The Lasso of Truth

Blessing of Celebrity # 392

Not having to answer the obvious and embarrassing questions about your irresponsible and destructive behaviour...

“You just get really drunk all the time. Which is awesome! At least I did anyway, it's not very professional. There's a Bloody Mary at 10 a.m. and keep it going all day!

You know, it was actually very liberating and amazing to play somebody who just didn't think about consequences because I'm so responsible with my life and too worried about everybody and my kids and where's everybody going. This character is like total opposite. In a way it was kinda fun, you know? I was sad when it ended because it was nice to play someone who just had no responsibility.”

Like...Where were little Apple and Moses while Mommy was getting sauced all day?

Bonus Blessing:  Not having to answer such questions to Child Services.

Shucks!

And just think...we missed out on hearing him say "Barack Obama doesn't like black people".

Or perhaps wrestling George Clooney to the floor, for the mic.

Another great moment

...in "do as I say, not as I do"...

director James Cameron and actors Sam Worthington, Zoë Saldana, and Sigourney Weaver zipped around Paris, Berlin, Moscow, and London on a dizzying promotional tour.

In a jet propelled by unicorn farts and rainbows, no doubt.

 Ambitious eco-message, indeed.

Everybody's favorite villain

I often get into arguments with people I know when I hear them make some flippant remark, using "capitalism" like it's a bad word.  The attitude being that when a person acts in his own self interest, it's inherent that he will screw over everyone around him.

What a stupid and simplistic concept.

Whenever I point out that the simple act of coming to work each day, cashing their paycheque and wondering what to get the grandkids for Christmas, are all luxuries afforded by the avails of capitalism -- and that they are actively participating in it -- they insist either that it's not (?) or that they are the exception to the general rule of the corporate money-grubber caricature they have been groomed to revile.

What hubris it is, to think that only they may be virtuous and selfless, while working toward raises and bonuses, or seeking the best price for goods, but the rest of us -- those of us who actually admit to being capitalists -- are of the greedy sheister variety.  Yet, they are not confused by the contradiction...

As for Scrooge, how does this peculiar man — “solitary as an oyster” — represent an indictment of capitalism except for those who continue to embrace the nonsense notion that commercial society eradicates goodwill?

 

[..]

 

Would the world have been better without Scrooge? Did he force people to do business with him? Was Bob Cratchit not free to find better employment elsewhere? And if no such employment was available, was that Scrooge’s fault? Scrooge’s “conversion” is also problematic. Once Marley’s spectre has shown Scrooge what the afterlife looks like for the uncharitable, is there any need for the three Christmas ghosts? Scrooge has been “scared good” the old Christian way. With fear of eternal damnation.

Dickens’ portrait was in fact a caricature in his own time, when industrialists and businessmen were emerging as the greatest benefactors in history, but he wrote during an economic downturn that provided fertile ground for another much scarier horror story, The Communist Manifesto. Marx and Engels were concerned with the grime of Manchester rather than “The palpable brown air” of London, but their “plot” provided a blueprint for mass murder. And yet we still prefer to bash Scrooge, no matter how great the success of capitalism in lifting billions out of poverty and providing them with an increasingly stunning array of options. Indeed, does nobody notice the irony that capitalism has unleashed the consumerist cornucopia and charitable sentiments that were A Christmas Carol’s ideal?

As for the modern businesses, far from embracing Scrooge-ian attitudes, they positively slather themselves in the humbug of “corporate social responsibility. Indeed, the financial crisis was rooted not in the spirit of Scrooge but in the reverse: in the desire by strong-arming politicians to make sure that the Bob Cratchits of the world — particularly the ethnic minority Bob Cratchits (who, as opposed to in 1843, now have the vote) — be given loans they couldn’t afford so that they might achieve the dream of home ownership.

The Hierarchy of the Vacuous

I guess you have to have a brokeback cowboy role under your belt, to get inconsolable grief out of Hollywood.  Ledger got a posthumous Oscar but by tomorrow, it will be "Brittany who?". 

