Atonement Movie Review

Atonement is about to be released on DVD, and here is my review:

At first, every character we are introduced to seems either immoral, extremely unpleasant, a manipulator of others, or at best, simple-minded. After I saw Juno, which literally contains no villain, and where every character is decent and likeable, the characters at the start of Atonement made me fear I will regret spending the next two hours with them.

However, the film improves somewhat. The worst offender in the characterization department is Keira Knightley, whose performance as Cecilia makes her character far less likeable than actually written. If her character was presented in an admirable light, the story would have become more engaging and emotional.

In the end, the simple-minded, or naive, man, Robbie, played by James McAvoy, becomes the likeable and even heroic character, and as a result, the film becomes watchable and even slightly enjoyable at times. At one point, the story transforms into a war movie and at that time it improves.

Especially worthwhile are two sequences: the scenes of the nurses treating the wounded soldiers, which are based on the memoirs of an actual nurse of World War II named Lucilla Andrews, and the unforgettable, extended single tracking shot of Dunkirk after the battle has ended and the British prepare to evacuate. Horses are shot so that the Germans cannot benefit from their being left behind.

The story itself is ultimately about a youthful error whose impact spirals out of control; the theme is a dark one, but the resolution is somewhat emotionally rewarding in that it confronts how one might have to deal psychologically with such an error.

The production design, costume design and cinematography are superbly beautiful, and puts the viewer right into the period.

The first hour is only exposition; setting up the situation and relationships. I thought that if I could take the film and cut the first hour down to about 20 minutes–just get the important plot points and relationships shown–and recast the role played by Keira Knightley with someone warmer yet stronger, like Angelina Jolie or Kate Beckinsale, I could turn it into a good, short TV movie (by the BBC).

Overall, I would not recommend Atonement, as it adds up to an average film. (I am adding this line to clarify my overall impression).

Here’s a link to an article by the author of the novel Atonement, Ian McEwan, and charges that he plagiarized Lucilla Andrews’ autobiography:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/nov/27/bookscomment.topstories3

Trivia: Robbie types an offensive word early in the film and I didn’t think that was at all necessary. Another word would have done just fine.

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Show No Mercy to Islamic Fundamentalists (Video from YouTube)

See my previous blog posting of February 7, 2008 called "Show No Mercy to Islamic Fundamentalists."

Show No Mercy to Islamic Fundamentalists

Al Qaida in Iraq, and other Islamic terrorist groups, follow the principles of Islamic Fundamentalism. By abandoning reason and embracing on faith, without question, the teachings of their leaders and of the Koran, which pretend to speak for some sort of God or Allah, which must be obeyed, Islamic Fundamentalists become terrorists, who kill the innocent brutally. The West, and any individual westerner, who primarily follows reason and not this mystical nonexistent God, is unacceptable to these Islamic Fascists. Therefore they believe they must destroy the West and they will do so if they have a chance.

They cause unthinkable harm now on an individual or small-group scale, and they will cause unthinkable destruction once they get their hands on larger-impact weapons. It’s not over.

These evil destroyers and their supporting dictators in Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia must be stopped. Who will stop them among the US Presidential candidates? Who around the world will stop them? Who will show no mercy to them, as they show no mercy to the innocent? Who will wipe out the Islamic Fundamentalist leaders and their weapons, and terrify any still alive strongly enough to end the movement?

We must show no mercy, but no one should ever do what they are doing to the innocent.
Here are the facts and evidence that support my commentary:

From Lauren Frayer, Associated Press
(http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Feb06/0,4670,IraqBoyTerrorists,00.html) :

“Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said he believed insurgents were kidnapping an increasing number of Iraqi children, though he could not offer details or figures.

" ‘This is not only to recruit them, but also to demand ransom to fund the operations of al-Qaida,’ al-Askari said. He aired another grainy video clip which he said showed Iraqi security forces rescuing an 11-year-old boy who had been kidnapped by al-Qaida.”

And from this report by Jennifer Griffin, Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,328832,00.html):

“Kidnapping and extortion are how Al Qaeda in Iraq finances its attacks. It is big business…

“This story had a happy ending, but most kidnappings in Iraq do not. Ammar was from a simple family, and his father never could have paid the $100,000 ransom.

