RUTHFULLY YOURS

I haven’t read Phillip Roth’s “Indignation,” but the most interesting and subtle part of James Schamus’ screenplay adaptation is the backstory hinted at in the shiksa heroine’s past. The characters of Marcus Messer, the brilliant college student; his over-protective Jewish father, his kvelling Jewish mother, the over-bearing mildly anti-semitic college Dean – are all stock caricatures who each gets at least one opportunity to break out of their defined molds. But the character of Olivia Hutton, the beautiful blonde co-ed who performs a first date sex act that wasn’t common in the early 50’s, is developed with snatches of dialogue that seem to have sailed over the heads of most reviewers.

We learn early on that she has spent some time in a sanitarium after slitting her wrist, an act she chalks up to her early alcohol abuse. The privileged daughter of divorced parents, she is asked to describe them to the besotted Marcus who can’t understand her performance of fellatio without even being asked. Searching for clues to what she’s about, he questions her about her surgeon father and she hurriedly and nervously slams the door on that subject. Subsequently, after Mrs. Messer meets her, she cautions Marcus about not getting involved with such a wounded soul, cleverly pointing out the power that weak people exert over others. She asks Marcus about Olivia’s family and warns him to look more deeply since any girl who has attempted suicide at a young age may have been profoundly hurt within the confines of the family itself. In addition to the contrast between the annoying yet loving Jewish father and the sophisticated but abusive Christian father, we have the Jewish mother who doesn’t respect boundaries but whose insight offers the unspoken but most plausible understanding of Olivia’s promiscuous sexual favors and recurring mental anguish.

Unfortunately, most of this movie feels dated and schematic and the title character trait quickly becomes less clever than sophomoric. Particularly jarring was the awkward plot device of how Marcus discovers what has happened to Olivia who has dropped out of school; no Dean would ever have divulged such personal and confidential material to another student. None of the actors was able to rise above the stereotypical outlines of their parts, a fact that makes you realize the world of difference between competence and charisma. Roth’s literary experiments with narrative voice and flashback are deftly incorporated into the beginning and ending of the film, leaving you with more to think about than a coming of age story during the Korean War. Roth fans will flock to see this; others can wait for it on Movies on Demand.

Bronze Star and Purple Heart recipient Captain Humayun Khan died heroically. But his exceptional courage in Iraq and his Muslim father’s post-Democratic convention histrionics on TV do not erase the security threat posed by killer warriors of Allah infiltrating our troops.

Don’t take my word for it. Ask all the forgotten Gold Star moms and dads who have lost their children because politically correct pushovers at the Pentagon looked the other way at the Muslim military menace.

Don’t take my word for it. Just re-read the ignored warnings issued by Muslim soldier Nidal Hasan, the vengeful mass murderer who gunned down 13 service members — including a pregnant private first class who lost her life and her child — and wounded more than 30 others at Fort Hood in 2009.

Two years before his rampage, while a senior-year medical school resident in psychology, U.S. Army Major Hasan delivered a 50-slide PowerPoint presentation to classmates and military superiors at Walter Reed. It was titled “The Koranic World View As It Relates to Muslims in the U.S. Military.” Quoting chapter and verse, Hasan illuminated “what the Koran inculcates in the minds of Muslims and the potential implications this may have for the U.S. military.”

Hasan cited the Verse of the Sword (“I have been commanded to fight the people until they testify that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah”), explained “offensive” and “defensive” jihad and summarized the concept of “abrogation” — in which warring verses of the Quran trumped “peaceful verses.”

Follow the money.

Black Lives Matter was never really about protesting whatever drug dealer, robber or petty criminal was the latest to die in another violent confrontation with the police. Its founders, left-wing gay activists with a professional interest in community organizing, had little in common with the inner city criminals that they claimed to care about. Michael Brown or Freddie Gray were only their means to an end.

Black Lives Matter casually destroyed communities and then walked away to the next confrontation. The latest victim was only a means to radicalize and community organize before his t-shirts went into the trash bin and his hashtag was retired. Now the hate group has released its policy agenda.

The title, “Policy Demands for Black Power, Freedom and Justice,” puts the emphasis on the hate group’s Black Nationalism rather than any claims of police brutality. This was always about the racist agenda of “Black Power” with its mantra of separatist demands and racial entitlements.

And it’s about the money. Black Lives Matter shares the same tired old agenda as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. In the end it’s always about a financial shakedown. And BLM has a big shakedown in mind.

Scroll down past the angry rhetoric and you wind up with “reparations” for slavery, not to mention an endless “war” on black people that encompasses everything from “mass incarceration” to “food apartheid.”

Reparations extend from “full and free access for all Black people (including undocumented and currently and formerly incarcerated people) to lifetime education” to “a guaranteed minimum livable income for all Black people.”

This would be a sizable welfare check paid out to all black people for being black.

Unlike welfare, this magic income would not be “means tested” nor would there be “any work requirements” because unlike the Earned Income Tax Credit which is “significantly tied to work, which is problematic when structural racism continues to create so many barriers to Black employment”, there would be no expectation that anyone receiving these checks do anything except watch TV all day.

But don’t get BLM wrong. It still wants to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit anyway.

