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Arguably, the biggest problem in American culture today is the fact that mere entertainers are its heroes. There is no precedent in any civilization in the history of the world for entertainers – actors, singers, dancers and directors – to be elevated to the highest positions of prominence in the culture. That's why none of us can name actors and actresses from ancient Greece or Rome. They weren't important enough to be remembered. Sure, we can name the playwrights and we can name the satirists. We can name the politicians, the philosophers and the generals. Because literary, academic, political and...

“The Oscars® have gone back to their old ways of honoring junk.” So says Dr. Tom Snyder, a leading conservative film critic, who added, “I guess last year’s ceremony, where the Academy honored one of the greatest classic novels of all time, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, and one of the most popular movies of the year, THE RETURN OF THE KING, was just a fluke.” Dr. Snyder noted that none of the nominees for Best Picture tonight were very popular with the public. “I predict a further decline in the TV ratings,” Snyder said. Instead of honoring “immoral” movies...

THE BEST PICTURE BY JAMES BEMIS When this year’s Academy Award nominees were announced, many were shocked Mel Gibson’s THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST was not nominated for a single major award. The movie, which chronicled Jesus’ last twelve hours, took the cinematic world by storm. BREAKING AN UNSPOKEN TABOO Because the movie was filmed in Latin and Aramaic with no big-name stars, Hollywood insiders figured producer and director Gibson was throwing away his $30 million investment. However, upon general release in February 2004, it was obvious something extraordinary had occurred: THE PASSION was not only a box office smash...

Horowitz: Bush Needs to Focus on War Against Terrorism Jon E. Dougherty, NewsMax.com Thursday, June 3, 2004 Are President Bush and Republicans due to suffer defeat at the hands of voters this fall, or will they continue to hold majority status in both houses of Congress and the White House? Conservative thinker and long-time civil rights advocate David Horowitz says that largely depends on the message the White House and the GOP delivers to the American people. In an exclusive interview with NewsMax, Horowitz said that Bush's lull in popularity indicated "he's in trouble," but that it was a situation...

She kissed Madonna on stage and drunkenly married a childhood friend for 55 hours, but Britney Spears's new live show is her most shocking performance yet. The 22-year-old, wearing pink underwear with stockings and suspenders, cavorts with a male dancer and writhes suggestively on a bed as she tries to win over an older audience. It remains to be seen whether fans have tired of her attempts to shock with revealing outfits and erotic dance routines. The world tour is not a complete sell-out and tickets are still on sale for her rare UK dates. Spears, who performed at Miami's...

LOS ANGELES -- On the heels of Janet Jackson's stunning breast-baring incident on Sunday's Super Bowl halftime show, Jackson reportedly will not appear on the CBS Grammys telecast. "Entertainment Tonight" is reporting Jackson won't be participating in a tribute to Luther Vandross on Sunday night. She was previously scheduled to be a part of the Grammy Awards tribute. No reason was available for her departure. Jackson, CBS, MTV, the NFL and Justin Timberlake have all apologized for the Super Bowl's too-revealing halftime show. CBS said Tuesday it would institute a video delay system to avoid any recurrence at Sunday's Grammy...

On trial in Kassel, Germany, Armin Meiwes has confessed to killing a man and eating his flesh, according to the Birmingham Post on Jan. 6. Investigators testified that hundreds of pornographic images were found on his home computer; the content ranged from homosexual sex to depictions of torture and sexual violence. This evidence, coupled with psychological examinations, has prompted prosecutors to label the crimes "sexually motivated," which serves as a frightening warning about the dangers of pornography and media violence. Countless scientific studies have shown disturbing links between watching pornography and media violence with sexual violence and criminal violence in...

National Suicide I Diane Alden Monday, Dec. 15, 2003 We are committing national suicide. Forget the politicians and even conservatives who are caught up the power politics in the New York-Washington nexus. They are no help. It is OUR failure as citizens of the states to address certain basic issues that have us on the ropes. Those issues include: *Reforming the judicial oligarchy even if it requires a constitutional amendment. We will lose this nation and what is left of the Bill of Rights and Constitution if we don't. In 1996, some of our very best, including men like Judge...

As a recent "immigrant" to Boston from the Midwest, I have gone through several changes in adjusting to life here. One of the more trivial changes has been my following of the Red Sox this season, especially now that the playoffs have begun. To get to the point, I've recently noticed the "Cowboy Up!" signs in the stands of Fenway Park. Curiosity and Google are good bedfellows, so a quick Internet search led me to learn about the backstory to this phrase. It seems that Red Sox teammates Kevin Millar (first base & designated hitter) and Mike Timlin (relief pitcher)...

THE POP LIFE Royalties From PBS Dismay Bluesmen By NEIL STRAUSS Published: September 25, 2003 On Sunday PBS is scheduled to begin its weeklong documentary series "The Blues," with Martin Scorsese as executive producer. In the episodes, directed by Clint Eastwood, Wim Wenders, Mike Figgis and others, the past, present and future of the blues are honored, explored and explained. But some record labels and music publishers say there is one old blues tradition being honored by PBS that would be better off left in the past: underpaying the artist. Randall Wixen, president of Wixen Music Publishing, says PBS offered...

