A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

On Quora, a member who identifies as a middle-school student and "an outspoken conservative and Christian girl" asks: Why do liberals never admit when they're wrong? I replied: Funny. I seem to remember at least several instances of liberals admitting they made mistakes and even apologize for them. When Al Franken was a Senator from Minnesota, he was accused of improper behavior by model and entertainer Leeann Tweeden (now a conservative talk radio host) who worked in the entertainment industry when Franken was still a comedian and humor writer. The behavior did not occur when Franken was in the Senate; it allegedly happened when he and his accuser were on a USO tour in 2006. (Tweeden accused Franken of two things: improper kissing while rehearsing for a skit, and mimicking the improper touching of her breasts while posing for a photograph.) Photo Credit: NBC News In the interest of fairness, let’s look at why Tweeden’s claim of impropriety on the pa...

Episode Ten: The Weight of Memory (March 1973-Onward) Written by: Geoffrey C. Ward Directed by: Ken Burns & Lynn Novick While the Watergate scandal rivets Americans' attention and forces President Nixon to resign, the Vietnamese continue to savage one another in a brutal civil war. When hundreds of thousands of North Vietnamese troops pour into the South, Saigon descends rapidly into chaos and collapses. For the next forty years, Americans and Vietnamese from all sides search for healing and reconciliation.  On September 28, 2017, "The Weight of Memory (March 1973-Onward)" premiered on the 300 or so affiliates of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Written by historian Geoffrey C. Ward and directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, it was the tenth and final episode of The Vietnam War, an 18-hour-long examination of "one of the most consequential, divisive, and controversial events in American history." Ten years in the making,  The Vietnam ...