“In an interview after his son was returned to the family, Ammar’s father said, ‘The kidnappers told us that if we fail to pay the ransom, they will behead my son and put his head in the garbage can in front of my house. We told them that we don’t have money.’

“The raid netted five kidnappers and led the coalition forces to another boy being held in a hideout nearby. He was freed on Sunday.”

The following report is from a pro-Christian Church organization, the Barnabas Fund, but I have seen similar reports elsewhere and I believe them to be true.

Iraq: Children being cooked

“In at least one incident, an 11-year-old boy was recently ’slaughtered’ by Muslim militants believed to be linked to the ‘al Qaida in Iraq’ group, who later ‘cooked’ the child, several news reports said. His family was allegedly later invited to a ‘feast meal’ where they were forced to eat the boy, reports said.

“In the most shocking report from Iraq we have received, a toddler was kidnapped in Baghdad in October 2006. The mother could not afford to pay the ransom, and so the kidnappers killed the child. They returned the body to the mother. The little child had been beheaded, roasted and was served on a mound of rice. In another incident a 14-year-old Christian boy was held down by his limbs and beheaded, or, as Iraqi Christians have described it, ‘crucified’. His Muslim attackers called him a ‘dirty Christian sinner’ and chanted ‘Allahu akbar’ (Allah is great).

“Christians in Iraq, including converts from Islam and people involved in mixed-faith marriages, are being crucified by Muslim terrorists, according to a Dutch member of Parliament studying the war-torn country.

“Several Iraqi Christians ‘are nailed to a cross and their arms are tied up with ropes. The ropes are put on fire,’ Joel Voordewind told BosNewsLife, an online news agency focusing on Christians and Jews in difficult circumstances.

“According to the site, Voordewind described how a person, who ’survived’ a crucifixion, ‘even showed holes in his hands,’ apparently from nails.“Voordewind said victims of the crucifixions are ‘in most cases Christian converts who abandoned Islam or people who, religiously speaking, are involved in mixed marriages.’”

Here is a Youtube video with an audio interview describing similar unthinkable, most-evil actions by Al Qaida in Iraq. The audio is from the chat room/podcasting web site Paltalk (http://chat.paltalk.com/g2/webapp/groups/GroupsPage.wmt), according to the person who posted it on Youtube.com:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj1pWqeKa30

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj1pWqeKa30]

Rudy’s Out of the Race, so…

Regarding my previous blog, as the late Gilda Radner used to say (as Emily Litella):

”Never mind!”

I have no one to root for in the election now.

Calling All Reluctant Republicans

If (unlike most of the Republican candidates) you believe in the separation of Church and State provision of the U.S. Constitution, if you are strongly moral in a pro-individual responsibility, pro-reason, pro-honesty, pro-justice, pro-freedom, secular way–

If you don’t hate corporations and businessmen in a rabid, manic, almost racist fashion, but instead if you love the benefits of capitalism–malls, personal computers, TV’s, theme parks– and of the freedom to start your own business and earn your own way with pride–

If (unlike John McCain) you are for the right to Freedom of Speech (which he violated with the McCain-Feingold Act) and if (unlike John McCain) you think a physically painless and safe technique of interrogation like water-boarding is perfectly acceptable for America to use in order to gain information that will protect Americans from death and destruction inflicted by our enemies–

If you admire the great capitalists that created Microsoft, Apple, Pixar, Disney, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Kodak, Amazon, and if you want their taxes and yours to be as low as possible, so that their property rights and yours are protected, so that they and you are as free as possible to be as productive as desired–

If you think abortions are often sad events but that they are a personal matter that must remain legal, if you are not a religious evangelist, not a theocrat, not a Christian Fundamentalist, but you also don’t want to be forced to vote for the anti-capitalism party of Karl Marx’s ideas (The Democratic Party), just to prevent the election of theocratic politicians who impose their faith on you–

If you’re sick of Democrats (and Ron Paul) pretending that talking to our sworn enemies (such as the Islamic Theocrats that run Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the other Muslim Dictatorships) and diplomacy with them (aka bribing them) will somehow keep them from trying without mercy to terrorize and destroy us–

If you’re sick of Democrats (and Ron Paul) pretending that World War III isn’t at hand, that Western Civilization isn’t at risk, but you also don’t want to vote for Republicans who pay lip service to self-defense but are going to crumble at the first sign of confrontation (e.g., the milquetoasty Mitt Romney, the second-generation politician)–

If you see that all but one Republican candidate includes imposition of religious ideas (like being “pro-life”) in his platform–

Now is the time to act!

