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WASHINGTON – Nicole Kidman conceded Wednesday that Hollywood has probably contributed to violence against women by portraying them as weak sex objects. The Oscar-winning actress said she is not interested in those kinds of demeaning roles, adding that the movie industry also has made an effort to contribute to solutions for ending the violence. Kidman testified before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee that is considering legislation to address violence against women overseas through humanitarian relief efforts and grants to local organizations working on the problem. Asked by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., if the movie industry has "played a bad role,"...

I have some confessions to make, not because any of you readers are particularly interested in my views; but rather because I think some of you are in the same boat: Have you stopped reading, listening, watching, and paying attention to most of what now passes for establishment public or popular culture? I am not particularly proud of this quietism (many Athenians did it in the early 4th century BC and Romans by the late 3rd AD), but not really ashamed of it either. Shut up and see a movie? Take Hollywood protocol—make a big movie, hype it, show it...

Three times in the past several weeks, fortune has seemed to beam on conservatives, in unexpected and unprompted ways. Not that they've won much, but their tormentors keep losing. Three days in fall 2009 damaged or neutralized three liberal institutions, whose powers have now been curtailed. Break number one came on September 26, when Roman Polanski, on his way to collect a lifetime achievement award from the Zurich Film Festival, was intercepted by Swiss police and tossed into prison, pending extradition to the United States, which he had fled 30 years earlier to avoid a jail sentence for drugging and...

Today's enlightened liberals are not so much into deconstructing rival iconic figures as they use to be. It may be because they are too busy fashioning alternative narratives, and sometimes even deliberately forgetting the lugubrious past history of some of their own cultural icons. Of course, there are grave errors inherent to this obscurantist approach, chief among which are the squandering of vitally important lessons for posterity, and a scoffing at wisdom that may otherwise be retained as a legacy they can proudly call their own. The indignant bickering from the Hollywood glitterati at the belated arrest of acclaimed Film...

"Formal theological discussions about Vatican II will begin later this month, it was announced today. Why is Benedict XVI allowing this new debate on the most vexed questions of the Second Vatican Council?"

10 Reasons Why Pastors Avoid the Culture War Posted By Doug Giles On October 13, 2009 @ 5:05 am In Culture, Entertainment, Featured Story, Religion | 45 Comments As far as I’m concerned, a silent or waffling pastor in today’s paranormal climate is unnecessary. I don’t care how much the minister likes kitty cats, candy canes, and if he cries at Celine Dion concerts. Look, Voiceless Vicar, if you’re not currently in the middle of this crucial cultural squabble, pointing out what’s putrid and cheering on what’s proper, then you’re Dr. Evil in my book. Given that the culture-dividing issues,...

Trick-or-treating -- or turning tricks? Trashy Halloween kiddie costumes -- from a slutty thigh- and chest- baring "French maid" number to a skin- tight, mid- thigh "Major Trouble" skirt-and- shirt fatigues set -- have parents fuming. "If girls get used to dressing like this, they might want to become a whore after Halloween," howled Harlem mom Malinda Martinez, 33, who has a 6-year-old girl. "They're far too grown up for kids." The marketing message is even more blatantly sexual. "The Navy ships won't want to leave the dock unless this cute sailor girl is on board," reads one catalog entry...

Can't post Bloomberg content but looks like Coppola thinks Hollywood is in big trouble. Awww. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ajbmamDBit14

a friend has been sending me ecstatic emails about the speech. I just watched it—the speech is every bit as good as the ones candidate Obama gave, as the performance candidate Obama delivered at the HRC/Logo Democratic Primary Debate, as the open letter to the LGBT community that candidate Obama released before last November's election. Imagine all the wonderful things this guy is going to accomplish if he ever actually gets elected president. In other words: sorry, folks, nothing new to see here. Pledges, promises, excuses. Lip service. Other reactions...

