Jon Stewart gonna Jon Stewart and and more power, but something snapped when I watched “The Problem With White People,” and things haven’t been the same since. A little more than a month ago Stewart was tributed at the Kennedy Center with the 23rd annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, and I really couldn’t get into it, man…sorry.

When I think of Stewart now, I think he could maybe sorta kinda go fuck himself…no offense.

A little more than three months ago my admiration for and approval of Stewart stopped dead in its tracks. To repeat, Stewart’s “The Problem with White People“, which aired on his Apple talk show on 3.25.22, is what did it.

On 3.30 I shared my skepticism and revulsion at what this one-sided woke indoctrination seminar was pushing, and particularly the dismissal of Andrew Sullivan‘s opinions by Stewart and another of his guests, the odious Lisa Bond of Race2Dinner…it was so enraging. I wanted to throw something at my computer screen, although I dismissed that instinct a millisecond later because it was only 15 inches in front of my face and what was I going to throw anyway? A sliced tomato? The juice would get into the guts of my Macbook Pro and then I’d really be in trouble.

Stewart and Bond were basically parroting woke talking points, to wit: (a) all disparity equals discrimination, (b) meritocracy is merely a systematic smokescreen for white dominance, (c) the low marriage rate among African Americans is the fault of whites, (d) almost all American sub-systems or social standards are guises for white power, (e) the whole societal system in which we work and live is gamed in favor of whites, and therefore (f) white people have a duty to cleanse and overhaul these systems in order to alleviate the stain and the shame of institutional racism.

I’ve responded to these talking points with three significant HE posts about The 1619 Project, which is pretty much the historical cradle for wokester theology in the realm of American racism. The best of them was “What’s Your 1619 Beef?“, posted on 7.30.20. Here’s an excerpt:

“Slavery has always been an ignominious chapter in the first 245 years of US history (1619 to 1865) and racism has stained aspects of the culture ever since, but to assert that slavery and racism (which other cultures have shamefully allowed and profited by over the centuries) are THE central and fundamental definers of the immense American experience strikes me as a bridge too far.

“Many factors drove the expansion and gradual strengthening & shaping of this country, and particularly the spirit and character of it — immigration, the industrial revolution and the cruel exploitations and excesses of the wealthy elites, the delusion of religion, anti-Native American racism and genocide, breadbasket farming, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick C. Douglas, the vast networks of railroads, selfishness & self-interest, factories, construction, the two world wars of the 20th Century, scientific innovation, native musical forms including jazz, blues (obviously African-American art forms) and rock, American literature, theatre and Hollywood movies, sweat shops, 20th Century urban architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright, major-league baseball, Babe Ruth & Lou Gehrig, family-based communities and the Protestant work ethic, fashion, gardening, native cuisine and the influences of European, Mexican, Asian and African cultures, hot dogs, the shipping industry, hard work and innovation, the garment industry, John Steinbeck, George Gershwin, Paul Robeson, Louis Armstrong, JFK, MLK, Stanley Kubrick, Chet Baker, John Coltrane, Marilyn Monroe, Amelia Earhart, Malcom X, Taylor Swift, Charlie Parker, Elizabeth Warren, Katharine Hepburn, Aretha Franklin, Jean Arthur, Eleanor Roosevelt, Carol Lombard, Shirley Chisholm, Marlon Brando, Woody Allen, barber shops & manual lawnmowers, the auto industry, prohibition & gangsters, the Great Depression and the anti-Communism and anti-Socialism that eventually sprang from that, status-quo-challenging comedians like Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce and Steve Allen (“schmock schmock!”), popular music (Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and the Beatles), TV, great American universities, great historians, great journalism (including the National Lampoon and Spy magazine), beat poetry, hippies, the anti-Vietnam War movement, pot and psychedelia, cocaine, quaaludes and Studio 54, 20th & 21st Century tech innovations, gay culture, comic books, stage musicals, Steve Jobs, etc.

Two other HE retorts: (a) “Spreading ‘1619 Project’ Gospel,” a 7.8.20 piece that liberally quotes from Andrew Sullivan‘s “How The New York Times Has Abandoned Liberalism for Activism” (posted on 9.3.19), and (b) “Stephens: 1619 Project ‘Has Failed’“, an excerpt of Bret Stephens‘ “The 1619 Chronicles“, which appeared on 10.9.20.

We all knew it was coming, and yet somehow it feels a lot worse now that it’s official.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade is a scourge — a cruel, hideous imposition upon all women, right now and for the foreseeable future. Don’t even talk about what will happen in bumblefuck territories over the coming weeks, months and possibly years — removing the right of women (poor women especially) to choose their own biological fates and futures is draconian, deplorable and fairly close to medieval.

I’ve been thinking about this decision for most of the day, and particularly during my journey back from Berkshires. The likely real-world impact is sinking into my head in stages, and the air seems to get a bit colder each time.

