- Considering that it happened 43 years ago, a look around the Internet will astonish many readers with just how firmly James Earl “Jimmy” Carter’s presidency remains in Your Mileage May Vary territory. Conservatives declare that his watch was a mess, while liberals assert that he inherited a mess (Why does that sound familiar?): the huge Vietnam War deficit, an economy that for the first time ever suffered rampant inflation while stagnating, and a national post-Vietnam, post-Watergate funk which was described as a “malaise” – a word that is hung around his neck by conservative commentators (and The Simpsons) to this day, though Carter himself never actually used it. “Stagflation” was exacerbated by the 1979 oil crisis; long gas lines and high energy costs contributed to the national unhappiness. In an attempt to lead by example, the President lowered the thermostats in the White House and donned sweaters to keep warm instead – which became for many a hated symbol of the lifestyle sacrifices which they believed his policies had made necessary.
- RoboCop (Wikipedia)
RoboCop is a 1987 American science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven, with a screenplay by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. The film stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Daniel O’Herlihy, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, and Miguel Ferrer. Set in a crime-ridden Detroit, in the near future, RoboCop centers on police officer Alex Murphy (Weller) who is murdered by a gang of criminals and subsequently revived by the megacorporation Omni Consumer Products as the cyborg law enforcer RoboCop. Unaware of his former life, RoboCop executes a brutal campaign against crime while coming to terms with the lingering fragments of his humanity.