Asymmetrical Information

What's with the people bashing straw men?

(Examples of said strawmen: persons "cr[ying] corporate censorship" re: the Dixie Chicks, persons calling the boycott of things French "xenophobic lunacy" while cuddling up to Bove. If such people genuinely exist, by all means name them and call them out on their hypocrisy. If they don't, then why complain?)

I've met them, Alkali. But I don't think they'd like it if I posted their phone numbers.

As for crying corporate censorship, go read the article I linked and tell me that Stephanie Zacharek wasn't trying to imply that the record labels were somehow trying to censor the Dixie Chicks.

Well, I think that Bove is a totalitarian nutcase, *and* I think that French-bashing is xenophobic lunacy, sad and beneath the United States of America.

(Not that I am averse to occasional Giscard bashing, you understand.)

Speaking of ditzy chicks, there's one with Republican genes:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42317-2003Mar17.html

Guests at Mark and Ali Russell's annual St. Patrick's Day house party were charmed Sunday by 79-year-old Lenora Tomalin, a feisty supporter of President Bush and his take-no-prisoners stance toward Iraq's Saddam Hussein.

But they were shocked when Tomalin identified herself -- to the likes of Tim Russert and Maureen Orth, Chris and Kathleen Matthews, and Joe diGenovan and Victoria Toensing -- as the mother of Susan Sarandon.

That Susan Sarandon -- who has been leading the charge of the Hollywood left against Bush and the pending military action (claiming it will simply further American imperial designs and appropriate Iraqi oil) and who shares three of Tomalin's 19 grandchildren with actor Tim Robbins.

"I am a conservative. I voted for George W. Bush and I simply agree with most everything he has said," Tomalin told us yesterday from the Northern Virginia home of keyboardist John Carroll, her son-in-law, and daughter Meredith Carroll, one of Sarandon's eight siblings. "It's not that I'm pro-war. It's just that I think that I trust my government more than I would empathize with the government of Iraq."

Of Sarandon's anti-Bush activism, Tomalin said: "That's a given. That's the way she thinks. That's what Hollywood thinks. We don't agree, but I respect her -- more than she does me." But surely, we suggested, Tomalin's 56-year-old eldest child respects her mother's opinions. "Wanna bet?" Tomalin scoffed. Sarandon's office didn't respond yesterday to our detailed message and fax.

"When I visit Susan, I tread on eggs," Tomalin said. "The most difficult time was during the election of 2000. I live in Florida, and I was a Republican poll-watcher in Polk County. Afterward, I was sitting at the breakfast table with Jack Henry, my then-13-year-old grandson, and he looked over at me, with the sweetest little smile on his face, and said, 'I hear you voted for Bush.' I looked up at Susan, who's standing at the sink, and she says, 'All he wants to know is: How could you have voted for Bush?' And I thought, 'I'm not going to discuss my politics with a 13-year-old who has been brainwashed!' But I just let it go -- even though I have never been as rabid as I have been during the past few years."
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There was a lot of whining about "economic censorship" when Ice T put out his "Cop Killer" album and a large part of the public went ballistic: the always irritating Ramona Ripston of the ACLU was the most vocal person I remember on the subject. I'll say now what I said then: artists don't have an inherent right to have their activities funded--if you tick off your sponsors or your fans, you're S.O.L., and anyone you've offended is going to point and laugh as you go down in flames.

Why doesnt anyone ever consider the reaction of the 'american street' when they make a remark?

www.starspangledicecream.com

Well surely if they're that common, you probably have some urls in lieu of the phone numbers....

"...*and* I think that French-bashing is xenophobic lunacy, sad and beneath the United States of America."

French bashing is not necessarily an unfair indulgence in "xenophobic lunacy." Justified contempt towards this country has nothing to do with ethnic prejudice. As matter of fact, I might even be partly French! My ancestors were reputedly German, but one wonders if they were possibly born and raised in an area now considered part of France. No, we should rebuke the French for their inferior cultural values. This is a nation of citizens without much self respect and dignity. How can the French save themselves? A most important step is for them to nationally condemn the French Revolution. It would behoove everyone to read Edmund Burke’s thoughts on this evil event:

http://www.knuten.liu.se/~bjoch509/works/burke/reflections/reflections.html

By the way, I also think little about Germany’s cultural values. Both of these despicable nations are responsible for a lot of the trouble found in the world today. Thank God for the United States. It has provided desperately needed balance to offset the evils emanating from France and Germany.

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