In Polanski Case, ’70s Culture Collides With Today By MICHAEL CIEPLY October 10, 2009 LOS ANGELES — At the end of “Manhattan,” the celebrated movie romance from 1979, a teenager played by Mariel Hemingway delivers some good news to the 42-year-old television writer, portrayed by Woody Allen, with whom she has had a long-running sexual affair. “Guess what, I turned 18 the other day,” said Ms. Hemingway, in what was framed as a poignant encounter. “I’m legal, but I’m still a kid.” That was then. Roman Polanski’s arrest on Sept. 26 to face a decades-old charge of having sex with...

In today’s New York Times arts section, film industry correspondent Brooks Barnes analyzes Hollywood’s attitude to fugitive sex predator/Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski. Most prominent artists have lined up behind the push to let the famed director off the hook for having drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl over 30 years ago. Polanski fled the country to avoid sentencing after he plead guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful sex with a minor and has since lived in a cushy exile in Europe. After his recent arrest, Polanski is currently sitting in a Swiss jail awaiting possible extradition to the United...

First, there is the God issue. Dr. Collins believes in him. (sic) Passionately. And he preaches about his belief in churches and a best-selling book. For some presidential appointees, that might not be a problem, but many scientists view such outspoken religious commitment as a sign of mild dementia.

PRESCHOOLERS turning themselves into sexualised "mini-adults" by wearing bras, nail polish and lipstick are requiring psychological help in increasing numbers. Child development experts said young girls were now entering their "tween" years between being a child and a teenager at the tender age of six - five years earlier than previously. Experts said that by age six, girls needed branded clothes, at seven they wanted styled hair, by eight they were beginning diets, at nine they were styling their hair and by early teens were engaging in sex or sending sexually explicit text messages. The Daily Telegraph yesterday found crop-top...

Reactions to the extradition of the fugitive filmmaker show a sharp divide. From Michael Moore's politics to on-screen sex and violence, the movie business is constantly being assailed for not sharing the country's values. Rarely has the morality argument been as rancorous as with the Roman Polanski case. Hollywood is rallying behind the fugitive filmmaker. Top filmmakers are signing a pro-Polanski petition, Whoopi Goldberg says the director didn't really commit rape, and Debra Winger complains "the whole art world suffers" in such arrests. The rest of the nation seems to hold a dramatically different perspective on Polanski's weekend capture. Even...

Ya gotta hand it to the Left. After 40 years of all-sex-is-rape, all-men-suck feminism, we now know when drugging a 13-year-old girl and sodomizing her in a hot tub against her will is A-OK: When the rapist is a Hollywood bigwig. Which leads John at Verum Serum to ask a provacative question: What if Roman Polanski had drugged and sodomized Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?The far left seems to have a lot more sympathy for the convicted rapist than it does for the actual victim. This is the same crowd that believed Bush should be prosecuted for war crimes and members of...

Adultery did not fare well during a September 25 “Nightline” broadcast about the issue, but that didn’t keep ABC’s Cynthia McFadden from asking an evangelical pastor if he felt “a little intolerant” for his conservative views on the subject. McFadden moderated a debate that tried to answer the question, “Are we born to cheat?” but appeared to mock Pastor Ed Young’s responses whenever she could. The proponents of adultery who appeared on the panel included Jenny Block, an author and participant in an open marriage, and Noel Biderman, the president and CEO of Ashley Madison, a Web site designed to...

SHOCKING sex assault allegations against year 1 and 2 boys have caused worried parents to pull children out of a Brisbane primary school. At least three year 1 and 2 boys are alleged to have sexually assaulted their classmates in separate incidents at the school on the city's northern outskirts since June. One girl was pulled out of the school after she was allegedly assaulted, with another year 1 student, by two boys in the school toilets on June 16. The girls' underwear was removed by the year 1 boys, who then allegedly performed sex acts on the girls. Police...

NPR commentator Frank James has chosen to excuse the the ACORN personnel who are willing to help an assumed pimp and prostitute to set up a brothel, import under-age Central American children to become sex slaves, avoid taxes and scam the banks. He attributes this to the culture of the black underclass. It's also important to keep in mind that ACORN's workers are coming from the same low-income neighborhoods the organization serves, with all that entails -- poor schools, high crime and the sorts of social problems that have been documented for decades. NPR has been accused of racism by...

