the beautiful people

People, Us and similar trash should be published once a month in a single periodical called "Chronicles of the Stupid". Mrs. Flywheel and other ladies in my family love these rags for a reason that is well beyond my grasp. We tend to have a copy or two collecting dust around the house at any given time and when I happen upon one of the things, I feel like I have to go take a shower. I'm sorry for coming on strong about this stuff, but it's exactly how I feel. Every time I stand in the check out line of my local grocer, my eyes are littered with headlines about who's dating who and who lost 20 pounds. For cryin' out loud, I wouldn't care about that sort of thing if it were about close friends of mine. Sit back and think about it. How much of the "news" reported today has something to do with Hollywood and her elite? It's well more than this country needs and something should be done about it.

The last century was filled with folks of fame and fortune who, for better or for worse, were role models to the country. In the early days, most of these role models were very careful of how they were portrayed by the media and perceived by the public due to the simple notion of human decency. This flew out the window with yesterday's wash-water at some point which can't be pinned to a specific person or event. If it could, I'd personally find Doc Brown and his DeLorean and give him the plutonium needed to go back and reverse the trauma. What happened to the respectful Hollywood of yesteryear when your favorite stars spoke out against communism and other atrocities? Now-a-days we're stuck with Cameron Diaz prancing around with a purse emblazoned with a slogan made famous by Chairman Mao. Is it stupidity? Is it ignorance? Is it arrogance? Maybe it's a little of all three. Such dingbats as Sean Penn prance around in their smug (shout out to South Park) writing op-ed pieces for left wing publications and about how the voice of the American liberal is stifled by the neo-con administration and it's atrocities against the Constitution. Mr. Penn declared, "We will be snowed no more." I don't know about any of you, but I fail to see where any voices have been stifled. If I could figure out a way to do it, I would've turned down the volume on some of these goobers a long time ago.

Our rich and famous who have traditionally served as the face of our country have been tooling around the world too long in the guise of Scaramouche when the rest of us in the states just see Bozo. Where have they gotten their system of values? Sometimes I just blow it off with a mild scoff, but this is a serious issue that must be addressed. There is no doubt that entertainment effects the development of the younger generation. I see it everywhere when I'm out and about and as my children get a day older every 24 hours I get more and more worried about this influence on them. It is important that we play a large role in the lives of our children. They need to learn about life and it's mysteries from us, not Sheryl Crow or Rosie O'Donnell. Values are timeless, yet pop culture changes their interpretation every decade or so. The popular consensus of what is good and bad, right and wrong are changed slightly every so often by that dirty tactic of "pushing the envelope". Where did the envelope come from and who said we wanted it pushed? The values that were taught to my father and his father are the values I should teach my children. Right and wrong does not change, so why do the Hollywood elite feel the need to mask it as if it does? It makes me wonder who taught them their values. Sherlock Holmes would point the finger at Prof. Moriarty, but I'm sure it is a mix of the three ingredients I mentioned earlier: stupidity ignorance and arrogance.

Stupidity speaks for itself. Forest Gump told us that, "Stupid is as stupid does." and there sure are plenty out there doin' some stupid. Being an actor doesn't make you smart. Heck, being a scientist doesn't make you smart. It only means you're intelligent in that field or those relating to it. Common sense and practicality have to be taught outside of schools of higher learning. To be fair to those I am trampling upon, I feel there is a fair amount of ignorance involved in their actions as well. A large amount of today's Hollywood is a product of life in the Hollywood bubble. There are plenty of working actors and actresses today who have been acting since a young age and quite a few who are second generation thespians. This would lead me to believe that the lax values of the previous Hollywood generation were surrounding these folks from a young age making them "come by it honestly". Lastly and mostly, I feel that arrogance plays a large role in the issues we face with today's Hollywood elite. To feel that your fame makes you a spokesperson for the people with an inside line to truth and pure, flawless understanding is the height of arrogance. Have you ever noticed how folks with no more political than you or I get on television and pound our foreheads about the rights and wrongs of the current administration's foreign policy? What about when they tell us about how great and righteous they are while keeping two nostrils high in the air? The worst is how they flood media with their "thoughts" on things to the point that most folks who do no research on their own except the poison fed to them and begin to chant along. Then in the few instances when some of these goons mouth off and the "lowly commoners" of the public react to it, they portray themselves as martyrs and speak of how they stand strong against insurmountable odds. I just can't figure out how they feel like they are the lone voices crying out in the wilderness when they are backed by and reprinted over and over by most of mainstream media. Their thoughts ad beliefs are slipped into the dialogue of movies and television and stated as fact which causes the weak minded to absorb these ideas and grow closer to believing.

We can't change the "rich and famous". Heck, we could never effectively boycott their products either. The truth is , we are not the America we once were. I often ask my grandfather about what the country was like during WWII and he always starts off by saying, "This country came together." We are certainly not together. We no longer share the same values as a country which leads to us not sharing the same culture. We are truly divided and though they don't hold the entire burden alone, the Hollywood society and the bile it spews does not help any. If we want to take this country back as a united people, we need to drop the "hyphenated American" status , the battle over who owes who and who's political party is more evil. Above all, we need to put an end to the tight grip that pop culture has on our society. W e need to put an end to allowing the self appointed "envelope pushers" dictate our values. Right is right and wrong is wrong. Free speech be damned, it's wrong for an American to aid in producing propaganda films for an anti-American government. It's wrong to negotiate with terrorists under the banner of "diplomacy". It's also wrong for someone who has gained fortune in this great country to become a mouthpiece for a world class thug who makes his fortune from the misfortune of others. I don't know if you realize this, but a majority of the current college-age citizens in this country worship these fools. You would think that kids smart enough to be in college would see through these buffoons, but they cheer on the Hollywood "emperors" as they prance around in the clothes of their arrogance and the tailors like Castro and Chavez laugh all the way to the political bank. Useful idiots all.


I didn't intend to come on here today and engage in an endless and unorganized tirade, but it was one of those days where I happened across something that struck a nerve and set me off. Your regularly scheduled Shelf programming will resume soon enough. To those of you still reading after all of my street-corner preaching today: thank you for your perseverance and your tenacity.




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“If God doesn't destroy Hollywood Boulevard, he owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology ”