Part 1: The Super-Hero’s American Exceptionalism

Super-heroes are uniquely American in origin and reflective of the “Greatest Generation” that created them. Their progenitors can be traced to ancient myths though their direct foundation springs from American legends like Paul Bunyan and John Henry. Pulp literature fermented these heroes from the 1800s with Buffalo Bill, Nick Carter and on to Doc Savage. By the 1930s super-powered and costumed characters showed up in the newspaper comic strips including Popeye and the Phantom. 

The characters we now recognize as super-heroes crystallized with the debut of Superman in 1938. Representative of the American experience, Superman was the ultimate immigrant. Not merely from another country, the Man of Steel came from a whole different planet! With his success, publishers released a myriad of titles featuring crime-fighting patriotic adventurers who all fought for “truth, justice and the American way.” That included those who were born on an all-female island (the star-spangled Wonder Woman), from Atlantis (the Sub-Mariner), robots (the Human Torch) or even dead people (the Spectre and Kid Eternity)! Gaining super powers even reformed criminals as in Plastic Man’s case.  (more…)

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Tags: American Exceptionalism, batman, DC, Doc Savage, Fatalik
Posted Nov 10th 2009 at 12:52 pm in Art, Culture, Featured Story | 25935461 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mtodd/2009/11/10/part-1-the-super-heros-american-exceptionalism/Part+1%3A+The+Super-Hero%E2%80%99s+American+Exceptionalism2009-11-10+20%3A52%3A11Mort+Todd

Green Push on ‘Sesame Street’: Programming Your Kids For ‘Sustainable Living’

This week marks the start of Sesame Street’s 40th season.  As announced in an article in National Geographic, the show will be focusing on a green storyline this year:

As another example of the show’s forward thinking, Davis said, the new Sesame Street season that begins next week will introduce children to the basic ideas of sustainable living.  “It’s a curriculum about nature and caring for the world that is just right for today,” he said.  ”This show continues to stay very current with ideas that are in the zeitgeist.”

Sustainability.  Makes you feel smart just reading that word, doesn’t it?  Who doesn’t want sustainability?  This is a great new tactic of the Left; the raping of our language and the use of beautiful sounding, unassailable words to represent an agenda with far more controversial ideas.  Sustainability.

Sustainability is not just about putting your empty beer bottles into a special bin to keep them separate from your other trash.  It’s also more than driving a car with a giant battery in it (which will eventually poison our water system after all of these “Hybrids” end up in a landfill… didn’t think about THAT, did you Mr. Begley?).   It’s also more than building giant solar panels which require preciously scarce water to stay constantly clean and efficient or giant windmills which end up killing endangered birds.  No, sustainability is not any of those ineffective yet relatively benign efforts at “saving our planet.” Sustainability, as a National policy, is the most regressive and dangerous idea the Green-Left has ever put forth.  Sustainability is the death of the West’s economic dominance. (more…)

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Tags: 40th anniversary, National Geographic, Sesame Street, Sustainability, sustainable living
Posted Nov 10th 2009 at 4:03 am in Featured Story, Politics, Television | 260098107 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/sright/2009/11/10/green-push-on-sesame-street-programming-your-kids-for-sustainable-living/Green+Push+on+%27Sesame+Street%27%3A+Programming+Your+Kids+For+%27Sustainable+Living%272009-11-10+12%3A03%3A23Stage+Right

‘Sesame Street’: Habitat for Political Correctness

Having received some criticism for my last post about “Sesame Street,” I would like to briefly respond to some of the questions and assertions in the comment section. 

What’s so bad about saying “we share common humanity despite ethnic/religious/linguistic differences?” 

A main tenet of the multiculturalism and Enviro-Statism inculcated by Modern Liberal educators and as practiced on “Sesame Street” — exemplified in “We All Sing the Same Song,” is the diminishment of the unique greatness of American culture. 

Political Correctness and its Critical Theory are shamefully deployed against American culture to create a false front of “equality” to less free, less successful, and deviant cultures around the globe. 

That is neither a healthy, nor appropriate form of values inculcation upon young American children, nor is it a responsible expenditure of American tax dollars.  (more…)

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Tags: children, DVD, environmentalism, pbs, Sesame Street
Posted Nov 9th 2009 at 8:28 am in Culture, Featured Story, Politics, Television | 260138173 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/abaldwin/2009/11/09/sesame-street-habitat-for-political-correctness/%27Sesame+Street%27%3A+Habitat+for+Political+Correctness2009-11-09+16%3A28%3A01Adam+Baldwin

Natalie Portman: Meat’s a Sin, Free Polanski

Natalie Portman is a vegetarian – a vegan, to be precise – and she thinks you should be one too. At least, that’s the impression I get from her article at the Huffington Post. In fact, she really goes so far as to infer that those of us who eat animals or animal products are inhumane beasts.

Apparently, reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s book Eating Animals transformed her from a vegetarian to being a full-fledged vegan activist:

I’ve always been shy about being critical of others’ choices because I hate when people do that to me. I’m often interrogated about being vegetarian (e.g., “What if you find out that carrots feel pain, too? Then what’ll you eat?”).

I’ve also been afraid to feel as if I know better than someone else — a historically dangerous stance (I’m often reminded that “Hitler was a vegetarian, too, you know”). But this book reminded me that some things are just wrong. Perhaps others disagree with me that animals have personalities, but the highly documented torture of animals is unacceptable, and the human cost Foer describes in his book, of which I was previously unaware, is universally compelling.

