Thursday, June 11, 2009
Mission Accomplished: Family Of Murdered Abortion Provider Tiller Announces Permanent Closure Of Clinic
Monday, June 1, 2009
At Long Last, Tiller the Killer is DEAD!
By ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press Writer
WICHITA, Kan. (Associated Press) -- A man suspected of shooting and killing a well-known doctor who performed late-term abortions was in jail Monday while investigators sought to learn more about his background, including the extent of his connections to anti-abortion groups.
Dr. George Tiller, 67, was serving as an usher during morning services Sunday when he was shot in the foyer of Reformation Lutheran Church, police said. The gunman fired one shot at Tiller and threatened two other people who tried to stop him.
The suspect, identified by one law enforcement agency as Scott Roeder, was taken into custody some 170 miles away in a Kansas City suburb about three hours after the shooting.
Roeder, 51, was returned to Wichita and was being held without bond on one count of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault. Formal charges were expected to be filed on Monday.
A man with the same name as the suspect has a criminal record and a background of anti-abortion postings on sympathetic Web sites. In one post written in 2007 on the Web site for Operation Rescue, a group that closely followed Tiller's work and legal troubles in recent years, a man identifying himself as Scott Roeder asked if anyone had thought of attending Tiller's church to ask the doctor and other worshippers about his work.
But police said Sunday that all early indications showed the shooter acted alone. Operation Rescue condemned the killing as vigilantism and "a cowardly act." The president of the group told The New York Times that Roeder was "not a friend, not a contributor, not a volunteer."
In 1996, a 38-year-old man named Scott Roeder was charged in Topeka with criminal use of explosives for having bomb components in his car trunk and sentenced to 24 months of probation. However, his conviction was overturned on appeal the next year after a higher court said evidence against Roeder was seized by law enforcement officers during an illegal search of his car.
At the time, police said the FBI had identified Roeder as a member of the anti-government Freemen group, an organization that kept the FBI at bay in Jordan, Mont., for almost three months in 1995-96. Authorities on Sunday night would not immediately confirm if their suspect was the same man.
In May 2007, someone posting to the Web site of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue used the name "Scott Roeder" in response to a scheduled vigil to "pray for an end to George R. Tiller's late-term abortion business."
"Bleass (sic) everyone for attending and praying in May to bring justice to Tiller and the closing of his death camp," the posting read. "Sometime soon, would it be feasible to organize as many people as possible to attend Tillers church (inside, not just outside) to have much more of a presence and possibly ask questions of the Pastor, Deacons, Elders and members while there? Doesn't seem like it would hurt anything but bring more attention to Tiller."
The slaying quickly brought condemnation from both anti-abortion and pro-choice groups, as well as President Barack Obama.
"However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence," Obama said in a statement.
The women's clinic run by Tiller is one of three in the nation where abortions are performed after the 21st week of pregnancy, when the fetus is considered viable, and has repeatedly been the site of protests for about two decades. A protester shot Tiller in both arms in 1993, and his clinic was bombed in 1985.
Wichita Deputy Police Chief Tom Stolz said that Tiller apparently did not have a bodyguard with him in church, although the doctor was routinely accompanied by one. An attorney for Tiller, Dan Monnat, said the doctor's wife, Jeanne, was in the choir at the time of the shooting.
Monnat said in early May that Tiller had asked federal prosecutors to step up investigations of vandalism and other threats against the clinic out of fear that the incidents were increasing and that Tiller's safety was in jeopardy. However, Stolz said authorities knew of no threats connected to the shooting.
Adam Watkins, a 20-year-old who said he has attended the church his entire life, said he was sitting in the middle of the congregation when he heard a small pop at the start of the service.
"We just thought a child had come in with a balloon and it had popped, had gone up and hit the ceiling and popped," Watkins said.
Another usher came in and told the congregation to remain seated, then escorted Tiller's wife out.
"When she got to the back doors, we heard her scream, and so we knew something bad had happened," Watkins said.
Church members said anti-abortion protesters have shown up outside the church on Sundays regularly.
"They've been out here for quite a few years. We've just become accustomed to it. Just like an everyday thing, you just looked over and see them and say, 'Yup they're back again.'"
He added: "We had no idea that someone would come into our church and do such a bad thing like that _ inside of a church."
