There was a bright moon three feet above his head, and an azure dragon embroidered on his sleeves. Riding a horse with a sword, indulging in unbridled pleasures, roaming the Jianghu with his lover.

According to Neal King, cop action movies point both an accusatory finger and homoerotically murderous race at powerful white men. A close look at a massive and hugely popular fictional culture, Heroes in Hard Times considers the over 190 cop action movies released between 1980 and 1997; examines the generic moral logic that they offer; and explores the crisis in American masculinity that, King argues, propels the action in their stories. King studies how, in the cop action genre, working-class police officers weigh in on such topics as racial justice, homosexuality, misogyny, unemployment, worker resistance, affirmative action, drug use, poverty, divorce, and the use of violence to deal with social problems. Facing their enemies with wisecracks and firepower, these men prove themselves at once complicitous in a system of violence and corruption and worthy to "blow away," with neither hesitation nor remorse, their -- society's -- menacing threats. The central male figures in these stories are heroes in their fight against criminals, but, as individuals, they fell undervalued by women, unappreciated by their bosses, and out of place in a society where fat cats and liberals have all the power. Such "hard times," King's study reveals, position them to simultaneously long for, disdain, and heroically -- if violently -- stake their frustrated claim to white male privilege. Discussing such topics as white male guilt and the rage of the oppressed and examining such films as Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, and Silence of the Lambs, King's book notes the socially-charged roles given to American culture's fictional police heroes. The last artisan in a culture that has become increasingly corporate and bureaucratized, the movie cop is the last 'real man' in a world that has emasculated men and the last non-conforming patriot in a world that pays more attention to rules than what is morally right. A book that shows how modern mythology makes sense of rampant corruption (and provides entertainment in its punishment), Heroes in Hard Times will educate and provoke those interested in American popular culture, film, and gender studies.

This book is written in the form of a devotional. It consists of my minisermons as posted daily on social media. It addresses the tussles we encounter daily. It is good for spiritual maturity, relationships, and wisdom. A devotional journal, compared to a memoir, should have some uplifting qualities and should be inspiring and illuminating. Thats what this book is intended to accomplish. This book will help you discover your purpose for living and hence your divine destiny. What you believe about God defines your life. Losing sight of God causes us to lose who we are really are. The Word is a prism through which we filter our changing self-image. Gods primary goal is to change us so that we can see as He sees. Christ Himself became wisdom from God to us in order for us (the church) to display the multifarious wisdom of God to the whole universe. God may not fix everything broken in your life now, but He is willing to renew your thinking so that you are able to think as He would have you think, desire what He says is best, and do what He calls you to do. This book could be a viable clutch missing at your fingertips, greatly needed in a culture in which post-truth is the word of the yearI mean todays culture where people are economical with the truth, where people sweeten it or tell the truth improved.

An in-your-face look at the cop action movie genre.

Imperfect Heroes is intended to help teachers flourish during challenging times. The book is written for all educators, but especially those who seek renewal in their ability to help students learn and grow. Included are the inspiring and motivational stories of twelve “Teaching Heroes.” Successful leaders, writers, and artists face challenges strikingly similar to obstacles faced by teachers. Iconic individuals often use life hardships as a springboard to achieve higher levels of effectiveness. Teachers can do this, too. Personal, career, and relational roadblocks are universal, and much can be learned from how heroes have turned trials into successes. The main idea of this book is that learning about the lives of people different from ourselves can provide large benefits. The application of ideas from new and divergent sources to our teaching practices can result in transformative growth in our ability to help others learn. Teachers can use the hero stories intertwined with classroom examples to gain confidence, motivate students, and renew their commitment to making a positive contribution to the world.

Society's widening gap between technological achievement and moral decay compels men of courage, integrity, and true manhood to stand strong. In a quest for satisfaction, many men have lost the meaning of manhood, surrendering ideals to things immoral, illegal, unethical, or irresponsible. Today's tough times require men to overcome dangerous philosophies and bring hope, dignity, and order back to a world in desperate need men who are willing to be heroes.

Despite the title, Dickens’s portrayal of early industrial society here is less relentlessly grim than that in novels by contemporaries such as Elizabeth Gaskell or Charles Kingsley. Hard Times weaves the tale of Thomas Gradgrind, a hard-headed politician who raises his children Louisa and Tom without love, of Sissy the circus girl with love to spare who is deserted and adopted into their family, and of the honest mill worker Stephen Blackpool and the bombastic mill owner Josiah Bounderby. The key contrasts created are finally less those between wealth and poverty, or capitalists and workers, than those between the head and the heart, between “Fact”—the cold, rationalistic approach to life that Dickens associates with utilitarianism—and “Fancy”—a warmth of the imagination and of the feelings, which values individuals above ideas. Concentrated and compressed in its narrative form, Hard Times is at once a fable, a novel of ideas, and a social novel that seeks to engage directly and analytically with political issues. The central conflicts raised in the text, between government’s duty not to intervene to guarantee the liberty of the subject, and between quantitative and qualitative assessments of progress, remain unresolved today in the late or post industrial stages of liberal democracies.