And the Oscar Goes To...

Last night I gave into watching the Oscars. The whole 3.5 hours. Straight. There’s plenty of complaints I can make about it, but let’s start with the positives first. Hugh Jackman did a pretty good job as the host. I’ve added him to the list of celebrities who unbeknownst to me have an English accent. Ben Stiller added a nice touch with his Joaquin Phoenix impersonation. And the musical montage performance was pretty good. It wasn’t all that bad, at least not until homeboy Sean Penn took to the stand. I’ve always thought this guy was a complete joke. I don’t know where these actors come off thinking that just because they’re in movies they’re God’s gift to the world. I swear I’ll throw up next time I hear George Clooney talk about why America is destroying the environment and causing global warming. But that’s not the point of this thought sequence.

Sean Penn gets up after accepting the ward for his role in Milk, an obscenely-spun viewpoint on gay rights and liberal activism, and first off the guy can’t talk. He stumbles all over his words like a guy with polio walking on water logs. When he started talking I told Whitney, “He’s going to say something stupid.” And he did. And it went something like this:

I hope everyone who opposed gay marriage will contemplate the shame that they should feel and that their grandkids will see in them.

Excuse me? So you’re telling me that I should be ashamed because I hold to a set of basic values? And of course after he says this everyone in the audience starts clapping and cheering as though he’s the next Martin Luther King. I’m fine with you having that viewpoint. But where do you get off telling the large majority of Americans who oppose your viewpoint that they should be ashamed? You know what Hollywood – and everyone else who agrees with Mr. Penn – you’re all tools. Manipulative, poison-infected tools. This is supposed to be the progressive group of Americans who’s all about free speech and voicing your opinion, about equal rights and standing for what you believe. Can we find any more blatant hypocrites than those we honored last night?

Where’s my free speech? Why should I be shunned and persecuted for my opinion? Explain to me how Sean Penn can look me in the eye and honestly say that he believes in the right to free speech when he goes and says something like that. And it’s not just him – it’s the whole (insert desired explicit) liberal movement! I’m being called a hatemonger for believing that God still expects us to uphold certain values – and to fight for those values. I don’t care if it’s in vogue to be green, or tolerant, or socialist. Why do we let a small minority of Hollywood prima donnas determine what we should and shouldn’t believe in? People in this country can be so ignorant as to where they get their information from.
Oh, and another side note but along the same lines. So the screen writer for Milk won his category and of course he’s gay and of course he includes in his speech how good it felt to leave a “conservative Mormon” home and find a way to live free and express himself. Oh I’m just so happy for you. You opened my eyes – I’ve been trapped inside my conservative, intolerant world all my life and don’t know what it really means to love and accept people for who they are. And then the guy cried. Just so touching.

Free speech was meant to go both ways and people like those we revere in Hollywood believes it’s only supposed to benefit them and crush the opposition. And of course they’ll disagree and accuse their opposition of being intolerable, and I wouldn’t expect anything more. They’re cowards who only put up a fight when they know they’ll win, and they only win by pulling a Tonya Harding and bashing your knees out from under you. So to all of Hollywood – great will be the day when you drown in the Pacific.

To end on a positive note, I had a really refreshing workout this morning.