Good night, and good luck.

PERSONAL HYGIENE
Am I alone in showering and using deodorant? My wife and I went to a movie last night, and we had to switch seats because the man in front of us stunk to high heaven and farted constantly, but to our chagrin the new seats were perilously close to yet another person who reeked of body odor. And this morning, I’m in the computer lab at school, and the person who sat here before me must have farted continuously for his entire duration at the computer, because I am still getting wafts of an unbearable stink.

Judas Priest, people: take a shower. Use soap. Use deodorant. Take some pride in yourself.

HOLY WATER, BATMAN
Here’s a conversation I had with two clerks at the concession counter of the movie theater last night:

ME: I’ll take the cheapest, smallest bottled water you have.
CLERK 1: This is the only water we have and it’s $3.25.
ME: $3.25?
CLERK 1: $3.25.
ME: That had better be some water. That water better cure my glaucoma.
CLERK 2: When you drink that water, it reveals the secret of life. It’s quite cathartic.
ME: Geez, then I won’t even have to see the movie.

$3.25 for water. For $3.25, it should be a bottle of the sweat collected off of Heather Graham’s elliptical machine.

GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK
No, not another depression post, but a movie review of sorts.

Yesterday I won tickets to Good Night and Good Luck, the George Clooney written and directed film about journalist Edward R. Murrow who took on Senator Joseph McCarthy back in the 50’s. This was during the Red Scare when there was thought to be a Communist around every corner.

I strongly recommend this film with two caveats. First, see it in a theater with surround sound so that you can truly enjoy the music featured prominently in the film. Second, see it in a “neutral” theater; that is, in a part of town not dominated by left-leaning folks. The sneak preview was in the Uptown area of Minneapolis which I have long-deemed “Berkeley Lite,” and I have found that Uptown movie theaters feature an alarming degree of movie chatter. Leftists in attendance cannot help but lend their schooled opinions to what’s occurring on the screen, and it quickly becomes quite distracting.

Good Night and Good Luck is being touted as controversial, mainly because it’s felt that the word “communist” in the film could easily be replaced with “terrorist” and thus be applicable to modern times. My personal opinion is that comparing the two detracts from the serious nature of the Cold War. McCarthyism is roundly criticized as being the fruit of McCarthy’s paranoid mind, but the fact is Communism was (and still is) ugly and threatening, and we did well to bring down the Soviet Union. One can certainly argue against McCarthy’s tactics but not with his goal.

Numerous characters in the film gave heartfelt speeches on the importance of civil liberties which were roundly cheered by the audience, and as usual I noted the irony. Once again, a roomful of fat, spoiled Americans, free to speak their minds at any time, sitting in an air-conditioned movie theater stuffing popcorn into their privileged faces, are first to hop on the “Give me back my rights” bandwagon. No wonder the rest of the world loathes us.

There’s an awful lot of talk these days about civil liberties being trounced, but I’ve yet to encounter a person bellyaching about it who has actually experienced it. Yes, we can talk about Guantanamo Bay, yes we can debate the Patriot Act, but when you leave a movie theater chatting with your leftist pals about how much the president sucks, get into your SUV bearing "Vote Green" and "Kerry Edwards" bumper stickers, and then drive one block to a coffee shop where you'll drink $25 per gallon cappucinos, spare me the drivel about your rights being quashed.

Good Night and Good Luck is more of an indictment of pop culture than it is of an oppressive United States government, an important point which I feel was lost on most people in attendance. The movie ends with a sobering speech by Murrow expressing his fear that television would become little more than an “idiot box;” a device by which to merely entertain, not inform people. In fact, Murrow’s groundbreaking program which led to McCarthy’s demise was ultimately canceled to make way for game shows (not because of his reporting!). He points the finger squarely at the American public saying that the choice is theirs: inform yourselves, or sit drooling in front of the tube lapping up mindless pap. Sadly, it’s fairly clear that America, by and large, has chosen the latter.

What is made clear in Good Night and Good Luck is the Edward R. Murrow was an outstanding journalist. A journalist the likes of which America hasn’t seen since, nor likely will again. As a conservative, I would give my left arm for a journalist like Murrow to surface in our modern times. It seems that both the right and left are deluding themselves, the former believing that folks like Rush Limbaugh are the modern-day equivalent of Murrow, while leftists believe Michael Moore is Murrow’s reincarnation. Meanwhile, “real” journalists like Dan Rather create phony documents, and the evening news consists of five minutes of hard news, ten minutes of medical news (Does aspirin prevent heart disease?), ten minutes of pop culture (Clooney writes and directs!), and finally a five-minute feel-good capper about a child with Leukemia collecting money for hurricane relief. Sweeps week invariably focuses on strip clubs and pit bulls rather than in-depth investigations of wasteful government spending. Opiate of the masses, indeed.

I encourage people of all political stripes to see Good Night and Good Luck with an open mind. I implore you to drink in the larger point, that while America gathers around the television to watch According to Jim week after week, an ever-increasing percentage of your paychecks are being confiscated, pork-barrel projects dominate federal and state budgets, cronyism is destroying the foundations of government, and the press is more concerned about the impending Cruise/Holmes nuptials than they are exposing fraud and largesse in government.

POSTSCRIPT
It struck me this morning that the movie contained zero obscenities and zero gratuitous sexual content. In fact, the only couple shown in bed was a married couple. Further, the reporters were never caught without a necktie and always exhibited decorum.

Our society has certainly degenerated since those days, and strangely this thought brings this post full-circle. As I mentioned at the beginning, people should exhibit pride in themselves. Perhaps if they did, perhaps if flesh-bearing clothing weren't the norm, perhaps if we didn't glorify sexual deviancy, maybe this would have a trickle-down affect on society.

Just a thought.