| Another lesson learned from the Virginia Tech massacre
There have been many lessons learned from the recent shooting spree at the campus of Virginia Tech University. Surprisingly, even some liberals are beginning to see the wisdom of citizens armed for protection of both self and society. But, are there still deeper lessons to learn than merely the necessity for sensible gun laws?
The roots of the Virginia Tech massacre began long ago. The loony Left has been suppressing self-preservation for decades by means of the popular culture that they attempt to control. Remember the Hippies? The more extreme of those extremists proudly proclaimed on the talk shows of the 1960s that they refused to take baths, "because it would kill germs, and 'thou shalt not kill.'" Those are the same people that proclaimed while Communist sympathizers hijacked airliners to Cuba, so that the passengers could be "liberated" from America that we should all just "make love, not war."
In the 1970s, the loony Left, assisted by Hollywood, used the opposite tactic.
Ornette Coleman Wins 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Music
"The Pulitzer is one of the very few prizes that award artistic distinction in front-edge, risk-taking music. To dilute this objective by inviting the likes of musicals and movie scores, no matter how excellent, is to undermine the distinctiveness and capability for artistic advancement."-Composer Lewis Spratlan (2000 Pulitzer Prize in Music winner for opera Life is a Dream), on the Pulitzer's 2004 decision that "the prize should not be reserved essentially for music that comes out of the European classical tradition."Of course! We wouldn't want anyone thinking that music outside the "classical" academy could have distinctiveness and capability for artistic advancement, would we, asshole?It's prejudices like Spratlan's, extremely narrow-minded but all too common in the ivory-tower world of "serious" music, that made it still shocking this week—three years after the Board decided to broaden its musical range—when Ornette Coleman won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Music for last year's wonderful Sound Grammar album.
Politics, power and the new Arab media
MEDIA technologies have changed the course of history in the Islamic world for centuries. The import of printing presses in the Ottoman Empire spelt doom for the autocracy of the sultans. Nasser electrified the Arab world with his fiery nationalist speeches on Egyptian radio. Khoemini's anti-Shah sermons, smuggled into Pahlavi Iran in cassettes, was a catalyst for the Islamic revolution. The PLO's Black September staged a succession of terrorist spectaculars, including blowing up hijacked Swissair, BOAC and Pan Am jets parked on a Jordanian desert airfield and the Munich Olympics hostage-taking of Israeli athletes, to highlight the Palestine cause on US prime time TV. Hezbollah's Al Manar and Saad Hariri's Future TV are partisan TV channels in the current Lebanese political imbroglio. Lebanese journalists Gibran Tueni, Samir Kassar and Giselle Khoury were outspokenly anti-Syrian, the main reason they are now all dead or maimed.
Another look at SNL
NBC has ordered another documentary on the history of "Saturday Night Live," this time focusing on the show's up-and-down ride through the 1990s.
"Saturday Night Live in the '90s: Pop Culture Nation" is the third in a series of films about the late-night institution by director-producer Kenneth Bowser. .
BOOK REVIEW: Two tales of a less merry olde England
Henry VIII is a Hollywood dream monarch: His life is larded with sex, violence, and fancy costumes, and he's even regarded in certain circles as a serial killer. Plus, if you want to wax philosophical, there's always the Reformation. So it's not surprising that the 16th century tends to turn up in pop culture. This year, in addition to other cinematic and literary offerings, are two historical novels that delve into the political upheaval surrounding King Henry's break with the Roman Catholic Church. Both are centered on brilliant young women and written by British writers better known for nonfiction. Alas, one proves to be faux Tudor. Historian Alison Weir wrote 10 nonfiction books before trying her hand at "Innocent Traitor," a fictional look at the life of England's shortest-reigning monarch.
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