Hey Tim Robbins – Still Feeling That Chill Wind?
by Pam Meister
Back in 2003, actor Tim Robbins gave a famous (infamous?) speech in front of the National Press Club in Washington DC regarding his right to express his negative views about the Iraq War:
“A chill wind is blowing in this nation. A message is being sent through the White House and its allies in talk radio and Clear Channel and Cooperstown. If you oppose this administration, there can and will be ramifications.”
Cry me a river. The irony that he gave his speech at the National Press Club and wasn’t tossed into a gulag afterward obviously didn’t dawn on him. That stage direction must not have been written into the script.
Many of the anecdotes Robbins shared in the speech had to do with his being criticized for his views by private citizens and – heartbreaking to someone whose life depends upon public appearances – having appearances canceled at privately sponsored events. He also had a bone to pick with George W. Bush’s “you’re either with us or against us in the fight against terror” line uttered shortly after 9/11. I guess his feelings were hurt or something.
Disagreements happen all the time between reasonable (and not so reasonable) people and sometimes (to put it nicely) heated discussions ensue. But if an event is privately sponsored and your views don’t jibe with those of the sponsors – or if they decide they just don’t like you and what you represent – they have every right to dis-invite you. Or, if private citizens don’t like you badmouthing the president overseas during a time of war, they can toss your CDs onto a bonfire. (Which in turn earns you a tasteful nude cover shot on Entertainment Weekly to protest the protests. Or something like that.)
The real problems begin when government tries to shut you down and shut you up because it doesn’t like what you have to say. That’s in direct violation of the First Amendment.
I wonder what Tim thinks of the recently released DHS report that claims “white supremacist and violent anti-government groups” and other “right wing extremists” MIGHT be gaining new recruits based on the current political and economic climate, including the economic downturn and the election of America’s first black president. The report stresses that it has no proof whatsoever of any such violent dissent, but you know, “rumor has it…”
This report was sent to law enforcement agencies around the nation – conveniently just before grassroots “tea parties” around the nation were set to commence. Is the government trying to intimidate citizens who dare to criticize the government? Any thoughts, Tim?
Back in 2003, Robbins also talked about a nation “bitterly divided.” What does he think of the fact that despite all of President Obama’s talk about bipartisanship, the partisan gap in his job approval ratings is the largest in the modern era?
Feeling chilly yet?
Fortunately for Tim, he no longer needs to worry about being “silenced” during the golden age of Obama. He can now start worrying about more pressing matters, like quashing pesky rumors about his appearing in Iron Man 2.
Thank goodness. Now I won’t mind plunking down $10.50 to see it.
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
| 
Follow Us on Twitter
Subscribe via RSS
Got a Tip?
77 Comments
Silenced? Fat chance. They can't even be quiet long enough to catch a breath.
Tim Robbins is so out of touch with reality it isn't even funny. Can you say hipocrite??
Robbins has never been oppressed, unless oppression is starring in snoozefest after snoozefest since starring in The Shawshank Redemption.
http://lonewolfarcher.blogspot.com/
Robbins has never been oppressed, unless oppression is starring in snoozefest after snoozefest since starring in The Shawshank Redemption.
http://lonewolfarcher.blogspot.com/
Tim Robbin's is probably cheering it on because in his view, conservatives aren't real people, and therefore deserve singling out. I seriously doubt he is all that concerned with the First Amendment as it is applied to the whole of America…just how he perceives it should be applied to him and his cadre of peers.
You know what really makes me mad and sometimes wish I lived in France? At least the Elite there were in the position they were in because they were BORN there…there is a kind of pity I have for that – it wasnt their fault in a lot of cases. But with Hollywood? DAY-um…they didnt get where they are because they were voted there, or because they inherited it. They got to their bully pulpity by the very system they think allows the unwashed masses to participate in with full vigor and success…the Hollywood Elite are the epitome of the evil of Envy.
i should say "18th century France…"
His wife Sarandon has the same misunderstanding of "Censorship". They whine when people decide not to spend their limited amount of expendable income on them. Somehow they construe this as interference in their right to make money. It seems simple to me. If you put out a product that people want, they will buy it. If a company decides the spokesman for their product might cause customers to go elsewhere, they get rid of them. In this case The spokesperson and the product are difficult to seperate. Robbins is the spokesperson for his movies. People go see the movies to the same degree that they can put up with his off screen persona.
