Red Nightmare (1962)

Jack Webb (Dragnet) plays a Rod Serling-like role as he introduces us to Jerry Donovan -- an average guy who shrugs off his inconvenient, civic responsibilities. Jerry "wakes up" in a communist-controlled town, where he's the only American left. This film was produced for the Defense Department by studio mogul Jack L Warner and stars many Warner Brothers stock actors -- including Jack Kelly (Maverick), Robert Conrad (Wild Wild West) and Andrew Duggan. At the time, Jack L. Warner was very staunch anti-Communist, even though he released a pro-Communist feature film, Mission to Moscow, in 1943. Producer: Department of Defense / Warner Brothers
(Hat tip: gerardvanderleun) Read More......

Millennial Generation not so 'green'

On March 15, the Corvallis Gazette-Times published Study: Young people not so 'green' after all based primarily on the research of Jean Twenge, who was "shocked" that the Millennial Generation trusted others less, showed less interest in government, social problems and concern over the environment than their preceding generations, baby boomers and Gen Xers. ✧ In the comments section of the Salt Lake Tribune (online) Liberated Jim responded to the study's findings:

This is actually good news. Those boomers who were out to change the world that didn't need changing, out to save a world that didn't need saving, and all the other CRAP that came from the 60's are now seeing their stupid ideas falling short. I love the line, "I was shocked!, We have the perception we are getting through to these people." I would say that they are getting through to these people and their message is being ignored as a stupid, over-bearing hand-wringing message of doom and gloom. Perhaps the new generations will find better, more positive and constructive methods of solving the problems their elders foisted upon them. [Emphasis added]

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Rethinking the Summer of Love

SFGate.com , July 25, 2007 - Cinnamon Stillwell wrote,

This summer marks the 40th anniversary of the so-called Summer of Love, that mythical three months in 1967 in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood when visions of peace, love and harmony -- aided by bountiful quantities of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll -- reigned supreme.

The Summer of Love has since become legend-- an expression of countercultural revolution, particularly in the minds of those recollecting the glory days of their youth. However inaccurately, this three-month period encompassing a tiny fraction of the population and an eight-block stretch has become a symbol for the entire decade.

Among '60s disciples, it's an article of faith that everything that came out of that summer was a boon to American society. This has certainly been the impression conveyed through popular culture. Rarely are the more pernicious offshoots of the social and political experiment known as the Summer of Love referenced in the glowing and groovy portrayals seen on PBS and the History Channel.

But in its haste to dispense with all tradition that came before, the Summer of Love generation threw out much of the good along with the bad. The attempt to live in a manner that is essentially unsustainable led to a proliferation of divorce, drug-use, promiscuity, sexually transmitted diseases, and all the perils and problems associated therewith. Too many people left their families, became addicts, and in some cases, lost their lives.

When all social boundaries are tossed aside and self-fulfillment becomes one's raison d'etre, society breaks down and, with it, all sense of morality. Seen in this light, the Summer of Love starts to seem more like the Summer of Folly. Continued...

Cinnamon Stillwell is a San Francisco writer. Read her blog here. She also writes for the blog at Campus Watch.org. Read More......