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Thursday, March 31, 2005

Some Scathing Rebukes
Terry Schiavo is not without those who are sticking up for her.

Here's a scathing rebuke of all the murderers involved by Nat Hentoff, entitled "Terry Schiavo: Judicial Murder". He excoriates the ACLU in particular, always an easy, but necessary, thing to do. He lets Michael Schiavo have it too, pointing out that he has done nothing at all for Terri's benefit as her "guardian", and has actively opposed treatments that might help her. Hentoff also points out an interesting fact I didn't know: Terry has never had a lawyer protecting her interests. Her case was decided for her without the benefit of legal counsel. Even the most craven child molester gets a lawyer. And here's a quote: "Do you know that nearly every major disability rights organization in the country has filed a legal brief in support of Terri's right to live?"
If you did, you didn't get it from the major news outlets. Finally, he points out another excellent point: The courts haven't ordered a cessation of medical care, they have ordered here to be "made dead". We have a word for that in English: kill.

Sheesh.

Joe Ford has Cerebral Palsy, and when he was a baby, a doctor tried to kill him, so he knows what he is talking about in "Bigotry and the Murder of Terri Schiavo"


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Terry Schiavo
May she rest in peace.


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Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Re: Movie Quotes
Here's my assessment of the quotes below - most of them are lame. I won't even waste time enumerating them, they know who they are. Which of them would I keep? All of the Godfather (I & II) lines are classics, they stay. Also keep the lines from E.T., Field Of Dreams, Ferris Bueller, A Few Good Men, Forrest Gump, Frankenstein, Ghostbusters, Gladiator, Gone With The Wind, Goldfinger, It's A Wonderful Life.

Here's my favorite lesser-known quote from (who else?) Bogey: "I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me." What a guy.

They left out a few. From Ferris Bueller, "Bueller?... Bueller?... Bueller?" From Wonderful Life, "Sentimental hogwash!" and "I'm alright, I'm alllright." and "We'll wait for ya, baby." and THE very best, "I see it still smells like pine needles around here."


