Is it Time to Expand the Fairness Doctrine?

February 5, 2011 | Filed Under 1st Amendment, Constitution, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Entertainment, Fairness Doctrine, Government, Government, Corruption, Judges, Law, Liberals, Regulation, Rights, Selwyn Duke, Talk Radio, The Law, TV | Comments Off

-By Selwyn Duke

In keeping with the demagogue’s credo “Never let a good tragedy go to waste,” some among us are extracting as much mileage from the Jared Loughner massacre as they can. It is being used to raise money and reduce freedom, with the latter amounting to calls for gun and speech control. And among these calls is the proposal to resurrect the Fairness Doctrine (FD).

The basic idea behind the legislation is that if a radio station airs some controversial opinion, time must be provided for the “other side.” And quite coincidentally, I’m sure, this is only to be applied to talk radio, an arena in which the “other side” happens to be the left side.

Conservatives, of course, are opposed to this, and, with their control of Congress, the FD won’t emerge from that chamber. But they are missing a grand opportunity, a chance to exhibit that much ballyhooed thing called bi-partisanship. I suggest that we don’t have to fight over the FD, as we can come together over the following proposal: Not only reinstitute the legislation – expand it.
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Some of the Unsung, Working Actors that Died in 2010…

January 4, 2011 | Filed Under Entertainment, Hollywood, Movies, TV, Video, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

We all know the really famous actors that died in 2010. But there was also a bunch of actors that, when you see their face, you’ll remember… if, that is, you were a big TV and film watcher during the 1950s, 60s, 70s and/or 80s.

Check out the familiar faces of the following 25 actors. The faces are familiar even if the names are not.

(in order from date of death)

RIP 2010

Bernard Kates

(Dec. 26, 1922-Feb. 2, 2010) Kates did stage, starred as Sigmund Freud on Star Trek, and starred on the soap The Guiding Light.

Andrew Koenig

(Aug. 17, 1968-Feb. 14, 2010) Andrew made his mark as Kirk Cameron’s sidekick in the series Growing Pains. He was the son of Star Trek’s Walter Koenig (Chekov) and tragically committed suicide in Canada.

Lionel Jefferies

(June 10, 1926-Feb. 19, 2010) Most famous for his role in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but he had a long career that stretched five decades.
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2010: The Entertainment Industry’s PC Year in Review

December 31, 2010 | Filed Under Books, Cable, Entertainment, Hollywood, Liberals, Magazines, Movies, Music, PCism, Society/Culture, TV, Warner Todd Huston, Western Civilization | 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

For the entertainment industry’s practitioners of political correctness, 2010 was another banner year. Even as conservatives have made deserved headway in La La Land and other areas of the industry, there still aren’t enough conservatives to bring much needed patriotism, logic, and common sense to the scene. Sadly, the industry is still filled with those slavishly dedicated to anti-American tropes, left-wing blather, and self-hatred. From comic books, to music, to radio, TV and movies, PCism still runs rampant.

Without further ado, here are just a few examples of PCism from 2010 in music, TV, movies, and publishing. Certainly there are many more and these are not necessarily a “top ten,” but these examples do serve to show that PCism is not dead despite the Tea Party uprising, the growth of the conservative new media, and the resulting Republican tsunami from the midterm elections.

(In no particular order…)
Movies and Actors

Who could forget the film Machette, starring Danny Trejo and directed by Robert Rodriguez? This one was a sort of pastiche of 1970s exploitation movies with a Mexican twist. The film was replete with White sherifs ruthlessly murdering pregnant Mexican immigrants, American businessmen working to keep Mexicans down, overpowering racism against Mexicans by white Americans and it all seemed intended to inflame militant Mexican nationalism and to goad illegal immigrants in America to put all the blame on white America. The creators claimed it was supposed to be just good, over-the-top fun but in the climate of racial tensions in America today it was as funny as a militant Mexican flavored attempt to start a race war.
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Obama’s Mouthpiece? ABC’s Cokie Roberts Says Voters Will Make Republicans Compromise in 2011??