Vote for Rudy!

Now is the time to fix the Grand Old Party so it isn’t the voice of Religious Domination any more, so that it can be a valid alternative to the Democrats for the secular but moral voter, who is on the side of American self-defense, and who is for the American way.

Vote for Rudy!

If you are registered to vote in the United States primary elections as a Republican, or if you are registered in a state where Independents and Democrats are permitted to vote for Republicans, the solution to the theocracy crisis within the GOP is at hand.

Vote in your primary for Rudy Giuliani.

There is no front-runner right now in the GOP race. Rudy’s voters have been quiet until now. But starting with the Florida Primary on January 29, Rudy can come back to the front-runner status he held all of last year.

Many Republicans aren’t sure, so far, who they want. If they can see Rudy Giuliani is still viable, they will realize that he is the leader they want. And if Rudy Giuliani becomes the nominee, he will do more than anyone else to transform the Republican Party back to the more secular pro-capitalism, pro-self-defense party it once was, or nearly was, in the early 20th Century.

The two main reasons to vote for Rudy Giuliani are that he will restore the secular identity of the GOP, and that he will actually and proactively defend America against our enemy attackers. A secondary reason is that, with the help of advisors like Steve Forbes, he will lower taxes and otherwise make good choices regarding the economy.

Another factor for my belief in him is the effectiveness with which he made major improvements in New York City, which anyone who visited the city for just one day in 1989 and then again for one day in 1999, could easily notice. I lived and worked in NYC during those years. He confronted powerful groups no one had confronted before, and made major improvements in quality of life, lowering taxes, fighting crime. He was effective.

What about his failed marriages, his family situation, his so-called scandals? They are minor details. Bill and Hillary Clinton have many more scandals in their histories, and their electability is not questioned. Frank Lloyd Wright had major scandals in his personal family life, but his greatness as an architect is not in question.

Vote in the primaries for Rudy Giuiliani.

Volunteer to help campaign for Rudy at http://www.joinrudy2008.com/ .

Send the Rudy 2008 campaign your money at
http://www.joinrudy2008.com/drive2five .

Write letters to the editor and blog about Rudy being the best candidate.

Tell your friends you are voting for Rudy.

Dr. Harry Binswanger (Objectivist philosopher and former student of Ayn Rand herself) has announced this month on his mailing list, HBL (http://www.hblist.com/), that he is supporting Rudy Giuliani for President, primarily in order to remove the influence of the religious right from the Republican Party and from the U.S. government.

But way back in March, I blogged an explanation of why I support Rudy. See this link:

http://zigory.thinkertothinker.com/?p=53

And see this recent article at Front Page Mag that focuses on one reason why Rudy is unique among the candidates:

http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=6D347ACA-8929-4DC6-8F80-CB95575B44ED

Unheralded Popular Music Artists Who Deserve to be Heard

Aren't you tired of all the radio hits that come out, that have the same chords and the same sentiment, the same faux-gospel female or brooding, gritty male singing voices, the same instrumentation and production, again and again, yet pretend to be new songs? Have you ever heard of the current (within the last 15 years) popular music artists Bess Rogers, Eisley, October Project, Happy Rhodes or Kim Fox? They are separate, unrelated artists, all very talented, and they create beautiful, or fun and interesting songs, but they don't yet have the fame and fortune they deserve. Give them a listen. There are many other talented but unsung singers/composers of pop music to be found. It just requires searching.


