Zomgee

I’m sure you’ve heard dozens of lists by now, the top ten <fill in the blank> of 2008. That’s all the media does this time of year, and tomorrow if you haven’t heard it already you will find out what to expect for 2009. You’ll be asked to make resolutions that you will break within days of making them and 2009 will in the end be perhaps just as good or dismal as 2008 was. Unfortunately I’m about to give you another list, because I think 2008 may just go down in the history books as quite the year to remember.

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As Christmas Eve night fast approaches, the World is largely concerned with Santa Claus and while there is much to be learned about his history through popular culture it is rare that you hear about his biological roots in this world. Who is this Santa Claus and where does he come from? To answer these questions I have turned to an early work written by one of the few eyewitnesses of Santa’s gift giving. Twas the Night Before Christmas chronicles the tale of a young man who catches a quick glimpse of the jolly Christmas figure. The story offers an excellent description part of which never quite made sense when compared to the modern depiction of Santa. Clement Moore states upon hearing a clatter he saw “a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny rein-deer with a little old driver.” We see all kinds of mall displays and movies that show Santa as a full grown man, but coming from the one person that actually saw him, we find that he is little and fits into a miniature sleigh. My eyes are opened when I read line by line of the story as I believe I know Santa’s true back story. He is in fact, a hobbit.

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Four hundred years ago during the Ming Dynasty a lone man watches as an important Chinese leader is being entombed. Carefully he takes notes on the process learning all he can about the ceremony. He is only moments away from completing this somewhat simple mission when he is seen by a patrolling guard. Disgusted at his mistake he reaches for the ring on his left hand when a sword is abruptly shoved through him from behind. As he sinks to the ground his ring slips from his finger crashing to the stones beneath him, breaking and destroying all hopes of a return to his time. His untimely death is recorded only by the ring’s hour and minute hands which simply said: 10:06.

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President Elect Obama has fought well and has won a significant victory in American politics and I congratulate him on his successful campaign and on his ability to drum up support and get the nation out to vote. I would also like to emphasize what a great accomplishment it is that an African American has won the highest elected office in the United States only decades after many were not even allowed to drink out of the same water fountains as their white American brethren. This is truly a great accomplishment and by making this a reality our country has brought an end to an era that has lasted far longer than many observers had anticipated.

Benjamin Franklin warned our fledgling nation that “when the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.” Today I believe we may have reached that very point in our history and have begun the last chapter in the great experiment that is freedom and liberty.

To many this may seem like a ridiculous notion and while I mark today as the beginning of the end it has really been a gradual process that has brought us here. It started in the early 1900s with the progressive movement of Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson which promised all sorts of social programs and a nanny state like the country had never seen before. This appealed to the masses who eagerly accepted the change despite a repression of rights they mostly ignored. It was again adopted in the 1930s when a depressed nation turned once again to progressives to fix their problems for them, rather than standing up and fixing things themselves. Sadly FDR’s administration prolonged The Great Depression by 7 years.¹ We again saw this movement rear its ugly face with LBJ’s Great Society leading to some of the most radical legislative and judicial changes ever.

Today we find ourselves with a President who is a disciple of far left Marxist/Communists, a believer in both New Deal and Great Society policies, and a man who has offered up as solutions policies that mirror many of the beliefs of the progressives and socialists of the past. This election did not offer a simple ideological change from right to left and yet over half of the country still made the decision to move from center-right to the extreme far-left.

We are facing a congress that has promised to raise taxes on those making over $42,000 a year, promised to institute repression of political freedom of speech, promised to institute state-run control over substantial portions of the private sector, and promised to introduce measures to ensure unions in large percentages of American industry. We are facing a President who has promised to redistribute wealth from those who have earned it to those who have not, promised to to bankrupt the US coal industry,promised to create some sort of civilian national security force rivaling that of the US military, and promised to create program after program of government interference into private American lives.

America made its decision fair and square and we will all have to live with that. Rest assured though, change is coming and Obama has drawn upon, as Karl Marx would call them, his “useful idiots” to make sure it happens. At the end of the day all we will be left with is hope: a hope that we do not spiral into socialism or communism.

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. – Gerald Ford

There are two things I can distinctly remember from cinema as a child: Star Wars and Indiana Jones. These two trilogies quickly became my most beloved films and it wasn’t until Lord of the Rings poked its head out of a hole in the ground were the two even remotely challenged for first place. Then along came the Star Wars Prequels where George Lucas screwed with everything that was good and right about Star Wars and while he didn’t entirely ruin the originals he did put a bad sort of taste my mouth. Understandably when news that a fourth Indiana Jones movie was finally to be made I couldn’t help but have a bad feeling about it. I’m not sure if I could handle Lucas messing up the greatest action movie series of all time. I have returned from the theater and I have to concur with Roger Ebert when he said, “if you liked the other Indiana Jones movies, you will like this one, and that if you did not, there is no talking to you.”

I can’t say that this is the greatest movie of all time, nor is it greater than Raiders of the Lost Ark or the Last Crusade. There was something about the originals that can’t be equaled anywhere. It does come in quite close to Temple of Doom, however, and I might even make the claim that it is better. The point is, it’s Indiana Jones and its fun, that’s all Indiana Jones ever is. All he happens to be is a professor and an archaeologist, for everything else he’s just along for the ride by the seat of his pants as much as you are.

One thing I did feel like this movie was missing was tension and suspense, perhaps that was because every time something tense happened the annoying women sitting next to me would make all kinds of vocal noises. They also managed to talk quite a bit more often than I would like, but I did try my best to ignore them…mostly it failed. As for everything else, it felt like Indiana Jones should feel – albeit much older. Nostalgia was a driving factor in the creation of this and it was nostalgia that in some ways makes it work. There’s familiar characters, familiar actions, and familiar jokes, but there’s also plenty of new to go around.

I wish I could have come out saying that this was as great of an experience as it must have been to see the originals but in truth it wasn’t. I can say, however, that it was a fun movie to watch and that it was better than most of the cookie cutter action movies that come out these days. If not for the Bourne series and Batman Begins I think I might give up action altogether. Thankfully though Indiana Jones delivers in all that it needs to and may have earned itself a second viewing from me in theaters.

4/5 Stars