I've heard clips of Adam Carolla's radio talk show before, and he is always quite frank and colorful in his pull-no-punches opinionating on subjects. Generally he comes off as a mix of libertarian and conservative. Glenn Beck highlighted this bit of Adam Carolla on an anti-Occupy Wall Street rant, that is really very spot-on ... but be warned there is a graphic language splash zone involved.

It really is a beautiful thing...

Pitbull comments: This absolutely brilliant rant perfectly describes Occupy Wall Street -- and by extension all "progressives" and liberals.

Fun times, eh?

Frances Martel at Mediaite has written a lengthy article interviewing CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta in Havanna, Cuba. Dr. Gupta is in Cuba to investigate for himself the facts about Cuba's healthcare system that everyone seems determined to hold up as a prime example of a successful government/state-run system. Democrats, Hollywood celebrities such as Michael Moore and Oliver Stone, and the American media have selectively shown only one elitist aspect of CastroCare, deliberately omitting the entire cold harsh facts about the average Cuban who must depend on the government for its every medical need. Here is just a bit of Martel's report, but as I said it's lengthy so read the full article at the link above or in the box-quote:

90 miles and decades removed from the United States, the island of Cuba persists as a stubbornly living relic of the Cold War, excommunicated from the Western world just enough to make everything from its music to policy to its health care system a mystery. It was to explore this latter element that CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta found himself Havana last week, from where he told Mediaite his first impressions and expectations on the island, and worked on an upcoming documentary on swimmer Diana Nyad’s attempt to traverse the stretch of water from Havana to Florida.

Many have argued that the Cuban health care system is somewhat of a marvel compared to the rest of the island’s industries– not the least due to the fact that the government made a very public push to make doctors its greatest export. This has led to both strong criticism from those that perceive it as a distraction from the goings-on otherwise on the island, or see it as a ploy for the nation to ingratiate itself internationally with nation’s that simply cannot afford good medical education. On the other hand, those who praise it cite numbers (mostly from the Cuban government) that show the average life of a Cuban to be, at least on paper, more disease-free than many in the Western world. To this end, Dr. Gupta traveled to the island to take a look himself and try to speak to as many people on the ground there as he could.

Journalistic missions like these, even if explicitly avoiding the political situation on the island, nevertheless touch on an emotional, political wound that hasn’t stopped bleeding for more than half a century. The relationship between Cuba, the Cuban exile community, and the American mainstream media is a tenuous one, and as a member of the Cuban exile community, this topic is particular is personally difficult for me. I grew up with an acute understanding of the systematic physical and psychological destruction the regime is to blame for– it is plain to see every day in the faces of our loved ones, and the former prisoners of conscience in our communities who huddle in cafes to reminisce about the time they served in brutally inhumane conditions for having complimented America once, or written a defiant essay, or even worn their hair long or listened to “yanqui” music. The pain is inked in the headlines of our media that dare publish stories of families of political prisoners being beaten and scorned on the streets.

In this context– and in the context of the mainstream media’s history with the communist dictatorship (from Herbert Matthews to 1990s Lou Dobbs to Michael Moore to Oliver Stone)– justifying a look at the health care system at face value is about as acceptable as an in-depth report on Mussolini-era Italy’s efficient train system. Regime sympathizers have used it as a smokescreen to shield eyes from the atrocities of the regime, and thus the distrust in the community is very high when such analyses come to the fore. But in the post-USSR, post-internet world, in a world where the demand for Happy Meals and iPods has proven a far more powerful political motivator than the temptations of abstract fundamental human rights, opening governments requires shining spotlights and exchanging culture. Even apolitical reports like Dr. Gupta’s force the regime to exhibit a candor with which it is unfamiliar, and serve to remind the world of the inconvenient fact that Cuban people, so many decades later, still live under the yoke of the Revolution’s dilapidated, rabid haughtiness.

