I saw Lorax with the Grandkids...here's my review

March 11, 2012 | Jeff Head

[moviefan8]

Many of the comments here seem to think that it is an attack on capitalism. It is ok to cut down all the trees because it is capitalism. Look at the environmental abuse in developing countries, where environmental laws are lax or nonexistant. Based on the posts I have read here, some would approve of that because it is capitalism. Others have posted that it is wrong that I can easily access parks so close to my home. Thesep areas are preserved from development, which is great for the people who live here because it increases the quality of life.

[dfwgator]

Look at the environmental abuse in developing countries, where environmental laws are lax or nonexistant.

What is lacking in those countries is Property Rights, that's the problem.

[moehoward]

"Almost all lumber companies do not cut down "all" the forests. In fact, they plant more than they cut. We have more forests in the US now than they did 300 years ago in Colonial America."

Whatever you do don't take those kids to any of the clear cut areas on the Olympic Peninsula. They'll think it's time to keep an eye on grandpa. It still looks like a nuclear bomb went off out that way. Tree stumps the circumference of an Atlas booster as far as the eye can see. And as far as more "Forests than 300 years ago"......ummmmm.

I haven't seen this film. I'm guessing it's message is more to the point of being good stewards of the earth, less focus on short term profit. Good messages for any young Conservative.

[peggybac]

GREAT review. But, but, Bill O’Reilly loved it.

[Jeff Head]

Amen to all of that. BTW, what mMiss Fluke was promoting (ie. promiscousos sex with “protection” paid for by you and I) is in fact the very definition fo the word “slut.”

Rush simply told the truth, though he should have generalized about the behavior and not the person because Miss Fluke, while “testifying” used a lot of lawyer speak to very carefull avoid incriminating herself in that activity.

Fact is though, actions and words ahve meaning and consequence. When I was youger, people, and partiocularly women, who pracitced promiscuous sex were considered sluts. If they did not want to be considered such, then they did not behave that way.

All of thios is just more attacks on traditional morals and marriage and the family which has the direct goal of destroying the very foundation of this Republic.

The freedom we enjoy, granted by God, is nased on fundamental moral principle. If society sets those principles aside...by and by we will lose our freedom and liberty as our founders warned.

[Jeff Head]

Bravo, well said. BZ.

[moehoward]

[JimRed]

...have the absolute gall to say that “capitalism doesn't work for them”.

If they admitted that capitalism worked for them, they'd no longer get invited to all the "good" parties...

[Jeff Head]

Well, you’ll see how it is. If you simply point out all the wood around her...and the good it does...and the fact that there are more trees now, and proabably a lot visible where you live (unless its the desert southwest where except in the mountaon tops there’s no anyway), then most kids will pick up on it.

I asked them the question going out knowing what their answers would be given what they had just seen...and I asked them why...which they parroted the mvoe’s message.

We then talked, diplayed, and had them point out things of wood around them that were good.

Then the same question and they all decided lumber companies were good after all since they do not clear cut as depicted in the film.

[COBOL2Java]

Many here seem to think it is ok to overharvest and not replace the trees based on their not liking the movie.

Which post expressed that? Or are you reading minds, Svengali?

[who knows what evil?]

Well done, Jeff...they are blessed to have you for a grandfather.

Unfortunately; most children aren't so blessed. They are being indoctrinated by the communist left at the cinema, and we are PAYING them to do it...

[Jeff Head]

I have not seen anyone here promoting over harvesting. Far from it...we are all saying we need to be good conservationists and my point to my grandkids is that overharvesting is not occurring...it leads companies to bankrupcy.

When they see the millions of acres of forest in an area being harvested and worked by logging...they are smart enough to figure it out and understand that logging is good and not evil.

The overall message of the movie to a young mind was that lumbering, and business and factories in general are bad. Sorry, but that’s simply the tone of the movie...and needs to be countered, which I am glad I was able to do with my own.

You are free to do whatever you please with your kids and grandkids when the time comes.

[Rebelbase]

I had the pleasure of deprogramming my GF’s 12 year-old son from the lie his school teacher told the class about polar bears headed for extinction.

