WOULD YOU OR YOUR COMPANY LIKE TO SPONSOR THE NEXT INSTALLMENT OF 'LIBERAL LIES ABOUT NATIONAL HEALTH CARE'? SEE MY WEB SITE FOR DETAILS! PART 7

By Ann Coulter
http://www.anncoulter.com/
October 7, 2009

(18) America's lower life expectancy compared to countries with socialist health care proves that their medical systems are superior.

President Obama has too much intellectual pride to make such a specious argument, so instead we have to keep hearing it from his half-wit supporters.

These Democrats are all over the map on where precisely Americans place in the life-expectancy rankings. We're 24th, according to Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Barbara Boxer; 42nd, according to Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell; 35th, according to Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson; and 47th, according to Rep. Dennis Kucinich. So the U.S. may have less of a "life expectancy" problem than a "Democratic math competency" problem.

But also, as described in last week's column, the citizenry's health is not the same thing as the citizenry's health care system.

Besides America's high rate of infant mortality -- based on biology and lifestyle choices, not medical care -- Americans are also more likely to overeat or smoke than people in other developed nations. And the two biggest killers in the Western world are obesity and smoking.

Liberals shouldn't have to be reminded how fat Americans are, inasmuch as they are always chortling about it. A 2004 New York Times article leeringly quoted a foreign doctor, saying: "We Europeans, whenever we came to America, we always noticed the enormous number of obese people on the streets." I note that these are the same people who openly worship Michael Moore.

Somewhat surprisingly to those of us who have long admired France for its humanitarian smoking laws, until the mid-1980s, Americans had had the highest rate of smoking in the developed world. This makes patriotic Americans like me wonder if there's a way to get Michael Moore to start smoking. (You know, just to keep his weight down or whatever.)

To be fair, the French are still being exposed to large amounts of smoke due to all the cars being set on fire by Muslims.

In 2003, America led the world in smoking-related deaths among women -- followed by Hungary. Simply excluding all smoking-related deaths from the World Health Organization's comparison of life expectancies at age 50 in 20 developed nations would raise U.S. women's life expectancy from 17th to 7th place and lift American men from 14th to 9th place.

Americans are also more likely to die in military combat than the whimpering, pant-wetting cowards our military has spent the past 70 years defending -- I mean, than "our loyal European allies." This is a health risk Europeans have managed to protect themselves against by living in a world that contains the United States military.

These are risk factors that have nothing to do with the health care system. To evaluate the quality of our health care, you have to compare apples to apples by looking at outcomes for specific medical conditions.

Although the United States has a higher incidence of heart disease, cancer and diabetes compared to Europe -- because of lifestyle choices and genetics -- it also has better survival rates across the board for all these medical problems.

The most revealing international comparisons look at cancer survival rates, because of the universally extensive record-keeping for this disease.

A European study found that, compared to 18 European countries, the U.S. had strikingly higher five-year survival rates in all 12 cancers studied, except for one: stomach cancer. Even there, the survival rates were close -- and the difference was attributed to the location of the cancer in the stomach.

For all types of cancers, European men have only a 47.3 percent five-year survival rate, compared to 66.3 percent survival rate for American men. The greatest disparity was in prostate cancer, which American men are 28 percent more likely to survive than European men.

European women are only 55.8 percent likely to live five years after contracting any kind of cancer, compared to 62.9 percent for American women.

In five cancers -- breast, prostate, thyroid, testicular and skin melanoma -- American survival rates are higher than 90 percent. Europeans hit a 90 percent survival rate for only one of those -- testicular cancer.

Most disturbingly, many cancers in Europe are discovered only upon the victim's death -- twice as many as in the U.S. Consequently, the European study simply excluded cancers that were first noted on the death certificate, so as not to give the U.S. too great an advantage.

There are no national registries for heart disease, as there are for cancer, making survival-rate comparisons more difficult. But treatments can be measured and, again, Americans are far more likely to be on medication for heart disease and high cholesterol -- medications that extend the lives of millions, developed by those evil, profit-grubbing American drug companies.

To get to the comparison they like (America is not as good as Sweden!), liberals have to slip in the orange of "life expectancy," and hope no one will mention monster truck races, Krispy Kremes and Virginia Slims. As the old saying goes: Life doesn't last longer in socialist countries; it just feels like it.

Film Review- Capitalism: A Love Story

Movie Takes
Capitalism: A Love Story
By James Bowman on 10.6.09 @ 6:02AM
The American Spectator
http://spectator.org/

There is one scene in Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story where its writer, director, hero and sole credited actor is examining the copy of the Constitution that is on display in the National Archives. He asks a guard -- this is the kind of thing Mr. Moore routinely does for effect, pretending he doesn't know that the guards are not constitutional experts -- where in the document before him there is any mention of free markets, free enterprise or capitalism. He can't seem to find those words. Could it be that they're not there? And, if they're not, does that mean that they're not constitutionally protected? Not, of course, that one could imagine its mattering to him if they were. But without a specific mention, presumably, we must suppose that these "evil" things -- he has the testimony of two lefty priests and a bishop to that effect -- must have been snuck into America's constitutional arrangements at a later date by, well, capitalists -- or other, equally unscrupulous sorts.

In fact, he makes an interesting point, if he but knew it. For the reason "capitalism" is not in the U.S. Constitution is that no one at the time of the American founding had ever heard of any such thing. Private property, of course, they knew about, and there is quite a lot about that in the Constitution -- especially about protecting it from government predation. But capitalism? No, sorry. Doesn't ring any bells. How could it? The term was a later invention of socialists like Mr. Moore, themselves a new thing beneath the heavens, seeking to ideologize the world as they found it. The point was to represent reality itself as nothing but a less attractive rival to a suppositious unreality that they called socialism. If once people accepted that this nasty sounding "capitalism," carrying with it all the sorrows and disappointments of real life, were on all fours with the much nicer-sounding "socialism," its historical charge sheet at that point quite blank, they might begin to get the idea that this illusory mental construct was an intellectually legitimate alternative reality.

It's not. If we've learned anything from a century in which the record of economic failure of governments calling themselves "socialist" is exceeded only by the hundred million-odd souls numbered in their necrology we've learned that much. "Capitalism" is just the socialist word for life -- life in its natural state, life untrammeled by regulations imposed by bureaucratic rent-seekers, life that, even under socialism, goes on in the form of more or less tolerated black markets. Yet, amazingly, we remain still so oblivious to this act of lefty legerdemain that conservatives continue to invite Mr. Moore to pin on them all the sufferings of the economically deprived or imprudent by proudly calling themselves "capitalists." Don't we know that capitalists are the people who cozen people out of their homes by making loans to them that they can't afford to repay? This is just one of the many sins that Mr. Moore attributes to these mythical monsters, the diabolically clever exponents of a "system" designed to make a few people rich and the mass of people poor. For him, "capitalism" is an evil force with supernatural powers, and the pantomime theomachy between this "capitalism" and Mooreism, which is fitfully and inconsistently identified with "socialism," here finds a new lease of life.

Or at least it seeks one. Whether or not any significant number of people are going to take Mr. Moore's movie as anything but the joke he, in effect, admits it is remains to be seen. For it seems to me that even the most convinced socialists will be hard put to it to find any coherence in this random selection of crooked or rapacious business practices, first person accounts of the sufferings of those who have borrowed imprudently and had to pay the price, moralizing about labor markets that pay what he regards as too little to some and too much to others and sneering about the politicians whose 2008 bailout of the financial markets he calls "a financial coup d'état."
It's clear enough what Michael Moore is against, which is poverty and suffering and shady dealing. It's also pretty clear that he thinks those who don't agree with him about what to do about these things actually like them and want there to be more of them. Not so clear is the chain of reasoning by which he arrives at such an extraordinary conclusion, and not clear at all is how, in practice, the non-capitalist alternative he proposes (he is oddly shy about using the word "socialist") would work.

Argument, in other words, is not Mr. Moore's strong suit, as those who have sat through his previous films -- Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko and so forth -- may be aware. Like those pictures, Capitalism: A Love Story is a melodrama, and like all good melodramas it has not only an impossibly wicked villain but an impossibly good hero. And if the villain is the spectral capitalist, the hero has an embodied existence in the shape of Franklin D. Roosevelt who, we are told, had planned to pass into law a "Second Bill of Rights" which would by legislative fiat have made everyone healthy, wealthy and educated, if he had but lived long enough to do it. Alas, he died only just over a year after announcing this revolutionary idea and presumably had other things to do during that year. In Mr. Moore's words, "none of this came to pass. Instead, we became this" -- and so we cut from the old newsreel of FDR to color news footage of the Katrina disaster. It's that darned capitalism again!

Wherever you find human misery, there it will be, apparently. Capitalism makes the winds to blow and the waters to rise, and only an act of government can stop it! "We all deserve FDR's dream, and it's a crime that we don't have it," says Mr. Moore's peroration. Does anybody really believe anything so preposterous? You wouldn't think so, but our political debate is now so debased that lots of people apparently do. At least a lot of the people who go to movies. A bunch of them applauded at the end on the night I saw it. They presumably believed him when he said that "Capitalism is an evil, and you cannot regulate evil. You have to eliminate it." Well, if people are suckers enough to believe that all the world's problems are caused by a few "evil" capitalists, then they will also be sucker enough to believe that the problems can be put to rights by passing laws against capitalism. The question is, does Michael Moore believe it, or is he just playing with us?

I wonder if he knows himself.