With this heavy in mind, I spoke to Dr. Gupta earlier this week from Havana–who, as you will read, came into the experience acutely aware of the nature of the government, no agenda and plenty of curiosity. I found in him a refusal to subscribe to the Oliver Stone/Michael Moore school of willful blindness, admitting there were breathtaking elements to the island while acknowledging the scattering of asterisks and conjectures surrounding the statistics of the health care system, and the inability of journalists to paint a full picture.

Continue...

On YouTube you will find videos of Dr. Gupta's heated interview on CNN with Michael Moore on the heels of his pro-CastroCare movie "Sicko" in 2007 as the U.S. political season geared-up for the 2008 POTUS campaigns and government-run healthcare was a primary focus of the democrats running.

Duck because leftist/liberal heads are about to explode, and you don't want to get any of it on you ...

John Lennon was a closet Republican, who felt a little embarrassed by his former radicalism, at the time of his death - according to the tragic Beatles star's last personal assistant.

Fred Seaman worked alongside the music legend from 1979 to Lennon's death at the end of 1980 and he reveals the star was a Ronald Reagan fan who enjoyed arguing with left-wing radicals who reminded him of his former self.

In new documentary Beatles Stories, Seaman tells filmmaker Seth Swirsky Lennon wasn't the peace-loving militant fans thought he was while he was his assistant.

He says, "John, basically, made it very clear that if he were an American he would vote for Reagan because he was really sour on (Democrat) Jimmy Carter.

"He'd met Reagan back, I think, in the 70s at some sporting event... Reagan was the guy who had ordered the National Guard, I believe, to go after the young (peace) demonstrators in Berkeley, so I think that John maybe forgot about that... He did express support for Reagan, which shocked me.

"I also saw John embark in some really brutal arguments with my uncle, who's an old-time communist... He enjoyed really provoking my uncle... Maybe he was being provocative... but it was pretty obvious to me he had moved away from his earlier radicalism.

"He was a very different person back in 1979 and 80 than he'd been when he wrote Imagine. By 1979 he looked back on that guy and was embarrassed by that guy's naivete."

Imagine that ...

Lennon and Reagan were at this Monday Night Football game December of 1974.

In a bit of Instant Karma, John Lennon was shot (assassinated) December 1980, and Pres. Reagan was shot in an assassination attempt in March 1981.

[...] In six wild months during 1980 and 1981, assassins took aim at the pop star, the president, and the pope. It seemed like the chaotic 1960s all over again, save for the fact that its symbol had been gunned down. [...]

His musical comeback owed as much to the comeback of his personal life as it had to his renewed focus on rock 'n' roll to the exclusion of politics and drugs. Politics, Lennon concluded, had "almost ruined" his music. "It became journalism and not poetry. And I basically feel that I'm a poet -- [...]

He came to regret the early 1970s politicization of his art. "That radicalism was phony, really, because it was out of guilt," Lennon recalled a few months before his assassination. "I'd always felt guilty that I made money, so I had to give it away or lose it. I don't mean I was a hypocrite. When I believe, I believe right down to the roots. But being a chameleon, I became whoever I was with. When you stop and think: what the hell was I doing fighting with the American government just because Jerry Rubin couldn't get what he always wanted -- a nice cushy job?"

"Politics plays hell with your poetry," revolutionary John Reed once concluded. Before he died on December 8, 1980, musical revolutionary John Lennon learned that lesson, too.

A few years ago I was informed you will find lots of conservatives working in Hollywood. They're either "in the closet", or working in that wide zone out of camera range. But we are seeing more and more come out of said closet. Your actors are a minority, yes, but when it comes down to it, while actors are the face and voice of Hollywood, directors, producers, and writers are the brains. As the saying goes, "There are no small parts. Only small actors."

I recently learned movie producer (Pirates of the Caribbean movies, National Treasure movies, Black Hawk Down, Remember the Titans) and one of TV's biggest producers, Jerry Bruckheimer (the CSI:shows, Cold Case, Amazing Race, any number of other highly rated/successful crime dramas) is a conservative...

