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Is World War III inevitable? Where and when would it start? Share your dire predictions in the International Issues area of Table Talk

D A I L Y+Q U O T E
Baptists to women: Serve your man!

R E C E N T L Y
Does the CIA stereotype Jews as security risks?
By Jeff Stein
A CIA lawyer denied clearance to work at the White house sues -- and charges that the agency is purging Jews
(06/10/98)

A Clinton critic's tax-exempt lifestyle
(Part Two)
By Jonathan Broder and Joe Conason
As head of the American Spectator's nonprofit foundation, conservative editor R. Emmett Tyrrell enjoys some unusual perks
(06/09/98)
The American Spectator's funny money (Part One)
By Jonathan Broder and Joe Conason
How the American Spectator's attempt to destroy Clinton blew up in its own face
(06/08/98)

The sad death of a soccer maverick
By Tamsin Todd
The tortured life of Britain's first openly gay soccer star ends in tragedy
(06/05/98)
Viagra for all hands!
By Peter Scheer
A class-action suit demands that insurers pay for Viagra for all claimants who say they're impotent. But what if they're just looking for kicks?
(06/04/98)
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Charlton Heston AP photo
prophet of the
___P L A G U E
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Charlton Heston's dark view of his fellow humans makes him a perfect president of the NRA.
BY TERRY DIGGS | Casting Charlton Heston as president of the National Rifle Association is perfect. Who better to embody images and stage compelling enactments of the organization's worldview than an actor-icon? Remember Ronald Reagan?
Of course, Heston has already appeared in one cinematic depiction of how the world looks to the gun lobby, but it's not as Moses in "The Ten Commandments." It's "The Omega Man" (1972) -- a cult classic in the rep houses that portrays a dystopian universe in which the gun-control advocates have taken over.
The makers of "The Omega Man" took their source material from "I Am Legend," a 1954 vampire story by Richard Matheson, the sci-fi writer who created "The Incredible Shrinking Man" (1956) and a dozen "Twilight Zone" teleplays. But the movie of "The Omega Man" retained little of Matheson's attack on post-World War II commodity culture. Instead, the movie denounced the political upheaval of its own time, indicting as civilization-killers the anti-Vietnam protesters, Black Power advocates and gender revolutionaries who were scaring the pants off America's supposedly "great silent majority."
Like "The Omega Man," Heston is no stranger to cries of kulturkampf. "A cultural war is raging across our land -- storming our values, assaulting our freedoms, killing our self-confidence in who we are and what we believe," the actor told the Free Congress Foundation last December. And in "The Omega Man," Heston exemplifies the NRA's recipe for resistance to such an assault. A man keeps his culture only so long as he keeps his carbine.
In the film, Heston's character, Richard Neville, is the only American still in possession of an assault rifle; he is the world's last civilized man. Neville roams an empty Los Angeles, the sole human to have been inoculated against a man-made virus that has destroyed the world. At first his only living companions are the members of a zombie sect, creatures who have been drastically altered by the infection, but not killed by it.
Named "the Family" -- the film came out one year after the Charles Manson trial -- these subhumans enact the rituals of contemporary urban crime: home invasion, abduction and violent assault. Only Neville's protective technology -- his machine guns, his infrared targeting devices and his security monitors -- ensures his survival. Led by the politically opportunistic Matthias, the Family has destroyed all the world's weapons except those in Neville's stockpile. The Family has demolished America's cultural treasures as well. "At it again, I see," Neville remarks from his balcony, high above the vandals' bonfires. "What'll it be tonight? The Museum of Science? Some library? Poor miserable bastards!"
N E X T+P A G E+| "We are not a docile species"
PHOTO AP/WIDE WORLD

T A B L E+T A L K Is World War III inevitable? Where and when would it start? Share your dire predictions in the International Issues area of Table Talk D A I L Y+Q U O T E Baptists to women: Serve your man! R E C E N T L Y Does the CIA stereotype Jews as security risks? By Jeff Stein A CIA lawyer denied clearance to work at the White house sues -- and charges that the agency is purging Jews (06/10/98) A Clinton critic's tax-exempt lifestyle (Part Two) By Jonathan Broder and Joe Conason As head of the American Spectator's nonprofit foundation, conservative editor R. Emmett Tyrrell enjoys some unusual perks (06/09/98) The American Spectator's funny money (Part One) By Jonathan Broder and Joe Conason How the American Spectator's attempt to destroy Clinton blew up in its own face (06/08/98) The sad death of a soccer maverick By Tamsin Todd The tortured life of Britain's first openly gay soccer star ends in tragedy (06/05/98) Viagra for all hands! By Peter Scheer A class-action suit demands that insurers pay for Viagra for all claimants who say they're impotent. But what if they're just looking for kicks? (06/04/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
		prophet of the ___P L A G U E - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Charlton Heston's dark view of his fellow humans makes him a perfect president of the NRA. BY TERRY DIGGS \| Casting Charlton Heston as president of the National Rifle Association is perfect. Who better to embody images and stage compelling enactments of the organization's worldview than an actor-icon? Remember Ronald Reagan? Of course, Heston has already appeared in one cinematic depiction of how the world looks to the gun lobby, but it's not as Moses in "The Ten Commandments." It's "The Omega Man" (1972) -- a cult classic in the rep houses that portrays a dystopian universe in which the gun-control advocates have taken over. The makers of "The Omega Man" took their source material from "I Am Legend," a 1954 vampire story by Richard Matheson, the sci-fi writer who created "The Incredible Shrinking Man" (1956) and a dozen "Twilight Zone" teleplays. But the movie of "The Omega Man" retained little of Matheson's attack on post-World War II commodity culture. Instead, the movie denounced the political upheaval of its own time, indicting as civilization-killers the anti-Vietnam protesters, Black Power advocates and gender revolutionaries who were scaring the pants off America's supposedly "great silent majority." Like "The Omega Man," Heston is no stranger to cries of kulturkampf. "A cultural war is raging across our land -- storming our values, assaulting our freedoms, killing our self-confidence in who we are and what we believe," the actor told the Free Congress Foundation last December. And in "The Omega Man," Heston exemplifies the NRA's recipe for resistance to such an assault. A man keeps his culture only so long as he keeps his carbine. In the film, Heston's character, Richard Neville, is the only American still in possession of an assault rifle; he is the world's last civilized man. Neville roams an empty Los Angeles, the sole human to have been inoculated against a man-made virus that has destroyed the world. At first his only living companions are the members of a zombie sect, creatures who have been drastically altered by the infection, but not killed by it. Named "the Family" -- the film came out one year after the Charles Manson trial -- these subhumans enact the rituals of contemporary urban crime: home invasion, abduction and violent assault. Only Neville's protective technology -- his machine guns, his infrared targeting devices and his security monitors -- ensures his survival. Led by the politically opportunistic Matthias, the Family has destroyed all the world's weapons except those in Neville's stockpile. The Family has demolished America's cultural treasures as well. "At it again, I see," Neville remarks from his balcony, high above the vandals' bonfires. "What'll it be tonight? The Museum of Science? Some library? Poor miserable bastards!" N E X T+P A G E+\| "We are not a docile species" PHOTO AP/WIDE WORLD