More famous, but not famous enough, are Marshall Crenshaw, Richard Thompson, and Linda Thompson, all very talented and interesting songwriters and musicians. And you've heard of Al Stewart, but did you know some of his best work came out long after "Year of The Cat"? Try his "Between The Wars" CD. And Justin Hayward, of The Moody Blues, released an outstanding CD called "The View From The Hill" that you probably never heard. (I also recommend his 1975 "Blue Jays" album with John Lodge if you never tried it).

Christmas Movies and Shows I Recommend

“Miracle on 34th Street”– A perfect film in so many ways. I didn’t even understand all of its implications until I had seen it several times as an adult.

Chuck Jones’ half-hour TV special "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" is another small masterpiece.

The Alistair Sim version of “A Christmas Carol” (about a man with low self-esteem, who can’t enjoy life, and learns to see his error).

Also, the Richard Williams animated version of “A Christmas Carol”.

Also, “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol”.

Rankin-Bass TV Special “The Little Drummer Boy”. It’s about trade. A child with no material possessions can offer his music, and it can be the most appreciated of all values (appreciated by the magic healing baby who then heals his donkey as payment).

“The Homecoming” 1971–(The pilot for The Waltons TV series). I love the atmosphere of a rural Christmas with a large loving family, and the suspense that could arise during a storm, clearly based on a true story in the young life of Earl Hamner, Jr.

“The Snow Queen,” a strange but beautiful animated film from the 1950s.

“Lady and The Tramp” has a bit of a Christmas theme and is one of my favorite animated films.

“Meet Me In St. Louis” has some Christmas scenes and is a fine film.

“Almost Angels,” a Walt Disney movie about the Vienna Boys Choir, which is not a Christmas movie but since it includes “Greensleaves” and snow-capped mountains, I’ll include it, since it’s another perfect movie with the spirit of artistic achievement, and of a purposeful life as a beautiful, thrilling adventure.

“Santa Claus and The Three Bears,” an animated film for children from the 1960s. It’s not really that good, I just like the spirit of it.

Activism Now! Israel, North Korea, Global Warming

Hi, everyone.

There are so many important issues out there on which to comment, and regarding which to take action. I don’t have the time to blog on all of them, but I’ll just list a bunch of links here and you can do the rest.

Here’s an easy way to protest the current demands at the Annapolis conference, for Israel to compromise with terrorists and murderers. This web site will automatically dial phone numbers to American and Isreali leaders so you can leave your own voice message defending the rights of Israel against the leaders of its enemies, the dictatorships that systematically violate the rights of their own citizens and engage in terrorism against Israel. Israel by comparison is a civilized, free country and democracy that has the right to self-defense.
http://callsforjerusalem.org/s/norpac.html
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=CE6526B5-15D0-4F90-A9E2-CB2FD445F745

Here’s a link to a web site that is promoting a Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 protest against Chinese treatment of North Korean Refugees, at Chinese consulates around the world. These refugees have miraculously escaped the concentration camp that is North Korea, and yet have to endure mistreatment by China and then repatriation to North Korea, where they could then possibly be tortured and murdered for daring to escape.
http://www.northkoreanrefugees.com/
http://www.nkfreedom.org/fileadmin/Image_Archive/IntlProtest12.01.07.htm

And here (See sites listed below) are links to essays and web sites that answer Al Gore and other Environmentalists who want to use the alleged 3 degrees of climate improvement to come over the next 100 years, as an excuse to immediately impose government regulations on the whole planet. This good news about the wonderful warm weather to come, is also the reason to systematically make self-sacrifice the habitual state of everyone, especially all the little children who are taught the world is coming to an end. This state of self-sacrifice is necessary presumably so that everyone is so miserable they won’t notice that they have no free enterprise system any more, and they won’t care when all their money is taxed away to make the Green politicians and subsidized Green cronies rich, and all their actions need to be approved by Green-enforcer bureacrats via endless paperwork, or else!