Consider, his sub-title: "A Love Story." In a way it is, too. Mr. Moore suffuses stories from his own childhood in Flint, Michigan, with a nostalgic glow. His father had a good job in a General Motors spark plug factory, made a good living and raised an apparently happy family. Dad had four weeks' summer vacation every year and a new car every three years. Little Michael even treasures fond memories of the nuns at his parochial school. Those were the good old days, and if the motor industry, along with Flint, has fallen on hard times, it has to be somebody's fault.
That's what capitalism was invented for. F. A. Hayek thought that socialism was a species of nostalgia for an imagined past, and this movie seems to bear him out. Its best moment comes during one of Mr. Moore's stunts where he's asking random people on Wall Street if they can explain credit default swaps to him. "Can you give me any advice?" he cries.

One of the passers by says to him, "Yeah. Don't make any more movies."

All credit to him for leaving that in the final cut. Now he should take the advice.

- James Bowman is a resident scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, media essayist for the New Criterion, and The American Spectator's movie and culture critic. His new book, Media Madness: The Corruption of Our Political Culture, was recently published by Encounter Books.

She Could Have Died, Roman

by Judith Reisman
http://www.humanevents.com/
10/05/2009

I’ve written often about pedophile Polanski, but since he was arrested in Zurich as a fugitive fleeing the U.S. for child rape, here’s a quick review.

In 1977, filmmaker Roman Polanski tricked, stripped, drugged, raped and brutally sodomized a 13-year old, 7th grade girl. Convicted of these atrocities, he fled the U.S. to work and play in freer, gayer France. He escaped because once the judge got some additional facts, his plea bargain (to save the child additional media attack) was deemed invalid.

His biographer, Thomas Kiernan reports Polanski’s crimes in The Roman Polanski Story. Roman “broke open a bottle of champagne … The youngster hesitated, telling him that the last time she had drunk champagne it had made her violently ill. She was asthmatic, she said that the bubbly had brought on an asthma attack."


Polanski tells her French champagne "could never hurt you." She drinks a glass to placate him. Soon "she felt her lungs beginning to constrict." Polanski says "jump in hot tub … It make you feel better."

"I really don't feel good," she says, "[S]houldn't've had champagne… She complained again about her dizziness and shortness of breath … He gave her a tablet and told her to take it, assuring her that it would counter the effects of the champagne."

The police report continues. “[D]utifully, the girl swallowed the tablet.” He didn’t “tell her that the tablet was not an antiasthma pill …but a high-potency [illegal] Quaalude from his own pocket … The girl was in a deep champagne-Quaalude daze … slipping into unconsciousness."

"She was shivering and ashen and weeping … I'm sick," she mumbled drunkenly. I want to go home…my father…gasping for breath in shrill, raspy heaves. Mucus spilled from her nostrils."

She lost bladder control and is feverish. Polanski worries that he might be stuck with a “naked American teenager …in the throes of a potentially fatal seizure." He "wondered whether he should call an ambulance or the police. He decided to wait.”

Why no ambulance!! In a film, should she die, his Hollywood friends might help dump the body.

Still, not to waste a rape opportunity, Polanski painfully sodomized and raped the half unconscious child. "With her breathing still impaired by the effects of the Quaalude and champagne, she immediately gagged and retched. She tried to scream but couldn't produce a sound."

Eventually, she revived. He drove the child home, leaving her at the front door.

Now those who have followed Roman know he regularly rapes, well, sodomizes, children. Kiernan reported that "Roman just couldn't understand why screwing a kid should be of concern to anyone. He's screwed plenty of girls younger than this one, he said, and nobody gave a damn."

Roman was a victim of our "excessively prudish petite bourgeoisie."

I remember a French photo story of Roman with pubescent girls he seduced and dumped. Kiernan quotes Roman shouting, "I love young girls … very young girls."

To offset people’s general revulsion, Polanski has a pubic relations campaign that constantly plays on his tragic WWII childhood. He was born Jewish. He lived during the Holocaust. (In my view, he filmed The Pianist to exploit the Holocaust as a self promoting ‘pity Polanski’ PR ad.) In fact, Roman went to make a film in Israel, but the Israeli government wouldn’t let him set foot on Israeli soil.

Elsewhere I’ve written of Polanski’s response to the murder of his young wife, Sharon Tate, by Charles Manson’s satanic cult. In brief.

Since Roman used girls in their marriage bed, the spousal relationship was, well, tense. Roman sold pictures of his naked wife to Playboy to tantalize millions of lusting men (was Manson one of the millions?). When she was pregnant, Polanski humiliated Tate in public, calling her “a dumb hag” and similar endearments.

Polanski partied in London, often with his Arab sheiks. He planned to remain until the baby was born. "Then maybe I could go back and find Sharon the way she used to be."

His biographer says he was "sipping champagne, passing a marijuana cigarette around when he heard his wife and baby were stabbed to death in a satanic ritual” by the Manson cult. Poor Polanski flew back to "pose at the entrance of the death house for Life magazine a week after the slaughter. He charged Life $5,000 for this picture."

Touching.

Recapping. In 1977, filmmaker Roman Polanski, an infamous Hollywood pedophile, got caught. He'd done nothing more than drug, rape, sodomize and almost kill a 7th-grade child. Based on his sadistic sexual history, there was nothing new in that, so he was outraged by his arrest.

Convicted of his ruthless near sadosexual murder, the mean judge told Polanski he could get 50 years -- but he’d be paroled certainly.

Thus did Roman flee to France to continue being a lionized pedophile filmmaker.

The Swiss arrested him recently as a fugitive from the U.S. If he is returned to California and sent to the clink -- with all those big, mean guys for his remaining years -- well, that actually starts to sound like justice.


- Dr. Reisman is a former principal investigator for the U.S. Department of Justice, Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Her last book was Kinsey: Crimes and Consequences—The Red Queen and the Grand Scheme. She runs drjudithreisman.com.

Daddy Sang Bass

Questions for Rosanne Cash

By DEBORAH SOLOMON
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com
October 4, 2009



Photo: Christian Oth for The New York Times

On Tuesday, you’re releasing your 14th album, “The List,” a stirring leap into the past whose title refers to an actual list of 100 mostly country songs compiled by your father, Johnny Cash, in 1973 in an effort to expand your teenage taste in music beyond the Beatles. He realized that I lacked something essential about my own musical genealogy, and he made this list for me. He said, “This is a template for excellence.” He would play the songs for me on his guitar, and I sought out the records in the years afterward.

Did you have a good relationship with him? It’s hard to be close to a drug addict when they’re active. He was erratic and withdrawn. But when I was 17, he said, Come with me, and I left the day after I graduated high school, went on the road with him. It was wonderful. He was clean and sober by that time. That’s when he wrote the list for me, on the bus.

As an acclaimed songwriter who is just releasing your first album composed entirely of other peoples’ songs, do you think “The List” will bring new life to old classics and raise the country-music consciousness of a generation of kids? Not just young people. I have a 50-year-old, culturally astute girlfriend who heard a recording of “Sea of Heartbreak” and said, Did you write that? I said, Hardly. Not even close. The definitive version was recorded by Don Gibson in 1961.

My favorite song on the album is “Heartaches by the Number,” which you perform with Elvis Costello. You also sing duets with Bruce Springsteen, Jeff Tweedy and Rufus Wainwright. Don’t you know any female performers? I did ask Neko Case, and she sang with me on a song that’s just on iTunes. We have “Satisfied Mind.”

You were born in Memphis but grew up in California. People have this impression that I grew up on a hay bale in the South. But I was steeped in Southern California pop and rock. I was president of my Beatles fan club when I was 11 and living in Ventura.
What led you to settle in Manhattan? You know that saying “We always thought she was kind of weird, but it turns out she’s just a New Yorker.”

Your husband, the composer John Leventhal, produced your new album and accompanies you on guitar and keyboards. He also wrote the arrangements, which is very old school; a lot of times in modern recordings people just bash things out. John is the opposite of me, solid and practical, a good Jewish husband. He helped me become more earthbound. I was always dreamy, thinking about art and not knowing where to buy stamps. I have a terror of running out of stamps.

You don’t need to worry about stamps anymore in the age of e-mail. I send letters. I always write a letter if somebody dies, if somebody loses somebody.

That’s admirable. One of my great regrets is that I haven’t written more sympathy letters. I have regrets. I don’t understand people who say they don’t have any regrets. I regret not asking my dad what the songs of the list would be from 1973 to 2003. I regret not asking him to expand the list.

Two years ago, you underwent brain surgery, for a structural abnormality. Brain surgery is not for sissies, in case you were wondering. I had 19 staples up the back of my head. My morbid sense of humor really got me through it. I went to the hospital singing, “If I only had a brain.”

We should mention you’re the mother of five children, the youngest of whom is 10. I could just eat him for breakfast. He’s so great. I can’t tell you how many Lego embedded in my feet with this child. I’m walking through the living room with Lego everywhere.

You’re pretty cheerful for someone whose new album takes us into “this sea of tears, sea of heartbreak.” Cheerfulness is a choice, and I realized at some point that I didn’t want to become a bitter old woman.

Obama's Looking Glass

When Believing Is Not Enough

By George F. Will
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Sunday, October 4, 2009

Last Thursday, the president's "engagement" with Iran began. This Wednesday, the U.S. war in Afghanistan will enter its ninth year. And U.S. foreign policy is entering a White Queen phase.