But she somehow managed to overcome those fears and tell you exactly why you should think the way she does. Well done, Natalie! (more…)

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Tags: animal cruelty, Animal Rights, Eating Animals, Huffington Post, Jeffrey Dahmer
Posted Nov 9th 2009 at 6:44 am in Celebrity News, Culture, Featured Story | 255250263 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/pmeister/2009/11/09/defining-natalie-portman/Natalie+Portman%3A+Meat%27s+a+Sin%2C+Free+Polanski2009-11-09+14%3A44%3A39Pam+Meister

EXCLUSIVE BOOK EXCERPT: ‘Still Standing: The Untold Story of My Fight Against Gossip, Hate, and Political Attacks’

Excerpt From: “Still Standing” — Chapter 6

The other girls began to react to what had transpired between Perez and me as soon as the lights went down. Miss Vermont later told FOX News, “A lot of people were  shocked. We were all kind of giving each other those eyes. We couldn’t believe it.”

As soon as I got back to the tent behind the stage to change, someone shouted, “California, Access Hollywood wants to interview you.”

“Why me? I didn’t win.”

As I walked back and put my flowers down, I felt all eyes on me, which was strange because I wasn’t the winner, but there was this sort of buzz in the air, and it seemed to be buzzing around me. Part of it was that many of the house moms, who looked after the girls at the pageant, were coming up to me and whispering that I did the right thing in standing up for traditional marriage; they told me they were proud of me. I appreciated their kind words, but really my primary thought, after the letdown of losing, was to get out of this tight gown, take off all my makeup, eat a cheeseburger, and just go home and recover from the stress and strain of the last three weeks—weeks in which I had not seen my family, except in the audience. (more…)

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Tags: "Still Standing", Carrie Prejean
Posted Nov 8th 2009 at 9:03 pm in Culture, Featured Story, Politics, Religion | 252878167 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cprejean/2009/11/08/embargoed-for-release-until-9pm-pt-sunday-november-8-2009/EXCLUSIVE+BOOK+EXCERPT%3A+%27Still+Standing%3A+The+Untold+Story+of+My+Fight+Against+Gossip%2C+Hate%2C+and+Political+Attacks%272009-11-09+05%3A03%3A44Carrie+Prejean

Movies We Like: ‘Godzilla, King of the Monsters’ (1956)

So, when it came time for our little girl to watch her first grown-up movie, I was torn between Saving Private Ryan and a film I have loved since I was a kid, Godzilla, King of the Monsters.  Now, Private Ryan teaches important, practical lessons that every American should learn, like how to maneuver your infantry company across a beachhead under fire to wipe out a Nazi crew-served weapons bunker. On the other hand, Godzilla has a hideous dragon with radioactive breath.  Tough call, but we decided to save Private Ryan for when she’s six – better late than never.

–

What is the enduring fascination with a 55-year old flick that stars a fake Japanese reptile stomping Toyko into matchsticks?  The first thing is that Godzilla is a truly entertaining movie.  Actually, it’s two movies.  The version most Americans have seen on TV is the 1956 re-cut version of the 98-minute original Japanese movie, Gojira.  Some American producers decided it could make them a bundle, but it needed a bit of familiarization before the American audience would accept it.  They hired a pre-Perry Mason Raymond Burr to film some awkward footage as American reporter “Steve Martin,” cut out a lot of draggy filler, and shipped the slimmed down 80-minute final product to drive-ins all over the fruited plain. (more…)

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Tags: 40th Infantry Division, A Nightmare on Elm Street, A-Bomb, Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, Asahi
Posted Nov 8th 2009 at 6:24 am in Classic Hollywood, Featured Story, Film, Reviews | 25620250 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/kschlichter/2009/11/08/movies-we-like-godzilla-king-of-the-monsters-1956/Movies+We+Like%3A++%27Godzilla%2C+King+of+the+Monsters%27+%281956%292009-11-08+14%3A24%3A12Kurt+Schlichter

Rammstein: Teutonic Metal Gods Conquer America?

For most non-Teutons the idea of German rock is not very appealing. The fatherland of Bach and Beethoven may well have produced many interesting experimental groups (Kraftwerk,  Einstürzende Neubauten etc) but on a global, top 40 level it’s an entirely different matter. Consider: 

1) The Scorpions- hair metal popular in the 80s, approximately as good as Winger.

2) KMFDM- plodding industrial metal from the late 80s/early90s.

3) That Nena chick of ‘99 luftballons’ fame. 

In short, a roster of acts so unnecessary that we could safely consign them to the same dark abyss as Croatian thrash or Russian hip hop and the human race would be none the poorer for it. And yet fortunately for the glory of popular Deustche musik this is not the end of the story- for in the mid 90s what rough beast slouched towards Germany to be born? Breathing flames and reveling in death and all manner of deviancy, its name was Rammstein. 

Formed in the early 1990s by veterans of several crap East German groups, Rammstein consisted of six men in their 30s who had grown up under communism. They took their name from Ramstein, a US military base where a terrible disaster had occurred during an air show in 1988, adding an extra ‘m’ to dislocate it slightly. With the Berlin Wall fallen, the band was now liberated to steal as many sounds and ideas as they desired. These included elements of classic heavy metal, industrial metal and gothic synth pop such as Depeche Mode; not to mention liberal appropriations from Laibach, a Slovenian group fascinated by the links between mass culture, pop music and totalitarianism. (If you have a few minutes I recommend you watch Laibach’s reinterpretations of Queen’s One Vision and Opus’ Life is Life: the originals will never sound the same again.) (more…)

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Tags: Berlin Wall, germany, Hip-hop, Nena, queen
Posted Nov 7th 2009 at 6:40 am in Featured Story, Music | 25863079 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dkalder/2009/11/07/rammstein-teutonic-metal-gods-conquer-america/Rammstein%3A+Teutonic+Metal+Gods+Conquer+America%3F2009-11-07+14%3A40%3A59Daniel+Kalder

‘Washington Post’ Endorses Plagiarism to Defend Obama

Yesterday, the White House announced that it was removing Alma Thomas’ plagiaristic piece “Watusi (Hard Edge)” from its walls.  The White House announced that the painting was moved “because it didn’t fit the space right.”  The Washington Post pointed out that posters at FreeRepublic.com had examined the similarity between “Watusi (Hard Edge)” and Henri Matisse’s “The Snail” (1953), ignoring the fact that Big Hollywood actually broke the story.  The Washington Post covered for the White House, explaining, “Stephens’s explanation makes sense because it is inconceivable that the White House’s art experts would imagine Thomas’s painting was fraudulent or a copy … Elaborations on earlier artists’ work, even full appropriation, have been common practice in art for hundreds of years.”  