If only they all went so quietly.

Intriguing paradox, indeed

I have sacrificed countless hours to watching lame, sometimes ideologically infuriating films, to feed my lust for aesthetic richness and visual spectacle.  Often, the creative use of lighting and effects in cinematography will be enough to redeem for me, an otherwise unwatchable dud - or at the very least, make the time spent worthwhile.

For this reason, I have had a sense of divided loyalties about the new cinematic epic, Avatar.  The promise of a spectacular three dimensional visual wonder has been enough to lull me into the false hope that I might be able to suffer the film's obvious and tiresome politics.

I haven't come to a decision yet, about whether I will part with my hard-earned money to see it.  Perhaps my hectic schedule of 2 jobs, 6 kids and Christmas will decide for me ;)

At any rate, it is nice to see that I'm not the only one who is somewhat turned off by the inherent hypocrisy of the very existence of the film, considering it's purported message...

Cameron’s story clearly curses the proliferation of human technology. In Avatar, the science and machinery of humankind leads to soulless violence and destruction. It only serves to pollute the primitive but pristine paradise of Pandora.

Of course, without centuries of development in science and technology, the film putting forth this simple-minded, self-loathing worldview wouldn’t exist. You’d imagine Cameron himself would be bored to tears on the planet he created.
There are no movies on Pandora, so he’d be out of a job. The Na’vi rarely visit a multiplex. They sit around their glowing trees, chanting; they don’t build and sink titanic ocean liners, and they don’t construct deep-sea mini-subs enabling certain filmmakers to spend countless days exploring said cruise ships.

Palin vs. Winfrey 2012

...Is the first thing I thought of, when I heard the news.

She's the "most influential woman in America".  Does anyone doubt she has the stones to make a bit for the White House?  And after the affirmative-action win of the Big O, does anyone doubt the distinct possibility that she could actually win?

Prepare for the next Big Black O campaign...

A blind eye to evil

Rare insight from a man who spent time on the inside of a very ugly world...

I sat through a discussion where men believed it permissible to have oral sex with an eighteen-month-old boy as long as the boy wasn’t physically harmed.

[..]

What struck me about NAMBLA was how many men I encountered were high functioning members of our society…doctors, lawyers, ministers, teachers.  Yet these men looked upon boys as sexual objects and had no desire to change their behavior.

No good deed makes this kind of behavior excusable.  No abundance of talent or wealth makes it acceptable and no societal contribution can accrue enough credit to pay back the damage of defiling a child for sexual gratification.

Shame on anyone who would allow or enable such a thing.

Just another "social construct" to be challenged by the Thespians

Let me register my surprise that Woody Allen is in support of a man having sex with little girls...

More than 100 film industry figures have now signed a petition calling for the release of Polanski, the acclaimed director of Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby and The Pianist.

They include leading Hollywood figures Martin Scorcese, Woody Allen, David Lynch, Wim Wenders, Pedro Almodovar, Tilda Swinton and Monica Bellucci.

I think it's safe to assume Jerry Lee Lewis would approve, too.  And Josef Fritzl.

Like tips on celibacy from Jenna Jameson

Oprah's overwhelming influence over large swathes of weak-minded American fools is not the heart of this problem.  It would be fair to say that anyone who blindly follows a celebrity hypocrite like Oprah deserves the empty, shallow life that results from it.

After all, how many times has Oprah given dieting advice?  Why anyone still listens to this woman, I'll never know.

h/t

B*tchslapping the Blowhard

On the hypocrisy that makes him millions...

Moore actually wrote in his latest insane and unbalanced screed that Obama “has the massive will of the American people behind him — and he has been granted permission by us to do what he sees fit.”

No, you stupid motherfucker, he hasn’t. You see, the Constitution of the United States of America determines the power of the President, not the people. Specifically, it LIMITS that power. And the guys who wrote that document were scared shitless of guys like Obama. George Washington referred to the President as the “Chief Magistrate” and the Founders saw government as something that had to be limited to prevent it from committing the sorts of atrocities we’ve seen in the last couple of months. Government has no business firing anyone in the private sector. None. Zip. Nada.