In "Through the Looking Glass," Alice says that she is unable to believe the White Queen's claim to be 101 years old. The Queen responds, "Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes." Alice: "There's no use trying, one can't believe impossible things." Queen: "Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

Regarding Afghanistan, President Obama might believe he can effect a Houdini-like escape, uninjured, from the box his words have built. Regarding Iran, he seems to believe that its leaders can be talked or coerced (by economic sanctions) out of their long, costly pursuit of nuclear weapons by convincing them that such weapons do not serve Iran's "security."

On March 27, the president announced "a comprehensive new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan." He said that his "clear and focused goal" was to prevent the Taliban from toppling Afghanistan's government and to prevent al-Qaeda from returning to Afghanistan or Pakistan. U.S. forces "will take the fight to the Taliban" in Afghanistan's "south" and "east," but "at the same time, we will shift the emphasis of our mission to training and increasing the size of Afghan security forces."

On Aug. 17, the president reiterated his belief that U.S. involvement in Afghanistan is "not a war of choice. This is a war of necessity." This was two months after he replaced the U.S. commander there with Gen. Stanley McChrystal, directing him to assess the resources required for the strategy. The general has done that. But the president does not yet want to discuss troop numbers. Why not?

The president's national security adviser, Jim Jones, a former four-star Marine general, told The Post that before deciding on troop levels, the focus must be on strategy: "The bumper sticker here is 'Strategy Before Resources.' " So, is the president reassessing his March 27 strategy? If so, why?

Perhaps because fraud devalued Afghanistan's election. But it was not a sunburst of new information that President Hamid Karzai is corrupt. Or did Obama believe, as only the White Queen could, that Karzai had reformed?

Granted, counterinsurgency -- especially when it includes the nation- building implicit in McChrystal's assessment -- requires a reliable partner. But, again, Karzai was a known commodity on March 27. Besides, a presidential strategy is half-baked if its author decides it is dubious after its first collision with difficulty.

Regarding Iran, what did we learn when we learned about the secret nuclear facility in the tunnel? That Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons? We knew that. That Iran lies? We knew that, too. We did, however, learn something when the president, at the Group of 20 meeting in Pittsburgh, went public with his knowledge of the facility.

On one side of him stood France's president. On the other side stood Britain's prime minister, who said that Iran's behavior would "shock and anger the whole international community." Not quite. The leaders of Russia and China were not standing with them.

China has contracted to provide Iran with gasoline, a commodity that could be central to what Defense Secretary Robert Gates calls "severe" sanctions that he thinks might cause Iran to change course. Russia's real leader, Vladimir Putin, was not even in Pittsburgh. Russia's Potemkin president, Dmitry Medvedev, did say something that only the White Queen could believe means that Russia will participate in serious pressure on Iran: Sanctions are not "the best means of obtaining results" but "if all possibilities" are exhausted, "we could consider international sanctions." Over to you, Queen.

Gates says "the only way" to prevent a nuclear-capable Iran "is for the Iranian government to decide that their security is diminished by having those weapons, as opposed to strengthened." But to accept that formulation requires accepting two propositions that would tax the White Queen's powers of belief.

One is that possession of nuclear weapons would make Iran less secure. Question: If Saddam Hussein had possessed nuclear weapons in March 2003, would the United States have invaded Iraq? Iran's leaders probably think that they know the answer.

The other proposition is that Iran's regime seeks nuclear weapons merely to enhance the nation's security and not also for regional hegemony or the enjoyment of the enlarged status that comes from being a nuclear power. To believe that, draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.

georgewill@washpost.com

The long-awaited U2 concert: Bigger than big

U2 played its first-ever Raleigh show Saturday night, and it was a pretty spectacular affair. Here's the review; and be sure to check out this excellent photo gallery, shot by ace N&O photographer Travis Long.

By David Menconi
News & Observer Staff writer
Submitted by dmenconi on 10/04/2009 - 00:30
http://www.newsobserver.com/entertainment/

RALEIGH -- A few songs into U2's Saturday night show at Carter-Finley Stadium, Bono paused to survey his domain. And he addressed the packed house with the egomaniacal charm we've all come to know and love.

"We've got old songs, we've got new songs, we've got songs we can barely play," he cracked. "And we've got a spaceship!"

Yes, it was hard not to notice that. At a time when pretty much everything seems to be in contraction mode, U2 has rolled the dice with what has to be the most elaborately ginormous stage setup in rock history -- a huge claw-shaped beast that looked like a vertigo-inducing theme-park ride.

It seemed impossible that any band, even one as outsized as U2, wouldn't get swallowed up by such surroundings. But somehow, they pulled it off through sheer force of will. This business of being the biggest band on earth clearly matters a great deal to U2, and they've put this gargantuan spectacle on the road to achieve "intimacy on a grand scale." There's just no one better at enormity than U2.

After a solid 40-minute opening set by Muse, the headline portion of the evening opened with David Bowie's "Space Oddity" as prelude music, smoke machines at full belch. Larry Mullen Jr. entered first, sitting down at his drums to start bashing. Guitarist Dave "The Edge" Evans was next, with bassist Adam Clayton right behind. And Bono was last out, of course.

Bono wasted no time hitting the heroic poses on the opener "Breathe," a track from the current album "No Line on the Horizon." While "No Line" is only so-so, its songs came across much better live -- even "Get On Your Boots," the actively annoying first single. Other recent-vintage songs to hit the mark included "Vertigo," "Magnificent" and "City of Blinding Lights."

As always, Edge provided letter-perfect guitar accompaniment. If Bono is U2's preacher man, Edge is the one who built the sonic pulpit from which he holds forth.

Hammy theatrics that somehow work are a U2 specialty, such as the way Bono worked snippets of rock-era classics into U2 songs. A bit of "Amazing Grace" turned up during the encore version of "One." And during "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," Bono pointed at the moon and sang the opening of Ben E. King's "Stand By Me" ("When the night has come/And the land is Dark/And the moon is the only light we will see...").

Sometimes, however, Bono should just leave well enough alone. Tossing his microphone to a guy in the crowd to let him sing a verse of "People Get Ready" might have seemed like a good idea; but it was an off-key disaster.

Still, that was one of the show's miscues. For all the band's pretensions, U2 is ultimately just so likable that it's almost impossible not to be won over. When they went roaring into the encore version of "Where the Streets Have No Name," that majestic guitar riff pealing like a church bell, it was a perfect moment of blissful big-rock grandeur that you just don't see much of anymore.

We shall not see U2's like again, I don't believe.

david.menconi@newsobserver.com or blogs.newsobserver.com/beat or 919-829-4759


Setlist:
Breathe
Get On Your Boots
Mysterious Ways
Beautiful Day
No Line On The Horizon
Magnificent
Elevation
In A Little While
New Year's Day
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / Stand By Me (snippet)
Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of
The Unforgettable Fire
Mofo (snippet) / City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight / Thank You (Falettin Me Be Mice Elf Again) (snippet)
Sunday Bloody Sunday / Rock The Casbah (snippet) / People Get Ready (snippet)
MLK
Walk On / You'll Never Walk Alone (snippet)

encore(s):
One / Amazing Grace (snippet)
Where The Streets Have No Name
Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
With Or Without You
Moment of Surrender

Bruce Springsteen bodysurfs the crowd at Giants Stadium on Saturday night

By Stan Goldstein
The Newark Star-Ledger
http://www.nj.com/starledger/
October 04, 2009, 4:44AM

The third show at Giants Stadium on Saturday night was a very good show and a fun show.

A lot of highlights including maybe the most memorable feat Bruce has ever done in a crowd, bodysurfing what had to be at least 30 yards from the back of the General Admission pit to the stage. People will be talking about it for years. A Hall of Fame moment.

Hearing "Born In The U.S.A." played in its entirety was pretty cool and for the most part made for a fun evening for the third show of the five-night stand.


Photo by Jeff Ross

Bruce Springsteen sings to the crowd at Giants Stadium on Saturday night.

Show began at 8:23 p.m.

Band came on stage starting with Nils and Roy. Bruce and Clarence entered from Clarence's side of the stage. Bruce walked Clarence over to his spot and Clarence gave Bruce a little kiss.
"Good evening New Jersey. You came out to help us shut the old lady down. Are you ready for the wrecking ball?"

1. Wrecking Ball

A good opener. Curt Ramm's trumpet playing really stands out. The lyrics were on the big screen one line at a time. On Wednesday the lyrics were off a bit at times and shown a few lines at a time, on Friday there were no lyrics and tonight they finally got it right.
"Bring it on!" Bruce yelled at the end.

2. Out in the Street

I always like hearing this song. Has a lot of energy. Bruce spotted a little girl (8-year-old Sammie from Philadelphia who has sang with him before) at the center extension and brought her onstage to sing with him. She was very good and Bruce was in a playful mood from the start.
The stadium was up and rocking.

3 . Outlaw Pete

Not sure what to say on this. One of only two songs that Bruce still plays from the Working on a Dream album. Been in this early spot in the setlist rotation for the entire tour. Does seem to work well in a stadium. Once again Western scenes were shown on the big screen.

4. Hungry Heart

Forget the song, what Bruce did in the middle of it is one for the ages. A legendary tale that people will be tellling their friends, "I was at Giants Stadium the night Bruce body surfed the crowd for 30 yards."
For the first two Giants Stadium shows, Bruce has been coming down from the stage and going around the huge general admission standing pit in front of the stage.

He starts out doing the same thing tonight, but when he gets to the center back of the pit, he decides he wants to body surf to the stage. It has to be 30 yards. "Can you get me back to the stage?" Bruce asks as he falls into the crowd.

The trust he has with his audience is amazing.

