What Is Real and What Is Reality
If Calvin Coolidge of Vermont were alive and awake now -- he was noted for taking long naps -- he might want to change it to, "The business of America is show business."The 30th president of the United States, who was not such a bad guy, sometimes seems to be remembered only for a single quote: “The business of America is business.”
If Calvin Coolidge of Vermont were alive and awake now — he was noted for taking long naps — he might want to change that to, “The business of America is show business.”After all, if he read the news last Monday, he would see that both the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times had major stories analyzing the impact of two new films moving, or trying to move, the national debate on critical issues.I mean, who would have thought that the top of the front page of the Los Angeles paper would be:“Movie Renews Pressure on CIA.“The agency faces fresh questions about torture sparked by ‘Zero Dark Thirty.'”That film, which isn’t even in most theaters yet, is a Page One topic because some critics believe it is trying to send the message that the United States fights terrorism with torture.“Torture works” is a motto denied by many with less reach than the cinema. What restarted this dialogue (some of it bogus) are the opening scenes of “Zero Dark Thirty,” showing American soldiers torturing Afghans and Pakistanis. The film then goes on to tell, in semi-documentary style, the story of our Central Intelligence Agency tracking down and killing Osama bin Laden, master of the Saudi Arabians who killed some 3,000 innocent Americans in three plane crashes on Sept. 11, 2001.© 2013 UNIVERSAL UCLICK
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