AS marketing schemes go, the hip-hop music star Nelly risks sending a lot of mixed signals with the name of the new energy drink he's marketing. It's called "Pimp Juice." I could be wrong, but "Pimp Juice" does not sound to me like something that you want to put in your mouth. Either way, you won't get a chance to find out, if certain leaders of black community organizations have their way. In Los Angeles, three organizations called Project Islamic HOPE, the National Alliance for Positive Action, and the National Black Anti-Defamation League staged a press conference last Tuesday (Sept....

Roaming America's back roads and byways over the past two years, I've noticed an alarming development: Christian supply stores continue to proliferate. They're springing up all over the hinterland, a rural aberration of our vapid consumer culture wherein all things marketable, including Jesus Christ and Christianity, have been reduced to their shrink-wrapped lowest common denominator. When I finally stumbled across the Wholesale Christian Supply Factory Outlet Store in rural Idaho, I thought I'd seen it all, yet I didn't actually go inside this particular store, I just sat in the back of the parking lot where my peripheral vision could...

<p>The conservative commentator James Hirsen, a columnist for Newsmax.com and a regular on Fox News and "The Sean Hannity Show," once played keyboards for the touring Temptations. At the time he was the only white face in the group.</p> <p>His hiring, he says, was "no affirmative action decision. I really had to be funky, or I lost the gig."</p>

"Music Choice Reveals Your Personality" The next time you go to a party and want to hook up with someone new, ask this question to find just the right person: What kind of music do you like? Turns out, the music a person likes also reveals fun facts about his or her personality, according to new research from the University of Texas at Austin. If you like blues, jazz, classical, or folk music... ...then you are intelligent, tolerant, and politically liberal. If you like country or religious music... ...then you are cheerful, outgoing, reliable, and conventional. If you like alternative...

A crude culture makes a coarse people, and private refinement cannot long survive public excess. There is a Gresham's law of culture as well as of money: the bad drives out the good, unless the good is defended. In no country has the process of vulgarization gone further than in Britain: in this , at least, we lead the world. A nation famed not so long ago for the restraint of its manners is now notorious for the coarseness of its appetites and its unbridled and antisocial attempts to satisfy them. The mass drunkenness seen on weekends in the center...

In an effort to reach out to younger members, some churches are renting cinemas for services. For theaters, it means added revenue.The marquee outside the Regal Countryside Cinemas in Sterling, Va., reads "X2: X-Men United." But inside, rock music blares and the big screen in Theater 14 is displaying not action-figure heroes but lyrics about Jesus. For an hour or so each Sunday morning, the sound of worship displaces the soundtracks of Hollywood in this unlikely setting. From their cushioned stadium seating, members of New Life Christian Church call on God, lifting their hands in prayer while a live band...

This essay is the sixth in a series designed to dissect the totalitarian mentality portrayed in George Orwell's 1984 and to draw parallels to trends in modern academia and the socipolitical arena of today. The following is an index of previous portions of this commentary: 1. Collectivism: http://www.geocities.com/rationalargumentator/Collectivism.html 2. Antiprogressivism: http://www.geocities.com/rationalargumentator/Orwells_Warning.html 3. Relativism: http://www.geocities.com/rationalargumentator/Relativism.html 4. Doublethink: http://www.geocities.com/rationalargumentator/Doublethink.html 5. Popular Culture: http://www.geocities.com/rationalargumentator/Popular_Culture.html 6. Newspeak - You are here. Read on to continue your analysis of this topic. Nevertheless, continuous expenditures of resources for the purpose of maintaining popular complicity would seem a time drain on the Witch Doctor mechanism. It is...

The Rational Argumentator A Journal for Western Man-- Issue XII Orwell's Warning: Popular Culture G. Stolyarov II This essay is the fifth in a series designed to dissect the totalitarian mentality portrayed in George Orwell's 1984 and to draw parallels to trends in modern academia and the socipolitical arena of today. The following is an index of previous portions of this commentary: 1. Collectivism: http://www.geocities.com/rationalargumentator/Collectivism.html 2. Antiprogressivism: http://www.geocities.com/rationalargumentator/Orwells_Warning.html 3. Relativism: http://www.geocities.com/rationalargumentator/Relativism.html 4. Doublethink: http://www.geocities.com/rationalargumentator/Doublethink.html 5. Popular Culture - You are here. Read on to continue your analysis of this topic. With the basics of its enforcement firmly established and its...

The politically correct elites have effectively squashed recently released Christian movies such as Pierce Brosnan's EVELYN and Ron Maxwell's poignant Civil War epic, GODS AND GENERALS. They have been helped along by apathy among Christian and conservative activists, who apparently think that, simply because an anti-Christian bigot like Roger Ebert condemns a movie, that must mean the movie is no good. Thus, instead of ignoring the vitriolic comments from politically correct, leftist film critics in the secular media, Christians and conservatives have abandoned family-friendly, Christian-friendly movies like EVELYN and GODS AND GENERALS, and, hence, helped to feed the lie that...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- From 1987 to 1996, researchers are telling tell us, the number of children and adolescents taking prescribed psychiatric drugs has more than doubled. According to the infelicitously titled medical journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, doctors are prescribing Ritalin for attention deficit disorder as well as several antidepressants with growing frequency. Somewhat more surprisingly, they are prescribing for America's youth anti-psychotics, which is to say, mood stabilizers for suppressing various manias and aggressions. You can be sure that the weekly news magazines and TV talk shows will be abounding with alarums about all this for weeks...