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BALI, Indonesia (AP) - A powerful earthquake hit waters off Indonesia's resort island of Bali, sending people fleeing homes and hotels in panic. No tsunami alert was issued.
The U.S. Geological Survey put the preliminary magnitude of Thursday's quake at 6.0 and said it was centered 60 miles (100 kilometers) southwest of the island.
It struck 36 miles (60 kilometers) beneath the ocean floor.
Indonesia's geological agency put the quake's magnitude at 6.8.
The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.
Showing posts with label info. Show all posts
Showing posts with label info. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Indonesia's Bali rattled by large quake
Indonesia's Bali rattled by large quake
BALI, Indonesia (AP) — A powerful earthquake struck off Indonesia's popular resort island of Bali on Thursday, sending people fleeing from their homes and hotels in panic. No tsunami alert was issued, and there were no immediate reports of injuries.
Some roofs collapsed, and witnesses told local radio and television stations they saw cracks in the walls of buildings.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 was centered 60 miles (100 kilometers) southwest of the island. It struck 36 miles (60 kilometers) beneath the ocean floor.
"It knocked me off my motorcycle," said one resident, Miftahul Chusna.
Indonesia straddles a series of fault lines that makes the vast island nation prone to volcanic and seismic activity.
A giant quake off the country on Dec. 26, 2004, triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed 230,000 people, half of them in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh.
Report of Special Committee on Foreign Law Schools
Seeking Approval under ABA Standards
This Special Committee was appointed on June 10, 2010 and asked to
report to the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the
Bar at its August 2010 meeting on the policy questions surrounding the
question whether law schools located outside the United States or its
territories, which have modeled their educational programs on the American
model, should be allowed to seek accreditation under the governing Section
Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools. Notably, this
inquiry follows the thorough July 15, 2009 Report of the Special Committee
on International Issues, chaired by Justice Elizabeth Lacy. That report
examined the impact of international issues on legal education and
admissions to the bar, as well as the question of the various ways in which
the Section should respond to those pressures, including the accreditation of
non-U.S. law schools.1
After a brief introduction, this report falls into three parts. The first
discusses the policy implications and justifications for expanding the
accreditation role of the ABA Section to encompass law schools located
outside the United States or its territories. The second considers what
special rules or concerns might need to be addressed should the Council
determine to proceed to consider applications coming from such law schools.
Because of the limited time frame in which this report was composed, no
attempt is made to provide a detailed assessment of exactly how to address
the possible concerns raised or to set out any special procedural Rules or
Standards that should be adopted in response to such concerns. Instead,
this latter section is designed to inform the Council of the kinds of matters
a result of the 2009 report the Council agreed to
the appointment of a standing International Issues Committee,
which currently is being chaired by Professor Dennis Lynch. That
committee is examining issues related to the use of an LL.M.
degree as a qualifying credential for foreign trained lawyers to
be able to sit for a state bar examination in the United States
and whether special bar-admissions consideration also is merited
for graduates in common law countries that follow a graduate law
school model similar to that used in the United States. Thus,
this report omits examination of those issues.
2
that need further decisions or adjustments should it be determined to move
forward on the question of accrediting non-U.S. territorially based law
schools. Finally, the report concludes with a series of recommendations.
Introduction
There appears to be nothing in the current ABA Standards and Rules
of Procedure that specifically addresses whether a law school seeking
provisional or full approval must be located in the United States.
Nonetheless, the Preface to the Standards notes that "The Council grants
provisional and full ABA approval to law schools located in the United States,
its territories, and possessions." (p. vi) And the Bylaws of the Section
state: "The purposes of this Section as stated in its Mission Statement
are ... to provide a fair, effective, and efficient accrediting system for
American law schools." This quoted language certainly accurately describes
the historic role of the Section's accreditation function. The question is
whether it should remain so limited in the future.
The 2009 Report details how the increasing globalization of law
practice has placed greater pressures on the state supreme courts and bar
admissions administrators, as well as clients and foreign lawyers, to develop
better information for making determinations as to the admission of foreign
lawyers to the practice of law in this country. It notes that overwhelmingly
the accreditation function of the Section informs the state supreme courts
and bar administrators about the quality of the educational experience of an
applicant so that expanding that function to include foreign educational
experiences could be an important way to provide the type of information
needed. Thus, it concludes:
Probably the most compelling justification for why the scope of
the Section's current accreditation efforts should be expanded is
that in doing so the Section would be able to provide state
supreme courts with a basis for deciding whether a person
holding one of the degrees under these programs should be
permitted to sit for their bar examinations and perhaps other
conditions. (p. 25)
It also notes that
U.S. and for Americans
cooperation so that the
educational fitness of
the increased pressures for foreign practice in the
to practice abroad will continue regardless of U.S.
Section should help to ensure the intellectual and
bar applicants to the extent their educational
3
backgrounds justify ABA accreditation. Finally, it concludes on this issue that
any expansion of the ABA accreditation function to accommodate these
globalization pressures should be limited to foreign law schools modeling
their programs under and meeting fully the prevailing ABA standards and
that no specialized, separate accreditation system should be established for
foreign law schools generally. Rather, in exercising its existing accreditation
function, "the Section should abandon any notion of territorial restrictions in
accreditation." (p. 28)
This committee's charge, therefore, is to examine more carefully that
conclusion, including what its implications may be.
I. Policy Considerations
A. Reasons supporting expansion of ABA accreditation to schools
located outside the United States and its territories
(1) As described in the 2009 Report, such an expansion would provide
additional guidance for state supreme courts when lawyers trained outside
the United States seek to be allowed to sit for a U.S. bar examination. Since
that is a key function of the accreditation process generally, the expansion
would be consistent with the historic role of the Section in aiding the state
supreme courts in the bar admissions area.
(2) If the Section does nothing to expand accreditation to schools
located outside the U.S., pressures to find other routes to U.S. licensure will
continue to increase and two negative things will occur. First, states will be
forced to make decisions about what education is good enough to allow
foreign-trained individuals to sit for the bar exam and some states
undoubtedly will authorize lawyers to enter the U.S. legal profession with
weaker and less reliable training than is provided in ABA approved law
schools. Second, because these decisions will be made from state to state,
there will not be just one standard for evaluating educational credentials,
but many of them, and that will result in a lack of clarity and consistency.
These effects are harmful to the profession and the public. They also will put
more pressure on bar examiners to raise bar-passage requirements since
the bar exam will be the primary means to ensure minimal quality and this
will have adverse consequences for the graduates of many U.S. law schools
as well. Thus, if the ABA Section is irrelevant in decision-making concerning
the realities of the globalization of the legal profession, it will undermine its
4
historic role as a leader on these matters. Yet inaction will have no impact
on whether more schools located abroad will open, as they will simply find
other routes for their graduates to enter the profession.
(3) Statistics produced by the National Conference of Bar Examiners
show that every year between 4,000 and 5,000 foreign-trained law
graduates take a bar exam in the United States, mostly in New York and
California. Although some of these foreign applicants complete a J.D. degree
as an avenue of admission, most do not. Some of the non-J.D. graduates
have additional education in the U.S. (typically a 20-hour LL.M. program),
but some do not even have that educational exposure. Thus, most of these
foreign applicants for bar admission do not have the benefit of a J.D.
program meeting ABA Standards, and it can be argued that a J.D. degree
from a foreign law school that teaches a U.S. law curriculum and meets ABA
Standards is preferable to the current situation.
(4) If we believe that the American legal education model is the "gold
standard" for legal education world-wide and that well-trained lawyers are
critical to the global economy, then a willingness to expand accreditation to
schools embracing the American model is an appropriate way to improve the
training of lawyers globally and contribute to the modern economy and the
international legal profession.
(5) We are in a period in which different legal systems are converging
as part of the expanding global economy. Expanding accreditation to schools
outside U.S. borders that focus on U.S. law will allow these schools to be in
a position potentially to develop cutting-edge curricula to address these
trends and the Section thus will be in a position to be an active player in the
dialogue about how to develop high quality legal training for the global
economy.
(6) Expanding accreditation would clarify that ABA approved U.S. law
schools can open branch campuses to further the various international
programs that they now conduct and therefore would provide another
opportunity for U.S. law schools to compete internationally in the legal
market place. Failing to make such a clarification raises questions about the
status of such branches.
B. Reasons against expansion of ABA accreditation to schools located
outside the United States and its territories
5
(1) This development could result in enlarging practice opportunities
for foreign lawyers in the United States because graduates of foreign ABA
approved schools then would be eligible to sit for a bar exam without any
reciprocity or parallel opportunities provided by other countries for U.S.
lawyers.
(2) If the foreign school is government-sponsored, political difficulties
could arise if the Council failed to approve an application for accreditation
and, depending on the issues presented, this could create problems or
pressures both within the larger ABA and potentially with the Department of
State.
(3) Foreign students who never spend any time studying in the United
States will not have the benefit of the acculturation process that naturally
occurs when study is accomplished here and that provides context for
understanding the development of U.S. law and professional ethics.
II. Concerns and the Need for Special Rules
As indicated earlier, if the accreditation function is to be expanded it is
recommended that it only be done for the limited purpose of approving law
schools that meet all the ABA accreditation Standards. However, because
the current Standards were premised on an understanding that the law
schools being accredited were within the United States several matters that
most would see as inherent in a law school program operating here may
need to be made explicit, rather than implicit, to avoid any confusion when
the Standards are applied outside the U.S. The following discussion
highlights what we have identified as basic assumptions about programs
currently approved under the standards, and the need to clarify that these
assumptions are correct. It also raises other practical concerns that need to
be considered.
(1) The Standards do not expressly note that U.S. law must be the
dominant focus of the curriculum, although that clearly is the case currently
in ABA approved schools. For a school outside the country, we need to
clarify this assumption that U.S. law must be the primary core of the
educational program to satisfy the obligation to prepare students who are
able to practice in the U.S.. Standard 302(a)(1), which requires substantial
instruction in "the substantive law generally regarded as necessary to
6
effective and responsible participation in the legal profession" should be
read to mean "U.S. substantive law" and in the "U.S. legal profession".
Similarly, Standard 302(a)(5), which requires substantial instruction in "the
history, goals, structure, values, rules and responsibilities of the legal
profession and its members" should be read to mean the "U.S. legal
profession and its members".
(2) The Standards dealing with faculty speak in terms of the need to
have a well-qualified faculty. While many U.S. based law schools today have
faculty members who are not primarily trained in U.S. law (as part of the
internationalization of their curricula), or are not even trained in law itself,
but in some other discipline, the core curriculum generally relies on faculty
who have J.D. degrees. We need to make clear that the faculty at schools
located abroad must be predominantly U.S. trained law faculty holding J.D.
degrees from ABA-approved law schools to ensure that they are in the best
position to offer quality instruction in U.S. law.
(3) In order to ensure that the training abroad is comparable to that in
the U.S. and that graduates of such programs are able to practice in the
U.S., English language facility, both spoken and written, is critical. Thus, it is
important to have the curriculum taught predominantly in English. We
recognize that the ABA already accredits law schools in Puerto Rico that
teach solely in Spanish. While we do not know the history surrounding that
allowance, we would note that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and the basis of
the law in the federal courts there is U.S. common and statutory law.
Further, the capacity of the Section to accredit schools regardless of
language is minimal, if not nonexistent, and we would treat the Puerto Rico
schools as an historic anomaly--one that should not be repeated as we look
to the future of training lawyers in U.S. law for a globalized practice.
