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THE VILLAGE CHOICE - Volume 5, Issue 1
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Manhattan Libertarian Party
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Jan 06, 2006 14:29 PST
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THE VILLAGE CHOICE
A Weekly Rundown of News, Views and Events Affecting Freedom in NYC
Volume 5, Issue 1 * January 6, 2006
THE VILLAGE CHOICE is brought to you by the Manhattan Libertarian Party.
http://www.manhattanlp.org
In this issue:
* Stupid new laws for a stupid new year!
* Brooklyn DA’s lawless staffers!
* End run around destructive rent control!
* Your calendar of pro-freedom events!
* Much more!
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* News Bites *
Just Like 2005 Government, Only Bigger, More Expensive, and More
Intrusive
With the new year, come new laws. The state's minimum wage rose Sunday
to $6.75 an hour, up from $6. The minimum age for operating a personal
watercraft — Jet Skis and their competitors — goes from 10 to 14. Mister
Softee can still play his jingle — but not when stopped. That's part of
the new city noise code that also imposes new restrictions on
nightclubs. People younger than 21 are now banned from possessing spray
paint, permanent, broad tip markers and etching instruments in a law
aimed at rubbing out graffiti. Workers in grocery stores must get
employer-paid health care.
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/379516p-322254c.html
Hynes’ Patronage Pigs
Long-term financial mismanagement is dogging Brooklyn District Attorney
Charles Hynes' office, with a slew of employees drawing far larger
salaries than their positions entitle them to, an new audit has found.
Comptroller Bill Thompson, in looking at 534 Hynes employees, found that
178 were being paid more than the maximum allowed under their titles.
"The salaries of . . . 178 employees exceeded the maximum pay rates for
their titles by a total of $1.4 million," according to the audit.
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/59890.htm
Landlords Acting Like They Own the Place
Tenants at some rent-stabilized apartments are being pushed out by
building owners who say they want to turn the structures into one-family
residences. Many residents fear, however, that the owners are actually
trying to cash in on the city’s condo craze.
http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/article/New_condos_on_the_way_tenants_worry/545.html
It Won’t Play in Peoria
Only hours after Mayor Bloomberg vowed in his second inaugural address
to launch a national campaign against "illegal guns," the gun rights
lobby is mobilizing to respond, with the influential National Rifle
Association accusing the mayor of "intimidating law abiding Americans."
Jacob Rieper, the legislative director for the rifle association's New
York State affiliate, the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association,
said he expects Mr. Bloomberg will meet substantial national opposition.
“He just doesn't have the clout to carry this to other states. Other
states outside of New York are getting rid of their gun control laws.
New York City is the only one still trying to keep hope alive that
criminals are going to pay attention to their laws," he said.
http://www.nysun.com/article/25187/
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* Rant of the Week *
“Munich”
Film Review
by Nicolas Leobold
“Munich” is Steven Spielberg’s latest effort at serious moviemaking,
tackling a subject (the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) which is a powder
keg and intensely serious in itself. Unfortunately, from the start a
project which has the potential for greatness is tainted by Spielberg’s
choice of the avowed socialist playwright Tony Kushner.
Mr. Kushner is notorious among libertarians and other defenders of
freedom for proclaiming his “love” for socialism and disdain for
essential common human rights like gun ownership and freedom from
government coercion. Mr. Kushner feels no hesitation writing in numerous
violent scenes to his screenplays which condone the use of violence for
“just ends”, yet somehow he doesn’t make the connection that ordinary
human beings in the real world should also be free to exercise the same
human right to defend themselves and their loved ones by owning and
carrying guns (Mr. Kushner is a shrill supporter for total gun control)
or be free from other coercion. Forgive me for delving into my brief
political analysis, but this is the common disconnect of gun control
supporters in Hollywood and in the theater on Broadway, and indicative
of what is the weak link (Mr. Kushner as screenwriter) in an otherwise
unqualified great film.
And Munich IS a quality film, in fact. Don’t get me wrong. The story is
involving, poignant, gripping, unfolding intricately as we meet a young
expectant father and Israeli Mossad officer, Avner (Eric Bana), being
called up by Prime Minister Golda Meir (Lynn Cohen) to head an elite,
super-secret death squad to assassinate Arab and Palestinian terrorist
operatives.
There are truly gripping moments in all of this, to say the least. As
Bana’s team blow up, shoot, and often end up dismembering evil
terrorists populating their hit list, in a ho-hum, routine manner of
assassination, there are also unforgettably horrifying scenes in the
film, especially like the revenge take-out of a poisonous black
widow-like female prostitute-assassin (responsible for killing one of
Bana’s team members by slitting his throat in bed after seducing him),
who the surviving team members hunt down to a house boat in Holland. I
won’t go into the exact manner of the hit, but will simply say that
Spielberg and his production designers and cinematographers in this film
often use the fullest extent of their artistic abilities to display the
grim beauty of all the destruction, killing and mayhem.
