Part of the entertainment industry’s piracy problem, however, is of their own doing. It’s not hard to rationalize “taking from” some boorish millionaire actor or musician who’s out there railing against millionaires and income inequality.

So many people dislike every aspect of the entertainment business and those who work in it that “ripping them off” through the purchase of, say, a George Lucas film from an illegal alien in the parking lot of a Best Buy kinda feels righteous. I know because I’ve done it, though that was the only time. And since it was for work, I even wrote it off on my taxes.

The one-percenters in our entertainment class are constantly out there ripping on the rich, and then they turn around and crybaby because some 99-percenter cost them a residual.

This just doesn’t compute.

Hollywood is breeding and encouraging the very same  entitlement and resentment mentality that costs them millions.

Yes, piracy is wrong, but cry me a river, hypocrites.

Variety:

At a White House event today, Attorney General Eric Holder, IP czar Victoria Espinel and others unveiled the latest effort to sound the alarm about copyright theft.

A PSA campaign, produced in partnership with MTV, features singer Addie Brownlee playing guitar at a subway stop, but instead of putting money into her guitar case, passersby take it out.

“When you download music illegally, you are stealing from musicians, songwriters and people like Addie who are denied payment for work that is rightfully theirs,” the narrator says.

And here’s the video that takes forever to make its point:

—–

Whatever happened to live the change you want?

Newsbusters:

As FNC’s Geraldo Rivera appeared in New York City for his Geraldo at Large show on Sunday night to give attention to the Occupy Wall Street protests, participant and music mogul Russell Simmons sparred with FBN’s Charles Payne after Simmons complained that his taxes were too low and claimed that his employees pay more taxes then he does.

When Payne jumped in to suggest, “you could have written an extra check,” Simmons shot back: “Why am I gonna write a, that’s a dumb thing.”

Payne mocked Simmons’s refusal by cracking, “Because you feel patriotic.”

After Simmons indicated that he contributes money to charities instead of donating more taxes, Payne challenged the music mogul on a credit card business Simmons apparently earns money from, and whether such a business is what the protesters Simmons supports are complaining about. Payne:

But, listen, you have a credit card company, you have a credit card company, and you charge people interest to use those cards. Isn’t that what they’re railing about? It’s not a free card. How did you make $100 million?

Simmons again defended his refusal to voluntarily contribute more taxes:

The point I’m making is that I’m not knocking corporations. I’m knocking the game they’re playing. I’m not knocking the players, I’m knocking the game. And what I’m telling you is that this country allows too much access to their politicians by too much interests and too much money. It’s really simple. And I’m happy to pay more taxes, but I’m not going to pay more taxes alone. I’d rather give it to my charities.

Simmons only compounds his raging hypocrisy with the absurd claim we should excuse his refusal to raise his own taxes because of his charitable giving. Hey, what do you know, Russell thinks he can do a better job of helping those in need than the government.

Welcome to the club, Russell. But full membership requires an end to your lobbying to take money from the private sector necessary to create jobs and give it to the big, fat, bloated, incompetent and corrupt federal government.

Hell, you not only have a right to do it, but you have a right to have it federally funded through the NEA by the very taxpayers whose collective mind you intend to blow by getting so darn real.   It’s right there in the Constitution, amid the emanations and adjacent to the penumbras.  Oh, but if you accurately depict the acts leading up to the murder of nearly 3000 Americans, you’ve got to be stopped.  After all, the artistic elite can’t let you upset the Krugman-esque party line that 9/11 was really about Bu$Hitler and Company’s wars for oil or something.

The artistic community is anti-censorship right up until the second it decides it wants something censored.  Then it piles on.

A little background.

Steve Reich is a Pulitzer-winning composer who lived a few blocks away from the World Trade Center when the planes hit on September 11, 2001.  He was out of town at the time, but his family was home.  They barely escaped, but the experience was so emotionally traumatic that it was only as the 10th anniversary of this monstrous crime approached that he was able to finally express his feelings through his art.  You would think the artistic community would praise him – well, you would think that if you had not been paying attention and still believe that it possessed the capacity for shame at its own rank hypocrisy.