(4) In countries that have a very different social and governmental
system, there is a concern about how we can ensure that the students
studying at the foreign law school have been introduced to the social and
political context in which U.S. law evolves since it is unlikely their
undergraduate training would have exposed them to our system. Although
many foreign students now coming to the U.S., both for J.D. programs and
for LL.M. programs, have the same lack of background, their study in the
U.S. should help to eliminate that gap. But there may be a need to require
some basic education in the American governmental system for foreign
students that we simply assume most U.S. students obtain prior to entering
law school.
7
(5) If the accreditation function is expanded to schools outside U.S.
borders, a suggestion has been raised that there should be a clear policy
providing that the Section can refuse to review an application, as well as on
what grounds. We see the issues that might invoke the possible exercise of
such discretion as falling into two types. First, and easiest, would be when a
school is located in a country that is on a U.S. "Banned List" (today, North
Korea, Cuba, and Iran) so that travel to its location is not possible.
Necessarily, those schools should be rejected out of hand (not that they are
likely to apply). However, there are various standards that cover "softer
issues" that reflect the U.S. cultural and legal values that may be
inconsistent with at least the traditional values in some other countries.
These include, for example, the standards on academic freedom, on faculty
governance by the full-time faculty, and on nondiscrimination and diversity.
It should be determined whether the Section should have the right to reject
an applicant school when it has factually-based concerns that those values
will not be honored. Additionally, the factors or procedures that should
govern the exercise of that discretion need to be clarified.
(6) A concern was raised as to whether the expansion of the
accreditation function outside U.S. borders might have any implications for
the Council's recognition by the U.S. Department of Education as the
national accrediting body for U.S. law schools. Preliminary indications from
our outside Counsel indicate the answer is no.
(7) A concern was raised that if the issue of increased opportunities
for entry of foreign trained lawyers into the U.S. legal profession is one on
which different sections and individuals in the larger ABA are deeply divided,
then proceeding with this expansion could create additional contentious
issues for the Section within the ABA. In fact, however, leadership of the
ABA in the last several years has been very globally-minded.
(8) There is some question whether the expansion of the accreditation
function outside U.S. borders will create a potentially undue burden on the
Section's staff and volunteers to meet the additional workload. To the extent
that greater efforts are required for these types of inspections and reviews,
we believe that all those costs should be passed on to the applicant schools
and inspection and accreditation fees adjusted accordingly. Along similar
lines, if it is agreed to go forward with this expansion of accreditation, it is
naturally difficult to decide all the issues that may emerge until one has
some experience. Thus, it may be appropriate, at least in the early years,
8
for some special pre-screening of applicant schools before a site-inspection
team is assembled and sent in order to avoid misunderstandings and the
expense of time and money if the applicant school is far from being in
compliance.
III. Recommendations
Based on the preceding discussion, the Committee makes four
recommendations.
(1) The Council should authorize the Accreditation Project to go
forward with considering the accreditation of law schools outside the United
States borders that meet all of the prevailing Section Accreditation
Standards and Rules of Procedure for the policy reasons discussed in Part I.
(2) The Council should request the Standards Review Committee in its
ongoing comprehensive review to look at all the Standards to ensure that
none of them unintentionally sets up barriers to this geographic expansion
and to remove any such barriers that do not implicate the substantive
standards ensuring a quality legal education.
(3) The Council should consider drafting a policy statement to clarify
the matters highlighted in Part II that deal with the underlying assumptions
in the current standards, such as that the curriculum is primarily focused on
U.S. law, the instruction is primarily in English, and the faculty are primarily
J.D. graduates of ABA approved law schools.
(4) If the Council agrees with the preceding recommendations,
recognizing that it is very difficult to consider in a vacuum all the issues that
may arise when the Section has not before entered this arena, the Council
should consider whether it might be advisable to allow a site visit on a trial
basis of a foreign applicant school that wants to see whether it can meet all
the standards.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Kay Kane, Chair
Elizabeth Lacy
Dennis Lynch
9
HARVARD LAW SCHOOL AND STANFORD LAW SCHOOL
SECOND ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR FACULTY FORUM
CALL FOR PAPERS
The first annual International Junior Faculty Forum was held at Stanford Law School on
October 17 and 18th, 2008. Organized by Professors William P. Alford and Lawrence M. Friedman,
it was sponsored jointly by the Harvard and Stanford Law Schools. Ten papers were selected for
presentation, out of a large number of applicants. A panel of twenty distinguished senior scholars from
the United States and several other nations was involved in the final selection process. At the Forum
itself, each of the selected papers had two commentators, drawn from the panel of international senior
scholars. The papers represented a wide range of subjects and disciplines, and, together with the senior
scholars, represented more than a dozen different countries.
The stated purpose of the Forum was to stimulate the international exchange of ideas and
research among members of the legal academy, to encourage and further the work of younger scholars
in the international community, and to surmount barriers between scholars of different traditions and
cultures, in the interest of the development of legal scholarship on a transnational basis. In this regard,
the consensus of the participants was that the Forum was successful, that it made an excellent start.
The sponsoring schools, Harvard and Stanford law schools, now announce plans for the second
International Junior Faculty Forum. Harvard will be the host school in 2009. The dates fixed for the
Forum are November 6-8, 2009, at the Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Junior scholars whose home institution is outside the United States and who have held an
academic position for less than seven years, as of 2009, or whose last degree was earned less than ten
years earlier than 2009 and are not U.S. citizens, are invited to apply for the 2009 session. Students
currently enrolled in a degree program in a U.S. law school are ineligible. The first step in applying
is to submit an abstract of no more than five pages that lays out the major argument of the paper
that he/she would submit, states what method the scholar will pursue to advance that argument, and
indicates the paper’s potential contribution to scholarship. The abstract must be in English and must
be submitted by January 15, 2009 electronically to both Juliet Bowler (jbowler@law.harvard.edu)
and Mary Tye (mtye@law.stanford.edu) with a subject line of International Junior Faculty Forum.
Additionally, the abstract must contain the author’s name, home institution and paper title.
On the basis of these abstracts, the sponsoring schools will invite the electronic submission
of full papers by May 25, 2009. The paper may be on any legally relevant subject, and may utilize
any legally relevant approach, quantitative or qualitative, sociological, anthropological, historical, or
economic, on the role and function of law and legal systems in the modern world, or in the past. The
papers will be reviewed by an international committee of senior legal scholars, representing many
different countries and many different styles and approaches. Approximately ten of the papers will be
selected for presentation at the conference. As before, each paper will have two commentators, drawn
from the international committee of scholars.
The sponsoring schools will cover expenses of travel, including airfare, lodging, and food, for
each participant. Questions should be directed to Juliet Bowler (jbowler@law.harvard.edu).
The Constitutional Status of Customary International Law
Section on Constitutional Law
Panel on the U.S. Constitution in Global Perspective
San Francisco, CA, January 6, 2011
The Constitutional Status of Customary International Law
Michael D. Ramsey
Professor of Law, University of San Diego Law School
In my remarks, I will explore from a constitutional perspective the aphorism,
most prominently associated with the case of The Paquete Habana, that “international
law is part of our law.
Unlike treaties, customary international law receives little mention in the
Constitution – the only direct reference to it is in Article I, Section 8, giving Congress the
power to define and punish it. This relative silence has led one group of academic
commentators to argue that (despite Paquete Habana) customary international law is not
part of our law until Congress (or state law) makes it so. Another group of academic
commentators sharply disagrees, and instead sees customary international law
permeating the entire constitutional system: as part of “our law” – that is, U.S. federal
law – it should trump state law, provide federal jurisdiction, provide a federal cause of
action, and perhaps constrain federal executive and even congressional power.
This debate in modern practice focuses in particular on the viability of claims
brought under the federal Alien Tort Statute, which gives federal courts jurisdiction over
claims brought by aliens for torts committed in violation of international law, but does
not provide a cause of action for such claims, or otherwise identify the sorts of claims
that may be brought. The Supreme Court wrestled inconclusively with this statute in
Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain in 2004, and it seems likely to return to the Court sometime
soon (although the Court denied two high-profile cert. petitions last year in the Talisman
and Pfizer cases).
To engage in some shameless self-promotion, I have a co-edited book (with
David Sloss of Santa Clara Law School and William Dodge of Hastings Law School)
coming out later this year that examines the Supreme Court’s historical use of
international law in its decisions. What emerges from this study regarding this issue is
that courts historically pursued a middle ground in which customary international law
formed a background source of law when domestic sources run out.
First, courts historically applied customary international law as a rule of decision
where enacted state and federal law did not apply; this occurred principally in overseas
2
cases, like Paquete Habana itself, which involved the seizure of fishing boats in a
blockade of Cuba. Although Paquete Habana was decided in 1900, it followed a
practice dating to the Court’s early decisions in Glass v. The Sloop Betsey and Talbot v.
Jansen in the 1790s. Second, courts interpreting ambiguous statutes used what came to
be called the Charming Betsy canon – named after an 1804 case – to construe such
statutes not to violate customary international law (while acknowledging that a clear
statute would take precedence).
Thus courts historically rejected the view that customary international law must
be enacted to have force in domestic law. But courts gave customary international law
only a modest role. We found no cases of customary international law overriding
enacted state or federal law, conveying federal jurisdiction, or otherwise operating as
supreme federal law. Thus courts historically followed neither of the contending modern
academic views.
Despite the Constitution’s silence on customary international law, this modest
approach has a constitutional basis, although courts have not made it explicit. Eighteenth-
century English courts used the law of nations, as unwritten international law was then
called, as a rule of decision in common law. And they construed ambiguous statutes not
to deviate from common law or to operate unreasonably (which Alexander Hamilton
successfully argued in the 1784 case Rutgers v. Waddington included that statutes not
conflict with the law of nations). The U.S. Constitution, written against the background
of English judicial practice, gave U.S. courts “the judicial Power” in Article III, Section 1
– a power that in eighteenth-century terms thus encompassed the modest judicial use of
customary international law familiar from English law.
As a result, neither the Glass/Talbot line of cases directly applying unenacted
customary international law, nor the Charming Betsy interpretive rule is constitutionally
mandated: they are in a sense sub-constitutional law. But they are constitutionally
permitted, as part of U.S. courts’ textual “judicial Power” and as a matter of longstanding
judicial practice dating to the early post-ratification period.
In conclusion, returning to modern debates, the basic challenge of the Alien Tort
Statute seems less formidable. The Supreme Court tied itself in knots over the question
to what extent U.S. courts can entertain suits based solely on the unenacted law of
nations, ultimately finding – for unclear reasons – that courts could do so in narrow
circumstances; despite, or perhaps because of, the Court’s treatment in Sosa, that
controversy continues unabated. The textual/historical approach suggests it is not so hard
a question as the Court made it appear. Where enacted law does not apply, there should
be no constitutional barrier to courts applying customary international law (if they
otherwise have jurisdiction to hear the case). The power does not need to come from
Congress, because it comes from Article III. But courts are not obligated to do so, so the
caution the Sosa Court expressed is also constitutionally justified.