He hopped up and told the people to send him to the stage. I was in the center of the pit and one of the people who Bruce came right over top of. It was very cool knowing he was headed right toward us and we got our hands up and pretty soon he was right there. I held up his boot, leg and back as he came across. Many female fans in the audience were bragging they had their hands on his butt.

It all worked well and Bruce made a nice soft landing on the stage. He had two security guards who were trying to stay behind him and they had a look on their faces like "what he is doing?"

When it was over, the two guards headed back out right by me, both with smiles and just shaking their heads.

This will be one of those stories that will be talked about over and over in the history of Bruce Springsteen.

5. Working On A Dream

The only other song Bruce has been playing from the new album. "We're just getting started!" Bruce said.

Before starting the full Born In the U.S.A. album, he said how he wanted to make these Giants Stadium shows special. "First night we played all of Born to Run. Second night was Darkness and tonight, this is Born In the U.S.A.

6. Born In The U.S.A.

I loved when this was the opener on this tour in 1984 and 1985. Very powerful and a classic that seems to have been lost for the most part over the past tours.

The line: "I'm ten years burning down the road" was changed to "40 years."
Tne entire stadium was up rocking to this.

7. Cover Me

Great guitar solos by Nils. Another song that has been mostly forgotton on past tours, although it has been played a few times on this tour.

8. Darlington County

"Let's go on a road trip!" Bruce said. He had the crowd sing the first verse.
Bruce came to the side extension of Clarence's side and a woman did a flash for the cameras. Yes, it was on the big screens.

Bruce and Nils sang together on the front-center stage.

Always fun.

9. Working On The Highway

As he has done in the past on this tour, they put a microphone on the front-center extension and Bruce sang from there. Soozie had a nice violin solo. There was a young woman who came onstage to play the tambourine next to Soozie on this song. Not sure who is was, maybe Garry Tallent's daughter?

10. Downbound Train

Another great song that isn't played enough anymore. I believe it was only played one other time this tour. Very nice to hear.

11. I'm On Fire

They brought a chair out to the center extension and Bruce sang the song from there. He reached out to touch several fans.

12. No Surrender

Kind of weird seeing this in the midset. Always gets the crowd going.

13. Bobby Jean

Oh well, guess he had to play it of course. Not a favorite of many fans. The crowd in the pit did sway their arms back and forth.

14. I'm Goin' Down

Been played a few times this tour. Very nice to hear it in this spot. Another fun song from this album.

15. Glory Days

Really strange to hear this midset although that's where it was in the setlist during the Born In the U.S.A. tour.

Had the entire stadium up. Not sure if it had the impact of where it's usually played in the encore, but again, it was fun.

Bruce was going "Wooooooooh!" and throwing his arms up in the air several times toward the end of the song.

16. Dancing In The Dark

Same comment as Glory Days. Very weird to see midset although it was played that way in 1984 and 1985.

Bruce brought up his favorite dance partner, Hannah from New York City who was celebrating her 13th birthday. She was wearing an orange Syracuse sweat jacket. She is great. This is the second or third time I've seen her dance with Bruce and it's always a treat.

She has great moves and she and Bruce have great chemistry.

Hannah had a sign that said "13th birthday dance?" as she was celebrating her special day.

"She's got the moves!" Bruce yelled out when she finished dancing with him.

17. My Hometown

I always remember when listening to this album, and all the fun, upbeat songs, how My Hometown sort of all brought it right back to our own little Main Street.

It hasn't been played too often the past couple of tours so it was nice to hear.

Bruce worked the crowd at the end, having them sing along on the "Your Hometown" part. it got louder and louder.

As he did the past two shows, Bruce brought Steve, Max, Garry, Roy and Clarence to the front center stage.

"These are the guys who made the record! And Phanthom Dan Federici," Bruce said.

This was a very touching moment at all three shows.

"That was so much better than I thought it would be," a friend said to me after the Born In The U.S.A. songs. I agree, it was pretty special.

18. The Promised Land

An audible. Waiting on A Sunny Day was on the hand-written setlist in this spot. Most fans were happy we didn't get "Waiting" here. The big screens were showing clouds and a green field.

19. Last To Die

A tour premiere. One of the anchors from the Magic Tour. Good to hear again. Curt Ramm came out to play the trumpet but I couldn't hear it in the mix.

20. Long Walk Home

Second straight show it's been played. Works well with Last to Die. And most importantly, we didn't get Lonesome Day!!!

21. The Rising

22. Born To Run

Stadium lights go on. And place goes nuts.

Encores:
Bruce collects request signs to the Raise Your Hand instrumental.

23. Jersey Girl (sign request)

Bruce held up three different signs and they all read "Jersey Girl."
Is there anything better than hearing Bruce play this at a New Jersey show? Charlie Giordano played the accordian.

He always starts to laugh at the "We're going to take that little brat of yours and drop her off at your Mom's."

"We have any Jersey girls oyut there?" Bruce asked toward the end.

24. Kitty's Back (sign request)

Curt Ramm back out on trumpet, which is a very nice addition to this. He had a solo as did Roy and Bruce did some great guitar work.

When Bruce sang "Who'se that coming down the alley," he added, "I mean way in the back!" several times and pointed up to the fans in the upper deck, way up opposite the stage. They even showed them on the big screens.

Was on the setlist Friday night but not played. It's another one that goes in the fun category.

25. Detroit Medley

"Are you ready?" Bruce asked before starting it. Curt played trumpet on this also.

May I say this was another "fun song?"

Very good way to start off the encores with these three songs.


26. American Land

Jeremy Chatsky from the Sessions Band came on stage to play the stand-up bass.

For the second straight night, Bruce mentioned "The Big Man author." And they showed Clarence's new book on the big screen. Bruce gave Clarence a pen and stood there as Clarence autographed the book for him. They showed Bruce on the big screen waiting with anticipation as any fan would when someone is signing something for you. Clarence handed Bruce the book and Bruce was very pleased.

"Coming to a Borders near you" Bruce said.

Once again fireworks were set off on "The E Street Band!" part.

27. Waitin' On A Sunny Day

Well we were able to not have Lonesome Day not played and we thought we might night get this one. But Bruce played it in this spot. He had a little girl since with him as usual. She had a sign that read: "Give the Girl A Kiss" and Bruce gave her a kiss when she was done singning and posed for a photo with her.

"You've been a fabulous audience," Bruce said. "The first three nights were just fantastic.

"This is our home. So great to come here and thank you for supporting our music all these years."

28. Thunder Road

Nice song to close the show.

"Thank you Jersey. We love you!" Bruce said as they left the stage.

Over at 11:17 p.m. for a 2:54 show.

Handwritten setlist was pretty much followed, except Waiting on A Sunny Day was in the slot after "My Hometown." Also the Detroit Medley wa listed as Devil/Rosy.

Badlands was not played for the first time this tour and for the first time (outside of a 2007 Asbury Park rehearsal show) in years at an E Street Band show.

Good show, fun show but I would stop short of calling it a great show. It will go down in history of course for the full Born In the U.S.A. album and the incredible body surfing by Bruce.

Patti Scialfa was not at the show despite Bruce saying she would be there on Friday (she wasn't) and he said on Friday she would be there on Saturday.

Max Weinberg played the entire show on the drums.

Soundchecked were Downbound Train. My Hometown and Wrecking Ball.
Afterward, I asked several friends who attended all three Giants Stadium shows how they would rank them.


The general consensus was Night 2, Night 1 and Night 3, in that order. With all nights being very good and no one show really standing way out among the three.

Bruce Springsteen rocks Giants Stadium playing entire Darkness album on Friday

By Stan Goldstein
The Newark Star-Ledger
http://www.nj.com/starledger
October 03, 2009, 2:54AM

On a night when you get the full Darkness on the Edge of Town album played, Bruce pulls out a classic Elvis Presley song and the E Street Band is absolutely on top of their game, that combined to make for one pretty damn good show at Giants Stadium on Friday.

Hearing Darkness from start to finish made it a classic show of course. This was played much tighter and much better l than at the Count Basie Theatre benefit in May of 2008, the only other time the album was played in it's entirety.

A shorter show timewise than Wednesday (3:14 to 2:50) but both shows had 29 songs.

Start Time: 8:24 p.m.

Again a pretty early start. Roy and Nils came onstage first. They weren't shown coming out from backstage on the big screens as they were at Wednesday's show.


Photo by Jeff Ross

Bruce Springsteen plays to the crowd at Giants Stadium on Friday night, the second of five shows there.

Bruce came up on the side stage with Clarence, walked him to his spot, gave the Big Man a little kiss and headed to the center mic.

"Glad you came out to help us tear down this old girl," Bruce said.

1. Wrecking Ball

I like this song. It's powerful and I like that it's a New Jersey theme song. Again trumpet player Curt Ramm played on this.

The stadium lights stayed on for the entire song.

The lyrics were not put up on the big screens tonight as they were at Wednesday's show.

2. Tenth Avenue Freeze-out

"Jersey! Let them hear you in New York City!" Bruced yelled out. The words "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" were shown on a fast crawl on the big screens. They did this at some shows earlier this tour.

Bruce played to the far sides of the stage and when he got to the part "The Big Man joined the band" he pointed up to Clarence.
Always fun. Well done tonight.

3. No Surrender

A song I like but have tired of lately because Bruce does play it a lot. But tonight it really seemed to work well in this spot. A real rocking version.

The big screen behind the stage showed an old record album collection, some guitars, some saxophones and then sold old photos of Bruce and the band including the photo of the band that's on the back cover of "The Wild, the Innocent and The E Street Shuffle."

