The American Spectator

Is there enough here for an al Qaeda lawsuit? It would allow Bush explain why he calls it the War on Terror and not a war on al Qaeda. Cultural insensitivity should not be allowed to stand.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports — based on U.S. military sources — that Saddam’s crowd continues to recruit foreign “militants” to serve in the resistance to U.S. military occupation. The term “al Qaeda” does not appear in the story. Think it has to?

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p> Gregory Peck, RIP (posted 6/13/03 1:14 a.m.) br> Conservatives soured on Gregory Peck more than fifteen years ago when he lent his voice (literally, as they say) to the smears against Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork. For what it’s worth, it wasn’t much of a career move, though perhaps it’s more fair to say his career was winding down anyway. For all his great handsome looks and manly/gentlemanly decency, he was a movie star who peaked at some point in the 1960s, before they became the sixties. There was nothing vulgar about him, and thus increasingly less for him to do in the newer Hollywood. Nor was he talented enough to prevent the embarrassment any fan of his has to feel when watching him in such seventies fare as The Omen , The Boys From Brazil , or even MacArthur . /p>

It must have been in the 1970s that I first saw him in his one great role, as the cynically charming American reporter opposite Audrey Hepburn as the runaway princess in the 1953 movie, Roman Holiday (imagine how good it would have been if directed by Billy Wilder). It was a relationship made in heaven, which is where it would have to be continued. There was no happy end, unless it can be said that understanding one’s duty, as Hepburn’s character inevitably did, offers satisfaction and meaning enough. Besides, her example knocked some sense into the callow character Peck played. A viewer could only be thankful for that, and for the natural superiority of certain women.