ARNOLD KLING
August 14, 2011
The Top Political Contributors
August 11, 2011
Gender and the New Commanding Heights
August 11, 2011
Jamie Galbraith Makes an Assumption
August 11, 2011
Macroeconometrics: The Science of Hubris
August 10, 2011
Real and Nominal Bond Yields
BRYAN CAPLAN
August 14, 2011
The Effect of Thumb Sucking on Income
August 12, 2011
The Voice of Cold, Hard Truth to All Would-Be Educators
August 12, 2011
Ability, Morality, and Prosperity: A Paper and a Report
August 11, 2011
The Theory of Time and Frittering
August 10, 2011
Male Variance and the Remnants of the Gender Gap
DAVID HENDERSON
August 9, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken", Part Two
August 8, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken"
August 5, 2011
James Bovard on the Peace Corps
August 4, 2011
Summers Way Off on FDR and 1941
August 3, 2011
The "Amazon" Tax
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Bryan,
I liked the movie a lot too. I saw him speak in late May or early June 1978. It was at a church in downtown SF and it was an event held by BACABI: the Bay Area Coalition Against the Briggs Initiative. The reason I was there is that my friend Roy Childs was in the libertarian part of that coalition and I went to see Roy speak. Milk had incredible charisma and the crowd--straight and gay, men and women--just ate him up. His friendliness was infectious.
D.
Thanks for your interesting post about Harvey Milk. Good point about Hollywood missing the opportunity of featuring the "Twinkie defense."
But, to borrow a quote, Hollywood seldom misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Who do you think Milk would have felt better about? A mugger who treated gays with respect or a typical 70s libertarian who opposed anti-discrimination laws and treated gays with thinly veiled disgust?
"typical 70s liberal who supported discrimination laws"
What typical 70s liberals supported discrimination laws?
I once sat near Gus Van Sant at a showing of 2001 (he was in town for a retrospective of his films, but I didn't realize it was him until much later).
I missed the opportunity to give him a wedgie or something for his horrid Psycho "remake." :-)
Bryan, are you one of those peeps who goes to see all of the big Oscar nominees? I'm a film freak, but haven't given a rat's patootie about the Oscars since Return of the King. If Tree of Life gets some nominations, I may watch.
I did not see the movie, but I find it interesting that they left out Milk's association and support of Jim Jones and Peoples Temple. I thought you might have been tougher on the movie for this point alone Bryan.
I also liked the movie more than I thought I would, partly for the same reasons you describe.
To answer your question, it appeared like Harvey Milk tried to work with Dan White precisely because Dan White treated him with respect (or at least more respect than other conservative politicians at the time). He knew Dan White disagreed with his positions (much like a libertarian who might not support anti-discrimination laws), but he tried to work with him and possibly liked him more because of this respect.
Of course, Dan White went crazy and killed him...but at least prior to that it seems like the movie supports the former.