At the same time, the textual/historical approach suggests that broader assertions
of the constitutional status of customary international law are – like the very narrow ones
3
– more difficult to sustain. Making customary international law supreme over state (or
federal) law requires reading it into the Supremacy Clause (or giving it supreme status
despite its absence from that clause) and according it a status that judicial decisions
historically did not give it. Making customary international law part of federal law for
jurisdictional purposes requires reading it into the “laws of the United States” in Article
III, Section 2 in a way that nineteenth-century cases seemed not to accept. Even making
it binding on the executive branch, perhaps a claim more firmly grounded in text and
history, requires an extrapolation from the take-care clause and rests only on dicta rather
than actual holdings in early cases. At minimum, these positions remain contested – but
their contested status should not undermine the more modest judicial use of customary
international law that does have firm textual and historical grounding.
__________________________
Note: In the question/comment section, the following important points were raised –
First, one question pressed on the claim that courts’ application of customary
international law is permitted but not required. My answer is that Article III, Section
1 – like Article I, Section 1 and Article II, Section 1 – is a grant of power not an
obligation. Except perhaps in a few unusual and narrow circumstances, Congress has no
constitutional obligation to use its Article I, Section 1 power to regulate; the President’s
obligation to enforce the law arises from the take care clause, not from the grant of
executive power in Article II, Section 1. Similarly courts have no Article III, Section 1
obligation to exercise their power. Courts do have (like other U.S. actors) an obligation
to uphold the Constitution and, by extension, laws and treaties made pursuant to the
Constitution’s grants of power. But customary international law, in contrast, is not a
constitutional obligation.
A second question asked about the relevance of the Court’s 1938 decision in Erie RR.
Co. v Tompkins, which declared that all law applied in federal courts must be state law,
enacted federal law or constitutional law. This decision raises difficult questions for
customary international law, because it purported to abolish the category of general
common law, previously applied by the Supreme Court under the 1842 decision Swift
v. Tyson. Because nineteenth century courts understood their application of customary
international law as part their application of general common law, Erie’s abolition of
that category appeared to leave customary international law’s status much in doubt. My
answer here – while endorsing fully this account of Erie – is to urge us not to read too
much into that decision. (This was a mistake the Supreme Court made in Sosa, and it
rendered that decision more difficult than it needed to be). Erie was not a case about
customary international law at all (it involved a railway accident in Pennsylvania, with no
international parties). Moreover, Erie was about the federal courts’ ability (or inability)
to depart from applicable state law, whether enacted law or common law; it concluded
federal courts generally lacked that ability. But the modest application of customary
international law, as reflected in Glass, Talbot, Paquete Habana and today in most Alien
Tort suits, does not involve displacement of state law, because these cases arise where
4
state law does not apply. Thus it seems a mistake to try to coax out of Erie a definitive
holding with respect to a legal and factual situation remote from anything the Erie Court
considered.
Finally, a comment suggested that customary international law could be called
a “resource” to which U.S. courts could turn to resolve cases when other more directly
binding sources of domestic law were inconclusive; I agreed that this phrase aptly
captured the way courts historically had viewed it.
__________________________
References:
International Law in the U.S. Supreme Court: Continuity and Change (David L.
Sloss, Michael D. Ramsey and William S. Dodge, eds., Cambridge Univ. Press 2011)
(forthcoming), Chapters 1, 3, 7 and 11.
Curtis A. Bradley & Jack L. Goldsmith, Foreign Relations Law: Cases and Materials (3rd
ed. Aspen 2008), Chapter 7.
Michael D. Ramsey, The Constitution’s Text in Foreign Affairs (Harvard Univ. Press
2007), Chapters 17-18.
Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, 542 U.S. 692 (2004)
Erie RR. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64 (1938)
The Paquete Habana, 175 U.S. 677, 700 (1900)
Swift v. Tyson, 41 U.S. 1 (1842)
Talbot v. Jansen, 3 U.S. 133 (1795)
Glass v. The Sloop Betsey, 3 U.S. 6 (1794)
Murray v. The Schooner Charming Betsy, 6 U.S. 64 (1804)
Rutgers v. Waddington (New York Mayor’s Court, 1784), reprinted in Julius Goebel, Jr.,
The Law Practice of Alexander Hamilton: Documents and Commentary, vol. 1, pp. 282-
419 (1964).
William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, vol. 4, pp. 66-73 (1769).
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US Immigration Lawyers
If you have any immigration needs, Margaret Wong & Associates Co., LPA can help. Margaret Wong, our founder and managing attorney, is a nationally recognized leader in immigration law. Under her guidance, we have grown very quickly into one of the premier immigration law firms in the nation, while never sacrificing the welcoming, warm atmosphere of our law offices. Margaret Wong and Associates Co., LPA is a national practice and we represent clients throughout the United States.
Tens of Thousands of Past CasesOur US immigration lawyers combine for more than 60 years of experience. We have advised and counseled tens of thousands of immigrants on green cards (permanent residency), deportation, citizenship, derivative citizenship, family visas, “aging out,” and much more.
We have a special focus assisting employers with immigration matters, and have counseled many large companies in non-immigrant visas, immigrant visas, work visas, labor certification (PERM), and more. Our attorneys know how to serve specific industries, such as the healthcare industry and the high-tech industry
For evidence of our experience, read about our successes in areas like asylum, federal court appeals, J-1 waivers, marriage to a U.S. citizen, and much more.
Immigration Lawyers Serving Clients Nationwide
Our firm has offices in Cleveland, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan, Georgia and New York, NY and we have assisted clients within the state of Ohio, throughout the rest of the USA, and internationally. Our staff speaks many languages, including Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Korean, Spanish, Albanian, Russian, Tajik, French, Tagalog, Turkish, Uzbek, Urdu, Punjabi, Hindko, Pashto, Hindi, and Portuguese.
While our main office is in Cleveland, we serve clients nationally and internationally. We hope to expand and operate an office in Cincinnati to better serve our clients located in southern Ohio. Please contact us to give us your input as our service to our customers is important.
Contact Us
Contact our US immigration lawyers or call (216) 566-9908 to get our experience and compassion on your side. No matter when you contact us, we will get back to you quickly.
At Margaret W. Wong & Assoc. Co., LPA, our attorneys help people with all kinds of immigration matters, from employment visas to asylum, throughout the United States. With law offices in Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, MI, and New York City many of our clients come from Cleveland, Columbus, Akron, Cincinnati, Toledo, and Dayton, OH, as well as locations throughout Michigan and New York.
Health insurance in the United States is relatively a new phenomenon
Millions of Americans have lost their health insurance. Should the United States government give everyone free health care? In Canada and many European countries, health insurance is guaranteed. Some experts here argue that universal health insurance can be successful. They believe that market forces will fix any shortcomings of the U.S. health care system.
Health insurance in the United States is relatively a new phenomenon. The first plans began during the Civil War (1861-1865). The earliest ones only offered protection against accidents related from travel by rail or steamboat. The plans did, however, pave the way more comprehensive plans covering all illnesses and injuries. The first group policy giving comprehensive benefits was offered by Massachusetts Health Insurance of Boston in 1847. Insurance companies issued the first individual disability and illness policies in about 1890.
In 1929, the first modern group of health insurance formed. A group of teachers in Dallas, Texas, contracted with Baylor Hospital for room, board, and medical services in exchange for a monthly fee. Several large life insurance companies entered the health insurance field in the 1930’s and 1940’s as the popularity of health insurance increased. In 1932 nonprofit organizations called Blue Cross or Blue Shield first offered group health plans. Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans were successful because they involved discounted contracts negotiated with doctors and hospitals. In return for promises of increased volume and prompt payment, providers gave discounts to the Blue Cross and Shield plans.
When the government created Medicare and Medicaid programs in 1965, private sources still paid 75 percent of all of the health care costs. By 1995, individuals and companies only paid for about half of the health care with the government responsible for the other half.
During the 1980’s and 1990’s, the cost of health care rose rapidly and the majority of employer-sponsored group insurance plans switched from “fee-for-service” plans to the cheaper “managed care plans.” As a result, most Americans with health insurance were enrolled in managed care plans by the mid-1990s.
In 1993 President Bill Clinton presented to the U.S. Congress a health care reform plan that would have guaranteed health insurance for all Americans. Congressional leaders opposed the plan as it was too expensive and excessively regulated. In 1994, members of Congress introduced a series of alternative proposals, but no compromise was ever reached. In 1996 Congress passed the Mental Health Parity Act, to require some employers to offer health plans with psychiatric benefits. Congress also passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act in 1996. This protected individuals from losing their health insurance when they moved from one job to another or became self-employed. Unfortunately, it did not ensure the overall quality or comprehensiveness of insurance offered by employers.
The Bush administration and Congress have pledged to reform health care but even the proposals have been delayed by more urgent financial concerns and issues related to Iraq. It is unlikely that the Federal Government will change the foundation of the current system anytime soon. It would be wise for all people to check their insurance benefits, make sure that their policies serve their needs, and simultaneously shop for the best plans as they also try to select the best doctors.
President Barack Obama’s health care initiative will benefit from a key change in the political landscape since the Clinton administration’s effort failed in 1994. Government and business now agree this is a problem that needs fixing. The new push for health care reform continues Monday when the Obama administration seeks public comments during a forum at the Polk County Convention Complex. The session is one of five around the nation this spring as part of an effort by the president to forge a public consensus on what needs to be done to address the nation’s health care problems.
As the debate gears up in Washington, Harkin and Grassley are expected to play key roles in Congress’ deliberations. That means Iowans’ concerns, such as rural health care and the effect on the state’s insurance businesses, will be represented. READ MORE.. »»
China insurance businesses report for 2009-2012
Insurance industry is one of the fastest developing industries in national economy. Since 2002, the average annual growth reached 492.7 billion China Yuan which was 1.6 times of that in 2002. By 2005, insurance institutions reached 100 and initially formed fair competition and common development market situation in which many kinds of organization forms and ownership elements coexisted such as state-owned holding company, joint-stock company, policy-oriented company, foreign insurance company, etc. In the past three years, China premium revenues rose by 8 percentage points annually higher than world average level, and in 2005 China premium revenues ranked the 11th in the world and occupied 1.8% of global total premium revenues.
In 2006, national premium revenues were up to 564.1 billion China Yuan, 1.8 times of that in 2002 and ranked the 9th in the world. This meant the average annual international rank of China insurance industry rose by 1. Among that, total revenues of the three leading enterprises-Chinese People’s Insurance, China Life and PingAn of China was 341 billion China Yuan, increased by 30.9% than 2003.By 2007, there were 110 insurance companies including 43 foreign companies which increased by 21 than 22 at the end of 2002; China premium revenues was to 703.58 billion China Yuan, 2.3 times of 2002. At the same time, revenues of foreign insurance companies were 42 billion China Yuan, 9.1 times of that in 2002; foreign insurance held 5.9% of national market shares, increased by 4.4 percentage points than that in 2002. Premium revenues was to 187.47 billion China Yuan in the first two months of 2008 in different areas of China, which included property insurance premium revenues 41.74 billion China Yuan, life insurance premium revenues 134.57 billion China Yuan, accident insurance premium revenues 2.89 billion China Yuan and health insurance premium revenues 8.27 billion China Yuan.
By December 31, 2007, there were more than 2300 professional insurance intermediaries and 7 foreign ones. Along with the stable development of businesses, profitability of professional intermediaries were improved continuously. In 2007, especially for insurance broker institutions, total profits in the whole year 2007 were 220.53 million China Yuan, increased year-on-year 104.74%, to be the best level in history. When the capital market paid more attention to insurance intermediaries profitability and development prospect day by day, intermediaries were also facing some challenges at the same time, such as, the situation that distribution of intermediaries was unbalanced still existed and so on.
