Monday, September 15, 2008

Nostalgia Monday- "Red Dawn"

I just wrote a letter-to-the-editor to the local alternative paper "Yes Weekly "(Greesnboro, NC) in which I actually referenced the 1984 right-wing caper "Red Dawn" which Leonard Maltin describes as: "Good premise gunned down by too much purple prose and posturing- not too mention too much violence."

"Red Dawn" was actually chosen as one of my friend Jason Garnett's top ten favorite films. Jason is the manager of The Grandin Theatre in Roanoke, Va., and too my knowledge he is neither a fringe right-wing nutcase or a commie. But, he does profess to liking this film which I never took seriously even though it came out when I was 14 years old.

But, it does provide a great ironic visual to counter a column made by Alexander Cockburn in last week's "Yes Weekly" (the weekly includes columns by right-wingers like Chuck Norris even though most of their readership likely votes Democratic). Cockburn is so one-sided that he makes Sean Hannity and Keith Olbermann look objective- and, that takes some doing!

Here is the letter I wrote, which will hopefully get published next week:

"I am responding to Alexander Cockburn's outrageous defense of Sarah Palin.

 (For those living in Bangladesh, this is actually former "Saturday Night Live" star Tina Fey who looks a lot like Sarah Palin).

With her in charge, I can see very bad things happening to America. For starters, John McCain might decide to into Iran and then die three months later. Thus, our soldiers would be in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan simultaneously. Suddenly, Russia decides to invade us like they did in 'Red Dawn' except there will no C. Thomas Howell or Patrick Swayze to save the day.

And, under the dubious leadership of Palin, paranoid, fringe right-wingers who have worried that their grandchildren will speak Arabic or Spanish will have to accept that they will be speaking Russian instead!

This may sound over-the-top, but it is much less so than hearing an uber-partisan who probably still thinks Joe Lieberman is a left-winger spew nonsense about a person whom Alaska House Speaker John Harris (a Republican) describes as being greatly unqualified to be vice-president."

Useful Links:

http://www.yesweekly.com

http://www.grandtheatre.com

http://www.politico.com

 

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