Andrew Breitbart immediately emailed the author of the piece, Blake Gopnik, to point out that Big Hollywood had not been properly attributed on criticism of the piece.  Here’s Andrew’s email: 

“Ben Shapiro at Big Hollywood broke this story with a legitimate report. Not blog opinion. To credit Free Republic or conservative opinion sites is either bad journalism or… bad journalism. Even at Free Republic they cite Shapiro and Big Hollywood. The story was cited properly all over the Internet, why the Washington Post breach? We have been at the forefront of reporting on what the MSM won’t regarding this admin. We had the ACORN story, the NEA propaganda conference call. All hard news stories. And so is this. Shapiro is a Harvard law grad. He is hardly worthy of this kind of brush off. We’d like to see a correction as soon as possible.” 

And here is Gopnik’s response:   (more…)

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Tags: Alma Thomas, Andrew Breitbart, Blake Gopnik, Matisse, Obama
Posted Nov 6th 2009 at 11:49 am in Art, Featured Story, Media Criticism, Politics | 259302124 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bshapiro/2009/11/06/washington-post-endorses-plagiarism-to-defend-obama/%27Washington+Post%27+Endorses+Plagiarism+to+Defend+Obama2009-11-06+19%3A49%3A26Ben+Shapiro

I QUIT POLITICS

I quit politics. 

For one thing, I can’t sleep because I absent-mindedly forgot to include three of my favorite Freedom Fighters in my Truth Tellers list, Levin, Malkin and Coulter. I love them.  If they ever find out that I forgot to mention them in my last blog, they will forever not know how much I respect/honor them.  This is giving me a headache, and making me chew off all of my new fake fingernails.  I can’t even enjoy my rented DVD Season Two Compilation of “Mad Men.”  Oh, and I love Stossel, Gallagher, Stein and Morris too! 

Okay, then I find out Gingrich is pal-ing up with Pelosi about Global Warming!  Eww!  Defector!  Oh man!  Strike him off my list.  Now!  He’s off!    

Picking leaders is painful. Voting.  If you put their name up on your car, or in your yard or tattoo it to your face, you are suddenly responsible for every move they make and every word they say.  Too much pressure. 

Thirdly, I cannot bear the hatred of the Left.  Their comments.  The look on their faces in my rear view mirror when I see them noticing my “Fox News: Truth” bumper sticker, or my “Glenn Beck” bumper sticker, or my “Okay, joke’s over.  Bring back the Constitution” bumper sticker.  Their snide glances and snaps of disgust.  I can’t take it anymore.  Hatred hurts.  (more…)

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Tags: Al Sonja Schmidt, coulter, Gallagher, Gingrich, Just Wrong
Posted Nov 6th 2009 at 5:13 am in Featured Story, Politics | 257454103 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/vjackson/2009/11/06/i-quit-politics/I+QUIT+POLITICS+2009-11-06+13%3A13%3A17Victoria+Jackson

Fort Hood: Wise Words From Michael Yon

Wise, wise words from Michael Yon: 

Now is not a time to psychoanalyze the attacker by using a media-supplied telescope that already said he was dead, and that there were multiple attackers.  Media: STOP, please.  There will be time to pursue answers and justice after Christmas.  We must remember that family members lost loved ones just before the holidays.  Justice and answers will come with time.

When stories of this kind break, the weatherman becomes the most accurate part of the newscast. We know nothing right now. We know less than nothing because too much of what we’re told is wrong.

All we know is that people are dead and wounded, and families and loved ones are suffering. That’s all that matters right now. The rest is noise.

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Tags: Fort Hood, media, Michael Yon, NRO, Tragedy
Posted Nov 5th 2009 at 9:38 pm in Featured Story, Military, News | 25905881 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bighollywood/2009/11/05/michael-yon-tragedy-at-fort-hood/Fort+Hood%3A+Wise+Words+From+Michael+Yon2009-11-06+05%3A38%3A23Big+Hollywood

Exclusive: Behind the ‘V’ Controversy

I missed the series premiere of “V,” but not the ongoing flap afterwards. The remake of the 1984 sci-fi classic seems to have hit a lot of nerves on the left and found an audience on the right. Left-wing media types are outraged that the series “degrades” the Obama administration, and some on the right are wondering if a Hollywood talent has been dismissed from his job for political reasons. As I write this, I’m watching O’Reilly go on about “the writers taking shots at President Obama.” 

As it happens, I’m acquainted with Scott Peters who developed and wrote the remake of “V” for ABC.  Mr. Peters was also the creator and executive producer of “The 4400” and a writer for “The Outer Limits.” As far as I know Mr. Peters has only made one mistake in his career and that was directing me in the low-budget film “Don: Plain and Tall” back in 2003. It was the story of my friend comedian Don McMillan’s life as a comic. I played myself in the film and the part was horribly miscast. 

When I started reading some of the rumors and theories about Mr. Peters’ latest show and the behind-the-scenes politics, I laughed out loud.  Let me try to shed some light on the “V” controversy. (more…)

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Tags: abc, Bill O'Reilly, Don McMillan, sci -fi, science fiction
Posted Nov 5th 2009 at 1:14 pm in Featured Story, Politics, Television | 258378134 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjena/2009/11/05/exclusive-behind-the-v-controversy/Exclusive%3A+Behind+the+%27V%27+Controversy2009-11-05+21%3A14%3A48Jeffrey+Jena

Note to Andrew Sullivan: Don’t Blame Breitbart For My Thought Crimes

Dear Andrew Sullivan,

Thank you for your Halloween Daily Dish in response to my Big Hollywood blog about the latest LGBT assault on Mormons.  We actually met once, briefly, at DC Pride, circa 1990.  I had never heard of you or The New Republic.  I do remember liking your accent.