I am not a fan of that particular spokesman, and will not consume the product because of it.
"If you put out a product that people want, they will buy it."
And if they don't the government will make them buy it…..
And so it goes. I understand if we oppose wasting our tax dollars we are now "anti-govt."
Shoot, I have been anti-govt for 40 yrs., Come arrest me.
The oppression is having to sit and watch them…..
I once heard a very good expression: Nothing is sometimes a good thing to do and always a good thing to say. If these egomaniacal elitists would just STFU and make movies things would be fine. Everyone has a right to speak their minds, but who says what's on Tim Robbins' mind is worth listening to?
Same for Garafalo. How this person continues to get work is beyond me. She has no talent, she's extremely intolerant and bigoted, and if my dog had a face like hers I would shave it's butt and teach it to walk backwards…..
We''ve got our local genius, Eddie Vedder, who talked – well, ranted incoherently – about the censorship of Bush while up on stage talking about the censorship of Bush. No one said entertainers weren't suckers of drama. Tim needs to go back to the secure, warm bosom of his mom, Susan Sarandon (gives me the shivers thinking about that one). If anyone can chase the right-wing demons away, it's her. Boogidee-boogidee-boogidee!!
Jeez. Where does one start with folks like Robbins and Sarandon. When Fascism puts on a liberal face, they adore it. When Conservatism is compassionate (it really is libs, get over yourselves) they go bonkers. Brain damage.
Tim Robbins is like Peter Pan. He refuses to grow up.
http://the100mostannoyingthings.blogspot.com/
Tim Robbins-ish stars also forget the second half of the equation in Free Speech. We have to the right to disagree and to voice opposition! If you can't take the criticism, you should learn to keep your mouth shut. We always forget that Free Speech works both ways.
He refuses to breathe out his right eyelid…or was that the left eyelid? I aways confuse the Mayans and Aztecs and liberals and sane people.
But seriously, you touched on a valid point. Aren't liberals, by nature, emotionally immature anyway? They're arguments for just about anything border on arguments I get from my teenage nephews and nieces. Whenever confronted with black/white facts, they tend to resort to name calling and screaming and stomping their feet. So you may be onto something here.
He mentions being “bitterly divided”. All socialist want collectivism. Our government should be divided. That's what it's based on, "checks and balances". States are divided so that they can do what is best for their people in their area of the country. Anyone who doesn't think these Holloywood clowns are socialist or most of todays media outlets for that matter, all you have to do is listen.
He felt a chill wind, because he had a hole in his pants and forgot to wear underwear. You think Sarandon is going the fetch the sewing basket and patch up the offensive hole? This may be a mother complex, but she has limitations.
No, we should have one Politburo according to them. And it's name is Obama – the great seer and knower of all. After all, he won!
Tim Robbins' mom, Susan (the molester) Sarandon, has indoctrinated him deeply in her elite statist victimhood loins in order to keep him regressed upon the childhood playgrounds where he was bullied for being "artistic".
Poor Timmy, never had a chance to grow a real pair of intellectual nuts, like comrade Sean Penn.
There's just a point at which we need to stop giving these people any attention. I mean, look at Garofolo going on about how anyone who attended the Tea Parties are simply racist. Really? Miss the point much? There is no reasoned debate to been seen here. And, if you notice, they're only really outspoken when the wind is blowing in their direction. I remember after 9/11, Robbins and Sarandon got slapped down hard with their anti-American rhetoric and they laid low for awhile. Now, they feel safe enough, with their guy in office, to "bravely" speak their hatred. I say we keep speaking our minds loud enough to make these people very uncomfortable. They can try to shout us down, but since they have nothing more than name-calling as a strategy, it shouldn't be too hard to discredit them very quickly. After all, if Garofolo sees racism behind all of our complaints, then clearly she's mirroring her own racism. I never think of the color of our president when I'm railing against his policies– but it's the first thing that comes to her mind. Makes you wonder what her issues are.