Reich’s composition was called “WTC 9/11.”  As described by Terry Ponick at the Washington Times, it “is a short, three-part work that blends live music with the actual recorded sounds of the day’s events playing in background and foreground.”  The CD was originally scheduled to be released on 9/11/11, but a completely unexpected (if you don’t understand the Left) uproar occurred.

The uproar?  Take a look at the original cover photo above.

Kind of makes you think, doesn’t it?  The sight of that jet being guided straight into the South Tower as hundreds burn alive in the North Tower makes you think about how 9/11 was not just some random tragedy that befell us, as if by mere misfortune or a twist of fate.

It makes you think about how it was a calculated act of murder by people who wanted to enslave or kill us, and who still want to enslave or kill us.  And the artistic elite can’t let that thought cross your mind.

Slate’s Seth Colter Walls is suitably mortified that the simple image is so…simple:

Given the piece’s complexity, it is surprising to see that the first studio recording of WTC 9/11, due to be released by the esteemed label Nonesuch Records just days before the 10^th anniversary of the attacks, is being marketed with cover art that looks like something swiped from Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign press shop circa January 2008.

Yeah, it’s surprising that was piece called “WTC 9/11” and inspired by the events at the World Trade Center on 9/11 might have a cover that actually depicts the World Trade Center on 9/11.  Sorry, Seth, if it’s a little on-the-nose for you.  Now go complain about poetry that rhymes.

The “controversy” – to the extent rank censorship by self-appointed guardians of the public consciousness constitutes a “controversy” – over Reich’s chosen cover art has delayed the CD’s release until the 20th.  That will give the informal Ministry of Truth time to scrub away the cover image that might give rise to unapproved thoughts.

Here is the new cover:

Wow.  Wispy grey clouds – it could be a thunderstorm or perhaps some other act of nature.  Maybe smoke billowing from the factories of one of those corporate polluters we hear so much about.  It could be anything.

Anything except the Twin Towers and the plane piloted by jihadi cowards intent on murdering us.

Ponick of the Washington Times does an excellent job of explaining why the Left demanded this ritual sacrifice:

The grievance was almost certainly generated by hyper-touchy liberal New Yorkers who’ve appointed themselves guardians of 9/11 imagery, aided and abetted by the media coverage (notably Slate and NPR) of reflexively leftist scolds who don’t want to be reminded that the U.S. is not always the bad guy in the arena of human events.  And it’s this latter group that really made the album cover an issue.

Yes, it’s the Left being the Left being the Left. Of course their reaction to 9/11 is just the opposite of “never forget.”  They want us to forget the truth and instead impose a false memory more conducive to their agenda.  They prefer, “always remember America is the villain.”  And the original cover reminds us that America is not.  So it must be suppressed.

In the Los Angeles Times, August Brown fretted, wondering if “the subtlety of the piece accurately conveyed by this incredibly blunt and literal cover?”  Not surprisingly, the Washington Post’s Anne Midgette agrees that the cover should be changed:

It’s the right decision. But the debate is, for me, a red flag that, in the well-meaning wish to guard everyone’s feelings, we risk losing sight of the inherent transformative process of a work of art.

Of course, the “transformative process” the truth might initiate is to transform people from couch-bound lumps thinking in the passive voice about “the tragedy that happened” into furious citizens roused to righteous anger – and their own defense – against the threat that still faces us.

Is one album cover going to turn American culture 180 degrees from the weepy, passivity our liberal elite, spearheaded by the artistic community, wants to keep us trapped in?  Of course not.  And is Reich himself a fire-breathing warrior urging on the American people for further feats of martial achievement?  Probably not.  According to Midgette, his statement read:

As a composer I want people to listen to my music without something distracting them. The present cover of WTC 9/11 will, for many, act as a distraction from listening and so  . . . the cover is being changed.