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Movie Quotes (#110-188)
We're getting close to the June unveiling of the American Film Institute's Top 100 movie quotes. Our review of the list of 400 candidate quotes continues (#110-188):
  • E. T. phone home. - Joe Welsh (voice) (E. T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL)
  • You know, Billy. We blew it. - Peter Fonda (EASY RIDER)
  • I am not an animal! I am a human being. I am a man. - John Hurt (THE ELEPHANT MAN)
  • They're called boobs, Ed. - Julia Roberts (ERIN BROCKOVICH)
  • What an excellent day for an exorcism. - Linda Blair, Mercedes McCambridge (voice) (THE EXORCIST)
  • You betcha! - Frances McDormand (FARGO)
  • Hey, Bud, let's party! - Sean Penn (FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH)
  • I won't be ignored, Dan! - Glenn Close (FATAL ATTRACTION)
  • Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. - Matthew Broderick (FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF)
  • You can't handle the truth! - Jack Nicholson (A FEW GOOD MEN)
  • If you build it, he will come. - Ray Liotta (voice) (FIELD OF DREAMS)
  • First rule of Fight Club is -- you do not talk about Fight Club. - Brad Pitt (FIGHT CLUB)
  • Now all you have to do is hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a check for the chicken salad sandwich, and you haven't broken any rules. - Jack Nicholson
    You want me to hold the chicken, huh? - Lorna Thayer
    I want you to hold it between your knees. - Jack Nicholson (FIVE EASY PIECES)
  • Help me! Help me! - David Hedison (THE FLY)
  • Be afraid. Be very afraid. - Geena Davis (THE FLY)
  • I do not know how to kiss, or I would kiss you. Where do the noses go? - Ingrid Bergman (FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS)
  • Mama says, "Stupid is as stupid does." - Michael Conner Humphreys (FORREST GUMP)
  • My mama always said, "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." - Tom Hanks (FORREST GUMP)
  • Sawyer, you're going out a youngster, but you've got to come back a star! - Warner Baxter (42ND STREET)
  • I'm your worst fucking nightmare, man! A nigger with a badge. - Eddie Murphy (48 HOURS)
  • It's alive! It's alive! - Colin Clive (FRANKENSTEIN)
  • Gooble gooble, gooble gooble. We accept her. One of us, one of us. - Ensemble (FREAKS)
  • When's the last time you picked your feet, Willy? Who's your connection, Willy? What's his name? I've got a man in Poughkeepsie who wants to talk to you. You ever been to Poughkeepsie? - Gene Hackman (THE FRENCH CONNECTION)
  • Damn! - Chris Tucker, Ice Cube (FRIDAY)
  • Face it girls, I'm older and I have more insurance. - Kathy Bates (FRIED GREEN TOMATOES)
  • What is your major malfunction? - R. Lee Ermey (FULL METAL JACKET)
  • Hello, gorgeous. - Barbra Streisand (FUNNY GIRL)
  • If you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth. - Ben Kingsley (GANDHI)
  • But because I am mad, I hate you. Because I am mad, I have betrayed you. And because I'm mad, I'm rejoicing in my heart, without a shred of pity, without a shred of regret, watching you go with glory in my heart! - Ingrid Bergman (GASLIGHT)
  • Chance is the fool's name for fate. - Fred Astaire (THE GAY DIVORCEE)
  • I always say a kiss on the hand might feel very good, but a diamond tiara lasts forever. - Marilyn Monroe (GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES)
  • It's amazing, Molly. The love inside, you take it with you. - Patrick Swayze (GHOST)
  • We came. We saw. We kicked its ass. - Bill Murray (GHOSTBUSTERS)
  • I've been slimed. - Bill Murray (GHOSTBUSTERS)
  • If I'd been a ranch, they would've named me the Bar Nothing. - Rita Hayworth (GILDA)
  • Father to a murdered son. Husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next. - Russell Crowe (GLADIATOR)
  • I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse. - Marlon Brando (THE GODFATHER)
  • Leave the gun. Take the cannolis. - Richard S. Castellano (THE GODFATHER)
  • It's a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes. - Richard S. Castellano (THE GODFATHER)
  • I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart. - Al Pacino (THE GODFATHER: PART II)
  • Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. - Al Pacino (THE GODFATHER: PART II)
  • Michael, we're bigger than U.S. Steel. - Lee Strasberg (THE GODFATHER: PART II)
  • Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. - Al Pacino (THE GODFATHER: PART II)
  • A martini. Shaken, not stirred. - Sean Connery (GOLDFINGER)
  • Fiddle-dee-dee. - Vivien Leigh (GONE WITH THE WIND)
  • I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies. - Butterfly McQueen (GONE WITH THE WIND)
  • As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again. - Vivien Leigh (GONE WITH THE WIND)
  • After all, tomorrow is another day! - Vivien Leigh (GONE WITH THE WIND)
  • Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. - Clark Gable (GONE WITH THE WIND)
  • Good morning, Vietnam! - Robin Williams (GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM)
  • Funny like I'm a clown? I amuse you? - Joe Pesci (GOODFELLAS)
  • Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you? - Dustin Hoffman (THE GRADUATE)
  • Plastics. - Walter Brooke (THE GRADUATE)
  • I want to be alone. - Greta Garbo (GRAND HOTEL)
  • Wherever there's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. - Henry Fonda (THE GRAPES OF WRATH)
  • If it weren't for graft, you'd get a very low type of people in politics. - William Demarest (THE GREAT McGINTY)
  • Out here, due process is a bullet. - John Wayne (THE GREEN BERETS)
  • You think of yourself as a colored man. I think of myself as a man. - Sidney Poitier (GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER)
  • We go together, Laurie. I don't know why. Maybe like guns and ammunition go together. - John Dall (GUN CRAZY)
  • You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din. - Cary Grant (GUNGA DIN)
  • L-I-V-E! Live! Otherwise, you got nothing to talk about in the locker room. - Ruth Gordon (HAROLD AND MAUDE)
  • Well, I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years, Doctor, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it. - James Stewart (HARVEY)
  • Would you be shocked if I put on something more comfortable? - Jean Harlow (HELL'S ANGELS)
  • It's good to be the king! - Mel Brooks (HISTORY OF THE WORLD: PART I)
  • You sing-a high. - Chico Marx
    Yes, I have a falsetto voice. - Thelma Todd
    That's-a funny; my last pupil she got-a false set-a teeth. - Chico Marx (HORSE FEATHERS)
  • Men like my father cannot die. They are with me still -- real in memory as they were in flesh, loving and beloved forever. How green was my valley then. - Roddy McDowall (HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY)
  • I'll remember you, honey. You're the one that got away. - Paul Newman (HUD)
  • Sanctuary! - Charles Laughton (THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME)
  • Eddie, you're a born loser. - George C. Scott (THE HUSTLER)
  • How do you live? - Helen Vinson
    I steal. - Paul Muni (I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG)
  • Well, it's not the men in your life that counts, it's the life in your men. - Mae West (I'M NO ANGEL)
  • I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me. - Humphrey Bogart (IN A LONELY PLACE)
  • They call me Mister Tibbs! - Sidney Poitier (IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT)
  • To God, there is no zero. I still exist. - Grant Williams (THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN)
  • They're here already! You're next! You're next! - Kevin McCarthy (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS)
  • Well, I proved once and for all that the limb is mightier than the thumb. - Claudette Colbert (IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT)
  • What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word, and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. - James Stewart (IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE)
  • To my big brother George, the richest man in town! - Todd Karns (IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE)
  • Look, Daddy. Teacher says, "Every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings." - Karolyn Grimes (IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE)

