Sarah Palin Bashing Award

United States: World Referee

Imagine a football, basketball, hockey, soccer, or even baseball game played for high stakes without a referee. The idea of calling your own foul would be abused and ignored until finally fights would break out.

That is the world without the presence of the United States.

Sometimes we call major and minor penalties, sometimes we throw people into the box temporarily, sometimes we toss them out of the game entirely. We get cursed and are often accused of being blind, but the game cannot continue without us.

Until January of this year the players in the great game of world affairs sullenly behaved themselves. The remaining two members of the "Axis of Evil" restrained their ambitions, waiting out the adversary they feared the most, President George W. Bush. They understood as did Bush that war is never your last resort, that the Republican president always reserved the right to act forcefully to defend his country.

Then came His Apologizency, begging the world's forgiveness for the United States "interfering." Obama never understood that American interference kept the different regional pots from boiling over. North Korea and Iran hated President Bush, but they respected him. Now with Iran and North Korea both pushing the envelope, it becomes an invitation for others in the region to act. Israel at some point will have to attack Iran. Is this the best scenario? No. But unless a revolution removes the nuclear minded mullahs, it will happen. Do we really want Japan to feel insecure enough to lash out on their own at North Korea, possibly antagonizing China? How many years until Japan reaches that point of fear, mindful that the US under Obama will not even act to protect Hawaii?

American "interference" actually created the promising situation in Iran. The ever vigilant American press exposed a Bush era covert operation to funnel $400 million into Iran to destabilize the regime. It is only now bearing fruit. Hopefully it removes a nuclear upstart from the equation. Of course that was a product of Bush's "arrogance."

I (and Bill Maher, surprisingly) would like to see a little less talk and a lot more action from Obama when it comes to national security. And I mean against North Korea, not the National Rifle Association.

Ugly

Previously we discussed the new film documenting the life of college football great Ernie Davis. In trying to emphasize the racial barrier Davis broke, the filmmakers resorted to creating a false stereotype of West Virginians as racist barbarians. Is this not in and of itself somewhat racist?

Well, Hollywood is outdoing itself this fall when it comes to ugly non truths and prejudice. Oliver Stone directed a new release entitled W. We can be fairly sure that it follows history as accurately as any of Stone's other movies. The trailer itself is insulting. It describes a "trillion dollar mistake" as the highlight of a movie "based on a true story."

I doubt the Iraqis right now see the removal of the vicious dictator Hussein as a mistake now as they sit on the threshold of stable democracy. Even worse is the insult that such a statement directs at the hundreds of thousands of US servicemen who fought and sometimes died there. The trailer for this movie shows a flippant, foolish George W. Bush. Stone substitutes radical opinion for historical judgment and caricature for biography. Then he has the nerve to say "based on a true story."

Finally Hollywood treats us to Bill Maher's insulting satire of Jesus Christ. Why even bother discussing this. You are probably sick enough already. Hollywood needs to ask itself why the popularity of channels such as AMC, Turner Classic Movies, and Fox Movie Channel has skyrocketed in the last few years. It is here and here only that you see the classic war movies that emphasize the heroism of American soliders and celebrate the values that made this country great. Charlton Heston does not ridicule religion in The Ten Commandments, but celebrates the courage of one of the great men in history. In Planet of the Apes he attacks racism and authoritarianism in one fell swoop. No one needed to be insulted or lied about in these pictures. Where have you gone John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and others?

Hollywood has turned ugly. Out of all the hatchet jobs out there this month, Saw V looks like the best of the bunch. You also have to celebrate the courage of the conservative actors that joined together to lampoon Michael Moore in An American Carol. I hope that they will continue to work together, but in the future to make movies in the style of old Hollywood, grand pictures that celebrate this great country rather than attack it.