On the topic of Christmas movies: I missed several this year, despite leaving it to Hollywood to make up virtually my whole celebration. I saw “It’s a Wonderful Life” (really a Thanksgiving movie), “White Christmas,” “Miracle on 34th Street,” “The Bishop’s Wife,” and “Home Alone 2.” Also “The Santa Clause,” and lesser modern efforts like “Four Christmases.”I did not see “The Homecoming” (but will, tonight), and also missed the original “Christmas in Connecticut,” all of the Dickens “Christmas Carols,” “Elf,” which I object to because Ed Asner is a terrible Santa Clause, and “Die Hard,” because it is not a Christmas movie just because it takes place during an office Christmas party. I’d concede that “Die Hard 2” is more of a Christmas movie because the whole plot revolves around holiday air travel gone horribly wrong. (“Sleepless in Seattle,” the Dead Wife movie that I foolishly continue to watch, is a Christmas movie because the plot is set in motion by a child’s Christmas wish.)
I also watched three Christmas horror movies: the excellent original “Black Christmas,” the surprisingly good “You Better Watch Out,” and the violent black comedy “Santa’s Slay,” in which Kris Kringle morphs into a super-powered serial killer, putting a real cramp in the Christmas spirit.
But Amazon Prime Video was responsible for an almost equal Christmas horror: the streaming service has been offering a butchered version of “It’s a Wonderful Life” that is 22 minutes shorter than the original 130-minute film because it cuts out the whole sequence when George sees how awful everything turns out in a world where he’s never been born. He goes to the bridge to kill himself, Clarence the angel intervenes, then George goes back into town to find that his friends and neighbors have chipped in to solve his crisis. That’s like showing a version of “Titanic” without the part where the ship sinks, or “Old Yeller” where the dog doesn’t get rabies.
The excuse has to do with some copyright disputes, but Amazon Prime carries both the full and abridged versions—I know because I watched the full version to write this year’s Ethics Companion. The platform does not clearly explain the difference, however, leaving unsuspecting viewers to click the wrong one.
Meanwhile…
1. A “Don’t Confuse Me With Facts, My Mind’s Made Up” classic! Here MS Now (formerly MSNBC) host Paola Ramos resolutely and condescendingly tells two unusually nerdy guests that there is no scientific evidence of any genetic differences between the black and white races.
The duo is understandably aghast and frustrated as this progressive shill frames their factual statements as vestiges of white supremacy, and that’s that. In addition to being unethical because it’s terrible journalism and science to be spewing into the public discourse, I suspect that the former MSNBC chose those two stereotypical geeks to make them easy targets.
2. To answer the invitation I gave to all of you regarding “Trump Derangement” experiences yesterday: I was engaged in the same game they played in the bar during Tarantino’s “Inglorious Basterds” (that ended in a bloody shootout), and one of the players had “Donald Trump” stuck to her forehead. As one of her questions, after it had been established that her label was a famous person, she asked of her partner, “Is the person historically significant?” and the answer was “no.” After the game, I protested that the response was clearly wrong, but the individual who gave it said, “No, after this horrible term, everyone will just want to forget he was ever President.” In the same round, the woman with Trump plastered to her head asked, “Is this someone everyone here opposes?” and her partner answered “Absolutely!” I spoke up (“It’s all I can stands ‘cuz I can’t stand no mores!”) and said, “That answer is factually false!” The group’s response was shock and horror. The Trump Deranged can’t conceive of anyone in their social circle not also being Trump Deranged. Fascinating.
In related news, my favorite Trump Deranged Facebook friend wrote an eloquent anti-Trump rant three days ago declaring that the President “had no humanity” without any supporting arguments at all, again, assuming everyone in the progressive Facebook bubble agrees. Funny: these same people attacked Trump for referring to human terrorists, gang members, drug smugglers and other law-breakers as “vermin,” “roaches” and “animals” because it is “fascist” to deny the humanity of anyone.
