Special to The Clyde Fitch Report
stefanie@lipstickconservative.com
With this year’s Oscars, I expected to write another scathing piece about how self congratulatory and self-important the Hollywood community is (um, see last year’s piece, The Hurt Locker and the Hollywood Circle Jerk, and you’ll get the idea), but after watching the three-and-a-half-hour yawn-inducing broadcast, I was surprisingly left devoid of any serious irritation toward any one nominee or presenter.
In fact, the show was so uneventful, I could only recall two instances that even warranted an eyebrow-raise. The first was when some Oscar-winning Danish filmmaker spouted some rubbish about “how with education and tolerance we really can bring about world peace.” Obviously they’ve never met al Qaeda.
The second was when the lovely liberal and flaxen-haired Gwyneth (excuse me, I mean Gwenef) Paltrow, slated to sing the Oscar-nominated song belonging to her latest flick, was introduced as America’s newest country star. OK, I’ll admit that got an eyebrow-raise and an almost-spewing of red wine. And while I watched the so called ‘singing’ Paltrow on stage, painstakingly trying to hit all the right notes to the redneck ballad and connect with “uncivilized” Middle Americans, the irony hit.
Wasn’t it not so long ago that the elitist Paltrow was quoted in the press bashing the U.S. and praising our European counterparts? Didn’t she spoof the entire country music industry on Saturday Night Live the week after her movie bombed at the box office? And now the woman is trying to brand herself as a red, white and true blue country star? Talk about a delusional venture. The recession must be hitting hard for Paltrow to sink so low. But even so, it didn’t irk me that much — selling out in Hollywood is sort of par for the course. At least that’s what I’ve learned from feverishly watching the first six seasons of Entourage in just two months. So fun.
Anyway, back to the point — which is that the Oscars did nothing to rile me up this year. So instead, I’m going to go back to an old standby of mine: pointing out when the left in our country has completely gone delusional, just like Paltrow’s desperate attempt to be “Country Strong.” I’m talking about the union protesters who haunted the Wisconsin state capitol for close to three weeks.
To illustrate my point, let’s go back a month to when Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot by a lone crazy gunman. The liberal mainstream media and Democratic leaders, along with dozens of left-leaning political pundits and bloggers, wasted no time in labeling the shooting as the work of a deranged “right-wing” Sarah Palin-loving lunatic trying to silence the opposition. Even our own president got into the mix, and when speaking at a televised memorial for Giffords and the other victims a week later, asked politicians on both sides of the aisle (wink wink) to tone down the rhetoric and usher in a new era of civility. The idea that, in order to avoid inciting violence in homegrown extremists, we as a nation need to be more civilized to each other when expressing our political viewpoints sounds reasonable enough; it’s still just confusing to me as why the President felt the need to talk about it at a memorial for a woman shot for apolitical reasons. Then, CNN decided to ban certain words like “crosshairs” from their broadcasts, so as not to rile up any political crazies. Even the University of Arizona, taking the Presidents’ advice to heart, is now unveiling its own Institute for Civility.
Wow, it’s amazing how false accusations can really be the catalyst for change in this country:
So, as we float into President Obama’s new era of civility, I can’t help but notice the sheer vitriol put forth by Wisconsin’s public workers against their newly elected Republican governor, Scott Walker. It’s been barely six weeks into this “new era of civility” and the left is already unable to keep it their pants, so to speak. Protest signs calling the governor Hitler, a child abuser and a rapist, to name a few, were easily seen peppered throughout the rallies. Where was the mainstream media covering this uncivilized atrocity? Ah — nowhere, as usual. The hypocrisy is just unbelievable: the same groups of people who vowed to destroy the Tea Party with planted protesters holding fake racist and misspelled signs are obviously getting a two-for-one on the deal, reusing the same hate speech they already made sure so called “teabaggers” were photographed carrying the first time around.
The basic issue is: the country is broke, Wisconsin is broke, the people are broke and folks don’t think average Americans should pay higher taxes just so Suzie Schoolteacher can keep her cushy union benefits package while only working an average of 180 days a year, with a ridiculously low contribution to her health care and pension combined. The people have spoken in 2010 and they want their will enacted. And for Wisconsin citizens, that was for Gov. Walker to follow through with his promises of cutting the state budget. First step: slashing exorbitant union benefit packages that are bankrupting not only Wisconsin, but dozens of other states nationwide. Walker is only asking the public workers to accept fair cuts in benefits, on par with the benefit packages most American workers have. And when it comes to collective bargaining “rights,” since when is it a human right to negotiate? The average American worker doesn’t have collective bargaining with their bosses. Even federal employees don’t have collective bargaining rights. In fact, the last time Wisconsin’s public workers used the collective bargaining process, it was under a Democrat-controlled government and it still took more than 18 months to complete, all while the state continued to hemorrhage money it didn’t have. @TeapartyLady05 sums it up: “The unions are only making more taxpayers aware that public sector employees have higher pay, and better insurance and retirement benefits than taxpayers do!” How many lifers hold on to those cushy jobs without worrying about their performance, because of the benefit packages?
But even with the financial data in front of them, the entitled public workers continued to accuse Gov. Walker of union busting. Even President Obama jumped on the bandwagon, spouting pro union commentary, while his political action groups, I mean “community organizers,” bussed in thousands of protesters to join the ruckus. Eventually the President backed off, realizing the wave of support for local governments to take control of their budgets far outweighed their desire to placate the union workers — and his desire to win in 2012. But again, it’s like dealing with a group of crybabies who can’t see the truth if it hit them on the head with a brick. Liberals have their own sense of reality, which has to be the reason why 14 of Wisconsin’s Democratic legislators have been AWOL since the beginning of the crisis, refusing to come back to work so they don’t have to take a vote on the issue.
I dare you to try that with your boss and see what happens. For 17 days straight, refuse to show up to work. Sleep outside his doorstep. Call him horrific names. Then leave a $7 million mess behind that he’ll have to pay someone clean up. I say, let the pink slips begin.
Just in case you’ve been living under a rock for those past 17 days, and all this sounds like bunch of gibberish, here’s a great article from the Wall Street Journal explaining the whole mess.
Stefanie Schappert is a freelance journalist based in New York. A staunch conservative in a self-professed city of liberals and the military wife of a Green Beret, she created Lipstick Conservative to share her unique viewpoint on politics and culture. This broadcast news veteran and former NFL Cheerleader is known to hang out with quite a liberal crowd and has been the buzz kill during many a dinner party. Contact Stefanie or learn more at lipstickconservative.com.
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Lipstick Conservative does not necessarily represent the views of The Clyde Fitch Report.
