Chill Wind

Remember those twits Susan Sarandon and her lifepartner bozoboy?

How they were going on and on about a "chill wind" of censorship and repression from the evil Bushitler regime that was keeping people from speaking out.

All because they were simply disinvited from speaking at a private event.

Sarandon's speaking engagement at a United Way conference on women's leadership was canceled. Then, in a widely publicized dust-up, the president of the Baseball Hall of Fame accused Robbins of putting American troops in danger by criticizing the war effort and withdrew his invitation to Robbins to come to Cooperstown for the 15th anniversary celebration of "Bull Durham.''

"It became so blatantly clear that what was going on was attempted intimidation," says Robbins, having had time to reflect on the backlash and what he thinks motivates those who see his public role as "actor-vist" as a dirty word. "The attacks are meant to make you feel isolated, to prevent others who feel in a similar way from speaking out against the war. My feeling is, when you allow intimidation to prevent you from expressing your opinions, then you might as well just give up your First Amendment rights."
...
Robbins first channeled his anger into an eloquent speech delivered to the National Press Club in April, just three days after the Hall of Fame debacle. He cautioned that a "chill wind is blowing in this nation. A message is being sent through the White House and its allies in talk radio and Clear Channel and Cooperstown: If you oppose this administration, there can and will be ramifications."

Oooo! Ramifications!

As if they had any a priori right to a particular venue, the self-centered immature uselessnesses.

Think they'll have an ounce of honesty or a shred of dignity or a drop of courage to stand up and speak out about this REAL chill wind?

Item:

BBC bosses are ready to AXE a £1million episode of hit drama Spooks in which an al-Qaeda terrorist is shot dead — in case it upsets Muslims.

Filming the assassination plot for the MI5 drama took four weeks.

But actor Shaun Dingwall who plays a renegade Christian gunman, fears he could become a target for fundamentalists if the scene is aired.

Item:

Norway’s Minister of Labor and Social Inclusion, Bjarne Hakon Hanssen, hastily called a press conference at a major government office building in Oslo.

There, to the astonishment of his supporters, Selbekk issued an abject apology for reprinting the cartoons. At his side, accepting his act of contrition on behalf of 46 Muslim organizations and asking that all threats now be withdrawn, was Mohammed Hamdan, head of Norway’s Islamic Council. In attendance were members of the Norwegian cabinet and the largest assemblage of imams in Norway’s history. It was a picture right out of a sharia courtroom: the dhimmi prostrating himself before the Muslim leader, and the leader pardoning him – and, for good measure, declaring Selbekk to be henceforth under his protection, as if it were he, Hamdan, and not the Norwegian police, that held in his hands the security of citizens in Norway.

Selbekk, in his prepared remarks, leaned heavily on the usual soothing multicultural language, including the word “understanding.” It was clear that Selbekk had indeed come to an understanding: he understood that if he didn’t relent, he risked physical harm. He also spoke of “respect” – a word that in this context must surely have been understood by the imams to refer not to a volitional regard for a social equal but to the obligatory deference of a repentant infidel.

As for Handam, he noted that “Selbekk has children the same age as my own. I want my children and his children to grow up together, live together in peace, and be friends.” This was rather chilling, given that Selbekk’s family, too, had been under threat.

Item:

Aliye Cetinkaya, a journalist from the Turkish daily Sabah newspaper, who was reporting on the recent protests over the offensive caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, was stoned in Konya for reasons demonstrators said were provocative – as she did not cover her head. Cetinkaya was taken away by male colleagues after stones hit her head and shoulders. The female journalist was attacked for being ‘sexually provocative’ for not wearing a head scarf at the demonstration organised by the Peoples Education Research and Support Group in Konya (He-Da-Der) and entitled ‘Loyalty to the Prophet’.

A group of protestors insisted that Aliye Cetinkaya get off the bus where she was reporting the march, as they claimed she was provoking the crowd. At this moment, somebody started reciting the Koran into a microphone.

Approximately 30 people then started throwing stones at Cetinkaya, seated with her legs dangling from the back of the vehicle and taking notes. They claimed that her clothes and way of sitting was inappropriate while the Koran was being read, and shouted words of abuse at her.

Cetinkaya had to be rescued by her colleagues.

Which is more chilling, Timmy and Susie? A cancelled invitation or the above items of thuggish intimidation using actual violence?

Gonna make a brave, bold play mocking these terrorists like you did the Bush administration?

The play's comic stroke of genius is a masked chorus called "The Cabal," the policy advisers and analysts in the Pentagon's "Office of Special Plans" - - with names like Rum-Rum, Pearly White, Woof, Gondola, Cove and Dick. ("I am not the one who named them the Cabal, by the way," Robbins is quick to point out. "Those guys in Washington call themselves that.") They sneer at reports of swelling peace marches, consult their Palm Pilots to find the best date to launch the invasion ("If we don't get this war started soon, we're going to have to compete with the NBA playoffs") and recite a litany of excuses for why none of them ever served in the armed forces -- a feature of the Bush administration that makes Robbins seethe.

No?

Why?

Because maybe you're whiney shallow cowardly self-promoting bitches and preening moral pinheads?

Robbins takes his constitutional right to question very seriously.

Now, THAT's comedy!