So two eighty-year-old sisters are suing each other over a half million in powerball prize money. They haven’t talked to each other in years, all because one sis claims they had a contract that says they would split their winnings every time they gambled.

And this reminds me of something very important: people are bad.

Seriously: people are bad. To the bone, to quote Mr. Thorogood. I mean, when two sisters who’ve known each other for nearly a century are rejecting their own blood over bucks – you’re seeing humanity. Or more specifically: what happens to humanity when you think you have something – and then it’s taken away.

I want you to think about that when you consider the health care reform bill, which will create new agencies, new bureaucracies, new taxes, new costs. Meaning new opportunities for entitlement desire, and entitlement rage. The thing that grows cannot ungrow. It’s here to stay, and it will only get bigger. And our government wouldn’t have it any other way. (more…)

Although Sean Penn has the reputation of being a fine actor, I’ve never shared that opinion and regard his acting as overrated. His early performance in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” as stoner Jeff Spicoli is regarded fondly by those with sophomoric comedic taste but my taste prefers more subtlety. Penn absolutely destroyed the film “The Interpreter” with his hound dog expression throughout the film and “I Am Sam” remains the thespian lesson in what to avoid when portraying the mentally challenged. 

I used to think that Penn’s liberal statements came from a genuine concern for the poor and downtrodden and did not laugh at that pathetic picture of Penn in that leaky rowboat in New Orleans after the Katrina devastation. I also did not join the skeptics who questioned his Haitian relief efforts. I figured him to be naïve but with his recent statement that “Hugo Chavez” is not a dictator, the truth is finally clear. Sean Penn is an idiot-a useful one-but an idiot nonetheless. 

I’ve never been to Venezuela but I know many transplanted immigrants from that country who relate tales of horror since that “dictator” took over. What kind of spell has Chavez spun to cloud the Hollywood fool’s mind to the damage this man has wrought on his country?  (more…)

UPDATED: February 18th, 2010 — 6:58 pm

The following interview contains misleading, erroneous, and/or fraudulent claims.  The subject of the interview, Scott Witt, has come under massive scrutiny by the Special Forces community and has been revealed to not be a member of that vaunted, tight-knit group, as he claims.  Adding to the heinous nature of this deception is that it is couched in the humanitarian effort to aid the people of Haiti – a matter that is near and dear to my heart.

I offer now my sincerest apology for having become the conduit for this ruse of Mr. Witt’s, (for which I alone take blame for not vetting him properly), and reaffirm my deep respect and admiration for all the true brave warriors who serve and have served our country.

I have recently become aware of The Stolen Valor Act, and of the pathetic presence of many ‘false heroes’, poseurs and impostors out there; attempting to steal for themselves some of the valor and honor that members of our Special Forces have so valiantly and courageously earned.

I truly find this despicable – and vow to join with members of this elite branch of the service, active or retired, who seek to expose, uncover and/or prosecute those who would fraudulently lay claim to a real soldier’s honor.

– Gary Graham, Feb. 18, 2010

—–END UPDATE

While in the process of raising funds to help shuttle doctors, nurses and medical supplies to Haiti, I hooked up with my friend director/producer Jeff Chamberlain.  Sharing my interest in humanitarian concerns, and aware of my recent trip to Haiti with AirLift Haiti founder, Eric Haymes, Jeff introduced me to former Special Forces soldier Scott Witt. Scott had formed a rather amazing group of former spec-ops servicemen called Dark Horse Tactical.   These guys had had a rather remarkable experience helping out in the Katrina disaster – and now were trying to get ‘tent cities’ built in and around Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  Jeff, Eric, and I had several conference calls to brainstorm the idea with Scott.   And in an interest to see if Air Lift Haiti could partner up in a common-cause joint venture, I sat Scott down and talked to him about his plan to deliver immediate help and aid to the earthquake-ravaged people of Haiti.

Gary Graham – Scott, tell me about your background and how it lead to your group, Dark Horse.

Scott Witt – Well, to tell you of my background is to tell you what Dark Horse is.  Dark Horse was a call sign – it was my personal call sign, back in the day of my special forces [work].