December 24, 2010 | Filed Under ABC, Barack Obama, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, Journalism, Liberals, Media Bias, President, Republicans, TV, TV News, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

ABC News talking head Cokie Roberts was shilling for the Obama administration once again on Good Morning America during an interview with former Clinton operative George Stephanopoulos. She wasn’t just shilling for Obama but tying to mold the news and public opinion to her left-wing druthers instead of giving an honest review of today’s political climate.

Like the rest of the Old Media establishment, Roberts was filled with praise for the great success that Obama had in this lame duck Congress. “It was incredible,” she gushed.

Of course, Roberts interpreted the Lame Duck session to mean that the Republicans are the ones that came to Obama as opposed to the truth that he had to come to them for the first time in his political career. This lame duck session was the first time in Obama’s life he was forced to actually compromise with Republicans as opposed to merely giving compromise lip service but otherwise sticking to his hard-left agenda — and even at that he barely compromised at all here.
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Roger Ebert As Black Hearted as His Disease is Cancerous

November 26, 2010 | Filed Under Chicago, Democrats/Leftists, Entertainment, Hollywood, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Movies, TV, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

One would think that a fellow as ravaged by cancer as Roger Ebert would find his soul a bit less rancorous toward others. One would think that a man that has had such pain would not wish pain on others. But Roger Ebert is a liberal. Pain and hate is what they do.

Proof of this is in the latest hatred that spewed from Roger Ebert’s keyboard over the Thanksgiving holiday. While everyone else was enjoying family and thanking God for their bounty, this black-souled, venom-spitting, hatemonger was taking a little time out of his holiday to wish ill on others. Worse he was doing so in the name of thanksgiving.

The hateful Ebert wrote the following tweet on his Twitter account on thanksgiving:

Today let us give thanks for the right of trial by jury. Especially Tom Delay’s jury.

Now, no matter what you think about Tom Delay, it is sure that Thanksgiving is not the day to be reveling in someone else’s tribulations. The day of Thanksgiving is not the day to be spewing hatred on others. It is the day to be thankful to God for one’s own blessings.
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How The Old Media Constantly Undermines Sarah Palin

November 22, 2010 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Entertainment, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Republicans, Sarah Palin, TV, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Most media-watching conservatives have simply been flabbergasted at how the Old Media establishment has so neatly come together to destroy Sarah Palin. The Internet has been abuzz with examples of this attack on Sarah since she was chosen by John McCain to be her number two during the campaign for the 2008 presidential election. Every day there is a new example of it and here is yet another one.

This time it was penned by a “TV critic” for the Washington Post named Lisa de Moraes. De Moraes is well known for constantly injecting left-wing asides into her work and her Nov. 19 attack on the Palins is no exception.

She misled her readers (all 20 of them, I’m sure) right off the bat with her snotty headline, “Sarah Palin tries to lure Bristol’s huge ‘DWTS’ audience to her far less popular TLC reality series.”

What is with this “her far less popular” epithet? This claim is not based in logic.

De Moraes went on with her accusatory rhetoric.
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Stewart and Colbert: Laughing With the Left Until it Hurts

November 12, 2010 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Humor, Liberals, Paul A. Ibbetson, TV | Comments Off

Paul A. Ibbetson

There is just something about humor that makes it inviting in almost every situation. We love to have our funny bone tickled in so many ways, and it is both the joke and its creative delivery that keeps us coming back for more. Good comedy has the power to transcend many a strong grievance and many a harsh battleground. Take politics for instance. There is seldom found a more divisive subject that can be broached between two individuals. Politics has the power to set lifelong friends to physical blows at a high school reunion, or deacons to highly charged whispers of anger while passing the collection plate in church. I think you know what I am saying, and I bet you have been there before. If you haven’t, you will be, as assuredly as death and taxes, but there I go talking politics again.

