TIME TO WALK THE WALK, HOLLYWOOD

The Drudge Report's headline for this morning is "Couric Faces Pay Cut; Deep Layoffs Hit CBS News".  In the story, an unnamed sources is quoted as saying,

"She makes enough to pay 200 news reporters $75,000 a year!" demands a veteran producer. "It's complete insanity."

The angry source continues: "We report with great enthusiasm how much bankers are making, how it is out of step with reality during a recession. We'll look at Katie!"

Amen!  I'm getting really tired of the hypocritical demonization of parts of our society by other sectors that really should just shut the heck up.  What really gets my goat is that people like Katie Couric, Will Ferrell, Jim Carrey and Michael Moore (and most of Hollywood, for that matter) attack capitalism and promote their euro-socialist/neo-marxist views - often in really insulting, patronizing ways that make me want to smack them, quite frankly. 

Don't get me wrong - I love the fact that people can make ridiculous money in this country.  This is capitalism at it's best, and I define myself as a capitalist far more than a republican, democrat or libertarian.  I myself wouldn't mind commanding a multi-million dollar salary, and don't begrudge anyone else making it, provided it is earned.  It's the hypocrisy of the celebrity set that really chaps my hide.

The Hollywood elites love to talk about how stupid Americans are for not seeing their point of view.  This from morons who attack capitalism as fatally flawed - the very same evil capitalism that has made them multi-millionaires.  I have a rather long list now of actors and musicians that I refuse to support financially because of their obnoxious, elitist dismissal of the 'unwashed masses' and the capitalist system that took many of them from poverty and obscurity to the golden, decadent heights of prosperity and world fame.

What really kills me are people like Will Ferrell and Jim Carrey, whose movies barely make enough to cover their multi-million dollar salaries and threaten the entire studio with financial implosion, and yet they sit on their high horses and attack CEO's and bankers for their multi-million dollar salaries.   Even better, they feel they have the right to preach to us about policies they know nothing about.

Well, those companies have been bailed out or subsidized with taxpayer money, they argue, so they should be demonized - they wasted our money!  Oh, that's right, I forgot - movies don't get any subsidies or tax breaks whatsoever.

Yes, I'm tired of bank bailouts.  Yes, I think CEO's and bankers making enormous profits on failed businesses is criminal.  But I also think that the same thing is happening in Hollywood and in sports. 

A great example is the obscene amount of money Conan O'Brien just made to effectively do nothing for three years.  And how did his working class staff fare, after uprooting themselves from NY to LA?  They sure didn't end up with $30 million and a three year hiatus.  Granted, they ended up splitting $12 million in severance, but, considering he had about 200 staff members, that equals about $60,000 per person - not a lot of money for LA.  Conan is getting lots of kudos for his role in demanding severance pay for his people, and I agree with that - if he hadn't, those people would have gotten nothing.

But think about it this way - if he were a Wall Street banker who had to shut down his business and paid his staff $60,000 while he walked away with $30 million, people would be calling for his head - with a huge portion of those calls originating in Hollywood.  But because he is a celebrity, they instead celebrate his generosity and consideration for his staff and make him into some sort of comedic Mother Teresa.

I took my kids to see Avatar at the Imax over the holidays, and for the four of us, it cost $60+ dollars, just for the tickets.  Add in popcorn and drinks and maybe a box of Sno-Caps and some Twizzlers, and you are easily looking at a $100 layout.  Did I mention it was a matinee?  Thankfully, it was a fantastic movie and we had a great time, but how often can you say that anymore with all of the cheesy remakes and really blatantly bad movies Hollywood has been pumping out over the past few years?  I know we won't be setting foot in a theater again until Iron Man 2 comes out - only real blockbusters are worth the outlay anymore, and even then we have been sorely disappointed.

I love professional football and hockey, and love seeing the games live, but have not done so in about a decade because a day at the stadium now costs an average of about $400 for a family of four.  If you are a Dallas fan, you can expect to pay about $700+.  My point is that the cost of those millionaire salaries and big, expensive stadiums is passed directly to us, the consumer, just as the cost of those Wall Street salaries is ultimately picked up by the American taxpayer. 

So if all of those Hollywood socialists are so hot to 'spread the wealth around', they should start with their own wealth, and leave what little I have alone.  It's nice to know that there are some, like those at CBS, who are starting to see that.

Hollywood has been talking the Progressive talk for decades - now it's time to walk the walk.  Put your money where your mouth is, Mr. Ferrell.  Stop living off the same teat you demonize, Mr. Moore.  You want a fair and free society, Mr. Penn?  How about you accept $150,000 for your next role, with no points on the back end, just a flat $150, like your cameramen make? 

If you want to foist the socialist utopia on us, you damn well better be prepared to join the ranks.  If not, shut the hell up.  I could care less what your views are on the world.  I don't make it a habit to take life advice from people who pretend for a living.  Many of them can't even string two sentences together without a writer putting the words in their mouths - a trait they seem to have in common with the Teleprompter Kid, now I think about it (btw, you'll thank me if you click the teleprompter kid link - too funny!).

As for Couric, well, she was a waste of money from the get-go.  I can't wait to see her response to the possibility of having her wealth 'redistributed'....

