essays

[National Review Online, April 21, 2006] 

The posters for "American Dreamz" are not real subtle: "Imagine a country where the President never reads the newspaper, where the government goes to war for all the wrong reasons, and where more people vote for a pop idol than their next president." Sounds like some lefties woke up feeling cranky on the day after Bush's re-election. The film's signature image, of Lady Liberty strutting in red thigh-high boots behind a microphone, reinforces the message that this is a rock-the-vote story for hip people, and squares need not apply.

But self-identified hip people who buy a ticket on the basis of this ad are likely to be disappointed.

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[Beliefnet, April 19, 2006]

The Gospels don’t tell us much about the two thieves crucified with Jesus. Tradition calls the “Good Thief” Dimas or Dismas, while the “Bad Thief” is named Gestas. Dimas’ legend reveals a little more. As a young man he was the leader of a robber band in Egypt, and encountered the Holy Family during their sojourn after Jesus’ birth. He discerned something special about the Jewish family, we’re told, and ordered his men to spare them. Thirty years later he saw that child once again, nailed to a cross beside him.

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[National Review Online, April 19, 2006) 

Here's a movie plot for you. There are four women, see? And on top of that, three of them are rich. But hold onto your hat, they're all friends. Whaddaya think?

I don't get it either. "Friends With Money" shows us four women, and shows that they are friends, and that's about it. Three of the women are married, and also wealthy, and one is neither.

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