More likely to be ramifications from opposing THIS administration than the last one. Substitute "talk radio and Clear Channel and Cooperstown" with "mainstream media" and it all makes sense.
They always decry the divisiveness of their opponents and claim to be uniters, but they divide the citizenry by class, race, sex, age, pedestrians vs. drivers, what have you. Group identity and group rights are NOT meant to unite us. At the same time, the destruction of traditional social institutions removes everything that stands between the state and the individual and makes us dependent "timid and industrious animals" (which is why there can be no conservatism without social conservatives).
They decry partisanship, but are never truly bipartisan when in power (in contrast to Republicans, who often are). They crush the opposition and then everyone has to agree with them who hold the pursestrings. That is their idea of uniting people – indoctrinating one half of them, shutting the other half up.
Read Robbin´s braindead statements – there have been many like that and worse, and not just between 2000 and 2008. It is largely forgotten now but the left hated Reagan with a passion and they didn´t hold back in the 1980s.
Now consider the indignation of certain commenters who have never seen anything like these rabid conservatives (probably racists) who won´t give Obama a chance!
"Oh, these RIGHT WING protests are SO over the top! Quick, get me my smelling salts!"
I don´t buy the premise that we have to explain ourselves to them just because they can´t remember anything that happened before January. Not to mention that opposing collectivism is cool.
Penn at least had a career. Robbins peaked early with Howard the Duck and it was all downhill from there…
Considering "Iron Man" was a fun blockbuster, I'm rather said and disappointed that he's chosen to appear in it. (sigh)…..I don't want any of my admission money to go to him. I wonder if I can win tickets….
It's the same old line. Republicans think Democrats are wrong and Democrats think Republicans are evil.
Of course you don't think about color. You are as blue as a smurf!! I on the other hand am a lovely shade of gray.
Some of us are truly post-racial. I could not care less what color you are (even you blue people). It is not what comes to mind except to distinguish people "hey do you know Chris" "Which one, Goatee Chris or Black Chris?"
Just part of my continuing search for adult conversation.
I personally think he took a high and in pitch during the filming of "Bull Durham".
He just hasn't been right since…….
Please God, save us from elitist actors who think we really give a crap about what they say…….
Do your job, take your money, and keep your opinions to yourself!!!!!!
When the day comes when he and Susie say something that their Messiah doesn't care for and he slaps them down, will they show the same defiance and 'to hell with you, you Nazi' attitudes that they showed during the Reagan and Bush years?
Can you spell "hypocrite"?
ROTFLMFAO Garafalo is such a femal bow bow … NICE Hank!!!
Apparently not….my bad…..
Tim………………. saw a recent interview of you. there were a lot of umms and duhs – guess you can't figure out what you should say without a script. what do u think of the sinister way the Obama adminisration is handling those who raise protest to how his administration is screwing up the country for future generations? maybe you should ask the b*tch you sleep with – unless of course you can't keep a conversation going.
Tim………………. saw a recent interview of you. there were a lot of umms and duhs – guess you can't figure out what you should say without a script. what do u think of the sinister way the Obama adminisration is handling those who raise protest to how his administration is screwing up the country for future generations? maybe you should ask the b*tch you sleep with – unless of course you can't keep a conversation going.
Thanks for the article, Pam. I hope he doesn't sic his mommy on you.
Actually I think most of this poser's drivel can be better understood if you realize that his role in Bull Durham was type casting, and that as an actor he's mostly tall. What most people seem to experience in the face of his solemn lecturing about adult issues is embarrassment.
