The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/616296
C-6 Wednesday, December 16, 2015 The Press-Dispatch OPINION Submit Letters to the Editor: Letters must be signed and received by noon on Mondays. Email: editor@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg Sorry to have to point out that movies produced by Hollywierd long ago stopped affirming a na- tional faith in God and Christ. Christmas is upon us, and the usual assault is taking place. For the umpteenth time, the word Christmas means Christ – Mass: "Old English words Cris- tes moesse, the mass or festival of Christ." "Christmas" by its definition has a religious connotation, so why has it become profaned and secularized? Surfing the internet to discov- er what good movies to watch dur- ing Christmas, it becomes obvi- ous that the season has been pol- luted by the entertainment indus- try. Since the 1970s, Christmas [or the holiday in general] has been belittled, spoofed, and maligned. What follows is a list of 25 mov- ies that movie critics gleefully identify as maligning Christmas in some form: Black Christmas (1974), Christmas Evil (1980), Trading Places (1983), Grem- lins (1984), Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), Brazil (1985), Le- thal Weapon (1987), Scrooged (1988), Elves (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), The Ref (1994), Jack Frost (1997), Diehard (1998), Go (1999), Reindeer Games (2000), Bad Santa (2003), Puppet Mas- ter vs Demonic Toys (2004), The Ice Harvest (2005), P2 (2007), The Children (2008), Coopers' Camera (2008), Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010), Sint (2010), and Silent Night (2012) A recent email alerted me to a soon to be released 26th movie that denigrates Christmas: The Night Before. The theatrical release states that "The Night Before" is a Christmas comedy that stars Jo- seph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, and Anthony Mackie. It is about an annual reunion of three childhood friends on Christmas Eve." Intrigued, I searched and read the reviews from the official critics [i.e. Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert], and they hint that it is full of belly-laughs and odd-ball scenes. Reviewer Terri Swartz writes, "Jon- athan Levine's The Night Before was sold as a raun- chy, drug-filled Christmas ad- venture starring three of Holly- wood's most likable actors . . . If it had been just that premise, it al- most certainly would have been a fun movie, but The Night Before is much more and much better than its marketing gives it credit for." The L A Times gives us the plot: ". . . a curly haired Jewish boy has arrived to remind us of the rea- son for the season. I'm talking of course about Seth Rogen who Continued on page 7 Continued on page 6 Continued on page 7 Continued on page 6 Observations by Thomas Sowell Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner Obama can't admit failure against ISIS The President's speech Continued on page 7 Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Christmas assaulted - again Democrats' best weapon: Trump Gonna build me a crib A woman's perspective by Mona Charen The Weekly by Alden Heuring When the President of the Unit- ed States asks the television net- works to set aside time for him to broadcast a speech from the Oval Office, we can usually expect that he has something new to say. But President Obama's speech Sunday night was just a rehash of what he has been saying all along, trying to justify policies that have repeatedly turned out disastrously for Ameri- ca and our allies. This was not a speech about how the Obama administration is going to do anything differently in the future. It was a speech about how Obama's policies were right all along. Obama is one of those peo- ple who are often wrong but nev- er in doubt. The president struck a familiar chord when he emphasized that we shouldn't blame all Muslims for the actions of a few. How many people have you heard blaming all Mus- lims? Even if 90 percent of all Mus- lims are fine people, and we ad- mit 10,000 refugees from the Mid- dle East, does that mean that we need not be concerned about add- ing a thousand potential terrorists – even after we have seen in San Bernardino what just two terror- ists can do? The first responsibility of any government is to protect the peo- ple already in the country. Even in this age of an entitlement mentali- ty, no one in a foreign country is en- titled to be in America if the Amer- ican people don't want them here. Obama's talk about how we should not make religious distinc- tions might make sense if we were talking about handing out entitle- ments. But we are talking about distinguishing between different populations posing different levels of danger to the American people. When it comes to matters of life and death, that is no time for the kind of glib, politically correct rhet- oric that Barack Obama specializ- es in. Obama may think of himself as a citizen of the world, but he was elected President of the United States, not head of a world govern- ment, and that does not authorize him to gamble the lives of Ameri- cans for the benefit of people