A-holes and Insects – or Mother Nature Doesn’t Care If You’re a Good Liberal

Decades before George Clooney began using “Darfur” to swat away the unfashionable nuisance of “Iraq,” the hollow eyes and distended stomachs of starving Biafran children gave America’s impressionable “me generation” a reality check during commercial breaks.  Parents shook their heads and wrote checks.  “We have so much,” went the refrain.  “The world is so unfair.”

My pretty fourth-grade teacher, who taught us everything from math and history to a dash of entomology (study of insects), didn’t think so.  One day, unprompted, she told her class of 10-year-olds that she wasn’t really concerned about the Biafran babies because mass starvation was just nature’s way of controlling overpopulation.  (My parents were mortified.)

Margaret Sanger

Hard to fathom how, less than three decades after the Holocaust, any educated person could harbor such cold acceptance of the cruel suffering of fellow human beings - much less voice it (and to children, no less).  But whoever said the human race is on a one-way path to progress?

It’s widely assumed that, in every moment we’re alive, we’ve reached a new pinnacle – of modernity, experience, knowledge, enlightenment – that we always move forward, never back.  But what if we don’t?  What if we’re fated to make the same mistakes (disguised with innocuous new names) over and over again? (more…)

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Tags: Ahmadinejad, ants, Betty Friedan, Biafra, Census Bureau
Posted Jul 10th 2009 at 5:02 am in Featured Story, Politics, Religion | 164862210 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cwinecoff/2009/07/10/a-holes-and-insects-or-mother-nature-doesnt-care-how-liberal-you-are/A-holes+and+Insects+-+or+Mother+Nature+Doesn%27t+Care+If+You%27re+a+Good+Liberal2009-07-10+12%3A02%3A16Charles+Winecoff

‘NewsBusted’ 5/15/09 — Fake News from the Right

In this episode, “NewsBusted” covers: Obama’s Egypt speech, Massachussetts welfare, conservatives, Republicans, GOP, Michelle Obama, Sesame Street, Barbara Walters, Anderson Cooper, Rosie O’Donnell, Kelly McGillis, and Simon Cowell.

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Tags: Anderson Cooper, Barack Obama, Barbara Walters, Conservatives, gop
Posted May 15th 2009 at 5:54 pm in Celebrity News, Media Criticism, Political Humor | 135654No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/newsbusters/2009/05/15/%e2%80%98newsbusted%e2%80%99-51509-%e2%80%94-fake-news-from-the-right/%E2%80%98NewsBusted%E2%80%99+5%2F15%2F09+%E2%80%94+Fake+News+from+the+Right+2009-05-16+00%3A54%3A13NewsBusters

“NewsBusted” 4/28/09 — Fake News from the Right

In this episode, “NewsBusted” covers: Barack Obama’s first 100 days, CNN, CIA torture memos, Politico.com, AirTran, Cuba, Laser light, LeBron James, Mia Farrow, and Rosie O’Donnell. 

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Tags: AirTran, CIA torture memos, CNN, Cuba, Laser light
Posted Apr 28th 2009 at 9:44 am in Celebrity News, Media Criticism, Political Humor | 119282No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/epeterkofsky/2009/04/28/%e2%80%9cnewsbusted%e2%80%9d-42809-%e2%80%94-fake-news-from-the-right/%E2%80%9CNewsBusted%E2%80%9D+4%2F28%2F09+%E2%80%94+Fake+News+from+the+Right2009-04-28+16%3A44%3A19Eric+Peterkofsky

The Streisand Effect – or People Who Don’t Need People

I have a confession to make: when I’m alone in my car – or in iPod isolation – I sometimes listen to Barbra Streisand.  And I’m neither a big fan of pop music nor of the current state of liberalism – the cushy, comfy, groupthink kind with which Streisand has become closely linked in recent years.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Whenever I’m feeling a little down, Streisand’s rousing, patriotic rendition of “Before the Parade Passes By” (from the Hello, Dolly! soundtrack) is the next best thing to shooting up a Diet Rockstar.  The movie may be deadly, but that track is classic Barbra: starts out quiet, plaintive, then slowly builds to an almost militaristic crescendo of chorus, trumpets, beating drums – and Babs, screaming her head off above it all with a heroic, never-ending high note that sounds like a war cry.