The point is that humor serves as a “pressure relief valve” that allows us all to laugh at ourselves as well as those on the other side of the aisle. Being able to do both is important. Knowing when to do it is a step toward the divine. Everyone seems to have the ability to laugh at their adversaries; however, many do it in ways that demean themselves and the comedic process. When liberals laugh in a red-eyed, frothing frenzy during Michael Moore films they are not paying homage to comedic flair, but instead are simply wallowing in the filth of partisan anger. This is because Michael Moore films are not funny, but are sad in that “I just ran over your puppy and I think I will blame it on your neighbor because he is a successful capitalist” kind of way. To applaud poor comedic attempts, or just plain acts of political sniping, is attacking one’s own sense of where true comedy resides.
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Should NPR and PBS Continue to Get Federal Funding?

October 23, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Censorship, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Entertainment, Government, Government, Corruption, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, NPR, PBS, Taxes, TV, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Everyone is talking about the situation that commentator Juan Williams found himself in when National Public Radio fired him over comments he made on Fox News about Muslims. And whether you think Williams’s situation was properly handled or not, a second discussion has been raised in conjunction with it: the propriety of federal funding of NPR and PBS.

On the funding issue, no more convoluted argument about the necessity of federal money being spent on NPR can be found than an article that appeared in the New York Daily News penned by the executive director of the New York Civil Rights Coalition, Michael Meyers. His op ed stood four-square in favor of continued federal funding of public radio and public television but his reason was simply illogical and impossible to understand.

Saying that those that support Juan Williams’s supporters, “vindictively want to totally de-fund the left-leaning NPR” because of Williams’s firing. He felt that those that want to take away federal funding from NPR are making a “big mistake.”

But check out the absurd reasoning why he thinks this:
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CBS’s ‘Medium’ Present A Sheriff Joe Arpaio-Like Character As Rapist-Murderer

October 21, 2010 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Communism, Conservatives, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Entertainment, Government, Government, Corruption, Hollywood, Liberals, Movies, PCism, Society/Culture, TV, Warner Todd Huston, Western Civilization | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

On October 15, the Whodunnit/Psychic series “Medium,” which is set in Phoenix, Arizona, featured a character obviously based on tough-on-crime, real-life Sheriff Joe Arpaio. But instead of presenting him as a tough, but serious lawman, this TV show depicted its Arpaio-like character as a rapist of teen girls as well as a murderer.

I guess CBS couldn’t possibly present its Sheriff Arpaio-styled character as a good man. Their Arpaio-like character had to be seen as a sicko, rapist, and murderer. It is just another example of how Hollywood and the TV industry can’t stand it that there are real men out there that the voters love because they are public servants that are tough-minded, but fair. No, to TV, anyone that isn’t a liberal must be a rapist, a murderer, or a mentally deranged cretin.
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Michelle Obama on ‘World’s Most Powerful Women’ List. Why?

October 7, 2010 | Filed Under Entertainment, Feminism, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Music, TV, Warner Todd Huston | 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Forbes has published its world’s most powerful women list and on that list, in the top slot no less, is Michelle Obama, the wife of the President of the United States of America. Along with Obama a few singers and entertainers made the list. It all goes to prove that apparently no one knows what “powerful” means anymore.

On the most powerful list – after Obama at number one — Lady Gaga comes in at seventh place, in ninth singer Beyonce Knowles appears, and bringing up the rear is entertainer Ellen DeGeneres. Oprah Winfrey makes it in as number three.

There is no reason that any of these women (well, I’ll give you Oprah) belong on a “most powerful women” list — or a most powerful anybody list, for that matter.
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Unable to solve real problems, Congress takes on loud commercials

October 4, 2010 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Chris Slavens, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Jobs, Liberals, Nancy Pelosi, Regulation, Senate, TV | 1 Comment

-By Chris Slavens

(Ed’s note: Welcome Chris Slavens as a new contributor to Publius Forum.)

With the unemployment rate at a depressing 9.5 percent, millions of Americans are stuck at home every day, unable to afford a tank of gas, left with no choice but to endure the injustices of daytime television. The Democrat-controlled Congress couldn’t care less about getting them back to work, but never fear; last week, it tackled a controversial issue that is at least as important as rising unemployment: the volume of television commercials.

