I may be wrong, but I’d say you’re lucky to be alive. For that matter, I think we might say the same for the rest of Southern California. 

Why it’s a left-wing film

One of the reasons I do what I do is because I believe in the power of popular entertainment culture to affect social and political change. Through their words and through the investment of millions upon millions of dollars, Hollywood obviously believes they can change the world and I just happen to agree with them. This power can be used for good and bad. Unfortunately, these days, it’s usually not used for good.

With the enormous powers of persuasion found in the magic of the motion picture, for a time, Hollywood was truly a force of tremendous good, a force for liberty and the ennobling of the human spirit. Best of all, Hollywood showed us idealized versions of ourselves through heroes and heroines who had codes of honor and integrity, who were selfless and if at first they didn’t comprehend that there was a bigger moral world beyond their own self-interest, they usually did before the final fade. This wasn’t the world as it was, this was the world as it should be. And the critics are wrong. Hollywood wasn’t lying or being hypocritical during their Golden Age, Hollywood was asking us to aspire to something better.

During WWII, Hollywood championed victory and during the Civil Rights era, they championed justice. And then it mostly went to shit when the flawed but brilliant men who ran the studios, the men who through their product envisioned a world in which their own weaknesses had been overcome, were pushed aside by those who sought affirmation and acceptance of those same flaws by normalizing them through the power of mass media. And we all know what followed. Loveless sex, narcissism, The State, humanism, the fascism of political correctness and the divisive evil of multiculturalism became the New Cinematic Values, and anyone who thinks this hasn’t had a corrosive effect simply doesn’t want to. (more…)

[Ed. Note: Since this article was written but before it was published, actor Alec Baldwin has come out against nuclear power at the Huffpo, though the name "Obama" is noticably never used.]

I don’t want to start a new conspiracy theory but a small and dedicated group of Americans has gone missing. Vanished without a trace! Where are the American anti-nuclear people? What has happened to the “No Nukes” crowd? Since President Obama announced his support for new nuclear power plants in his State of the Union Address I have been patiently waiting for the leftist/environmental/green/anti-nuclear power movement to resurface.  

Here we are a full month after Mr. Obama has pledged billions to utilities like Southern Company to kick start a “new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country” and as of yet not a peep from them. No rally at the Capital, no rock concert extravaganza, not even some of those cool death mask costumes worn by a guy on stilts. At least I think he was on stilts. Maybe his growth hormones were horribly affected by his growing up near Three Mile Island! It makes me think something awful has happened to this band of aging hippies!

Back in 1979 there were over 200,000 demonstrators at an anti-nuclear power rally in New York City. That was followed by a five day series of concerts at Madison Square Garden and a multi-million selling album featuring James Taylor, Jackson Brown, Tom Petty and Bonnie Raitt. If our younger readers are unsure of whom these folks are, ask your parents or grandparents they’ll fill you in. They will also be able to tell you what an “album” was. They were difficult to “illegally download” because you had to “upload” them under your sweatshirt in the aisle of the “record” store. Of course that was back when stealing music was still frowned upon. (more…)

Last week I took actor Steven Weber to task for his desire to condemn those of us who aren’t millionaires to a government run health-care plan. Today, however, in the spirit of that awkward beer summit, Mr. Weber and I might have found some points of agreement. 

Weber’s written a Declaration of sorts, and if I’m interpreting him correctly (my notes are in bold), this is a true bi-partisan moment:

The division is clear. It is, finally, right versus wrong. And on this side of the division we declare:

[I]t is wrong to [sic] for a modern, wealthy country to not provide all its citizens with health care.

Agreed. This is why we oppose ObamaCare and the rationing sure to follow. (more…)