More recently, about five years ago, I shot you an email to say thanks for a column you’d written about the threat of Islam to gays.  You sent a nice thank you back.  I’ve also admired your calling the hate crimes bill “boutique legislation” and urging your readers to stop sending checks to the Human Rights Campaign.

I appreciate the restraint of your posting, “A Gay Voice Against Marriage Equality,” though the title concerns me a little, as the last thing I want is for LGBTers to assume I am some kind of Anita Bryant (she was very active when I was coming out, and we don’t need a repeat of that).  Few things are as terrifying as the thought of becoming the object of gay fury (which I understand you’ve had some experience with).  It’s a sorry state of affairs when people within the gay community no longer feel they can speak freely without risking ostracism or threats.  I sometimes wonder if there should be a hate crimes bill to protect gay people from other gay people.

That said, there are a couple of points in your piece I’d like to address.

First, one does not have to ”search high and low” to find lesbians and gays who are suspicious of the cause formerly known as same-sex marriage.  Contrary to popular mythology, not all of us feel a pressing need for “marriage equality,” nor do we derive our self-worth from the state.  I know gay Californians who voted for Prop 8 last year because they sincerely believe it is in the best interest of children (some of whom will grow up to be gay), and of society as a whole (which includes gay people), to uphold the ideal of the man-woman nuclear family. (more…)

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Tags: 8: The Mormon Proposition, Alan Dershowitz, Andrew Breitbart, Andrew Sullivan, Chastity Bono
Posted Nov 5th 2009 at 5:03 am in Culture, Featured Story, Politics | 256154180 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cwinecoff/2009/11/05/note-to-andrew-sullivan-dont-blame-breitbart-for-my-thought-crimes/Note+to+Andrew+Sullivan%3A+Don%27t+Blame+Breitbart+For+My+Thought+Crimes2009-11-05+13%3A03%3A35Charles+Winecoff

Left Lashes Out at ‘V’, Obama-Friendly ABC Purges Showrunner…

Last night a brave and insightful documentary was aired that accurately portrayed the wave of ObamaMania that swept the nation. It was called “V” and aired on ABC to mostly rave reviews and tremendous ratings.

There was another documentary about the Obama campaign on HBO, but that left out a lot of relevant facts, so spaceships and lizard-people aside, ABC wins the veracity award.

The parable is, an attractive group of aliens show up, out of the blue, and offer universal health care, advanced technology and world peace in exchange for our trust and devotion. All we have to do is believe everything they say without question. Which means, don’t ask anything about their hidden motives or past associations because that would be racist impolite. In fact, one reporter who is offered an exclusive interview with their leader is admonished not to say anything negative or they would be denied access (Hi, Fox!).

And what do you know, the aliens are really here to eat us. And maybe even take over our car companies and banks. That part is unclear. But I’m sure they will reduce unemployment, because there will be less people looking for work. Oops, I guess “V” has nothing to do with Obama, because he sure isn’t doing well on that front. But anyhoo–

The New Republic’s Jonathan Chait was outraged by the pilot. Outraged, I say! (more…)

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Tags: abc, Glenn Beck, Jonathan Chait, New York Times, Scott Peters
Posted Nov 4th 2009 at 1:19 pm in Featured Story, Politics, Television | 257910240 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jhudnall/2009/11/04/left-lashes-out-at-v-obama-friendly-abc-purges-showrunner/Left+Lashes+Out+at+%27V%27%2C+Obama-Friendly+ABC+Purges+Showrunner...2009-11-04+21%3A19%3A20James+Hudnall

ELEMENTARY EPIDEMIC: 11 Uncovered Videos Show School Children Performing Praises to Obama

Big Hollywood has already posted a couple disturbing videos of young school children singing/speaking praises to President Obama, but when eleven more dropped in our email box it came as quite a shock. What seemed like an aberration now appears to be a troubling pattern. 

Maybe “epidemic” is a better word.

Each one of the videos below is creepier than the last because the further down you go, the younger the children — brace yourself for kindergartners –  except for the last and most disturbing video, which you have to see to believe.

Young captive minds, easily influenced, eager for direction, enlisted into a cult of personality focused on an individual who, other than being the first black president, has yet to accomplish anything of significance. 

But Obama’s skin color has nothing to do with this. Does anyone interested in retaining their merit badge for intellectual honesty really want to argue that Condi Rice or J.C. Watts would’ve spawned a dozen-and-counting tribute videos?

This is about brainwashing our children into Leftist identity politics. Sure, the schools can argue that they had some kind of parental permission — which, if true, is somehow even more disturbing — but who even considers doing something like this with young minds? That’s a rhetorical question.   (more…)

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Tags: Barack Obama Elementary School, Giffen Elementary, Gotham Avenue School, Harmony Leland Elementary School, Hennigan Elementary School
Posted Nov 4th 2009 at 3:21 am in Art, Featured Story, Music, Politics | 2517381,219 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/11/04/elementary-epidemic-11-uncovered-videos-show-school-children-performing-praises-to-obama/ELEMENTARY+EPIDEMIC%3A+11+Uncovered+Videos+Show+School+Children+Performing+Praises+to+Obama2009-11-04+11%3A21%3A35John+Nolte

‘Sesame Street’: All Monsters Are Equal?

The Public Broadcasting System’s taxpayer-funded ‘Sesame Street’ has, at cursory glance, presented young American children with what colorfully appears to be one of television’s few safe havens of educational fun. 

