A website called Kickstarter.com is making an extraordinary contribution to the arts — broadly defined here as art, comics, dance, design, fashion, food, film, music, games, photography, theatre, and writing.  It isn’t only artistic projects, either.  Kickstarter accepts “creative projects,” which include everything from an iPod Nano wristwatch to heat-absorbing metallic beans to cool your coffee. Kickstarter is, as far as I can tell, the most successful grassroots funding platform on the Internet.

Crowd-sourced funding is a brilliant concept.  People who seek funding for a project post it at Kickstarter, and regular folks can donate whatever they wish to the project — from $1 on up to thousands.  In exchange, they receive a reward for their contribution.  It may be a mention of the donor’s name in the project’s credits, copies of a movie on DVD, a limited edition of a given book or product, or a gourmet dinner at the artist’s house.  In short, it’s like pitching an idea from a soapbox in the town square.

And it is genius. (more…)

In this time of crippling deficits, what could be more obscene than the government funding art unable to sustain itself in the free market? What am I saying; even in times of a budget surplus this is obscene.

The National Endowment for the Humanities has announced $40 million in grants, including $3.2 million for scholars, museums and documentary filmmakers in California.

Like its sister agency, the National Endowment for the Arts, the NEH saw its current-year budget slashed 7.5% in April, down to $155 million, and its future prospects are iffy given the deficit-cutting mood in Washington. For now, there’s still money to go around.

L.A.’s Grammy Museum will get $550,000 to help produce “Rockin’ the Kremlin,” a film by director Jim Brown about the role American rock music played in weakening the Soviet empire.  A UPI.com report last year on plans for the film said it includes an account of a 1977 Soviet tour by the Southern California-based Nitty Gritty Dirt Band that was said to play a part in capturing young Slavic imaginations, presumably helping to awaken them to the drawbacks of totalitarian rule. Brown’s past films include documentaries about Woody Guthrie, the Weavers, Peter Paul and Mary and a PBS series, “American Roots Music.”

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CNN’s Headline News division might not know what it’s getting into by hiring Dr. Drew Pinsky to anchor a nightly broadcast in 2011. The media savvy doctor, the addiction medicine specialist behind “Loveline” and “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew,” should be the go-to guy for the latest Lindsay Lohan meltdown.

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But there’s another side to the good doctor, one recently revealed on “The Adam Carolla Podcast.” The Nov. 26 podcast, which reteamed Pinsky with his old “Loveline” partner, found the duo railing against government overreach while praising the free market system. You won’t find that kind of material on HLN’s “The Joy Behar Show.”

It’s grand news for conservatives, who might hear their opinions shared by that rare TV personality outside the Fox News bubble. And Pinsky isn’t a divisive figure like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin or Rush Limbaugh. He’s not viewed through an ideological prism, so when he pontificates on a topic it has the chance to stir the independent crowd to action. He might even make a liberal or two rethink an entrenched opinion.

Behar likely won’t be swayed, though. (more…)

After Barack Obama’s historic victory in 2008, many in the Democratic Party and on the political left argued that the GOP and the conservative movement were finished and that Democrats were destined to control, in perpetuity, the presidency, Congress, and culture, writ large. But then something unexpected happened–millions of sleepwalking, mall-shopping Americans finally woke up.

The activist left, which denigrated the previous president in a merciless fashion, took the reins of power with reckless abandon and shoved its brand of poisonous hope and change down the throats of the American people. So we the people, the reawakening silent majority, responded in the form of a grassroots movement that is turning into a juggernaut set to roll past November 2nd and become something transcendent and long-lasting. Our Founding Fathers would be proud that we have rediscovered the spirit and the essence of their ideas.

While the Tea Party has not been specifically partisan–many Republican carcasses lie in its rubble–this conservative and constitutional checks and balances has created a rejuvenated GOP, chastened and wiser.

This weekend I have the honor of sharing the stage with one of the Tea Party’s and Republican Party’s fearless leaders, Sarah Palin. Since her arrival on the national stage, the Democratic Party has recognized her potential as a political powerhouse and has worked in tandem with its partners in crime, the mainstream media, to wage an unprecedented personal campaign against her and her family. The Tea Party can relate.

