HollywoodIdiocy.com

It’s easy for the rich and famous, to whom such things will never be a concern, to tell the rest of us how to live. The latest example is how Hollywood is lining up behind Sen. Rodham, pregnant with presidential ambitions galore, and her new version of HillaryCare, her method for ensuring “universal health care coverage,” otherwise known as socialism.

While the drive-by media will insist HillaryCare Lite is now market-driven, don’t be fooled; check into the details to detect the Devil’s home address.

In a recent speech in Iowa, the agenda was unveiled: under HillaryCare Lite, it would become illegal to NOT be insured. Of course, Bill’s Hill doesn’t want anyone to think she’s off her rocker, like John Edwards, so she’s selling it a bit softer.

Instead of legal consequences, HillaryCare would simply require anyone applying for a job to provide proof of health insurance; without it, they would be unable to be hired. See? No jail time at all!

Instead of time behind bars, Hillary’s the “reasonable liberal” who will only make it impossible for people who are uninsured to ever achieve gainful employment, thus denying them the source of funds they need to gain the income and job benefits necessary to become insured.

And for those who are unable to be hired because they’re not insured? Well, hell, let’s put them on the government plan! That way it’ll take 40 years to force all Americans into suckling the government teat and driving the nation’s entire health insurance business into oblivion. What a nice item to add to the national healthcare cart, right? Yeah… right.

See what a nice, moderate radical our gal Hill is?

Moderate like Mussolini standing next to Hitler.

Sally… we’re beginning to “like you, really really like you” a bit less these days. As the aging screen diva reaches her “fading star” years, she is getting more and more desperate for attention. Pulling a Barry Manilow, Field went political at the Oscars, invoking the Almighty in a less than complimentary way over the war in Iraq.

Specifically, Field said, “And, let’s face it, if the mothers ruled the war, there would be no (expletive) wars in the first place,” according to cbs2.com. Fox cut away for most of the offending comment.

(It was the G-D cuss word.)

It was an uncomfortable moment that even the best in leather home theater seating couldn’t have eased.

Now, I have an atheist friend or two who would argue that censorship only happens when people who don’t believe in God “speak out on our beliefs.”

I guess the problem I have with that is this: since when did speaking out your own beliefs become no higher-minded than disparaging the beliefs of others? No one’s saying Sally Field and others don’t have a right to speak their mind. Clearly, they are doing so on an increasingly frequent basis.

I admit I’m not an atheist myself, but I thought atheists DIDN’T believe in God. And if that’s the case, why is his name coming out of their mouths so frequently? Why invoke the name of someone you don’t believe exists? It’s a bit silly, really.

For example, I happen not to believe that there was a literal, historical King Arthur. Now, I could be wrong about that, but I simply consider King Arthur a cross between myth and fiction, not someone who lived, breathed and pulled a sword out of a stone to become king of England and establish an idyllic kingdom of Camelot that met around a round table.

I guess your could say I’m an Arthurian atheist. As such, however, I don’t spend time going around using expressions like “Arthur damn it!” when I stub my toe. I also don’t host talk shows where I call every believer in an historical and literal King Arthur “offensive and dangerous” because of their views on King Arthur; I don’t boycott blogs where they appear and make comments.

I just disagree with them, but my beliefs are not invested in impugning and offending THEM. My beliefs are invested in my own alternative views on King Arthur. And I generally show respect to Arthurian believers, even though I don’t agree with their conclusions.

Is it that different? And if atheists DON’T believe in God, why IS it different? I mean, really, if the atheists are right and there is no God, what’s to get worked up over? Heck, I’d even rush an injured Arthurian believer to the hospital if they needed it, or help them move into a new apartment if they needed it.

A bit of civility goes a long way.

Whether you’re watching on old, standard TV sets or flat panel televisions, one thing you won’t see on ABC’s The View tomorrow is scheduled musical guest Barry Manilow.

That’s because the whiny pop star has decided to strike out at conservative View co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, declaring her presence of the show is the reason for welching on the appearance. Now, Manilow is free to believe whatever he believes and appear or not appear on whatever shows he pleases, but this, folks, is not a principled stand. It’s a publicity stunt, pure and simple.

Why would I make such a claim? Well, simple… because it’s true.

Let’s be honest here: Elisabeth Hasselbeck has been a regular on The View long before Rosie O’Donnell and is still around after she fled the set late last spring. Hasselbeck’s presence on the show is no mystery.