The last killing of an abortion doctor was in October 1998 when Dr. Barnett Slepian was fatally shot in his home in a suburb of Buffalo, N.Y. A militant abortion opponent was convicted of the murder.
Federal marshals protected Tiller during the 1991 Summer of Mercy protests, and he was protected again between 1994 and 1998 after another abortion provider was assassinated and federal authorities reported finding Tiller's name at the top of an assassination list.
One of the few remaining late-term abortion clinics is in Boulder, Colo., where Dr. Warren Hern denounced Tiller's killing as the "inevitable and predictable consequence of decades of anti-abortion" rhetoric and violence.
"Dr. Tiller's assassination is not the lone and inexplicable action of one deranged killer," Hern said Sunday. "This was a political assassination in a historic pattern of anti-abortion political violence. It was terrorism."
Associated Press Writer John Hanna contributed to this report.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
"Heinous acts of violence," Barry? What do you think Tiller was commiting upon the unborn for all those years? Oh, yes, I forgot: You're the same moral mutant that voted against the Infants Born Alive Act. Well, in my opinion, Scott Roeder is an American hero. May God bless him and his family.
WICHITA, Kan. (Associated Press) -- A man suspected of shooting and killing a well-known doctor who performed late-term abortions was in jail Monday while investigators sought to learn more about his background, including the extent of his connections to anti-abortion groups.
Dr. George Tiller, 67, was serving as an usher during morning services Sunday when he was shot in the foyer of Reformation Lutheran Church, police said. The gunman fired one shot at Tiller and threatened two other people who tried to stop him.
The suspect, identified by one law enforcement agency as Scott Roeder, was taken into custody some 170 miles away in a Kansas City suburb about three hours after the shooting.
Roeder, 51, was returned to Wichita and was being held without bond on one count of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault. Formal charges were expected to be filed on Monday.
A man with the same name as the suspect has a criminal record and a background of anti-abortion postings on sympathetic Web sites. In one post written in 2007 on the Web site for Operation Rescue, a group that closely followed Tiller's work and legal troubles in recent years, a man identifying himself as Scott Roeder asked if anyone had thought of attending Tiller's church to ask the doctor and other worshippers about his work.
But police said Sunday that all early indications showed the shooter acted alone. Operation Rescue condemned the killing as vigilantism and "a cowardly act." The president of the group told The New York Times that Roeder was "not a friend, not a contributor, not a volunteer."
In 1996, a 38-year-old man named Scott Roeder was charged in Topeka with criminal use of explosives for having bomb components in his car trunk and sentenced to 24 months of probation. However, his conviction was overturned on appeal the next year after a higher court said evidence against Roeder was seized by law enforcement officers during an illegal search of his car.
At the time, police said the FBI had identified Roeder as a member of the anti-government Freemen group, an organization that kept the FBI at bay in Jordan, Mont., for almost three months in 1995-96. Authorities on Sunday night would not immediately confirm if their suspect was the same man.
In May 2007, someone posting to the Web site of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue used the name "Scott Roeder" in response to a scheduled vigil to "pray for an end to George R. Tiller's late-term abortion business."
"Bleass (sic) everyone for attending and praying in May to bring justice to Tiller and the closing of his death camp," the posting read. "Sometime soon, would it be feasible to organize as many people as possible to attend Tillers church (inside, not just outside) to have much more of a presence and possibly ask questions of the Pastor, Deacons, Elders and members while there? Doesn't seem like it would hurt anything but bring more attention to Tiller."
The slaying quickly brought condemnation from both anti-abortion and pro-choice groups, as well as President Barack Obama.
"However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence," Obama said in a statement.
The women's clinic run by Tiller is one of three in the nation where abortions are performed after the 21st week of pregnancy, when the fetus is considered viable, and has repeatedly been the site of protests for about two decades. A protester shot Tiller in both arms in 1993, and his clinic was bombed in 1985.
Wichita Deputy Police Chief Tom Stolz said that Tiller apparently did not have a bodyguard with him in church, although the doctor was routinely accompanied by one. An attorney for Tiller, Dan Monnat, said the doctor's wife, Jeanne, was in the choir at the time of the shooting.
