ETF, you’ve probably spotted it by now, but my (pained) answer is in post #135. 
My curiousity came over me with the thread title “Linda Rondstat thrown out of casino for supporting Michael Moore!”, so I clicked on the title and further learned that the song “Desperado” was at the crux of the incident. While no guns were ever pointed in my direction, I find it’s more like stepping into quicksand since I am an individual that reads virtually all the posts before I post mine, nonetheless I was compelled to reply after reading about all the shitslinging going on here, where something minor in Vegas becomes something major in SD.
For your benefit, I should have ended my previous post:
Fuck You All. :rolleyes:
I quite agree. Maybe she should have not talked and done a set of just songs. She could start off with Masters of War, done Fixin’ to Die Rag with some of the words changed to refer to Iraq, then maybe Born in the USA and finish off with John Kay’s Monster. Then, just to be fair, she could sing Ballad of the Green Berets and Fighting Side of Me.
How silly of her to be the first person to mix music with politics.
Amen, brother. If they’d just quit starting wars that we can’t afford and being generally flighty about the whole concept of fiscal responsibility, we wouldn’t have all of these… wait, what? Oh, nevermind.
9.4 tens of million dollars.
http://moviescene.myvideostore.com/content/new/video_month.html?client=moviescene&month=10&year=2004
I understand that the First Amendment says that the government shall make no law abridging freedom of speech. It doesn’t necessarily follow that we have freedom of speech only on public property. Within certain limits, America is a free speech zone. We can’t slander someone without the risk of being sued and having to pay up. We can’t lie under oath without running the risk of going to jail. We can’t call our bosses assholes without facing possible consequences – but at least we have the freedom to do that one! We even have the freedom to hold office as a public servant and to lie to those we serve. And I agree with Starving Artist that anyone has the freedom to call anyone else unAmerican, although that label is tossed around way too easily. And our freedom of speech does not have to be curtailed while we are on the job except in certain situations. (I was a public school teacher and certainly understood that I had limits on what I could and should say in the classroom – but not in the lounge.)
Some people see Michael Moore as unAmerican or anti-American and Linda Ronstadt the same way. I think that Michael Moore loves his country and its citizens and wants to make things better for all of us. To me, that is “patriotic.”
What we all seem to disagree on is how things can be made better. I don’t mind the disagreement. I just mind people trying to make other people remain silent.
Starving Artist, a lack of an equal number of voices from the right is not a good enough reason to make left-leaning celebrities bite their tongues. What is fair is that all have the right to use their celebrity as they choose as long as they are willing to face the consequences.
Besides, y’all have the Governator! That outweighs several ordinary celebs!
You’re talking about your take on the last couple of years. I’m talking decades, man. 
Ah, you mean like the Reagan/Bush 1 deficit that Clinton turned into a surplus?
Given how many folks still believe Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11, and the number of folks who still plan to vote for Bush in November, I don’t think he’s entirely inaccurate…
Gosh, Lib. I must be really out of touch. I wasn’t aware that Dubya had handed over the Presidency to Kennedy!
VOYAGER –
Gee, VOYAGER, I don’t believe I said she was the first person to mix music with politics. I said “STFU and sing.” And I’m pretty sure I said I don’t like it when Republicans/conservatives do it, either. Congratulations on reading an amazing amount into my post, though. Don’t let the actual words stand in your way.
Oh. My. Gosh.
She’s a loony. No doubt about it. Loon. Full-blown.
Now, with that said, I love her work. I’ve never been to a concert, but I wouldn’t walk out, even if she said something kind of lame. But I do feel decidedly uncomfortable when a celebrity spouts off some even remotely controversial political (or religious) viewpoint, because, y’know, not everyone came to hear them spout off. Most did not come to hear them spout off. They came to be entertained.
The casino had a right to throw her out. I think they probably did it in a ham-handed way, but they had a right. And, now that we see that she is a full-blown loon, I wonder if she said something more than a little inflammatory during her performance. Not that it excuses people for vandalism (what? are they raised by wolves?), but she’s a loon so who knows what she said.
But I still love her work.
SA: *However, it is the give and take between the two factions that create balance, which is good. And to be honest, if the right were as well represented as the left among the entertainment industry, I doubt I would much care what Ronstadt or Reiner or Streisand, et al. might say. I quess it’s a balance thing. *
Is that why I didn’t hear any conservatives complaining when Britney Spears “told us what to think” politically by saying about the Iraq war, “Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision he makes and should just support that”?
If you were applying the same principle across the board to entertainers of all political stripes, I’d consider that fair. However, it seems a bit hypocritical to be complaining about advocates of the other side exploiting their position as entertainers by “telling you what to think”, when what you’re really annoyed about is that there aren’t as many entertainers doing the same thing for your side.
I feel your pain, Starving Artist. I’d feel ripped-off if I had Ted Nugent, Toby Keith, Michale Graves, Charlie Daniels, Britney Spears, Travis Tritt, Third Day, Jaci Velasquez, Darryl Worley, Mark Wills and Steven Curtis Chapman backing me up, too.
:: Cuts notch in gunbelt. Swaggers off into sunset. ::
OK…I must have missed something here. I mean, I was in Vegas this weekend. 25% of an audience walked out after an encore? Isn’t that what you are supposed to do? The show is over…leave!
I was different than the rest…I went to see Sarah McLachlan instead of Ronstadt. Better show, longer encore, and no vandalism. Lots of comped assholes, but that’s Vegas.
You go to Vegas, they give you a free asshole?
Yeah, man-- don’t you read the flyers they press into your hand as you walk down the strip?
I can understand how this would appear hypocritical to you, but it really isn’t. It’s not so much that I’m annoyed that there aren’t as many entertainers doing the same thing for my side as it is that more entertainers speaking out on my side would be a neutralizing factor. Same with the news. If there were as many right-leaning news programs as there are left-leaning news programs, the left-leaning programs wouldn’t seem so egregious. Everything would be “fair and balanced.”
As it is, we on the right feel that the left has an unfair advantage in espousing its point of view, and perhaps even appearing to be the accepted and predominate way of thinking, due to the predominance of the liberal position in the news media, Hollywood, and the entertainment industry in general.
Regarding Ronstadt and the anger her support of Moore caused in Las Vegas, my belief is that many on the right are perfectly aware of what a skillful job Moore did in distorting the “facts” to present a very damaging image of Bush and his administration, and that his movie might have a very damaging effect for their side in the upcoming election. In other words, we on the right have reason to fear Moore’s movie because we believe it will add fuel to the fire of those who are already rabidly leftist, and that it could fool the fence-sitters and the uninitiated into voting left simply by virtue of its own outrageous distortions. These people walk around carrying these fears and worries in their day-to-day lives, but saying nothing. Then, they go to Ronstadt’s concert and are treated to her admonitions that Moore – this person they despise and who they think is leading the country to ruin – is a “patriot” and that they should go see his film to learn the “truth” about what is going on in this country. They feel they already know the truth and they’re damn unhappy about it. So they finally get enough upon hearing her arrogant and condescending preachings and vent their pent up fear and anger by storming out and tearing up posters.
Funny how times change, in the 60’s, we pulled shit like that, they sent the cops to break some heads.