Tag: Reason.tv

Amusing

Killer Chic: Hollywood’s Sick Love Affair with Che Guevara

Giselle Bundchen wears him on her bikini. Johnny Depp wears him around his neck. And Benicio del Toro becomes him in Steven Soderbergh’s by-all-accounts-fawning four-hour biopic, Che, now in limited release.

Del Toro, who took home best actor honors at Cannes earlier this year, is already earning Oscar whispers for his performance. But “Che” is only the latest sign of Hollywood’s infatuation with Guevara, Castro, and other dictatorial goons (recently, Sean Penn had a cover story in The Nation lamenting unfair media coverage of the tyrannical Cuban and Venezuelan regimes).

“Killer Chic” tours the hellholes of totalitarianism through the eyes of Paquito D’Rivera, who left Cuba for artistic freedom and ended up becoming a Grammy Award-winning jazz player, and Kai Chen, a former member of the Chinese national basketball team whose relatives were hauled off under Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution. “Killer Chic” is a fascinating and troubling foray into Hollywood’s shallow–and callow–appropriation of murderous thugs.

Watch Reason.tv’s 10-minute documentary, Killer Chic: Hollywood’s Sick Love Affair With Che Guevara, by clicking below.

Amusing

Nanny of the Year 2009!

In 2009, America’s meddlers worked overtime minding other people’s business.

Nanny of the Month winners have targeted everything from fish pedicures to feeding the homeless. But there can be only one Nanny of the Year.

Who took home top honors as the year’s biggest buttinsky?

Click the video to find out.

Amusing

All the President’s Newsmen


With the proliferation of news on the Internet, Americans aren’t supporting their local newspapers. Circulation and ad revenues are way down, while web readership—where the news is likely to be free and up-to-the-minute—is way up. Technology has changed the game.

But for those who see a connection between American democracy and the demise of the newspaper industry, it’s time to get the government involved to save the news business.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) has introduced the Newspaper Revitalization Act, a bill that would allow newspapers to operate as nonprofits and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) warns of the “serious consequences for our democracy” if his hometown paper, The Boston Globe, goes belly up. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has publicly argued for an antitrust exemption to save the San Francisco Chronicle, a paper that has long supported her political career. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) recently argued that “If Congress does not act…a major city in the United States will be without a newspaper in the fairly near future.”

Washington can give newspapers tax breaks or generous subsides to keep them afloat. There are many ways of extending the life of a terminally-ill by forcing onto life support. But why should the government support an industry that consumers are rejecting?

“Most of those supporting a newspaper bailout were also critical of the medias behavior in the run-up to the Iraq War,” says Reason senior editor Michael Moynihan. “Now imagine the reaction if the very same journalists wrote the very same stories about Iraq in 2002 but were reliant upon the Bush administration for their survival.”

For audio podcast, iPod-friendly, and HD versions of this video, along with links to relevant articles and other videos at Reason.tv, go to http://reason.tv/video/show/787.html

Correction: The dollar amount of proposed new French tax subsidies to newspapers is misstated. The correct amount is $800 million.

Amusing

Tax Facts to Make Your Head Explode!

Is it patriotic to pay taxes? If so, who are the most patriotic Americans? Who are the least? How many words are in the tax code? How much do patriotic Americans pay to prepare their taxes? How long do you have to work in a year to earn enough to pay your taxes?

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