4. Outlaw Pete

A staple on this tour in an early slot. Again Western scenes were shown on the big screens.
The "Can You Hear Me?" part works well in the big stadium.

5. Hungry Heart

Seems to be back in the setlist all the time now. Bruce had the fans sing the first verse as usual.

Once again he ran into the back of the pit and jumped up and shook hands with fans and slapped high-fives with many of them. He told the band to keep playing after he finally got back onstage and collapsed on his back, I think he may have needed a few seconds to catch his breath after running around the entire pit like that. Pretty amazing. "Sounds good!" he said as the song was finishing.

6. Working on a Dream

"Good evening New Jersey. So glad to be here at Giants Stadium tonight," Bruce said. "So glad to be back home. the E Street Band has been touring, touring, touring, touring... and practicing, practicing, practiing, practicing just for tonight."

It was time to start the Darkness portion of the show.

"For Giants Stadium we tried to think of something special we could do. The other night we did 'Born To Run,' tomorrow 'Born In the U.S.A.' and tonight 'Darkness.' Bruce said.

"This was an important record for us. We had one hit and then three years off due to some trouble and hard times.

"This album has been the body of our sets for the past 30 years."

7. Badlands

Big screens showed a cloudy sky. Great as always.
"Is there anybody alive out there tonight?" Bruce yelled out.

8. Adam Raised a Cain

A real hot and smokin' version. Great guitar work by Bruce.

"That was worth the price of admission," a friend send to me when the song finished.

9. Something in the Night

Hearing these first three in order, brought me back to my senior year of high school when I first bought this album and listened to it over and over.

10 . Candy's Room

Hasn't been played enough this tour and any time it's played, is a good part of the show.

11. Racing in the Street

Okay, I have to admit it. For the second straight show I got tears in my eyes. It was "Meeting Across the River" on Wednesday. Tonight it was "Racing."

Maybe the best version I've ever heard of this song and I first saw this played live in 1978.

Just a perfect performance. The crowd was into it, Roy's piano playing was as brilliant as ever and the acoustics were awesome.

One of those moments when for those few minutes everything seems perfect in the world. The ending musical part of the song just kept getting stronger and stronger.

The woman next to me said "It's gorgeous." In my notebook I wrote: "Incredible! Wow!"

Anyone who was at the show will be talking about this version for years.

The highlight of the night.

12. The Promised Land

Nice to hear this in a different spot in the setlist.

13. Factory

Not sure if this is anyone's favorite song, but since it's not played that much, it was good to hear.

14. Streets of Fire

A classic that is not played enough. Sounded great. Nice guitar work by Bruce.

15. Prove It All Night

A hot, hot version. Incredible Nils guitar solo (think Youngstown, Ghost of Tom Joad etc.) At one point Nils was holding up his guitar with one hand and still playing it with the other hand.
Another highlight.

16. Darkness on the Edge of Town

Just like on the album, the final song. Sort of sums it all up.

At the end Bruce brought Steve, Max, Garry, Roy and Clarence to the front of the stage for a bow.

"These are the guys who made the record. And Phantom Dan Federici"
A very touching moment.

17. Waitin' on a Sunny Day

Bruce made a long toss of the guitar and tech Kevin Buell may have made his best catch ever. The guitar sailed far to the side on a long toss and Kevin had to really hustle to catch it. When he did, even Bruce stopped and clapped for him. "The wind took it!" Bruce joked about his bad throw.

We have seen Bruce do a lot of crazy things, tonight was pretty crazy. He actually jumped into the side seats between sections 108 and 109 (Off of Steve's side of the stage) and got into the front rows.

At first the crowd was singing along and Bruce said "that's terrible!"

Then he found a young girl to sing a long with him.

Raise Your Hand - Instrumental (Collecting Signs)

The handwritten setlist had Bruce doing the sign portion to start the encores but he changed his mind and decided to do it here. He was telling Steve to get his guitar.

Bruce found one sign that read: "The Boss is in N.J." and he put it by his front microphone stand.

18. I'm Goin' Down (sign request)

Bruce didn't show the sign at first and just started playing. I like this song, but some of us were hoping for something else since he's going to play it on Saturday. At one time it was a long-lost song but it seems to be played a good amount now. It's always fun to hear though.

19. Be True (sign request)

Always great to hear this B-side. Not played enough. One of the few times it's been played this tour.

At the end of it, Bruce started to sing: "The warden threw a party in the county jail."

and the next song was:

20. Jailhouse Rock (sign request, tour premiere)

So cool. Bruce Springsteen singing an Elvis Presley classic. I'll have to check but I believe it's the first time the song has ever been played by Bruce and the E Street Band. He did play it at a Rainforest benefit show at Carnegie Hall on April 12, 1995.

The crowd was so into it. Nils had a nice guitar solo. Fun.

21. Thunder Road

To hear 55,000 people sing along on the "Show a little faith, there's magic in the night

You ain't a beauty, but hey you're alright" part is just magical.

22. Long Walk Home

Yea! Lonesome Day was not played! Yeah!!!!! First time it's been out of the setlist for a long time. I'll have to check for exactly when. "Last to Die" was written in this spot on the setlist.

Very nice to hear Long Walk Home. First time it's been played since the first Asbury Park rehearsal show on March 23.

Steven sang some of it toward the end, just like he did on the Magic Tour.

23. The Rising

Crowd got into the song. It started to rain just as the song was finishing up.

24. Born to Run

Jay Weinberg came out to play drums. House lights turned on. Crowd goes nuts.

Encores:

25. Cadillac Ranch

Bruce saw a sign earlier and asked the person in the pit to hold it up.
Bruce sang "Driving through the Ho-Ho-Kus night."

26. Bobby Jean

Not a favorite of mine but I haven't heard it too much lately, so it even sounded good tonight.

27. American Land

Bruce brought out some members of the Sessions band to play on this: Larry Eagle, Ed Manion, Curt Ramm and Art Baron. If you add Curtis King, Cindy Mizelle, Soozie Tyrell and Bruce, you had eight members of the Seeger Sessions Band onstage.

Fun moment when Bruce was introducing the band.

He introduced Clarence as the "Saxaphone author!" and Clarence held up a copy of his new book. Bruce then said "the biggest man on the New Jersey Turnpike!"

Bruce then brought over a copy of the book to Clarence and had him autograph it for him.

Bruce then took the signed book, had a big smile on his face, and put it down on the side of Max's drum.

28. Dancing in the Dark

Fun as usual, Bruce did not bring anyone up to dance with him tonight.

29. Rosalita

"We got one more for you. Sending this out to Patti"
Steve then pointed out a sign to Bruce that read: "Eli Manning called. He wants Rosalita!"

Nice to hear but "Kitty's Back" was on the hand-written setlist.

Funny moment: The past two shows have had a roaming hand-held camera in the pit. Tonight the cameraman was singing along very loudly to Rosalita. He was having a good time!

Steven was splashing Bruce with a wet spongue and at one point, Bruce's guitar string broke and Kevin was right up there quickly with another guitard. Bruce handed the bad guitar to his with his right hand and grabbed the good guitar with his left.

"Thank you Jersey! We love you! See you tomorrow night" Bruce said as he left the stage.

Show over at 11:14 p.m.

Clocked in at two hours and 50 minutes, much shorter than Wednesday's 3:14 but the same amount of songs were played.

Notes: A bit of steady rain started as the Rising was finished and it was raining for most of the end of the show.

No PSA tonight, not even a mention for the foodbanks either, but they were there collecting money which is always good to see.

Neither "Johnny 99" or "Seeds" in the setlist tonight. Probably one of the rare times they haven't been played this tour, I'd look it up but it's almost 3 a.m. and I'm too tired.

No Patti Scialfa tonight, Bruce did say she would be there tonight, but she wasn't. I think he said we'll see her on Saturday.

"Wrecking Ball" was soundchecked several times as was "Long Walk Home" and "Last to Die."

Spotted in the pit: NBC News anchorman Brian Williams.

Weather wasn't too bad. In the pit it was pretty warm for most of the show, people were even saying it was a bit too warm since most had jackets etc.

Hollywood's moral compass points away from the vulnerable

Even if Roman Polanski is a "great artist," so what?

By Mark Steyn
Syndicated columnist
Orange County Register
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion
Friday, October 2, 2009

As the feminists used to say in simpler times, "What part of 'No' don't you understand?"

Quite a lot, if the reaction to Roman Polanski's arrest is anything to go by. I didn't know, for one thing, that, if you decide to plow on regardless, the world's artists will rise as one to nail their colors to your mast.

Whoopi Goldberg offered a practical defense – that what Polanski did was not "rape-rape," a distinction she left imprecisely delineated. Which may leave you with the vague impression that this was one of those deals where you're in a bar, and the gal says to you she's in 10th grade, and you find out afterward she's only in seventh. Hey, we've all been there, right? But in this particular instance Roman Polanski knew she was 13 years old and, when she declined his entreaties, drugged her with champagne and a Quaalude and then sodomized her. Twice. Which, even on the Whoopi scale, sounds less like rape, or even rape-rape, and more like rape-rape-rape-rape.


