's Day Media Kit 2007
Valentine's Day Media Kit En Español
BACKGROUND
Valentine’s Day receives a great deal of media attention. Print and electronic press outlets nationwide share the romantic stories of couples proclaiming their love for one another. However, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) couples are often excluded from Valentine's Day media coverage—and LGBT couples of color receive even less attention in both mainstream and people of color media. GLAAD hopes that the following resources will help you produce Valentine's Day stories that reflect the true diversity of our society by including LGBT couples in the coverage of this romantic holiday.
LANGUAGE
LGBT people and relationships are often excluded by the kinds of language media professionals choose to use. Consider the language used to describe couples in general: Does it assume that all couples are heterosexual? Does it allow for non-traditional families? Does it subtly endorse opposite-sex relationships while marginalizing same-sex commitments? GLAAD encourages media to use words and descriptions that can be universally applied to all couples – gay and straight – and that respect the significance of their commitments.
LGBT people use a variety of terms to describe their relationships and significant others, including: partner, spouse, girlfriend/boyfriend, lover, husband/wife, companion, same gender loving couples (for couples from communities of African descent), marriage, partnership and family, among others. We encourage you to ask people which term they would like you to use. Also, please do not put quotation marks around the description, as this implies the described relationship is somehow illegitimate.
GLAAD’S Media Reference Guide contains a comprehensive glossary of LGBT-related terminology. http://www.glaad.org/media/guide/index.php
NEWSPAPERS ACROSS THE COUNTRY RECOGNIZE SAME-SEX UNIONS
A growing number of newspapers are committed to reporting on weddings, civil unions and commitment ceremonies for gay and lesbian couples. Five years after persuading The New York Times to open its Weddings/Celebrations pages to same-sex couples and launching its Announcing Equality campaign, GLAAD now reports that 883 newspapers – nearly 60 percent of all daily newspapers in the United States – now accept wedding and/or commitment ceremony announcements for gay and lesbian couples. That number has increased 584 percent since it was first measured in late 2002, when only 69 newspapers said they would print such announcements.
For additional information on GLAAD’S Announcing Equality Campaign, visit http://www.glaad.org/action/campaigns_detail.php?id=3945
DIVERSITY
In reporting on LGBT couples, please also remember that they are as diverse as the rest of society, crossing lines of gender, race, age, income, class, family structure, religion, geography and political affiliation. We encourage you to reflect this diversity in your coverage.
Below, you will find statistics and demographic information on couples in communities of color, including Asian-Pacific Islander (API) communities, Latino communities and communities of African descent.
LGBT Asian Pacific Islander Couples
The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, a UCLA-based think tank, has conducted extensive research on the U.S. Census and what it reveals about LGBT couples of color. According to the 2005 Williams Institute study: “Asians and Pacific Islanders in Same-Sex couples in California: Data from Census 2000,” (http://www.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute/publications/APIs%20in%20same-sex%20couples%20in%20the%20US.pdf) research found that:
The 2000 Census identified more than 38,000 API people in the United States as living with a same-sex partner. More than half of these couples are raising children.
California had the largest number of cohabitating API same-sex couples (13,288), followed by New York (4,775) and Hawaii (2,186).
API same-sex couples in the United States are slightly more likely to be male couples; fifty-four percent of all API same-sex couples are male couples.
LGBT Communities of African Descent Couples
According to the 2004 Gay & Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute’s study: “Black Same-Sex Households in the United States: A Report from the 2000 Census,” (http://www.thetaskforce.org/reports_and_research/blackcouples_census) research found that:
There are approximately 85,000 black same-sex couples in the United States.
The top ten metropolitan areas in the United States with the largest number of black same-sex households are: New York, Washington DC-Baltimore, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Detroit, San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, Houston and Miami.
Black female same-sex couples raise non-biological (fostered or adopted) children at the same rate as black married opposite-sex couples.
LGBT Latina/o Couples
In the 2005 National Gay & Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute’s study: “Hispanic and Latino in Same-Sex Couple Households in the United States: A Report from the 2000 Census,”(http://www.thetaskforce.org/reports_and_research/HispanicLatino_households) research found that:
The 2000 Census identified 105,025 same-sex Latino households.
Individuals in Hispanic same-sex couples report similar countries/regions of origin to those in Hispanic married opposite-sex couples, including: Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Central America and South America.
In the 2005 Williams Institute study: “Latino/as in Same-Sex Couples in California: Data from the Census 2000,” (http://www.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute/publications/Latino-as%20in%20same-sex%20couples%20in%20california%20-s.pdf) research found that:
There are more Latino/as in same-sex couples in California than in any other state; more than 30 percent of the 147,000 Latino/as in same-sex couples identified in the United States live in California. There are also more than 33,000 Latino/a children being raised by same-sex couples in California.
Other LGBT Demographics
The 2006 Williams Institute study: “Same-sex Couples and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Population: New Estimates from the American Community Survey,” (http://www.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute/publications/SameSexCouplesandGLBpopACS.pdf) also found that:
The number of same-sex couples in the United States grew by more than 30 percent from 2000 to 2005, from nearly 600,000 couples in 2000 to almost 777,000 in 2005. The institute concluded that most likely as stigma associated with same-sex partnering and homosexuality in general decreases, more same-sex couples are willing to identify themselves as such on government surveys like the American Community Survey.