Yet, embedded in its visually intoxicating muppetry and otherwise innocently entertaining educational content there lurks highly controversial political messages designed to promote multiculturalism and global citizenship:

–

 ”We all sing with the same voice, the same song, the same voice. We all sing with the same voice and we sing in harmony… 

I live in southern France, I’m from a Texas ranch, I come from Mecca and Peru… I come from everywhere, and my name is you…” 

That’s right kids! We’re ‘All’ the ‘same’… um, except that we’re all different.  (more…)

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Tags: nea, Obama, Orwell, Sesame Street
Posted Nov 3rd 2009 at 12:33 pm in Art, Featured Story, Politics, Television | 257210134 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/abaldwin/2009/11/03/sesame-street-all-monsters-are-equal/%27Sesame+Street%27%3A+All+Monsters+Are+Equal%3F2009-11-03+20%3A33%3A05Adam+Baldwin

‘Sesame Street’ Trashes Fox News

Add one more soldier to the Left’s war on Fox News:  Oscar the Grouch.

Last week, in a re-broadcast of an episode that originally aired two years ago, Oscar starts his own news network, GNN (Grouchy News Network).  An irate viewer calls in to berate him that the news is not grouchy enough:

“I am changing the channel. From now on I am watching ‘Pox’ News. Now there is a trashy news show.”

–

Later in the episode, Anderson Cooper from 4th place CNN, guest stars as a reporter for GNN.  He interacts with “Walter Cranky” and “Dan Rather-Not” —  Muppets representing real-life liberal news personalities — and they talk about “Meredith Beware-a” and “Diane Spoiler.” But no affectionate nicknames for Fox News personalities; no Spill O’Reilly or Brittle Hume — nope, and the only disparaging characterization of real-world news is reserved for Fox:  Fox is a POX.  It is trashy.  They didn’t even attempt to try “MessyNBC.”

If Mom and Dad watch cable news, it’s better than 50/50 they watch “POX News.”  So what gives? PBS — a network partially funded with my tax dollars — has the right to tell my kids that their parents watch “trashy” news?  The message is clear, I can’t even sit my kids in front of “Sesame Street” without having to worry about the Left attempting to undermine my authority. And don’t tell me, “If you don’t like it change the channel.”  There are no channels left! It’s everywhere. Just last week I had Obama’s service and volunteerism promoted on every single major network, including Disney and Nickelodeon. (more…)

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Tags: "Learning From the Left”, Anderson Cooper, Fox News, Jerry Falwell, Julia L. Mickenberg
Posted Nov 3rd 2009 at 3:37 am in Culture, Featured Story, Politics, Television | 255466520 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/sright/2009/11/03/l-is-for-leftist-thats-good-enough-for-me/%27Sesame+Street%27+Trashes+Fox+News2009-11-03+10%3A37%3A24Stage+Right

NEWLY UNCOVERED EMAILS REVEAL: Federal Volunteer Agency Misrepresented Involvement in White House, NEA Conference Call

Recently revealed documents obtained by Judicial Watch from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show a few interesting facts and supports the claims made in my earlier articles– namely, Yosi Sergant, the former NEA Communications Director, did not work alone in organizing the controversial August 10th conference call; that the White House Office of Public Engagement was fully aware of his efforts; and most importantly, that The Corporation for National and Community Service misrepresented who actually initiated the meeting.

On August 28th, Josh Miller of Foxnews.com reported “Siobhan Dugan, a spokeswoman for [The Corporation for National and Community Service], said the call was organized by an ‘individual interested’ in the group…”

This statement does not correspond with the facts.

The FOIA documents clearly show that on July 29th at 3:39pm, Nell Abernathy, a representative of The Corporation, emailed Yosi Sergant, former Communications Director of the National Endowment for the Arts, indicating that she was the person behind the content of the meeting when she stated (emphasis added):

Thanks for chatting yesterday – I’m attaching a few docs and running through what I think are my next steps.

She goes on to discuss the “Art event coordination” and provides an invite and draft of the meeting agenda to Sergant. Abernathy also states, “What is a reasonable time frame for getting together a list and recruiting some of your friends to lead?” This is in direct contradiction to the above claim by Siobhan Dugan of The Corporation. (more…)

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Tags: arts, August 10th, conference call, Corporation, emails
Posted Nov 2nd 2009 at 4:24 am in Art, Featured Story, Politics | 25645083 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/pcourrielche/2009/11/02/newly-uncovered-emails-reveal-federal-volunteer-agency-misrepresented-involvement-in-white-house-nea-conference-call/NEWLY+UNCOVERED+EMAILS+REVEAL%3A+Federal+Volunteer+Agency+Misrepresented+Involvement+in+White+House%2C+NEA+Conference+Call2009-11-02+11%3A24%3A26Patrick+Courrielche

Anguish of the Apostate: Second Thoughts Are Best

“Intellect loses its virtue when it ceases to seek truth and turns to the pursuit of political ends.” – Robert H. Bork 

In a “Big” way, Andrew Breitbart has injected into our modern cultural/media zeitgeist a foundational reminder of why it is so intellectually critical, even fun, to inspire and embrace the notion that “there’s nothing better than having convivial relations with people with whom you disagree.”

To that end, may I humbly share my own ideological apostasy and second thoughts that began in 1989. 

In that year, my oldest child was born and I found myself – as do many Los Angeles parents — driving around the city to various ‘play-dates’, supermarket excursions, pediatrician visits, and the 12-miles-distant playground of the ‘progressive’ pre-school where my wife and I intended to enroll our children. (I also began more closely scrutinizing and fearing the withholding taxes from my paycheck increasing the governmental intrusion into my young family).  (more…)

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Tags: Andrew Breitbart, Apostate, Howard Stern, Robert H. Bork, Rush Limbaugh
Posted Nov 1st 2009 at 6:41 am in Culture, Featured Story, Politics | 255550159 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/abaldwin/2009/11/01/anguish-of-the-apostate-second-thoughts-are-best/Anguish+of+the+Apostate%3A+Second+Thoughts+Are+Best2009-11-01+13%3A41%3A22Adam+Baldwin

‘A Dimension Not Only of Sight and Sound, But of Mind’

Fifty years ago this month the smartest television show of all time first aired. As a writer, I am a sucker for good writing. “The Twilight Zone,” as  Michael Anton recently wrote in his commemoration at National Review Online, is nothing if not a writer’s show. Modern sci-fi fans, caught up in dazzling special effects and action, lose sight of the fact that sci-fi, in its radio incarnations “X Minus One” and “Dimension X,” and its later television offerings such as “The Outer Limits” and “Doctor Who,” is the plaything of nerd scribes with creative imaginations. The megastars and big-budgets would come later. In the beginning, there were wordsmiths.

