Doug talks EASY EVIL on WGN Radio
Monday, October 14, 2013
Thursday, October 3, 2013
How Absurd Have Some School Bureaucrats Become?
The folks who administer and teach in our schools have a tough job. No doubt about it. And those who do their jobs right, successfully juggling concerns for kids' education and their safety, deserve our support and as many attaboys as we can give them.
Then there are the petty, the foolish, the hysterical, and the absurd: the bureaucrats who value their image and the appearance of political correctness over everything else.
An example just this week would be the principal of a Mesa, Arizona elementary school who asked a police officer-parent to stop wearing his uniform and gun to pick up his children at school because it scared some of the other kids (http://www.lawofficer.com/video/news/arizona-officer-asked-not-come).
And the teachers at a middle school in Connecticut who call the Geico "hump day" commercial "disruptive." (http://www.kctv5.com/story/23593314/some-teachers-say-geico-hump-day-commerical-is-disruptive-in-classrooms).
Match these examples with all of the others...every school district that has expelled children for pretending their hands are guns and going "bang" at another child. Or the district that fired a teacher because she revealed her husband threatened her.
Or the high school in my own backyard where administrators produced a list of "inappropriate words" that should not be used by those of us invited to speak at a school-wide creativity event. Among the banned words? "Gun," "gangs" and "murder." After all, if you don't talk about such things, they'll never become a problem, right?
The Mesa school incident in particular has me shaking my head. A child reportedly told his parents a man with a gun was at school. The parents communicated that the principal. The principal called the officer. Considering that children discussing what they saw could have twisted the story any number of ways, and another child could have reported misinformation to already fearful parents who then overreacted...the principal's request is beyond absurd and borders on the hysterical.
Schools are supposed to be teaching students to think. To confront problems and come up with logical, reasoned solutions.
It appears some school administrators have flunked that lesson.
Then there are the petty, the foolish, the hysterical, and the absurd: the bureaucrats who value their image and the appearance of political correctness over everything else.
An example just this week would be the principal of a Mesa, Arizona elementary school who asked a police officer-parent to stop wearing his uniform and gun to pick up his children at school because it scared some of the other kids (http://www.lawofficer.com/video/news/arizona-officer-asked-not-come).
And the teachers at a middle school in Connecticut who call the Geico "hump day" commercial "disruptive." (http://www.kctv5.com/story/23593314/some-teachers-say-geico-hump-day-commerical-is-disruptive-in-classrooms).
Match these examples with all of the others...every school district that has expelled children for pretending their hands are guns and going "bang" at another child. Or the district that fired a teacher because she revealed her husband threatened her.
Or the high school in my own backyard where administrators produced a list of "inappropriate words" that should not be used by those of us invited to speak at a school-wide creativity event. Among the banned words? "Gun," "gangs" and "murder." After all, if you don't talk about such things, they'll never become a problem, right?
The Mesa school incident in particular has me shaking my head. A child reportedly told his parents a man with a gun was at school. The parents communicated that the principal. The principal called the officer. Considering that children discussing what they saw could have twisted the story any number of ways, and another child could have reported misinformation to already fearful parents who then overreacted...the principal's request is beyond absurd and borders on the hysterical.
Schools are supposed to be teaching students to think. To confront problems and come up with logical, reasoned solutions.
It appears some school administrators have flunked that lesson.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Definitely NOT For Kids or the Faint of Heart: Prisoners
Disturbing, dark, and too long at 2.5 hours, Prisoners is nevertheless a
compelling film with standout performances. The basics: on Thanksgiving, two young girls go missing and, while a detective searches, the father of one of the girls takes the law into his own hands.
Hugh Jackman's theatre background shows in the preparation and depth he brings to his role as the survivalist father who swears he will get his daughter back. As Jackman rages, Jake Gyllenhaal quietly counterpoints as the detective assigned to the case and Paul Dano fits perfectly between them, his enormous sad eyes and pale, offbeat features making him every parents' nightmare of stranger-danger come to life. In fact, I found Dano the most fascinating of the characters to watch. He's so affective an actor that he can compel our fury in one scene and beg for sympathy in another...all without words...and then darn near disappear while still on screen.
Director Denis Villeneuve uses weather elements and tight shots to create a cold, claustrophobic atmosphere that gives Prisoners a horror film feel right through the chilling climax and ending.
There's not much fat to the plot but the brain can only comprehend what the butt can endure and two-and-a-half hours spent in a theatre seat was thirty minutes too long for mine. For that, and for the writers who gave in to the trite idea of detective-as-lone-wolf (any fan of Cops or Castle knows you never go by yourself to search an abandoned building or creepy church basement), I award Prisoners 4/5 stars with a special thumbs up to Melissa Leo(Homicide: Life on the Street) and Len Cariou (Blue Bloods), two of my favorite, and often overlooked, character actors.
Hugh Jackman's theatre background shows in the preparation and depth he brings to his role as the survivalist father who swears he will get his daughter back. As Jackman rages, Jake Gyllenhaal quietly counterpoints as the detective assigned to the case and Paul Dano fits perfectly between them, his enormous sad eyes and pale, offbeat features making him every parents' nightmare of stranger-danger come to life. In fact, I found Dano the most fascinating of the characters to watch. He's so affective an actor that he can compel our fury in one scene and beg for sympathy in another...all without words...and then darn near disappear while still on screen.
Director Denis Villeneuve uses weather elements and tight shots to create a cold, claustrophobic atmosphere that gives Prisoners a horror film feel right through the chilling climax and ending.
There's not much fat to the plot but the brain can only comprehend what the butt can endure and two-and-a-half hours spent in a theatre seat was thirty minutes too long for mine. For that, and for the writers who gave in to the trite idea of detective-as-lone-wolf (any fan of Cops or Castle knows you never go by yourself to search an abandoned building or creepy church basement), I award Prisoners 4/5 stars with a special thumbs up to Melissa Leo(Homicide: Life on the Street) and Len Cariou (Blue Bloods), two of my favorite, and often overlooked, character actors.
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