Currently writer David Mamet is making the conservative talk rounds to discuss his new book laying out his conversion to conservatism. He's been interviewed on Glenn Beck's radio program, and on Limbaugh's...

And has also given a great interview to Slate (not a conservative publication in any sense), in which Mamet discusses his feelings about how this country is selling-out Israel, conservative common sense on economics, and how he is "crazy about Sarah Palin"...

What does he [Mamet] think of Barack Obama? “The question is can he run on his record in 2012 and the answer is no, because it’s abysmal. He took a trillion dollars and where it went, nobody knows. He dismantled health care, he weakened America around the world, he sold out the state of Israel. All he’s got to run on is being a Democrat and indicting the other fellow.”

So who would he prefer as president? He replies that he is “not current” with the Republican contenders until I mention Sarah Palin. “I am crazy about her,” he answers immediately. “Would she make a good candidate for president? I don’t know but she seems to have succeeded at everything she put her hand to.”

And if you missed it down the Babalu page, Ziva caught another great piece on Hollywood producer Lionel Chetwynd's scathing criticisms about the industry’s ideological bigotry.

We here at Babalú have been denouncing the Hollywood left for years. We've written hundreds of posts about the useful idiots in Hollywood.  If you're new here, please click this link to read and learn. 

Lionel Chetwynd, perhaps best known for "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz," issued an open letter of resignation to the Caucus for Producers, Writers and Directors. 

It is scathing; from Big Hollywood:
 

 

Specifically, I refer to remarks attributed to Vin in the recent publication “Prime Time Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How The Left Took Over Your TV” by Ben Shapiro. I do not defend the book, having yet to read it; I address only the matters raised by its research content.

June 2, 2011

(AN OPEN LETTER)
Dennis Doty, Chair The Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors

Dear Dennis,

Herewith, I tender my resignation as both Co-Chair of the Steering Committee of The Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors, and also my general membership. The proximate cause are comments by our friend and Caucus leader Vin Di Bona; but the true reason lies in how those comments make clear that views held dearly and passionately by me, and my sense of the American story, render me unsuitable for continued membership. So while this is not about our friend, the talented and decent Vin Di Bona, it does begin at his side.

Specifically, I refer to remarks attributed to Vin in the recent publication “Prime Time Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How The Left Took Over Your TV” by Ben Shapiro. I do not defend the book, having yet to read it; I address only the matters raised by its research content.

In preparing his book, Mr. Shapiro interviewed a large number of our Hollywood notables on the subject of diversity – not the sacrosanct mélange of race, religion, gender orientation and the like, but a more challenging diversity: that of opinion and policy. The vast majority felt quite comfortable endorsing discrimination against those whose political philosophy was not rooted in the reflexive Leftism of Hollywood. Vin’s contribution, when asked to address this alleged anti-conservative bias, was that it “ … (is) probably accurate and I’m happy about it, actually. … If the accusation is there, I’m okay with it”. In a subsequent statement, he endorsed the content of the quote, saying he “stood by it”. He was not alone; indeed many of those interviewed held the opinion that discriminating against conservatives was a simple virtue – i.e., one all could/should accept. Vin’s comment was mild compared to some. Many called for wider efforts at shutting out voices with which they happen to disagree. But, what if we substitute for “conservative”, words like African-American, or Gay, or Jew, or Muslim, — or, God forbid, Leftists, Communists, or Liberals?

While Mr. Shapiro’s revelations are appalling, and cause enough for any person such as myself to choose to sever ties, it becomes mandatory when the comments made are later affirmed rather than mitigated. (Vin and I have now spoken, and I reference that conversation below.)

