Random Bits of Wisdom

Movie quote from: The Wizard of Oz (1939) - Scarecrow (Ray Bolger)

So much for the Don Imus radio show.  Big brave CBS just fired him for his short-sighted remarks about the women on the Rutgers basketball team.  Live by the sword, die by the sword.  However, I'm not sure who is the more offensive - Don Imus, who has a history of derogatory commentary, or the CBS executives who thought he was great until everybody else didn't.  Just once I'd like to see an executive defend media decency rather than ignoring the man behind the curtain until the jig is up.  Here's some slightly edited quotes from The Wizard of Oz that will be useful if Don's story ever makes the silver screen.

Movie quote from: The People vs Larry Flynt (1996) - Alan Isaacman (Edward Norton)

During these times of increasing political and religious polarity, it is wise to remember the straight-up message of the 1996 film The People vs Larry Flynt.  The film's 'hero' is Larry Flynt, the sleazy publisher of Hustler magazine who shows little of the moral characteristics that hold our culture together.  However, his dogged defense of his right to express an unpopular thought earned him an influential victory in the Supreme Court.  Speech hasn't been the same since.

Movie Quote from: Flags of Our Fathers (2006) – James Bradley (Thomas McCarthy)

War is hell.  Ordinary people are put into extraordinary circumstances, ones where survival is uncertain and traditional morality and ethics have no place.  Within these extreme conditions, people make heroic and horrific choices within the same sequence of events.  One scene in Clint Eastwood’s film, Flags of Our Fathers, sums up the complexity of choices that are made in the swirling circumstances of war.  In a brief minute of film, we see why individuals engaged in extreme warfare don’t feel worthy of the heroic person we portray them to be.