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‘Glory’ and Col. Shaw: What a Real ‘Post-Racial’ Man Was All About

By Brad Schaeffer | September 28, 2010 | 17:34

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"It is time for stronger remedies to be applied," said abolitionist Wendell Phillips of the Union's effort during the Civil War, "in the form of hot lead and cold steel duly administered by 100,000 black doctors."  His vision became a reality as over 180,000 African-Americans (free men and escaped slaves) joined the Union Army to fight against the slave-holding Confederacy.

The story of the first such "colored" regiment to be formed, the 54th Massachusetts, is beautifully retold in director Edward Zwick's 1989 film Glory.  That this film didn't even garner an Oscar nomination for best picture - in a year where Driving Miss Daisy took the prize - is puzzling to me.  Glory features a first-rate script, wonderful imagery, and a stellar cast led by Matthew Broderick who plays Col. Robert Gould Shaw, the real-life idealistic white officer chosen to lead the regiment. The film is also a feast for the ears as the majestic chorus of the Harlem Boys' Choir permeates the score.

What If Pastor Terry Jones Had Called His Koran Burning 'Art'?

By Brad Schaeffer | September 15, 2010 | 15:53

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People have asked me my opinion of the Rev. Terry Jones' threat to burn the Quran this past weekend. Personally I think the best thing to do with this story is to not give this insignificant media-hound with all of fifty parishioners avoice. But it's way too late for that now. So, of course I find the action in poor taste - I would never burn any religion's sacred parchment. That is just wrong and disrespectful to millions trying to practice their faith and go about their daily lives in peace.

But (there's always a "but" in such testy cases), when I juxtapose this one twisted symbolic gesture against the disregard-and I would argue contempt-being shown by so-called "moderate" practitioners of Islam who insist on building their mosque almost on top of the ashes of 9/11 victims against the wishes of so many Americans, I can understand the frustration that creates a Jones and his ilk. And the fact is, as Mayor Bloomberg offered up, if there is freedom of speech for the fanatical Muslim goose, it must also be for the crackpot Christian gander.

Bill Maher Loses Religion-bashing Battle With S.E. Cupp and History’s Inconvenient Truths

By Brad Schaeffer | June 08, 2010 | 11:50

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Editor's Note: The following originally appeared at Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood.

Sometimes it’s just so easy. I mean if I really wanted to, I could find all the material needed to expose the folly of the far left just by watching Bill Maher every week and picking apart the claims he offers as “fact” while urged on with hosannas by his trained seals in the Real Time audience. 

The comedian/pundit is a legend in his own studio—and it appears that his embarrassing stint at the big people’s table on This Week a while back, where he was dissected by George Will wielding the carving knife of the Socratic method, did little to humble Maher into questioning his own command of the issues.  “Facts are stubborn things,” said John Adams.  Of course, Mr. Adams never met a left-wing zealot with a worldview for whom reality is often an inconvenience to be waved away like curling pot smoke in a back grotto at the Heff mansion.

Bill Maher: Post-Racial Racist?

By Brad Schaeffer | June 01, 2010 | 16:14

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Editor's Note: The following originally appeared at Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood.

Bill Maher a racist?  Who’da thunk it?  Actually, anyone who pays even remote attention to the far-left comedic mouth piece could have figured that out pretty quickly. Yes, Bill, I am calling you a racist.  This accusation which he so glibly levels at anyone slightly to the right of Che Guevera  may come as a shock to him.  But he is too busy heaping his moral superiority upon those lynch mob troglodytes who inhabit “fly-over country” to ever bother  to take a look at himself.  If he did, he might come to realize that being truly colorblind or, to borrow a Hopey McChange slogan, “post racial” means more than fist-bumping Will.I.Am at a Golden Globe after after party.  It means truly seeing the world through the prism of individual not racial identity politics.