From Andrea Harris, via my comments section:

...neither Rand nor Mark Stein said that Hollywood is losing money because they no longer make "morality tales." Why don't you try reading the article? Steyn said that the reason Hollywood is losing money is because 1) the cramped, uncomfortable theaters with bad, blurry pictures run by inept crews, 2) the dull, bland, safe rehashing of the same three ideas (wacky girl and guy fall into comic hate-love, hilarity ensues, also car chases; brooding freethinking manchild who is still in love with his divorced Only Wife is Abused By the System -- which is represented by short-haired white men in suits, aka Republicans; or occasionally, blond neo-Nazi terrorists with fake Cherman accents -- and Loses Everything He Has But His Dignity, with car chases and explosions; and brooding, mature woman-goddess is Hurt By Men, but is redeemed by her Feisty, Bitchy, Neurotic, Yet Wise Beyond Their Prescriptions female friends -- no car chases and the only explosions are screaming cat fights that dissolve into hugs 'n' tears) 3) the stifling political correctness that covers the industry like a blanket of mold and which has done something formerly thought impossible: made the Catholic League for Decency (or whatever they were called), the Hays Commission, and the dreaded Joe McCarthy and HUAC look like a bunch of fun party people.

He noted that Harry Potter was a phenomenon, but one unconnected to the overall problem of the no-fun suck that Hollywood's output has become. He did imply that people go see the Potter movies because they seem to actually accept that there is good and evil in the world, not just "accepting" and "hurtful." They also aren't overly concerned with political correctness, though Rowling is careful to have Indian and black students in the wizard school, and one of Goblet of Fire's subplots is (at least in the book, I haven't seen the movie) about bigotry against the "different," in this case, giants -- but at least no one gets up and stops the action dead to make a speech, or worse. If the current minds behind today's thrillers with the fake "nazis are the only acceptible villains" terrorists in them had been in charge of the Potter films Harry would have been cast as a black lesbian paraplegic and there would have been no magic to avoid insulting Wiccans.

"A Wasted Blog Post"

I know, I know, I keep doing that. I think I'll at least be smart this time and save it on my hard drive

(click-drag-copy)

... and maybe one day I will develop it into a real post.

Hey, that is a funny read. Bravo.

On a slight tangent, I offer a politically correct version of Cinderella - by Charles Dickens!

A satire, of course.

It's in an article attacking a rewritten version of fairy tales.

From the article: "Imagine a Total abstinence edition of Robinson Crusoe, with the rum left out. Imagine a Peace edition, with the gunpowder left out, and the rum left in. Imagine a Vegetarian edition, with the goat's flesh left out. Imagine a Kentucky edition, to introduce a flogging of that 'tarnal old n***** Friday, twice a week. Imagine an Aborigines Protection Society edition, to deny cannibalism and make Robinson embrace the amiable savages whenever they landed."

And Hollywood thinks it's progressive.

Rowling is careful to have Indian and black students in the wizard school

The wizard school is supposed to be a stereotypical English "public school" on the Eton/ Harrow model, which just happens to teach magic instead of geography & Latin, and schools like that typically have quite a few Indian/ black students (usually the children of rich families/ government officials from former British colonies). If Rowling had been trying for PC rather than verisimilitude, she'd probably have made either the headmaster or Harry's sidekick into a "minority" student...

After seeing the latest Harry Potter, I'd say that franchise has been ruined as well. It was like a George Lucas late Star Wars trilogy were colorful plot devices were removed to make room for eye candy that only the most mind numbed of individuals would find satisfying. But it too wasn't politically correct by creating of all things, an all-male and all-female school of magic, something even J.K. Rowling's book didn't have.

But it too wasn't politically correct by creating of all things, an all-male and all-female school of magic, something even J.K. Rowling's book didn't have.

That is correct. Beauxbatons school and the Bulgarian school were never pictured as all-male or all-female by Rowling, but every one of the students that came from Bulgaria was male and all the Beauxbatons were female. It was written that way for the tension to evolve between Ron and Hermione and a love interest for Hagrid that evolves into a mission for book five.