Today, Democrats are snobs and Republicans are rage monkeys. Republican Party Optimism Gone, It Survives on Resentment. A funny thing happened to the American political parties Republicans, who have done nothing but win since 2. And not in a good way. I was a Republican for about ten minutes in the 1. In the 3D animated comedy, The Angry Birds Movie, well finally find out why the birds are so angry. The movie takes us to an island populated entirely by happy. System Mechanic Free helps you maximize your systems performance by addressing a number of common issues. Through this app, you can tune up multiple aspects. LFn9sUDD2hDSA64z6TPA/348s.jpg' alt='Speedy Gonzales Review' title='Speedy Gonzales Review' />Change is in the wind. Among this years submissions an independent film from John Hubley a former colleague now gone rogue a bunch of artsy Terrytoons from. In a world seemingly intent on destroying itself, the humble capybara is a wholesome good. The oversized friendship guinea pig is a reminder of what humanity could. Crocodile Rock is a song written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, and recorded in summer 1972 at the Chteau dHrouville studio in France it was listed as. GOP was the party of winners. On this point, everyone agreed The Democrats insisted that the Republicans were the party of the wealthy, the elite, those who had won lifes lottery, the party of management over labor, the party of the establishment over the marginalized. We Republicans didnt disagree, exactly We thought we were the party of Alex P. Keaton. We were the party not only of the well off and comfortable but also of those who aspired to be well off and comfortable especially those who were most confident we could and would achieve this. We enjoyed watching Nancy Reagan in her Oscar de la Renta gowns shooing Jimmy Carter and his sad little cardigans out of the White House. The Seventies had been a decade that was about scarcity We were running out of everything from oil to clean air to room for the worlds growing population, or so we were told. In the Eighties, we set about changing that attitude America might have a great many problems, but we were not going to be poor. Having failed to learn the lesson of Archie Bunker, Oliver Stone had his Gordon Gekko declare, Greed is good. We were supposed to be appalled, but, instead, we said Well, thats a little over the top, but the man has a point. And, oh, how we rolled our eyes at lifes victims. Not real victims, of course We were the ones who refused to forget what was going on in the Soviet gulags and Chinese laogai and Communist bloc psychiatric hospitals and Cuban prisons. In fact, we spent a great deal more time thinking and talking about those victims than many people remember. You know, down the hall and up the stairs from this office is the part of the White House where the President and his family live. There are a few favorite windows I have up there that I like to stand and look out of early in the morning. The view is over the grounds here to the Washington Monument, and then the Mall and the Jefferson Memorial. But on mornings when the humidity is low, you can see past the Jefferson to the river, the Potomac, and the Virginia shore. Someone said thats the view Lincoln had when he saw the smoke rising from the Battle of Bull Run. I see more prosaic things the grass on the banks, the morning traffic as people make their way to work, now and then a sailboat on the river. Ive been thinking a bit at that window. Ive been reflecting on what the past eight years have meant and mean. And the image that comes to mind like a refrain is a nautical one a small story about a big ship, and a refugee, and a sailor. It was back in the early Eighties, at the height of the boat people. And the sailor was hard at work on the carrier Midway, which was patrolling the South China Sea. This 1988 compilation was the first to attempt to pull together on one piece of 33rpm vinyl what had been going on in Ibiza in the summers of 87 and 88 and which. The sailor, like most American servicemen, was young, smart, and fiercely observant. The crew spied on the horizon a leaky little boat. And crammed inside were refugees from Indochina hoping to get to America. The Midway sent a small launch to bring them to the ship and safety. As the refugees made their way through the choppy seas, one spied the sailor on deck, and stood up, and called out to him. He yelled, Hello, American sailor. Hello, freedom man. There were millions upon millions of real victims of violence, oppression, and cruelty in the 2. But victims of the purportedly cruel and indifferent American society that was all around us producing unprecedented, even undreamt of prosperity and peace Get a job, hippie. We said it and we meant it. Download Leap! Online. Its still good advice. The Democrats were, by their own telling, the party of lifes losers. As long as those losers were troubled for the right reasons the wickedness of the United States and capitalism. The Democrats were the people who believed we needed a federal program for every scraped knee across the fruited plain Gas station owners in Muleshoe, Texas, couldnt be entrusted to put in wheelchair ramps or handrails in their bathrooms give us the Americans with Disabilities Act Give us government subsidies for food, shelter, health care, bus fares, and telephones, and if every kid in America has a taxpayer funded lunch at school, it is time to demand breakfast, too Every purported victim of capitalism, from the homeless in Chicago who exist only during Republican presidencies to the spotted owl, needed a hug, hug here meaning a hundred billion dollar social program. Todays Democrats talk about the Republican leaning parts of the United States as though they were particularly unsympathetic Third World countries, populated by people who not only lost lifes lottery but deserved it. And Republicans disagree only with their conclusion, not with the facts of the case. What in hell happenedThe Democrats are still very, very interested in Muleshoes toilets, to be sure Having solved the issue of handrails, they have moved on to the pressing business of which toilet men in dresses ought to use, one more thing to make a federal case of, one more thing to tell you which side of History you are on. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience . Democrats still blast the GOP as the party of the rich, at least when there is a tax policy debate under way. But something has changed, because they also blast Republicans as the party of the poor, of ignorant interior rustics who all together now The Democratic party has become positively snooty. The go to criticism of Republicans today isnt that they are comfortable elites, but that they arent. Todays Democrats endlessly lament the poverty and the backwardness of the so called red states as though Mississippis vote in the last few presidential elections made irrelevant its century plus of effective one party Democratic rule and complain that the taxes of the high flyers in Manhattan and Silicon Valley are used to subsidize these losers. Republican leaning states, they complain, have high poverty rates and poor educational outcomes, are beset by diseases ranging from diabetes to chlamydia both of which are markers of poverty, and fail to adequately train their children for the 2. They eat poorly, they smoke, theyre addicted to drugs and they are weighing down literally weighing downDemocrats loved those pictures of fat old people in scooters at Tea Party rallies the rest of the country. So goes the indictment. The bitterness with which this criticism is offered is remarkable. I have written from time to time about the relative economic situations in Texas and California, and have been genuinely shocked by how often I hear from Californians saying, in short The only people who are leaving California are those who cannot afford to live here. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Who would have thought wed hear Democrats complaining about teen pregnancy and out of wedlock birth rates Republicans, conversely, have embraced loserdom. Alex P. Keaton, with his Wall Street Journal subscription and his William F. Buckley Jr. daydreams and his Ivy League ambitions spoiler alert He ends up not going to Princeton after all, would be looked at askance in Donald Trumps Republican party. In 2. 01. 7, conservatives rail against elites and Big Business leaders and corporate executives the very people a lot of young conservatives wanted to become back in 1. Victimhood They speak of practically nothing but victimization of small towns and small town people sneered at as flyover country tornado bait by coastal elites of farmers and family businesses that find it difficult to compete in a global marketplace of workers and former workers in moribund industries of put upon Christians and put upon whites and doubly put upon white men and trebly put upon white Christian men. Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award 1. Change is in the wind. Among this years submissions an independent film from John Hubley a former colleague now gone rogue a bunch of artsy Terrytoons from Gene Deitch that give UPA a run for their money a few last gasps from UPA and Chuck Jones Whats Opera DocThe short cartoon is clearly capable of being more than just Mr. Magoo, Droopy and Bugs Bunny the Academy is slowly becoming aware of that and are this close to recognizing those headier films. But not just yet. This year Tweety takes home the prize and things in Hollywood remain status quo. And so we continue our research into what other cartoons were submitted to the Academy for Oscar consideration but failed to make the cut. This week 1. 95. The actual nominees were ONE DROOPY KNIGHT MGM Michael Lah. TABASCO ROAD Warner Bros. Robert Mc. Kimson. TREES AND JAMACIA DADDY UPA Lew Keller. THE TRUTH ABOUT MOTHER GOOSE Disney Wolfgang Reitherman Bill Justice. And the Oscar went to BIRDS ANONYMOUS Warner Bros. Friz Freleng, director. You can watch Edward Selzer John Burton who thanks Friz and Warren Foster pick up the Oscar from Rock Hudson and Jennifer Jones who have one of those La La LandMoonlight envelope slip ups here However submitted, screened, but NOT nominated were THE ADVENTURES OF Storyboard John Hubley. THE BONE RANGER Terrytoons Connie Rasinski. THE BONGO PUNCH Walter LantzUniversal Alex Lovy. BOXCAR BANDIT Walter LantzUniversal Paul J. Smith. FLEBUS Terrytoons Ernest Pintoff. ITS A LIVING Terrytoons Win Hoskins. THE JUGGLER OF OUR LADY Terrytoons Al Kouzel. THE JUGGLER OF OUR LADY Cavalcade Pictures Les Novoros. MAGOOS PRIVATE WAR UPA Rudy Larriva. SPRINGTIME FOR CLOBBER Terrytoons Connie Rasinski. TOMS PHOTO FINISH MGM William Hanna, Joseph Barbera. WHATS OPERA DOC Warner Bros. Chuck Jones Heres the documentation Of course the big crime here is the Oscar snub of Jones Whats Opera Doc, a film now considered a classic and one given landmark status as part of the Library of Congress National Film Registry. I also can and do, below make a case for DeitchKouzels The Juggler Of