Over the past ten years, the development of world insurance industry has proved the continuously strengthened situation of internationization trend. As a great potential and opening up market, China attracts international insurance capital extraordinarily, and many famous international insurance companies have arranged the businesses developed in China as an important strategy.
China insurance industry has entered rapid developement period, and operation model of insurance industry is developing toward diversification. The future prospect of China insurance industry development will be very good.For China insurance enterprises, it means that if they want to survive and develop in the competition, they must adjust to the international development trend and research and implement the international operation as the key strategy. READ MORE.. »»
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Top 10 Internet Plagues
I am not a Luddite. I recognize that the internet has revolutionized communication, business, commerce, politics, entertainment, culture and many other aspects of our world. But, like any new technology, it too is fraught with problems. This list details the negative consequences of the Internet. I have tried to order them based on severity.
It is difficult to establish if the internet has caused our confidential data to become more vulnerable. Someone could just as easily steal your mail and banking information from your mailbox, as he or she could hack into your computer through the internet. Nonetheless, with more and more people imputing financial, personal, professional and medical information on line, it seems likely that we are at a greater risk.
Who was that woman you were with in that photo I saw on Facebook? I’ll google her name and see what comes up.
The internet has stripped away a tremendous level of our privacy. Audio recordings, images and texts can be posted and distributed by anyone without much legal recourse, especially if it is posted anonymously. The recent Wikileak’s debacle has shown that no one, no matter how high profile, is protected from the all seeing internet.
Some may say this is a curse while others claim it to be a blessing.
The internet has become a cesspool-like breeding ground for viruses, worms, trojan horses and spyware. These viruses and malware cause unlimited damage to businesses in killing time, utilizing personal and wasting resources.
In 2009, a worm known as Conficker infected the French navy, the UK Ministry of Defence, the Royal navy, the unified armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as several hospitals and businesses across Europe.
It has been estimated that the most expensive worm to date is MyDoom, that spread in 2004. Some claim that it caused $35 billion in worldwide damage.
The NBC show ‘To Catch a Predator’ created and recorded sting operations that lured online predators.
Addictions obviously existed before the internet. There are, however, some addictions that have become unique with the creation of the internet. According to the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery website (ironic), studies have shown that an increasing number of people worldwide have become addicted to online activities such as gaming, gambling and browsing.
In 2002, Elizabeth Wooley founded On-Line Gamers Anonymous (OLGA) in response to her son Shawn, who committed suicide while playing the online game EverQuest.
Do you want to send me some money to help with my legal battle with the Nigerian government? If I win, there is a multi-billion dollar settlement and you will be handsomely compensated… No…Well, apparently thousands of people worldwide fall victim to internet fraud, losing hundreds of millions of dollars.
There are dozens of variations to these scams all involving the mass distribution of emails. Some emails ask for charitable donations for a tragic event, such as the earthquake in Haiti, while others attempt to link you to counterfeit bank websites (phishing). It is assumed that internet fraud will become a growing industry as the baby-boomers age and we become more reliant on internet money transfers.
From holocaust denial, to outlandish scare tactics, to conspiracy theories, to downright slander, the internet has allowed anyone with a computer to write virtually whatever they want and distribute it to everyone.
While the true impact of misinformation can never be measured, we can look at a few examples to see how powerful a threat this can be. In early 2000, fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger came under attack, when chain emails began circulating that he made a racist comment on ‘Oprah’ and that people should boycott his clothing line. Despite the fact that Hilfiger did not appear on Oprah, or make any such remarks, the emails persisted. In 2007, he appeared on Oprah because the situation had become so dire, to refute the remarks. I am sure this type of misinformation cost his business money, as well as attacked his integrity.
The Cyber-Black Market is a market where illegal items are traded or sold. I know what you might be thinking – pirated music, software, movies, and television shows. Although these do cause financial harm to the entertainment and software industries, I would not necessarily title copyright infringement as a plague.
The Cyber Black Market is much more nefarious then one might expect. Endangered animals, animal remains, human sex trafficking and weapons are all traded online. A 2005 BBC report claimed that items such as live baby chimpanzees, tortoise shells and rhino horns were exchanging hands online. Even popular trading sites such as Craigslist have been avenues for human sex trafficking. Read Malika Saada Saar’s, the executive director of the Rebecca Project for Human Rights’ article ‘Craig, Please Listen to Us’ about the impact on Cyber Black Market victims.
Chat rooms, message boards, and social networking websites created a new venue for bullies to abuse their victims. The bullies can simply hide behind the veil of their computer screens and even remain anonymous, while tormenting their victims.
Imagine personal secrets, gossip, or slanderous comments that degrade you, being distributed to all of your peers. Or, imagine being bombarded with hateful messages and threats on a daily basis. This is what victims of cyber-bullying and harassment endure.
Cyber-bullying was brought to the media’s international attention when 13 year old American Megan Meier hung herself in her parent’s closet after she was being bullied online. The investigation revealed that Lori Evans, the parent of one of Megan’s former friends, had created a fake MySpace account that had sent the harassing messages to Megan.
The abuse and exploitation of children is an abhorrent act that physically and emotionally scars innocent lives. Children, even younger than two years of age, have been horrifically abused for the sick gratification of others. Unfortunately, if there is a demand for this type of material, some people will lower themselves to create the supply.
According to the US Department of Justice, the distribution of child pornography was almost “completely eradicated” in the mid 1980s. Obviously the creation and success of the internet has reversed this position. Today, child pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry and, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, is one of the fastest growing internet industries. In fact, the NCMEC claims that “20% of all pornography on the internet involves children.”
The relative ease of transferring images with digital cameras, the ability to anonymously communicate and exchange money, as well as distribute to mass numbers has caused child pornography to balloon to virtually unstoppable proportions. READ MORE.. »»
10
Hacking and Data Security
It is difficult to establish if the internet has caused our confidential data to become more vulnerable. Someone could just as easily steal your mail and banking information from your mailbox, as he or she could hack into your computer through the internet. Nonetheless, with more and more people imputing financial, personal, professional and medical information on line, it seems likely that we are at a greater risk.
9
Privacy
Who was that woman you were with in that photo I saw on Facebook? I’ll google her name and see what comes up.
The internet has stripped away a tremendous level of our privacy. Audio recordings, images and texts can be posted and distributed by anyone without much legal recourse, especially if it is posted anonymously. The recent Wikileak’s debacle has shown that no one, no matter how high profile, is protected from the all seeing internet.
Some may say this is a curse while others claim it to be a blessing.
8
Computer Viruses and Worms
The internet has become a cesspool-like breeding ground for viruses, worms, trojan horses and spyware. These viruses and malware cause unlimited damage to businesses in killing time, utilizing personal and wasting resources.
In 2009, a worm known as Conficker infected the French navy, the UK Ministry of Defence, the Royal navy, the unified armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as several hospitals and businesses across Europe.
It has been estimated that the most expensive worm to date is MyDoom, that spread in 2004. Some claim that it caused $35 billion in worldwide damage.
7
An online sexual predator uses social networking websites and chat rooms to target vulnerable, and often underage, individuals. Predators will sometimes use false identification and attempt to lure victims to reveal personal information and to meet them in person. Online Sexual Predators
The NBC show ‘To Catch a Predator’ created and recorded sting operations that lured online predators.
6
Online Addictions
Addictions obviously existed before the internet. There are, however, some addictions that have become unique with the creation of the internet. According to the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery website (ironic), studies have shown that an increasing number of people worldwide have become addicted to online activities such as gaming, gambling and browsing.
In 2002, Elizabeth Wooley founded On-Line Gamers Anonymous (OLGA) in response to her son Shawn, who committed suicide while playing the online game EverQuest.
5
Fraud
Do you want to send me some money to help with my legal battle with the Nigerian government? If I win, there is a multi-billion dollar settlement and you will be handsomely compensated… No…Well, apparently thousands of people worldwide fall victim to internet fraud, losing hundreds of millions of dollars.
There are dozens of variations to these scams all involving the mass distribution of emails. Some emails ask for charitable donations for a tragic event, such as the earthquake in Haiti, while others attempt to link you to counterfeit bank websites (phishing). It is assumed that internet fraud will become a growing industry as the baby-boomers age and we become more reliant on internet money transfers.
4
Misinformation / Propaganda
From holocaust denial, to outlandish scare tactics, to conspiracy theories, to downright slander, the internet has allowed anyone with a computer to write virtually whatever they want and distribute it to everyone.
While the true impact of misinformation can never be measured, we can look at a few examples to see how powerful a threat this can be. In early 2000, fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger came under attack, when chain emails began circulating that he made a racist comment on ‘Oprah’ and that people should boycott his clothing line. Despite the fact that Hilfiger did not appear on Oprah, or make any such remarks, the emails persisted. In 2007, he appeared on Oprah because the situation had become so dire, to refute the remarks. I am sure this type of misinformation cost his business money, as well as attacked his integrity.
3
Cyber Black Market Trading
The Cyber-Black Market is a market where illegal items are traded or sold. I know what you might be thinking – pirated music, software, movies, and television shows. Although these do cause financial harm to the entertainment and software industries, I would not necessarily title copyright infringement as a plague.
The Cyber Black Market is much more nefarious then one might expect. Endangered animals, animal remains, human sex trafficking and weapons are all traded online. A 2005 BBC report claimed that items such as live baby chimpanzees, tortoise shells and rhino horns were exchanging hands online. Even popular trading sites such as Craigslist have been avenues for human sex trafficking. Read Malika Saada Saar’s, the executive director of the Rebecca Project for Human Rights’ article ‘Craig, Please Listen to Us’ about the impact on Cyber Black Market victims.
2
Cyber-bullying and harassment
Chat rooms, message boards, and social networking websites created a new venue for bullies to abuse their victims. The bullies can simply hide behind the veil of their computer screens and even remain anonymous, while tormenting their victims.
Imagine personal secrets, gossip, or slanderous comments that degrade you, being distributed to all of your peers. Or, imagine being bombarded with hateful messages and threats on a daily basis. This is what victims of cyber-bullying and harassment endure.
Cyber-bullying was brought to the media’s international attention when 13 year old American Megan Meier hung herself in her parent’s closet after she was being bullied online. The investigation revealed that Lori Evans, the parent of one of Megan’s former friends, had created a fake MySpace account that had sent the harassing messages to Megan.
1
Child Pornography / Exploitation
The abuse and exploitation of children is an abhorrent act that physically and emotionally scars innocent lives. Children, even younger than two years of age, have been horrifically abused for the sick gratification of others. Unfortunately, if there is a demand for this type of material, some people will lower themselves to create the supply.
According to the US Department of Justice, the distribution of child pornography was almost “completely eradicated” in the mid 1980s. Obviously the creation and success of the internet has reversed this position. Today, child pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry and, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, is one of the fastest growing internet industries. In fact, the NCMEC claims that “20% of all pornography on the internet involves children.”