Regardless, it’s sad that Reich feels forced to constrain his artistic vision not because it is wrong but precisely because it is right.  The elite is not trying to suppress lies but to hide the truth – that a gang of fundamentalist Muslim jihadis murdered 3000 Americans and would do so again, and that we either fight and win, or choose enslavement and/or death.  The latter is what the original cover says, and what it says is the truth, and the truth is precisely what they want to censor.

The artistic community doesn’t stand against censorship – it embraces censorship.  Crying “wolf” about censorship is a useful weapon to protect its untalented hack members who make crappy art off the largess of Uncle Sucker.  And it will not hesitate for even a second to use censorship against its own members when they cross the party line.

Next, maybe Reich can write an album about this incident and the community or artists that has abandoned him.  His only problem will be finding a cover art image that suitably evokes the concept of hypocrisy.

To have gazillionaires wring their lying hypocritical hands over the plight of Mother Earth from air conditioned mansions as they ply their trade in an entertainment industry that guzzles more energy than Halliburton and Walmart combined, epitomizes a lack of self-awareness so pathetic it should qualify you as being mentally ill.

No one is stopping Matt Damon or Alec Baldwin or any one of these “tax the rich” Leftists from paying more in taxes. The only thing stopping them is their own “do as I say not as I do” hypocrisy. They refuse to lead by example and  my guess is that their hypocrisy goes even deeper than this. Anyone want to bet dollars to donuts you’ll see — wait for it, wait for it — WRITE-OFFS on Matt Damon’s tax returns?

I didn’t think so.

Legendary game show host Chuck Woolery is all over this with a helpful PSA that should be titled: “The More Lying Hypocritical Celebrities Know.”

Over to you, Chuck:

—–

This entire debate is really an indictment of a sycophant entertainment media that refuses to challenge statements like this from “geniuses” like Matt Damon. Maybe if some of these celebs knew they were going to be challenged they would work a little harder at back-filling their arguments. As things stand now, people like Matt Damon not only come off as hypocritical, they come off as stupid.

Don’t get me wrong, Matt Damon coming off as hypocritical and stupid is okay with me, but you would think that those on his side would want to do something about it.

Entertainment Weekly is just another dishonest media outlet disguised as non-partisan and objective, and like too many of their counterparts in the entertainment media, that disguise is their weapon of choice as they propagandize to young readers and kiss Hollywood ass in exchange for the access necessary to keep those lame exclusives coming that only read well in a restroom.

Aubrey Vaughan at NewsBusters busts their biased, partisan double standards red-handed here:

The conservative documentary, which successfully opened last weekend in limited release, was given a snarky review under the headline “Sarah Palin’s ‘The Undefeated’: We saw it so you don’t have to!“.

While ‘The Undefeated’ is admittedly told from a conservative viewpoint, the criticism of it, compared to the warm reception of Moore and Gore’s liberally biased films, is remarkable.

In the ‘Undefeated’ review, Young acknowledges that the director has every right to make it a pro-Palin film, but mocks the quality of the film for that same reason. Palin, whom Young describes as someone “who positions herself as so outside the political system that she can host a reality-television show and somehow get away with it,” had no affiliation with the production of the film, but Young still manages to frequently insult her and the director. …

In contrast, never do the ‘Fahrenheit 9/11′ or ‘Inconvenient Truth’ reviews acknowledge any one-sidedness or disagreements with the films’ content.

Young also complains of a number of biases in the film he sees as conveniently aiding Palin’s case, including glazing over the 2008 presidential campaign, painting her resignation as a result of the distracting bombardment of ethics investigations (ignoring possible financial motivations to move to TLC and Fox News), and only including commentary from “conservative bigwigs like Mark Levin and Andrew Breitbart” who are just “voices to the choir.”

Instead, the ‘Fahrenheit 9/11′ review lauded Moore for his Bush-bashing, leaving no room to explain any factual inaccuracies or the possibility of differing viewpoints.

Reviews of ‘Fahrenheit 9/11′ and ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ never mentioned the possibility of biased omissions or one-sided debates, even though both were released to much wider audiences.