Monnat said in early May that Tiller had asked federal prosecutors to step up investigations of vandalism and other threats against the clinic out of fear that the incidents were increasing and that Tiller's safety was in jeopardy. However, Stolz said authorities knew of no threats connected to the shooting.
Adam Watkins, a 20-year-old who said he has attended the church his entire life, said he was sitting in the middle of the congregation when he heard a small pop at the start of the service.
"We just thought a child had come in with a balloon and it had popped, had gone up and hit the ceiling and popped," Watkins said.
Another usher came in and told the congregation to remain seated, then escorted Tiller's wife out.
"When she got to the back doors, we heard her scream, and so we knew something bad had happened," Watkins said.
Church members said anti-abortion protesters have shown up outside the church on Sundays regularly.
"They've been out here for quite a few years. We've just become accustomed to it. Just like an everyday thing, you just looked over and see them and say, 'Yup they're back again.'"
He added: "We had no idea that someone would come into our church and do such a bad thing like that _ inside of a church."
The last killing of an abortion doctor was in October 1998 when Dr. Barnett Slepian was fatally shot in his home in a suburb of Buffalo, N.Y. A militant abortion opponent was convicted of the murder.
Federal marshals protected Tiller during the 1991 Summer of Mercy protests, and he was protected again between 1994 and 1998 after another abortion provider was assassinated and federal authorities reported finding Tiller's name at the top of an assassination list.
One of the few remaining late-term abortion clinics is in Boulder, Colo., where Dr. Warren Hern denounced Tiller's killing as the "inevitable and predictable consequence of decades of anti-abortion" rhetoric and violence.
"Dr. Tiller's assassination is not the lone and inexplicable action of one deranged killer," Hern said Sunday. "This was a political assassination in a historic pattern of anti-abortion political violence. It was terrorism."
Associated Press Writer John Hanna contributed to this report.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
"Heinous acts of violence," Barry? What do you think Tiller was commiting upon the unborn for all those years? Oh, yes, I forgot: You're the same moral mutant that voted against the Infants Born Alive Act. Well, in my opinion, Scott Roeder is an American hero. May God bless him and his family.
FILM REVIEW: At the Circus
USA, NR, 87 m, 1939
Directed by Edward Buzzell. Stars the Marx Brothers, Kenny Baker, Florence Rice, et al.
At the Circus is the third picture the Marx Brothers made with MGM, and though it’s usually identified as the beginning of the end of the comedy team’s movie career, I’ve always found it to be the most pleasantly diverting of their post-Paramount efforts. Granted, it has its share of wearying filler, but it’s not as bogged down by the superfluous romantic subplots or pointlessly lavish, seemingly endless musical numbers that made A Night at the Opera or A Day at the Races occasionally taxing to sit through. With those two films, producer Irving Thalberg thought he could take the Marx Brothers to a greater height of popularity by making their comedy less surreal and tempering their mutinous spirit. He succeeded, but he also stripped the brothers of their wayward edge and dulled them out. (Further reading on my distaste for Thalberg’s re-tailoring of the Marx Brothers’ comic stylings can be found here.) Thalberg bought the farm well before At the Circus went into production, and being free of that unbending taskmaster (his bespectacled glazzies forever fixated on the bottom line) is probably what kept the picture from becoming just another bloated, song and dance-filled bore. The Marx Brothers were at their looniest best when they were permitted to run amok, and director Leo McCarey’s understanding of that is what helped to make Duck Soup so painfully funny. There is nothing in At the Circus that can touch the unhampered zaniness that threatened to unspool and burn up every reel of Duck Soup, but there are enough good gags (some of which were thought up by the uncanny Buster Keaton) to bring any Marx Brothers fan worthy of the name back for a third or fourth look-see.
