Author: Jim Bowman

Jim Bowman covered religion 1968-78 for the Chicago Daily News, since then has written books, articles, etc., mostly on corporate history but also on religion (Company Man: My Jesuit Life, 1950-1968), and more recently on politics (Illinois Blues: How the Ruling Party Talks to Voters -- Lulu.com, Kindle). Longtime Oak Park, Illinois, resident, he lives now on Chicago's North Side, where four of his and Winnie's six children live close by.

“Fury” rocks, says longtime New Yorker critic

I gave you a very negative view of “Fury” the other day.

But New Yorker’s David Denby? Not so much:

“Fury,” a fictional account of an American tank crew fighting in Germany in April of 1945, is one of the great war movies—right near the top, within range of Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” (1998) and other classics. Spielberg’s film, after its tremendous early sequence devoted to the D-Day landings, turns into a platoon movie—a grander version of the pictures made during and after the Second World War in which an ethnically (though not racially) mixed, highly individualized group of Americans (Wasp, Jew, Italian, etc.) triumphs over anonymous Fascist helots. “Fury,” written and directed by David Ayer, is a genre movie, too: five guys in a tank, . . . .

So go see it. As if you needed me to tell you . . .

Voter fraud is alive and well

Reports of its death have been wildly exaggerated.

The reports:

The political Left steadfastly opposes the enactment of Voter ID laws designed to guard against voter fraud in federal elections. To justify this stance, leftists typically argue that the incidence of such fraud is exceedingly rare, and that initiatives like Voter ID requirements are therefore not only unnecessary, but actually serve as a de facto form of vote suppression. Following are some examples of individuals and organizations that hold this view: . . .

Exaggerated:

This section of Discover The Networks is intended to refute, with hard evidence, the foregoing assertions of the Left. The section consists of excerpts from hundreds of news stories reporting on fraud and improprieties in the voter-registration process as well as at the ballot box. These excerpts are arranged in chronological order according to when they were first published. . . .

Go ahead. Educate yourself.

Manufacturing Dissent—The Ruling Class’s Saul Alinsky Strategy in Ferguson MO

A case of Alinsky’s patented rubbing raw the sores of discontent:

The past and much-anticipated future riots in Ferguson, Missouri aren’t spontaneous civil disorder—they are an example of how the U.S. is governed in the multicultural, post-American age.

Undeterred by the Trayvon Martin farce, the Main Stream Media, professional racial activists, and Obama’s Justice Department are implacably committed to the story that police officer Darren Wilson murdered “Gentle Giant” Michael Brown, regardless of the facts.

And the riots widely predicted if Darren Wilson isn’t indicted are less a protest against police misconduct than a ginned up attempt to ensure black voter turnout. It’s not a protest against the system—it’s the system working as designed.

via Manufacturing Dissent—The Ruling Class’s Saul Alinsky Strategy in Ferguson MO.

About Brad Pitt’s “Fury” . . .

The irrepressible Taki:

What this movie needs is a bit of range, a bit of subtlety, a bit of talent, and a different director, different script, a different writer, and different actors. Otherwise, in its present state, only Dracula and ghouls will enjoy it.

And following his instructions,

Please share this article by using the link below. When you cut and paste an article, Taki’s Magazine misses out on traffic, and our writers don’t get paid for their work. Email editors to buy additional rights. http://takimag.com/article/where_has_all_the_talent_gone_taki/print#ixzz3HCDL2xxu

Thus endeth the blogger’s humble role in the matter.