When I showed him the data on the 1950’s bear populations compared to today (showing increase) he asked me why he’d be taught lies in school; that shifted the conversation into the deceit of climate change and the whole enviro movement.

The kid is not so easily deceived today.

[Jeff Head]

Bravo Sierra, you cannot base your extrapolation on the posts here because they do not say that at all...you’re making it up as you go along to fit your own mind set.

Point to posts where anyone here has said that over harvesting (ie clear cutting) is good. You are simply parroting the message of the movie now.

[who knows what evil?]

A while back; I was talking to a friend about my weekend plans...I was going to sit under a tree by the lake andjust enjoy the first sunny day of spring. A nearby college kids snarks: "Better enjoy that tree while you can...most trees will be gone by 2010."

This was in 2004. The tree by the lake is still there, by the way...

[who knows what evil?]

Perhaps he goes to too many movies... :-)

[mjp]

What do you say when one of the kids asks about clear cutting tropical forests that are not being replanted?

The objective value of some tropical rain forests are simply not great enough to justify the trouble and the expense of the labor of preserving them.

[Jeff Head]

These kids father is in the US Navy...Bangor Base on the Pennisnula and we have driven around the entire thing several times, and before I contracted cancer and had to have radical surgery two years ago, had hiked into the areas.

The only full clear cutting going on is for residential or commercial development. Not for harvesting and logging. Some do the harvesting by section, some do it by selective cutting. But they all preserve entire sections and then plant and grow more where they have cut.

That’s what we saw on the Olympic Penninsula...and we looked.

Are there violaters? Yes, probably so, but no one here says that is a good thing. And those who do will not be in business long.

Most serious timber companies have been around a long time precisely because they are good stewards.

Nice try though...but you should have asked where three of these kids spent the last 8 years with their Dad in the Navy. He’s still in the Navy, but was recently inducted into an Officer program where they are sending him to school and they came to Idaho six months ago as a result...so we had quite a bit of experience in the very place you used as an example and we did not see the “miles and miles” of clear cut by timber companies you describe.

I have posted our trips...Google US Navy Reserve Fleet Bremerton and you will find one with lots of pics.

[sigzero]

I do not know why people are surprised as the book is the same way. Really, can’t I just like the movie for the movie? I can talk to my kids where I think it is bonkers. The underlying “we need to take care of the Earth” is a good message.

[wardaddy]

Oh bully.

almost no movies today do not bear the Lefts message...you know the litany list but earth worship, homo agenda and Christian bash are near the top

if that and the rest doesn't bother you when you go to watch a story put to pictures and sound on a screen then that says more about you than those of us here posting darling

the earth...the environment ...they called it mother nature in my day

it is the new God, the new religion to bow down to

it has little dogma except that written on the fly by the coke snorting gay sissies or man hating fembots or Christian haters or gun loathers or abortion loving ilk that make 90% of the drivel that spews forth from our entertainment industry today

i mean really...think about it...the past two years I can name maybe a dozen films I thought were fairly ok out of 100s...when I grew up it was simply not like this...sure we had agit prop like TKAMB (Finch) but the deluge of social engineering was just getting started

I would reckon lately...movies I've happened upon....Hugo, King's Speech, the Debt...a little shaky in places, the Eagle..not too bad but Picts as Algonquin savages was a bit much, Winter Bones, Restrepo, True Grit, Toy Story 3, Midnight Paris..Tinker Tailor and a few others I plan to see

but the fact is today that unless the subject matter is so rigidly historical they will form the movie to push their agenda...no question...rare is a comedy without a gratuitous gay angle...and so forth

it's like will anyone ever make an historically accurate period piece about race or using race properly?

like I never knew for example so many tropical Africans inhabited the Dark Ages of Europe...no pun intended

or the Greek and Roman Empires

but...for GenY Hollywood writers...why not...let's make black kids and dumb white kids believe it so we can ALL feel included

now if I see some pre historical piece on Old Africa with white tribe members then I will know we truly have reached some equilibrium

I just don't like the new propaganda...we've always had it but not like this...what we are watching unfold is the effect of 40 years of the Left's control on culture on the minds of those young folks who write and create most film..and TV