In my years as a member of the Caucus, I worked tirelessly to promote fidelity to our First Amendment rights. You well know, for example, the Bipartisan Political Panels I organized, my pieces for the Caucus Journal, and – now to my embarrassment – my involvement in bringing to the Caucus such speakers as Eric Cantor, Tom Ridge, John Thune and others. I knew most of my fellow members looked upon the political positions of these people as distasteful; what I now understand is the disgust was not for their views, but for their very person. Such people, Mr. Shapiro’s sources make clear, must be silenced and it is therefore proper to make them suffer discrimination. Shame on all of them. Their sickness is an infection that belongs in Europe of the 1930s. It does not belong in America. It is especially evil that it be found in our community, where America’s popular culture is born, where we create the images explaining who and what America is to our fellow countrymen, and more, to the world. Next Monday will mark 67 years since young Americans from across our country – and that includes Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, Montana, all the “fly-overs” – willingly gave their lives on Norman beaches to bring freedom to the subjugated peoples of Europe, people about whom those brave young heroes knew little or nothing.

And is this how today’s beneficiaries use the freedom won by the blood and sacrifice of men and women surely better than we?

Lest I seem like Claude Raines, I am not protesting, “shocked, shocked!” for I always knew the truth; indeed, as I believe you’re aware, I experienced overt Blacklisting for my views as a conservative – at the very hands of those who piously deplore the Blacklisting of Communists in a former day. As 1950s Blacklist victim Carl Foreman warned me when I told him I was moving to Hollywood: “Beware the fearless defenders of the safely contentious.” He was right: Rhetoric is easy, principle is hard. Certainly, then, I have always known and understood the Leftward prejudice of Hollywood. Yet, until now, I have remained relatively passive and simply rolled with the blows. So what has changed?

Three things:

The first is personal: I realize, now, the enormous special obstacles put in my path by my supposed colleagues, obstacles that over the years made earning a living or a quiet pursuit of my trade so unusually onerous, were not a matter of political difference; they were a declaration of my unworthiness to be one of them. The rejection was not of my ideas, but of my person. The pain inflicted was deliberate.

The next is my immediate community: Until now, the Hollywood culture kept mean-spirited and odious persecution carefully discussed out-of-earshot of we lepers; now, however, there appears to be no problem in openly admitting to cheap and easy prejudice. Few cancers are more lethal to a civil society than ideological bigotry. And no one can spread disease better than our industry. – The last, and by far, far, the most important, is our beloved America: This is a time of inflamed political confrontation, evoking Bleeding Kansas of the 1850’s or even the Civil War itself. And as Dante taught, “there is a special place reserved in hell for he, who in the face of moral crisis, does nothing.” So if the Hollywood Left has no compunction in publicly proclaiming its creed, then for the sake of those Americans who have a different vision for our country, someone must shout, “Stop! This is not what America’s about! The American people deserve better!” In my own awkward way, I am trying to meet that challenge. We, privileged to work in the entertainment industry and enjoy the bounty our chosen career bestows on success, should never imagine ourselves the arbiters of what is permissible in the public square. We do not own the dream factory, but are merely its custodians, stewards at best. Rome won its empire at the edge of the sword. The British built theirs with commerce, sending out grocers. But America? We dispatched Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis and Elvis Presley, Writers, Producers, Directors, DPs, all our talent. The jewel of our national patrimony – our popular culture – has been a beacon to the world in spreading the message of freedom and tolerance. The success of this enterprise when in the hands of prior generations makes the miserable failure of our current crop to even listen to voices other than their own all the more painful.

Since beginning this letter, I have had the opportunity to speak to Vin, and I assure you both, I believe his distress at what has been said, his explanation of how the words came to be spoken, and accepted his personal apology. But this issue now goes beyond my personal trust, having migrated to the very nature of our community and its mainstream organizations – amongst which The Caucus holds a particular pride-of-place. It is for that very reason I no longer belong in your midst. I shall miss you all.

I wish you and all my former fellow members the rewards freedom, hard work, and talent, enable.

With best wishes and great sincerity
Lionel Chetwynd

H/T:  Doris Wise Montrose, Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors

Some of us are noticing a strange similarity between the rebels in Libya and a post-Apocalyptic society hell-bent on keeping control over the valuable petrol ...