Out Lady and the DeitchPintoff Flebus, two criminally overlooked films, in particular, from a miraculous momentary renaissance at Terrytoons. With these posts we ask that you put yourself in their place which films would you have nominated Which cartoon should have won For your edification and viewing pleasure, here are the cartoons that didnt make the cut. Enjoy the show THE ADVENTURES OF Storyboard John Hubley. The Adventures of Asterisk is first of a long series of independent short films produced by John and Faith Hubley after establishing Storyboard Inc. With animator Emery Hawkins giving a virtuoso performance, and jazz legend Lionel Hampton providing a cool vibes soundtrack, the film is a celebration of joy the asterisk a metaphor for a little boy who becomes a man, as the film follows the cycle of his life. Its a comment on society, on the loss of imagination, and on modern art itself. The Hubleys created a new style for this film one that became personal to them based on contemporary abstract art. Telling a story with transparent shapes, on impressionistic settings perhaps a view of the world as a child would see it. Man, Id love to watch a restored 3. Hubleys Hollywood colleagues werent ready to award or even nominate such a work, but I have no doubt they were impressed Jones was probably blown away. They were staring at the future and maybe they were afraid of it. THE BONE RANGER Terrytoons Connie Rasinski. Now this is more like it an old fashioned Terrytoon. Well, not quite. It seems to be an early one under Gene Deitchs command. The stylized backgrounds are essentially the only thing that lift this film into mid fifties modern. The story itself feels left over from the old Paul Terry era a hapless dog Sniffer chases a bone through a mechanized factory, but ends up giving it to a smaller, hungrier dog. Perhaps there was some comment here on post war suburban life but if so, it escaped me. THE BONGO PUNCH Walter LantzUniversal Alex Lovy. Not sure why Walter Lantz was introducing a Good Neighbor Policy knock off of Disneys Caballero birds at this late date but Speedy Gonzales recently won an Oscar, bongo playing Desi Arnaz was popular and who knows, maybe this was a leftover story idea by Dick Kinney from Disneys South American initiatives. The whole thing feels like a protracted Fresh Up Freddie 7 Up TV commercial light and frothy, but not very satisfying. BOXCAR BANDIT Walter LantzUniversal Paul J. Smith. On the other hand, this Lantz cartoon is so corny, I like it. The artwork is so primitive though not deliberately and real, it almost feels foreign andor contemporary. Many of these gags were ancient in 1. And it moves at a fast pace dont like this gag, wait five seconds for another. This isnt great art but for a seven minute filler it certainly does the job. Made me laugh and thats all Smith was trying to do. FLEBUS Terrytoons Ernest Pintoff. Everybody loves Flebus, lovable Flebus, except the Academy. Talk about a film that works on several levels. Kids love this cartoon because its simple and silly. Adults love Flebus because its a sly metaphor of post war era neurosis. Its graphically brilliant, and was wonderfully audacious of Deitch to let Pintoff develop the idea at Terrytoons of all places. I show this to my students at Cal Arts and Woodbury and it literally blows their minds. Everyone reads different things into it but one thing for sure, its a underrated, overlooked classic. ITS A LIVING Terrytoons Win Hoskins. A bold example of the difference Gene Deitch was bringing to the Terrytoon studio, here utilizing Dinky Duck in a meta way to bridge Terrys traditional cartooning with the world of contemporary UPA stylization. And a spoof of Madison Avenue advertising on top of that Dinkys annoying voice I suspect intentionally so adds to Deitchs case of doing away with the old and embracing the new. A fantastic cartoon, especially if screened in large format settings. One of my all time favorites. THE JUGGLER OF OUR LADY Terrytoons Al Kouzel. I love this film. Among other things it introduced the drawings of R. O. Blechman to animation. It uses the Cinema. Scope screen and honestly, you havent seen it until you see it in a large wide screen presentation in ways Disney and Kimball hadnt thought of for Toot Whistle. And Karloffs performance is just that a exemplary spoken performance and to this day, its NOT listed in his filmography on IMDB. Its a retelling of the 1. Our Ladys Juggler or The Juggler of Notre Dame by Anatole France, as adapted in book form today wed say graphic novel by cartoonist R. O. Blechman in 1. I love that Gene Deitch even attempted to make this into an animated film, for a company whose oeuvre included the works of Dingbat, Dimwit and Dinky The Duck. Had it been more widely seen, I seriously think it would have been included in my 5. Greatest Cartoons book. I wish it had. I asked Gene what his motivations were for making this film. Heres his reply For you, Jerry, I can state my true reasons in the 1. Juggler Of Our Lady project at Terrytoons. The opportunity to make a parody of the senseless Cinema. Scope format I was forced to work with. Few understood the negative restraints the format imposed on Terrytoons, which actually gave LESS to the audiences. To sendup the perceived silliness of many religious rituals. To cast Boris Karloff in an entirely unexpected way, and 4. To give Phil Scheib a chance to compose some real music, rather than the mass of lollypoperry he had been impelled by Paul Terry to crank out. Phil was a true musician.