The relative ease of transferring images with digital cameras, the ability to anonymously communicate and exchange money, as well as distribute to mass numbers has caused child pornography to balloon to virtually unstoppable proportions. READ MORE.. »»
Top 15 Movies You Can’t Find on DVD
In the early 2000s, DVD technology gradually overtook VHS as the most popular consumer format for playback of prerecorded video. Interestingly, the 2005 American crime film, A History of Violence, has the distinction of being the final major Hollywood motion picture released on VHS. With the change, production companies were given the task of converting classic movies to DVD. It was a lucrative process for the film studios, and this is why we see almost every movie in DVD format. As we travel into 2011, a large majority of people have tossed out their old VCRs. Everyone wants to enjoy the simplicity of a DVD player, as well as the HD picture quality, without spending a fortune on the VCR/Blu-ray combo player.
In the movie industry, certain companies (mainly Disney) use a practice called a moratorium, which is delaying or suspending the release of a DVD movie for a certain period of time. The process is used to make DVD copies rare and, in many cases, nonexistent. People want to watch their favorite films on DVD. This is why groups of individuals regularly become upset when they can’t find their favorite movies in DVD format. The collective demand for a DVD release does not pass by movie executives, and every year old movies are converted to DVD. One great example is the 2011 DVD release of the horror movie, Santa Sangre. This article will document fifteen pictures that need to be released on DVD.
The Wild Life is a 1984 comedy-drama film, written by Cameron Crowe and directed by Art Linson. The movie examines the stereotypical teenage issues that you find in 1980s cinema. The plot revolves around the characters of three teenagers living in the suburbs of Los Angeles. The Wild Life contains great character actor roles, and includes stars Eric Stoltz, Ilan Mitchell-Smith, Chris Penn, Randy Quaid, Rick Moranis and Lea Thompson. In the film, the three boys set out for a night of fun at a strip bar and later have a large house party.
The Wild Life has faced copyright infringement lawsuits due to the music used in the film, and the picture is only available on VHS and Laserdisc, with stereo analog tracks. No DVD version has been released due to the objection of the artists on the soundtrack. Some of these tracks include songs written and performed by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Madonna, Buffalo Springfield, Little Richard, Jimi Hendrix, Huey Lewis and Billy Idol. In the middle of the 1980s, The Wild Life video tape was mass produced, so today you can find a copy of the VHS on EBay for less than $10.
Queen of Hearts is a film that tells the story of Eddie Luca, who is the youngest son in a family of Italian immigrants that has moved to London. The group travels with nothing, but soon opens a cafe in an Italian neighborhood. After experiencing gambling problems, the Luca family is faced with some hardship. The film has aspects of drama, but is largely a comedy. Queen of Hearts was directed by Jon Amiel. It is a fun movie that can be enjoyed by the entire family. The film was released on VHS in 1989, but has not been converted to DVD. In the early 1990s, Queen of Hearts was shown on PBS in the United States and many people regularly search the internet for the DVD. On August 6, 2010, Queen of Hearts was played on the MGM HG channel. You can find a copy of the VHS on EBay for $20 and up.
Mr. Boogedy is a family film that originally aired as an episode of The Disney Sunday Movie, on April 20, 1986. The story follows a gag gift salesman and his family as they move into a new house in New England. The Davis family initially ignores strange sounds and sights in the house, suspecting their father’s practical jokes, but it soon becomes evident that the house is haunted by people that lived there 300 years ago. The film stars John Astin, who is best known for his role as Gomez on the 1960s sitcom, The Addams Family.
Mr. Boogedy is a great ghost story that kids and adults can enjoy. A sequel to the film, named Bride of Boogedy, aired on April 12, 1987. It tells the continuing story of the Davis family and their encounters with the evil 300-year-old ghost. The film takes place in the fictional New England town of Lucifer Falls. Unfortunately, Mr. Boogedy and Bride of Boogedy have never been released on DVD, and remain in the Disney Vault. A VHS of Bride of Boogedy was released, but copies are impossible to find, and highly valuable. Another spooky Disney classic that people have been requesting for a DVD release is the 1978 TV movie Child of Glass. Others want the 1972 family western Justin Morgan Had a Horse.
The Last Movie is a drama film that was written and directed by American actor Dennis Hopper. In the movie, Hopper plays a stunt coordinator named Kansas, who is in charge of horses on a western film being shot in a small Peruvian village. Following a tragic incident on the set, where an actor is killed in a stunt, Kansas decides to quit the movie business and stay in Peru with a local woman. He thinks he has found paradise, but is soon called to help with a bizarre incident. The Peruvian natives are “filming” their own movie with “cameras” made of sticks, and acting out real western movie violence, as they don’t understand movie fakery.
The Last Movie touches on ideas of fiction versus reality, especially in regards to cinema. It is presented in a way that challenges the viewer’s understanding of storytelling and includes several devices typically only seen behind the scenes of movies. The film was initially a commercial failure, and led to Dennis Hopper’s virtual exile from Hollywood for over a decade. During the production of The Last Movie, Hopper was in a period of severe alcohol and drug abuse. His mental state was recorded in an extremely rare and barely released documentary, called The American Dreamer.
The American Dreamer film is sharing this entry with The Last Movie, as the documentary has never been released on DVD and is impossible to find. During his lifetime, Dennis Hooper was very proud of The Last Movie, and hosted several different private screenings. In 2006, Hopper told Playboy that he had re-acquired the rights to the film and was planning on a DVD release. Sadly, Dennis Hopper did not realize his plans to put the film on DVD before his death, by way of prostate cancer, in May 2010.
Deadman’s Curve is a made for TV movie based on the careers of Jan Berry and Dean Torrence, who made up the rock and roll duo Jan and Dean. In 1964, Jan and Dean released the hit single Dead Man’s Curve, and two years later Jan Berry experienced a near-fatal car accident in his Corvette. The crash occurred in the proximity of the actual dead man’s curve that is referenced in the song. It is located in Los Angeles, California. Jan suffered severe head injuries in the accident and the film documents his recovery from brain damage and partial paralysis. After the accident, a comeback into the music industry was slim, but Jan’s willingness and Dean’s support helped the men make a musical revival. The film has appearances by Dick Clark, Wolfman Jack, Mike Love, Bruce Johnston and Jan Berry, himself (who, sadly, died in 2004). It features a great soundtrack of Jan and Dean original recordings. Deadman’s Curve has never been released on DVD and the VHS tape is a hard find.
Captain EO is a 3-D film starring Michael Jackson and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The name, Captain EO, was taken from the Greek goddess of dawn. The film’s executive producer was George Lucas. It was written by Rusty Lemorande, Lucas and Coppola. Starting in 1986, Captain EO became a feature attraction at Disney theme parks. The movie is regarded as one of the first 4-D films, 4-D being the name given to a 3-D movie which incorporates in-theater effects, such as lasers and starfields. The experience is different from a modern day 3-D film, as the lasers can bring the objects farther away from the screen, extending into the audience.
The movie tells the story of Captain EO and the crew of his spaceship on a mission to deliver a gift to the Supreme Leader. The movie’s special effects resulted in the seventeen-minute feature costing an estimated $30 million to produce. At the time, it was the most expensive movie ever made on a per-minute basis, averaging $1.76 million per minute. Concurrent with the opening of the attraction, a behind the scenes documentary, entitled Captain EO: Backstage, was produced for television. The piece was hosted by Whoopi Goldberg and features interviews with cast, writers and the director. The movie score for Captain EO was written by Titanic’s James Horner, and features two songs, We Are Here to Change the World and Another Part of Me, both written and performed by Michael Jackson.
After the death of Michael Jackson on June 25, 2009, Captain EO regained popularity over the Internet. For several years, a small group of fans had petitioned Disney to bring back the attraction, and Jackson’s death brought the campaign to a peak. In response, the film, now entitled Captain EO Tribute, re-opened at Disneyland Park, on February 23, 2010, after a sixteen year absence. It also returned to Discoveryland at Disneyland Park (Paris), Epcot at Walt Disney World and to Tokyo Disneyland. However, the reason the film was originally stopped was cost, and the 2010 version does not include the in-theater lasers and starfield effects. If you were able to experience Captain EO from 1986-1998, you were lucky. Captain EO has never been released on VHS or DVD. People have attempted to convince Disney to create a DVD set with the film and the documentary.
Last Summer is a 1969 coming-of-age movie about adolescent sexuality. It was directed by Frank Perry and filmed at various locations on Fire Island, in New York. In 1969, the movie was controversial and it gained an X rating. Last Summer follows the random activities of four teenagers during a summer on Fire Island. As sexual tensions increase on the island, the more experienced and dominant girl, Sandy, encourages Dan and Peter to take advantage of Rhonda. The character development in the movie is flawless.
During the film, the three teenagers explore their youthful sexuality and their individual personalities arise, with Sandy showing some psychotic tendencies. Rhoda is also staying on the island and looking for companionship. She forces herself into the wrong tangled group and Sandy takes a seductive mental control over the boys. The memorable performance of Catherine Burns was nominated for an Academy Award. Upon the movie’s VHS release, it was given an R rating after edits to the scene depicting rape were made. The VHS copies of the film are hard to find and will cost $50 and up. Last Summer remains one of the most requested DVD releases.
The oldest film on the list is the 1953 drama, So Big. The movie’s screenplay was written by John Twist, and is based on the 1924 novel by Edna Ferber. The story follows Selina Peake and her life journey. Selina is a talented musician that has a pure taste for the arts. After her father’s death, Selina travels to a small community outside of Chicago. She marries a man named Pervus DeJong and the two have a son named Dirk, but as he grows older the boy is given the nickname So Big.
When Dirk is eight years old, Pervus dies and Selina is left to struggle for money. At this time, she begins her quest to grow high quality vegetables and provides for her child, ultimately guiding Dirk’s life until he graduates from college as an architect. It is an inspirational story with a good message. The movie has withstood the test of time and is highly entertaining. Unlike other films on this list, you can’t even find a VHS copy of So Big, so don’t plan on watching the movie anytime soon.
Treasure Island is a made for television movie that aired on January 22, 1990. It is an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous 1883 novel. The story revolves around a young boy named Jim Hawkins (Christian Bale), who discovers a treasure map and embarks on a journey to find the loot. Upon arriving at the mysterious island, the ship’s cook and scaliwag, Long John Silver (Charlton Heston), leads a mutiny of crew members who want the treasure for themselves. Jim helps the Squire and Espaniola officers to survive the mutiny and fight back against Silver’s men, who have taken over the ship.
The movie is a great adaptation of the novel, with good acting, and an adventurous theme. It was filmed in 1989, on location in Cornwall, England, Jamaica, and at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England. This version of the story is noted for its faithfulness to the book, with much of the dialogue coming directly from it. It also removes several violent scenes to make the movie more children friendly. The film’s music was composed by Paddy Moloney, who is the leader of the Irish folk music group The Chieftains. Despite its cult status, Treasure Island has yet to see a DVD release. The video, now out of print, can be found on various websites and usually costs $20 and up.
The World’s Greatest Sinner is an underground film, written, directed and starring the character actor, Timothy Carey. The movie established Carey as an important figure in independent film. The self-financed movie tells the story of an average man, Clarence Hilliard, who quits his day job as an insurance salesman to form a rock band. Hilliard finds that he can whip crowds into frenzy with his wild performances, so he takes advantage of the situation by turning his fan base into a political party. He eventually forms a religious cult based on the premise that every man is God.