Send these links, these articles, to all your fearful friends who want to give up everything, the whole industrial revolution, in order to merely slow down–not even stop–the inevitable end of the world, coming in their minds only of course:
www.nzcpr.com/guest76.htm
www.cei.org/pages/ait_response-book.cfm
www.weatherquestions.com/Roy-Spencer-on-global-warming.htm
www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=030306H
www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=010405M

Atlas Shrugged’s Film Director

Congratulations to the late Ayn Rand on the 50th Anniversary of the publication of her masterpiece, "Atlas Shrugged." It is still selling well and influencing the thinking of more people than ever.

I finally saw the movie, "House of Sand and Fog," directed by Vadim Perelman. He has been selected to rewrite the screenplay by Randall Wallace (who was hired to rewrite the screenplay by Jim V. Hart), and to direct the movie version of "Atlas Shrugged" starring Angelina Jolie as Dagny Taggart.

Since I learned that instead of the trilogy that the producers initially planned, the movie is just going to be a single standard-length feature, I gave up all hope of it being even remotely representative of the 1,084-page novel. Remember, a screenplay for a two hour movie is about 100 pages long, with wide margins on both sides of the page whenever there is any dialogue.
I believe that Angelina Jolie is a talented actress who is capable of, and likely dedicated to, doing justice to the role of Dagny, despite any political differences she may have from Ayn Rand, so her casting did not have any impact on my pessimism.

But now that I've seen the director's previous movie, I have even less hope for "Atlas Shrugged" to convey even the sense of life or essence of the novel.

This is the central conflict in "House of Sand and Fog":

The government evicts a woman from her home unjustly, causing her to becoming homeless and determined to reclaim her house, when an immigrant purchases it at a government auction as a major step in his effort to use real estate to begin to raise his family's standard of living in the United States. Both are flawed but good people, and the film details the choices each one makes that result in a downward spiral.

"House of Sand and Fog" is the poster child for the "malevolent universe premise," which Ayn Rand called the view that man cannot achieve his values; it is the idea that successes are the exception, and that the rule of human life is failure and misery. This premise is antithetical to her philosophy, which holds that the universe is auspicious to human life if a man adheres to reality.

The movie shows human beings' ordinary self-interested actions to cause conflicts that result in tragedy due to tragic flaws in the characters, or on a more simple level, because of miscommunication and a government property-tax error.

"House of Sand and Fog" also suggests a mystical "determinism" philosophy. As Ben Kingsley stated in an interview with Charlie Rose, the film represents the Ancient Greek or Roman view that the Gods enjoy placing mortals together with precisely those others who would cause the maximum conflict and harm, just for the sport of watching the events play out.

I can find some good things to say about this movie and its director, however. First, the movie can be viewed as a critique of property taxes and of government auctions of unpaid-tax-based foreclosed real estate. In this way the film supports the idea of an individual's right to his own property. Certainly the bureaucrats in government are essential to causing the central problem in the movie.

But this message would have been clearer if the eviction was not the result of a mistake, but rather the result of standard state policy.
Another positive value in the movie is the way Ben Kingsley's immigrant character is portrayed. His is one of the most dignified, self-respecting, noble characterizations I have seen in any movie.

Additionally, Vadim Perelman has an excellent ability to give proper weight to the emotional value of a scene by staying with it, rather than cutting away quickly. His unhurried pacing of the film gives the audience time to think and feel, unlike so many films today.

Another quality I appreciated is that there is no sarcastic or ironic humor in the dialogue. Perelman doesn't randomly throw in modern slang or cynical attitudes the way so many other filmmakers do these days. The characters say what they mean, eloquently, at times with beautiful language, and without irony. (That is not to say that the film has no "swear" words.)

Artistically, the film is sound. It is an almost perfect representation of the malevolent universe premise. The seriousness of the story is given its proper weight. It is emotionally harrowing. You grow to care about the characters and see them as real people. (That is, as long as you believe they have volition and are not the playthings of the Gods). Vadim Perelman is a good director, based on this film.

Can Perelman switch his sense of life from dark to light? If so, and if the "Atlas Shrugged" script grows to 4 hours or more, perhaps there is hope.

She Moved Through The Fair

Many of you will know that the title of this post is also the title of a traditional Irish ballad. Just about every singer who you suspect might consider singing this song has done so plus some you never would have expected. I discovered I owned so many versions among my tapes and CDs, without even trying to collect them, that I once made a tape for myself of seven different versions in a row.