But the power of Alinsky and the politics of personal destruction vis a vis the Democrat Media Complex has reverse effects when the object of the hate bravely stands up to the bullies and thugs. The Tea Party and Sarah Palin have given America a great lesson in standing up to the bullies who have co-opted the Democratic Party and the American media. (more…)

So my good friends, the labor unions, have decided to pick a fight with Peter Jackson and his upcoming production of “The Hobbit.” Of course, they are not my good friends, I say that sarcastically. Unions in general are bad news these days. The idea of “protecting the worker” has somehow morphed like a T-1000 into huge, multi-billion dollar corporations that stifle economic growth while using illegal methods of coercion to blackmail money from employers. The fact that they are a de facto wing of the Democratic Party also compels me to deny their friend requests on Facebook.

The entertainment industry guilds are particularly pernicious. They have singlehandedly forced film production out of California, and now, ultimately, out of the country. Their bullying knows no bounds. They are quick with a nasty press release (as in the case of “The Hobbit”) but have no qualms about making threats to commit illegal actions to get what they want. One of Mr. Jackson’s studios burned to the ground shortly after the release of his retaliatory statements. Far be it from me to suggest arson. And no, this isn’t somebody repeating hearsay or parroting talking points. This is from someone who has had union organizers say, with a straight face, that physical violence and vandalism are not out of the question. I’ve lived to tell the tale because in some cases I’ve responded with a steely “bring it” and in other cases, I’ve made compromises or concessions that I could live with. In the cases where I told them to pound sand, I won. In the cases where I paid them off, they’ve won. In no case, however, have the actual workers won. In every instance, their conditions haven’t changed one iota. Perhaps they made an extra $5 a day, but the euphoria of extra money for a Happy Meal was quickly replaced by the misery of union dues, rules, and the inability to take work when the desperately need it. To make matters worse, the holy grail of “health care” is often out of reach for new members and the qualifications for full coverage are extremely onerous. Ultimately, the entertainment unions fail to do what is their mission: to protect the careers and working conditions of their members. (more…)

I do not listen to the Rush Limbaugh Show.  That is not to say that I think he of the golden microphone is not worth listening to.  On the contrary, I think that Rush might be the most important voice in America. It just happens that talk radio isn’t my personal cup of tea. 

Still, when I do take in the rare hour or two, I have always found Rush to be a profoundly insightful thinker.  Far from the partisan blowhard the left portrays him to be, Rush is, from my limited listenings, a true philosopher, perhaps a bit more crude than his toga-wearing, boy-loving predecessors, but one of them just the same.  His philosophy is American Conservatism, and he champions it far above party.  In fact, I suspect it is the soft-left members of the GOP that fear him most, since the DNC cannot by their very nature be held to the standards of limited government and natural-liberty over enforced-equality he champions in the first place.  (more…)

This stuff doesn’t happen on its own.  Somebody must create it.  Art is the product of conscious action.  But art cannot be considered ‘art’…until it is named.  It must be called ‘art.’  And it seems today that regardless of the number of dissenters from that designation, if one person decides that something is art – it’s art, dammit.  End of discussion.  For to impugn its veracity would be to malign someone’s character.  It might even get you called ‘racist.’ To tell an artist that what he or she has produced is not ‘art’ would be spewing hate speech just as though you’d burned a cross on their lawn or dipped a crucifix in urine.  (Oh wait…that’s been done.  And come to think of it…that was called art.   Ahhh…I am beginning to see many disparities and conflicts in the rational line here.)

Help me along — I am apparently a bit slow.  Something is ‘art’ if the ‘artist’ says it is art.  Even if the viewer of said art is highly offended and appalled by this so-called art.  Then it’s his or her problem… get over it…go back to Wasilla and blow up a moose. 

But should you dare suggest that it might not be the best use of public funds to bankroll exhibitions that the majority of Americans consider to be highly offensive and even pornographic —  well…then you obviously must be a hate-filled, intolerant, racist homophobe, and you are to be minimalized as a right-wing fringe kook.  (more…)

I was back in junior high when my dad used this unforgettable analogy: “The role of the government is similar to that of a hockey referee. His job is to keep the players safe and keep the pace of the game. No more, no less.”

Granted, my dad was really just trying to simplify an explanation for me amidst a time in my life where I’d rather be lighting my own flatulence than engaging in true political discourse, but looking back… I realize that my father is a genius! Step aside Thomas Edison and Guy-who-invented-PopTarts, there’s a new sheriff in town.

The simple, yet brilliant description should be one of the “go to” weapons in any conservative’s quiver when it comes to debating the left. See, liberals hate it when you have a firm grasp on the role of government and more importantly, the founding fathers original intent. It makes their run-around, situational ethics a lot harder to peddle. Now of course using the “hockey referee” analogy may be blatantly Canadian of me, so for all you Southerners just replace “hockey” with “football”, and if you’re gay…. “Soccer.” (more…)