As Clarence grows more powerful he becomes detached from reality, eventually insisting upon being called God with a capital “G” (God Hilliard), and having his followers worship him as such. He personally challenges the God of the Bible. The World’s Greatest Sinner has never had an official release, although it has aired on the Turner Classic Movies channel. The film originally achieved cult status through repeated screenings at the “midnight movies” in Los Angeles during the 1960s. It features a musical score that was composed by a very young Frank Zappa. Martin Scorsese has selected the film as one of his favorite Rock and Roll movies of all time.
A New Leaf is a dark comedy based on the short story The Green Heart, by Jack Ritchie. The movie stars Elaine May, Walter Matthau, George Rose and James Coco. The story revolves around Henry Graham, who is a man that has run through his entire inheritance, and is completely unequipped to provide for himself. Henry is completely unwilling to complete the only solution he sees suitable, which is suicide. Instead he devises a plan with the help of his imaginative butler. The film was a critical success upon its initial release and is now considered a cult classic. However, despite several good reviews and award nominations, A New Leaf performed poorly at the box office and remains little known by the general public. It is one of the funniest films of the last forty years that nobody has seen. A New Leaf has never been released on DVD, but you can purchase the VHS online from various websites.
Dudes is a 1987 film, directed by Penelope Spheeris and starring Jon Cryer and bassist Flea. The film tells the story of two punk teenagers from the big city as they travel across the country in a Volkswagen bug. Along the trip, the pair embraces the western culture and must take revenge against a group of rednecks for killing their friend. Dudes is a lighthearted road comedy that keeps the viewer interested. It has been praised for a good script, beautiful scenery and strong editing. Lions Gate has yet to announce any plans to release the film on DVD, most likely due to music copyrights. The VHS copy of Dudes is available online for a reasonable price.
And: The Decline of Western Civilization Trilogy (1979-1998)
Sharing this entry with Dudes is the epic three part movie series titled The Decline of Western Civilization, which was also directed by Penelope Spheeris. Spheeris has quite a resume, also directing the hit movies Wayne’s World and Black Sheep. The Decline of Western Civilization is a documentary about the Los Angeles punk rock scene. In 1981, the LAPD Chief of Police Daryl Gates wrote a letter demanding the film not be shown again in L.A. Over the years the films have gained a cult status in the underground music world.
The second film covers the Los Angeles heavy metal scene of 1986-1988, and the third documentary chronicles the gutter punk lifestyle of homeless teenagers in the late 1990s. The 1979 original movie features concert footage of legendary Los Angeles punk bands, and has interviews with band members. It gives a look into a subculture that was largely ignored by the rock music press of the time. Bands included are Black Flag, Germs, X, The Bags (billed at the time as The Alice Bag Band), Catholic Discipline and Fear. The second movie in the series was released in 1988, and examines the metal years of music.
It features interviews and concert footage with some legendary bands, including Aerosmith, Kiss, Megadeth, Motörhead, Ozzy Osbourne, W.A.S.P and Alice Cooper. The third movie involves the story of hardcore street punks who take the anti-establishment message with extreme seriousness and tune out society completely. Spheeris talks to homeless teenagers living on the street or squatting in abandoned buildings in Los Angeles. The movie features performances by Final Conflict, Litmus Green, Naked Aggression and The Resistance. The Decline of Western Civilization trilogy has not been made available on DVD, but has been released on VHS. The tapes are extremely rare and collectible.
When examining the shrinking world of lucrative VHS videos, wrestling events stand out. People like to watch old WWF wrestling promotions, events and videos. In the history of the World Wrestling Entertainment Company, run by Vince McMahon, the business has faced many copyright infringement cases. In 2002, the WWF was forced to change their name and stop trading WWF merchandise. Additionally, the court required the company to remove both auditory and visual references to “WWF” in its library of video footage (1979-2002), outside of the United Kingdom. This doesn’t mean the company lost the rights to the videos, but it does make it so the old wresting events don’t make it to DVD, thus raising the VHS prices immensely.
The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) video library is currently the largest collection of professional wrestling videos and copyrights in the world. It is comprised of professional wrestling promotions dating back to the 1940s. As of 2011, the library stands at over 100,000 hours of content, including weekly television shows, pay-per-views, and recorded house shows. The collection represents a very significant portion of the visual history of modern professional wrestling. Although not wrestling content, the library includes footage from various WWF/E produced ventures, including the 1985-1987 cartoon series Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling and the 1989 film No Holds Barred.
No Holds Barred is a movie that was launched in an attempt to boost Hulk Hogan’s acting career several years after his appearance in Rocky III. In the film, Hulk Hogan plays Rip, a very popular professional wrestler. Rip looks and acts like a brute, but he is actually a good-hearted guy. The movie is concluded with Rip facing off in a deadly match against the hardened wrestler Zeus. No Holds Barred: The Match/The Movie is a wrestling event that was shown on pay-per-view on December 27, 1989. The program consisted of the film in its entirety, followed by a match with the movie’s stars, including Hogan. In all, the movie was a commercial failure, but has gained a significant following over the years. No Holds Barred has never been released on DVD and a VHS copy sells for a good price. However, the VHS was mass produced and other WWF videos are much more collectible and valuable.
In the year following the official end of World War II, the Walt Disney Company released a film named Song of the South. The movie is a mix of live action and animation. It is based on the fictional character of Uncle Remus. Uncle Remus was made famous in a collection of African American folktales adapted and compiled by Joel Chandler Harris, in 1880. The stories are told in Harris’s version of a Deep South slave dialect, which was adapted for the Disney movie. The live actors provide a frame story, in which Uncle Remus relates the folk tales and the adventures of Brer Rabbit and his friends. In the film’s most famous scene, the animated animals and Uncle Remus sing the classic song Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah, which won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Song. The movie inspired the Disney theme park attraction Splash Mountain.
Song of the South has been re-released in theaters several times (most recently in 1986), but Disney Enterprises has avoided making the complete version of the film directly available on home video in the United States. This is because the story was deemed controversial by studio management. Disney executives think the movie will be construed by some as racist toward black people, and is thus subject to much internet rumor. Some portions of the film have been issued on VHS and DVD as part of either compilations or special editions of Disney films. In late 2010, Disney released a statement indicating a possible upcoming release.
“I can say there’s been a lot of internal discussion about Song of the South, and at some point we’re going to do something about it. I don’t know when, but we will. We know we want people to see Song of the South because we realize it’s a big piece of company history, and we want to do it the right way.” The movie is probably the most discussed film that has not been officially released on DVD. It was recently featured in the ListVerse article discussing ridiculous cases of political correctness. Song of the South has been released on video in its entirety in various European, Latin American and Asian countries. In the UK it was put out on VHS tape in 1982, and again in 1991. These tapes are highly collectible and can bring $25 and more on EBay. For the time being, Song of the South remains locked in the Disney Vault, along with many other classics that have never been released on DVD.
Many internet groups are demanding the release of the 1986 BMX racing movie, Rad to DVD. Rad is a film that focuses on Cru Jones, who is a young BMX racer living in a small town with his mother and sister. In the movie, Cru is faced with a tough decision, the qualifying races for the Helltrack bike competitions are on the same day as his SATs, which he must take in order to attend college. Winning Helltrack means a lucrative sponsorship deal and fame. Racers from all around travel to the small town to participate in the competition and Cru meets Christian Hollings, who becomes his girlfriend. While the film was critically bombarded by the media, it has developed quite a following.
Parts of the movie were filmed at Cochrane High School in Cochrane, Alberta, Canada. Rad was released at a time when competitive bike racing was in its infancy, and the film has been credited with helping put a generation of kids on the bike. Today, Action Sports and the X Games are a largely competitive and growing market. In 1986, Rad was released on VHS and laserdisc. At that time, the film became a top-ten video rental in the United States for two years. However, the movie has never been released on DVD. This has made the VHS copy of the film valuable. Copies of the Rad VHS routinely sell for $25 and more on EBay. The soundtrack is also highly collectible because it was only released on 12″ vinyl and cassette. Various illegal and bootlegged DVD copies of the movie have been sold over the internet.
The Keep is a horror film that was directed by Michael Mann. The movie focuses on a deserted citadel in WWII Romania, in which an entrapped and dangerous entity named Radu Molasar lives. When the German Wehrmacht occupies the castle to control the Dinu Mountain Pass, the creature is unwittingly unleashed from the deep. The pure destruction puts the Nazi soldiers into an uneasy alliance with a Jewish professional. Despite being a critical and commercial failure, the movie has gained a cult following over the years. This is mostly due to the movie’s music score by Tangerine Dream, and the bizarre mixture of Gothic horror and World War II elements. The Keep was released on laserdisc and VHS, but an official DVD version of the movie has never been released. READ MORE.. »»
In the movie industry, certain companies (mainly Disney) use a practice called a moratorium, which is delaying or suspending the release of a DVD movie for a certain period of time. The process is used to make DVD copies rare and, in many cases, nonexistent. People want to watch their favorite films on DVD. This is why groups of individuals regularly become upset when they can’t find their favorite movies in DVD format. The collective demand for a DVD release does not pass by movie executives, and every year old movies are converted to DVD. One great example is the 2011 DVD release of the horror movie, Santa Sangre. This article will document fifteen pictures that need to be released on DVD.
15
The Wild Life
1984
The Wild Life is a 1984 comedy-drama film, written by Cameron Crowe and directed by Art Linson. The movie examines the stereotypical teenage issues that you find in 1980s cinema. The plot revolves around the characters of three teenagers living in the suburbs of Los Angeles. The Wild Life contains great character actor roles, and includes stars Eric Stoltz, Ilan Mitchell-Smith, Chris Penn, Randy Quaid, Rick Moranis and Lea Thompson. In the film, the three boys set out for a night of fun at a strip bar and later have a large house party.
The Wild Life has faced copyright infringement lawsuits due to the music used in the film, and the picture is only available on VHS and Laserdisc, with stereo analog tracks. No DVD version has been released due to the objection of the artists on the soundtrack. Some of these tracks include songs written and performed by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Madonna, Buffalo Springfield, Little Richard, Jimi Hendrix, Huey Lewis and Billy Idol. In the middle of the 1980s, The Wild Life video tape was mass produced, so today you can find a copy of the VHS on EBay for less than $10.
14
Queen of Hearts
1989
Queen of Hearts is a film that tells the story of Eddie Luca, who is the youngest son in a family of Italian immigrants that has moved to London. The group travels with nothing, but soon opens a cafe in an Italian neighborhood. After experiencing gambling problems, the Luca family is faced with some hardship. The film has aspects of drama, but is largely a comedy. Queen of Hearts was directed by Jon Amiel. It is a fun movie that can be enjoyed by the entire family. The film was released on VHS in 1989, but has not been converted to DVD. In the early 1990s, Queen of Hearts was shown on PBS in the United States and many people regularly search the internet for the DVD. On August 6, 2010, Queen of Hearts was played on the MGM HG channel. You can find a copy of the VHS on EBay for $20 and up.
13
Mr. Boogedy
1986
Mr. Boogedy is a family film that originally aired as an episode of The Disney Sunday Movie, on April 20, 1986. The story follows a gag gift salesman and his family as they move into a new house in New England. The Davis family initially ignores strange sounds and sights in the house, suspecting their father’s practical jokes, but it soon becomes evident that the house is haunted by people that lived there 300 years ago. The film stars John Astin, who is best known for his role as Gomez on the 1960s sitcom, The Addams Family.
