Sounds like a rare breed you have found there.

"I'm having lunch with a movie/television star"

Does this star like Pico Kosher Deli, too? :)

It's truly sad that your honest article threw stumbling blocks your way professionally, and perhaps personally, as well. As they say, pride cometh before a fall. And you're one proud man.

Have a good Shabbos, and rest up for the big trip next week.

Now you've got me really curious.

p.s. I know some really bright, frum, non-hollywood people who are liberal, democratic party, obama supporting. I don't get it at all.

You know...I just reread your post - I can't believe you were actually fired from jobs because you spoke your mind. What century did you say we're living in?

Im not surprised at all Robert was fired from these projects.

All one has to do is see all of the truly horrible, money draining, Iraq movies that Hollywood has marched out.

Any exec that was more worried about profit instead of preaching would never have allowed those projects to see the light of day.

Plus, with all due respect, I am boggled that any Jew could support Barack Obama. His economic policies are reckless and would do great harm to this ecomomy.
And, on issues important to Jews(ie. Israel) one only has to read Robert's posts on the Israel bashing advisors that he surrounds himself with.

Mata Hari,

LOL....I reread your post....
I believe we agree.

PD:

Movie star is a fine man, and you know what, he's one of the few movie stars who actually looks like a movie star.

Pearl:

Movie star and I are going to Pico Kosher Deli for our next meal. But I'm afraid the waitresses will eat him alive! He's that good looking and charismatic.

Mata Hari:

I'm convinced that most Jewish Democrats don't even know the radical platform of their party. Most are just clueless when it comes to politics. They are lever-pullers, like those people in Vegas who yank the one-armed bandit with Pavlovian sincerity.

Lance:

Hollywood liberals are about as tolerant and open-minded as the KKK.

Wow! I must really be behind on my catching up! I just ready your article in FrontPage and I was ever so proud of you, Robert! You hit them between the eyes. I predict this will bring you employment in the long run. Keep wielding that mighty pen. Suz

Robert, my experiences somewhat parallel yours, in an odd way. I grew up as a half Catholic / Half Episcopalian in Newton, Massachusetts; a heavily Jewish affluent suburban area.

I cannot speak to or seriously converse with many of the very people I grew up with. I simply cannot. They mix arrogant ignorance and a privileged attitude, and are impossible to talk to. I've said to friends, it's as if they cannot imagine that anyone else in the world is not merely some foreign version of them from another suburb elsewhere.

Me, I left, became a soldier (Army), which essentially placed me "beyond the Pale" with them. I have become treff, not Kosher.

What a world we live in, eh? I suppose my best comment on this to friends is that we live in a world where there are millions who believe in an artificially contrived fantasy world. It only works (so to speak) because so many share it, it makes it real (in a surrealistic, wrong-think kind of way).

I wanted to say that in my world, you "are de man!" because to be a fully functional person in it means you on occasion take unpopular stands for good reasons, and damn the consequences! And so you did by publishing that article on Frontpage.

You certainly have my profound respect for actually taking a stand, and sticking with it.

(Hooah! US Army, 1977-1983)

Suz:

I'm doing just fine. I just keep writing killer scripts that cannot be ignored.

Last Angry Man:

I can well imagine the isolation you felt back home. It sounds like a dopey suburb of dopey Hollywood.

We thank you for your service and, well, Hooah!

"It's a measure of how deeply the producers despised me that they chose to pay off my full salary. In effect, paying me not to write."

Imagine how powerful we Jews will be when we absolutely KNOW that our salaries come from the Borei Olam. Yes, those wisdom-free producers were paying you not to write. But they were working for Hashem, Who had already determined at Rosh Hashana what your salary would be for the year.

There is a lot of power in working for The Front Office.

Please keep writing emet, in good health, for many long, productive years.

Robert, it was a joy reading your post and thank you for being brave enough and fed up enough to write the article on Front Page.

Zucker is coming out with a movie soon called, "An American Carol." I'm sure you know about it. It's a spoof on liberals - starring Michael Moore (played by Farley).

For too long conservatives have been afraid to speak out.

I live in Northern California - a little town called Winters, 12 miles west of Davis (that little town that wants so badly to be Berkeley) and there are times I want to scream when I go there to do any kind of shopping. I am very outspoken about my views and most people are shocked to hear a conservative be so outspoken.

