Oliver Stone has made some great, original movies in his career.  He however, has resorted to some very old, anti-Semitic rhetoric in a recent  interview when he said:

“public opinion in America was focused on the Holocaust as a result of the “Jewish domination of the media”

I would hardly call the thought that the media is dominated by Jews or that Jews have played up the Holocaust for their own purposes original. These types of anti-Semitic stereotypes dating back to the Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion have  have been played out time and time again throughout history around the world.

Stone’s comments come at at time when he is promoting his upcoming documentary, “The Secret History of America. I have no doubt that in  his view, Stone is simply “keeping it real”.  That is the perspective of  Holocaust Deniers. While Stone is not a denier in the traditional sense of  rejecting the historical fact of the Holocaust, he is a denier in the use of antisemitic stereotypes to diminish it’s place in history.

Here is what is “real”.  Eleven Million innocents murdered under Hitler.  Twenty million or more murdered under Stalin. None of Stone’s antisemitic marketing tactics or ignorant revisionism will change that.  The real secret exposed here is Stone’s antisemitism.  I doubt anything will change that either.

The Veterans Administration has announced that they will now allow patients to use medical marijuana at clinics in states where the use of the drug is legal. According to a story in the New York Times, a department directive, resolves the conflict in veterans facilities between federal law, which outlaws marijuana, and the 14 states that allow medicinal use of the drug, effectively deferring to the states.

This presents an interesting dilemma for the federal government. While the benefits of medical marijuana are documented and vets are being helped by its use, it is still illegal under Federal law and certainly in federal facilities like VA clinics.  Legally, the fact that it is being used in a state that allows medical marijuana is irrelevant to federal enforcement. While the Obama Administration and the DEA have taken the position that they will not go after those using the drug in compliance with state law, it remains to be seen if medical marijuana crossing the border into federally funded facilities and getting that first foot hold into the federal domain a will sit well with Eric Holder and the DEA.  No one wants to look like the bad guy where our vets are concerned.

I was watching American Gangster the other night on TNT.  Great movie that I can watch over and over.  Denzel is awesome.  As would be expected on TNT, the movie was heavily edited.  Foul language and racial epithets were removed, well most of them.  In one scene near the end of the movie, the character played by Russell Crowe is in a confrontation with his superior.  His superior uses an African-American racial epithet to refer to Frank Lucas, played by Denzel Washington.  It was of course replaced with something suitable for network television.   However, when the same character uses an anti-Semitic slur, calling Crowe’s character(who is Jewish) a “Kike” it is left in unchanged.  I never noticed that before despite having seen the edited version of the movie numerous times.  I don’t know why I did this time.  I am not accusing TNT of anything.  I have no idea who edited the movie and why they decided to leave that particular slur in as compared to all the others they removed.  Just an observation…

There is controversy over a YouTube video of Holocaust Survivor, Adolek Kohn, dancing with members of his family to “I Will Survive, in front of Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps.  There are those that are outraged over the video, viewing it as mocking the Holocaust. There are those who support it as a celebration of life. I stand with the latter.

I came across the video on the blog of Debbie Schlussel. Debbie and I have had our differences on various issues.  This is however, one time I am completely on board with her views. There is a huge difference between pimping out a tragedy and celebrating survival of that tragedy. I will not restate the entire controversy as she has covered it quite well.  As goofy as the video is, I frankly cried when I watched it.  For a survivor to go back and joyfully dance on the horrendous memories of his fight and the fight of all European Jews for their survival to me is a celebration of life and our ability as humans to take tragedy and smile back at it.  We did survive and more power to Adolek Kohn for allowing me to remember with a smile on my face.  IMHO, Adolek Kohn has earned the right to “dance his experience” any damn place he pleases.