Independent voices from the TWT Communities
On one point, Kevin Williamson is almost certainly right: We are headed over the cliff. But halfway through the National Review correspondent's new book, "The End Is Near and It's Going to be Awesome," I began to wonder what the final word of his title is supposed to mean.
As our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to the victims affected by the Boston Marathon bombing, we should also note that this tragedy has yet again exposed long-standing weaknesses in our national security. Congress should now take the opportunity to finally address these problems.
I got a look at the first episode of "The Following," Fox's upcoming crime thriller, a few weeks ago. Its level of graphic violence left me disgusted and dismayed. But with plenty of time to spare before its Jan. 21 premiere, I set it aside, resolving to give the show another chance while wondering if I was just having a bad day.
I got a look at the first episode of "The Following," Fox's upcoming crime thriller, a few weeks ago. Its level of graphic violence left me disgusted and dismayed. But with plenty of time to spare before its Jan. 21 premiere, I set it aside, resolving to give the show another chance while wondering if I was just having a bad day.
Newt Gingrich wants to pay poor kids to clean toilets. And all of the right people are horrified. The Nation says Mr. Gingrich is running on "a platform that seems to have been written by the unreformed Ebenezer Scrooge." The editors of the Newark Star-Ledger proclaim he wants to "bring back the days of Oliver Twist." The host of "Meet the Press," David Gregory, suggests Mr. Gingrich's take on the inner-city poor is a "grotesque distortion."
The late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan caught the decline of the culture two decades ago, observing that we're "defining deviancy down" - lowering the bar for what was once considered deviant behavior, giving a pass to things society once scorned. Not much has changed over 20 years. The senator was talking mostly about criminal behavior, but it applies now to just about everything. Raunchy, obscene and scatological subjects, once taboo, are the stuff of prime time.
It would be hard for any thriller to top the terrifying, instantly iconic setpiece murder sequence that opened the original "Scream" in 1996. But "Scream 4," once again directed by Wes Craven and scripted by Kevin Williamson, sure tries.
Two early showdowns on spending and debt will signal whether the new Congress can find common ground despite its partisan divisions or whether it's destined for gridlock and brinkmanship that could threaten the nation's economic health.
"The federal government has been reduced to a thrashing and infantile thing," Mr. Williamson writes, "and the violence implicit in the system has risen to the surface."
BOOK REVIEW: 'The End is Near And It's Going To Be Awesome' →
"It is impossible to predict with any precision what the outcome of this will be, but a long and deep recession — perhaps lasting decades — is a real possibility," he writes.
BOOK REVIEW: 'The End is Near And It's Going To Be Awesome' →