It’s telling that “The Twilight Zone’s” recurring character is not an A-list hearthrob but the diminutive, gap-toothed, akimbo-eared Rod Serling, the show’s chief writer. Rocky Balboa’s trainer, otherwise known as that bow-legged villian of Gotham, is the closest thing one gets to an actor associated with “The Twilight Zone.” Even the theme music steals the limelight from the actors.

A few years ago, I purchased the 28-disc “complete, definitive collection” spanning all five of the show’s seasons. I’m on season five, and I generally watch late on weekend nights after imbibing. The benefits to this are twofold: first, my imagination is more malleable then and, second, it enables me to enjoy the episodes a second time around without deja vu. (more…)

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Tags: " "The X Files, Burgess Meredith, Doctor Who, Michael Anton, Rod Serling
Posted Oct 31st 2009 at 2:41 pm in Featured Story, Television | 25148276 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dflynn/2009/10/31/a-dimension-not-only-of-sight-and-sound-but-of-mind/%27A+Dimension+Not+Only+of+Sight+and+Sound%2C+But+of+Mind%272009-10-31+21%3A41%3A01Daniel+J.+Flynn

Oh, The Horror!

What is horror?

The word comes down to us from the Old Roman, horrere, which means literally “to stand on end” (as in hair) or “to shiver,” whether from fear or cold – Ovid refers to the “chill-bearing breath” of the North Wind (Metamorphosis, I.65).

Halloween is a unique holiday, marked for the celebration of the chill bearing, when demons and witches are allowed to come out to play and scare the bejezzus out of us – or at least, that’s how it used to be.

Over the last decade or so, Halloween has become less about creep and more about camp; Dracula and Frankenstein costumes replaced by Octomom and Obama masks (OK, those are more scary). What I want to do here is help those who would like go old school this year, and have a truly frightful All Hallows’ Eve.

(First suggestion – avoid bars. Like St. Patrick’s Day and New Year’s, Halloween brings out the amateur drinkers, a more loathsome species than any undead thing you may encounter. No, Halloween is best spent alone with someone special to snack on in the dark, with something scary to read, listen to, or watch.) (more…)

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Tags: Alien Sex Fiend, All Hallows' Eve, Bauhaus, Catastrophe Ballet, Catch 22
Posted Oct 31st 2009 at 6:18 am in Featured Story, Film, Music | 25323870 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mpatterson/2009/10/31/oh-the-horror/Oh%2C+The+Horror%212009-10-31+13%3A18%3A52Matt+Patterson

Larry David’s God-Given American Right to Be a Jerk

What in the world is wrong with people in the entertainment industry who come from humble beginnings, have a few years of real struggle and then with their uniqueness and by the grace of God (which you could interpret as luck), they make it big, as in rich and famous big. The chances of becoming as famous as Lindsay Lohan are 1 in 1,574,638 as tracked by E-Poll Market Research, but really, wouldn’t you rather be you?

Mr. David has been blessed beyond any struggling writer, producer, actor or stand-up comedian’s wildest dreams. His total cash receipts have still not been tallied since the funds continue to pour in from “Seinfeld,” but it’s accurate to say that with what he has earned to date, he could have paid for a lot of Nancy Pelosi’s botox.

Years after helping make television history, David jumped back into the small screen with the blessing of HBO and created “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” which — in line with him marching to the beat of his own drum — is done unscripted. The show has a very solid following as it is in its seventh season, which is three television lifetimes these days. Great Larry, Mazal Tov. Isn’t America grand? Bet you would only have had the career of Heidi from the Hills if you lived in Cuba.  (more…)

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Tags: Curb Your Enthusiasm, hbo, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Larry David
Posted Oct 30th 2009 at 11:44 am in Celebrity News, Featured Story, Politics, Religion | 255638287 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ekaris/2009/10/30/larry-davids-god-given-american-right-to-be-a-jerk/Larry+David%27s+God-Given+American+Right+to+Be+a+Jerk2009-10-30+18%3A44%3A14Ellen+Karis

Boo-Hoo: Gays’ Lachrymose Last Resort in the War Against Mormons

There are more histrionics on display in the two-minute trailer (see below)for the pro-gay-marriage ”documentary,” 8: The Mormon Proposition, than in all the episodes of Oprah I can remember seeing.

A blonde woman, tears running down her face, looks into the camera and pleads, “Why did the Mormons do this to us?”

In a crowd of what I presume are gay activists (and not film goers), a young man sobs so hard that he has to be comforted by a female friend.

–

A bulldyke (I’m guessing) stares out at the viewer, her despondent face sopping wet.