As you may have gathered, I like this ballad very much. And when I played a recording of it for my fiancee about ten years ago, my eyes started to well up, and she decided it should be made a part of our wedding. My coworker D.L. Shroder, who is an actor (see him at http://www.imdb.com/), graciously agreed to recite the lyrics of the ballad at one point during the ceremony. As he read it, he himself choked up.

Well, years later, when listening to yet another version on yet another album, I noticed a verse I had not heard or seen before. In this verse, it seemed that the singer’s lover is actually a ghost, and the wedding anticipated in the song never takes place at all. The song, which was a song of innocence and utter romantic ecstacy and anticipation, suddenly became a tragic, malevolent-universe type of song, the opposite of what I wanted recited at my wedding.

I decided that since that verse was never recited, my wedding was not actually tarnished.

However, I am happy to report that the version with the ghost is possibly inaccurate. Last Sunday I saw a concert by British folk guitarist Bert Jansch at the Bowery Ballroom in New York. He performed this ballad. But in his introduction, he revealed that when his old band Pentangle had recorded the song, they had made an error in the transcription of the lyrics. One word had been misrepresented. Instead of “My dear love came to me” they had sung “My dead love came to me”. He said his old band mate Jacqui McShee thinks it’s about a ghost to this day.

What a relief to learn the true lyrics are as I had hoped. I suppose I could have searched the Francis Child Ballads or other sources to find out for myself, but certainly Bert Jansch is as good a source as one can have.

However, now I read at Wikipedia that the ballad is in fact tragic and has two versions, one with “dead” and one with “dear”. Who can you trust?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belfast_Child

Here is the version I had recited at my wedding:

“She Moved Through the Fair”

My young love said to me,
“My mother won’t mind
And my father won’t slight you
For your lack of kind.”
And she stepped away from me
and this she did say,
“It will not be long now
‘Til our wedding day,”

As she stepped away from me,
And she moved through the fair,
And fondly I watched her
Move here and move there.
And then she turned homeward,
With one star awake,
Like the swan in the evening
Moves over the lake.

Last night she came to me,
My dear love came in
So softly she came that
Her feet made no din
And she laid her hand on me
And this she did say,
“It will not be long, love,
’til our wedding day.”

Tony Awards and My Disney Podcast

The important post to read is my previous one called California Restrains Free Speech. This post is just for a couple of lighter topics.

The Tony Awards are handed out on Sunday June 10. I only saw one Broadway show last year, Mary Poppins, and on that basis I am rooting for Gavin Lee to win a Tony. He played Bert believably and brightly, and he connected with the audience, drawing you in. He also danced in very difficult circumstances (such as inverted).

Jane Carr, the actress who played the cook Mrs. Brill, was also amazing, in being such a vividly real personality.

Ashley Brown, however, the actress playing Mary Poppins, did not act so much as vogue her role. Where Julie Andrews in the movie kept you guessing, "What is her angle? Where is she coming from? What is she really thinking?", Ashley Brown was purely superficial, except for a few better moments toward the end. However, she was competent, adequate and professional enough for me to say, as Walt Disney is famous for saying to his staff when not displeased, "That'll do."

For more of my opinions on the show Mary Poppins, see my March 2007 post called "I'm Still Here."

Speaking of Walt Disney, I just recorded the first episode of my new internet radio show, "Inside Walt's World." I discuss my memories from 1989 when I worked as a telephone operator at Walt Disney World. It is now on rotation at the Disney-themed Extinct Attractions Radio station at http://www.live365.com/stations/extinctattractions or more simply at www.extinctattractionsradio.com. You may hear it on any day throughout the month of June 2007 at 1:00 pm Pacific Time or 4:00 pm Eastern Time (USA Time).

California Restrains Free Speech

The California Supreme Court has recently ruled that certain prior restraints on free speech are permissible.

The case involves a woman who lives near a restaurant. She would publicly rant against it, shouting falsehoods to potential customers, such as that the restaurant is involved with prostitution, drug dealing and the Mafia, and not only that, but it serves tainted food, too. She was found to have committed slander. However, there was an added injunction against her.