3. Perhaps the most important U.S. historical event to take place on St. Stephen’s Day (or Boxing Day), December 26 is when George Washington led his army in a successful surprise attack on the Hessian garrison at Trenton, New Jersey in 1776. As depicted (with considerable artistic license ) by Emanuel Leutze in his 1851 painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” the future first President crossed the river Christmas night, preparing for the assault. Earlier that month, on December 7, Washington had been forced to retreat across the Delaware i the reverse direction, and the General faced low morale among his troops. Washington had them read a column by Thomas Paine, which included the famous words,
“These are the times that try men’s souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.“
In the detail from the famous painting we see another President-to-be, James Monroe, right behind George.
In reality he was already in Trenton as part of the advance force to prepare for the attack, but Monroe, then only 18, was indeed in Washington’s victorious army. He fought gallantly and was seriously wounded, but recovered to be our fifth President, a very successful and under-rated one, and the third Founder among our first five Presidents to die on the Fourth of July. [Pointer: Don Surber]
4. At CBS News, staffers are furious that new boss Bari Weiss dared to force “60 Minutes” to be even-handed. Weiss wrote in an internal memo that she had pulled a segment on the iconic news magazine—you know, the one that edited Kamala Harris to try to make her sound coherent and maybe swing the 2024 election her way?—because it didn’t “present the administration’s argument.” The NYT article about the controversy is “Turmoil at CBS News After Bari Weiss Pulls a ‘60 Minutes’ Segment/Several veteran correspondents questioned how Ms. Weiss, the new CBS News editor in chief, had handled the segment, after she defended her decision on a call with the newsroom.” Axios reported that the segment was leaked to a source in Canada; I watched it, and it is flagrantly biased and one-sided. Weiss also objected to the segment using the deceitful weasel word “migrant” for “illegal immigrant. Good. It’s about time
5. This…
Jump ball! Take a shot at explaining all the ways that meme above, posted on Facebook with dozens of likes by another Trump Deranged freind, a Harvard grad (See? They don’t each critical thinking at Harvard!”), is idiotic, aka. unethical.
Here, I’ll get you started: “wanting” unaccompanied by action is ethically neutral and politically meaningless.
6. Wait, I thought Democrats believed that no one is above the law. Maria A. Bucci, 51, a former Cranston, R.I. mayoral candidate and current chairwoman of the city’s Democratic Committee, was charged with driving under the influence following a traffic stop earlier this month. In her drunken tirade caught on video, Bucci berated officers and tried the trademark of the dumb and privileged, “You know who I am, right?” The officers said they didn’t care who she was. Court documents state that Bucci was pulled over by police and was displaying “severely bloodshot, glassy and watery eyes.” Her vehicle also emitted “a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage.” Her other prize quote was, “This is disgusting. God forbid I was a black person, I’d be arrested.” She was arrested, however.
Ethics Alarms 
#6: “This is disgusting. God forbid I was a black person, I’d be arrested.” She was arrested, however.
Ha! This gave me a good laugh. A delightful Karen-themed “biter bit”
I can’t help thinking if she were black, they’d have let her go with a warning.
2. The Trump Deranged can’t conceive of anyone in their social circle not also being Trump Deranged. Fascinating. Amen. Or maybe, “Welcome to the party.”
And this is nothing new. It must have been twenty years ago a standard issue lefty, lesbian, Jewish, New Yorker coworker and contemporary of OB Jr. said to me, “You’re so nice for being a conservative! And a Republican!” Again, all they want is Cuban style single party rule. If you’re not a Democrat, you are persona non grata. You’re an obstruction to be eliminated.
3. Our family descends from a Hessian drum major who escaped (simply walked out) from the POW camp in Hancock, Maryland and settled in Bath, Virginia, long since Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. I doubt he was at the ignominious defeat at Trenton. He may have been surrendered after Yorktown. Unfortunate we don’t know more of his service. Just finished a book called The Hessians. The Revolutionary War was long and brutal beyond belief.
2. “The Trump Deranged can’t conceive of anyone in their social circle not also being Trump Deranged. Fascinating.“
Oblivious to the deeply viscid irony through which they slog, they still can’t conceive that Trump got re-elected. Why? Because they don’t know anyone who voted for him.
Glass half full?
You likely won’t have to endure that same game with those same people.
PWS