I'm writing this in regards to the increasing sexualization of royalty. Ever since Diana the young royals of Europe have been increasingly subjected to the standards usually held by celebrities. Royalty, like celebrity, is expected to be 'hot, young, sexy," and instead of dignified and doing their duty, they are supposed to have excellent PR. They are now supposed to socialize with celebrities, be on their good side, and prove their 'relevance' in the same manner as celebrities do.

Here is video of television and movie star Chuck Norris delivering a 9/12 message on the occasion of the massive 9/12 "March on Washington" today. Norris said he was speaking as a "concerned citizen." He said he is concerned about the astronomical Federal Debt, that could grow to as large as "20 trillion dollars." He also spoke out against the "reinterpretation of America's religious history" - the attempt to "secularize our society." Norris praised Glenn Beck, saying "we stand behind you Glenn." Norris said we, like a martial arts fighter, must "visualize victory" in order to "win this cultural war."...

Virginia’s got a $100 billion backlog of highway construction projects and a decades-high 7.3 percent (and rising) unemployment rate, but what are its two gubernatorial candidates sparring over less than two months before Election Day? Abortion, the role of women in society and the nature of sin, of course. Trailing in the polls, Democratic state Sen. Creigh Deeds has spent the past month sniping at his Republican opponent, former Attorney General Bob McDonnell. First it was about abortion. Deeds has conducted a series of public events to highlight his contention that McDonnell’s anti-abortion views are outside the Virginia mainstream. Now...

SHE’S 87, STILL KICKING, and almost certainly still dieting, and the old bird has earned herself a scholarly biography the hard way; if Helen Gurley Brown’s journey from the outhouses and tent revivals of the Ozarks into the cocktail parties and four-color closings of the Hearst Corporation can’t make a corker of a story, nothing can. Bad Girls Go Everywhere, by Jennifer Scanlon, a gender and women’s-studies professor at Bowdoin, is a comprehensive report on HGB theory, which is in a revisionist phase. It rejects the earlier view, long held by giants of the women’s movement such as Gloria Steinem,...

...Huge mistakes of political self-control occurred and the media that is most sympathetic to the political class joined in the condemnation of these “barbarians.” Frankly, my sympathies were with the “barbarians.” Reminded me of other tea parties and arguments over government in the past. Hope to have more of it...

Students Get New Assignment: Pick Books You Like David Walter Banks Lorrie McNeill gives her middle school students a wide choice of reading in Jonesboro, Ga. More Photos MOTOKO RICH Published: August 29, 2009 JONESBORO, Ga. — For years Lorrie McNeill loved teaching “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the Harper Lee classic that many Americans regard as a literary rite of passage. But last fall, for the first time in 15 years, Ms. McNeill, 42, did not assign “Mockingbird” — or any novel. Instead she turned over all the decisions about which books to read to the students in her seventh-...

As our society abandons the conservative values that make women into ladies, women with grace and dignity have become an endangered species—especially on today’s college campuses. The kind of woman who inspired Tom Jones’ song “She’s a Lady” has become an antiquated figure from America’s past. Most popular songs about women today are more like “Youse a Ho” by Ludacris. I am often surprised by the social behavior of certain young women who call themselves conservative. Conservatism is not just an ideology; it is a lifestyle. On college campuses telling the difference between liberal and conservative women is nearly...

Mothers blame 'cheap booze' culture as double rapist gets 14 years The mothers of two 13-year-olds who were raped by a stranger after getting drunk during an X Factor sleepover have condemned Britain’s culture of “cheap booze”. By Nigel Bunyan 28 Aug 2009 Both victims initially kept their ordeal a secret, but one of them eventually broke down in front of her mother 48 hours later. The girls smuggled wine and beer into a bedroom while watching the ITV1 talent show, and later went out to meet school friends on a Saturday night. But on their way they were lured...