The largest percentage increase in the number of same-sex couples was reported in the Midwest, an area that had relatively few same-sex couples in the 2000 Census.
The ten states with the largest percentage increase include: Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Colorado and New Hampshire.
STORY POSSIBILITIES
Please consider integrating LGBT couples into your Valentine's Day feature story. You might cover topics such as:
- Couples looking back at how they met
- Valentine's Day weddings and anniversaries
- Dating trends (meeting online, dating services, blind dates, etc.)
- Massachusetts’ marriage anniversary
- Vermont and Connecticut civil unions anniversaries
- Valentine's Day events for singles
- Long-distance relationships
- Surprise marriage proposals on Valentine's Day
- Retired couples re-igniting romance
- Planning a Valentine's Day getaway
- Couples' favorite poems, songs, vacation spots, etc.
- Choosing the perfect Valentine's Day gift
- High school sweethearts
- Celebrity couples and break-ups
- Wedding-day successes and disasters
- Balancing romance and family obligations
- Workplace romances
- Bi-national couples’ stories
- An entertainment-related profile on the film Gray Matters, a new romantic comedy to be released on February 14 about a woman who discovers she is gay
- Making Valentine’s Day dinner reservations – especially at the last minute
-Finding a babysitter on Valentine’s Day
Also:
- Include romantic lesbian/gay-owned restaurants in your area in your list of Valentines Day dating recommendations.
- Include lesbian/gay-themed comedies or dramas in your list of all-time most romantic movies.
-Report on National Freedom to Marry Day events across the country (Feb. 12 - See RESOURCES below for additional information).
- List relationship development books for same-sex couples in features about keeping romance alive.
- Talk to local jewelry stores, wedding planners, bakeries, florists and other companies that offer services and products for same-sex couples' commitment ceremonies.
- Talk to pastors who conduct same-sex ceremonies at inclusive churches, particularly in communities of color.
RESOURCES & INFORMATION FOR INCLUSIVE COVERAGE BY TOPIC:
LOCATING LGBT COUPLES FOR INTERVIEWS
For help in finding LGBT organizations or couples in your local media markets, please contact a member of GLAAD’s Media Field Strategy Team.
You may also want to contact the organizations listed in the MARRIAGE and CIVIL UNIONS sections below.
MARRIAGE
Asian Equality
Andy Wong
Coalition Manager
(415) 341-6415
awong@caasf.org
http://www.asianequality.org
Freedom to Marry
Samiya Bashir
Communications Director
(212) 851-8418
samiya@freedomtomarry.org
http://www.freedomtomarry.org
Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders - GLAD (Massachusetts)
Carisa Cunningham
Director of Public Affairs and Education
(617) 426-1350
ccunningham@glad.org
http://www.glad.org/
Lambda Legal
Lisa Hardaway
Director of Media Relations
(212) 809-8585 ext: 266
LHardaway@lambdalegal.org
http://www.lambdalegal.org
Mass Equality
Marc Solomon
Campaign Director
(617) 878-2300
Marc.Solomon@massequality.org
http://www.massequality.org/
Marriage Equality
http://www.marriageequality.org
(877) 571-5729
[NOTE: Marriage Equality also has chapters in California, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington. Visit their Web site’s “chapters” link for more information.]
National Black Justice Coalition
Herndon Davis
Director of Communications
(202) 349-3755
hedavis@nbjc.org
http://www.nbjcoalition.org/
Unid@s, the National Latina/o LGBT Human Rights Organization
Pedro Julio Serrano
Spokesperson/Portavoz
787.602.5954
pserrano@thetaskforce.org
www.unidoslgbt.org
CIVIL UNIONS
Vermont Secretary of State - Vermont Guide to Civil Unions
http://www.sec.state.vt.us/otherprg/civilunions/civilunions.html
Love Makes a Family (Connecticut)
Anne Stanback
Executive Director
(860) 525-7777
anne@lmfct.org
http://www.lmfct.org
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE MEDIA IMAGES
Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)
Rashad Robinson
Senior Director of Media Programs
(646) 871-8017
robinson@glaad.org
http://www.glaad.org
COMMITMENT CEREMONY/MARRIAGE RESOURCES
International Commitment Ceremonies Registry
http://www.unionoflove.com
Rainbow Unions
http://www.rainbowunions.com
NATIONAL FREEDOM TO MARRY DAY
Lambda Legal
Lisa Hardaway
Director of Media Relations
(212) 809-8585 ext: 266
LHardaway@lambdalegal.org
http://www.lambdalegal.org
PUBLICATIONS
GLAAD’S MARRIAGE EQUALITY RESOURCES MEDIA KIT
This publication provides facts, statistics and media spokesperson contact information – resources to help journalists assess the real impact of marriage equality on the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families, whose stories should be a part of any coverage of this issue.
http://www.glaad.org/media/resource_kit_detail.php?id=3457
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
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