Oscar Schindler, memorialized in the 1993 film Schindler’s List, was born on April 28th, 1908. His powerful story, extraordinarily well-told by Steven Spielberg, so impressed critics that it won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
News
Happy Earth Day! /Sarc
Earth Day is an annual celebration to support “environmental protection” — no, not primarily to promote good things like clean air and clean water, but to fight global warming, excuse me, climate change, via massive government regulation, control, and spend on a world scale. All this is justified by claims that doom is nearly upon us and can only be averted by radical change coordinated at gunpoint. Should you believe these predictions?
Well, look back at the predictions made on the original Earth Day in 1970. Not one of them came true. Some of these were highlighted in the news segment below — note the caliber of the people making these predictions — they are among the best and the brightest and yet they are still completely wrong.
Even Spock believed in 1979 that the Earth was doomed unless immediate action was taken, doomed not by Global Warming but by Global Freezing.
But haven’t predictions gotten better since then? No, no they haven’t. Here’s a nice list of failed climate change predictions made over the last 25 years. Note they have one thing in common: the dates for demise are soon, but not so soon that anyone will remember the prediction and come back to say hey, this never happened. It’s always doom awaits us in the near future, not immediately, not in the far future, but in that comfortable mid-zone.
By the way, now that we live in an age where we judge the merits of everything by the foibles of those who authored our current institutions, remember that the guy who invented Earth Day, a leftist named Ira Einhorn, murdered his girlfriend and mummified her body, which was found in his apartment 18 months later. He died in prison recently. More on his colorful history here. So when someone mentions Earth Day, be sure to say “But wasn’t that founded by a murderer?”
John Stossel, whose trademark is a balanced look at things, did a great segment on Earth Day and climate change generally. It’s worth watching.
Years ago, Penn & Teller invited Earth Day enthusiasts to sign a petition banning H2O, yes, water. Many signed, inadvertently revealing the scientific naivete of environmental activists. Since then, this has become a repeatable experiment, used in high schools to show why it’s important to be skeptical of politicized scientific claims.
One of the better documentaries on climate change, made by the talented director Martin Durkin, is The Great Global Warming Swindle. It is generally available free on youtube.
Lastly, if you want to know how climate change got started as a cause, check out this short film about the cherry-picking of data to support the cause. It’s not science, it’s politics.
Waco Anniversary Recalls Film That Exposed Cover-Up
Thirty-one years ago today, a religious commune in Waco, Texas was raided by FBI and BATF, resulting in the holocaust of 76 people including children, burnt alive. The official story was initially that the tragedy was a mass suicide, that authorities never fired a shot and never set fire to their compound. That became — through constant repetition — the narrative that everyone believed.
Then, out of nowhere, a little-known independent documentary entitled Waco: Rules of Engagement hit the theaters. The film ripped the lid off of the government’s case and took it apart piece by piece, indeed so effectively that it was nominated for an Academy Award. As Roger Ebert put it at the time, “Whatever happened at Waco, these facts remain: It is not against the law to hold irregular religious beliefs. It is not illegal to hold and trade firearms. It is legal to defend your own home against armed assault, if that assault is illegal. It is impossible to see this film without reflecting that the federal government, from the top down, treated the Branch Davidians as if those rights did not apply.”
Mae West Wins “Wittiest Line In Defense Of Liberty”
Mae West is sometimes cited as an early libertarian for her then scandalous, now liberated, views regarding criminalization of homosexuality, miscegenation, and other “sins.” Per The Guardian, “Constantly denounced by the conservative press, pursued by police and censors, West became a leading symbol of the Roaring Twenties and made numerous appearances in the criminal courts.”
On April 19th 1927, actress Mae West was sentenced on a morals charge for portraying bawdiness on stage and thereby potentially corrupting the youth. Exasperated with her lack of repentance, the judge finally snapped at her: “Miss West, are you trying to show contempt for this court?” She replied sweetly: “On the contrary, your Honor, I was doin’ my best to conceal it.”
Anthem (Libertarian) Film Festival: Are You Coming?
The 2024 Anthem Film Festival — the annual screening of the latest libertarian films and documentaries — will be held at The Mirage Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, July 10-13. It is part of the larger FreedomFest event. You may purchase registration here.
This once-a-year event is the world’s biggest libertarian film festival, and features narrative films as well as documentaries and short films. Per the festival’s website, “Anthem is part of FreedomFest, where each year over 2,500 people and 250 speakers meet for a multi-national conference of ideas. We invite the best and brightest thought leaders to address us about geo-politics & finance, history & philosophy, science & technology, art & literature, healthy living – and movies, of course!” Not sure if it’s your thing? Check out this running list of films and documentaries featured at the festival in the past.
Happy Tax Season: 14 Films To Help Get Through It
Well, it’s tax season again, so while you’re filling out those forms, here are 14 anti-tax films to enjoy. One of the best, available on Amazon, is Harry’s War.