Paganism and Witchcraft in Youth Culture Written by Crusade    Wednesday, August 26, 2009 Mrs. Linda Harvey Mrs. Linda Harvey is the founder of Mission: America, a non-profit organization whose purpose is to help in dealing with cultural issues such as feminism, homosexuality, education and New Age influences. She is the author of Not My Child—Contemporary Paganism and New Spirituality and her articles have appeared in USA Today and Whistleblower. Mrs. Harvey is a frequent guest on radio talk shows and has testified on legislation before the Ohio General Assembly on numerous occasions. Crusade: How would you define witchcraft?...

Ah, the ‘60s, the hippie-drenched era recently dredged up as part of the Woodstock 40th anniversary news coverage. What a shame that so much of what the public knows of the turbulent decade is either an exaggeration or outright falsehood. Enter The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Sixties by Jonathan Leaf. The author debunks much of the conventional wisdom regarding the decade, from the culture at play to the Vietnam War. It’s easy to blame psychedelics abuse for the mass hypnosis regarding such an important chapter in American history. But Leaf calmly shares some cold, hard facts concerning the era....

Montclair might be one of New Jersey's more progressive communities, but even in a town known for its tolerance, a working fetish "dungeon" -- complete with a spanking bench, "interrogation cell" and stocks -- doesn't belong on the busy downtown strip. So says the township attorney in a decision that has bitterly disappointed Ed and Karen Dougherty, aka "Master Ed" and "slave Duchess," the owners of Dressing for Pleasure, a Bloomfield Avenue shop that sells fetish clothing and tools of the bondage-and-discipline trade, from flogs and paddles to masks and spiked collars. For years, the couple hosted discreet "play parties"...

The baby boomers are trotting out the celebrations for the 40th anniversary of the "Summer of Love," complete with all that soggy and groggy Woodstock nostalgia. Perhaps the singular statement of that summer was the music and the open celebration of "free love." All of which, believe it or not, is preferable to what is on the air this summer. Start with the big hit "Birthday Sex," which brought quick fame (which is to say, infamy) to a singer named Jeremih. (Why must these people always celebrate illiteracy?) His basic lyric is "Don't need candles and cake / Just need...

A Hollywood conservative has headed East. It's "Freedom Concert" time for Jon Voight. The Academy Award winner will join Sean Hannity in Cincinnati and Atlanta this weekend to honor fallen soldiers and present college scholarships to surviving children. Mr. Voight -- a warrior himself in many ways -- has been cogitating about the state of America, meanwhile. "There's a real question at stake now. Is President Obama creating a civil war in our own country?" Mr. Voight tells Inside the Beltway. "We are witnessing a slow, steady takeover of our true freedoms. We are becoming a socialist nation, and whoever...

It is a chilling question and one that has been troubling me for about two weeks. I read the “low grade civil war” phrase as a declarative statement from a commenter on a news story about the Congressional Town Hall meetings and it has been rattling in my brain ever since. I’ve been wanting to post about this question and today seemed like the right time since now I’m not the only one worried about this question. In today’s Washington Times, actor/activist Jon Voight makes this statement: “There’s a real question at stake now. Is President Obama creating a civil...

(WASHINGTON, DC – C-FAM) Patrick Fagan, family scholar at the Family Research Council, told the World Congress of Families last week in Amsterdam that there are two competing cultures of sexual morality and that both have a profound effect on culture and public policy. Fagan called one culture “monogamous” and the other “polymorphous” and he warned that one is “snatching” children from the other. Fagan told the audience that “the culture of the traditional family is now in intense competition with a very different culture. The defining difference between the two is the sexual ideal embraced [by each].” He described...

If you thought Tom Cruise's character in "The Last Samurai" represented a real figure from history, you were wrong. But don't feel ashamed. A new study shows that even students, with facts staring them in the face, tend to substitute Hollywood fiction for historical fact in their minds. "What we found is that there's something really special about watching a film that lets people retain information from that film, even when they had read a contradictory account in the textbook," said Andrew Butler, a psychology researcher at Washington University in St. Louis during the time he and his colleagues conducted...