It's a long list, I know, but just remember, America needs us.


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Saturday, March 26, 2005

God Bless the Kentucky National Guard
Powerline pointed me to this terrific account of the heroic deeds of the Kentucky National Guard in Iraq. (I think this was the headline we saw in the paper at your house last Tuesday, Gary.) I love few things better than a good tale of terrorists getting killed. Seems that the Kentuckians followed the textbook procedure for an ambush and attacked right into it. Only disciplined well-trained troops will do that sort of thing. In any event, just seven US troops kicked the crap out of a herd of terrorists. What a wonderful story.

And holy mackaral! The terrorists were taking video of the whole thing, and our guys captured it.. Sweet! The link is at the bottom of the page. There's really not much to see, but it's not every day that you get to view the home movies of a dead terrorist.

In the end, Michael Moore's "Minutemen of Iraq" end up dead. Excellent.


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"A Person's a Person"
Want to read a book with a terrific, clear, unmistakable message about the value of life? Read Horton Hears a Who, and you'll learn everything you need to know about the value of life. Quite a book to read to your kids as our government sanctions the starving and dehydration of Terri Schiavo.


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Friday, March 25, 2005

Good News
With all the attention Terri Schiavo has been getting (rightfully so), you might have missed some good news from Iraq. The Hindrocket summarized yesterday what's been happening. Highlights: And the refrain - Bush was right!


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William Shatner Fame Audit
Jonah pointed me to this Fame Audit of William Shatner.

Now, the FameTracker site is a hoot. Very funny. I particularly love the "2 Stars, 1 Slot" feature that compares actors and actresses the fit into a specific niche. (Think Vin Diesel vs. The Rock as "Beefy Bald B-Movie Bad-Asses").

One of my favorite shows these days is Boston Legal, mostly because of Shatner and James Spader. Terrific characters. Shatner is particularly good -- as the aging, somewhat bumbling but somewhat "I-still-got-it-especially-when-you-are-sure-I've-lost-it" Denny Crane. Very funny indeed.

So the fame audit of Shatner hits the nail on the head. The guy is shameless, has literally done just about everything you can think of for a celebrity to do, but somehow we love all of it. Either he's the biggest horse's ass in the history of show business or the biggest genius. Or maybe he's both.

Either way, I love the guy.


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Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Usually I love Derb, but...
Man, is Derb ever way off base on the Schiavo case. Holy cow.

Ramesh Ponnuru just rips him to shreds, and rightly so. Ramesh's post is a thing of beauty to be sure.


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Just a Drink of Water
God Bless this kid.


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Not Your Average Club Tournament
When two country clubs in Florida play each other for the cup, they bring out the big guns.
TIGER & TAVISTOCK

Tiger Woods' preparation for the Masters now includes the Tavistock Cup.

