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Will Rogers Mocked Congress for Thirty Years and Never Lost the Room The Oklahoma cowboy humorist teased both parties and every Congress until 1935 and stayed America's favourite. He shows how to be funny without being cruel. Greed Is Good Was a Movie Villain's Line, and Other Myths About Capitalism Seven popular claims about capitalism, from greed to zero-sum trade, tested against Adam Smith, a 1987 movie and the long record of market economies. It's a Wonderful Life Is the Most Conservative Film Hollywood Ever Made Capra's 1946 classic celebrates family, thrift, faith and local institutions, and its villain wants to own everything. It is the conservative Christmas film. Movies That Love America Still Sell Tickets, and Hollywood Keeps Forgetting Films that honour service, faith and country keep drawing huge crowds while the industry calls each hit a fluke. An audience waits for anyone who will serve it. Made for Beijing, How the Chinese Market Changed Hollywood Scripts Studios chasing the Chinese box office edited villains, characters and flags to please censors, and American audiences pay for it. Here is what studios owe us. When Hollywood Enlisted, the Studios and Stars Who Went to War in 1942 After Pearl Harbor the film industry put stars in uniform and studios to work for the war, a model of patriotic culture that today's industry could learn from. Dirty Jobs and Honest Work, Why Pop Culture Rarely Celebrates the Trades Screens rarely show plumbers, welders and farmers as heroes, and that silence tells young people skilled work is a consolation prize. Respect makes workers. From Father Knows Best to the Bumbling Sitcom Dad, What TV Taught About Fathers Television's dads went from wise heads of the house to the family punchline, and the culture followed the laugh track. Respect for fathers is a choice. FCC v. Pacifica and the Seven Dirty Words That Still Shape Broadcast Rules A 1978 ruling over a comedian's monologue still sets the rules for the airwaves. Conservatives split on it, and this post weighs both sides and picks one. Late Night Comedy Stopped Punching at Power and Started Lecturing Late night once mocked whoever held office. One-sided commentary made it less funny, and comedy aimed at everyone is the healthier tradition. Irving Berlin Came Through Ellis Island and Wrote God Bless America A boy who arrived from Russia in 1893 became America's great songwriter, gave the country an unofficial anthem, and gave the royalties to the Scouts. Country Music Still Sings About Work, Faith and Flag, and It Is No Accident Country is the popular genre whose mainstream still celebrates work, faith, family and country, because its audience lives those things. Eric Liddell would not run on Sunday, then won Olympic gold anyway The Scottish sprinter gave up his best event in 1924 over a Sunday heat, won the 400 meters instead and spent his life as a missionary in China. When Comedians Avoid Campus Crowds, the Whole Culture Gets Less Funny Top comics said in 2014 and 2015 that they had stopped playing colleges, and a culture that cannot laugh at itself cannot argue with itself either. Brown v. Entertainment Merchants and Why Conservatives Split on Video Games In 2011 the Court struck down California's ban on selling violent games to minors, with Thomas dissenting on parents' authority. Both views get a hearing.