gdp's Comments

Big Hollywood : 'The Lorax' Review: Eco-Hypocrisy Leavened By Whimsical Creatures

Fri, 2 Mar 2012 17:29:48 +0000

The amount of total forest area on Earth has not even changed an entire 1 percent since 1950.

Big Hollywood : In Memoriam: Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012)

Thu, 1 Mar 2012 15:05:28 +0000

I can't believe that he's dead. It's so unexpected.

Big Hollywood : The New Blacklist: How Hollywood Turned 'Valor' Into 'Triumph of the Will'

Thu, 1 Mar 2012 03:10:43 +0000

This is isolationism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isolationism ...and this is non-interventionism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-interventionism There is a significant difference.

Big Hollywood : The New Blacklist: How Hollywood Turned 'Valor' Into 'Triumph of the Will'

Thu, 1 Mar 2012 01:05:42 +0000

"A distinction without a difference." There is plenty of difference. Isolationism means completely isolating our country from the affairs of others. Non-interventionism promotes trading with other nations to build good diplomatic relations. Non-interventionism doesn’t rule out using military force as an option, but uses it only as a last option, to defend ourselves or a close ally. Non-interventionism also advocates giving Congress alone the ability to declare war,as originally specified in the Constitution. Non-interventionism is merely avoiding interventionism. Interventionism promotes upholding UN resolutions, overthrowing governments and replacing them ones of our own choosing, and other actions not related to our own direct security. Non-interventionism merely advocates avoiding interventionism.

Big Hollywood : Dispatches from the Toilet: MTV Gives Dan Savage Sex Advice Show

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:44:06 +0000

I doubt you do, either.

Big Hollywood : Dispatches from the Toilet: MTV Gives Dan Savage Sex Advice Show

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:39:08 +0000

"I know he's never heard of me, BUT, who is Dan Savage?" The Man of Bronze. Oh wait - that's Doc Savage. Dan Savage is the Man of Sh**.

Big Hollywood : Dispatches from the Toilet: MTV Gives Dan Savage Sex Advice Show

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:36:35 +0000

Nah, he's a Savage lunatic.

Big Hollywood : Dispatches from the Toilet: MTV Gives Dan Savage Sex Advice Show

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:35:06 +0000

"If that's not the case, we have some oddball people in the world." There definitely are. I'm not making this stuff up: One guy firebombed a Taco Bell because he thought there wasn't enough hot sauce on his burrito. A woman stabbed her husband to death because she thought he may have won the game on Monopoly they been playing by cheating.

Big Hollywood : The New Blacklist: How Hollywood Turned 'Valor' Into 'Triumph of the Will'

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:23:44 +0000

There's a difference between isolationism and non-interventionism. Isolationism is when you do not have any contact with other countries whatsoever. Non-interventionism is when you merely don't force them to do things they don't want to, don't try to overthrow or institute regimes, don't send your soldiers to their countries, and don't get involved in foreign problems and foreign wars.

Big Hollywood : The New Blacklist: How Hollywood Turned 'Valor' Into 'Triumph of the Will'

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 22:30:02 +0000

"No, it isn't. Propaganda is created by the government for the purpose of influencing/controlling public opinion. This was created by a private company for the purpose of entertaining and making money." Propaganda does not have to be made by the government. "Act of Valor" was made in hopes of recruiting people to join the SEALS. There's nothing wrong with that. But it is technically recruitment propaganda. "The rest of your post is tiresome PaulBot nonsense." If non-interventionist foreign policy such as Ron Paul's is nonsense, then why do over twice as many active-duty soldiers donate to the Ron Paul campaign than to all of the other candidates combined (including Obama, Romney, Gingrich, and Santorum)? And why does Michael Scheuer, former head of the Bin Laden Issue Station and the Osama bin Laden tracking unit at the Counterterrorist Center, with 22 years of national defense experience, agree with Ron Paul? And how is it that Russell Kirk, one of the greatest conservatives of the last century, believed in non-interventionism?

Big Hollywood : The New Blacklist: How Hollywood Turned 'Valor' Into 'Triumph of the Will'

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:11:26 +0000

"The problem is that the vast majority of the media covering this film for the public sees the promotion of the US military itself as negative." That's what I meant when I said that the left these days has an illogical degree of hatred for the military. Suspicion of war policies is a good thing. We need to be suspicious of everything the government does. But an outright hatred of the military doesn't really make sense.

Big Hollywood : The New Blacklist: How Hollywood Turned 'Valor' Into 'Triumph of the Will'

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:46:57 +0000

"I understand your point regrading the definition, but it gets entirely semantic and doesn't lend clarity to the actual issues. Conservatives always get bogged down in this stuff. Those labeling this film "propaganda" are doing so pejoratively, equating it - specifically or suggestively - with the propaganda produced by the Nazis." I realize that. I mean that it is propaganda by the true definition (but not necessarily in a bad way). The word "propaganda" has attained a pejorative meaning these days that it doesn't always deserve.