Not convinced? Have a look at the cast of characters of both. Spooky, huh? Now play the videos above simultaneously.

Uh huh.

Maybe it's not a 'Kinetic Military Action' in Libya ... Maybe it's a triple secret filming of the next Mad Max/Road Warrior movie.

Anyone seen Mel Gibson lately?

As a Hungarian I am finding a kinship with my Babalu 'family' in that I believe, in the last few years, I have found my version of "Castro" in George Soros. While he is not physically oppressing a population of people and starving them into his control ... he is feeding those in this country and around the world who would/will. His sticky hands and filthy money are everywhere.

Matthew Vadum at Big Hollywood exposes the latest investment of Soros:

Radical philanthropist George Soros is bankrolling a documentary that celebrates left-wing terrorists who plotted to napalm Republicans at the 2008 GOP convention in Minnesota. Even worse, you too are bankrolling the film through your taxes.

You can be sure that if right-wing terrorists were plotting to attack the Democratic National Convention, whoever foiled that conspiracy would be immortalized in film, literature and song as a savior of democracy.

“If you flip the equation around and it had been a group of conservatives threatening to use force to prevent those on the Left from meeting, everyone would expect the government to infiltrate them and they would also expect the FBI to stop them and charge them with crimes,” said Brandon Darby, who helped the FBI thwart the planned attack.

A trailer for the left-wing film Better This World suggests that it depicts David Guy McKay and Bradley Neil Crowder as idealistic activists who, according to the official blurb, “set out to prove the strength of their political convictions to themselves and their mentor.” (Note: There was a functioning trailer when I wrote this post a few days ago, but it no longer appears to be working. -MV) In fact McKay and Crowder are convicted domestic terrorists who manufactured instruments of death calculated to inflict maximum pain and bodily harm on people whose political views they disagreed with.

The movie attacks a true American hero, Brandon Darby, who undermined the conspiracy by alerting the FBI. Filmmakers Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega twist the facts to argue that Darby, a former revolutionary activist, manipulated McKay and Crowder into becoming would-be mass murderers.

It’s an easily disproved lie.

[...]

Thanks to Darby’s cooperation with the FBI, the two aspiring bomb throwers are now languishing in prison. McKay entered a “guilty” plea and was sentenced in May 2009 to 48 months in prison plus three years of supervised release for possession of an unregistered “firearm,” illegal manufacture of a firearm and possession of a firearm with no serial number. A week before, Crowder cut a deal with prosecutors and was sentenced to 24 months in prison for possession of an unregistered firearm.

Of course, it should surprise no one that Hollywood loves this kind of story with its anti-American overtones. HBO gave a grant to the filmmakers to produce their pro-terrorist propaganda. So did the Soros-funded Sundance Institute. After Soros’s foundation, the Open Society Institute (OSI), gave Sundance’s Documentary Film Program $4.6 million in 2002, it gave the institute another $5 million in 2009.

Taxpayers also underwrite Sundance’s adventures in social justice indoctrination. According to nonprofit tax returns (known as IRS Form 990s), the Sundance Institute has taken in $11,240,081 in government grants since 1997. It is unclear which governments made the grants because the 990 forms lump all the grant-making governments together.

The federal government has given $1,350,000 to the institute since 2000, according to USAspending.gov. All but $5,000 of the money was from the National Endowment for the Arts. (The $5,000 grant was from the State Department.) It’s not clear if the $1,350,000 is part of the $11 million-plus figure for all government grants.

Upon receiving the most recent OSI grant, Sundance founder Robert Redford obediently genuflected before Soros. “Sundance Institute has supported documentary storytellers since its beginning,” said Redford. “The recognition of that history by George Soros and the Open Society Institute, and the continuation of our relationship over time, speaks to our shared belief that culture—in this case documentary film—is having a profound impact in shaping progressive change.”

[...]

It’s all in a day’s work for George Soros.

