Saturday, February 9, 2013

MAKING DEMANDS

A lot has been said about guns this year in the blogosphere.


Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out has put forth a couple of posts (one HERE and another HERE) on the gun control debate, as have yours truly and Stephen T. McCarthy.

I do not meant to revisit that debate with this post.

No, faithful readers, with this post I am here to bring you EXCITING NEWS that will make you all feel safer knowing that Hollywood has your back!

A group of Hollywood stars have recorded a "moving" public service announcement for the "Demand A Plan To End Gun Violence" campaign.

And I promise you, the public, this has nothing to do with servicing you, unless you mean they're bending you over and screwing you again.



The clip features celebrities like Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, Amanda Peet, Nick Offerman, Cameron DIaz, Jennifer Aniston, Zooey Deschanel, John Slattery, Debra Messing, Elizabeth Banks, Jeremy Renner, Jessica Alba, Jennifer Garner, Olivia Munn

In their best teary-eyed dramatic voices, the stars recount many of the tragedies that have happened in recent years (and they ARE tragedies), and point out the need for new gun legislation to protect us all.



Too bad so many of them are full of shit.

For example, Jamie Foxx, who is so against the idea of violence that he stars in the ultra-violent Tarantino film Django Unchained, wants gun control legislation


Jon Hamm, with turbulent films like The Town and Sucker Punch to his name, would like to see your second amendment rights curtailed....for your own good, of course! 



And we all saw Jeremy Renner's message of non-violence in films like The Bourne Legacy, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, The Avengers, and his most recent, Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters.



Do you really want advice about legislation from someone willing to start in a movie called Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters?

And Jennifer Garner was walking the walk through five hyper violent seasons of Alias, as well as in the films, Daredevil, Elektra, and The Kingdom.



All she was saying was give peace a chance.

Want more hypocrisy?

How about Amanda Peet in The Whole Nine Yards, a comedy about a hit man, or Cameron DIaz in the Charlie's Angels fims and Knight And Day?

Or Nick Offerman in 21 Jump Street and Sin City, or John Slattery in The Adjustment Bureau and Iron Man 2. Gwyneth Paltrow in the Iron Man films, or the lovely Jessica Alba in Sin City?



Need I go on?

If you want to see how deplorable guns are to Hollywood, just look at what was offered up in just the first month of 2013?

Arnold came back from politics and infidelity with a bang...



And Sly did what Sly does best...


Now I am not saying that I think we should ban these films.

That would make ME a hypocrite, as I have seen many of them.

But I am saying that guns have been around longer than movies and have not changed all that much.

But our entertainment HAS changed.

Movies, television and video games are all very different than the television and motion pictures of forty-five years ago.

Video games did not even exist forty-five years ago.

Which also seems to be when these shooting sprees started.

When the subject of violence in movies comes up, the talking heads that represent Hollywood's profit margins will tell you that "no clear causal link between violence in entertainment and real-life violence has ever been established."

I am not disputing that statement.

But I would also say that no evidence has been presented to prove that the UNCONSTITUTIONAL measures being proposed by Emporer Obama or the bleeding-heart celebrities stumping for "Demand A Plan" would have precented ANY of the recent shooting incidents that these initiatives are exploiting to push their agenda. 


After the bad guy killed off all the underdeveloped characters
The good guy put a bullet right through his head
The screenwriter stood up and told us that all the loose ends had been tied
Justice is irrelevant
Violent problems need violent solutions
'Cause in America we like our bad guys dead
It's called box office, baby
It's bigger than the damn Stones


-Todd Snider, from Tension

Everybody wants to blame guns, and perhaps there could be something done to better weed out who we let posess a gun, although we do let ANYONE become a parent, which is a far bigger responsibility.

And that, I believe, is the real problem.

Two parent families working full-time so they could afford that second BMW in turn created an inflationary cycle that that pretty much ensured that two income families would become a necessity, so we have a generation of children raised by the CW, the WB, NBC and Nintendo that were never exposed to anything resembling values in school or in the media, and certainly not at home where the parents were too tired for such things after both working all day that they never noticed that the schools never got around to teaching their children anything, or suggesting that they read anything more challenging than Harry Potter or Twilight, and along the way they fed them fast food and pumped them full of drugs for ADD and bipolar depression and told themselves this was medicine.

And we WONDER why some young people are screwed up?

I hope that second beemer was worth your children's souls!

But I digress...back to the video.

Tell me something.

If "Demand A Plan" is such a grass roots movement (defined as being driven by the politics of a community), why is it that only Hollywood celebreties and large liberal organizations are involved?

Could it be that some people are using these tragedies to further their own agenda?

Beware, America!

When you let your pop culture icons do all of your thinking for you, you do not end up with a world where everyone lives like a pop culture icon.

But you may end up flushing the last of the freedom America is reknowned for right down the toilet.

Coming next from "Demand A Plan?"

A public service announcement featuring the mellow, non-violent players of the National Football League, a game where violent contact, steriods, and bounties for serious injuring a player and taking him out of the game could not possibly have an impact on our society, right?



What better role models for America than our actors and atheletes?









6 comments:

  1. Yeah, cry me a river Bollywood. You (may or may not) have forgotten that Jessica Alba was also the star of the awesome TV show Dark Angel. Uber-Violent. Major Kick Ass. Wasn't she also one of The Fantastic Four? No violence there... no sir. Don't get me wrong... I love a strong heroine who knows the meaning of gun control... it's hitting what you're aiming at...