It's a long and ignominious list. First there was Newt Gingrich. Then came Larry Craig, Mark Foley, David Vitter, Chip Pickering and Vito Fossella. Now starring John Ensign and Mark Sanford. Politically, sex scandals are equal-opportunity destroyers. For every David Vitter, there is an Eliot Spitzer. For every John Ensign there's a John Edwards. For every Bill Clinton there's ... well, there's only one Slick Willie. But you get the point: Sexual scandal knows no party. Yet, a common denominator linking many political sex scandals of the last few years is the involvement of conservative Christian politicians who, it seemed,...

It's a long and ignominious list. First there was Newt Gingrich. Then came Larry Craig, Mark Foley, David Vitter, Chip Pickering and Vito Fossella. Now starring John Ensign and Mark Sanford. Politically, sex scandals are equal-opportunity destroyers. For every David Vitter, there is an Eliot Spitzer. For every John Ensign there's a John Edwards. For every Bill Clinton there's... well, there's only one Slick Willie. But you get the point: Sexual scandal knows no party. Yet, a common denominator linking many political sex scandals of the last few years is the involvement of conservative Christian politicians who, it seemed, had...

The Baby Boomers and those of the post sixties generation are joyfully celebrating the 40-year anniversary of the Woodstock Music Festival which took place in 1969. Since then, the event has been glorified, glamorized, sensationalized and etched into the very fabric of our American consciousness and youth culture. This festival was the defining point against “the Establishment” and America’s core Judean/ Christian values. This festival was the brown acid of the radical Left’s agenda, whose goons in the reprobate (godless) music industry have steadily pushed the boundaries of morality over the past 40 years. In the wake of Woodstock and...

The New York Times is generally loathe to dignify conservative-leaning books with an official review. That stance is getting dicier these days, especially since the newspaper’s own nonfiction bestseller chart is chockablock with conservatives luminaries like Michelle Malkin, Dick Morris and Mark Levin. President Barack Obama has only been in office for roughly eight months, but he’s already inspired multiple conservative bestsellers. Malkin’s Culture of Corruption sits atop the list, followed by Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny in the two slot and Catastrophe by Morris and Eileen McGann at number four. Marji Ross, president and publisher of Regnery Publishing, isn’t surprised...

This weekend marks the fortieth anniversary of the much beloved and widely worshiped “counterculture festival of peace and love” -- Woodstock. According to popular belief, Woodstock was a generation-defining event that represented the best of the sixties spirit: half a million young people gathering for peaceful anti-war protest, easy sex, great rock music, mind-expanding psychedelics, and a rejection of lifeless commercialism. But is that what Woodstock really was? This hallowed sixties legend, like that of so many “iconic” counter cultural events, has deeply and deliberately distorted the truth. In reality, Woodstock consisted of masses of people spending several days outdoors...

On April 7th there was a Homeland Security report dated which brought great alarm to all Conservatives entitled, "Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment." WND {Article Link} This report seeks to legitimize the surveillance and demonizing of many conservative groups, values, leaders and core beliefs founded in our Judeo-Christian heritage. Make no mistake: this report is the spearhead of the current Radical Leftist Administration. Since the release of this report four months ago, the slander from the Left has greatly intensified. Obama and his Leftist goons are waging total war on America ’s...

When President Obama today awards a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom to Harvey Milk, it may mark the first time in history that the nation's highest civilian award has been granted primarily on the basis of someone's sex life. As the White House announcement explained, "Harvey Milk became the first openly gay elected official from a major city in the United States when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977." Yet Milk served in that office for less than a year, so that hardly qualifies him for the Medal of Freedom. Milk was also assassinated...

Not too long ago, conventional wisdom seemed to dictate that gay marriage in America was inevitable. Conservatives, surprisingly, would tell me this more often than anyone. But something has changed. Carrie Prejean has had an effect on us. That's the argument made by my friend, Maggie Gallagher, president of the National Organization for Marriage, in the latest issue of National Review. After a series of judicial usurpations, legislative victories, and public-relations onslaughts, the gay-marriage movement took a blow this past November, when Proposition 8 was passed in California. Voters affirmed a ballot measure that defined marriage as "between a man...

