Big Hollywood
debuts today, a group blog hatched by Andrew Breitbart.
Its editor-in-chief is John Nolte, late of
the excellent blog Dirty
Harry's Place (which is now defunct, a mere two days after I recommended
it here).
Initial articles by Nolte, Andrew Klavan, Orson Bean, James Kirchick, and more.
It looks to be a must-read for conservatives and libertarians who like
movies. Which is to say: me, maybe you too.
OK, not really good news, but: Viking Punditreminds
me of one of the reasons I let my Boston Globe subscription
lapse: their continued employment of the self-important and vapid James Carroll.
The subtitle is: "Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back
to Reality". Here they are:
Ability varies.
Half of the children are below average.
Too many people are going to college.
America's future depends on how we educate the academically gifted.
Murray lays out his arguments for each of these propositions, then, in a
final chapter, presents his guidelines for a reform of America's
educational system. His writing is extraordinarily clear, reasonable, and
unpretentious. And (for me at least) he's quite convincing.
One of Murray's fat targets is "educational romanticism": an
idealized vision of universal educatability married to careful
ignorance of contradictory evidence. This vision is present on both the
left and right—think "No Child Left Behind".
Although Murray is probably too kind
to mention it, there's also often a nasty component of narcissism
involved as well: policies advocated and positions taken because they
make us feel good about ourselves. When you're congratulating yourself
about how compassionate you are, who needs to check on whether you're
actually helping anyone?
Predictably, Murray's opponents went apeshit when this book came out
late last year. And it's difficult to imagine a college president, for
example, agreeing with the "too many people are going to college"
proposition. At least not in public. ("We have to protect our phoney
baloney jobs here, gentlemen!") A decent discussion of the book
was held at the Cato Unbound site last year, recommended
either before or after you read the book.
I'd like to think that Murray's recommendations had a chance of
enactment, but the interests vested in the status quo are huge, and
America doesn't seem to currently be in the mood for non-wishful
thinking. The best chances for reform seem to lie at the pre-college
levels, where "choice" movements are opening up opportunities
for escaping from government schools.
First off, the animation and the lush imaginative visuals here are
simply amazing. It would be heresy to claim that it's better than Pixar,
but… to my untrained eye, it appears to be right up in the same
league at least.
[UPDATE: just re-watched WALL·E, and the above sentence
may be the single stupidest thing I've written on this blog. Although
the Blue Sky folks are wonderfully inventive, they're not that close
to Pixar yet.]
It's based, of course, on the Dr. Seuss book of the same name. In the
jungle one day, Horton
hears a voice calling out from a speck floating by; it turns out to be
the home of
microscopic Whoville, inhabited by (of course) the equally
microscopic Whos. Horton resolves to
protect the Who-infested speck from certain disaster. This, for some
reason, incites the local lady Kangaroo, who insists the Whos are imaginary,
setting up the movie's conflict.
Horton is voiced by Jim Carrey, and the filmmakers apparently thought
that a good deal of the Carrey personality should go into Horton as well;
it's as if he's been possessed by the Ace Ventura demon.
(Similarly, the Mayor of Whoville is voiced by Steve Carell; he
seems to have been infested with way too much Michael Scott from The
Office.)
Also rubbing me the wrong way: the close-minded, intolerant
Kangaroo (Carol Burnett) snippily
informs Horton that her child has been "pouch schooled": A gratuitous
swipe at home-schoolers, apparently.
So, despite the glorious eye candy on the screen, everything else seems
just a little off. Maybe watching it with the audio muted would
have worked better.
Aside: Horton's famous line from the book, also in the movie,
is, "A person's a person. No matter
how small." Wikipedia
relates that, naturally enough, this is often seized upon by pro-life
groups. Which (in turn) irked the famously
lefty Dr. Seuss: he threatened to sue a pro-life group for putting the
phrase on their stationery. So:
A person's a person. No matter how small.
Um, unless he's unborn; that's not a close call.
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