In recent years, threats from Islamic extremists have resulted in murder of those simply depicting Mohammed (forbidden by Islamic tradition, although not unknown to Islamic culture). From a prominent woman who fled Islamic death threats: “‘South Park’ and the Informal Fatwa” In a profile of cowardice, Comedy Central responded to a recent death threat...
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Joan Baez (pictured in her former, peacenik persona, above), fresh from a visit to the White House, speaking at a charity benefit Sunday night: To hell with Afghanistan, [the Obamas] are so appealing.

James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar is a thrill to see, and various commentators have judged the film for whatever ideological message they have found in it, but what struck me most is that the Na’vi people, in defending their land on Pandora from the imperialist exploitation by the humans, are engaging in one of the...
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The remarkable and haunting, independent, 2009, science fiction short film, 2081: Everyone Will Finally Be Equal, is based on the Kurt Vonnegut short story, “Harrison Bergeron,” from his book, Welcome to the Monkey House, and is now available on DVD. Vonnegut’s powerful and incisive story critiques egalitarian statism in which “equality” is the only...
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Especially with AMC’s flawed and disappointing, recent remake of The Prisoner, the celebrated, libertarian, metaphysical TV series that was created by and starred the late Patrick McGoohan (originally having aired from 1967 to 1968), it is great news indeed that the entire original version is now available online. As a result, here is the...
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In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, “Inglourious Basterds and the Problem of Revenge,” Jordana Horn incisively examines the theme of Quentin Tarantino’s new, fictional, revenge film, Inglourious Basterds, in which German soldiers and others in World War II are targeted by an elite Jewish-American commando unit to be killed, scalped, tortured,...
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As candidate for irony of the year award, note this news item wherein Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan was detained Friday by U.S. immigration officials at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey because his name matched with some names on a computer alert list. The actor is in the U.S. to promote a...
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After forty years, AMC is remaking a six-hour version of The Prisoner, the late Patrick McGoohan’s clever, libertarian, metaphysical, TV mini-series. With the ominous rise of statism and collectivism now in the United States and elsewhere, this program could not be more timely in addressing such issues as privacy and government surveillance, propaganda and...
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Here is the Onion News Network’s hilarious and incisive, satirical report on the “U.S. Army’s Third Annual ‘Bring Your Daughter to War’ Day”. And some good news out of Iraq. U.S. military commanders have announced that the Third Annual “Bring Your Daughter to War” Day was a great success. . . . Over 15,000...
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In State of Play, the new murder-mystery-thriller film set in the midst of the corruption of Washington politics, invasive war making, defense-contract cronyism, and the decline of print newspaper journalism, the Independent Institute’s quarterly journal, The Independent Review, is featured in numerous scenes. Based on the BBC’s hit 6-part miniseries, this Universal film stars...
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