But liberals cannot argue, they only become enraged. I want to discuss issues, but they cannot, or very few can -- there are exceptions.

Most of them don't really know why they believe what they do, they just believe it because it either feels good to believe it or it's the cool thing to believe. When they are confronted or questioned, they just kind of fizzle out - or lash out with some ridiculous Bush-bashing, conspiracy accusation.

One example, a young girl called in to Rush Limbaugh the other day. She said she had attended a gay pride rally in San Diego and she had been an Obama supporter. She met a guy who was passing through who was a conservative and they started talking. He asked her why she supported Obama. He truly wanted to know.

She said that as she started to tell him, she realized how stupid she sounded, "Because of Hope and Change and change and hope and ... "

She no longer supports Obama.

This might have been her first experience in truly thinking things out.

That's why it's important to ask liberals questions, and let them talk.

Anyway, thanks so much for who you are, and for your great love for your wife and family.

I'm so sorry to read about the loss of your son.
I lost two babies and it was very hard. But having a grown son die must be so much harder.

God bless you.

P.S. I heard about you over at www.americanthinker.com.

Aww, come on, just an itty-bitty hint on who it is?

:-)

rutimizrachi :

Thank so much for your articulate comment. Your observation that most Liberals choose their political beliefs through unchecked, feel-good emotions.

I have often said that Liberals feel and Conservatives think

For instance, during America's cold war with the Soviet Union, liberals tended to respect and glorify Marxist/Leninist doctrines because, well, the Communist platform sounds no noble, but in truth Communist states always devolve into murderous self-serving regimes who maintain power through fear, physical intimidation and often morph into genocidal machines.

The fact that the Soviet Union's charter is ignored by the Soviets, is, for many liberals, proof that Communism and Socialism are always undermined by enemies of the state.

Baila:

Sorry, no can do.

Wow, what an awesome blog! I've added your site to my favorites. No, I'm not Jewish; I'm a believer in Jesus, but I applaud your courage and convictions. Our son is an officer in the Navy proudly serving in the Persian Gulf. My family and I have always loved and supported Israel. Keep writing!

Last Angry Man, let me add to Robert's thanks for your service. Our freedoms are truly assured by our military men and women and we thank God for you. Robert, I have no doubt you are doing well, talent will out.

Well done sir! Well done!

Though I would love to find out who the star is that you had lunch with I can understand you wanting to keep his anonymity.

As to liberals and their world. I believe they come to their point of view due to laziness and lack of courage.

Take the Cold War for example. Liberals may act like they loved the idea of communism but much of their belief came because they feared the consequences of standing up to the Soviet Horde. During the Reagan years the liberals in Hollywood went over the edge with WWIII nuclear holocaust movies, dramas, and documentaries. They believed that Reagan standing up to the Soviets was going to get us all killed.
They feared the consequences of doing the right thing for humanity and thus decided to take the easy way out and blame the United States. Have they once even acknowledge their paranoia was unfounded and honored Reagan properly? No they cannot. They don't have the courage to admit mistakes.

I fervently believe that most Hollywood liberals didn't come to some appiphany one day and decide that love not war was the answer, they did so because it was easier then defending another point of view. Same with those that go abroad. Its far easier to agree with some one who blames your country for all the ills of this world then defend her and point out that it is because of this country that the earth is not a flaming spinning orb in space presently.

Almost all liberal views are based on non confrontation. Instead of fighting terrorism, negotiate. Instead of forcing some people to change their circumstances, assist them with handouts and keep them dependent. Instead of admitting your mistakes, blame others or ignore them all together.

They package it as activism, caring,knowledge, and hopes for world peace. But when you take the wrapper of it's vanity, laziness, ignorance, and lack of courage.

Mikkins:

Great analysis. Let me just add that you are describing the world view of Barack Obama.

Beth:

Sorry for not writing back to you sooner. My deepest sympathies on your grievous losses. There are no words, just deep and uncompromising empathy.

Thank you, Robert. I know that you feel my pain.

Have a wonderful time in Israel.

I have put you on my desktop as a daily read. You have tremendous talent and it will be part of a good start to my day.

"I have often said that Liberals feel and Conservatives think"...it's often been said that "a person who is not a liberal at 25 has no heart, a person why is not a conservative at 35 has no head." (variously attributed) However, I believe our current "progressives" are in many cases missing head AND heart.