Yale University, considered one of the finest centers of higher education in the country, is forming a committee to examine procedures to rename buildings, monuments, and other campus features that may be “offensive” to one group or another.

What if you consider the committee itself an affront to free inqury and a surrender to political correctness?

Daily Caller:

The Committee to Establish Principles on Renaming is exactly what it sounds like: A special group that will set rules to decide what aspects of Yale’s history should remain, and which should be purged.

The committee’s existence stems from the long-running controversy over Calhoun College, a residential college at the school named for John C. Calhoun, an American vice president who was a vocal defender of slavery. Many have called for Calhoun College to be renamed, with those calls gaining strength after the June 2015 shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, which sparked a general backlash against monuments to the Confederacy and slaveholders.

Back in April, Yale President Peter Salovey announced Calhoun College would not be renamed, despite protests. At the time, Salovey said renaming the college would go against Yale’s core principles, including its motto, Light and Truth.

Removing Calhoun’s name obscures the legacy of slavery rather than addressing it,” he said at the time.

But the announcement did nothing to quiet critics or defuse the issue. Opponents continued to denounce Calhoun, and in June, a Yale employee smashed a historic stained glass window at Calhoun he argued was demeaning because it showed black slaves harvesting cotton. Despite initially losing his job and being hit with criminal charges, the employee ultimately went totally unpunished for his stunt.

For the best writing and exposure of VA chicanery check out : http://www.openthebooks.com/

On July, 30, 2016 VA Office of Inspector General announced “Today is National Whistleblower Appreciation Day. We as a Nation must recognize the important role whistleblowers play in exposing serious problems and deficiencies in Government programs and operations.”

What does the VA mean by serious problems? Millions spent on “art” while our homeless Veterans dine “Chez Garbage”? Are rampant corruption, lies and despicable treatment of “VA VIP Customers” serious and blatant enough?

The wrongdoing is shamelessly self-explanatory, and so is Obama´s endorsement of the VA secretary´s pseudo transformation of the decaying department. While performing on Disabled Veterans Convention in Atlanta (August 1, 2016), Obama gushed: ´´Thank you, Bob, for the great work you are doing.´´

As for VA Secretary Robert McDonald, he seems perfectly content with the pat on the back and grandiose sound of his own voice: “Excellence is what we´re after. So the right dialogue is about forward-looking leadership and sustainable accountability.”

Hey, homeless “folks”, if you are hungry, eat a project: “You should know there are more than 100 legislative proposals for Veterans in the President´s 2017 Budget.” McDonald seems optimistically hopeful that after elections he will receive more money to burn and no “sustainable accountability” for loss of human lives and potential.

Obama said “As Commander-in-Chief, I´m pretty tired of some folks trash-talking America´s military and troops” but it was not about refusing to salute the American Flag , sending our soldiers to Leavenworth or inhuman treatment of homeless Veterans; just one more boring attack against Donald Trump.

On the website of U.S. Department of Defense figures: “Washington, July, 2014 – Leaders at the Veterans Affairs Department are deeply concerned and distressed about allegations that whistleblowers are routinely retaliated against”.

In 2016 VA whistleblowers still claim retaliation for complaints against the ´´distraught´´ leaders and Secretary McDonald still considers that ´´You can´t fire your way to excellence´´.

The Zika virus is only beginning to hit the U.S. mainland, but its political exploitation is already an epidemic. To wit, the Obama Administration that is sitting on money and methods to reduce the Zika outbreak is using the virus as a political bludgeon to elect more Democrats.

A Zika outbreak hit Miami this week, and the Centers for Disease Control on Monday advised pregnant women to get checked for possible exposure. Women in Miami are being told to cover up, stay indoors and wear insect repellant because the virus can cause malformed brains in the womb. These are sensible precautions, but it would be better if the government wasn’t dysfunctional in spending the money it has and eradicating the mosquitoes that carry the disease.

About 6,400 cases of Zika have been confirmed in the U.S. and its territories, though only one in five who are infected show symptoms. Most cases in the continental U.S. have been individuals who have traveled to regions with an epidemic, particularly Latin and Central America. While the virus can be transmitted sexually, it is commonly spread by mosquitoes. The infection risk peaks in the summer.

The White House that is responsible for public health is trying to blame Congress while ducking its own failures. “The keys here are sitting with Congress, and they have to turn them to unleash more federal funding,” White House press secretary Eric Schultz said Friday.

He should talk to Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer because Senate Democrats blocked Zika funding. The Administration in February requested $1.9 billion for Zika research, education and prevention. Last month the Senate and House agreed to a $1.1 billion compromise that was offset by $543 million in leftover ObamaCare funds when Puerto Rico chose to expand Medicaid rather than set up exchanges. The bill also temporarily waived duplicative permitting requirements for anti-mosquito pesticides.

But Senate Democrats blocked the conference report, inventing the excuse that the bill banned funding for Planned Parenthood, restricted access to birth control and gutted the Clean Water Act. None of this is true. Planned Parenthood wasn’t specifically identified on a list of public health clinics and community health centers eligible for funding, but it also wasn’t barred from receiving federal funds as a sub-grantee. CONTINUE AT SITE