The reader probably expects a punch line at this point, but it’s no joke. The Senate’s version of The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (The CALM Act) will require television stations and cable companies to broadcast commercials at the same volume as that of the programs they interrupt. The differences between the conflicting House and Senate versions of the legislation are expected to be worked out during the post-election “lame duck” session, in which Democrats who will have been rejected by their constituents will enact controversial legislation.
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Rick Sanchez And The Showbiz Third Rail

October 3, 2010 | Filed Under Anti-Semitism, Bob Parks, CNN, Entertainment, History, Hollywood, Holocaust, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Movies, Race, Religion, Society/Culture, TV, Warner Todd Huston, WWII | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Bob Parks of Black&Right is talking about that “third rail” of the entertainment industry: them Joooos. Bob is a bit mystified as to why it’s such a no-no to say that the entertainment industry is filled with folks of the Talmud?

Unless Jews are hired into the business based primarily on their ethnicity and not relevant prior experience (and there’s no proof of this), I don’t see why people are canned for making an observation that any other group would be proud of?

I can see Bob’s point, actually. Jews fill the entertainment industry at every level and always have, at least since the days of film and radio began. Their particular aptitude for understanding the humor and pathos of human existence leaves them in good stead to create fine entertainment, for sure.

Parks also wonders why idiot CNNer Rick Sanchez was fired from CNN for his rant on the radio last week if the unvarnished truth that Jews fill the entertainment industry is such common sense.
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1970, Rod Serling: Television Has Little Relevance

September 1, 2010 | Filed Under Entertainment, Hollywood, Race, TV, Uncategorized, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

In 1970 University of Kansas Professor James Gunn interviewed famed “Twilight Zone” creator Rod Serling and what he said about how badly the subject of race was handled on TV in his day is particularly trenchant.

Gunn, a science fiction writer in his own right having won many awards for his work, asked Mr. Serling if he felt that any current television fiction was relevant to the human condition. Rod was discouraged that it was, especially where it concerns the issue of race.

“Most television fiction that I watch has very little relevance. I think it’s one thing to say that we will now have a program called ModSquad, say, and we will have one black man and one oriental and one Hawaiian to show this marvelous melting-pot concept. But I think, Jim, that’s altogether phony. I don’t think that’s… I think at best condescension and at worst exploitation. The fact is that we have so distorted the pure ethnic minority over the years by making every black man a banjo player, and a village idiot, and a coward, that suddenly we are going to reverse switch, he is now a brain scientist or an atomic scientist or any one of an equal distortion at the other end. Needless to say I’d much prefer the distortion on the good side of the scale… but all television fiction I find quite irrelevant and quite unrelated.”

That was a pretty dismissive view for Rod Serling to think of the medium that made him famous, but on the other hand it’s hard to argue with his logic. For all the ballyhooing about TV it has rarely been relevant to much of anything.

The interview is about 20 minutes long and is quite interesting.

Things haven’t gotten much better, have they?

The sad thing about this great bit of film history is to realize that this genius, Rod Serling, had only five more years to live after the shooting of this interview.
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New Father Pfleger Reality TV Show: Blessing The Mayor’s Office

August 15, 2010 | Filed Under Catholicism, Chicago, Christianity, Cook County, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Entertainment, Government, Government, Corruption, Hollywood, Illinois, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Religion, TV, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Those chickens have come home to roost… or at least they will during the upcoming mayoral election in the Windy City if the new reality TV show being shopped by Chicago’s incendiary Father Michael Pfleger is concerned.

Chicago’s gadfly Father Pfleger, close friend of Minister Louis Farrakhan, outspoken anti-gun crusader, sanctuary city supporter, and liberation theologist is the Southside religious leader who once openly wished for the death of a local businessman and also once said, “America is the greatest sin against God.” Pfleger has been the subject of many “reviews” by the Catholic Church and was once suspended after attacking Hillary Clinton as a “white person” who felt privileged because of her race.