A man shows a "free Polanski" sign on on his shirt during the Zurich film festival.(AFP/File/Sebastien Bozon)

But heigh-ho. After pleading guilty, the non-non-rape-rapist skipped to Paris and took up with Nastassja Kinski, who was then 15, which in Polanski years puts her up there with Barbara Bush. He was eventually arrested en route to Zurich to receive a lifetime-achievement award – no, no, not for the girls, for his movies. For three decades, he was, to be boringly legalistic about it, a fugitive from justice – and there's no statute of limitations on that. But, of course, throughout that time, he was also a "great artist," which his fellow artists (Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese) and even the French Foreign and Culture Ministers think ought to trump a little long-ago misunderstanding over anal rape. The Berlin Film Festival announced collectively that it was shocked by "the arbitrary treatment of one of the world's most outstanding film directors," and defending the outstanding director because he's an outstanding director quickly became the standard line of defense. Debra Winger denounced the Swiss authorities for their "philistine collusion": No truly cultured society should be colluding with the "philistines" of American law enforcement. Polanski, explained the producer Harvey Weinstein, "is a man who cares deeply about his art and its place in the world." And if its place is occasionally in an involuntarily conscripted 13-year old, well, you can't make a "Hamlet" without breaking a few chicks. France's Society of Film Directors warned that the arrest of such an important artist "could have disastrous consequences for freedom of expression across the world".

Really? For the past two years, I've been in a long and weary battle up north to restore "freedom of expression" to Canada. On Monday afternoon, in fact, I'll be testifying on this very subject at the House of Commons in Ottawa, if France's Society of Film Directors or Debra Winger would like to swing by. Please, don't all stampede at once. Ottawa Airport can only handle so many Gulfstreams. If only I'd known how vital child rape was to "freedom of expression," my campaign could have taken off a lot earlier.

Let us stipulate that Roman Polanski has memories few of us would wish to bear. He is the only movie director to have had three generations of his immediate family murdered – his mother, by the Nazis; his wife and unborn child, by Charles Manson's acolytes. The only reason he didn't wind up with his parents in Auschwitz is that, when he was 8, his father cut a hole in the barbed wire of the Warsaw ghetto and pushed his son out.

In a movie, the father would either die or survive for a tearful reunion with his boy. But after the war Polanski's dad remarried, and the new wife didn't want young Roman around. By the age of 13, the pattern of his life was set: That hurried escape through the wire of the ghetto would be only the first of a series of hasty exits.

In Swingin' London, he made his name with "Repulsion" (1965), in which Catherine Deneuve descends into schizophrenia and kills a man she believes has come to rape her. He hit Hollywood with "Rosemary's Baby" (1967), in which Mia Farrow is impregnated by the Devil. You could make the case that these films reflect the psychological burdens of his childhood – if it weren't that they're almost freakily literal pre-echoes of the violence in his adult life. In 1969, Sharon Tate and four others were murdered at Polanski's house by a group called "Satan's Slaves." "I remember," wrote Joan Didion, "that no one was surprised."

One sympathizes. Except that there are millions of children of the Holocaust struggling under the burdens of the past – and only one who deals with them as Roman Polanski does. Working on the film "Chinatown," the writer Robert Towne found it hard to concentrate at the director's pad, what with "the teenyboppers that Roman would run out and take Polaroid pictures of diving off the f***ing diving board without tops on. Which was distracting. With braces."

Braces. Cute. Harvey Weinstein, the man behind the pro-Polanski petition, rejects the idea that Hollywood is "amoral": "Hollywood has the best moral compass, because it has compassion," he told an interviewer.

Let us agree that Hollywood bigshots have "compassion" for people in general, for people far away in a big crowd scene on the distant horizon, for people in a we-are-the-world-we-are-the-children sense. But Hollywood bigshots treat people in particular, little people, individuals, like garbage. To Polanski, he was the world, you are the children; now take your kit off and let's have a "photo shoot."

The political class is beginning to recalibrate. In Paris, President Sarkozy's government withdrew its initial enthusiasm for Polanski after it emerged that even the boundlessly sophisticated French aren't eager to champion creepy child rapists just because they're celebrities. As Susan Estrich wrote, "Yes, he's made some big films in those years. So what?"

Hold that thought: "Big films," like what? Until "The Pianist" briefly revived his reputation, Polanski had spent the previous quarter-century making leaden comedies ("Pirates"), generic thrillers ("Frantic") and lame art-house nudie flicks ("Bitter Moon," with the not-yet-famous Hugh Grant). If that level of "great art" is all the justification you need for drugging and sodomizing 13-year-old girls, there won't be enough middle-schoolers to go round.

The cocky, strutting little Euro-swinger is old now, Roman in the gloamin', in the twilight of his career. The Polanski of "Chinatown" was a great director on his way up, his best years presumed to lie ahead. The junk of the past 30 years pretty much killed that. What he did wouldn't be justified if Polanski were Johann Sebastian Bach. But is this resume really "great art" to go to the wall for? Why, Harvey, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world, but for "Bitter Moon"?

And that, in turn, raises another question: Earlier bad boys – Lord Byron, say – were obliged to operate as "transgressive" artists within a broader moral order. Now we are told that a man such as Polanski cannot be subject to anything so footling as morality: He cannot "transgress" it because, by definition, he transcends it. Yet all truly great art is made in the tension between freedom and constraint. In demanding that an artist be placed above the laws of man, Harvey Weinstein & Co. are also putting him beyond the possibility of art. Which may explain the present state of the movie industry.

©MARK STEYN

Today's Tune: Chuck Berry - Maybellene

(Click on title to play video)

Film Review: Zombieland

Dead of the 'Zombieland' class

By KYLE SMITH
New York Post
http://www.nypost.com/
October 2, 2009

LOOK on the bright side of an America turned “Zombieland”: bothersome gun restrictions no longer applicable. No more reading your friends’ Facebook status updates. And whenever the post-apocalypse blues get you down, you can just head on down to the nearest tchotchke shop and break some crap.

Woody Harrelson (it’s been far too long since we’ve seen him in anything good) plays a zombie killer with an array of interesting and useful weapons. His mousy sidekick (Jesse Eisenberg, last seen in “Adventureland”) hopes to get a contact high from the excess testosterone. They make an excellent comedy duo — metal meets marshmallow — as two of the last survivors in a junk-strewn wasteland after the zombies have taken over. What’s left of this country? Not to terrify anyone, but it looks almost as bad as the produce aisle of your neighborhood deli at 3 am.

Eisenberg’s never-been-kissed geek is called “Columbus” because that’s where he’s from — Harrelson is “Tallahassee.” Columbus has managed to leverage his video-game skills and Math Club eye for detail into an unlikely ability to survive the onslaught of undead humans who rampage through the countryside as rudely as an army of Kanyes.

Tallahassee agrees to take on Columbus as a partner in a 24/7 zombie-killin’ rodeo. Their quests are twofold; Columbus wants to get home, whereas Tallahassee just wants to find the world’s last surviving box of Twinkies. Both of them aren’t sure what to make of a pair of sisters (Emma Stone of “Superbad,” Abigail Breslin from “Little Miss Sunshine”) they meet up with on the road.

Screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have a fond “Men in Black" approach to sending up zombie flicks while respecting the conventions. Columbus realizes the first rule of survival is "cardio" -- helpful when trying to out-sprint, for instance, flesh-craving little girls in princess outfits with gore hanging out of their mouths. He always looks in the back seat and warns, "Don't get all stingy with your bullets."

Tallahassee, meanwhile, likes to wander into grocery stores and stir up the Z's with a little banjo music. While he's got gardening shears stuck in his pants. He's "in the ass-kickin' business and business is good." Despite many setbacks on the road to finding a spongy little treat, he serves notice that, "This Twinkie thang -- it ain't over yet."

Director Ruben Fleischer keeps up a frantic pace as the screenplay chomps through the pop-culture references. (Contemplating a lost loved one, Tallahassee says, "I haven't cried like that since 'Titanic.' ") Midway through the movie, one of the all-time great unbilled celebrity cameos is all the funnier for its randomness.

Though both female characters are underwritten and the movie ends too soon, after a routinely action-packed final act that isn't as fresh as the rest, "Zombieland" is still the funniest broad comedy since "The Hangover." Its yowling, marching, munching corpses are as scary as grad students and as hilarious as the plot of "G.I. Joe."

Polanski Controversy Shouldn’t Be Controversial

Why I am grateful for this controversy.

By Jonah Goldberg
http://www.nationalreview.com/
October 02, 2009, 0:00 a.m.

I am delighted by the Roman Polanski controversy. Don’t get me wrong: I am horrified and disgusted by what the acclaimed director did — and admitted to — but there is an upside.

Just to recap, Polanski drugged a child put in his care for the purposes of a photo shoot. He tried to bully her into sex. She said no. He raped her anyway. He pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse but fled the country before sentencing, allegedly for fear the judge wouldn’t keep his end of the plea bargain. He spent the subsequent three decades living the life of a revered celebrity in Europe. He never returned to America because there was a warrant for his arrest. In a bit of ironic justice, he was apprehended en route to Zurich to receive a lifetime-achievement award. That ceremony will apparently go on without him.

So what do I like about the controversy? Well, for starters, that there is one at all. I think it is fascinating beyond words that this is open to “debate.”

If Roman Polanksi were the name of the world’s greatest plumber or accountant, or even the director of Weekend at Bernie’s II, there would be no argument. Indeed, Polanski would have already paid his debt to society and would be a free man by now. No serious person can dispute this.

Now of course, reasonable people can disagree about all sorts of stuff. What sort of punishment does Polanski deserve? If he’s sent back to the U.S., should the 76-year-old spend the rest of his life in jail? Does the fact that the understandably exhausted victim has forgiven him mitigate issues? How should we score allegations of judicial misconduct or the time Polanski already served in jail? All of these things are open to good-faith disagreement.