Read the article in full, and remind me again about those 'foreign influences' being pumped into the US Chamber of Commerce ... Yes, thank you.

If you know anything about Ron "Opie Taylor/Richie Cunningham" Howard the cute redheaded kid has turned out to be one of Hollywood's most Red/liberal directors in his adult years. His lesser known brother Clint has had bit-parts in anything his brother has a hand in ... but Clint had a "come to reality moment" as he lives and works in Hollywood. Apparently he's "out of the closet" ... No, not that closet but the closet that will actually get you into trouble in Hollywood ... he's gone over to the dark side. He's a conservative. Clint's done some ads for Heritage For America, and recently HotAir's Ed Morrissey interviewed him about his politics.

I know we say, "Why do we care what Hollywood has to say?" Well, yeah, but I always find it interesting to see those who swim against that left-flowing Hollywood stream, and hear how they came about, such as the late Ron Silver who adored Clinton back in the day but became a conservative after 9-11 and supported George W. Bush. And now Clint Howard. But as you listen to Howard describe his enlightenment note what he says about throwing things at the TV as Bush was continually trashed. My revelation came the afternoon of April 19, 1993 while watching a compound in Waco, Texas burn ... and the following weeks and years watching the media covering for Bill Clinton no matter what he did. It only became worse and evident after the 2000 election to this day that the MSM was no longer the watch dog it was supposed to be.

The ad is pretty funny.

The man who champions the excellence of the world's murdering communist founding fathers, Chavez, Che, and Castro (and Hitler) equates the "know-nothings" TEA Party, Sarah Palin, and dissenting Americans to the KKK as "a tradition of ignorance".

Here's another example of  lunacy, via The National Review's Marc Thiessen, Michael Moore as speechwriter for a dictator.

Michael Moore: Presidential Speechwriter 

Burning the midnight oil on book deadline last night, I saw Michael Moore on Jimmy Kimmel Live. He claimed to have helped Hugo Chavez write his address to the U.N. General Assembly while they were both attending the Venice Film Festival. Tells you everything you need to know about both Michael Moore and Hugo Chavez . . .

If you can stomach it, the video is up at You Tube.

H/T:  Joe

Our friend George from The Real Cuba on the Michael Moore interview:

Oct. 11 - Michael Moore was interviewed on Friday, October 9, by Sean Hannity on Fox News Channel.

During the interview, Hannity played excerpts from Moore's documentary "Sicko" where he presented a false view of Cuba's healthcare.

Hannity then told Moore that he wanted to show him some "undercover videos of real Cuban hospitals," referring to the videos taken by Dr. Darsi Ferrer at several Havana hospitals in September of 2007,  right at the time when Sicko was being released.

The videos were originally shown in November of 2007 when I appeared as a guest of Hannity and Colmes on Fox and the links have been posted on our page about healthcare in Cuba ever since.

 Not knowing what to say to defend the lies that he showed in Sicko, Moore first claimed that there were "no patients" shown in those hospitals.

When the video continued playing and it showed rooms with patients, including one who was dead and had flies on top of his pajamas, Moore then changed his tune saying that it was not a real hospital because he couldn't see a doctor or a nurse.

The problem was that Moore was comparing this video, taken undercover inside a Cuban hospital where sometimes it is hard to find a nurse or doctor available, to his staged show at a Havana hospital for foreigners, where his guests received MRIs; X-Rays; and everything else imaginable and had always a crowd of doctors and nurses with them at all times.

In fact, if the video that Hannity showed had been played with the original sound, you could have heard that a relative of one of the patients in that room was the one who told Dr. Ferrer that she thought that one of the patients there had passed away and Dr. Ferrer walked to the patient's bed, confirmed his death and then asked that person to notify the nurse who was attending another patient nearby.

