GREAT MOMENTS IN CHUTZPAH:
The absolute gall of calling it a "near death experience" to face a backlash for lying about the actual cold-blooded murder of a young man martyred for free speech. These people are utterly beneath contempt. https://t.co/umy0pDQOPD
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) January 5, 2026
In 2000, when Michael Caine won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in the pro-abortion film The Cider House Rules, William F. Buckley wrote:
Non-amateur writers avoid industriously the word “Orwellian” because even years ago it became an overused and underdefined cliche.
But try to find another word for what Michael Caine came up with at the Oscar ceremony on Sunday after receiving a prize for his performance in “The Cider House Rules.” That’s the movie that’s a paean to the abortion industry. And what the great actor said, when finally the thunderous ovation let him be heard, was, “I’m basically up here, guys, to represent you as what I hope you will all be, a survivor.”
Well, George Orwell would have pondered that, all right, inasmuch as a survivor, in the context of the theme of that event, turns out to be somebody who was physically present at the Shrine Auditorium on Sunday, i.e., somebody who survived the mother’s temptation to abort the fetus. That makes them survivors, does it not? So they are being applauded for surviving the practices celebrated by the movie … That, ladies and gentlemen, is Orwellian.
Similarly, for Charlie Kirk of course, it wasn’t a “near-death experience.” Kimmel knows it, and he doesn’t give a damn about the assassination of someone on the other side of the aisle.