An Opinion
The recent political chatter about “Obamacare” before the Supreme Court of the United States got a great deal of media attention. President Obama added fuel to the fire when he declared, “Ultimately, I am confident the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.”
For someone who was a law professor those words were absurd. Even if a bill passed unanimously in the house and senate, it could still be overturned – if the law was in violation of the Constitution.
Viewpoint
Five state legislators do the perp walk on criminal charges in five weeks, with maybe more on the way.
I always try to look at the bright side. One of these legislators wore a wire for three years and there haven’t been nearly as many arrests or indictments as some might have figured. Another silver lining is that a bunch of the charges really aren’t about corrupting government functions, but about political greed and personal sleaze. So we’ve got all of that going for us. Call me Mr. Sunshine.
Eye on the Island
There is no quicker way for a county legislator to generate a headline than to accuse the county executive or the county comptroller of not doing his or her job. But what happens when the governmental official who comes under legislative fire is vindicated?
If the accused party is a Republican who is up for re-election this year, such as Comptroller George Maragos, county legislators move on to another target and hope their next round of allegations have merit. After all, if a county governmental agency is doing its job, that’s not news, right?
Gold Coast Festival
Written by Mike Barry Friday, 26 October 2012 00:00
The 2nd Annual Gold Coast International Film Festival (GCIFF) began earlier this week but Nassau movie fans have a few more days to catch the latest films from some of Hollywood’s biggest names.
Edward Burns, who grew up in Valley Stream, will be at Port Washington’s Clearview Cinema on Thursday evening, Oct. 25, to participate in an audience question and answer session, following that night’s 6:30 p.m. screening of his latest movie, The Fitzgerald Family Christmas. Burns wrote, directed and starred in this story about “an expansive Irish clan’s fraught yuletide when their long absent patriarch declares his intention to come home for the holiday.”
Silver Linings Playbook, starring Bradley Cooper, Robert DeNiro, Julia Stiles and Jennifer Lawrence, is competing with Burns on that same evening (Oct. 25). It will be shown at the Great Neck Squire Clearview Cinema at 7 p.m. The motion picture is about “a former high school teacher who returns to his family home after eight months in a mental institution” and starts to rebuild slowly his life.
The anticipated highlights on Friday night, Oct. 26, include In Another Country, a South Korean film that was a 2012 Cannes Film Festival selection, and Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey, which offers a close-up look at the rock group Journey. In Another Country will be shown at the Manhasset Clearview Cinema on that evening (Oct. 26) at 7 p.m. Meanwhile, the Journey film’s screening will take place on Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. at the Port Washington Clearview Cinema, with filmmaker Ramona Diaz and Great Neck resident David Paterson, the film’s producer, appearing afterwards for a question and answer session.
There are three films being shown on Saturday evening, Oct. 27 as part of the GCIFF, with the Port Washington Clearview Cinema’s 7:30 p.m. screening of Bad Parents featuring a filmmaker question and answer session with director Caytha Jentis. Bad Parents is a comedy built around the world of suburban youth soccer and stars comedian Janeane Garofalo.
Restoration, an Israeli film that has been nominated for numerous awards, will be shown on Saturday, Oct. 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the Roslyn Clearview Cinema. The movie is about a 70-year-old man who finds an 1882 Steinway and believes its restoration can save his financially troubled antique shop. Lighter fare is on the calendar that same night (Oct. 27) at the Great Neck Squire Clearview Cinema, at 8 p.m., where the GCIFF will show The Sapphires. It is billed as an uplifting musical about three performers who are “plucked from the obscurity of a remote Aboriginal mission, branded as Australia’s answer to The Supremes, and dropped into the jungles of Vietnam to entertain U.S. troops.”
Finally, on Sunday, Oct. 28, at 4 p.m., a panel featuring the director, writer and producer of Mother of Normandy, will convene at the Great Neck Squire Clearview Cinema for a screening and discussion of their documentary about Simone Renaud. She spent a lifetime tending to the French graves of American soldiers who perished on D-Day in 1944 while also corresponding with their loved ones back home.
Tickets can be purchased on the day of the show. For more information, go to www.goldcoastfilmfestival.org.