It is an insult for this fat liar to say that the film was a farce, when Dr. Ferrer is currently being held in a filthy Cuban prison cell precisely for taking videos like these, in an effort to denounce the terrible medical care that Cubans receive, while Moore is making millions filming staged shows like Sicko and portraying them as documentaries to push his own agenda and, in the case of Sicko, to help the Cuban regime's campaign of propaganda and lies to the outside world about Cuba's healthcare.

Not being able to say anything else to defend his lies and knowing that he was being proven a liar on national television, Moore opted for a big "Bwaahahaha" and slapped the table trying to interrupt what Hannity was saying.

All in all, a pathetic performance by this pathetic fat liar.

The video courtesy Cubano 1979:

If I were in the DC area, I'd be out with a poster of Dr. Biscet and other Afro-Cuban political prisoners.   What say you Danny boy, don't you think your Cuban brothers deserve freedom and human rights the same as you enjoy?

CUBA CULTURAL DAYS 2009 to feature DANNY GLOVER. Guest of honor will be Cuban National Ballet Prima Ballerina VIENGSAY VALDESEvents begin this evening (Thursday) with exhibit of works by Cuban painters at Venezuelan Embassy. Panel discussion with Glover to take place on Sunday at Gala Hispanic Theatre in Washington. Valdés first Cuban performing artist in U.S. since 2003.

Disgusting details here.

One young Venezuelan woman I spoke with at last Friday's "No Más Chávez" rally in Los Angeles works for Agéncia EFE.  Her brother disappeared 10 months ago and the family is unable to obtain any information about what happened to him. He is one of the thousands of murdered and disappeared Venezuelans, all part of the death and destruction taking place in that beautiful country thanks to Oliver Stone's dictator buddy. 

Here they are shown entering the Venice Film Festival cozily walking together down the appropriately colored carpet:

Disgusting.  The link is here.

I think most of us have seen this, but it remains timely, and worth a second viewing:

Tio Chano vs. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" brought to by you Joe Lima at Big Hollywood:

Please scroll down and read  Humberto Fontova's comment on my misinformed post.  I'm guilty of being too trusting and not doing enough research. Due to the late hour, I have not yet had a chance to contact the author, a good friend,  but I have no doubt of his good intent.  Meanwhile,  I apologize to our readers for my lapse, and especially to anyone who may have been caused any distress by this whitewash  of a butcher.   I've removed the photo as well.  A huge thanks to Humberto for his restrained, informative  comment setting myself and the record straight.  

Someone should put this epic story of love and betrayal up on the big screen.  It's one hell of a story, and it's true.

Check out Joe Lima's "El Curioso Caso de William Morgan" at Big Hollywood.

but there's always time to meet with a Hollywood celebrity!

Don't worry folks, the fire is not going anywhere. Once they are done fawning over Brad Pitt they will get right back to work.

Really.

I'm not kidding.

Stop laughing already!

To me actor Sean Penn will always be Jeff Spicoli, the stoner character he brilliantly played in that classic 80's film, Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Don't get me wrong, Penn has gone on to do brilliant work in dozens of other films since then, but the Spicoli character, to me at least, personifies him the best. Every time he opens his mouth without a script in front of him is like watching one of his hilarious scenes from Fast Times. At any moment, I expect him to slip off one of his checkerboard sneakers and bang his head with it. So when you hear Penn talk politics, you have to keep in mind that what you are really watching is Jeff Spicoli talking politics. He is just as clueless as Spicoli, and apparently, just as stoned.

In a recent interview Penn was asked about the criticism he received when he wrote those fawning articles about Hugo Chavez and Raul Castro for Nation magazine. His Spicoliesque response was truly classic.

MB: I know you don't want to talk about politics, but I'm sure you saw the recent columns attacking your...

SP: No, I didn't. I'm pretty out of the loop.

MB: The gist was, they praised you as an actor but said you're a naive journalist.

