To be a Republican is to reduce all complexity to a few easily repeated phrases, to turn color into black and white, to blame Obama for everything Bush started and the Republican house thwarted, to believe the rich became so without any help or obligations (and to oppose inheritance taxes so as to assure a perpetual aristocracy), to oppose science and education, and to bray that lower taxes, fewer laws, and more guns will solve all problem. peace, mjh
And let me just leave you with — with a final thought, that as difficult and challenging as this whole episode has been for a lot of people, I don’t want us to lose sight that things are getting better. Each successive generation seems to be making progress in changing attitudes when it comes to race. I doesn’t mean that we’re in a postracial society. It doesn’t mean that racism is eliminated. But you know, when I talk to Malia and Sasha and I listen to their friends and I see them interact, they’re better than we are. They’re better than we were on these issues. And that’s true in every community that I’ve visited all across the country.
And so, you know, we have to be vigilant and we have to work on these issues, and those of us in authority should be doing everything we can to encourage the better angels of our nature as opposed to using these episodes to heighten divisions. But we should also have confidence that kids these days I think have more sense than we did back then, and certainly more than our parents did or our grandparents did, and that along this long, difficult journey, you know, we’re becoming a more perfect union — not a perfect union, but a more perfect union.
I have a feeling Quentin Tarantino wishes he’d made this movie. The violence was too much for me to recommend without that warning. Only briefly did the violence approach comic book violence, which was more tolerable than the realistic savage beatings and executions. It says nothing good about Hollywood or modern literature that every movie is based on a comic book or an old TV show.
When I saw that Nicholas Cage is in this movie, that did nothing to encourage me to watch it. The Vampire’s Kiss proved that Cage’s career is itself undead. However, he is great in this movie.
But, no one can touch Chloe Moretz as Hit Girl. She is astonishingly self-assured. Quite a performance, though at times difficult to watch. (Moretz played Alec Baldwin’s arch-nemesis in 30Rock and was his equal, which says a lot, as far as I’m concerned.)
I don’t look forward to Kick-Ass 2, but knowing it exists makes me hope Joss Whedon steals Kick-Ass 3 from Tarantino.
Freedom. Heroes. America. Tears. Rah-rah. Just shoot off your fireworks as quickly as possible. Think of the animals, including me.
In return, I’ll refrain from printing my screed that links religion and corporations in a conspiracy to use nationalism to sell you crap. You’ve already bought it.
I detect the barest trace of Joss Whedon in this. (“There is only one god and I doubt he dresses like that.,” among a few other lines.) I hope they gave him a dump truck full of money for this. May he use it to resurrect Firefly or for a Dr Horrible sequel.
Of course, it’s always fun to see Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Downey, Jr., who was born to be Tony Stark. But this movie is 90 minutes too long (or 140) and you could show it instead of a Transformers sequel and most of the audience would be clueless. Awful. Awful. I want my time back.
True, the flying invisible aircraft carrier and the flying mechano-reptilian space ships were interesting, though the former kept me thinking about Vincent Price in Master of the World (a *much* better movie — Whedon should do penance by reworking that one). Sigh, even the wit and genius of Joss Whedon resorts to endless gunfire and smash ‘em up. What a waste of talent and money. I’m so tired of such shit.
But, I did enjoy the 1 second of screen time my friend Donavon Roberts had:
"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." — Sam Adams