Unlike Big Top Pee-wee or Charles Chaplin’s The Circus, At the Circus doesn’t have much fun with its titular setting. (Most of the action takes place on a train.) We don’t see any clowns or dancing hippos or bicycling bears; screenwriter Irving Brecher (Meet Me in St. Louis) and director Edward Buzzell (Go West) seem oblivious to the circus’s endless comic possibilities. Worse, the film’s exposition is mundane, slipshod: A young circus owner, Jeff Wilson (played by Kenny Baker—no, Star Wars fans, not that Kenny Baker), owes a large chunk of change to his partner, John Carter (James Burke), a grasping so-and-so who’s hoping Jeff defaults on the loan so he can take over the business. But when John learns that Jeff is about to make good on his debt, he enlists some accomplices to rip him off, putting Jeff’s future as a big top impresario in peril. Jeff’s main man, Antonio (Chico Marx), and a strongman’s assistant, Punchy (Harpo Marx), don’t want to lose their day jobs, so they hire a two-bit lawyer, J. Cheever Loophole (Groucho Marx), to help straighten the mess out. The (thankfully) threadbare plot exists just to string together a variety of nutty routines that run from the groaningly awful to the flat-out sidesplitting. Thankfully, there’s plenty of the latter: the brothers attempting to interrogate a midget (who sports a pimpish moustache and chomps on a cigar) in a room that’s scaled to accommodate only someone of his wee size; Harpo getting bum advice from a seal in a game of checkers (the gag is blown, though, when Buzzell swings his camera around to take in spectators’ crinkly-eyed reactions); Groucho regaling a box car full of grotesques with a saucy rendition of “Lydia the Tattooed Lady”; Chico and Harpo flipping the strongman’s train compartment for the missing loot, but epically botching the job; Harpo playing tic-tac-toe on a giraffe’s back; etc. There are a few bits that might make contemporary audiences cringe, such as the out-of-nowhere musical number where Harpo boogies down with a gaggle of slow-witted, happy-footed African-Americans (led by Dudley Dickerson) who refer to him in song as “Swingali.” It brings to mind the unfortunate “All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm” hullabaloo from A Day at the Races, but at least this time we don’t have to watch the brothers debase themselves by prancing around in blackface. I don’t know which idiot at MGM thought Harpo might become more endearing to audiences if he played Pied Piper to a breadline of marble-mouthed Afro-Sheeners, but even the least urbane moviegoer is going to be put off by these racist high jinks.
Though Zeppo bid arrivederci to the thankless role of straight man after his brothers sold their souls to Thalberg, the unsinkable Margaret Dumont never shilly-shallied in her commitment to playing the team’s favorite punching bag. At the Circus marks the sixth occasion she co-starred (or tangled) with the brothers (Groucho often referred to her as “the fifth Marx Brother”), and her ability to maintain an almost regal equanimity in the face of the most pitiless ridicule is as awe-inspiring as ever. She plays Mrs. Susanna Dukesbury, a moneyed socialite (what else?) who disinherits her nephew, Jeff, after he commits his life to the circus. There’s some naughty fun in a scene where Groucho tries to finagle money out of her to cover Jeff’s debt by flummoxing her with a series of bawdy (and deeply sardonic) overtures: “Oh, Susanna, if only you knew how much I need you,” he tells her, his eyebrows dancing. “Not because you have millions. I don’t need millions. I’ll tell you how much I need. Have you got a pencil? I left my typewriter in my other pants.” Only Groucho can take dialogue like that and make it hum, and watching him fuck with poor Miss Dumont is always a high point in any Marx Brothers picture. As are Chico’s piano solos, and he gives us a doozy here. I also liked watching Harpo ride around on the back of an ostrich. But when the picture finally allows for the brothers to bring their act into the circus tent, it’s a fearsome gorilla named Gibraltar who gets all the big laughs. In an attempt to sabotage the show, Carter releases Gibraltar from his cage, but his plan backfires when the beast (who was the only eyewitness to Jeff’s mugging) follows Carter up a rope and pursues him from one trapeze to another. That supreme animal imitator, Charles Gemora, is the actor beneath Gibraltar’s fur. Not many people know Gemora’s face, but those who have seen The Gorilla, Africa Screams, or the terrific The Monster and the Girl know his waddle. Gemora gives the last ten minutes of At the Circus some much needed kick, but even he can’t compete with the sight of Margaret Dumont being fired out of a canon.
March 28, 2009
This and other reviews can be found on my website, http://www.thefilmpalace.com/.
© Copyright 2009 by Edward Larsen Terkelsen. All rights reserved.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Kindred Spirit
I came across this 2002 interview with model/musician/actor/director Vincent Gallo from the gay rag, Shout. (See link below.) An irreverent wit and a supreme provocateur, Mr. Gallo is a fella after my own heart.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/694827/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/694827/posts
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
FILM REVIEW: The Circus
USA, NR, 71 m, 1928
Directed by Charles Chaplin. Stars Charles Chaplin, Merna Kennedy, Harry Crocker, et al.
