SiriusCoffee

I just finished watching Avatar, a visually stunning movie written and produced by James Cameron. This film sets the bar high for combining real life with CGI-generated characters, in a fantastic foreign world. I believe this movie will be for my kids’ generation what the original Star Wars was for mine.

And that’s where the problems I have with this movie begin.

I should warn you about plot spoilers at this point, but Avatar’s is a very well-worn plot. Oh, don’t get me wrong; the story and characters are different enough to keep you quite engaged. But if you’ve seen Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest, well, that’s basically it. It’s just not as kid-friendly, and has very little humor. And, much like Fern Gully, there are no subtle spiritual belief systems being promoted here – they are about a overt as it gets.

Part of me wonders why Hollywood continues to reiterate the same themes over-and-over again:

• Evil corporatists, whose only desire is to rape the planet to satiate their greed
• The predominately White oppressors, seeking to crush the indigenous species (a la White Europeans & Native Americans)
• A group of “enlightened scientists”, who are also victimized by the evil corporatists and their heartless former Marine minions
• The “Anointed One”, who magically shows up at just-the-right-time to deliver the oppressed
• Gaia Worship

And part of me doesn’t wonder.

If you want to have make a movie blockbuster, it has to be based on universal themes that resonate with people’s beliefs. In this case, people have been so indoctrinated with the above themes, they assume an immediate identification with the protagonist and his mission. As a result they ride the (almost literal) roller coaster, and come out the other side, feeling like their beliefs have been confirmed and justified.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Ignore the fact that “evil” corporatists (20th Century Fox) will make hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars off the unsuspecting movie-goers who: Purchase all the soundtracks, action figures, toys, games, and other film-related merchandise; Go to theatres built by corporatists that "raped" the earth for all those materials; Purchase DVDs or stream entertainment built with infrastructure "mined" at the cost of planet earth and the thousands of "exploited" workers around the world.

Between the politically correct themes, and a globalist pagan worship, Hollywood is being consistent in its agenda – the demise of conservative thought, as well as the Christian Religion. They promote the worship of the god of entertainment and new age enlightenment, setting up a priesthood of the liberal elite which dominate the popular media.

The ignorant masses just open their wallets and enthusiastically go along. Didn't Lenin have something to say about "useful idiots"?

from Remarks  CBS Sunday Morning - Ben Stein  
The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish.  And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees..  I don't feel threatened.  I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees.

If not, then just discard it... no one will know you did.  But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in. 

My Best Regards,  Honestly and respectfully,
Ben Stein

The good news is that they won’t be increasing your taxes!

The bad news is that they will be levying penalties and fees that will indirectly affect the market in a big way. From a Congressional Budget Office letter to the Honorable Max Baucus, October 30th, 2009:

“…but that would reduce budget deficits by about $167 billion over the next 10 years. Most of that amount would result from penalty payments by employers and uninsured individuals and from new fees imposed on providers of health insurance and on manufacturers and importers of brand-name drugs and certain medical devices.”

The result? Remember the rule: “Tax what you want less of”. Taking the above into account:

• Less employment
• Forced participation by people that don’t want health insurance (or are not eligible)
• Uncompetitive price for private health insurance (who can compete with government when they can fine the competition and print or borrow all the capital they need?) driving private insurance out of business
• Higher (not lower) prices for name-brand drugs
• Higher costs for “certain medical devices” making those devices too costly to purchase – restricting availability

If you know anything about business, you know that costs are passed directly to the consumer. The business can’t absorb a loss and stay in business for very long. Therefore, under ObamaCare, costs are passed to the State, and if the State won’t pay, you’ll have rationing.

"...Ms. Ostrom “has challenged the conventional wisdom that common property is poorly managed and should be either regulated by central authorities or privatized. Based on numerous studies of user-managed fish stocks, pastures, woods, lakes, and groundwater basins, Ostrom concludes that the outcomes are, more often than not, better than predicted by standard theories.”

… between the state, which is lavish with impossible promises, and the public, which has conceived unrealizable expectations, two classes of men intervene: the ambitious and the utopian. Their role is completely prescribed for them by the situation. It suffices for these demagogues to cry into the ears of the people: "Those in power are deceiving you; if we were in their place, we would overwhelm you with benefits and free you from taxes."

And the people believe, and the people hope, and the people make a revolution.

Its friends are no sooner in charge of things than they are called on to make good their promises: "Give me a job, then, bread, relief, credit, education, and colonies," say the people, "and at the same time, in keeping with your promises, deliver me from the burden of taxation."

The new state is no less embarrassed than the old, for, when it comes to the impossible, one can, indeed, make promises, but one cannot keep them. It tries to gain time, which it needs to bring its vast projects to fruition. At first it makes a few timid attempts; on the one hand, it extends primary education a little; on the other, it reduces somewhat the tax on beverages (1830). But it is always confronted with the same contradiction: if it wishes to be philanthropic, it must continue to levy taxes; and if it renounces taxation, it must also renounce philanthropy.

Bastiat, Frédéric, Selected Essays on Political Economy. Seymour Cain, trans. 1995. Library of Economics and Liberty. 19 September 2009. http://www.econlib.org/library/Bastiat/basEss5.html.