Woods will be playing for Isleworth Country Club when it tries to retain its title against Lake Nona, two exclusive clubs in Orlando where several touring professionals live.

The matches will be played at Isleworth the Monday and Tuesday after The Players Championship.

Mark O'Meara returns as captain for Isleworth, and his team features three major champions (O'Meara, Woods and Lee Janzen), along with Stuart Appleby, Robert Allenby, Craig Parry, Scott Hoch, John Cook and Charles Howell III.

Ernie Els is playing captain of Lake Nona, with a squad that includes four major winners (Els, Annika Sorenstam, Retief Goosen and Nick Faldo), joined by Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Trevor Immelman, Justin Rose and Mark McNulty.

Isleworth won last year, 14 1/2-9 1/2, at Lake Nona.
Good grief.


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Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Vote early ....
You know the saying, I'm not going to repeat it.

ESPN has an online poll today comparing Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt and former North Carolina men's basketball coach Dean Smith. I especially liked the last two questions. Go check it out.


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Friday, March 18, 2005

Follow the Schiavo Situation
Follow the Schiavo situation at Jews for Life. I heard this woman on the Michael Savage show tonight. God bless her.


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Go, Peggy, Go!
Peggy Noonan really tells it.

I am utterly repulsed that anyone, anyone, thinks it's a good idea to pull Terry Schiavo's feeding tube out and let her die of dehydration. It's sickening. It's repulsive. It's abhorrent and disgusting. What kind of sick mind does this sad, pathetic excuse of a husband of hers have to be fighting so strongly to kill her? (And that's what it is when you forcibly and purposefully deny someone water. It's murder. Let's call it what it is.) What is gained by this? What is lost by letting her live? The guy doesn't have to lift a finger for Terry, doesn't pay a penny. Her family cares for her. What is with this dude?

It's sick. Just plain sick.

Let her live.


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Thursday, March 17, 2005

Nomination Shocks, Worries Europeans
The Washington Post has found several hand-wringing Euro-weenies (not too difficult a task) to react to the President naming Paul Wolfowitz the next President of the World Bank. Here's a cheese-eating surrender monkey - I picture him hiding in a dark back office, eyes darting back and forth, sweat beading on his upper lip -
"The pessimistic interpretation is that this administration has to give sop to the far right. There was Bolton and now Wolfowitz -- where does it stop?"
First let me say this, President Bush doesn't "give sop." Wolfowitz was chosen because he and the President agree on what needs to be done and he is eminently qualified. Lefties and Democrats "give sop," President Bush gets things done.
Greenpeace called it "a disaster to put the World Bank, which should be delivering sustainable development, into the hands of a man who clearly will put U.S. and oil industry interests first."
Who cares. I'm surprised Greenpeace still exists.

Some guy from ActionAid
said in a statement that the announcement "speaks volumes for the need to reform a process which is neither transparent nor based on merit. . . . As well as lacking any relevant experience, he is a deeply divisive figure who is unlikely to move the Bank towards a more pro-poor agenda."
Hey, Action-Man, democracy and freedom are pro-poor. Totalitarian governments are anti-poor.

But, finally, there's an 'old European' with some sense (and he's French, no less):
Francois Heisbourg, a leading French defense analyst who knows Wolfowitz, said the first reaction of many was "fear and loathing," but added, "Paul is a man who has intellectual depth. He's not a one-agenda, single-point man." He said that as U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, Wolfowitz helped steer the country toward democracy.

"He does have the breadth of experience and range of interests that could serve him well in this kind of soft-power job," Heisbourg said. "He's probably more suited to this soft-power position than his hard-power position at the Pentagon."
There you go, Francois, there's hope for you people yet.


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Friday, March 11, 2005

If Only ....
In National Review (digital version just out today), Judge Robert Bork deftly shreds the Supreme Court's recent Roper decision regarding the execution of murderers who were under 18 when they murdered. Here are some of the most damaging cuts:
The Court majority once more exhibited for all to see that dazzling combination of lawlessness and moral presumption which increasingly characterizes its Bill of Rights jurisprudence.