By Edward Larsen Terkelsen
Charles Chaplin remains one of the purest filmmakers the world has ever known. For most of his career, Chaplin enjoyed complete autonomy; if a picture clicked or failed (I can’t cite an example of the latter), he was the sole determining force. (Though some might argue—myself included—that the amazing Jackie Coogan had a lot to do with the success of The Kid.) Looking at any entry in the Chaplin canon can still fill the most persnickety moviegoer with awe: every frame, every cut, every musical note is the result of an unwearied obsessiveness that makes Stanley Kubrick look like a cappuccino-gulping speed freak with ADHD. Kubrick’s fussiness often robbed his films of their breath; Chaplin was twice the perfectionist but his flicker shows crackled with life and had a sense of spontaneity. Probably because every take was of markedly different quality—the guy was making it up as he went along and wouldn’t dream of hollering “print” until he was 100% certain that he nailed it. (Sir Dickie’s 1992 biopic did the layman a disservice by suggesting that Chaplin’s greatest bits were born of divine inspiration instead of very hard work.) Like Jean-Luc Godard (and to a certain extent, Christopher Guest), Chaplin wrote with his camera, allowing his audience to share in the joy of discovery. If I could take only one director’s body of work with me to a desert isle, it would be Chaplin’s. (My second choice would be a much harder one to make; Capra, De Sica, Hitchcock, Scorsese, and Spielberg would all be in the running.)
The Circus, originally released in 1928, was the deceptively ebullient result of a two-year shoot marred by one crisis after another. Not only did Chaplin have to deal with a messy and well-publicized divorce from Lita Grey (she played the teasing seraph in The Kid’s fêted dream sequence), but the US Treasury was trying to hold him to $1 million in back taxes. Personal travails were nearly eclipsed by a hellish shoot: hammering rains ruined the main circus tent (other sets were taken out by Smokey the Bear’s arch-foe), teenage pranksters made off with key props, and lackadaisical lab work rendered a month’s worth of footage utterly valueless. Making The Circus was such an unhappy experience for Chaplin that he couldn’t bring himself to mention the film in his otherwise comprehensive 1964 autobiography. But time, as they say, heals all wounds, and Chaplin revisited The Circus in 1969, composing a new score and even singing (at the age of 81!) its opening ditty, “Swing, Little Girl.”
The Circus isn’t as uproarious as A Dog’s Life (though I can’t think of many films that are) or as poignant as The Kid (though I can’t think of many films that are), but it’s of considerably more interest than At the Circus, which inexplicably wasted the Marx Brothers in what should’ve been an ideal vehicle for their untamed tomfoolery. The Greatest Show on Earth gives Chaplin more comic inspiration than he knows what to do with, though often it’s the littlest props that instigate the most memorable gags. (Such is the case with a lot of Chapliniana. Who can forget The Gold Rush’s dancing rolls?) When the picture opens, we find the splayfooted Little Tramp bumming around the circus grounds and taking in the sideshows. His financial situation hasn’t improved much since we last saw him. In fact, he’s so hungry that he’s reduced to stealing bites from a toddler’s ten-cent hotdog. When an unexpected windfall results in him being wrongly fingered as a pickpocket, the Tramp leads some coppers on a foot chase that winds through a funhouse (with a mirror maze gag that may have inspired The Lady from Shanghai’s most celebrated set piece) and finally the big top, where he inadvertently becomes the star attraction. The circus proprietor/ringmaster (played by the incomparably evil Al Ernest Garcia) encourages the Tramp to try out for the clown troupe, but the audition goes so badly that he orders him off the premises. The Tramp is quickly taken back, though, when the circus becomes desperate for a propman. Of course, the Tramp bungles that job, too, and his screw-ups extend into the ring, inviting belly-clutching guffaws from the spectators. The ringmaster (woozy from the smell of money) keeps the Tramp on the pay roll, but he refrains from telling him that he’s the one sending the house into hysterics and driving ticket sales sky-high. Not only is the ringmaster crooked, he’s a sadistic son-of-bitch: whenever his daughter, Merna (stunning Merna Kennedy in her screen debut), misses a beat in her hoop routine, he lays her out. (I was reminded of Eric Campbell’s constant flogging of poor Edna Purviance in The Vagabond.) He also withholds her food, and bops around anyone who dares to sneak her a morsel. The Tramp, who’s no stranger to hunger, takes pity on her and gives her an egg he stole from a chicken. He also comes to gives her his heart.