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TIME TO WALK THE WALK, HOLLYWOOD

A MOMENT OF INSIGHT

I read a surprisingly good article by Peggy Noonan a few days ago. I'm not a big Noonan fan - she was a Reagan republican (literally - she worked for him from 1984-86) who has evolved into an Obama endorsing, Palin hating RINO. But her piece had some remarkably insightful passages, and at the end, I found myself agreeing with her.


The piece is titled "The Risk of Catastrophic Victory", and it is about just that - victories that trigger catastrophes. The democrats are facing their catastrophic victory right now:

Passage of the health-care bill will be, for the administration, a catastrophic victory. If it is voted through in time for the State of the Union Address, as President Obama hopes, half the chamber will rise to their feet and cheer. They will be cheering their own demise.

If health care does not pass, it will also be a disaster, but only for the administration, not the country. Critics will say, "You didn't even waste our time successfully."

She believes that the question now isn't whether the Republicans will win seats or how many, it's whether they deserve the victory. She mentions a "well respected Republican congressman" who talked to her about a bill he wants to introduce to control the growth of entitlements and long term government spending:

I asked if his party was doing anything to get behind the bill, and he got the blanched look people get when they're trying to keep their faces from betraying anything. Not really, he said. Then he shrugged. "They're waiting for the Democrats to destroy themselves."

This is where the Republicans run the risk of catastrophic victory, according to Noonan - standing back and allowing the democrats to destroy themselves (possibly bringing the country down with them) with nothing in the pipeline to pull us out of it and set things right.

 As Newt Gingrich said the other night, Republicans need to " be the alternative party, not the opposition party". They have already tried to submit numerous health care bills, but the democrats refuse to consider them, so they are all still languishing in committees. If the Republicans take back the House in November, hopefully those bills will eventually be dusted off and reconsidered.

But they need more than just health care solutions. On America's top priorities list, health care comes in a distant second to the economy. Their first order of business has to be a detailed plan to fix the economy. They need to run on this, and the plan must be detailed but simple legislation that is easy to explain and easy to comprehend, with common sense, proven tactics to control spending, cut the deficit, create jobs and empower small business again. The bill(s) must be written and available online for the public to peruse at will prior to the election and implimented as soon as possible after the elections. That will keep their victory from becoming catastrophic. I think they may have finally realized that and are working on their plans, if Gingrich's quote is anything to go by.

Noonan ends the piece with a very astute analogy:

Political professionals are pugilistic, and often see politics in terms of fight movies: "Rocky," "Raging Bull." They should be thinking now of a different one, of Tom Hanks at the end of "Saving Private Ryan." "Earn this," he said to the man whose life he'd helped save.

Earn this. Be worthy of it. Be serious.

Amen.

The other thing that caught my eye about this piece is a startling insight into the thinking of this administration:

I am wondering if the Obama administration thinks it vaguely dishonorable to be popular. If you mention to Obama staffers that they really have to be concerned about the polls, they look at you with a certain . . . not disdain but patience, as if you don't understand the purpose of politics. That purpose, they believe, is to move the governed toward greater justice. Just so, but in democracy you do this by garnering and galvanizing public support. But they think it's weaselly to be well thought of.

She just misses the mark on this one.  It isn't that they think it is weaselly to be well thought of - anyone with the level of hubris displayed by this crew couldn't possibly conceive of being considered weaselly.  Besides, let's face it - they won the election because they made it into a popularity contest and ran what they considered to be a super-cool candidate - truly a style over substance affair.

The real truth, I think, is that the patience she mentions speaks to their own disdain and anger. They are filled with it, and, as commonly happens with people, they project their own opinions, values and feelings onto other people. They expect people to be angry and hate them, because they seem to be always angry and hate filled themselves. Everything is a personal attack, because whenever they attack, they make it personal. And so they are patient with the anger of others - it is an expected reaction.

Their disdain adds a dimension to their anger, because they feel that those who oppose them simply don't understand what is good for them. To them, the anger and frustration is completely understandable - simple minds lash out at the unknown. That is why, when they do get an angry response, they can easily dismiss it. Remember, they are the party of 'consensus' - they believe most everyone thinks exactly the way they do, which is why they call protesters 'fringe' - it is inconceivable to them that they are anything more than a tiny minority.

They are marinated in an elitist group think, and so wholeheartedly believe that if you think outside their accepted realm, you simply don't know any better and must be 'corrected'. That is what they are doing right now - they are pushing their agenda through because they feel that the only reason they are facing opposition is because we just don't know what is good for us. Since they do, they figure they will have to pass the agenda against our protests. Once it becomes the law of the land and we are confronted with the rainbow and unicorn filled utopia they will have created, we will come to our senses.

Our anger means nothing to them. Their sinking polls mean nothing. They feel they are making history (they seem almost desperate to), and that they will be vindicated and embraced in time.

Our only hope is that this juggernaut will be sabotaged by some democrats who have a clearer view of the reaction to their actions; whose own sense of self-preservation will outweigh their party ties and their quest to make history, no matter how bad or damaging.

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A MOMENT OF INSIGHT