Mr. Boogedy is a great ghost story that kids and adults can enjoy. A sequel to the film, named Bride of Boogedy, aired on April 12, 1987. It tells the continuing story of the Davis family and their encounters with the evil 300-year-old ghost. The film takes place in the fictional New England town of Lucifer Falls. Unfortunately, Mr. Boogedy and Bride of Boogedy have never been released on DVD, and remain in the Disney Vault. A VHS of Bride of Boogedy was released, but copies are impossible to find, and highly valuable. Another spooky Disney classic that people have been requesting for a DVD release is the 1978 TV movie Child of Glass. Others want the 1972 family western Justin Morgan Had a Horse.
12
The Last Movie
1971
The Last Movie is a drama film that was written and directed by American actor Dennis Hopper. In the movie, Hopper plays a stunt coordinator named Kansas, who is in charge of horses on a western film being shot in a small Peruvian village. Following a tragic incident on the set, where an actor is killed in a stunt, Kansas decides to quit the movie business and stay in Peru with a local woman. He thinks he has found paradise, but is soon called to help with a bizarre incident. The Peruvian natives are “filming” their own movie with “cameras” made of sticks, and acting out real western movie violence, as they don’t understand movie fakery.
The Last Movie touches on ideas of fiction versus reality, especially in regards to cinema. It is presented in a way that challenges the viewer’s understanding of storytelling and includes several devices typically only seen behind the scenes of movies. The film was initially a commercial failure, and led to Dennis Hopper’s virtual exile from Hollywood for over a decade. During the production of The Last Movie, Hopper was in a period of severe alcohol and drug abuse. His mental state was recorded in an extremely rare and barely released documentary, called The American Dreamer.
The American Dreamer film is sharing this entry with The Last Movie, as the documentary has never been released on DVD and is impossible to find. During his lifetime, Dennis Hooper was very proud of The Last Movie, and hosted several different private screenings. In 2006, Hopper told Playboy that he had re-acquired the rights to the film and was planning on a DVD release. Sadly, Dennis Hopper did not realize his plans to put the film on DVD before his death, by way of prostate cancer, in May 2010.
11
Deadman’s Curve
1978
Deadman’s Curve is a made for TV movie based on the careers of Jan Berry and Dean Torrence, who made up the rock and roll duo Jan and Dean. In 1964, Jan and Dean released the hit single Dead Man’s Curve, and two years later Jan Berry experienced a near-fatal car accident in his Corvette. The crash occurred in the proximity of the actual dead man’s curve that is referenced in the song. It is located in Los Angeles, California. Jan suffered severe head injuries in the accident and the film documents his recovery from brain damage and partial paralysis. After the accident, a comeback into the music industry was slim, but Jan’s willingness and Dean’s support helped the men make a musical revival. The film has appearances by Dick Clark, Wolfman Jack, Mike Love, Bruce Johnston and Jan Berry, himself (who, sadly, died in 2004). It features a great soundtrack of Jan and Dean original recordings. Deadman’s Curve has never been released on DVD and the VHS tape is a hard find.
10
Captain EO
1986
Captain EO is a 3-D film starring Michael Jackson and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The name, Captain EO, was taken from the Greek goddess of dawn. The film’s executive producer was George Lucas. It was written by Rusty Lemorande, Lucas and Coppola. Starting in 1986, Captain EO became a feature attraction at Disney theme parks. The movie is regarded as one of the first 4-D films, 4-D being the name given to a 3-D movie which incorporates in-theater effects, such as lasers and starfields. The experience is different from a modern day 3-D film, as the lasers can bring the objects farther away from the screen, extending into the audience.
The movie tells the story of Captain EO and the crew of his spaceship on a mission to deliver a gift to the Supreme Leader. The movie’s special effects resulted in the seventeen-minute feature costing an estimated $30 million to produce. At the time, it was the most expensive movie ever made on a per-minute basis, averaging $1.76 million per minute. Concurrent with the opening of the attraction, a behind the scenes documentary, entitled Captain EO: Backstage, was produced for television. The piece was hosted by Whoopi Goldberg and features interviews with cast, writers and the director. The movie score for Captain EO was written by Titanic’s James Horner, and features two songs, We Are Here to Change the World and Another Part of Me, both written and performed by Michael Jackson.
After the death of Michael Jackson on June 25, 2009, Captain EO regained popularity over the Internet. For several years, a small group of fans had petitioned Disney to bring back the attraction, and Jackson’s death brought the campaign to a peak. In response, the film, now entitled Captain EO Tribute, re-opened at Disneyland Park, on February 23, 2010, after a sixteen year absence. It also returned to Discoveryland at Disneyland Park (Paris), Epcot at Walt Disney World and to Tokyo Disneyland. However, the reason the film was originally stopped was cost, and the 2010 version does not include the in-theater lasers and starfield effects. If you were able to experience Captain EO from 1986-1998, you were lucky. Captain EO has never been released on VHS or DVD. People have attempted to convince Disney to create a DVD set with the film and the documentary.
9
Last Summer
1969
Last Summer is a 1969 coming-of-age movie about adolescent sexuality. It was directed by Frank Perry and filmed at various locations on Fire Island, in New York. In 1969, the movie was controversial and it gained an X rating. Last Summer follows the random activities of four teenagers during a summer on Fire Island. As sexual tensions increase on the island, the more experienced and dominant girl, Sandy, encourages Dan and Peter to take advantage of Rhonda. The character development in the movie is flawless.
During the film, the three teenagers explore their youthful sexuality and their individual personalities arise, with Sandy showing some psychotic tendencies. Rhoda is also staying on the island and looking for companionship. She forces herself into the wrong tangled group and Sandy takes a seductive mental control over the boys. The memorable performance of Catherine Burns was nominated for an Academy Award. Upon the movie’s VHS release, it was given an R rating after edits to the scene depicting rape were made. The VHS copies of the film are hard to find and will cost $50 and up. Last Summer remains one of the most requested DVD releases.
8
So Big
1953
The oldest film on the list is the 1953 drama, So Big. The movie’s screenplay was written by John Twist, and is based on the 1924 novel by Edna Ferber. The story follows Selina Peake and her life journey. Selina is a talented musician that has a pure taste for the arts. After her father’s death, Selina travels to a small community outside of Chicago. She marries a man named Pervus DeJong and the two have a son named Dirk, but as he grows older the boy is given the nickname So Big.
When Dirk is eight years old, Pervus dies and Selina is left to struggle for money. At this time, she begins her quest to grow high quality vegetables and provides for her child, ultimately guiding Dirk’s life until he graduates from college as an architect. It is an inspirational story with a good message. The movie has withstood the test of time and is highly entertaining. Unlike other films on this list, you can’t even find a VHS copy of So Big, so don’t plan on watching the movie anytime soon.
7
Treasure Island
1990
Treasure Island is a made for television movie that aired on January 22, 1990. It is an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous 1883 novel. The story revolves around a young boy named Jim Hawkins (Christian Bale), who discovers a treasure map and embarks on a journey to find the loot. Upon arriving at the mysterious island, the ship’s cook and scaliwag, Long John Silver (Charlton Heston), leads a mutiny of crew members who want the treasure for themselves. Jim helps the Squire and Espaniola officers to survive the mutiny and fight back against Silver’s men, who have taken over the ship.
The movie is a great adaptation of the novel, with good acting, and an adventurous theme. It was filmed in 1989, on location in Cornwall, England, Jamaica, and at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England. This version of the story is noted for its faithfulness to the book, with much of the dialogue coming directly from it. It also removes several violent scenes to make the movie more children friendly. The film’s music was composed by Paddy Moloney, who is the leader of the Irish folk music group The Chieftains. Despite its cult status, Treasure Island has yet to see a DVD release. The video, now out of print, can be found on various websites and usually costs $20 and up.
6
The World’s Greatest Sinner
1962
The World’s Greatest Sinner is an underground film, written, directed and starring the character actor, Timothy Carey. The movie established Carey as an important figure in independent film. The self-financed movie tells the story of an average man, Clarence Hilliard, who quits his day job as an insurance salesman to form a rock band. Hilliard finds that he can whip crowds into frenzy with his wild performances, so he takes advantage of the situation by turning his fan base into a political party. He eventually forms a religious cult based on the premise that every man is God.
As Clarence grows more powerful he becomes detached from reality, eventually insisting upon being called God with a capital “G” (God Hilliard), and having his followers worship him as such. He personally challenges the God of the Bible. The World’s Greatest Sinner has never had an official release, although it has aired on the Turner Classic Movies channel. The film originally achieved cult status through repeated screenings at the “midnight movies” in Los Angeles during the 1960s. It features a musical score that was composed by a very young Frank Zappa. Martin Scorsese has selected the film as one of his favorite Rock and Roll movies of all time.
5
A New Leaf
1971
A New Leaf is a dark comedy based on the short story The Green Heart, by Jack Ritchie. The movie stars Elaine May, Walter Matthau, George Rose and James Coco. The story revolves around Henry Graham, who is a man that has run through his entire inheritance, and is completely unequipped to provide for himself. Henry is completely unwilling to complete the only solution he sees suitable, which is suicide. Instead he devises a plan with the help of his imaginative butler. The film was a critical success upon its initial release and is now considered a cult classic. However, despite several good reviews and award nominations, A New Leaf performed poorly at the box office and remains little known by the general public. It is one of the funniest films of the last forty years that nobody has seen. A New Leaf has never been released on DVD, but you can purchase the VHS online from various websites.
4
Dudes
1987
Dudes is a 1987 film, directed by Penelope Spheeris and starring Jon Cryer and bassist Flea. The film tells the story of two punk teenagers from the big city as they travel across the country in a Volkswagen bug. Along the trip, the pair embraces the western culture and must take revenge against a group of rednecks for killing their friend. Dudes is a lighthearted road comedy that keeps the viewer interested. It has been praised for a good script, beautiful scenery and strong editing. Lions Gate has yet to announce any plans to release the film on DVD, most likely due to music copyrights. The VHS copy of Dudes is available online for a reasonable price.
And: The Decline of Western Civilization Trilogy (1979-1998)
Sharing this entry with Dudes is the epic three part movie series titled The Decline of Western Civilization, which was also directed by Penelope Spheeris. Spheeris has quite a resume, also directing the hit movies Wayne’s World and Black Sheep. The Decline of Western Civilization is a documentary about the Los Angeles punk rock scene. In 1981, the LAPD Chief of Police Daryl Gates wrote a letter demanding the film not be shown again in L.A. Over the years the films have gained a cult status in the underground music world.
The second film covers the Los Angeles heavy metal scene of 1986-1988, and the third documentary chronicles the gutter punk lifestyle of homeless teenagers in the late 1990s. The 1979 original movie features concert footage of legendary Los Angeles punk bands, and has interviews with band members. It gives a look into a subculture that was largely ignored by the rock music press of the time. Bands included are Black Flag, Germs, X, The Bags (billed at the time as The Alice Bag Band), Catholic Discipline and Fear. The second movie in the series was released in 1988, and examines the metal years of music.
It features interviews and concert footage with some legendary bands, including Aerosmith, Kiss, Megadeth, Motörhead, Ozzy Osbourne, W.A.S.P and Alice Cooper. The third movie involves the story of hardcore street punks who take the anti-establishment message with extreme seriousness and tune out society completely. Spheeris talks to homeless teenagers living on the street or squatting in abandoned buildings in Los Angeles. The movie features performances by Final Conflict, Litmus Green, Naked Aggression and The Resistance. The Decline of Western Civilization trilogy has not been made available on DVD, but has been released on VHS. The tapes are extremely rare and collectible.