Big Hollywood : The New Blacklist: How Hollywood Turned 'Valor' Into 'Triumph of the Will'

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:56:01 +0000

Well, it may not be "Battleship Potemkin"-type propaganda, but technically it is propaganda - recruitment propaganda to be exact. It's kind of the filmic equivalent of the "Uncle Sam Wants You" poster. But one thing I've been noticing, and finding rather odd, is, why is it that conservatives have become liberal on foreign policy? It used to be that conservatives were suspicious of the army, and avoided war at all costs. It was the conservatives who wanted to stay out of WWII, while the liberal FDR was trying his best to get us involved in it. Traditionally, Republicans were elected to end wars. It was Dwight Eisenhower, the most conservative president of the latter half of the twentieth century, who ended America's involvement in the Korean war, refused to get involved in Suez or Vietnam, and warned that if our country would ever fall, it would be by its own military and government, not foreign ones. In fact, suspicion of the military-industrial complex came not from the left, but from Eisenhower. In 1983, Ronald Reagan committed U.S. Marines to Lebanon. On Oct. 23, a terrorist truck bomb blew up the troops’ barracks, killing 220 Marines and 21 other troops. At first, Reagan insisted that he wouldn’t cave in to the terrorist threat. Then he realized the best policy was to admit defeat and pull out the troops, which he quickly did. Here’s how he explained it in his autobiography: "Perhaps we didn’t appreciate fully enough the depth of the hatred and the complexity of the problems that made the Middle East such a jungle. Perhaps the idea of a suicide car bomber committing mass murder to gain instant entry to Paradise was so foreign to our own values and consciousness that it did not create in us the concern for the marines’ safety that it should have. In the weeks immediately after the bombing, I believed the last thing that we should do was turn tail and leave. Yet the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics forced us to rethink our policy there. If there would be some rethinking of policy before our men die, we would be a lot better off. If that policy had changed towards more of a neutral position and neutrality, those 241 marines would be alive today." But unlike Ike and (eventually) Reagan, conservatives today have lost their clear view of foreign policy. Now, both sides are wrong. The liberals hate the military to an illogical degree, yet the conservatives unquestioningly defend every military stance of the same government that they distrust on domestic policy, despite the warnings of George Washington, Dwight Eisenhower, and others that if our country would ever fall it would be by our own military, not that of a foreign country. G. K. Chesterton was right when he said: "The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected. Even when the revolutionist might himself repent of his revolution, the traditionalist is already defending it as part of his tradition. Thus we have two great types -- the advanced person who rushes us into ruin, and the retrospective person who admires the ruins. He admires them especially by moonlight, not to say moonshine. Each new blunder of the progressive or prig becomes instantly a legend of immemorial antiquity for the snob. This is called the balance, or mutual check, in our Constitution."

Big Hollywood : BH Interview: Michael Medved On Conservative Films Then, and Now - Part 2

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 23:37:31 +0000

While I don't particularly like Michael Medved, and agree that he is not a true conservative, I do agree with what he said in this interview: that a movie with a good message isn't necessarily a good movie.

Big Hollywood : BH Interview: Michael Medved On Conservative Films Then, and Now - Part 2

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 23:31:55 +0000

Medved put into words what I have felt for a long time to words: a movie having a good message doesn't necessarily mean it's good. We don't need conservative Ed Woods, we need conservative Alfred Hitchcocks and Orson Welles'.

Big Hollywood : Sacha Baron Cohen, the Oscars and the Death of Propriety

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 19:15:19 +0000

"9/11 the muslim world as a whole were dancing, celebrating in the streets, giving out candy" Not in every country. Thousands of Iranians held a candlelight vigil mourning the victims of the 9/11 attacks. The Iranian government promptly offered the U.S. Government any help within their power to give to help defeat the terrorist groups responsible (al-Qaeda and the Taliban) including allowing the U. S. military full use of their airports and airspace. Iranian religious leaders even condemned the 9/11 attacks. It is also important to note that not even one terrorist involved in 9/11 was Iranian. For a short while in 2001, there was talk that the U.S. and Iran might even become allies in fighting terrorism, until Bush inexplicably named Iran part of the "axis of evil".

Big Hollywood : BREAKING: HBO Releases Absurd, Defensive 'Game Change' Statement: Hit

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:11:41 +0000

I don't really get why they keep making fun of Sarah Palin. She's only moderately conservative, and she's not even running for Vice-President anymore.

Big Hollywood : BH Interview: Emilio Estevez - Secular Hollywood Ignores Spiritual Audiences

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:31:05 +0000

"It's being directed by Darren Aronofsky." http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com/

Big Hollywood : A Second Look at Clint Eastwood and 'J. Edgar': Conservatives Too Quick to Judge Free-Thinking Direc

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:11:45 +0000

"Not good form and there's nothing wrong with Eastwood pointing that out." Yes, but did he have to add a historically inaccurate gay love story?

Big Hollywood : Follow the Yellow Brick Road Back to 'Oz'

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:31:34 +0000

"I thought the political allegory stuff has pretty much been debunked over the years." Just about everything has been "debunked" by someone or other over the years, including a lot of stuff that's true.