April 23, 2006
Review Corner
Not many movies of note the past few weeks.
- I would love to watch "School of Life" with JohnGalt and Dagny someday. I'd like to see their reaction when the hip, young, cool teacher "fixes" the losing basketball team by teaching them to cheer for their opponents baskets as well as their own. jk gives it half a star.
- One star to "Chicken Little." I love animation and this was well done. The plot and underlying theme, though, is "Dads are bad. If we were all like Oprah, and little boys shared their feelings, all would be well."
- "The Greatest Game Ever Played" gets two-and-a-half. Some interesting cinematography, and a great story based on fact. It's all Disney, all the time from there, choose your tolerance accordingly. But I'd call it well worth a rent.
- "Weather Man" with Nicholas Cage did not wow me. In fact, after an hour sharing his torpor, I gave up. Maybe it was great in the second hour -- anybody seen it? I will withhold judgment having not seen it all.
With that out of the way, this is a book review. I enjoyed Hugh Hewitt's "Painting The Map Red" far more than I thought I would. I have many disagreements with Hewitt but much respect. The respect went up after reading this book.
Hewitt is far more "social conservative" than me -- and he has a populist streak. He opposes gay marriage and is enforcement-heavy when it comes to immigration.
"Painting the Map Red" is a partisan book. He proudly quotes Benjamin Disraeli saying "I am a party man." He contends that it is time for partisanship, that the left wing has so taken the Democratic party off the rails that they cannot be trusted to win the war or to reign in an "imperial judiciary." For those who don't know him, he is a law professor and speaks in measured tones and prose. He is partisan without being an attack dog. I don't expect Democrats would agree with everything he says but suspect they'd find him readable and reasonable. I would love to read a book by a mutatis mutandis Democrat Hugh.
He also contends that the Democtratic party sees itself disintegrating and will try everything in the book to grasp power in 2008. After that, reapportionment will solidify Republican gains, and an out-of-party power might lose its bench of politicians and donors. Hewitt wants the GOP members and supporters to come together on core principles. (Win the war, confirm the Judges, cut the spending, lower the taxes). Truth be told, I could tolerate a wall on the southern border if it would keep Rep Pelosi from becoming Speaker and Senator Clinton from becoming President.
The book is smart, well reasoned, and readable. I would recommend it to any ThreeSources writer/reader. Again, no shortage of things I disagree with, but a trenchant summary of were we are and a cogent look forward to the next couple of elections.