Tuesdays with Paulie 3/7/06

Kudos to Quinn

Illinois Lt. Governor Pat Quinn (D) broke ranks yesterday with his boss, Governor Rod Blagojevich (D). Quinn has publicly asked the governor to reconsider his appointment of Nation of Islam, Minister of Protocol, Claudette Marie Muhammad, from the Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes. Quinn does not face a primary challenge, so he has no political motive for his decision. In a rare moment for the Illinois Democratic Party, Quinn is doing the right thing. I hope your actions will rub off on your colleagues, especially Jewish Democrats!

Where is Jan

I have placed a phone call to the office of Congresswoman, Jan Schakowsky(D-IL), asking for her to release a statement regarding the Blagojevich appointment of the Farrakhan adviser. Her office said she is not planning on making a statement, but someone will get back to me. I'll keep you posted.

God Bless Kirby

I am deeply saddened by the recent passing of first ballot baseball Hall of Fame member and Minnesota Twins legend, Kirby Puckett. The Chicago Native played, who played his college ball at Triton College, had a career batting average of .318. I never met Puckett, but I used to have a supervisor who played ball with Puckett and attended his wedding. He always said Puckett was a down to earth guy who never forgot his roots. Puckett will be missed. He was only 45.

The Oscars...Does Any one Care?

When I was a growing up, Oscar night was a big deal in my house. My mother would let me stay up to watch the whole event, which back then went over 4 hours in length. However, today Hollywood is producing films that are "B" movies compared to some of the great works of the past. Where is the Ten Commandments, Godfather or Schindler's List of today?

I did see 2 of the films nominated for "Best Picture", Crash and Munich. "Crash" was a good movie, but the fact it won for best picture shows the lack of great films coming out of Hollywood. "Munich" I enjoyed immensely and disagree with my friends on the "Right" who believe the film put Israel in a negative light.

"Munich" was written by Tony Kusher, a devout Socialist and harsh critic of Israel. Kusher is mostly known for writing the play, "Angels in America". The big complaint about Munich is that it humanize's the terrorists and portrayed Israel as being wrong for avenging the murder of her athletes during the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.

I do believe Kusher was trying to portray that message, but simply put , he failed miserably. "Munich" shows why Israel is morally superior to those who seek her demise. The Jewish assassins had personal conflicts with killing. Even though they were executing murderers, the film showed that decent human beings cannot take the life of another human being, no matter how justified, without some personal conflict. Nevertheless, Israel did as it does today do what is necessary to survive.

Spielberg does input messages such as when you kill a terrorist another one is there to replace them. He also shows the length Israel goes to avoid collateral damage. He does an excellent job in providing flashback scenes of the massacre in Munich, including a heart-wrenching airport scene, showing how the German government botched up the rescue effort. Actual footage of media coverage from different countries is shown as well as scenes of Arabs celebrating the murders and Israelis mourning their dead sons.

"Munich" does show two very important historical facts that are prudent today. In 1973 a Lufthansa plane was hijacked by a PLO faction that demanded the release of the terrorists arrested by the German government. The German's caved in a fashion that we see all the time today by the United Nations and most European countries. It was obvious over thirty years ago that terrorism works, especially when it comes to Europeans.

The other important fact is a scene in the film between the lead Israeli Assassin (Avi) and a Palestinian terrorist who are talking in a stairwell. During the scene, Avi, says to the Palestinian " you can go to any Arab country." The response by the terrorist is what's significant and what the world fails to realize. "Arabs don't want Palestinians they hate Palestinians, but they hate Jews even more."

I strongly recommend you see or soon rent Munich and judge for yourself.