No, really. If you think I’m being hyperbolic, you need to read an article in the latest issue of Time magazine, titled “Summer School: What? No More Vacations?” If Obama’s Education Secretary Arne Duncan has his way, your kids will be in government schools eight hours a day, twelve months a year. Liberals will no doubt portray this as another altruistic “Save the Children” plan, as well as a taxpayer-funded babysitting service for low-income women and moms who have better things to do than raise their own kids. (“Mom isn't waiting at home at 2:30 with a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich. That...

Monday July 27, 2009 The List - Television Networks Which Most Promote Homosexuality By Thaddeus M. BaklinskiJuly 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A homosexual advocacy group has compiled a list of US television networks, which are ranked according to the amount of homosexuality portrayed in their programming between June 1st, 2008 and May 31st, 2009.The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) ranked HBO at the top of their third annual Network Responsibility Index as the most pro-homosexual network. ABC came out on top for major broadcasting networks, with 24 percent of its programming having homosexuals portrayed in a positive light.The CW and Fox networks ranked...

A media watchdog group says the objective of homosexual characters on TV is simple -- to normalize the dangerous lifestyle. In a report released yesterday by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, HBO and ABC scored highest among cable channels and networks in terms of homosexual characters on TV shows. Of 14 shows from HBO, ten had homosexual characters. Showtime came in second. Among networks, ABC ranked #1 with 24 percent of its shows featuring homosexual characters. (See related article) Colleen Raezler of the Culture and Media Institute tells OneNewsNow the reason is obvious: to sell viewers on the...

It is nearly impossible to go anywhere in the United States of America today and not sense the oppressive sexual culture in which we live. It is a subliminal, hypnotic barrage of immoral images, lewd language and erotic enticements that consciously and subconsciously affects our entire nation. It has gone so far that we have become a base and morally callous people. Where can anyone go today without being continuously bombarded by the “24/ 7” decadent drumbeat of this licentious orchestra? We have indeed become a “Red Light District” nation! This hypnotic drum beat comes from all different sources of...

NEW YORK – HBO scored highest among 15 networks for its representation of homosexual characters last season, according to a report released Monday. In its third annual Network Responsibility Index, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation found that of HBO's 14 original prime-time series, 10 included content reflecting the lives of homosexual, bisexual, and transgender people. That totaled 42 percent of the network's programming hours, in series such as True Blood, Entourage and The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. By contrast, on NBC and CBS only 8 percent and 5 percent, respectively, of prime-time hours included them, the report...

I must confess. I didn't really pay attention to the case of the arrest of Professor Gates until after the president addressed it in his press conference. That's probably why I didn't notice right away just how explosive his statement was at the press conference. After all, I didn't see why it was such a big deal that a professor got arrested for disorderly conduct. In some places, that's considered a good night out. Call me naive but the issues of race and class weren't obvious to me until after the president turned it into the number one story on...

In the early '70s, comedian Flip Wilson created a character for his NBC television program called "Reverend Leroy" of "The Church of What's Happenin' Now." Like some contemporary "reverends," Reverend Leroy was a con artist who, among other things, once took up an offering to go to Las Vegas, explaining he had to study sin in order to effectively preach against it. Reverend Leroy would feel right at home in the modern Episcopal Church, which recently voted at its denominational meeting in Anaheim, Calif., to end the ban on the ordination of gay bishops and permit marriage "blessings" for same-sex...

Democrat Party....is the party of slavery.... The Democrat Party is the party of infanticide.... The Democrat Party is the party of sexual perversion.... The Democrat Party is the party of treason.... The Democrat Party is the party of lawlessness.... The Democrat Party is the party of national dissolution.... The Democrat Party is the party of Christ hatred.... One senses in the air the battle lines being drawn between two world views, the one supported by the Democrats and the other supported by their opposites—gun owners, Christians, conservatives, small government types, lovers of liberty and upholders of American values over foreign...