Response to a Grab Bag of BS

I want to take the time to respond to Justin Phillips’s post on GOP3.com on a variety of issues.

Let me start by saying it is a relief to know he is still alive. I have not personally seen him all semester and he was not present at the College Republican meeting this past Wednesday evening. I am grateful I do not have to organize a search party or anything. Personally I don’t remember if he owes me money or not but I would rather not risk it (I have a job right now but the first paycheck doesn’t come for another two weeks).

I do not see, Justin, what your problem is with the cartoon tribute to Steve Irwin in the last issue of the Marquette Tribune. It was not insensitive, I thought, so I can’t see why you found it to be a mockery of the Australian conservationist.

I do agree that A.J. Becker is spouting the liberal diatribe that ‘it is too soon to have a movie about 9/11’, something of which I always found to be a load of crock. It is never too soon to remind people why we are fighting the war against terrorism and why it is so critical that we win. If I had my way (to quote Darryl Worley’s song ‘Have You Forgotten’) I would show the horrific events of September 11th, 2001, everyday. True, it was sixty years before Touchstone Pictures’ over-hyped historical soap-opera ‘Pearl Harbor’ was released in theaters but Becker forgets that films related to the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor were produced less then a year after the event took place. The Paul Greengrass directed ‘United 93’ was undoubtedly one of the most remarkably emotional and inspiring motion pictures this year (I would have written up a review for it but I am so behind on a lot of things that it may be awhile before I actually get to it), if not of the last decade, presented in a sort of documentary style format (if you have not yet had the privilege of viewing this gripping historical-drama, be sure to attend a screening of the film this weekend at the Varsity Theatre on the Marquette University campus or rent the DVD).

There were only a few things that upset me about this film. One being that the film was designated an R-rating which I felt deprived a lot of younger viewers (not school children but teenagers under the age of seventeen) from taking in this emotional experience. But then again that didn’t stop parents from taking their children to go see The Passion of the Christ. The other thing that bothered me was that Universal Pictures only donated a percentage of the opening weekend gross of the film to the Flight 93 Memorial. I understand that the studio needs to recover the production budget of the film but how about donating all the proceeds from the film after recouping the cost. To be honest I objected to proceeds being donated to the Flight 93 memorial in the first place since I (as well as others) view the proposed design as a tribute not to the heroes of United 93 but the Islamic fascists who hijacked it.

And while I initially objected to controversial filmmaker Oliver Stone directing a project about the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, I have heard that he puts politics aside and creates a stirring human-interest drama. I have not had the chance to see this film but I do plan to when it comes to the Varsity Theatre later this semester.

Again, Justin and I disagree slightly on the movies being presented this year at the Varsity Theatre. I feel as though they are far less liberal then they were last semester, significantly so. There’s a movie starring Tom Cruise – so what? I am biased, Mission: Impossible 3 was directed by J.J. Abrams, creator of my favorite television program, LOST, but if you separate Cruise the actor from Cruise the Scientologist then it shouldn’t bother you.

The only reason there was a rumor to begin with that Superman was gay was that some gay-advocate magazine headlined the question – “How Gay Is Superman?” – believing the Man of Steel to be a metaphor for homosexuals who are ‘forced’ to live a double-life. In reality Superman is to be interpreted as a metaphor for Jesus Christ (if you have seen the movie, there is one scene in particular near the end of the film where, suspended in space, Superman is placed in a ‘Jesus-on-the-Cross’ pose), nothing more.

I too am glad MUSG selected Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (which, I kid you not, I saw five times over the summer – I was so bored down in Florida and the movie was that good that I saw it that many times in two months) to be sure shown at the Varsity Theatre this semester. I also agree that Miami Vice was grossly over-hyped and not worth the price of admission (there were so many sex scenes within such a short span of time that it began to feel like a real soft-core porno flick).

And, finally, I agree with Brandon Henak in saying that the Facebook group created by Brody Ruckus to collect 100,000 members so that he and his girlfriend can have a threesome with some other woman trivializes sex and I personally view it as immature and disgusting. From the looks of what he has posted on Facebook he is quite serious about this and it is not merely a marketing gimmick.