Best of the Weekly Bystander 2021

The Weekly Bystander will be on vacation for the month of May but hopefully will reappear in June. To tide readers and fans over, I post below a list of the top ten viewed posts since the blog first appeared on 12/16/2011 with an obituary of the deceased atheist Christopher Hitchens. Just click on the link provided to view a post. I will list them in reverse order.

Number 10. Roberto Benign's Pinocchio. This post is a review of Benigni's charming film version of the Italian classic story of a puppet boy who won't be tamed. It is in the Masterpiece section of the WB.

Number 9. Year End Top Films. This post briefly reviews eight excellent foreign films. If you missed any, they are well worth viewing. I suspect it gained a number of hits because of the image of the beautiful Fanny Ardant as opera diva Maria Callas.It was the first in a series of lists of film favorites.

Number 8. Pedophile Priests. This 2017 post examined this controversial subject and tried to put it into perspective.

Number 7. The Leopard. This post is a review of Luchino Visconti's epic telling of the Italian Risorgimento as it impacted the lives of a Sicilian aristocratic family. The film starred Burt Lancaster in his greatest role, and the young and beautiful Claudia Cardinale.

Number 6. Tax Deductions. This 2017 post examined the rationale behind some of the changes in the Republican Tax Reform bill that removed regressive and unfair tax deductions. The last four years have demonstrated that the reforms did not decrease Federal revenues. However, now the Administration of President is proposing to restore these deductions that mainly benefit the well-to-do.

Number 5.  U.S. Health Care System. This post examined the effectiveness of the health care system in the United States back in 2013, and argued that it was the best in the world.  The development of vaccines during the pandemic would seem to indicate that despite its critics, it is still the best.

Number 4. Scientific Consensus. This 2017 post questioned the consensus among scientists about the subject of global warming, as well as the validity of consensus in general. Recent studies have only bolstered its conclusions.

Number 3. The Filibuster. This 2017 post examined the controversy over President Trump's nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, and included a discussion of the very concept of filibuster. Ironically, the strongest supporters of the filibuster back then were the same Democratic politicians who are today seeking to eliminate it now that they are in power.

Number 2 .Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition. This 2015 post was a review of Benzion Netanyahu's magnum opus on the Spanish Inquisition. Netanyahu, the father of Israel's current Prime Minister, overthrew all of the traditional notions of the dreaded Inquisition.

Number 1. Titian, "Sacred and Profane Love". This post is far and away the most viewed on The Weekly Bystander. It is a concise version of my own interpretation of Titian's famous masterpiece. Is it #1 because of my expertise, or because of the beautiful woman in the painting? ###

Titian: Sacred and Profane Love