Well guys, I’m glad to be back from three weeks of traveling. First I was on vacation in Thailand. While there, I thought I was going to be able to write a lot except that for four of my eight days there, I was on Koh Ngai, a tropical island in the Andaman Sea. Unfortunately, Koh Ngai had no Internet. So, that plan disappeared. Then, I was in Toronto for five days and had no time to do anything except for the business this business trip was about.

Saturday I got home and caught up on my personal life. So, yesterday, I had some time to kill and thought I would see “The Help.” After all, it has been doing incredible business and being a producer, I figured I had better see it. I had no interest in the material and thought I was going to end up seeing a typical liberal-slant Hollywood film about the mistreatment of blacks in this country.

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Boy was I surprised when I left the theater. ”The Help,” at this point, is the Best Picture of the Year and should be nominated by the Academy and every other major organization. In fact, there is nothing even close to the quality of this film released thus far this year.

Taking a book about pre-civil rights south and converting it into a movie that would appeal to the masses is difficult at best. However, when you factor the chick flick factor into this one, it becomes almost impossible. Well, writer/director Tate Taylor has succeeded on a grand scale. He has taken a best-selling novel about southern mores during the early 1960s during the beginning of the civil rights movement and turned it into a four quadrant movie. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if this film tops 200 million in domestic box office before its run is finished.

And, to make Taylor’s accomplishment even more unbelievable, Taylor is not known as a writer/director. In fact, this is his second feature; the first being a relatively unknown film. The remainder of his career to date has been as a bit-part actor. Let’s just say he will have no problem getting his next feature financed with an “A” list cast.

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The politically correct chickens are coming home to roost in the Orwellian world of the organized left’s free-expression-stifling speech codes.

To paraphrase Martin Niemöller’s famous admonition about complacency with totalitarian fascists:  “First they came for Rush Limbaugh and called his satire racist, and I didn’t speak out because Rush Limbaugh is a conservative.  Then they came for Dr. Laura and called her commentary racist, and I didn’t speak out because Dr. Laura is a conservative…”

Well, this time they came after a high school drama program in far-from conservative Westbury, CT.  The Arts Magnet School in that city planned a production of August Wilson’s 20th century classic “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” until the district’s Superintendent, David Snead, tried to pull the plug because the play’s characters use the word “nigger”. (more…)

GLAAD’s latest anti-free speech rampage is so misguided that for what might be the first time ever, they’ve actually forced actress Susan Sarandon over to the correct side of an issue:

Sarandon is adamant [GLAAD's] views on political correctness are becoming too extreme – likening them to animal-rights crusaders People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

When quizzed about the controversy by the New York Daily News, she replied, “What should they (Glee) have said? (GLAAD is) getting like PETA – way out of control.”

Careful Susan, you might end up in one of GLAAD’s Gay Re-Education Camps along with the producers of  “Jersey Shore.”

Thankfully, even more of Hollywood’s pushing back though Daniel Frankel’s story in “The Wrap,” which is boldly titled “Is GLAAD Hollywood’s Latest Bully?” — and I say boldly in all sincerity since the latest left-wing cause du jour is anti-gay bullying and the throwing of that word right back in GLAAD’s face isn’t by accident, nor is it the usual timid approach left-wing special interest groups have become accustomed to in the press. 

Though I urge you to read the whole thing, below are some choice snips that pretty much prove Hollywood’s losing their patience with these neo-fascists. And what immediately follows is a truly frightening look at how the bulies at GLAAD operate, which should chill the spine of anyone who believes in free speech and artistic expression: (more…)

Two weeks ago Dr. Rand Paul, an ophthalmologist and the Republican U.S. Senate candidate from Kentucky, appeared on the Rachel Maddow show to clarify statements he had made, which seemed to suggest that he would have opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. For 20 minutes Paul and Maddow engaged in a less-than-graceful pas de deux on the theme of discrimination and private property rights.

Maddow asked Paul whether he believed private business people had the right to discriminate against black people, or any other minority group. Paul responded that once you allow the government to dictate how citizens can use their private property, it ceases to be private. Maddow pressed the issue, asking if the government had the right to force Woolworth’s to serve black customers at its lunch counter. Rather than say, “Yes,” Paul responded with an argument about the second amendment.

In less than an hour, candidate Paul was able to do what the Obama administration, the New York Times, and even the lying members of the Congressional Black Caucus could not do. Within minutes of the end of the interview, the blogosphere was atwitter with claims that the true goal of the Tea Party was to roll back big government in order to undo the gains of the civil rights era and return this nation to the days of “separate but equal.” And now they have the video to prove it! (more…)

The sweet pretty things are in bed now of course. The city fathers, they’re trying to endorse, the reincarnation of Paul Revere’s horse. But the town has no need to be nervous. The ghost of Belle Starr, she hands down her wits, to Jezebel the nun, she violently knits. A bald wig for Jack the Ripper who sits, at the head of the Chamber of Commerce.

Mama’s in the factory, she ain’t got no shoes. Daddy’s in the alley, he’s lookin’ for food; I’m in the kitchen with the tombstone blues. “Tombstone Blues” – Bob Dylan

Perhaps the sudden death of pop icon Michael Jackson had many Hollywood stars contemplating their own future obituaries. But the industry, which has been strongly committed to promoting the dangers of man-made global warming, was strangely silent on the Waxman-Markey bill which squeaked though the House last week. The United States economy, i.e., actual real human beings who live in America, continues to suffer from the enormous Obama-lead government’s allocation of resources by massive deficit spending and taxes. The axis of deception changes with each specific fiscal proposal. (more…)

This week I had the honor of participating in a panel discussion on Civil Rights in the Age of Obama sponsored by the Milken Institute. Appearing with me on the panel were Ben Jealous, current President of the NAACP, Wade Henderson, President of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and Myrlie Evers-Williams, Civil Rights Icon and former President of the NAACP. The panel was moderated by Dr. Beverly Tatum, President of Spelman College. I was, as my father used to say, “Steppin’ in some pretty high cotton.”

I can think of no better proof of the victory of the traditional civil rights movement than that these distinguished individuals (and myself) were gathered together under the auspices of the Milken Institute to ponder what to do next. The battles of the civil rights movement so hard fought have been won. To those heroes, on whose shoulders my generation stands I say, “job well-done.” That is not to say that we need not be jealous of our civil rights. It is to say that it is time to shift our focus toward those things that will best guard our victories and secure those blessings for future generations. (more…)