SP: Well, I think that they're professionally naive journalists. I have no regard for 90 per cent of American journalism. That's why I travel and look for things for myself. If you're going to get on Cuba for its lack of free press, well, we don't have any press, as far as I'm concerned. We supposedly have the right to it. But we don't fulfil it. I'm flattered by their disparaging remarks. And with the television guys, a lot of it's based on actor envy. They're all a bunch of failed actors. Bill O'Reilly wanted to be an actor more than anything. So they have to diminish it. I've heard plenty of actors say: 'I don't like it when actors get political.' They're just trying to appease these people.

So what Jeff... I mean Sean, would like us all to believe is that the press in the US is just as repressed as it is in Cuba. I find that funny because I have yet to hear of the US government rounding up dissident journalists and sentencing them to long prison sentences. But that does not stop Penn from drawing such a comparison. He apparently views the US, and the world, through the lens of a smoky bong.

The comedy, however, does not stop there. When the interviewer suggests that actors do not speak out about politics out of fear of getting boycotted, Penn provides yet another pearl of wisdom.

MB: Maybe they don't want to get boycotted.

SP: Or laughed at. People are more afraid of being laughed at than boycotted. It's a really cowardly position to take.

His answer brings me back to the original point of this post. Although through the use of his twisted logic Penn sees the label of laughing stock as something to be proud of, he basically gets it right: He is nothing more than someone to laugh at.

It is truly a waste of time to get upset about whatever idiocy comes out of Sean Jeff Penn Spicoli's mouth because one has to consider the source. So the next time you come across one of his moronic quotes, just add this line to the end of it: "Dude! I'm so wasted!"

Once viewed in the proper context, Sean Penn continues to provide us with plenty of comedic moments.

An actor without a script is about as useful as a car with an empty tank of gas; neither of them are very practical and all they really do is take up space. This is proven time and time again by such luminary thinkers such as Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, and a host of other Hollywood elitist actors that comically venture beyond a script in a desperate attempt to show the world that they, too, have a brain. But like the car with an empty tank of gas, they only show the world how utterly useless they are when left without fuel.

Add to this growing list the actor Peter Coyote who has decided to write his own script and inform us about Cuba. Unlike the sometimes informative narratives he reads from a script for documentaries (seemingly the only work he can find nowadays), Coyote depends entirely on his own intelligence (or lack thereof) to provide the narrative for his trip to Cuba. The results are as expected--he has no idea what he is talking about.

The flight [from Cancun to Havana] is only an hour, but it entails a cultural shift of many years. Disembarking, one goes through X-ray security and metal detectors before being admitted into Cuba and retrieving your suitcases. Lest one think this excessive, I suggest they read Reese Erlich's instructive new book titled "Dateline Havana." Most Americans know about the multiple attempts our government made to assassinate Fidel Castro, but I, for one, did not know that as a part of our plan to "destabilize" Cuba, we (meaning our government working through right-wing Cuban "terrorists" given safe-harbor in Miami) introduced swine flu from Africa, forcing the Cubans to kill more than 500,000 pigs, and dengue fever, which killed more than 150 Cubans, more than 100 of which were children. This is not to mention the bombing of liberal and moderate Cuban radio stations and newspapers in Miami, the bombing of the car of Cuban Minister Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C., or even the invasion of the Florida Election Commission in 2000 to stop the counting of more than 10,000 uncounted ballots in the presidential elecction. To date, none of these folks, in flagrant violation of U.S. law, and most certainly "terrorists" (consider the bombing of the Cuban plane, which killed the entire Cuban Olympic Fencing Team, by a man named Posada Carilles, who is living under U.S. protection today) has been prosecuted by our government. I guess there are "those" terrorists and "our" terrorists, or something. Which all goes to say, I can understand the caution of the Cubans.

The article gets even more ridiculous as it goes along with Coyote marveling over farmers plowing fields with oxen and the wondrous dilapidated structures in Havana. The article seems to go on and on, however, and even I could not push myself to finish it before my eyelids began to close.

Perhaps I was too generous comparing Peter Coyote's unscripted work to a car with an empty tank of gas; at least the car makes an excellent paperweight.