You’ll want to read the whole thing.

Which is sordid.

Bishop Eddie Long, the well known mega-church pastor, has been accused by two young men from his church of forcing them into private “covenants” involving gay sex. The pastor, of course, claims he’s innocent.

But for the sake of this Gregalogue, what if he isn’t?

That makes him a creepy creep from Creepeville. Population: creep.

Now people in the media love these stories because it allows you to point out the hypocrisy found in religion. This is a pastor who is against gay marriage, but allegedly likes the gay sex. But this is so predictable, boring and easy.

Me, I’d rather argue that it’s okay to hate something, while still engaging in it.

Most people call that “life.”

Examples abound. I hate porn. It’s vile. I often write about it being vile. But when I travel I dabble. Don’t get me wrong – I despise it. But for 3 to 7 minutes a month, I really love it.

Same with drugs. I find addicts to be pathetic burdens on their families and society as a whole. But catch me at a bar at three a.m., and there’s a chance that it’s not the wine causing me to massage the shoulders of a troubled garbageman.

(hey Phil)

So that’s why a man who condemns homosexuality while being gay makes sense to me.

That’s not to say, I agree with his beliefs. The way I look at it, if there is no God then gayness is just an expressed pattern like everything else. And if there is a God, he must love gays because he made so many of them.

And if you disagree with me, you’re a racist homophobic cyclophobe.

Tonight:

MIke Baker!

Lauren Sivan!

John Phillips!

In other words, had Tiger Woods lectured schoolchildren on the importance of preserving the institution of marriage, marital fidelity and not being promiscuous — you know, the kind of healthy behavior that’s key to a happy life — she’d be giving him all kinds of hell right now. But, since he only cheated on his wife…

–

Does that kind of thinking make any sense to you?

It does if you see the design behind it. The left wants to shut the right up, especially those trying to uphold traditional moral standards. And in order to silence those who would stand up for such things, with the help of popular culture and the media, they’ve managed to turn the world upside down into a place where you’re better off not trying to do good than risking the stigma of hypocrisy.

Because he was a drug abuser, was it wrong for Elvis to speak out against drugs? Of course not. Regardless of their personal habits, any role model using their perch to promote healthy behavior deserves credit — even a drug addict.

But I guess in Joy Behar’s world she’ll give a murderer credit for not preaching against murder, a drug abuser credit for not preaching against drugs and here she is giving Tiger his props for not being one of those types who speak out about upholding traditional moral standards … even though the world would be a better place if he had.  

It’s an impossible trap the left has set for us. We’re all human and we’re all destined to slip. But that’s the plan — to create an environment where only the sinless are allowed to speak out in favor of upholding morality. And since no one is sinless…

But who’s really on the side of the angels? 

Those who extol the virtues of a world where no one demands standards and values; where Roman Polanski’s forgiven because he would never dream of telling someone else not to anally rape a child; where no one strives for anything more than the cowardly pursuit of dodging the “hypocrite” label..? 

Or the imperfect ones, the “moral hypocrites” who at least try to do some good?

(Not the people who really work hard here like the drivers, grips, electricians, greensman, editors, carpenters, etc. – just us so very important ‘Stars’)

- on what YOU the World – can do to save our planet: (Listen up you nasty smelly little flyover stalker freaks.)

1.  Conserve Water!

(Don’t you dare water your 40′ x 100′ lawn. Let it go brown. We’ll keep swimming in our 3 pools, The infinity one in Malibu, and the two at the compound in Palm Springs.)

2. Airplanes are the grossest polluters. Fight Climate Change, take the bus, or ride your bike!

(All you little people, not us right now – we’re too busy with our awesome important star stuff, and we have a very important film festival to attend in a foreign country that mostly hates the U.S. and we just don’t want to miss out on this opportunity to knock America and Americans. P.S. the film is about Climate change, so it is very important we get there fast with our very snobby entourage.)

It’s high time we fix the earth for our children and our children’s children.

(Or my carpet-pooping maid-humping misbehaving half-assed show dog that is really like uh… my kid.)