in oth- er countries. The illusion that you can take in large numbers of people from a fundamentally different culture, without jeopardizing your own cul- ture – and everything that depends on it – should have been dispelled by many counterproductive social consequences in Europe, even aside from the fatal dangers of ter- rorists. Most refugees in the Middle East can be helped in the Middle East, and many Americans would undoubtedly be willing to financial- ly help Muslim countries like Jor- dan or Egypt to care for these ref- ugees in societies more compati- ble with their beliefs and values. The history of millions of Euro- pean immigrants who came here in centuries past was fundamentally different from what is happening in our own times. First of all, those immigrants were stopped at Ellis Island to be checked medically and otherwise, and were allowed to get off that is- land to go ashore only after they had met whatever legal standards there were. Otherwise, they were sent back where they came from. More fundamentally, people came here to assimilate into the American society they found, not to become isolated enclaves of ag- grieved foreigners, demanding that Americans adjust to their lan- guages, their values and their ways of life. Like so much that President Obama says, his talk of "stronger screening" of people coming into the United States is sheer fantasy, when even his own intelligence of- ficials and law enforcement offi- cials say that we have no adequate data on which to base a meaning- ful screening of Syrian refugees. When Obama spoke of the dan- ger of our being "drawn once more into a long and costly ground war in Iraq or Syria," that was yet an- other fantasy, that wars are op- tional. When terrorists are at war with Yes, Mr. President, it was "an act of terrorism." The Obama administration has been so ineffective in reacting to the threat from the Islamic State (al- so called ISIS and ISIL) that hear- ing the president use that phrase to describe the San Bernardino attack felt like a real breakthrough. Unfortunately for a nation anx- ious to avoid becoming home to the next Paris-style strike, there was lit- tle else to cheer in his Oval Office address. Yes, President Obama stepped up his rhetoric, saying we'd "destroy" ISIS (an improvement over "de- grade," as he used to say). Although he acknowledged that "tough talk" goes only so far, we expect a pres- ident to do that. In fact, we need it (though not in the somewhat pa- tronizing tone he often adopts). And yes, he talked about the need to do more to confront what he called an "evolving threat." We need to win, and we will win. All well and good. But how will he do that? We'll be "strong and smart, resilient and re- lentless," he said. OK. Points for de- ploying some ear-pleasing alliter- ation there, but what steps will he take? Some quotes from the short list that followed: • "First, our military will contin- ue to hunt down terrorist plotters in any country where it is necessary." • "Second, we will continue to provide training and equipment to tens of thousands of Iraqi and Syrian forces fighting ISIL on the ground so that we take away their safe havens." • "Third, we're working with friends and allies to stop ISIL's op- erations – to disrupt plots, cut off their financing, and prevent them from recruiting more fighters." • "Fourth, with American lead- ership, the international communi- ty has begun to establish a process – and timeline – to pursue cease- fires and a political resolution to the Syrian war." Notice a pattern? The key word: "continue." All of these things, their merits aside, were already in mo- tion before the San Bernardino at- tack that prompted this address in the first place. What's different? Nothing. As the president said, "The strategy that we are using now – airstrikes, special forces, and working with local forces who are fighting to regain control of their own country – that is how we'll achieve a more sustainable victory." Small wonder that disapproval of how the president is handling this threat is rising – and crossing par- ty lines. The most dyed-in-the-wool Obama supporter can see that this threat is metastasizing despite our current strategy. That doesn't necessarily mean that every aspect of that strategy must be junked or completely over- hauled. But to tell Americans that we'll win by doing the same thing is hardly reassuring. And gee, "the international community has begun to establish a process" to give us cease-fires in Syria? I'm sure ISIS is trembling at the thought. What steps are being taken to re- build our military? For all the justi- fiable pride we can take in the hard work of our troops, this adminis- tration has presided over a deep and alarming downgrade in our ability to fully defend ourselves in the event of a war – the chances of which, ironically, appear increas- ingly higher due to the feckless pol- icies of an administration that has spent seven years alienating allies and appeasing enemies. We heard nothing about that. We did hear, though, about the need for more gun laws. This despite their abundance in California, home of the San Bernardino attack, and de- spite the fact that still more laws would do nothing to stop the fol- lowers of a poisonous ideology hell- bent on our utter destruction. Quite a contrast to the ringing words of FDR on Dec. 