The majority opinion in the case captioned Balboa Island Village v. Lemen stated:

"Defendant [Lemen] ...objects to ...an injunction prohibiting her from repeating [in the future] statements the trial court determined were slanderous, asserting the injunction constitutes an impermissible prior restraint. We disagree."

According to Howard Bashman in his blog "How Appealing":

"Two justices dissented, and they reasoned that the injunction constituted an impermissible prior restraint on speech and that the plaintiff had failed to demonstrate that damages were insufficient to compensate the plaintiff for any harm that resulted from further repetition of the defamation."

http://howappealing.law.com/042607.html#024669

I am alarmed at this decision and precedent. Ms. Lemen, the defendant, argued that "a statement that was once false may become true later in time." I agree, and I believe one cannot morally or constitutionally prohibit speech before the fact. The Court rejected that argument concluding that further legal motions could be made by either party if things change. I disagree, and believe if she is punished for slander, that is motivation enough for her to cease. If she slanders again, then another suit or motion could be made for that new event, and eventually she will cease. But taking prohibition of speech as the status quo and then requiring motions to modify or dissolve the injunction if things change strikes me as backwards-thinking, a presumption of future guilt, and a violation of rights. I'm not an expert and I would welcome any informed opinions.

An easy-to-read and thoughtful commentary on this case by Vikram David Amar is at this site:

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/amar/20070511.html

Film on Eminent Domain

I recently attended a screening of a not-yet-released documentary film about the impact of eminent domain laws on individual citizens. It is called “Greetings from Asbury Park.”

The movie focuses on eminent domain’s impact on one woman, the 91-year-old Angie, who had spent half her life in her small home in Asbury Park, since arriving as an immigrant. We see her making phone calls, hiring a lawyer and "storming city hall" to fight for her rights.

Asbury is my old home town and the filmmaker, Christina Eliopoulos, also grew up there. It's a formerly vibrant beach resort town that has deteriorated over the last 40 years due to race riots, corrupt politicians and extreme welfare-statism which moved in large numbers of the mentally ill and of welfare-dependent people. This combined with high property taxes and high crime rates sent most, but not all, of the remaining sane, working, law-abiding residents packing.

As a result, irreplaceable buildings like the gorgeous Mayfair Theatre, which could no longer draw an audience and pay the high property taxes, were torn down. My own brief home movies of its demolition are shown in the documentary.

However, the film is primarily about the current government's use of eminent domain laws to drive out the remaining residents by force, and demolish their homes and businesses, to make way for condominiums.

I was surprised and delighted to see that Dana Berliner, of the pro-property rights Institute for Justice, is featured in the film. (She is the daughter of former Ayn Rand Institute Executive Director, Michael Berliner). Although there are some comments by individuals criticizing the city’s redevelopment plan as “Trickle Down Reaganomics” and someone calls for government-funded low-income housing, overall the movie is clearly focused on the injustice of a government taking over private property, in a moving way.

If you’d like to screen the film or donate money to assist in the film’s final editing, distribution and promotion, please contact Kerry Margaret Butch by emailing her at kerrymbutch@yahoo.com. You may also email Christina Eliopoulos at celiop99@mac.com. Say Greg Zeigerson sent you!

There will be a screening hosted by the Institute for Justice's Castle Coalition featuring guest speaker Dana Berliner at Jersey Shore Arts Center in Ocean Grove, NJ on June 22nd, 2007.

Racism, Freedom of Speech and Mikko Ellila

Prodos has posted on his blog the English translation of Mikko Ellila’s essay. See http://prodos.thinkertothinker.com/?p=325.

Mikko’s essay has some racist notions. While I totally disagree with those notions, I still uphold his right to freedom of speech. Speech isn’t force. If individual rights are to be respected, everyone must be permitted to express any ideas, no matter how false or unpleasant. In a free marketplace of ideas, the best and truest ideas win out in the culture eventually. Once some types of speech are prohibited, any other type of speech can be next. I uphold the right to freedom of speech for Mikko, as well as Don Imus and Howard Stern, as well as Nazis and Klansmen and even Al Gore and John Kerry, despite the degree to which they all offend me. Every dictatorship controls speech because the dictator knows it is in trouble once the people learn the truth.