I know - that’s so gay.  But for me, the song is musical comfort food – and proof of the power of the human spirit: a rusty Main Street USA antique, shined up and brought back to life by a disadvantaged ugly duckling from Brooklyn, with a voice straight from God, who beat the odds.  That’s when Streisand was still one of a kind.

But that was 1969.  This is now.  Today, “Before the Parade Passes By” would probably be called something like “Whenever the Trans-Cultural Community Gathering Happens to Reconvene.”  And it would probably be sung by Sheryl Crow. (more…)

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Tags: a star is born, Arnold Scaasi, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Barack Obama, Barbra Streisand
Posted Apr 17th 2009 at 5:03 am in Celebrity News, Featured Story, Politics | 999786 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cwinecoff/2009/04/17/the-streisand-effect-or-people-who-dont-need-people/The+Streisand+Effect+-+or+People+Who+Don%27t+Need+People2009-04-17+12%3A03%3A37Charles+Winecoff

The Real Culprits Behind 9/11

Ever since I wrote critically about the TV show “Rescue Me’s” attempt to incorporate 9/11 truther conspiracies into their plotline, I’ve received a small but intense amount of hate mail, including even a short missive from one of the actors, a 9/11 truther himself.  He said I was “really dumb.” Which, I must admit, isn’t as bad as another truther wishing I would die from AIDS – or the other one who opined on the size of my genitalia.  But hey, no one ever said these folks were classy. 

“Rescue Me’s” Daniel Sunjata

But it got me to thinking. Many of the letter writers said I should maintain an open mind over such matters, because, as these conspiracy theorists note: it’s not about having the answers, but raising the questions. Some narrow minded jerks might say that’s way too easy – you can raise questions about everything and still be right about nothing – which is why conspiracies are so much fun, after all. But whoever says that would be narrow minded. 

And probably racist.  (more…)

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Tags: 9/11 truther, Gutfeld, Maria Cotillard, Rescue Me, rosie o'donnell
Posted Feb 13th 2009 at 12:19 pm in Celebrity News, Featured Story, Political Humor | 50242252 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ggutfeld/2009/02/13/the-real-culprits-behind-911/The+Real+Culprits+Behind+9%2F112009-02-13+20%3A19%3A12Greg+Gutfeld

Whoops! How Hollywood Made Hippie the New Redneck

The good people of Hollywood often seem compelled to justify their every move - like dinner with a new couple down the street or a weekend out-of-state – with a reassuring “they’re very liberal” or “it’s a very liberal town.”  You know, just in case there’s any doubt.

Meanwhile, send them a picture postcard from, say, Texas, and you’ll get a begrudging, very un-liberal, “Better you than me” response.  These brave torch-bearers of tolerance rarely hesitate to wish the worst on ”red” states – turning Biblical on a dime with curses of hurricanes, fires, floods - as if real human beings didn’t live anywhere besides Los Angeles and New York.  It’s alway payback time.

To understand this dogged, help-we’re-surrounded-by-foes mindset (that only applies to fellow Americans they’ve never met), one needs to look back about 30 years – to that golden age of violence and paranoia: the 1970s.  The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Straw Dogs, The Wicker Man, Deliverance, and The Hills Have Eyes were just a few of the message movies that taught an entire generation one very important rule: don’t leave the city! (more…)

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Tags: 9/11, anti-Americanism, Barbra Streisand, Bill Ayers, counterculture
Posted Feb 10th 2009 at 6:52 am in Entertainment, Featured Story, Political Humor | 40622137 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cwinecoff/2009/02/10/whoops-how-hollywood-made-hippie-the-new-redneck/Whoops%21+How+Hollywood+Made+Hippie+the+New+Redneck2009-02-10+14%3A52%3A38Charles+Winecoff