George Clooney staring intensely at a goat -- and willing it to die -- should be funny, right?

I mean, in a movie, not real life.

There he is -- in the self-explanatorily titled “The Men Who Stare at Goats” – eyes narrowed, as he tries to kill a tethered critter with his mind. Here’s man and beast united in a spaghetti western confrontation. Watching this, we should be falling about. So why aren’t we?

The blog pulpit today officially enshrines insincerity and melodrama as the new black -- same as the old black. (Sorry, Pete Townshend.)  

As “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” descends upon the multiplexes, it would be so easy, cheap and déclassé to unload on the whole phenomenon. Like Edward, the chaste vampire star of the movies and the books, I should resist the temptation.

Oh wait. I’m not Edward. And I’d like to talk about our disturbing attraction to fascism.