But Merna wants to give her heart to someone else: a well-groomed but rather impassive tightrope walker named Rex (Harry Crocker). Rex dresses like a magician (with a top hat and cape), and part of his act involves divesting his costume in midair. When the Tramp watches Rex do his bit, he secretly roots for him to slip and plummet to his death. And when he catches Rex flirting with Merna, he imagines pounding the beejezus out of him and then kicking straw over his fallen body like a cat covering its poop. One night, Rex fails to show up for his performance, so the ringleader recruits the Tramp to walk the wire in his stead. Looking to impress his object of affection, he takes the job, but he has a stagehand outfit him with a safety harness just in case he looses his footing. Sometime during the show, the harness snaps off, putting the Tramp in a precarious position to say the least. But things go from bad to worse when he’s joined on the wire by a rowdy band of escaped monkeys. The monkeys pull down his pants, chew on his nose, muss his hair—and all the while our hero must maintain his balance or wind up getting fitted for wings in the sweet hereafter. It’s a hilarious and hair-rating sequence worthy of Harold Lloyd!
After the Tramp blackens the eye of the ringmaster for knocking his daughter around one time too many, he’s given his walking papers. Merna wants to go away with him, but the Tramp knows he can’t give her the sort of life she wants or needs. So he valiantly (perhaps foolishly) arranges for Rex to propose to her, and soon he’s throwing rice at Rex and Merna at their wedding. It’s de rigueur for a Chaplin film to end with the Tramp taking off for God knows where all by his lonesome (I can’t help but think of David Banner and that heartrending piano exit on TV’s “The Incredible Hulk”), but that makes it no less of a bummer to see the Tramp lose the girl to a character we barely know and quite frankly don’t give a damn about. (Rex could have been better defined; he’s just a big lug.) One might recall how the Marx Brothers were usually reduced to playing matchmakers to the colorless leading men and ladies in those godawful musical comedies they made for MGM. For some reason, Irving Thalberg and his idiot writers couldn’t see their funnymen as romantic figures. But why shouldn’t the clown be allowed to score? He is, after all, the one we’re rooting for. Perhaps Merna’s rejection of the Tramp comes down to simple biology. The Tramp may be handsome, funny, creative, urbane, and a complete gentleman, but he’s broke. The tightrope walker will provide Merna security, and that’s what women crave most. Christ, I’d be the greatest catch this side of the Mason-Dixon Line if I only had a few coins in my pocket.
Like The Kid and City Lights, The Circus skillfully mingles pathos with raucous humor. There are several moments that had me on the floor convulsing with laughter, such as when the Tramp dodges the police in the funhouse by pretending to be an automaton, or when he gets stuck in the cage of a napping lion, or when he erroneously concludes that Merna loves him and runs gaily about, kicking a chubby clown to the floor and spraying seltzer water in his face.
Chaplin cut a lot of stuff out of The Circus to get it down to what he thought was an appropriate running time. (71 minutes is short by today’s standards, but part of Chaplin’s effectiveness as a director lies in his brevity.) Film historians Kevin Brownlow and David Gill tracked down a lot of this excised footage and featured it in their terrific documentary series, Unknown Chaplin. One of their most amazing finds, a 10 minute sequence in which the Tramp hits the town with Merna and Rex and is harassed in a restaurant by obnoxious twin prizefighters (both played by Doc Stone), actually works as its own one-reeler. The outtake can also be seen in its entirety on MK2 Edition’s excellent 2002 DVD release of The Circus.
In 1929, the first annual Academy Awards banquet was held, and Chaplin received a special award (it had yet to be dubbed “the Oscar”) for “versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing and producing The Circus.” (The movie that bagged the Best Picture statue that year was Wings.) Why Chaplin didn’t receive a little golden man in the ensuing decades for such cinematic marvels as City Lights or Modern Times or The Great Dictator is anyone’s guess, but he was summoned back to Hollywood in 1972 (after spending years exiled in Switzerland) to receive an honorary Oscar for “the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century.” Sometimes it takes the movers and shakers in Tinsel Town a coon’s age to get around to recognizing their most talented peers. Like Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Fritz Lang, Ernst Lubitsch, Alfred Hitchcock, and Orson Welles never received an Academy Award for Best Director. So far, Oliver Stone has taken home two. That’s unconscionable.