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor was attacked: "As commander in chief of the Ar- my and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our de- fense. Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated The dictionary defines "bogey- man" as "an imaginary evil spir- it, referred to typically to frighten children." Hello, Donald Trump. It's not clear whether he set out intentionally to elect Hillary Clin- ton, but there is little question that he could not be fulfilling the role of Republican bogeyman to great- er effect. As Commentary's Jonathan To- bin noted, during a week in which the disastrous fecklessness of President Obama and his party in the face of terrorism ought to have been Topic A, we are all talk- ing about Trump instead. Brilliant. Tobin's point actually applies to the entire presidential contest. By rights, it should be about the Dem- ocrats' unraveling. From Obam- acare to terrorism, from the econ- omy to climate change, and from guns to free speech, progressive policies have proven deeply disap- pointing when not downright ob- tuse and dangerous. Clinton prom- ises more of the same while trail- ing an oil slick of corruption in her wake. And yet swinging into the frame, week in and week out, the orange- maned billionaire bo- geyman dominates the discussion. Hell yes, Republi- cans are anti-Hispan- ic bigots, Trump (a lifelong Democrat) is supposed to confirm. Just look at the way he talked about Mexican "rapists" and vowed to build a wall that Mexico will fund. Hell yes, Republicans want to fight a war on women. Did you hear what Trump said about Megyn Kelly and Carly Fiorina? Hell yes, Republicans are anti- immigrant, anti-handicapped, an- ti-Jewish and anti-Muslim. Line 'em up and Trump will offend. Not cleverly, mind you, but crudely. Donald Trump is fond of saying that our political leaders are stu- pid, constantly outmaneuvered at the bargaining table by shrewder Chinese, Mexicans, and Japanese. No one can accuse him of stu- pidity: provided his goal is to elect Hill- ary Clinton. This week, while we were still burying our dead from San Bernardino, every Republican – rather than explaining why President Obama's refusal to fight the war on terror has led to this moment – instead had to condemn Donald Trump's mindless proposal to keep every single Muslim out of the United States until further notice. Again, he's the perfect bogeyman. It's not just that what he says demands condemnation. It's that it seems to give credence to the This week has been anything but routine. We finished all our Christmas shopping (in one trip no less) and built a crib, a bassi- net and a baby stroller. You don't get to do all that every day (unless you work at Babies-R-Us? Maybe not even then). I've always really enjoyed mak- ing things. Usually, I make intan- gibles, like news stories and col- umns, and rule variants for Clue. Making a crib was a fun change of pace. You might remember me talking about the crib's couch- sized box and the many instanc- es of swear words that happened while carrying (mostly sliding) it into the baby room. Last week, Jill and I cut open that giant box to find...lots of smaller boxes. And in- side those, pieces of the crib! The construction was a two-day job. The crib is pretty versatile: it's got a changing table on one end, with drawers underneath, and lat- er on you can turn it into a full- sized toddler bed. What is the dif- ference between a baby bed and a toddler bed? You tell me, Babies- R-Us. But I guess I'll find out what the dif- ference is when I con- vert this sucker in a couple years. Anyway, we both recognized that the changing table would be more immedi- ately useful, and be- sides that, it was the first thing the instruc- tions wanted you to build. So, we did on day one. Our first order of business was to open all the little boxes, which ended up with card- board and Styrofoam strewn about the nursery. Next, we put togeth- er the three drawers. This was by far the shoddiest work we did on ei- ther day. For some reason, we just couldn't get the darn screws to go in straight, and there were some moments when I wondered if this crib was just going to fall apart as soon as we dropped (I mean lov- ingly placed) our wee babe into it. (She's due on December 24. I know you were just waiting to see me and ask.) However, every- thing worked out fine in the end, except that one of the drawers sticks a little when you try to push it in all the way. Next, we built the changing table frame, which the drawers would eventually go into. This frame is a masterpiece of effi- cient design, by the way. Follow- ing the instructions, we built one side, then laid that side flat on the floor and put the support bars on it. Then, we fit the pieces of the other side in between the support bars like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, tightened a few screws, and bam! Changing table! It was like being the audience volunteer for a mag-