But there are also a few things, by my lights, no reasonable person can dispute. The first is that child rape is a very bad thing and no amount of blame-shifting to the 13-year-old or her mother can absolve Polanski of his culpability.

Giving a grown woman a “roofie” and having sex with her is a crime. How on earth can plying a 13-year-old with champagne and a Quaalude be seen as less heinous?

A second point beyond dispute is that whatever your crime, be it tax fraud or tearing the tags off your mattress, our system of justice cannot tolerate anyone pleading guilty only to buy time to flee the jurisdiction. Even if Polanski were wholly innocent of the charges, it would be necessary for us to seek extradition.

That brings us to the even more refreshing aspect of this controversy: It is not a Left-Right issue. I’m not normally one to celebrate bipartisan unity, but it’s nice to know there are some things political or ideological opponents can agree on. Some of the most ardent and clear voices on the Polanski issue have been on the Left.

Go into a bar or union hall and ask whether fat-cat directors should get special treatment when they rape 13-year-old girls and you’ll discover that on this issue, the differences between “blue America” and “red America” are vanishingly small.

And yet, there is a controversy. Many of the international community’s leading lights are rallying to the Free Polanski movement. A petition is circulating with such names as Harvey Weinstein, Martin Scorsese, and Woody Allen on it. (No surprise that Woody’s on board, given that he married his adopted daughter.) The arguments in Polanski’s defense range from lawyerly red herrings to intellectual piffle to horrendous affronts to human decency. Whoopi Goldberg (no relation) dismissed the allegations because she was sure whatever Polanski did, it didn’t amount to “rape rape.”

It all boils down to the fact that Polanski is famous and talented and an Olympian artist, living above the world of mortals. Indeed, if he didn’t rape that girl — and he did — Polanski would still be considered a pig in most normal communities. This is the man who, after all, started dating Nastassja Kinski when she was only 15 and he was in his 40s. His taste for teenage girls is an established fact.

His defenders don’t care. They are above and beyond bourgeois notions of morality, even legality.

And that’s the main reason I am grateful for this controversy. It is a dye marker, “lighting up” a whole archipelago of morally wretched people. With their time, their money, and their craft, these very people routinely lecture America about what is right and wrong. It’s good to know that at the most fundamental level, they have no idea what they’re talking about.

— Jonah Goldberg is editor-at-large of National Review Online and the author of Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning.

© 2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

Gore and Google: Pants on Fire

By Brian Sussman
http://www.americanthinker.com/
October 01, 2009

Earth's self-anointed global warming czar, Al Gore, has teamed up with his business partners at Google (he's an Advisory Board member) to make the latest pitch for a planet that is about to burst into a bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos. Together they have created an internet video which heralds Google's entrance into the world of climate forecasting.


Former Vice President Al Gore speaks about the new Google Earth 5.0 at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, Monday, Feb. 2, 2009.

The video champions Google's new mapping tool which simulates a 3D map of the world predicting the effects of climate change through the year 2100. They claim their data is provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. According to Google, the mapping tool was introduced in partnership with the Danish Government ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Convention in December. In otherwords, this is a visual ruse to scare the hell of out of the uninformed masses.

In the video, Gore, who provides the sleepy monotone voice-over, whines out a whopper: "If we were to not dramatically reduce our emissions, the global average temperature is expected to rise as much as four or more degrees Celsius by the end of this century." He continues, declaring, "In addition, the extensive melting of the Greenland and West Antarctica ice sheets...could cause global sea-level to rise between four and twelve meters, with each meter causing roughly another 100-million refugees."

Pants afire! There is absolutely no science to back up these wild claims.

A compilation of all temperature records (satellite and land based) indicates a warming since the mid-19th century (in other words since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution) of .7 degrees Celsius. Point seven degrees. Most of that rise occurred before 1940.

Even the activist scientist from NASA, James "Gandhi" Hansen, well known for his contemptuous climate claims, has not made a prediction like Gore and Google. In 2007, Hansen gave the German magazine Spiegel a fudge-filled million year forecast which looks weak by comparison:

The average temperature is now 0.8 degrees Celsius higher than in the last century with three-quarters of the increase happening in the last 30 years. But...there's another half-degree Celsius in the pipeline due to gases already in the atmosphere, and there's at least one more half- degree to come due to power plants which we're not going to stop immediately. Even if we decide now, we've got to slow down as fast as is practical, there's still going to be enough emissions to take us to the warmest level that the planet has seen in a million years.

So Hansen, well known for his own fire pants, only predicts a rise of one-degree, while Gore-Google are shooting for up to eight. They must be buying their science from a scam artist on Craigslist.

Meantime, the Gore-Google sea level rise prediction is far greater than the idiotic one made in Al's Oscar winning An Inconvenient Truth.

One of the more troubling scenes in Gore's flick involves graphical representations of the world's major cities being submerged due to a rise in sea level from the melting of Antarctica and Greenland.

Gore focuses first on Western Antarctica. He calmly claims, "If this were to go, sea levels worldwide would go up 20 feet."

By "go" Gore's implying, melt.

He then couples that concocted cataclysm with the total melting of Greenland. Using vague, unreferenced charts supposedly illustrating the amount of melting from Greenland's glaciers and ice sheets, Gore emphatically states, "If Greenland broke up and melted, or if half of Greenland and half of West Antarctica broke up and melted, this is what would happen to the sea level..."

Playing the role of mad scientist, Gore then graphically reveals Florida flooded, San Francisco swamped, "tens of millions of people" near Beijing displaced, "40 million people" near Shanghai forced to flee and "50 million people" becoming refugees in Calcutta and East Bangladesh.

Now Gore and Google's new internet video claims global warming will displace up to 1.2 billion people.

The real truth is ever since the end of the last Ice Age, global sea level has been gradually increasing. The melting ice and snow from that bitterly cold event is continually trickling into our great oceans and seas. According to the often quoted IPCC's Fourth Assessment produced in 2007, over the past 20,000 years sea level has increased nearly 400 feet. While that may sound like a lot, let's break it down further. Over the past century the average sea level raised a mere 1.8 millimeters per year.

Gore and Google have conveniently cherry-picked and exaggerated a portion of the IPCC report which, as part of an obvious set of improbable, hypothetical scenarios states, "the collapse of [the West Antarctica Ice Sheet]... would trigger another five to six metres [16-19 feet] of sea level rise...that would take many hundreds of years to complete."

The IPCC section from which this hypothetical is lifted is entitled, How Likely are Major or Abrupt Climate Changes, such as Loss of Ice Sheets of Changes in Global Ocean Circulation? The section begins with this disclaimer:

Abrupt climate changes, such as the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the rapid loss of the Greenland Ice Sheet or large scale changes of ocean circulation systems are not considered likely to occur in the 21st century...

That means that over the next 90+ years, even the usually enthusiastic global warming editors at the U.N. are not anticipating the kind of predictions that Gore/Google are spitting out.

The IPCC also states, "All studies for the 21st century project that Antarctic [ice] changes will contribute negatively to sea level..." (italics mine). That means there is more snow and ice accumulating on Antarctica than is breaking off and melting into the surrounding waters. In addition the 2007 report declares, "...for the last two decades...Antarctica as a whole has not warmed."

Regarding the potential collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the IPCC says, "...no quantitative information is available from the current generation of ice sheet models as to the likelihood of timing of such an event." And, regarding the swamping of major cities projected by Gore/Google, the report reads, "...accelerated sea level rise caused by rapid dynamic response of the ice sheets to climate change is very unlikely during the 21st century."

Regarding Greenland, the IPCC states: "...the total melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet, which would raise global sea level by about seven metres, is a slow process that would take many hundreds of years to complete...no quantitative information is available from the current generation of ice sheet models as to the likelihood or timing of such an event"

Gore and Google have an agenda-money. For Gore it's the payday he'll secure through carbon trading; for the Google guys, it includes providing critical technology for the energy monitoring plans involved in the coming Smart Grid.

Hmm. Besides the smoldering shorts, I'm noting noses as long as a telephone wire.

Brian Sussman is an award-winning former television meteorologist and current radio host on KSFO, San Francisco. His forthcoming book, "Global Whining: confidence to confront the biggest scam in history," will be published by WND Books and available early next year.

Bruce Springsteen rocks Giants Stadium with entire Born to Run album on Wednesday night

By Stan Goldstein
Newark Star-Ledger
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/
October 01, 2009, 3:32AM

A good night of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band for the first of five shows at Giants Stadium on Wednesday night. A 29-song show that lasted 3 hours and 14 minutes, one of the longest shows timewise of this tour.

It was nice to have the show start off with a new song. I believe it's the first time Bruce has played a unreleased song (not including Working On A Dream which he played at a political rally last year) since debuting "Long Walk Home" with the Sessions Band in London in November of 2006.

Of course the highlight of the evening was hearing the entire "Born To Run" album from start to finish as well as a clasic 1978-style story in the middle of "Growin' Up."

The big video screens (two high-definitions on each side of the stage) showed Bruce and the band approaching the stage at 8:15 p.m.

Nils and Roy came out first, followed by Max, Cindy, Curtis, Soozie, Charlie and Garry Tallent who was wearing a black fedora hat, sort of something you would have seen on the River Tour. Then Steve came out.

Curt Ramm, the trumpet player who was on the Seeger Sessions tour and who was among the horn section at the Super Bowl, was also on stage.
Last out were Clarence and Bruce.