March 13, 2009
This and other reviews can be found on my website, http://www.thefilmpalace.com/.
© Copyright 2009 by Edward Larsen Terkelsen. All rights reserved.
Monday, March 9, 2009
LLAMA LLAMA MAD AT OBAMA #3: President Jackass Reverses Bush Stem Cell Policy
By PHILIP ELLIOTT, AP
WASHINGTON (March 9) – President Barack Obama on Monday cleared the way for a significant increase in federal dollars for embryonic stem cell research and promised no scientific data will be "distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda."
Obama signed the executive order on the divisive stem cell issue and a memo addressing what he called scientific integrity before an East Room audience packed with scientists. He laced his remarks with several jabs at the way science was handled by former President George W. Bush.
"Promoting science isn't just about providing resources, it is also about protecting free and open inquiry," Obama said. "It is about letting scientists like those here today do their jobs, free from manipulation or coercion, and listening to what they tell us, even when it's inconvenient especially when it's inconvenient. It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology."
He said his memorandum is meant to restore "scientific integrity to government decision-making." He called it the beginning of a process of ensuring his administration bases its decision on sound science; appoints scientific advisers based on their credentials, not their politics; and is honest about the science behind its decisions.
Fulfilling a campaign promise, Obama signed the order that on stem cell research that supporters believe could uncover cures for serious ailments from diabetes to paralysis. Proponents from former first lady Nancy Reagan to the late actor Christopher Reeve had pushed for ending the restrictions on research.
Obama paid tribute to Reeve, calling him a tireless advocate who was dedicated to raising awareness to the promise of research.
Obama's action reverses Bush's stem cell policy by undoing his 2001 directive that banned federal funding for research into stem lines created after Aug. 9, 2001.
The president said his administration would work aggressively to make up for the ground he said was lost due to Bush's decision, though it can't be known how much more federal money will be spent on the research until grants are applied for and issued.
"Medical miracles do not happen simply by accident," Obama declared.
Embryonic stem cells are master cells that can morph into any cell of the body. Scientists hope to harness them so they can create replacement tissues to treat a variety of diseases — such as new insulin-producing cells for diabetics, cells that could help those with Parkinson's disease or maybe even Alzheimer's, or new nerve connections to restore movement after spinal injury.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, criticized Obama, saying in a statement that the president had "rolled back important protections for innocent life, further dividing our nation at a time when we need greater unity to tackle the challenges before us."
Bush limited the use of taxpayer money to only the 21 stem cell lines that had been produced before his decision. He argued he was defending human life because days-old embryos — although typically from fertility clinics and already destined for destruction — are destroyed to create the stem cell lines.
The Obama order reverses that without addressing a separate legislative ban, which precludes any federal money for the development of stem cell lines. The legislation, however, does not prevent funds for research on those lines created without federal funding.
Researchers say the newer lines created with private money during the period of the Bush ban are healthier and better suited to creating treatment for diseases.
Obama called his decision a "difficult and delicate balance," an understatement of the intense emotions generated on both sides of the long, contentious debate. He said he came down on the side of the majority of Americans who support increased federal funding for the research, both because strict oversight would prevent problems and because of the great and lifesaving potential it holds.
"Rather than furthering discovery, our government has forced what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values," Obama said. "In this case, I believe the two are not inconsistent. As a person of faith, I believe we are called to care for each other and work to ease human suffering."
Obama warned against overstating the eventual benefits of the research, but he said his administration "will vigorously support scientists who pursue this research," taking another slap at Bush in the process.
"I cannot guarantee that we will find the treatments and cures we seek. No president can promise that. But I can promise that we will seek them actively, responsibly, and with the urgency required to make up for lost ground," he said.
It's a matter of competitive advantage globally as well, the president argued.
"When government fails to make these investments, opportunities are missed. Promising avenues go unexplored," Obama said.
But the president was insistent that his order would not open the door to human cloning.