New show producer, Bud Billikin of Chicago’s South Side Productions, Inc., has announced that the new show will follow the Father Pfleger as he embarks on the adventure of a lifetime, a run for Mayor of Chicago.

On Friday Pfleger is expected to announce his run against long-time Democrat strongman Richard Daley whose father, a Mayor before him, was famed for having “helped” JFK win the White House in 1960.
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Top Ten most Left-Biased American Journalists – #6: Rick Sanchez, CNN

July 18, 2010 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Cable, CNN, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, TV, TV News, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Continuing with our top ten most left-biased journalists working in America today, at number six we feature the redoubtable… or is it just doubtable… Rick Sanchez of CNN. Let’s face it, no list of Old Media left-wingers could be complete without the Ricker appearing on it somewhere!

Any casual observer would conclude that Sanchez has been a thorough wallower in left-wing bias for decades, even pushing his agenda on college kids.

Back in 2008 during the campaign for the election that gave us President Obama, Sanchez took his CNN cameras on the road to see how “America Votes, 2008.” Apparently, Sanchez thought “America” only cared about the left because that was all he was interested in pushing.
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Of AZ Law Football Player Tells Media: ‘I’m a Football Player It Doesn’t Matter What I Think’

May 22, 2010 | Filed Under Entertainment, Immigration/Immigrants, Law, TV, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

As “Dirty Harry” Callahan said, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” Well it looks like Jets Quarterback Mark Sanchez knows his and his limitations are that he’s a football player, not a politician.

Like the lemmings they are, the left-wing Old Media asked this football player what he thought about the Arizona anti-illegal immigration law. His reply was admirable.

“When it comes to politics, my candid answer is, I’m football player and it doesn’t matter what I think,” he said in a transcript provided by the New York Jets. “The most important thing is you see both sides. I haven’t read the legislature, so I won’t pass judgment on it.

Would that more entertainers, singers, actors, sports folk and other such uninformed folks would keep their completely irrelevant opinions out of the public square.

It is usually so painfully obvious that these sort of people who have spent their whole lives single-mindedly striving for excellence in a single field of endeavor have NO clue about history, politics, philosophy, or anything outside their field of work – much less any ability at introspection. Yet they seem to think that because they have achieved some amount of fame for their chief interests or work, why just everyone wants to hang on their every word. The fact is, people should simply shut the heck up if they don’t have an informed opinion.
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How Hollywood Maligns The Right

May 6, 2010 | Filed Under Conservatives, Entertainment, Hollywood, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Ronald Reagan, TV, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

We all know of the great slights that Hollywood deals out to the American right. We see them all the time. From the TV shows that casts Republicans as villains, the movies that make Christians out to be hypocrites or even outright evil. Traditional motherhood and fatherhood also find constant ridicule at the hands of Hollywood. The overt examples are everywhere, of course. But the grand swipe isn’t all that Hollywood indulges. There are also these ubiquitous, small, quick, too fast to notice swipes against the right perpetrated by Hollywood. A fine example of the side-swipe approach to denigrating the right came in the April 29 episode of The Mentalist, a CBS detective show starring Australian actor Simon Baker.

Now, at the top here I want to say that The Mentalist is generally an inoffensive, amusing little show fashioned in the Sherlock Holmes mode featuring a detective that sees every little clue and can with ease assemble these disparate facts to solve the crime. Baker turns in a funny performance with just enough underlying darkness to make his character interesting.

But, despite that it is generally a diverting entertainment, the show is just as disposed to slam anything from the right as any other and the April 29 episode gives us a prime example of that.
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Gay Archie Comic Character: My Channel 2 News Response

April 23, 2010 | Filed Under Books, Chicago, Children, Entertainment, Gays, Illinois, Media, TV, TV News, Warner Todd Huston | 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Earlier this afternoon, Mike Parker long-time reporter from CBS 2 News, Chicago, gave me a ring and asked me to make a quick trip downtown Chicago — well, “quick” being relative with Chicago traffic at rush hour — to appear with him in a piece on the recent announcement by the good folks at Archie Comics that they intended to add an openly gay character to their Archie comic book series.