For a vision of a world without freedom of speech, see Ray Bradbury’s novel “Fahrenheit 451″. (Incidentally, Ray Bradbury has expressed anger at Michael Moore for stealing and distorting his title without permission, for Moore’s so-called documentary film with a similar title).
Having defended Mikko’s right to write anything he wants, I will now comment on why I disagree with his essay. Mikko’s essay suggests that members of a race share the same traits. Even if some members of the same race share certain traits, it is virtually never true that all members do, unless it is a meaningless and irrelevant physical trait that defines the race such as skin color.

In life, one deals with one person at a time, not all members of a race. (Even when addressing a group, you are addressing each individual in the group.) Each person creates his own personality, and achieves what he is able to or wishes to, based on the choices he makes and actions he takes within the context of his level of freedom, knowledge and ability, and the limitations imposed on him by his circumstances. Each person is an individual and his race is irrelevant. What he shares or doesn’t share with other members of his race has no bearing on how you interact with him.

If you recognize reality, you treat each person as an original, unique, irreplaceable self-created individual. There is no collective mind, only individual minds. (There is a Collective Soul, but that’s just a rock group, who has admitted to taking its name from a line in Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead.”)

Individualism is the only way to fight and end racism. Taking each person as unique and respecting each person’s rights equally leaves no room for considering other members of his group. Capitalism is the only system that rewards individual effort and allows anyone to achieve what he can on his own initiative, regardless of any facts about any other members of his race or group. Individualism and Capitalism are the means to end racism.

For a more eloquent discussion of these issues, please see Ayn Rand’s essay “Racism” in her book “The Virtue of Selfishness” excerpted at http://freedomkeys.com/ar-racism.htm ..

See also George Reisman’s Essay “Capitalism: The Cure for Racism” excerpted at http://www.capitalism.net/excerpts/1-931089-07-8.pdf and available at http://www.capitalism.net/gr_pamph.htm .

See also Peter Schwartz’s essay “The Racism of Diversity” at http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=3399

Free Speech Threatened; Blogger Persecuted

One of my fellow http://ThinkertoThinker.com bloggers, named Mikko Ellila, is having his right to freedom of speech threatened by Finnish authorities. Although I cannot read Finnish, I completely support Mikko’s right to express any opinions and present any facts. Moreover, all indications suggest that his writings tell the truth.

His blog is at http://mikkoellila.thinkertothinker.com/

Prodos’ May 3, 2007 blog post details the issue: http://prodos.thinkertothinker.com/

Mikkos wrote to Prodos the following:

“I am writing to you because I received a letter from the municipalpolice department saying they want to interrogate me because of theanti-Muslim, pro-Israeli, pro-European, pro-American posts in myblog. According to the letter, I am suspected of hate speech merelybecause I have pointed out that Islam is a fascist ideology thatadvocates killing Jews, atheists, homosexuals etc. …

This is a very important symbolic case, the first of its kind inFinland. Noone has ever been interrogated before in this country forblog posts criticising Islam. Probably thousands of people will be following this case already before I will visit the police station for the interrogation next Monday, because I have told about theongoing police investigation to several other bloggers whose pagesget thousands of visitors per day.”

Some action that you can take on behalf of freedom of speech and Mikkos Ellila, action that blogger Baron Bodissey recommends, includes:

Contact the Finnish authorities. The Finnish embassy has a handy US map with state-by-state contact information here: http://www.finland.org/en/

Here’s the main contact info for their embassy in Washington:

Embassy of Finland
3301 Massachusetts Avenue
N.W.Washington D.C. 20008
U.S.A

Tel. +1-202-298 5800Fax: +1-202-298 6030
E-mail: sanomat.was@formin.fi
Homepage: www.finland.org

Per Baron Bodissey: “Don’t be shy: remind the Finnish authorities how highly-regarded free speech is in their country. It seems that they may have forgotten that.”