"We will develop strict guidelines, which we will rigorously enforce, because we cannot ever tolerate misuse or abuse," Obama said. "And we will ensure that our government never opens the door to the use of cloning for human reproduction. It is dangerous, profoundly wrong, and has no place in our society, or any society."
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
WASHINGTON (March 9) – President Barack Obama on Monday cleared the way for a significant increase in federal dollars for embryonic stem cell research and promised no scientific data will be "distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda."
Obama signed the executive order on the divisive stem cell issue and a memo addressing what he called scientific integrity before an East Room audience packed with scientists. He laced his remarks with several jabs at the way science was handled by former President George W. Bush.
"Promoting science isn't just about providing resources, it is also about protecting free and open inquiry," Obama said. "It is about letting scientists like those here today do their jobs, free from manipulation or coercion, and listening to what they tell us, even when it's inconvenient especially when it's inconvenient. It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology."
He said his memorandum is meant to restore "scientific integrity to government decision-making." He called it the beginning of a process of ensuring his administration bases its decision on sound science; appoints scientific advisers based on their credentials, not their politics; and is honest about the science behind its decisions.
Fulfilling a campaign promise, Obama signed the order that on stem cell research that supporters believe could uncover cures for serious ailments from diabetes to paralysis. Proponents from former first lady Nancy Reagan to the late actor Christopher Reeve had pushed for ending the restrictions on research.
Obama paid tribute to Reeve, calling him a tireless advocate who was dedicated to raising awareness to the promise of research.
Obama's action reverses Bush's stem cell policy by undoing his 2001 directive that banned federal funding for research into stem lines created after Aug. 9, 2001.
The president said his administration would work aggressively to make up for the ground he said was lost due to Bush's decision, though it can't be known how much more federal money will be spent on the research until grants are applied for and issued.
"Medical miracles do not happen simply by accident," Obama declared.
Embryonic stem cells are master cells that can morph into any cell of the body. Scientists hope to harness them so they can create replacement tissues to treat a variety of diseases — such as new insulin-producing cells for diabetics, cells that could help those with Parkinson's disease or maybe even Alzheimer's, or new nerve connections to restore movement after spinal injury.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, criticized Obama, saying in a statement that the president had "rolled back important protections for innocent life, further dividing our nation at a time when we need greater unity to tackle the challenges before us."
Bush limited the use of taxpayer money to only the 21 stem cell lines that had been produced before his decision. He argued he was defending human life because days-old embryos — although typically from fertility clinics and already destined for destruction — are destroyed to create the stem cell lines.
The Obama order reverses that without addressing a separate legislative ban, which precludes any federal money for the development of stem cell lines. The legislation, however, does not prevent funds for research on those lines created without federal funding.
Researchers say the newer lines created with private money during the period of the Bush ban are healthier and better suited to creating treatment for diseases.
Obama called his decision a "difficult and delicate balance," an understatement of the intense emotions generated on both sides of the long, contentious debate. He said he came down on the side of the majority of Americans who support increased federal funding for the research, both because strict oversight would prevent problems and because of the great and lifesaving potential it holds.
"Rather than furthering discovery, our government has forced what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values," Obama said. "In this case, I believe the two are not inconsistent. As a person of faith, I believe we are called to care for each other and work to ease human suffering."
Obama warned against overstating the eventual benefits of the research, but he said his administration "will vigorously support scientists who pursue this research," taking another slap at Bush in the process.
"I cannot guarantee that we will find the treatments and cures we seek. No president can promise that. But I can promise that we will seek them actively, responsibly, and with the urgency required to make up for lost ground," he said.
It's a matter of competitive advantage globally as well, the president argued.
"When government fails to make these investments, opportunities are missed. Promising avenues go unexplored," Obama said.
But the president was insistent that his order would not open the door to human cloning.
"We will develop strict guidelines, which we will rigorously enforce, because we cannot ever tolerate misuse or abuse," Obama said. "And we will ensure that our government never opens the door to the use of cloning for human reproduction. It is dangerous, profoundly wrong, and has no place in our society, or any society."
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Controversial Delonas Cartoon
That race-hustling douchebag Al Sharpton and his legion of idiot followers are calling the above editorial cartoon by Sean Delonas racist. Whatever. I call it hilarious.
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