Show began at 8:18 p.m.

"Good evening New Jersey. Nice to be in my backyard. Join us tonight to shut the old lady down. We had a lot of great nights here and hope to have another one tonight," Bruce said.

"Here's something I wrote for tonight."

1. Wrecking Ball

A new song, and that is the name. I saw a handwritten setlist after the show.
Bruce sounchecked the song last week in Chicago.

They put the words to the songs on the big screens so people could follow along.

Some of the lines:

"My home is here in these Meadowlands. Where the mosquitoes grow as big as airplanes." .... Bring on your wrecking ball!" Hard times come, hard times go, bring on the wrecking ball." It's a nice ballad and a tribute to Giants Stadium. The Jets and Giants are mentioned in the song.

Kurt Ramm's trumpet added a lot to the song. The song was soundchecked several times in the afternoon.

After the song was over, the video screen kept the words up to the next song which read: "Badlands, Key of E" but instead Bruce played;

2. Seeds

Usual hot guitar work by Bruce

3. Johnny 99

With the "woo! woo!" parts. Steve and Bruce have a lot of fun playing the guitar together toward the end and were working the crowd. During Nils' guitar solo, Bruce was splashing him with the sponge.

4. Atlantic City

Always great to hear this at a New Jersey show. Crowd reacted well to it.

5. Outlaw Pete

Big screen above and behind stage showed Western scenes and at one point a blood red sky.. This song really hasn't changed much live since the start of the tour. Nice to see Bruce do the "Can You Hear Me" parts at the end to a huge stadium crowd.

6. Hungry Heart

A song Bruce has rediscovered lately, playing it at a lot of shows. He actually got off the stage and sang down the sides of the pit and into the back of the pit, all the way around to the other side and back up the opposite side of the stage.

He has been doing this at the arena shows lately, but to see him do it in a huge stadium pit is really amazing. When he was done he got back up on the stage and collapsed on his back, then got up and took a bow.

I've seen Bruce doing a lot of crazy stuff over the years and this was right up there. Pretty amazing.

7. Working on a Dream

The video screens showed stars in the sky.

"Good evening New Jersey. North to South, East to West it feels so good to be home," Bruce said.
"The mighty E Street Band has been on tour all year practicing for this moment."

Next up was the start of playing the complete "Born To Run" album in order.

"We were thinking of some things to make Giants Stadium special," Bruce said. "We had a lof of great nights here. Friday we're going to play "Darkness." Saturday, "Born In the U.S.A." top to finish. And tonight ..."

He said nothing more as the stadium went crazy and Bruce played the harmonica for the start of:

8. Thunder Road

What can I say. A classic. Is it ever bad in concert. No. And to hear it start off "Born To Run" brings us all back to 1975 when the album came out and we drop it on our turntables to play. And the 8-Track tapes and casettes.

9. Tenth Avenue Freeze-out

Bruce worked the crowd at the start to get them going. Kurt played trumpet along side Clarence on the sax.

At the end, Bruce was at the left-stage extension into the pit and someone handed him a beer. He took it and drank it.

10. Night

Bruce gave Clarence a high-five at the end.

11. Backstreets

Another song that takes me back to high school and the 1970s. Gave me chills tonight hearing it in the album seequence. Another masterpiece.

Bruce did a little rap in the middle of the song, "Just you and me baby until the end...."

12. Born to Run

So strange to see this is the middle of the set but so much fun too. House lights came up. The entire stadium appeared to be on their feet.

"Jersey! Jersey!" Bruce yelled during the song.

13. She's the One

Bruce switched guitars during the middle and through his one guitar to tech Kevin Buell who made a nice one-handed catch.

14. Meeting Across the River

The highlight of the evening for me and a very moving moment.

This is my favorite Springsteen song. The lyric: "Change your shirt, 'cause tonight we got style" is my favorite line of any song Bruce or non-Bruce.

Tonight it was Bruce, Garry on the bass, Roy on piano and Curt on the trumpet. Just beautiful, magical, amazing.

What can I say. I had tears in my eyes at the end, something that rarely happens to me. I was that moved.

Best version I've ever seen of it in concert.

15. Jungleland

Meeting into Jungleland. Just like the album, just like it's been played at times during past tours.
Very strong version of Jungeland. Clarence nailed the sax solo just like he always does.

A very moving moment when Jungleland finished. Bruce brought out to the front of the stage Clarence, Max, Roy, Garry and Steve.

"These are the guys who made the magic. And Phanton Dan Federdici," Bruce said, choking up a bit when he mentioned Danny.

"Now get back to work. Get your asses back to your instruments" he then joked.

16. Waitin' on a Sunny Day

OK, back to reality. I think most diehards wish for something else here but it does work well with a stadium crowd for the most part.

Bruce made a long guitar toss to tech Kevin Buell who was able to catch it, but it wasn't easy. "That's a nice" Bruce said after Kevin's catch.

Bruce brought onstage Spenceer, a 12-year-old boy from Jackson, N.J. to sing along. He did it very well.

17. The Promised Land

Not much to say. Always a classic. Been played at every show this tour.

18. Into the Fire

Bruce played this in Des Moines last week. One of the highlights of the show. A very good song for Curtis and Cindy to contribute on and you can hear them pretty well.

Long, haunting intro by Bruce, had many trying to figure out what the song was.

Very happy to see this back in the setlist.

19. Lonesome Day

A song that needs to take a break from the setlist, but the crowd does get into it.

20. The Rising

I do like hearing this but again this has been played with Lonesome Day the entire tour. Needs to be mixed up.

21. Badlands

This was the second song on the handwritten setlist but was an audible here. "Land of Hope and Dreams" or "Born In the U.S.A." were in this spot on the handwritten setlist.

22. No Surrender

An audible. Not on the setlist. Bruce wanted to keep the crowd going. Even started the finish of the song again to keep it going.

Encores:

"It's too cold to stop" Bruce said. "I've got two words, no three words: Play it Steve!"

23. Raise Your Hand (collecting signs)

Bruce brought out a sign that read: "It's Boss time" and placed it in front of his microphone and a "I (heart) Stevie" and put it in front of his microphone.

Bruce looked at one sign and said "that's too old!" The request was for "Jennifer" a Steel Mill song.

They did play the entire "Raise Your Hand" tonight, it was not just the instrumental version. Bruce jumped on the piano toward the end of the song and then came up to the front center extension and started to sign "I believe in miracles! Where you from?" a few times from the 1970s "You Sexy Thing" song by Hot Chocolate.

24. E Street Shuffle (sign request)

Bruce has fun, crowd has fun. Curt back onstage to play the trumpet. Worked well with Clarence's sax.

At the end Bruce was saying: "Just a dance you do everyday to get through the bull****."

25. Growin' Up (sign request)

The sign was great, it was a picture of different Bruce albums and different pictures of Bruce through the years.

What made this so great tonight was that Bruce broke into a story in the middle of the song, just like he did on the Darkness Tour in 1978.

See if I can get most of the story:

"Hey C!" Bruce yelled to Clarence. "I had the weirdest dream I ever had. It's one of those dreams that make you shudder. You wake up and go 'Oh (****)!" that you thank Jesus it wasn't real.

"I was back in my house and there was a lot of people. A ****load of people. It was filled with all my relatives. All the relatives I had since I lived in Freehold. It was a bigger population than all of Freehold!

I'm walking through thye house and all the lights go out. Then there's this cake with 60 ***** candles on it."

The crowd then started to sing "Happy Birthday" to Bruce.

Story continues:

"There are thousands of people reminding me of something I was trying to forget. I woke up and then when I woke up... "

He then broke back into signing "I took month-long vacations in the stratosphere and you know it's really hard to hold your breath."

It was great and a lot of fun.

26. American Land

Willie Nile came on stage to play guitar.

Fireworks were set off from the side of the stage during the "E Street Band!" part at the end.

"That's right, we splurged for fireworks" Bruce said to the crowd.

27. Dancing in the Dark

Bruce brought up a woman to dance with him.

Bruce looked like he was ready to play another sign request (it was "Jersey Girl") and he was taking his time looking at it. But he did not play it.

"Hope you packed a lunch" Steven joked to the crowd as Bruce took a few seconds to get ready.

"Thank you. We got a few left." said Bruce as he wanted Willie Nile to come back onstage "It's only got three chords!"

Bruce then went into a bit of a PSA, taking more this tour than any other time about some current issues.

He mentioned how people are needing work and said "Mr. President. Put us back to work." "

He talked about how years ago when he would play "Born To Run" he would always say "Nobody wins unless everybody wins." But he stopped saying that a while back .

He said the middle class was squeezed under the Reagan administration abd the there should be affordable health care for all.

28. Hard Times

At the end of the song he again said: "Nobody wins unless everybody wins."

29. Rosalita

"i'm going to send Rosalita out to Patti, where ever you are come out tonight. She'll be here on Friday," Bruce said.

At the end he said "Patti come out tonight!"

Show over at 11:32 p.m.

Bruce was the last to leave the stage.

Fun show, great at times.

Stadium looked to be mostly full.

Only thing on the handwritten setlist that wasn't played was "41 Shots." It was listed with a ? in the spot after Promised Land.

GA process ran pretty well. A little mixup as they were allowing people in the stadium, but it was corrected pretty quickly.

A cool night at Giants Stadium. It was actually cooler in the afternoon but it did warm up by showtime.

Definitely jacket weather though.

"Long Walk Home" and "Last to Die" was also soundchecked.

Next show: Friday at Giants Stadium. I'll be there.