Pun Salad

Since I read Robert Heinlein's Rocket Ship Galileo recently, it put me in the mood for… Moon Nazis! And this 2012 movie is solidly in that genre.

It's set in the (then) near future of 2018, and the POTUS (a Sarah Palin type) has hit on a reelection gimmick: send an African-American on a mission to return to the Moon. Complete with ad banners on the lunar lander: "Black to the Moon!".

Sometimes the distance between satire and reality can be pretty thin.

But the return mission is cut short when one of the astronauts discovers a Nazi base hiding on the "dark side of the moon". (I hate that term.) And he's promptly shot in the head. The other guy, James Washington, the black guy, is taken prisoner. And he discovers a pretty functional colony, dedicated to developing and deploying the Götterdämmerung secret weapon so the Nazis can fulfill their dream of taking over the Earth. All they need is computing power—like that found in Washington's smartphone.

It's filled with a lot of satire, both heavy-handed and safe. (How brave do you have to be to make fun of Nazis?) The special effects and sets are decent for a small-budget movie. (They didn't spend much on the screenplay or the cast salary.) If you're in the mood for some dumb fun, this isn't bad.

Emma Camp shows that she's more knowledgable about First Amendment interpretation than a sitting SCOTUS justice. And the identity of that justice may surprise you! (It surprised me.) Her provocative headline: Yes, You Can Yell 'Fire' in a Crowded Theater.

Ms. Camp points out that Alito was a lone dissenting vote in two First Amendment-relevant cases: Snyder v. Phelps in 2011, and United States v. Stevens in 2010. Both involved very odious speech that (nevertheless) the eight other justices held to be protected by the First.

Somehow, Sam got Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission right in 2010. So maybe with a little help from our Amazon Product du Jour, he could be as well informed on the First as a Reason assistant editor.