But Moore cheers for Obama’s overturning of centuries of Constitutional and common law like a high school girl whose panties are a little moist at the site of the big, strong quarterback.

[..]

What I don’t understand about Moore is how just a few months ago he abhorred the power-grabbing Bush “regime” but now he’s cheering on the most overreaching President in the history of the United States. I guess as long as his guy is in charge, it’s okay for one man to have way too much power. If you want an almighty government, Mike, you’ve gotta be okay when it’s your liberty that’s under attack. Based on your sycophantic slobbering over Obama’s action, you’d better be happy when the next President tells you what your next project is going to be about.

Rumor has it

...the secret ingredient will be Kevlar.

Vive la revolucion!

Benico del Toro channels a petulant, tantrum-wielding child when confronted by the grim reality that his romantic revolutionary hero was nothing more than a hate-filled, opportunistic, bloodthirsty murderer...

Guevara was instrumental in the creation of Cuba's forced labor camps, which were used to imprison and extract work from those who had committed no crimes but were thought to be insufficiently revolutionary.

The policy of extrajudicial imprisonment that Guevara favored would later expand to include political activists of all stripes, musicians, artists, homosexuals and others deemed to be dangerous to the maintenance of the Stalinist regime. (Librarians - WW.)

[..]

Critics of "Che" have suggested that the film whitewashes its protagonist's legacy and that it's impossible to understand the man by glorifying his more romantic aspects while ignoring his darker side.

"We can't cover it all," Mr. del Toro said. "You can make your own movie. You know? You can make your own movie. And let's see. Do the research."

Mr. Valladares is afraid that Mr. del Toro and Mr. Soderbergh's film will make people forget the reality that was Che Guevara's life.

"Benicio del Toro is just one of the many accomplices of the Cuban tyranny," he said. "All the murderers of people have had accomplices and people who made excuses for them. Stalin had them, Hitler had them, Pinochet had them, all the dictators have had apologists for them. Che Guevara and Fidel Castro also had them."

I guess that's the beauty of Hollywood, where everything has a do-over and life can be as good as the film editor cuts it -- you're not troubled by the grotesque details of reality and the most contemptible creatures catch the light of virtue, courtesy of selective willful ignorance and a key grip.

More from the chump brigade

I guess when the only thing you've ever had to fight is imaginary "Foo", John McCain wouldn't necessarily be eligible as "a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential."

But when your pals include the kind of guy who left little more than a messy mouthful of shotgun lead and a crack-whore widow as his legacy, a man as accomplished as John McCain doesn't hold much appeal.

Proof that there really is a God!

Singer Bette Midler has told Sky News she is quitting touring - to help save the planet.

The 62-year-old says she feels that the fleet of 14 lorries she uses to ship her show from city to city causes too much pollution.

Now if we can only get rid of Barbra Streisand and cow farts, we just might save the world!

Roseanne Barr - Class with an emphasis on the "ass"

Proving once again, that any stomach-stapled, class-deficient, mealy-mouthed has-been with a blog, can still offer insightful commentary on the socio-political world at large...

Jon Voight is a frightened little girl in a pink ballet tutu, who acts like Obama just wandered in from the rain forest with a bone thru his nose and a communist pamphlet in his loincloth. The neocons who own jon voight and make him dance on the chabad telethons are the worst most elitist people on earth. glen beck and jon voight are their bitches... both of them are used tampons who must be flushed down the toilet immediately! jon voight your evil spawn angelina jolie and her vacuous hubby brad pitt make about forty million dollars a year in violent psychopathic movies and give away three of it to starving children trying to look as if they give a crap about humanity as they spit out more dunces that will consume more than their fair share and wreck the earth even more. (just sayin').

But I just gotta ask, Rosie...what have you got against tutus?  I'd says yours was the definitive performance in that Disney movie...

Clearly holding tutus in the same contempt as proper grammar and oh, I dunno...sanity.

h/t