3
No Holds Barred
1989
When examining the shrinking world of lucrative VHS videos, wrestling events stand out. People like to watch old WWF wrestling promotions, events and videos. In the history of the World Wrestling Entertainment Company, run by Vince McMahon, the business has faced many copyright infringement cases. In 2002, the WWF was forced to change their name and stop trading WWF merchandise. Additionally, the court required the company to remove both auditory and visual references to “WWF” in its library of video footage (1979-2002), outside of the United Kingdom. This doesn’t mean the company lost the rights to the videos, but it does make it so the old wresting events don’t make it to DVD, thus raising the VHS prices immensely.
The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) video library is currently the largest collection of professional wrestling videos and copyrights in the world. It is comprised of professional wrestling promotions dating back to the 1940s. As of 2011, the library stands at over 100,000 hours of content, including weekly television shows, pay-per-views, and recorded house shows. The collection represents a very significant portion of the visual history of modern professional wrestling. Although not wrestling content, the library includes footage from various WWF/E produced ventures, including the 1985-1987 cartoon series Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling and the 1989 film No Holds Barred.
No Holds Barred is a movie that was launched in an attempt to boost Hulk Hogan’s acting career several years after his appearance in Rocky III. In the film, Hulk Hogan plays Rip, a very popular professional wrestler. Rip looks and acts like a brute, but he is actually a good-hearted guy. The movie is concluded with Rip facing off in a deadly match against the hardened wrestler Zeus. No Holds Barred: The Match/The Movie is a wrestling event that was shown on pay-per-view on December 27, 1989. The program consisted of the film in its entirety, followed by a match with the movie’s stars, including Hogan. In all, the movie was a commercial failure, but has gained a significant following over the years. No Holds Barred has never been released on DVD and a VHS copy sells for a good price. However, the VHS was mass produced and other WWF videos are much more collectible and valuable.
2
Song of the South
1946
In the year following the official end of World War II, the Walt Disney Company released a film named Song of the South. The movie is a mix of live action and animation. It is based on the fictional character of Uncle Remus. Uncle Remus was made famous in a collection of African American folktales adapted and compiled by Joel Chandler Harris, in 1880. The stories are told in Harris’s version of a Deep South slave dialect, which was adapted for the Disney movie. The live actors provide a frame story, in which Uncle Remus relates the folk tales and the adventures of Brer Rabbit and his friends. In the film’s most famous scene, the animated animals and Uncle Remus sing the classic song Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah, which won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Song. The movie inspired the Disney theme park attraction Splash Mountain.
Song of the South has been re-released in theaters several times (most recently in 1986), but Disney Enterprises has avoided making the complete version of the film directly available on home video in the United States. This is because the story was deemed controversial by studio management. Disney executives think the movie will be construed by some as racist toward black people, and is thus subject to much internet rumor. Some portions of the film have been issued on VHS and DVD as part of either compilations or special editions of Disney films. In late 2010, Disney released a statement indicating a possible upcoming release.
“I can say there’s been a lot of internal discussion about Song of the South, and at some point we’re going to do something about it. I don’t know when, but we will. We know we want people to see Song of the South because we realize it’s a big piece of company history, and we want to do it the right way.” The movie is probably the most discussed film that has not been officially released on DVD. It was recently featured in the ListVerse article discussing ridiculous cases of political correctness. Song of the South has been released on video in its entirety in various European, Latin American and Asian countries. In the UK it was put out on VHS tape in 1982, and again in 1991. These tapes are highly collectible and can bring $25 and more on EBay. For the time being, Song of the South remains locked in the Disney Vault, along with many other classics that have never been released on DVD.
1
Rad
1986
Many internet groups are demanding the release of the 1986 BMX racing movie, Rad to DVD. Rad is a film that focuses on Cru Jones, who is a young BMX racer living in a small town with his mother and sister. In the movie, Cru is faced with a tough decision, the qualifying races for the Helltrack bike competitions are on the same day as his SATs, which he must take in order to attend college. Winning Helltrack means a lucrative sponsorship deal and fame. Racers from all around travel to the small town to participate in the competition and Cru meets Christian Hollings, who becomes his girlfriend. While the film was critically bombarded by the media, it has developed quite a following.
Parts of the movie were filmed at Cochrane High School in Cochrane, Alberta, Canada. Rad was released at a time when competitive bike racing was in its infancy, and the film has been credited with helping put a generation of kids on the bike. Today, Action Sports and the X Games are a largely competitive and growing market. In 1986, Rad was released on VHS and laserdisc. At that time, the film became a top-ten video rental in the United States for two years. However, the movie has never been released on DVD. This has made the VHS copy of the film valuable. Copies of the Rad VHS routinely sell for $25 and more on EBay. The soundtrack is also highly collectible because it was only released on 12″ vinyl and cassette. Various illegal and bootlegged DVD copies of the movie have been sold over the internet.
+
The Keep
1983
The Keep is a horror film that was directed by Michael Mann. The movie focuses on a deserted citadel in WWII Romania, in which an entrapped and dangerous entity named Radu Molasar lives. When the German Wehrmacht occupies the castle to control the Dinu Mountain Pass, the creature is unwittingly unleashed from the deep. The pure destruction puts the Nazi soldiers into an uneasy alliance with a Jewish professional. Despite being a critical and commercial failure, the movie has gained a cult following over the years. This is mostly due to the movie’s music score by Tangerine Dream, and the bizarre mixture of Gothic horror and World War II elements. The Keep was released on laserdisc and VHS, but an official DVD version of the movie has never been released. READ MORE.. »»
Friday, February 11, 2011
Best Article Sites for Experts and a Great Read
Looking for articles to read – or perhaps articles for your website or ezine? We’ve got some of the top places you’ll find great articles ready for you to enjoy and to add fresh content to your site or ezine. Note: the articles at Squidoo.com are NOT for use at your site – only to enjoy reading.
If you are an expert of any type and want to share on your favorite subject, these article sites are certainly worth checking out. Many experts today like to share what they know – whether it is within their profession, a passion or that hobby they enjoy in their free time – and writing articles about it is a great way to get this information out to people that will look forward to what you have to say.
There are many article sites out there. These are some of our favorites – but we’re certainly interested in hearing about your favorite sites. Be sure to share your favorite article sites with us in the comments below – and tell us why you enjoy these sites so much!
Ezine Articles
This is one of the favorite articles sites available today. You’ll find thousands of articles on popular subjects, from business, internet business, real estate, computers and technology, self improvement and kids and teens to mention a few subjects. Many people enjoy writing for or publishing Ezine Articles on their website/ezine as they know they’ll find great quality here.Visit this article site here at http://ezinearticles.com/
Go Articles
At Go Articles you’ll find many articles on some of the most popular subjects. Including Autos, Careers, Education, Family, Health and much more. You can be an Author here or an Expert Author. Recent Articles are listed right on the home page, so you’ll easily see what’s available. It’s easy to join here – just takes a minute!Visit this article site here at http://www.goarticles.com/
IdeaMarketers
This is a favorite site here. For one thing, it’s very well organized and has great graphics. You can find articles easily and quickly in their categories or by authors. Also note which authors have more authority by the “Expert” next to their name. Many people enjoy Idea Marketers whether writing for them or reading their articles!Visit this article site here at http://www.ideamarketers.com/
SelfGrowth
If you like spirituality, holistic health and self improvement, then SelfGrowth is the site for you. This article site is entirely dedicated to these subjects. Find thousands of articles on these subjects by experts dedicated to share their knowledge. It’s an interesting site with lots of information.Visit this article site here at http://www.selfgrowth.com/
Article Alley
You’ll find lots of great articles at Article Alley. One of our favorite things about this article site is that there are lots of e-business articles. So if you are looking for articles about Blogs, Computer Hardware, Computer Software, Directories, Domain Names and other e-business/computer related topics, this is a great site for you!Visit this article site here at http://www.articlealley.com/
Squidoo
We’ve saved one of the best article sites for last: Squidoo. Okay, you can’t publish these to your own site or ezine – but there are great articles here by experts and they are fun to read. If you are an expert, you’ll want to think about writing for Squidoo, it is an easy to use system with cool and fun tools to make your Squidoo lenses (that’s what they call articles) even more exciting. You’ll find Squidoo lenses on every subject – and you can make money from your lenses!Visit this article site at http://www.squidoo.com/ READ MORE.. »»
Best Advertising and Marketing News and Information Sites
I’m consistently surprised at the amount of people in the U.S. who have either studied marketing in college, or had jobs in marketing departments of companies. Marketing is a big deal. If you have a company, you have to market it. If you work for a company, odds are they want to market it, and they want you to know how – or at least understand how.
Advertising Age
Not only is it a website, it’s a printed weekly that has been around since 1930. In addition to getting the printed weekly, you can also sign up for a number of digital newsletters to keep you in the know. Advertising Age, the website, offers advertising news, weekly columns, blogs, white papers, and more. The layout is easy to navigate and the content is solid.
>>Advertising News – adage.com
ADWEEK
Advertising and marketing are sort of sisters, or close cousins. Adweek is totally devoted to advertising, but even marketing professionals can learn a thing or two from it. Published first in 1978, Adweek talks about new campaigns, relationships between clients and agencies, and Internet advertising. It is the second-biggest trade publication in advertising, beat out by Advertising Age, which we already told you about.
>>Adweek – adweek.com
Brand Packaging
OK, so this site is mainly about packaging, but the site is so pretty! And, this is about best websites overall, so bear with me. You can learn a lot about a brand by the way it packages itself, and you can learn a lot about marketing from learning how successful companies market their brand. So see? There’s a connection.
>>Brand Packaging – brandpackaging.com
Brandweek
Brandweek is a sister site to Adweek, and it covers marketing campaigns the world over. It is one of the most educational publications on marketing you can read. It prints 46 issues per year and keeps the website updated constantly. You can also subscribe to a number of different newsletters.
>>Marketing Trade Publication – brandweek.com
DMNews
A brainchild of Haymarket Media, DMNews (short for Direct Marketing News) aims to report on marketing trends and technologies, employing a team of professional journalists and utilizing contributions from industry specialists. The print version is ginormous, so you might want to stick with the online version, though you might like ginormous print magazines. If so, go for it.
>>Ginormous Print Version – dmnews.com
Marketing Today
Peter DeLegge Consulting runs this website, which is an absolute wealth of knowledge and information. DeLegge himself has an illustrious history in the marketing world, including serving in a marketing capacity to companies like Motorola and Aon. He started this website with a focus on marketing from the marketing professional’s perspective. Seth Godin has contributed to the website, and has openly praised the site. It ain’t all that pretty, but boy, is it good.
>>Great Marketing Insight – marketingtoday.com
Marketing Vox
It’s hip-looking, and employs the word “Vox” for “voice” which is very edgy, yes? The site is owned by Watershed Publishing, a Vermont company that does quite a few other publications, like MarketingCharts.com, MediaBuyerPlanner.com, RetailerDaily.com, and more. They are all good sites. Plus, you know Vermont people. They’re just sort of cool, aren’t they? And this company? Watershed Media? Sort of dreamy. Check them out.
>>Very Cool Marketing Publication – marketingvox.com
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