It was a bit unusual for me. Not to be on TV, but to have TV call me about an item I hadn’t yet written about. I saw this story this morning but thought I’d put off writing about it until later tonight or Saturday. Now, usually I get everyone mad at me after I’ve written about something, but it looks like Mr. Parker wanted to initiate a preemptive strike with this one! Ha, ha.

Anyway, Mr. Parker was quite correct that I had a thing or two to say about the matter and I hope that I was able to effectively convey those ideas in the interview that will appear tonight during the 10 O’Clock news on Channel 2.

What struck me about this Archie announcement is that it seems we’re about to lose yet another safe haven for kid’s entertainment. Introducing a gay character may be “realistic” but does Archie have to be realistic? Kid’s entertainment doesn’t have to “reflect the current world of Teens.” It doesn’t have to present harsh realities or controversy. It can just be about fun or fantasy and it doesn’t have to delve into every aspect of life whether it be provocative, even deviate. Will the Archies have a skinhead character? Will they have a Holocaust denier character? Or how about on the other end of the spectrum and putting in a strict Christian character? Will Archie get one of those? Likely not as it doesn’t fit the liberal agenda.
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Might be on Channel 2 News in Chicago this evening…

April 23, 2010 | Filed Under Chicago, Entertainment, TV, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

I am just abut to leave to head downtown Chicago to do an interview with Channel 2′s Mike Parker over this issue of Archie comics introducing a gay character in its comics. If I make the cut it’ll be on the nightly news.

Developing…

Podcast: A Hollywood Scripting 101

April 7, 2010 | Filed Under Entertainment, Hollywood, Humor, Media, Media Bias, Movies, TV, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

Ever wondered how Hollywood arrives at the stories filmed there? Check out this podcast and hear the “basic outline” that script writers use to create their … uh… “entertainment.”

Hollywood Scripting: A Primer

April 1, 2010 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Entertainment, Hollywood, Humor, Movies, TV, Uncategorized, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Some have wondered how Hollywood works. There is the romantic version where a writer of talent writes an outstanding, heartfelt script, a director of vision expounds upon that script and actors with intensity bring it to life. Like much about romance that romantic image of Hollywood is a myth.

No, what Hollywood does when it wants a “serious” movie or TV show (especially a TV show) is dust off its basic outline and fit new names and different locations to each product. Well, revealed for the first time, here are those basic guidelines:
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Robert Culp, Gone at 79

March 24, 2010 | Filed Under Entertainment, Hollywood, Movies, TV, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Another iconic actor from my youth has passed. Robert Culp died today as a result of a head injury suffered from a fall outside his home. A passerby discovered the unresponsive actor and called 911. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Culp is most known for his alternately comic and dramatic role as Kelly Robinson, globe trotting tennis pro and American spy, in the 1960s TV show “I Spy.”

His work on this series was exemplar and “I Spy” was one of the best of its genera. It was serious subject matter which was never treated in the campy way that rival show “Man From U.N.C.L.E.” treated the spy theme. The writing on “I Spy” was always top notch.
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New Rule of Thumb: History Only Happens in Our Lifetime

December 5, 2009 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Entertainment, History, Media Bias, Movies, Society/Culture, TV, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s a new rule of thumb, apparently, that history doesn’t matter. Fall of Rome? Who cares? WWII? What’s it matter? The Great Depression? Just a blip. It’s NOW that we care about, man. All that history stuff? Pffft. If it isn’t happening now, it doesn’t matter.

This notion that history is for the stuffed shirts of academe and that it doesn’t mean anything to modern, common folks always screams out when these woeful “Top Ten” lists start showing up in the media.

Today we have another example of this historically illiterate sort of list at Time Magazine’s website. There you’ll see history’s “Top 10 Mistresses,” but if you have even a cursory knowledge of history, you’ll also see that there is no sense of history in this list of “history’s famous mistresses.”
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