And one of the stars of the film, a pretty gay boy (and ex-Mormon) named Tyler Barrick – who seems have been inspired by Barbra Streisand in A Star Is Born – clings to his husband and bawls, “I can’t believe that people could hate us this much!” Really?  I can. (more…)

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Tags: 8: The Mormon Proposition, AIDS, Atlantis Cruises, Barbra Streisand, Christo-Fascists
Posted Oct 30th 2009 at 5:03 am in Culture, Featured Story, Film, Politics, Religion | 251290162 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cwinecoff/2009/10/30/boo-hoo-gays-lachrymose-last-resort-in-the-war-against-mormons/Boo-Hoo%3A+Gays%27+Lachrymose+Last+Resort+in+the+War+Against+Mormons2009-10-30+12%3A03%3A41Charles+Winecoff

PelosiCare: Liars, Luddites and Leprechauns

Nancy Pelosi, having renamed the Public Option, the ‘Consumer Option,’ triumphantly trotted out this morning the Hose version of the Health Care Reform Bill, now called The Affordable American Health Care Bill.   (“Affordable” – what does that mean, exactly?  Affordable to whom?)   But then Steny Hoyer proclaimed the process of crafting the bill the most open, transparent process he’s seen in over thirty years in Congress. (Really??)   And finally, the President followed up on Teleprompters to announce that finally we have a bill that will cover the 36 million uninsured, not cost the taxpayers anything extra, improve the quality of our health-care system, and bring down the costs of health care.  Speaker Pelosi assured us that this bill represents the principles of  “…opportunity, choice, competition, and innovation.”

How can you tell when they’re lying?    Their lips are moving.

They think you’re stupid.   It’s understandable that they should think that, because though they may on occasion listen to you, they never really hear you.  Hence, the only frame of reference for feedback on their incredibly absurd redistributive ideas, tax-and-spend proposals and unprecedented treasury-busting health care take-over bills…comes from their own constituents, the Democrats.  Whoops and hollers, cheers and laughter, nods, smiles, enthusiastic ‘yes-we-cans!’… as they serve up yet another heaping portion of socialist slop you’ll be expected to grab your ankles and pay for.  They think you’re stupid.

As the entire Democratic Party has now been fully commandeered by the hard Left, I wrestle daily with the following quandary:  Are they evil?  Or merely dense?  (more…)

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Tags: abortion, Barack Obama, Congress, Global warming, health care
Posted Oct 29th 2009 at 12:24 pm in Featured Story, Politics | 255142140 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ggraham/2009/10/29/pelosicare-liars-luddites-and-leprechauns/PelosiCare%3A+Liars%2C+Luddites+and+Leprechauns2009-10-29+19%3A24%3A32Gary+Graham

Bullying Screen Actors Guild Does More Harm Than Good

A few months ago I wrote a column about the effect IATSE’s wage increase in Michigan would have on future production in Michigan.  Just recently, the company I have my first look deal with decided to produce another picture in Michigan and was informed my column made it impossible for IATSE to negotiate or help us in any way.  They basically said this is the deal, take it or leave it if you want to shoot here; your employee ruined it for you. 

My company then proceeded to disavow any knowledge of my column and said that what I write is of my own doing and not the policy of the company.  This is true.  It is my own doing.  No one tells me what to write or censors my editorial content. 

I still believe IATSE is harming the burgeoning film industry in Michigan.  I believe that if IATSE was doing the right thing in Michigan, the state of Michigan would be putting all of the other tax-incentive states out of business.  Producers would be running there in droves. 

Unions are supposed to be the mechanism to level the playing field for the working man.  Their job is to protect the working man from “the man,” and to keep their members employed fairly.  Isn’t employment what unions are really all about:  Especially now when unemployment is so rampant all over the United States, particularly in Michigan and California.  You would think the unions would be bending over backwards to work with “the man” in a mutually beneficial situation.  Let us all do whatever is necessary to keep employment in the United States; not Eastern Europe or Asia.  (more…)

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Tags: IATSE, IndependentFilm, Michigan, Nu Image, SAG
Posted Oct 29th 2009 at 5:02 am in Entertainment, Featured Story, News | 25426237 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/fdemartini/2009/10/29/bullying-screen-actors-guild-does-more-harm-then-good/Bullying+Screen+Actors+Guild+Does+More+Harm+Than+Good2009-10-29+12%3A02%3A48Frank+DeMartini

Kidman Worries About Treatment of Women While Representing the…UN?

Nicole Kidman is a fine actress. I’ve enjoyed her work over the years, and heartily congratulate her for her long and storied career. I also congratulate her for getting out of her marriage to Tom Cruise, but that’s another story.

Now Kidman, like many Hollywood stars who want to prove that they’re more than just pretty faces, is involved in A Cause. Like Meryl Streep’s concern about healthy produce and Heather Graham for ObamaCare, Kidman wants to Save Something. To that end, she is the goodwill ambassador for the UN Development Fund for Women, known as UNIFEM and in that capacity, recently testified before Congress to plead for more support for the program (read: cold, hard cash).

The big story that came out of that appearance was Kidman’s concession that the film industry might play a role in violence toward women by portraying them as weak. That may be true, but it’s a topic for another day.

 Kidman’s desire to help women in need is admirable. But she might want to consider an outlet other than the UN to do this good work. (more…)

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Tags: Congress, nicole kidman, UNIFEM, United Nations
Posted Oct 28th 2009 at 5:07 am in Celebrity News, Featured Story, Politics | 25141469 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/pmeister/2009/10/28/kidman-worries-about-treatment-of-women-while-representing-the-un/Kidman+Worries+About+Treatment+of+Women+While+Representing+the...UN%3F2009-10-28+12%3A07%3A34Pam+Meister

Exclusive Excerpt: ‘Without Fidel’ — Hollywood’s Useful Idiots Go to Cuba

Today, Scribner sent along this timely excerpt from “Without Fidel: A Death Foretold in Miami, Havana and Washington,” a new book by award-winning journalist Ann Louise Bardach. For those of you who don’t know, today, on behalf of Vanity Fair, Sean Penn’s in Cuba hoping to secure an interview with Fidel Castro. As you’ll read below, this is not Penn’s first trip and he’s pretty chummy with the Castro brothers. And don’t miss the short excerpt at the very end — an amusing anecdote revealing how visiting stars like Leo and Jack Nicholson are put under constant surveillance in Uncle Fidel’s Cuba. As long as it’s not Dick Cheney, right?