People with a heart would not be so eager to abandon Iraqis to chaos and mass murder, or Israelis to unrestrained terrorism and nuclear Holocaust.

People with a heart would not want to condemn more generations to the failed American public schools.

People with a heart would not totally disregard the tremendous benefits that global trade has had for India and China, bringing million of people out of actual starvation.

C P Snow referred to people who "are at once cynical and unworldly, which is one of my least favorite combinations." Cynicism is a disease of the heart and unworldliness a disease of the head: both are common among "progressives.

Cynicism is closely related to sarcasm, and the British general Lord Wavell explained why sarcasm is such a destructive force.

Great article. The right wing Jews here in Ohio are very supportive of you...

I have to say that I can already see the international, and maybe a few domestic headlines, if (more likely when), Obama loses.

They will blame the Jews for his loss, even though he'll probably get about 70% of the Jewish vote.

Obama's "policies" are irrelevant to me. The key factor is this: he is the least experienced major party nominee for president since Wendell Wilkie.

He really is.

I don't care about his race. I don't care about his education. If he were a Republican with this little experience he wouldn't be acceptable either, (even George W. Bush had 6 years as governor of a huge state).

Long ago, I was training to be a college professor (astrophysics.) Among the things that persuaded me to shift careers was the relentless leftism of my colleagues.

Last spring I dipped my toe back into the academic community by attending a big astrophysics conference. Found myself eating lunch with one of the big names there. Something I said triggered a long and bitter rag on religion.

The relentless leftism hasn't changed. I didn't make a mistake shifting careers.

As Robert says, the left is as tolerant as the KKK. That includes most, but not all, of academia (I happen to work at a university that still has a significant number of conservative professors). When I was ABD, one of my committee members burst into my grad office to rant at me about the election results. His parting line was "I suppose YOU are happy," which made me more than a little nervous about the possibility that my politics might interfere with graduation. Interestingly, I had never spoken about my political leanings to ANYONE in the department. I suppose the dead give-away was the large American flag decal in my window.

On the difference between intelligence and wisdom:
Many years ago when my sons were 9 and 12, a colleague's 14 year old daughter ran away with her druggie boy friend. The colleague asked me to ask my boys if they had heard anything about where she might be. I did so at supper that night. The younger son, who knew the girl to be super-bright, asked how someone that smart could do something that stupid. As I was stumbling about to come up with an answer, my older said, "When you create a character in Dungeons and Dragons, you roll the dice separately for intelligence and wisdom." I decided that I'd defer all such questions to him in the future.

Utterly beautiful post, Robert.

(Just drove through Hollywood town- what a rather more lovely place than expected! Architecturally, anyway :) )

What a remarkably brave article--

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
Edmund Burke

Thank you for reminding us!!!

If you were fired for your political expression, then you were mistreated and you should protest seriously.

But until intelligent, articulate, passionate people like you are brave enough to drop the simplistically angry, prejudicial notion that all liberals are unwise and intellectually lazy, you give yourself no choice but to keep rowing your one-oared woe-is-me rhetorical boat in the same useless circles.

There are far too many in the middle and on the left who suffer from the same problem, and it is your and their collective inability to separate the daily reality from ideology and ego which keeps you trapped in "kill or be killed" thinking and them trapped in Pollyanna notions of peace.

Many moderates and liberals understand the seriousness of the threat the Israeli people and others around the world, including ourselves, live under.

We simply disagree that unilateral military invasion, ill-financed occupation, surrender of civil and humans rights without proper ethical consideration or legal process, are effective solutions. How well have they worked so far?

To dismiss the very notion that anyone who expresses a dissenting opinion -- even if they don't have a solution at hand -- is anything but any ignorant, naive blowhard is at best disingenuous and unwise. If the nature of Hollywood's disassociation from reality has resulted in you being surrounded by frothy liberalspeak untroubled by serious and informed debate...you decide every day when you wake up that this is the world in which you choose to live. Check your premise and take responsibility for your choice.

It does not serve you or anyone else to choose to limit your access to more thoughtful discourse, and even in Hollywood I imagine you could find it if you cared to. By all means, don't try if what is most important is to hear the sound of your own voice blanketed in murmurs of agreement.

But if you decide that you, America, and Israel deserve better, you will have to start by dropping your own intolerance and prejudice.

Be a mensch; demand more from yourself and your audience here.