Another intellectually bankrupt liberal. Go home to that horrid mommy figure you sleep with and whine to her. The rest of us will be at work trying to pay our own way, honestly and with hard work. By the way I am proud to say that I have not put a penny in your pocket since Shawshank and never will again.
I agree fully.
And if you disagree with the President you are racist. They have all the angles covered I guess.
To continue my take on James Brolin being nothing more than Mr. Barbra Streisand, Tim Robbins is really only Mr. Susan Sarandon. Except I'm not sure if the Sarandons ever actually got married.
As Gunter Grass said during a 60's demonstration where the Radical Chic were denouncing the Nixon "stormtroopers":
"In Germany, the stormtroopers would have been here by now. They would have showed up before we started and shut us down. If you have any stormtroopers here in America, they're extremely slow."
What does this moron know of oppression? Has he lived under Nazi rule or did he live in ANY eastern bloc countries? No all he has done is read words written by someone else and marry his mother figure. When he has lived a real life I MAY listen to his experiences and give them some consideration. I say "Tim sit down, call your cocaine dealer and relax, your brain is not big enough for all this real life stuff".
Robbins can't spell or define hypocrite while he has his headset on, watching porn or whatever, in his rented private jet on the way to Turks and Caicos. If he could he would say "Screw you poor people, go have a tea party. The media is OURS!"
she was in a dog movie……can't remember the name of it…….the dog in it got higher billing and marquee placement…aw forget it, dang…
Hey! I got a green helmet and a yellow pushbroom for a helmet do-dad. Kinda like the USC marching band.
Couldn't agree with you more. Besides, whenever a celebrity/politician/kid resorts to hysterics and name-calling, you pretty much know you've won the argument.
i don't see any skin, so a race determination is difficult. you can claim green (you are from mars). With the census comming up, i think you are allowed a long list of potential races. I don't know of martian is availible, but American is.
i don't see any skin, so a race determination is difficult. you can claim green (you are from mars). With the census comming up, i think you are allowed a long list of potential races. I don't know of martian is availible, but American is.
Wonder if Timmy ever thanks the police officers on duty at his public events. Willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but guessing "no." Tool.
Really enjoyed the officers in attendance at the Tea Parties couple days ago, too, where all we evil "right wing extremists" were saying the Pledge of Allegiance, singing "God Bless America" and thanking the officers for their service.
It's ok for the Tim Robbins of America to speak their mind just so long as they aren't a member of the CONSERVATIVE party. If I were to stand in front of a podium and wish harm to befall Tim Robbins or any of his ilk I would be tried for just THINKING about it, yet these lefty nitwits actually come right out and SAY their hateful rhetoric aloud, like garofalo, olberman et al, and they keep getting away with it. Exactly WHY are they so hateful of others who don't think like them in the first place?
That'll work! I don't want to be refered to as a "Martian-American" though.
Sarandon's big ugly daughter is a palestinian..sarandon has been a PLO for decades…enough said…wish these commies would go live in europe. Or be real commies and give away their money.
Yo Timmy, time for Mommy, er, Susan to change your diaper and continue the Lib brainwashing. Grow up and get a life dude. You'll be 60 and she'll be, what, 97?
Good luck with all of that.
Why doesn't this moron 'chill' himself out?
What I'd give for him to slip on his bunny pad and knock himself out on the bottom of his playpen. That would be a double 'gimme' because it would mean Susan would have to shut her own trap as she changed his nappies. (Well, of course, she could still pontificate – but doing that with a mouth full of diaper pins could introduce an unwanted food group to her stomach, so it's not recommended.)
Grass would know. As a member of the SS during the last year of the war, this dude knows from stormtroopers.
Oh, I am praying on bended knee (please, Lord Jesus, please NO!) that Robbins isn't in the next Iron Man. IF he is, I will not see it. My boycotts are stern and righteous. If Robbins, Sarandan, Penn or Fonda are in a film, I am NOT in the audience. Ever.