We all need to change the way we live and CONSERVE NOW!

(You conserve, so WE can have our large mansion, with armed bodyguards, payed for by the most wasteful business on the planet that includes a private trailer on the back lot, with a carbon monoxide chugging gas-guzzle powered generator, long tables of uneaten food, climate controlled tents for lounging with our hanger-on loser friends in between shots that are cooled by A/C that’s powered by 4 honkin’ assed semis with cranking megawatt oop-dee-boop generators, then private Jetting to our mansion in East Hampton that sits empty three fourths of the year although being heated and cooled constantly, and of course our Jet-off lunch trysts in San Fran, Aspen, and sometimes just for kicks oh so FUNKY-FUNKY Mexico City, then jetting back to Van Nuys, jumping in the gas slugging super stretch and speeding – (not signaling at all)  and cutting everyone off on the 101 so as to get back to Universal in time for our masseuses who we won’t tip at all.)

THE TIME IS NOW TO REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT!

(You go first, as I am not a loser like you and can be excused from conserving, because the purpose of my life is to help all of you turds learn to respect the elite and powerfuls’ message of political peace and green global harmony.)

THIS IS EVERYONE’S PROBLEM,  NO MATTER WHAT POLITICAL AFFILIATION, RACE CREED, GENDER, OR SEXUAL ORIENTATION.

(As long as you are not Conservative  or Libertarian and be so insane as to oppose our idea of what we know constitutes an intelligent person. You’d better fit exactly into the box we want to put you in, ie: no gay conservatives, African American conservatives, artist conservatives, musician conservatives etc. because those fakers are shamefully wrongheaded, and just so very freakin’ unfashionable. …. Wait a sec, what the hell is a Libertarian anyway? )

In today’s Hollywood a famous liberal filmmaker could hire a hooker while shooting a $100,000,000 studio feature film, secretly charge it to the budget, snort coke in his trailer between shots and drop E at night without any real concern for condemnation or job loss if he’s caught, because, well, he never proclaimed to be on the side of good in the first place. Whereas a famous conservative Christian filmmaker (pretend with me here) caught doing the same thing would be ridiculed and kicked out of town for the hypocrisy of it all since, by being Christian, he openly admitted that kind of behavior is not the most desirable for himself and doesn’t set a very good example for the fans.

What if this same mentality were applied to other shared parts of society?  Could a Hollywood liberal drive his or her gas guzzling, Obama bumper sticker covered SUV through every stop light, plowing down innocent pedestrians and then when stopped by the police simply use the argument “I never said I believed in red lights, therefore I do not have to stop at them.” ?

What the majority of cultural conservatives really want is to reinstate traffic lights in pop culture and most of them set to merely flash yellow. But since Hollywood/MSM liberals thrive on the constant green light for their bizarre behavior from an adoring public in order to stay in power within the town, they must work overtime to keep any kind of national consensus emerging on what is morally good and bad in pop culture.

To quote the Apostle of Common Sense; “Art is like morality. Both begin by drawing the line somewhere.”

And nothing could be worse for the Hollywood/MSM power players than a clear definition of right and wrong because when you’re a profitable purveyor of smut, scandal, lopsided political propaganda and art without lines — the last thing you need is smut, scandal, lopsided political propaganda and art without lines going out of style.

A successful talent manager with a list of star clients once pulled me aside at a party and whispered into my ear “hey, nobody likes a guy that always tells the truth.”  He wanted to sign me as a client and was trying to help me work my way through the system by learning to be dishonest when it paid.

So in my experience this “avoid the truth” mindset is precisely why Hollywood/MSM liberal attacks never end when a conservative or Christian does anything wrong; because they are a fearful living reminder of the truth that most of humanity still wholeheartedly embraces; men are fallen and must fight against their natural urges to become ruthlessly self centered and above the law.

If elite media neo-liberals can succeed in getting more people to speed through the red lights and play by their twisted non-rules then there really is no limit to how far they can sink this nation.