GG – When was that, when did you serve?

SW – Everything I did in special forces was ‘black ops’.  I first joined the Rangers back in 1987 and I was only with the Rangers for a year when I decided to join what was called ‘the Cherokee’ at that time.  They were a mixture of special forces.   It was not just Rangers, it was Navy SEALs, it was Marines, it was everyone.  And they’d take the best of the best…and create one unit.  And that unit answered only to the Pentagon.  And from that point forward, all we did was black ops.  Nothing we ever did could be talked about from that point forward. (more…)

Americans are debating whether Roman Polanski should be brought back to America to serve the sentence he skipped out on over 30 years ago for having sex (well, raping her, but he pleaded to the lesser charge of unlawful sex with a minor) with a 13-year-old girl. A large portion of society seems to believe that Polanski should face the music for what is truly a disgusting crime, but as we all know, he has his defenders for several reasons: a) he’s a nice guy, b)he’s a brilliant director, c) the art world is being made to suffer, and d) gosh — it was over 30 years ago. To coin a phrase, let’s just “move on.”

We all know that many Hollywood insiders live inside a magical bubble where there are no consequences for anything. Serial affairs, alcohol, drugs — everything is forgiven as long as you can make money for the machine (but they are against capitalism, natch), except that most heinous of crime of all: being a conservative.  And we all know that many of them place themselves on a higher plane than those of us little people down here in the theater and stadium seats and in front of our television sets, without whom, of course, Tinseltown would be nothing but a very large (and broke) collection of overinflated egos.

Proof of this “holier than thou” attitude comes right out of the mouth of one of the biggest bigwigs himself: Harvey Weinstein of Miramax pictures: (more…)

Brad Pitt gained much notoriety for his environmentally friendly housing project in New Orlean’s Katrina-ravaged Lower 9th Ward.  Recently, a budding grassroots movement has gained momentum to elect Pitt Mayor of the city.  Earlier today, Mr. Pitt sat down with TODAY’s Ann Curry and talked about the prospect of a mayoral run and what type of mayor he would be.  From an an article on the TODAY website:

“If chosen, would you run?” Curry asked in the prerecorded interview that ran Thursday.“Yeah,” Pitt said.

“Would you serve?”

“Yeah. I’m running on the gay marriage, no religion, legalization and taxation of marijuana platform,” he joked.

That comment drew a measured “OK” from Curry.

(more…)

Brad Pitt was recently asked by German magazine Bild if he believed in God. Pitt smiled and answered: “No, no, no!”  Then, asked if his soul was spiritual, he once again said: “No, no, no!” Adding: “I’m probably “20 percent atheist and 80 percent agnostic.” With that, the shrieks of millions of women who dreamed of a storybook church wedding with Mr. Pitt could be heard crying out across the planet.

The comment is sure to cause a few ripples from the man who once played the son of a preacher man in the spiritual A River Runs Through It.  What’s more, Pitt advises there is no use thinking about God or a higher power — we’ll find out when we get there, he says.  Umm, get where Brad?  The Beverly Hills Hotel in the sky?  It never ceases to amaze to hear celebrities speak out about religion – or a lack thereof.  In a business where vainglory is king, perhaps it is not surprising many in Hollywood are said to lack religion.  Que Sera Sera — free country, right?   (more…)

FROM: POTUS

TO:  All White House Staff,  Ms. O.W., Rev. W., Mr. W.A. 

CC: MSNBC, NBC, CNBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, NPR, COMEDY CENTRAL.

RULE #1: 

Beginning this Friday, we are eliminating all references to, either verbally or physically; the notion of ‘problems’ of any sort.

No admittance of, or complaint about, a ‘problem’ whether previous or present shall be verbalized, text-ed, emailed, noted, teleprompted, signed, mimed, smoke signaled, transferred, dreamt about, slept with, interpretively danced, pig called, semaphored, channeled, Morse coded or telepathed in any language known now or that may be discovered or created by men, aliens or Canadians in perpetuity forever and ever, amen. (more…)