A Goofy Question, Racial Provocation, and Hollywood Jubilation

A few thoughts on some news stories that popped up within the past week... Rick Santorum Crying Foul

While Rick Santorum has a habit of publicly displaying hypersensitivity that makes some of us conservatives uncomfortable, I think it was completely appropriate for him to go off on New York Times reporter, Jeff Zeleny the other day. The exchange between the two took place after a campaign rally where Santorum told attendees that Mitt Romney was "the worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama", because Romney can't sufficiently debate the dangers of Obamacare with it too closely resembling Romneycare.

In a highly publicized moment caught on camera, Santorum took animated exception to the following question from Zeleny: "You said that Mitt Romney is the worst Republican in the country. Is that true?"

"What speech did you listen to?" Santorum angrily rebuked. "Stop lying." He then told Zeleny that his question was "bullsh*t".

Now, Santorum certainly didn't come across as presidential, but I have to admit that I liked his calling out of what was indeed a bullsh*t question. Zeleny annoyingly feigned ignorance of the clear context of Santorum's actual remark. He did this for the sole purpose of trying to make Santorum squirm under the scrutiny of a claim that he never made. It wasn't all that different than when lefty attack-groups like Media Matters create false narratives based on partial statements from the people they choose to slander. Even for an outlet as agenda-driven as the New York Times, this was strikingly immature.

Interestingly, this isn't the first time that Jeff Zeleny has received a lot of media attention for a question he has posed. He's the guy who, in 2009, fawningly presented President Obama with this hardball: "During these first 100 days, what has surprised you the most about this office, enchanted you the most about serving in this office, humbled you the most and troubled you the most?"

Clearly, Zeleny wasn't as enchanted with Santorum as he was with Obama.

Trayvon Martin and the Media

I originally intended on writing a full column this week on the media's handling of the Trayvon Martin story, but after reading Bernie's excellent column on the topic, I felt that he echoed my thoughts so precisely that it I didn't have much more to add. I will just say that the knee-jerk presumption of racism in this country is extremely harmful to reasonable and rational thinking. Racism absolutely exists in America. It probably always will to some degree. But the media does a great disservice to our society with their over-eagerness to leap to conclusions of racism whenever tragedy befalls a minority at the hands of a white person (in this case a white Hispanic, as the New York Times so interestingly phrased it).

James Cameron Back in the News

The last time James Cameron made national headlines, it was back in early 2010 when he partook in a heated rant against conservative talk radio host, Glenn Beck and those who he considers to be global warming deniers. A self-proclaimed environmentalist, the uber-successful film director has long been an outspoken voice on the danger of man-made global warming. He even admitted in 2009 that his science fiction movie, Avatar was created to bring attention to man's destruction of the environment on our own planet.

This past week, he made headlines again when he completed a submarine dive down to the deepest point of the ocean. In a privately funded, one-man sub that he helped design, Cameron descended nearly seven miles down to the floor of the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench where he observed what he described as an "alien world".

I've always admired people who are passionate about their personal interests, especially in the realm of exploration. Cameron is unique from many in that he has the means at his disposal to pursue such extravagant, grandiose dreams. It's a true testament to the power of capitalism - a system that rewards successes (for which he has had many) and gives individuals endless opportunities to achieve truly amazing things.

How interesting it is, then,  that Cameron has on numerous occasions blasted greed and wealth, and once told Newsweek that the "evils of the world" can be attributed to the "concentration of wealth and power with a few."

Personally, I'm all for people doing whatever they want with the money they've earned, and I think it's great that Cameron is living large.

But if I were a member of the outspoken, leftist elite, I might find myself questioning how many children could have been fed or sheltered with the concentrated wealth that was spent on the four year project. After all, deep sea exploration is incredibly expensive. So expensive that it's usually funded by governments or oil companies. And speaking of oil companies... If I were a self-proclaimed environmentalist,  I might find myself questioning what kind of carbon footprint the admittedly self-indulgent project left behind.

Fortunately, I'm neither of those people.

Will a Republican Ever Be Portrayed By Someone Who Doesn't Hate Republicans?

It's no secret that actors in Hollywood overwhelmingly lean left in their political views. That being said, not all of them are chronically angry, attention-seeking provocateurs who take every opportunity to bash everything conservative. They may not be any less liberal than the bigmouths... They're just less sanctimonious about it.

Wouldn't it be a nice change if one of those people portrayed important Republican figures in film? I ask this question because I find it absolutely remarkable that anytime the role of a well-known Republican leader is cast in a movie, the actor or actress chosen to play the part consistently ends up being one of the hardest left and most self-righteous of the bunch.

This week, it was announced that Hanoi Jane Fonda will be portraying Nancy Reagan in an upcoming movie entitled "The Butler". Playing Richard Nixon in the same film will be John Cusack. This is the same John Cusack who has starred in Republican smear commercials for far left website MoveOn.org, has called for "the satanic death" of GOP leaders, and has compared the notion of repealing minimum wage laws to slavery.

These two are merely the latest additions in a line of participants in this long held tradition that includes James Brolin as Ronald Reagan, Josh Brolin as George W. Bush, Richard Dreyfus as Dick Cheney, and the entire cast of HBO's Game Change taking up John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign team.

For these actors, they must relish the opportunity to propagandize to an international audience by demonstrating just how inherently evil or stupid the objects of their loathing are. Either that, or maybe they're just happy to be getting any kind of work at this point in their careers.