Without Fidel
by Ann Louise Bardach

Chapter 12 – Raul’s Reign: The Grave Yard Shift

In October 2008, Raul Castro granted his first interview as president of Cuba – and one of the very few he has ever given. The lucky recipient was not one of the dozen accredited reporters based in Havana. Nor was it a journalist who has covered the Miami/Havana beat, nor one of the hundreds of requests from representatives from media organizations and academia who have filed requests with the Foreign Ministry. Rather, Raul Castro’s first interlocutor would be the actor/director, Sean Penn, who periodically weighs in on politics.

Penn had just winged in on a Venezuelan military jet from Isla Margarita, the picturesque island near Caracas, having had spent two days with a convivial Hugo Chavez. With him were the writer Christopher Hitchens and historian Douglas Brinkley, whom Penn had invited to accompany him, presumably to lend gravitas to his efforts. The three had hoped to reprise their luck with Raul Castro and, according to Penn, seemed to have been promised as much. (more…)

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Tags: Ann Louise Bardach, Fidel Castro, Havana and Washington, Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio
Posted Oct 27th 2009 at 4:55 pm in Celebrity News, Featured Story, Politics | 25398662 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bighollywood/2009/10/27/exclusive-excerpt-without-fidel-hollywoods-useful-idiots-go-to-cuba/Exclusive+Excerpt%3A+%27Without+Fidel%27+--+Hollywood%27s+Useful+Idiots+Go+to+Cuba2009-10-27+23%3A55%3A29Big+Hollywood

Burnt Offering: Artists Must Unite to Protect Free Speech

So I wake up groggy and after getting my morning green tea –- yeah, I seem to be going through that phase — coffee doesn’t go well with global warming. Anyway, I start the computer and begin my ritual of clearing out emails; a daunting but necessary task where depending on my time and interest I sometimes randomly open something to read.  

If your mailbox is like mine you receive an overwhelming amount of political stuff and reading it all can be a time-suck of enormous proportions. Let’s face it, if you don’t derive your living from this stuff, no matter how much of a concerned citizen you may be, there comes a point where you have to say, “Ah, is this paying my mortgage?” That’s reality biting you in the ass and so the knee-jerk reaction is to press delete and move on to something that may add a few more dollars to your already crumbling retirement fund. But, and I stress BUT, like the” pusher man” (remember that song, G** D**** the Pusher Man?) who you cannot seem to get away from, the sheer volume of political noise coming at you can’t be ignored and after just one peek … aaahhh your fix takes hold.   (more…)

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Tags: David Axelrod, Fox News, Free Speech, MSNBC, nancy pelosi
Posted Oct 26th 2009 at 2:28 pm in Art, Culture, Featured Story, Media Criticism, Politics | 25301063 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/rdavi/2009/10/26/burnt-offering-artists-must-unite-to-protect-free-speech/Burnt+Offering%3A+Artists+Must+Unite+to+Protect+Free+Speech2009-10-26+21%3A28%3A31Robert+Davi

‘The Simpsons’, Islamophobia and CAIR: The Price of Freedom

This past January, London’s Daily Star tabloid announced urgently that an upcoming episode – “the most controversial episode ever”! – of The Simpsons on the Sky1 network “pokes fun at Islam” and “is certain to enrage Muslim fanatics.” As anyone who morbidly follows this sort of thing (as I do) knows, enraging Muslim fanatics is hardly an accomplishment of Halley’s Comet-like rarity. It doesn’t take much: books, cartoons, teddy bears named Mohammad, posters of puppies, piggy banks, a Burger King ice cream swirl and the Nike logo (both of which apparently too closely resembled the Arabic script for “Allah”), are just a few of the recent Western offenses that have sparked their frothing outrage worldwide.

Yet despite the Daily Star’s perversely hopeful tone, there was no violent reaction in the UK from said fanatics, nor was there one in the United States after the episode originally aired here last Thanksgiving weekend (in a grimly ironic twist, the same weekend as the devastating mass murder and mayhem committed in Mumbai by a band of – wait for it – Muslim fanatics, or as the culturally sensitive media preferred to call them at the time, “gunmen”). So why no Muslim fury over The Simpsons? (more…)

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Tags: ACT! for America, Ahmed Ressam, al qaeda, Brigitte Gabriel, Burger King ice cream swirl
Posted Oct 26th 2009 at 5:00 am in Featured Story, Media Criticism, Politics, Religion, Television | 248530122 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mtapson/2009/10/26/the-simpsons-islamophobia-and-cair-the-price-of-freedom/%27The+Simpsons%27%2C+Islamophobia+and+CAIR%3A+The+Price+of+Freedom2009-10-26+12%3A00%3A26Mark+Tapson

I’ve Seen the Future and It Is…Safe?

This is an awkward way to begin, but I must start off with two apologies. First I apologize for being too long absent from this site, due to many deadlines, too much travel to wonderful places, and a protracted bout with that deadly killer flu thing that is the current deadly killer flu thing going around. I intend not to stay away so long from now on.

Next I must apologize to the non-geek contingent of our readership. The essay which follows might not be your cup of tea Klingon blood wine. It hinges too much on a presumed knowledge of obscure science fictiony things that only those with a truly Jonah Goldbergian depth of geek arcana can fully appreciate. Then again, I might be underestimating the level to which the fantastical subdivision of pop culture has permeated the mainstream. You might grok this if you know at least two Vulcans other than Spock, who Tim Drake is (as opposed to Dick Grayson), what the Kzinti are, and where the word ‘grok’ came from. If not, you’re excused without penalty. (more…)

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Tags: Chris Roberson, Flight Rings, flu, Flying cars, future
Posted Oct 25th 2009 at 4:44 pm in Culture, Entertainment, Featured Story | 250806125 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bwillingham/2009/10/25/ive-seen-the-future-and-it-is-safe/I%27ve+Seen+the+Future+and+It+Is...Safe%3F2009-10-25+23%3A44%3A05Bill+Willingham