Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40384019/ns/politics-white_house/
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Obama needs 12 stitches after being hit in lip
New Poll Suggests Shift in Public Views on T.S.A. Procedures
A solid majority supports full-body scans, but public is split over whether pat-downs are justified.
From Korea to Kokomo: A glimpse of 2012?
Americans now demand something more from Obama than quiet self-assurance. Managing that transformation represents the biggest challenge for the president over the next two years.
Video: Obama Pardons Thanksgiving Turkey
By Mark Berman Opposing Views
President Obama has pardoned the National Thanksgiving Turkey. Continuing a decades-old White House tradition, Obama issued pardons Wednesday to a gobbler named 'Apple' and its alternate, 'Cider.'
Source: http://www.opposingviews.com/i/video-obama-pardons-thanksgiving-turkey
Friday, November 26, 2010
Murkowski seeks voice in Alaska election lawsuit
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski is arguing that Alaska will be harmed if she isn't sworn in on time, calling for a rapid resolution to a lawsuit aimed at blocking certification of the election.
Brazil (1985)
A bureaucrat in a future totalitarian state becomes its enemy and ultimately – its victim. [Dir: Terry Gilliam/ Jonathan Pryce, Katherine Helmond, Robert De Niro/ 131 min/ SciFi-Fantasy, Comedy/ Anti-Socialism, Government as Torturer]
It also includes elements from the present American situation: sudden, violent, BATF-style entrances into people’s homes, vast databases of information on private individuals, and a strange public tolerance for it all. Trapped in this milieu, a clerk at the Ministry of Information leads a dreary life in a dead-end job. He experiences happiness only in his dreams.
Then one day his life changes completely. It seems an innocent man was arrested and tortured to death due to a bureaucratic foul-up, and worse, the man’s family was overcharged for the torture!
Yes, the state here charges for its “services.” So the clerk tries to refund the man’s family for the overcharge. In the course of doing so, he meets, literally, the woman of his dreams. As it turns out, she’s an anti-state rebel on the run. He tries to help her and to be with her, but in the end they are both captured. Tortured into a catatonic state, he effectively “escapes” into his dream world.
This film is three parts 1984 and one part Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Elements of both the story and the atmosphere appear to have been inspired by 1984. However, this film is more black comedy than straight drama. It doesn’t so much dramatize the horror of totalitarianism as mock it. That makes it a bit more palatable, but the downside of the satirical approach is that it’s less effective in generating sympathy for the state’s victims. Director Terry Gilliam, of Monty Python fame, infuses this film with the Pythonesque brand of humor – dry, British, and sometimes bizarre.
Memorable music and quality special effects contribute much and there are some well-sketched minor characters, including a heroic independent repairman whom libertarians will find especially admirable (he quit working for the state monopoly, and is being hunted as an illegal free-lancer). It’s not a film to everyone’s taste, but it’s nonetheless a provocative dystopian vision.
This article was reprinted from Jon Osborne's Miss Liberty's Guide to Film and Video: Movies for the Libertarian Millenium, available in the Advocates Liberty Store.
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