It was inevitable, wasn’t it?
Manners and Morals
Italian Courts: Genes Made Man Murder
Two Italian courts reduced a convicted criminal’s sentence because they decreed that his genes predisposed him to murder. The decision is based not on science but on a hardline adherence to a philosophy called determinism, S. T. Karnick writes.
PBS and the Great Hangover
Government broadcaster PBS is running a new, five-part series on a subject naturally interesting in our time: American Experience: The 1930s. Episodes are available for online viewing here. The program is just what one would expect from PBS: earnest, well-researched, skillfully presented, and eager to lick the boots of government while criticizing individual freedom for everything wrong in the world, S. T. Karnick writes.
Video: Jack Webb Schools Roman Polanski
Our thanks go out to Robert Champ for referring us to this item.
Rise of ‘Good Girl’ Culture Shows Value of Liberty, Ideals
The rise of "good girls" in the culture is a natural outcome of the freedom that makes the Omniculture possible. We should make sure to preserve that freedom, and a respect for the value of ideals, if we want more of those good outcomes, S. T. Karnick writes.
Cheap Shots at Republicans and Nonliberals Almost Ruin ‘Julie & Julia’
TAC editor S.T. Karnick is right that Julie & Julia is likely to enjoy a profitable run for the rest of the summer. And while I’m not normally a fan of Nora Ephron movies (I am a man, after all), this film is worth seeing with the love of your life if only to watch Meryl Streep’s charming and captivating Julia Child impression, Jim Lakely writes. But even in this cute little movie, Ephron can’t help but take political shots at nonliberals—one of which was perhaps the most jarring I can ever remember watching.
Do you prefer Facebook over MySpace? Then you’re a racist
According to a story at The Inquisitr, it reflects very poorly on American society that social networkers have been leaving MySpace in droves and flocking to Facebook. As The Inquisitr story notes, Danah Boyd, a social media researcher for Microsoft and fellow of the Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society, recently delivered the keynote speech during New York’s Democracy forum at Lincoln Center. Boyd said she was disturbed by the possible reasons for mass abandonment of MySpace for the "more cultured" and "less cheesy" social networking site Facebook. The phenomenon apparently exposes a form of digital racism for which America should feel shame.
Letterman Apologies Fail to Satisfy Protesters, MSM Battered Again
The intense public reaction against David Letterman’s attack on Sarah Palin’s family shows an increasingly strong public anger toward the mainstream media.
Why the Letterman-Palin Saga Is Important
The media’s continual and increasingly furious and itemperate attacks on all of those who don’t agree with them politically are classic bullying tactics common to all authoritarian regimes.
Letterman Sex ‘Joke’ Exemplifies Socialist Stranglehold on Public Discourse
Recent controversies over sex "jokes" exemplify the valid concern over the loss of decency in public discourse. The real victims are the American public, S. T. Karnick writes.
‘Sims 3′ Piracy Rampant Before Game’s Release
There’s more disturbing news today for those who respect property rights and understand the importance of providers receiving economic returns for their goods: piracy of the Electronic Arts Inc. game The Sims 3 reached 180,000 illegal downloads in just four days, May 18-21, prior to its scheduled sale date today, Bloomberg News reports (hat tip to Aleks Karnick). Fully 41 percent of all PC software installed last year was pirated, the Bloomberg story reports. As with any good or service, video games, software, and other cultural items won’t get made and distributed if people cannot make a living from them. Hence piracy on this level poses a serious danger to the culture and the economy. –S. T. Karnick
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