As emotionally conflicted as I am about mid-to-late-term abortion (I went through a Jack Nicholson-like change of heart** when the news of Sutton’s arrival was shared), the right of a woman to choose one way or the other is absolute.

I’m certainly consumed with loathing for the six Supreme Court justices who struck down this fair, necessary and former law of the land, and especially the three Trumpies — Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, all of whom blatantly misrepresented their views on Roe during their confirmation hearings and concurrent discussions with legislators.

Europe is almost entirely supportive of a woman’s’s right to choose, leaving aside the banning of abortions in Andorra, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, Poland and San Marino. (I was surprised to learn yesterday, by the way, that German law states that abortions should happen no later than twelve weeks into a pregnancy.)

Putting it mildly, Lawrence O’Donnell’s reaction [above] to the trashing of Roe v. Wade closely reflects my own, and almost certainly the reactions of at least two-thirds if not three-quarters of the country.

Key quote: “The current Supreme Court is not a product of democracy. It is a product of minority rule…a product of the corruption of constitutional processes by Senate Republicans, who refused to even allow for a vote on President Obama‘s final choice for a Supreme Court justice” — i.e., Attorney General Merrick Garland, who has so far shown himself to be a wimp in the matter of a possible federal prosecution of Donald Trump.

“The Republican justices on the Supreme Court share a dangerous Trumpian characteristic — they are incapable of embarassment.”

“We all know what a haunted house looks like: Victorian, Gothic. The Addams Family pile, the Bates residence in Psycho. Mansard roofs, looming gables, bullseye windows, porches, verandas.

“The renowned art historian Sarah Burns of Indiana University has made an exhaustive study of how this late 19th century style became ‘the prime sinister locus’ of American culture, chiefly gathered in the marvellous essay Better for ‘Haunts: Victorian Houses and the Modern Imagination.’

“Late-Victorian architecture was anathematised in the 1920s as a way of passing moral judgement on the tawdriness and excess of the Gilded Age. This was, in turn, a way of condemning the flashiness and superficial opulence of the pre-Crash 1920s.

“When artists such as Edward Hopper and Charles Burchfield painted houses as empty and sinister, they were indirectly passing judgement on the corruption of the day.” — from “It’s Coming From Inside the House,” an Architects Journal articles by Will Miles, 8.21.15.

Video taken this morning inside Mount Washington House in Hillsdale, New York.

“…this court is hell-bent on radically changing this country.” — Robert Reich.

Straight from the shoulder and no bullshit: Is there anyone in the HE community who feels strongly about seeing or not seeing Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis this weekend?

If it’s a must-see, what’s the main factor driving that notion? And if it’s a meh, why do you feel that way?

You may have heard that Elvis underperformed last night and that it may finish the weekend with less than $20 million, which may translate into a third or even (God forbid) a fourth-place showing.

I’ll tell you what I’m feeling, and that’s a pre-West Side Story vibe because (a) 40-and-younger types don’t care that much about E.P., (b) the numbers will depend on whatever ticket-buying enthusiasm may happen among GenX and more particularly boomers, and don’t forget that (c) Elvis’s core fan base (those in their tweener and teen years when he first ignited) are older boomers plus the baby-bust generation.

I really and truly hope that Elvis (which I was half-okay with after seeing it in Cannes) does better than West Side Story. I don’t want to see it tank.

The Ankler ‘s Sean McNulty senses trouble…

…that there are accomplished, seemingly intelligent film obsessives who are actually persuaded that in Alexander Payne’s Election, Matthew Broderick’s high-school teacher is the villain and Reese Witherspoon’s Tracey Flick is…what, driven and misunderstood but essentially a decent soul?

Broderick’s character is a more-or-less moral fellow with weaknesses (extra-marital lust, loathing for Tracey Flick types, not smart enough to destroy that ballot instead of toss it into a waste basket). But Flick is Richard Nixon, for God’s sake. I’ve known screwed-down, hissy-fit Tracey Flick types all my life…’nuff said.

“Determined Little Sociopath,” Posted on 9.20.17: What was it about Election, exactly, that turned so many people off? Alexander Payne‘s brilliant, perfectly shaped black comedy cost $25 million (just shy of $37 million in 2017 dollars) to make, and it only earned a lousy $14.9 million (or nearly $22 million by today’s calculator). Something in this film irritated a large swath of the public, obviously, but what in particular? The reviews couldn’t have been better, but outside of some modest action in the cities Joe and Jane Popcorn just wouldn’t go.

I’ve long suspected that on some deep-seated level Jane didn’t care for the demonizing of Reese Witherspoon‘s Tracy Flick, who always struck me as a female Richard Nixon type — resentful, craven.

The irony, of course, is that Witherspoon will probably never luck into a role as good again. It enabled her to give her very best performance. Certainly her most memorable, in part because she wasn’t “acting” — Tracy Flick is inside Witherspoon as surely as Tom Dunson and Ethan Edwards were inside John Wayne. Tracy Flick was lightning in a bottle, and that stuff doesn’t grow on trees. Criterion’s Election Bluray will pop on 12.12.17.