If he was offended by Elisabeth’s views so deeply, why even bother to schedule an appearance in the first place? There’s only one answer: the publicity his cancellation over her views would generate.

Make no mistake about it: the only reason Manilow scheduled an appearance was to cancel it at the last minute and “make a point” about Elisabeth’s presence on the show. Of course, if conservatism on The View is intolerable to Manilow, he needs someone to bring him up to date; Elisabeth is no longer the lone conservative on The View’s panel.

The show, which hired Holly-Lib Whoppi Goldberg to fill Rosie O’Donnell’s seat, just unveiled recently that the woman taking Star Jones’ place on the show is comic actress Sherri Shepherd, formerly of the sitcom Less Than Perfect. For those who don’t know, Shepherd is an outspoken Christian who does not believe in evolution.

Take a *gasp* pause now. Feeling better? Good.

Once he learns that conservatives are only outnumbered 3-2 on The View, look for Manilow to schedule at least a dozen more appearances over the next month - just so he can cancel all of them in protest.

Manilow said he refused to “share a stage” with the conservative Hasselbeck. I wonder if the aging popster realizes that if every Christian, Republican and general conservative who ever attended one of his concerts or bought one of his disc were to refuse to “share a casino auditorium with him,” just how deeply his own pocketbook would be hit.

Can Manilow have an opinion? Sure. But don’t be fooled that it’s about anything but publicity this time ’round. And don’t be surprised if some folks who are closer to Elisabeth Hasselbeck than to Manilow’s views suddenly decide they have better things to do with their money than buy his songs or attend his concerts.

Like Laura Ingraham said, and like this blog’s motto reminds all HollyLib idiots, “Shut up and sing!”

Reuters is breathlessly reporting that Hollywood “got political” at the recent Toronto film festival where films like a second biography of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth I, maneuvering the Protestant-Catholic conflict, is being billed as an allegory for 9-11 and Islamic-Judaic-Christian issues of our time.

Well, Hollywood’s never really stopped attacking religion or conservatism or George W. Bush for that matter. So what’s new, Reuters? The fact that they more willingly admit that even their less obvious films are now nothing more than political propaganda?

Tell us something we don’t already know. Like how cabinet hardware saved the Roman Empire, or something… Till then, who cares? If it’s not new, it’s not news.

Variety.com is reporting that Hollywood is crediting global warming with creating this summer’s box office boom, forgetting that the same cause was cited the past few years for drooping box office results.

Credit at least one studio exec for common sense. According to Variety, Michael Lynton, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, said, “Box office was up this summer because the movies were good. All the people I talk to say it’s really all about the product.”

But whether news is good or bad, never let it be said that Hollywood missed an opportunity to politicize things. Here’s this, straight from Variety.com:

Is global warming good for Hollywood? Extreme heat and heavy rain across large swaths of the U.S. sent more people to theaters, looking for relief. The onset of the extreme weather — record-breaking temperatures in the western U.S., rain up and down the Eastern seaboard, the Midwest and Texas — started at the end of June, just as the box office was starting to see a bump. “You went from dreadful heat to downpours,” Snyder says. “Historically, we’ve seen a bounce in grosses when the weather is bad. Also, when kids can’t go outside, and make their parents nuts, they send them to the movies.”

Umm… right. Or, more appropriately… left. Before you know it, Algore and John Edwards will be starring in an NBC drama as truck accident lawyers.

Randy Stonehill was right: “It’s a great, big, stupid world.”

Whether you believe it is still the public service it once started out to be, or whether you think it has devolved into an opportunity for the dregs of Las Vegas Hollywood has-beens to do their annual dose of shameless self-promotion and insincere public service, the Jerry Lewis Telethon is definitely still one thing: a Labor Day Weekend tradition.

The show has been on for just a bit longer than I’ve been alive, starting in 1966; the show airs on Labor Day and I was born at the end of September of that year. That’s mind-boggling.

But while Lewis has gone from a distinguished comic to a fellow who’s probably best-suited to promoting incontinence products, he does get results.

This year, Lewis’ muscular dystrophy telethon set a new record, raising $63.7 million over the course of the 21 and a half hour broadcast.

According to a report in the Las Vegas Sun, “The telecast has raised $1.46 billion to fight the disease since it began in 1966 on a single television station in New York City. This year’s telecast was carried by 190 stations in the United States and Canada and carried worldwide on the Internet.”