    Jennifer Garner embodies everything a strong heroine should be... five seasons on Alias and two stints as Elektra pretty well nailed that down. Now, zip it ladies. You don't get to have your cake and then pretend you didn't eat it. Anyone who takes advice on their Constitutional Rights from a bunch of Bollywood idiots who spend their entire lives being paid to be ANYONE BUT THEMSELVES need to rethink it.

    And if you are going to take advice from someone who has taken one too many knocks to the head, you also have a problem (I have no doubt they will haul out the athletes to "sell it"). My suggestion is that you get yourself a copy of The Bill of Rights and READ IT if are actually thinking about making any changes. The Founding Fathers chose each word with care. They knew they were building the foundation for a Democratic Republic. Before you go and tear it down, think about what you are destroying.

    Cameron Diaz, Amanda Peet, Jennifer Aniston, and all of Bollywood can cry until they their tear ducts dry up or are until they start the fake cry thing. Sorry kids. You just don't move me.

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    1. Amen, Robin!

      Americans have become very lazy and very naive.

      The Land Of The Free has turned into the Land Of The Couch Potatoes.

      Larry

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  2. Good blog bit, BRO.

    First, I am proud to say that I didn't recognize the vast majority of the "celebrity" names in this post. Also, I haven't seen a single one of these movies. Gee, I feel so undereducated!

    But first, before I even say all that... (Is it too late? Can one have two "firsts"? You know how poor my math be.) ...I want to say that I like the Norman Rockwell-ish 'American Supper On A Plate' photo, including the entree: Baked Loaded Revolver.

    Send Lawyers, Guns, And... Potatoes?

    Secondly (unless this is now Thirdly or Fourthly), I want to say that all the Hollyweirdos are full of shit. (Can I say "shit" on this blog? If not, just make it "sheee-it".)

    >> . . . When the subject of violence in movies comes up, the talking heads that represent Hollywood's profit margins will tell you that "no clear causal link between violence in entertainment and real-life violence has ever been established."

    "According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, 74 percent of children say they want to copy what they see in movies and on television programs."
    ~ 'DISNEY - THE MOUSE BETRAYED: Greed, Corruption, And Children At Risk', by Peter and Rochelle Schweizer (1998); page 149.

    Hey, LC, a few days ago I did find that Todd Snider reference to abortion that I'd mentioned on the other blog. It's too late to write about it now and submit it (I must make it to work in the morning), but I'll figure out where we were yakking about that before and submit it there in the next day or two.

    Yak Later . . .

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

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    1. Dogg-

      From your comment, I'm not 100% sure you recognize "Willy On A Plate" from the inner sleeve of the "Excitable Boy" LP. You alluded to Zevon lyrics, but if you weren't sure where you saw it before, that's where!

      I may have to read the Disney book-I might argue that movies don't cause children to grow up and slaughter people, bad parents do...but it is not a surprise to me that what one lets into one's eyes and ears may affect behavior...

      Interesting how quick Hollywood is to jump on the "ban guns" bandwagon but refuses to consider that their content may be a contributing factor...

      LC

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  3. DR. DISC DUDE ~

    >> . . . From your comment, I'm not 100% sure you recognize "Willy On A Plate" from the inner sleeve of the "Excitable Boy" LP. You alluded to Zevon lyrics, but if you weren't sure where you saw it before, that's where!

    Ha-Ha! C'mon, Doctor! What would the gambling odds be of me seeing 'Willy On A Plate" for the first time and coincidentally posting Warren Zevon lyrics? I recognized it as an old 'Excitable Boy' picture disc. I never owned that picture disc, but I'd seen it. And since the song 'Lawyers, Guns, And Money' ...[*Pause* while I put Zevon's 'A Quiet, Normal Life' into my CD player.]... is included on the 'Excitable Boy' album, and since I've always associated that image with the song 'Lawyers, Guns, And Money', I quoted from that song's lyrics. Ahhh-WOOO!

    >> . . . I might argue that movies don't cause children to grow up and slaughter people, bad parents do...but it is not a surprise to me that what one lets into one's eyes and ears may affect behavior...

    Well, to me, this is a perfect example of how one frames the question. I have said and written this thousands of times but, here goes again: Most of the time it's not an "Either / Or" question (i.e., "Either movies cause children to grow up and slaughter people, or they don't.") Very often the answer is "BOTH".

    In this case, I agree with you: bad parents do; and I disagree with you: movies do, too.

    It's not an Either / Or question, because there are multiple factors that contribute to the problem. Are ultra-violent movies and video games a contributing factor? I say, yes. But will those things alone make a child a violent adult? Probably not. But add to those violent movies and video games some bad parents and/or no religious foundation; toss in a divorce and maybe some psychiatric drugs and you have created... a Frankenstein monster.

    Just ONE of the above mentioned factors might not be enough to turn a child into a violent adult, but combine two or more of those ingredients and you are almost certainly creating a Front Page News Story.

    Yak Later, Bro . . .

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

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  4. Stephen-

    On my online betting site the odds were two to one....

    Actually, my "movies don't..." comment was meant as a joke, a takeoff on the old "guns don't kill people..." chestnut.

    I agree with you (that the content is part of the problem), but the American sheeple will follow the Obama lead and fixate on the guns, allow hik his gun control agenda, and bring us one step closer...

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