First Word

Yes; but each reason only applies to some people.

A reason to vote R (more…)

As everyone that cares already knows, the St. Louis Cardinals took the 2006 World Series, four games to one.

It was a good series to watch. Only the first game came close (more…)

A remake of Philadelphia Story; so I won’t repeat the synopsis. The differences:

1. It is done as a musical. They even drag Louis Armstrong in (more…)

This is a pamphlet I discovered at the WTS library containing a speech by one Adolf Zahn to the evangelical faculty of the Royal and Imperial University in Vienna in around 1871. It is interesting for two reasons.

First, it is fascinating to discover an intellectually vigorous Reformed movement (more…)

We are asked to support Bush’s War because of evil Saddam Hussein.

The War was justified by a sequence of statements by Bush that have proven false or unwarranted. By unwarranted, I mean (more…)

Filmed for 3-D glasses, as one can easily observe; however, the technique had just gone out of fashion when the movie hit the theatres.

Divorced Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson have a Taming of the Shrew like interaction. The story, a play-within-a-play, is actually based on (more…)

In an earlier installment, I assayed to “clear the field” for the beginner. Now I will answer some of the standard “objections” to opera that are floating around out there.

The fat lady

At first blush, there is something ridiculous about, say, a bunch of chubby 40-somethings (more…)

Booze, broads, and brawling, that’s life! could be the subtitle.

Two brothers, one bound by duty and honor, the other sensuous and libertine, (more…)

Normally, one assumes the Atlanta Braves will win the National East. This year, they fumbled. But the Mets were ready (more…)

Just to show how quickly things changed, in this movie Humphrey Bogart got fifth billing, being edged down the list not just by Leslie Howard and Bette Davis, but two others! (more…)

For despot he is. So says constitutional scholar, Jonathan Turley. He said this last night on Keith Olbermann’s program. You can watch it here. His full statement is worth pondering.

“People have no idea how significant this is. Really a time of shame this is (more…)

This, the greatest of our Hollywood musicals, needs no commendation. Most have seen it several times and are familiar with the story. For the few that have not, you have something to look forward to.

Reviews of “The Sound of Music” are legion so I will not bother with another. A few words about the music, though, may be helpful in appreciating the movie. For, as the title suggests, it is the music that is the soul of the film. (more…)

My colleague can be heard in a live interview here under “vol. 4″.

The modern high-rise, impersonal megapolis has been created by dominant capitalist Fredersen (Alfred Abel) along with his evil inventor Rotwang (Klein-Rogge). The capitalist and his “court” live up high, in a place of godlike, Olympian imagery. (more…)

Max Renn (James Wood) is looking for something to boost ratings of his local TV station. His aid “discovers” the Videodrome, supposedly by intercepting a satellite feed from the Orient. The Videodrome is ultra S/M pornography. Renn becomes fascinated, then addicted to it, and goes on a quest to get the rights to add it to his station’s programming. (more…)

Original German Der Untergang.

No idea how this movie slipped through the crack for most of us when it came out. It is wonderful, terrible, everything a movie should be. (more…)

To understand politics, one must understand origins. And the Republican Party cannot be understood without understanding Abraham Lincoln. (more…)

This quote is from Keith Olbermann on the October 12 broadcast of MSNBC’s Countdown. In a report that featured excerpts from the soon to be released book, Tempting Faith, by the former number-two man in Bush’s office of “faith-based initiatives,” David Kuo, Olbermann reveals what should have been obvious (more…)

Last silent by Charlie Chaplin. He is the Little Tramp who thinks he may have a chance with a pretty flower girl, because she is blind! Seeing her threatened with eviction, Chaplin is motivated to take on crazy jobs, as well as hope for money from an on-again off-again friendship with a rich man; all setting up for lots of slapstick.

There are the hints of debauchery that are usual for films of this era.

In commending opera, we take note of the fact that for most, it will be an acquired taste. Few that are now opera fanatics became so after the first dip of the big toe into the water. Most good things in life are not apprehended immediately. Think of your first cup of coffee, or your first whiskey. (more…)

I grew up in the golden era of baseball. At least it was golden for me. The L.A. Dodgers and N.Y. Yankees met in three out of five World Series (1977, 1978, and 1981). My team, the Dodgers, beat the Yanks only once, but just getting there was a thrill.

In college I gradually drifted away from following baseball except in 1988 when the Dodgers were in the Series once again. They beat the A’s in five. But the Series really ended after the first game. That was when Kirk Gibson “the gimp” (he had pulled both hamstrings, hurt both knees and could barely walk) (more…)

(revised from a 9/29/06 post)

The reason the current regime does not want to build walls or place troops at the U.S.-Mexico border is that there is no U.S.-Mexico border. At least there is no border in their mind. And their ideas may soon be our reality. (more…)

This movie (original German: Lola rennt) is fast paced starring Franka Potente who came to American attention a few years after this film as the girlfriend in the Bourne Identity movies.

In this story, Lola is desperate to get some money to bail out her boyfriend who has gotten into trouble. The contingency of history is explored (more…)

There are reasons to restore baseball as the National Pastime. These are especially important to point out as the seasons of the main alternative candidates, football and basketball, are getting revved up.

1. It is simple enough to explain to a child, yet subtle enough in its strategy to keep even old men guessing. (more…)

B&W. Though color was available, I’m guessing B&W was thought appropriate, since the movie is basically the filming of a play, so the artificiality is congruent with the medium. I suppose it could hardly be for budgetary reasons, given the all-star cast. (more…)

This seems to have been made for the specific purpose of show-casing as many comedians in funny roles as possible. Usually, the comedians are shown in small groups acting out situations that are subplots of the main arc, which is the mad dash cross-California to retrieve a large hidden stash of money that they find out about at the beginning from something Jimmy Durante tells them just before (literally) kicking the bucket. (more…)

With the current Republican pedophile scandal and cover-up dominating the headlines, you may have missed what happened last week. On Thursday, September 28, Congress passed a law that effectively destroyed the Bill of Rights. The name of the bill that killed it sounds benign enough, “The Military Commissions Act of 2006.” But with its passage the last vestiges of our constitutional republic disappeared. (more…)

but not for the reason the purveyors of the term are thinking. No, it is to defend myself against those that use the expression.

Fascism has two basic usages today, one precise, and one nebulous. (more…)

My colleague has done some very important work that answers several of the standard criticisms of vantillian apologetics.

In my opinion, the most important one is the so-called “uniqueness” claim. That is, the question arises, how does the presuppositional method prove Christianity in its concreteness, as opposed to merely showing that something like Christianity– say, affirming a Quadrinity rather than a Trinity– is a necessary precondition of thought?

This is reprinted from a chapter in The Standard Bearer.

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