The Supreme Court, though conceding that retribution and deterrence are valid functions of the death penalty, intoned that "we have established the propriety and affirmed the necessity of referring to 'the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society' to determine which punishments are so disproportionate as to be cruel and unusual." That means the justices' views evolve, which is, by definition, progress. ... The majority did not, and could not, explain why any state is forbidden to make a policy choice — denied its constitutional sovereignty — because other states disagree with it.

The Court ignored the fact that juries, unlike the Court, do not decide such issues categorically but by evaluation of the individual and must take youth into account as one mitigating factor.

Since the nations of Europe have, among others, abolished the death penalty, the Court seems to be suggesting that we (or rather the justices) should do likewise. After all, "[w]e have previously recognized the relevance of the views of the international community in determining whether a punishment is cruel and unusual." If the meaning of a document over 200 years old can be affected by the current state of world opinion, James Madison and his colleagues labored in vain.
Judge Bork then moves on to analyzing where we are and where we're going.
What is really alarming about Roper and other cases citing foreign law (six justices now engage in that practice) is that the Court, in tacit coordination with foreign courts, is moving toward a global bill of rights. Neither our courts nor the foreign courts are bound by actual constitutions. Prof. Lino Graglia was quite right when he said that "the first and most important thing to know about American constitutional law is that it has virtually nothing to do with the Constitution." That is certainly the case with the Bill of Rights. From abortion to homosexual sodomy, from religion to political speech and pornography, from capital punishment to discrimination on the basis of race and sex, the Court is steadily remaking American political, social, and cultural life. As Justice Antonin Scalia once said in dissent, "Day by day, case by case, [the Court] is busy designing a Constitution for a country I do not recognize."

The courts of the United Kingdom, Canada, Israel, and almost all Western countries are doing the same thing, replacing the meaning of their charters with their own preferences. Nor are these judicial alterations random. The culture war evident in the United States is being waged internationally, both within individual nations and in international institutions and tribunals. It is a war for dominance between two moral visions of the future. One is the liberal-elite preference for radical personal autonomy and the other is the general public’s desire for some greater degree of community and social authority. Elite views are fairly uniform across national boundaries, and since American and foreign judges belong to elites and respond to elite views, judge-made constitutions tend to converge. It hardly matters what particular constitutions say or were understood to mean by those who adopted them.

Judges are not, of course, the only forces for a new elite global morality. Governments and non-governmental organizations are actively promoting treaties, conventions, and new institutions (the International Criminal Court, for example) that embody their view that sovereignty and nation-states are outmoded and that we must move toward regional or even global governance. American self-government and sovereignty would be submerged in a web of international regulations. The Supreme Court, in decisions like Roper, adds constitutional law to the web. That is the one strand, given our current acceptance of judicial supremacy, that cannot be rejected democratically. What is clear is that foreign elites understand the importance of having the Supreme Court on their side, which is precisely why their human-rights organizations have begun filing amicus briefs urging our Supreme Court to adopt the foreign, elite view of the American Constitution.

Roper is one more reason that it is urgent that the president nominate and battle for justices who will rein in a Court run amok.
If only Judge Bork had survived the confirmation process, Justice Kennedy would still be twiddling his thumbs wherever he was and we wouldn't have decisions like Roper to deal with. We would have a court more likely to uphold the constitution than trample it. If only ....


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Lebanon
The situation in Lebanon is obviously far from settled and the excellent Claudia Rossett offers a great assessment of the dynamics at play.


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Monday, March 07, 2005

Maradona Has Really Let Himself Go
You remember the Argentine soccer star, don't you? He was once at the top of the physically demanding sport - an international star. Well, look at him now. Yikes! Does anyone have Richard Simmons' phone number?


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Thursday, March 03, 2005

Dang Funny
You've GOT to hear this. (Linked by Jonah in The Corner.) Who knows if it's authentic or staged, it's still funny.


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Tuesday, March 01, 2005

The Corner on National Review Online
I know I haven't blogged in a while, but this post by Shannen Coffin in The Corner (which I haven't read very much at all over the past weeks) about the ridiculous Supreme Court decision prohibiting the execution of minors caught my eye.

There are few joys in life better than reading a dissenting opinion by Justice Scalia.


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