ROTFLMAO! OhmiGod, the visual image of that. Oh, heavens, I think I have to change my undergarments.
"My boycotts are stern and righteous. If Robbins, Sarandan, Penn or Fonda are in a film, I am NOT in the audience. Ever!"
Me too carolyn, me too. I take a firm stance and I DON'T waver, EVER.
I thought he and his wife, I mean "girlfriend" Susan, were supposed to move out of the country when Bush was re-elected? What happened?
Would that make you angry, very, very angry? Please don't blow up the Earth with your space modulator!
This is a real problem. I think that Tim needs serious help. Having watched him change right before our very eyes from a reasonably normal person to a full blown nut, I personally think that Tim and family are on DRUGS. Not the smokie smokie type but much more serious DRUGS.
TIM GET HELP, SOON. Call me. Bring the other one. I can help. We can share cause I ran out.
Cooperstown?? I know trying to figure out what is in an idiot like Tims mind is wasted tme I will never get back, but "cooperstown"?? I admit I'm stumpted; does anyone know what in hell he was referring to??
Nah, non-violent Martian. Unless you raise my taxes or inflation spirals…then….
He and the Hollywood version of Mrs. were banned from a Bull Durham anniversary because of their political views, though they were eventually invited back for a different event five years later.
http://www.thefreemansjournal.com/labels/Tim%20Ro...
Thanks, I should have guessed it had to do with a fiction movie and not the sport itself. I think Tim is hostile to reality.
Blue is the new black.
"Garofolo going on about how anyone who attended the Tea Parties are simply racist."
Really? And the basis for that statement was…?
Reminds me of James Hansen complaining on 60 Minutes about how the White House was trying to "silence him" on the issue of "Global Warming".
If you were on 60 Minutes, I guess they weren't doing too good a job, eh James?
Seems people like Tim Robbins and others whining about the infringement of their free speech by private citizens failed to remember one thing: the First Amendment gives you the right to speak but does not require us to listen. You are not given a right to an audience, only the right to air your point of view. If it is unpopular enough that nobody wants to associate with you, so be it. You still got to say it. I'm noticing that Robbins isn't busting rocks in Leavenworth or wearing Arpaio's pink pajamas for daring to speak out. Seems he spent a bit much time getting into his Shawshank Redemption role assuming the character of a victim over the years. As I recall the character had to wallow in $h!t to get out of the prison. I'd say that the stench still emanates from Robbins every time he opens his mouth and says something insanely stupid. I have to question, as his character in the film did, how he can be so obtuse.
Not surprisingly, if you don't like our black president, the libs proclaim you're racist. We all knew this was going to happen. The fallback position of the left for the next 4 years and 9 months (I should start an official countdown) will be to say that any objection to anything that Obama does is due to racism.
stop the GOD DAMMED Tim Robbins bashing and I MEAN NOW he and Ms Sarandon can speak thier minds as OFTEN as they want
Ms Piester you are NOTHING but a C**T
Uh oh everyone, we've been BUSTED by none other then Tim THE MAN Robbins. Quick everybody RUN!
are YOU RIGHTWING MORONS leave Mr Robbins and Ms Sarandon the HELL ALONE they have MORE intelligenc e in t6hier Morning Bowel Movements then george w bush and ronald reagen EVER had in thier boddies so take a flying leap at the moon
Your spelling goes to HELLo when you're flustered doesn't it.
go screw yourself
you RIGHT WING LOSERS leave Mr Robbbins AND Ms Sarandon the HELL alone thier morning bowel movements has FAR more intelligence then all you LOSERS could ever hope to have
and to the Queen of the C**Ts Ms Meister I woulod gladlye spend $12.00 to see a Movie EIITHER Mr TIM ROBBINS OR Ms Susan Sarandon
[...] made a big, fancy speech (at, if I remember rightly, the baseball Hall of Fame, in Cooperstown Nationa Press Club!) about “a chill wind blowing through America”? Remember that? Remember all the [...]
You must be logged in to post a comment.