When Marilyn Monroe died — over half a century ago, on August 5th, 1962 — of an apparent suicide, it was Ayn Rand who came to her defense, savaging popular culture for treating Marilyn Monroe with insufficient respect. Per the Atlas Society, “While the two could be viewed as different as night and day, at least physically, it was Rand who seemingly ‘got’ Monroe, not only her cinematic charms but also how she was a bright soul battered by the world. A takedown, it seems in hindsight, that contributed to her death. Ayn Rand penned an essay about Monroe that appeared in the Los Angeles Times, and it reads as if she had a window to the screen legend’s wounded psyche.”
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Raoul Wallenberg: Happy Angel Birthday!
Raoul Wallenberg, born on August 4th, 1912 in Sweden, a hero who saved thousand of Jews in WWII, has been nearly forgotten but you can remember him this day with a good film that he himself liked.
When Hitler began rounding up the Jews in Hungary in 1944, Wallenberg faced down the Nazi death machine with nothing more than courage and paper, partly by mass manufacturing fake Swedish passports and partly by threatening Nazi authorities that he had accumulated sufficient evidence to prosecute them as war criminals in the event that the Axis powers lost.
Unfortunately, when the war ended the Soviets arrested him for reasons unknown, locked him away in the brutal Soviet prison system and repeatedly resisted appeals to release him. (The Russians now say that he probably died in Moscow’s notorious Lubyanka prison a decade after the war, but no one knows for sure. As late as 1987 he was sighted in a Soviet prison by two independent witnesses.)
There are two biopics that tell his story, but neither do him justice. A better choice would be the Leslie Howard film Pimpernel Smith, about a British professor of classics who secretly rescues Nazi prisoners. Why? Raoul Wallenberg is said to have been inspired by this film, which was among the first to depict Nazi labor camps. It can generally be found free online.
One Last Lockdown: Official Trailer
No one misses the lockdowns more than politicians. It gave them unprecedented power, swept aside civil liberties, gave them even greater license to spend, and positioned them to claim they were saving the public (even though they were making things worse in many cases). In this parody movie trailer, three corrupt governors join together to bring their glory days back one more time in…One Last Lockdown.
Battle Of Athens (TN) Remembered In “An American Story”
The Battle of Athens (TN) was a rebellion against corrupt local government that took place on August 1-2, 1946, in which WWII veterans fought local police over police brutality and election manipulation. Fresh from restoring democracy abroad, they were not about to see it destroyed at home, and they defended the ballot box just the way Uncle Sam taught them to. The battle is remembered in the pro- Second Amendment film An American Story, starring Brad Johnson, Kathleen Quinlan, and Tom Sizemore. Review and trailer here.
Milton Friedman: Happy Angel Birthday!
Nobel-prize winning economist Milton Friedman was born on July 31st, 1912. He was an outspoken and persuasive defender of human liberty and a tremendous communicator of libertarian ideas. His ten-part Free to Choose TV series, and the book on which it was based, remains one of the most comprehensive video expositions of libertarian ideas available. It is free online.
Here’s a fun musical tribute to Friedman from the pro-liberty Brazilian group Acadêmicos de Milton Friedman.
Also, here’s an imagined debate between Milton Friedman and Bernie Sanders.
The Hong Konger | Documentary
Billionaire Jimmy Lai gives up everything — including his own freedom — to fight against China’s increasing authoritarian rule. [ The Hong Konger: Jimmy Lai’s Extraordinary Struggle for Freedom credits: Dir: Ron Holwerda/ Jimmy Lai/ 73 min/ Documentary/ Themes/ 2022]
External Reviews
“Deeply emotional and profoundly inspiring.”
–National Review