It’s very difficult to predict things, particularly the future
Boy George, the lead singer of the eighties band Culture Club, is being accused of transphobia following tweets blasting those who adopt personal pronouns. “Leave your pronoun’s [sic] at the door!” he tweeted.
I went to the Doctor’s on Monday to get an update on the shoulder (I start therapy later this month, looks like Surgery is off the table for the moment) and something amazing took place as I entered the x-ray room.
The x-ray tech was talking about the golden globes.
Now if you are my age you are old enough to remember when the award shows of Hollywood were a big deal, who can forget that moment when John Wayne finally won an Oscar.
But this century, and particularly over the last decade as Hollywood has become more disdainful of the people who actually buy the tickets interest has dropped to the point where absolutely nobody cares and so politically correct that a ten year old tweet can doom a promising comic.
Then came Ricky Gervais who came on the air Sunday to host the golden globes and gave an opening monologue for the ages.
I’m writing this post at 2:24 PM on Monday afternoon and as of this moment this video has over 2.3 MILLION views.
As you might guess this monologue didn’t please Hollywood, the response of Lorraine Ali of the LA times (via the Washington Examiner) was typical:
Well, you say you’re woke, but the companies you work for in China — unbelievable. Apple, Amazon, Disney. If ISIS started a streaming service you’d call your agent, wouldn’t you?”
The commentary would have meant far more if Gervais himself had been brave enough to drop the tired agitator shtick and, for once, read the room.
In that critical moment Lorraine Ali revealed that she did not know who the room was.
Lorraine Ali thought his “room” was the assembled talented but self righteous celebrities who gain their wealth and influence by pretending to be what they’re not for the pleasure of the people who actually build and do the things to keep the world going. But that was not his room, nor is it the room of any TV host as I explained the next morning on twitter
he was hosting a TV show, his room is the base of potential viewers & he read that room perfectly
his job was not only to keep the eyeballs he had, but to get people talking so more would tune in to see what he would say next.
For the first time in decades people are talking about the golden globes both the night of the golden globes and the next day and while I don’t know if the ratings improved as the night went on I suspect more than a few people tuned or streamed in to see if Gervias had more to say, he did:
And in fact in a post show poll over 71% wanted to see him come back next year.
Golden Globes viewers have spoken, and they want Ricky Gervais to host “every year.” A whopping 71% of fans who voted in our recent poll said he did an “amazing” job overseeing the 77th ceremony on NBC. To compare, 9% thought he was “good, but forgettable” while the remaining 20% of haters voted that he was “awful.”
The funniest reaction came from this fellow:
The fake self-flagellating “let’s have Gervais ‘roast’ people LOL” thing has turned into THE grossest faux-populist spectacle outside The Razzies (and Razzies are shit.)
Posh Brit reheating leftover 4chan dunks on marginalized people whose wealth is supposed to make it “okay”
Now don’t let anyone be fooled, Gervais is a man of the left, he remains such a man but he was hired to do a job and part of that job is to produce buzz for this show.
If I’m NBC I would have make sure people were talking about if the would be signed next year and then with a month or two before the event sign him and watch the buzz begin and the ratings sour.
It’s rather depressing that in 2020 this has to be explained once again so let’s explain freedom one more time:
As anyone who reads this site knows, I am a Fiscal & Social Conservative who follows the Catholic faith. I maintain that society, individuals, our children, our culture our county and the world would be best served if the principles of the Catholic faith and fiscal & social Conservatism were advanced and put into practice both legally and culturally. I furthermore reserve the right not only to act on these beliefs but to make my best case in public for said beliefs in the hopes of convincing others and advancing them both legally and culturally because I’m convinced that people individually and society as a whole will reap the benefits of these beliefs.
I think this would be better for the young, the old, the rich the poor, the black, the white, the gay, the straight, the christian, the Muslim, the jew, the Hindu the atheist and the agnostic and everyone else.
Furthermore I expect to be able to publicly practice these beliefs without fear of arrest by the state or danger of assault, vandalism to my property, injury or threat of violence to myself or my family.
Now here is the flip side.
The number of people in the US who share ALL of my beliefs and opinions are likely very small, quite a few I might even say a majority of share some of them and there are plenty who share few or none of them.
Some instead of believing in conservatism they believe in liberalism, instead of holding a conservative Catholic faith they are liberal Catholics or Protestant, or, Jewish, or Muslim or Hindu or of some other religion or no religion at all. Some are social liberal some are Marxists, or socialists or communists or believers in some other form of government or even haven’t made up their minds yet. Some have opinions & beliefs that I consider nonsense, some have opinions and beliefs that I think are dangerous and some have opinions or beliefs that I consider downright evil.
