James Woods as convicted criminal Gregory Ulas Powell
representing himself in the film The Onion Field.
The film is in color, but I think this black and white
photo best captures Woods as Powell.
I watched the Sun Media's The Arena yesterday, whose host is Michael Coren. Sun Media and Coren purport to be the "conservative" news of Canada. But, I remember Coren saying a while ago that he wasn't a conservative, which explains his many ambiguous positions, and which is why I barely tune into their much-touted program (it's like the National Post, which never lived to its "alternate" message).
I met Coren when with a group from the International Free Press Society invited me to join them. One of the stops we made was to attend an interview by Coren of Lars Hedegaard, the president of the Danish Free Press Society.
Still, Coren, because of his forceful nature, does some of the better interviews (pepperd with disclaimers) of the more controversial issues of our time.
Last night's interview is not yet online. Coren interviewed one of the Sun Media journalists about the abortion doctor Gosnell, who was charged with killing (murdering) one woman and four infants. He is labelled as a serial killer, but the jury's verdict was life imprisonment, although as a serial killer he could have got the death penalty.
Coren, in his forceful and confident way announces: "I'm against the death penalty, myself. Everyone else can believe what they want, but I'm against it."
So much for the intellectual level of our public figures and opinion makers. Judgment is simply a matter of opinion, and we can all believe what we want.
In any case, this reminded me of the strong, well-made movie (based on true events) The Onion Field. When politics fails, go to art for the true answers. Yes, today's films are mostly liberal, made for liberals, and watched by liberals (I haven't been to the movies in at least two years now), but people are still conservative when it comes to their families (who want a daughter to have an abortion? Etc.), so some films and television programs have a sliver of conservatism in their messages. And also, I find that films made prior to the mid-sixties retain a higher level of conservative elements.
The Onion Field is the true story of a cold-blooded murder by two escaped convicts. James woods makes a formidable performance as one of the convicts, Gregory Ulas Powell. They eventually get caught and are convicted of first-degree murder. The judge, at this verdict, makes an impassioned speech saying that these two deserved nothing less than the death penalty, and that these clever men would exploit the judicial system to its fullest.
As the judge predicted, Powell spent years writing appeals for his death sentence, including appearing in court to represent himself. This horrible spectacle, of a convicted murder appearing in a court of law to appeal his situation became too much for one of the lawyers, who resigned. Powell died in 2012, after almost fifty years in prison.
Coren, in his arrogance about what justice constitutes, is allowing for this type of "justice" to flourish in the judicial system. And sure enough, we have the serial killer Gosnell, who will get the best of prison life, as well as unconditional support from a myriad of "abortion" sympathizers, for the rest of his life.
Here is the President of the United Sates making another one of his ambiguous statements.
The part which is difficult to hear is:
"I think abortion should be safe, legal and rare."
In typical Obama fashion, safe and legal are the important words. Rare is a matter of "judgement." He appears to be strict on abortion, but he is as liberal as they get. When will the American people realize who he really is?
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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