Where the weakness of employing Mr. Kushner to write the movie I think
becomes clearly apparent is in some of the details and framework of the
film, as well as a few embarrassing artistic “flourishes” which Mr.
Kushner can’t resist injecting in.
The footage of the Munich Olympics siege by Palestinian terrorists which
is the instigation and origin of the story is one part of the film which
is inconsistent in its quality and often made irritatingly melodramatic
and sanctimonious. In particular, at the end of the film, where we see
flashbacks of the Israeli Olympic team members about to be massacred
while the terrorists desperately try to fight off the Munich police SWAT
teams, Mr. Spielberg can not resist playing his usual schmaltzy Jewish
choral funeral dirges to try and elicit our tears, faith, solidarity,
and Jewish resoluteness. Of course, that’s Mr. Spielberg’s prerogative
and privilege along with the perennial Spielberg musical collaborator
John Williams, but Mr. Kushner leaves us no doubt that he is a
co-conspirator in all this schmaltz by writing in what has to be
considered one of the all-time greatest, over-the-top and corniest
sadomasochistic love scenes in film history.
Superimposing Bana’s desperate attempt at lovemaking with his wife onto
his imagination’s simultaneous visual memories and flashbacks of the
fateful violent shootout in Munich, Kushner makes it hard for us not to
notice that Bana, his wife and the shootout massacre reach a
simultaneous “climax” for us on screen. Somehow we are supposed to
contrast the violence of Bana’s tortured but creative lovemaking with
the violent destruction of the terrorist attack, perhaps. Kushner’s lame
consolation to us all in this is for Bana’s wife to declare with a
murmur afterwards, “I love you”, broadcasting Kushner’s universal
affirmation that by our collective procreation, our violent life has
some sort of deeper meaning.
I think this is the sort of perversion, if you will, that Kushner can’t
help bringing to many of his projects, but it only serves to diminish
Spielberg’s skill and greatness, making what could have been nearly a
flawless movie into what is merely an excellent movie with glaring
flaws.
In fact, I would say that there are many movies in the past thirty years
in recent memory, several by Spielberg himself, in which compromises to
politics or to polite society or to social convention, such as the
casting of a “Tony Kushner”, end up finally reducing and discrediting
the integrity of the finished product in the end. It’s almost as if
Spielberg, sensing his own potential for true greatness, either pulls
back out of fear and self-sabotages, or is so caught up by adrenaline
and overconfidence that he exercises poor judgment in his planning and
organizing for the project.
Because, truly, a film about an ultra-controversial and hyper-sensitive
topic such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, by the most powerful
American director of our day, leaves little room for bad hiring, bad
decision making, or any compromises on quality, genuineness and realism.
By choosing a screenwriter who has compromised his own human values and
those of our society in supporting the violation of human rights and
human lives through the advocacy of socialism and authoritarianism,
Spielberg has correspondingly allowed himself and his integrity to be
compromised, and has compromised the quality of his work as a
consequence.
Copyright 2005 by Nicolas Leobold, All Rights Reserved
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* Upcoming Events *
Monday, January 9, 10:30 p.m.
"The Libertarian Alternative"
A Libertarian political talk show
Time Warner Cable Ch. 34, RCN Cable Ch. 110, MNN Ch. 1
http://www.libertarianalternative.org
Tuesday, January 10, 8:30 p.m.
"Hardfire"
A Libertarian political talk show focusing on NYC
Time Warner Cable Ch. 56
http://hardfire.net
Saturday, January 21, 3:00 p.m.
Manhattan Libertarian Party annual convention
Speakers include James Bovard, author of _Attention Deficit Democracy_
and _The Bush Betrayal_; Fred Cookinham, author of _The Age of Rand_;
and City Council Member Letitia James.
Dinner and cash bar.
$40 for early-birds; $50 after January 7 (THAT’S TOMORROW!)
Ukrainian East Village Restaurant, 140 Second Avenue
http://www.manhattanlp.org
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* News tips, rants and events wanted! *
Help us improve THE VILLAGE CHOICE. Send news bites, rants and event
announcements to village-@manhattanlp.org. Please include a web
link whenever possible. We will occasionally consider broader topics,
but our strong preference is for items pertaining to freedom (or the
lack thereof) in New York City.
* New editor wanted! *
THE VILLAGE CHOICE is edited by Jim Lesczynski. But he's ready to pass
the baton. If you'd like to see THE VILLAGE CHOICE published on a weekly
basis again, you may have to step forward and do it yourself. Seriously,
we're looking for a new editor. If you're interested, please email
village-@manhattanlp.org.
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If you're offended by anything in this newsletter, you're obviously a
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See you next week!
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