However as Americans they not only have the same right to hold those beliefs as I have mine but they have the same right as I have to
Practice those beliefs/opinions publicly
Argue for those beliefs/opinions publicly in person, in print or online
Attempt to persuade others that they should follow those beliefs/opinions
Attempt to elect people who will advance those beliefs
Or choose not to do any of the above
And they should have the expectation of being able to do these things without a threat of bodily harm, or murder, or vandalism to their property or threat of arrest for holding or expressing these beliefs.
That’s how free speech works, everyone has the right (but not the obligation) to make their best case for whatever they wish and let the better argument take the day until people decide differently.
Put simply people have the right to be wrong. Until you acknowledge that freedom for others than frankly you don’t deserve freedom yourself and if you intend to take this freedom away from me and mine, that’s a cause worth fighting for.
Eight years ago, just before an election our embassy was attacked in Benghazi and i wrote the following post on the subject:
Picture that night for a moment, In the end attackers lost 30-60% of their force but for the sake of argument let’s say only 25% of that was in the first wave. You’re attacking the compound, you’ve been attacking for hours and seen people fall all around you. You’ve been beaten back once and don’t actually know how many men are inside, what do you think would have happened if they heard the sound of a single helicopter gunship? A single plane? a single drone dropping a bomb on the force already bloodied at a rate that would cause most Western countries to declare the mission a disaster?
They would have run.
Instead there was no Helicopter gunship, there was no relieving force, there wasn’t even a single remote control bomb in those seven hours after all there is a fundraiser in Vegas to worry about.
The actions of the Obama administration in general and the President and Secretary of State Clinton in particular were a national disgrace, but fully in keeping with the philosophy that American interests in general and Americans lives in particular are not worth fighting for.
Fast forward seven plus years. Suddenly the Iranians are hitting our compound in Iraq. The media is in a frenzy ready to call this Trump’s Benghazi, celebs who support them are practically giddy with excitement at the prospect of embarrassment to President Trump in an election year
Here's your first 2020 crisis, Donnie! I hear you were out golfing and re-tweeting boxing matches! Way to go, babe!! So inspiring to all. Can't wait to hear your testimony in front of Congress…oh wait. https://t.co/zq68ncHvWH
But while the media was looking for a Benghazi sequel, the Iranians were looking for a different sequel, they were looking for a Rhineland sequel.
You don’t know about the Rhineland business in 1936? Well in March of 1936 the Germans under a fellow by the name of Adolph Hitler moved their army into the Rhineland in direct opposition to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, it was an aggressive move, a provocative move and a move that was completely dependent on the French not reacting, as one German officer put it:
“I can tell you that for five days and five nights not one of us closed an eye. We knew that if the French marched, we were done. We had no fortifications, and no army to match the French. If the French had even mobilized, we should have been compelled to retire.”
In fact one officer went so far as to suggest that if the French had intervened there in March of 1936 Hitler would have fallen.
By an odd coincidence the Iranians are having trouble at home and things are a tad shaky The Iranians could sure use a win and according to the international press, America is under the control of an incompetent leader who is in danger of being forced from office, so what better time to push the envelope against a paper power run by an incompetent leader unwilling or unable to fight back.
Alas for the Iranians the source of the reports of Donald Trump’s weakness and incompetence are a unreliable and unfortunately for them along with celebs like Ms. Midler and the media whose reports they rely on President Trump isn’t Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton:
VIDEO: AH-64 Apaches protect @USEmbBaghdad. 🚁“We have taken appropriate force protection actions to ensure the safety of American citizens…and to ensure our right of self-defense. We are sending additional forces to support our personnel at the Embassy.”~@EsperDoD 🇺🇸🇮🇶 pic.twitter.com/amABHBAOcL
— OIR Spokesman Col. Myles B. Caggins III (@OIRSpox) December 31, 2019
and those choppers didn’t come alone, they came with US Marines:
Do you know what happens when you send Apache Helicopters and US Marines to an embassy that Iranians are attacking? One guess:
All members of paramilitary groups and their supporters who have been protesting against US air strikes in Iraq have withdrawn from the perimeter of the US Embassy in Baghdad on Wednesday, the Iraqi military said.”All protesters have withdrawn, tents dismantled, and other forms of demonstrating that accompanied these protests have ended and the Iraqi security forces have completely secured the embassy perimeter,” it said in a statement.
Or as it was put
The Left wanted another Benghazi but Trump called in the Devil Dogs! https://t.co/yv2KYzS5vX
….Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities. They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat. Happy New Year!
So instead the Iranians have run, their leaders, like Kim in North Korea are making threats and dismissing the president but actions speak louder than words and right now they know that they aren’t dealing with the pretend version of a president that the MSM has painted for them.
Trump took action and the Iranians are running and the ambassador remains unharmed and the US remains ready to protect our own.
For Iran that’s a disaster, and for the media and Democrats it’s a disaster too.
I’m old enough to remember when wouldn’t be able to say that about the press or Democrats.
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