Dirty Harry: The Rage of the Anti-Hero by K. V. Turley
This was an interesting piece discussing the curious career of Clint Eastwood. Our own Tony Juarez just wrote a great review of his latest movie, The Mule. Clearly, Eastwood's success has resulted from playing roles and directing movies that satisfy the conservative everyman. Turley links Eastwood's rise to Richard Nixon, who spoke to a largely neglected yet sizable constituency. This seems like a stretch, but there is something to Eastwood's movies that resonate in a unique way .
The Myth of China as Superpower by J. R. Dunn
There have been so many articles gushing over China the superpower, both in conservative and liberal publications. This was a nice response to all that, showing China's glaring problems: its aging population (which, to me, is the biggest problem), its stupid shows of power that wastes money and alienates it from the rest of the Asian continent, and its suppression of original thought. As much as we try to normalize the country, portraying it as a developed western-style democracy like any other, it is nonetheless a barbaric police state that is barely holding together. If they can't steal ideas and copy products from the West, they're basically doomed--even if they happen to send some people to space and have excellent Wi-Fi.
Chain Migration Comes to Hazleton by Charles F. McElwee
I wrote an article in The American Thinker about the whole immigration crisis that's come to a head once more with Trump's standoff with the Democrats in extending the border wall. In it, I did my best to explain why illegal immigration was not only bad for native residents (which includes legal immigrants) but also for the immigrants trying to come in. Unless there are real efforts for regulating who comes in and assimilating those who settle here, ghettos will form, crime will skyrocket, and local culture will far apart. Actually, speaking of Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino does a great job dramatizing this issue. The story of Hazleton, PA is the real-life counterpart.
Tucker Carlson: "Mitt Romney supports the status quo. But for everyone else, it's infuriating"
It seems like every conservative writer (including myself--check it out in The Imaginative Conservative next week) has written a response to Carlson's denunciation of the elite and his call for more responsibly leadership. I personally thought his monologue was brilliant and should finally humanize some discussions that have become way too wonkish and detached from the concerns of normal people. Instead of heeding their advice, the Never-Trump anti-populist conservatives (who still constitute a significant portion of pundits, if not actual voters) have doubled down and have made themselves insufferable, albeit eloquently so.
Remember When Starbucks Caved And Opened Their Bathrooms to Non-Customers? Here's How That Worked Out by Matt Walsh
This was a short article following up on whole Starbucks debacle last year. It turns out that when you allow anyone and everyone to use the bathroom, random hobos like to shoot up heroine on the toilet and leave their needles lying around. Ah, city life! I think it's important for people to realize that loitering and vagrancy are real problems, and that the homeless aren't all peaceful souls temporarily down on their luck, but often mentally unstable people with drug addictions and little regard for public property (see article on Seattle's homelessness problem in last week's "Editor's Picks"). I can't credit Walsh with stating anything original here (he tends to stick with the obvious for the most part), but he is clear, shows common sense, and is actually funny sometimes.
Photo: Moviefone