In the midst of all the gun control issues and debates, many have taken notice at Hollywood and those well known millionaires who make a living on the big screen supporting guns but in real life, are totally against them for the most part.  Complete hypocrites?  Vickie Downing shares her thoughts this week on Vickie's Corner.

Boycott-By-Me… movies, books and beer

Vickie Downing
Vickie Downing
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We boycott in the USA. Boycotts are an easy and virtually painless form of protest. A Boycott-By-Me is usually provoked by annoyance at the political posturing of celebrities. At present, I am cleaning titles out of the movie and book collection and considering a clean sweep of the beer box.

Unlike the rich and shameless whose livelihood depends on an adoring public I have nothing to lose in the arena of free speech so I find it confounding that a large number of high-profile, normally self-serving, self-absorbed celebrities are expressing themselves in language that can only prove detrimental to their general welfare. One can only hope the willingness to jeopardize careers by irritating their fan base is indicative of a high level of moral indignation and passion about an issue and not an exercise in - well - stupidity, for lack of a better word.

  • Movie stars shoot off their mouths

Sylvester Stallone: "Until America, door to door, takes every handgun, this is what you’re gonna have. It’s pathetic. It really is pathetic. It’s sad. We’re living in the Dark Ages over there." Stallone (in my opinion, an actor of dubious ability and the biggest poser/loser of all time) recently suffered the worst opening weekend gross in his 32 year career - talk about a Bullet to the Head.
Mark Wahlberg: "Certainly, I haven’t used a gun anywhere other than on a movie set and I’d like to see if we could take them all away. It would be a beautiful thing." Wahlberg’s new stinker of a movie Pain and Gain is touted as a loser. One has to appreciate the acting ability of a kinder, gentler, apparently gun shy Wahlberg when one visualizes him as the foul-mouthed, violent character Detective Dignam in The Departed.

You can add actors Kevin Bacon, Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, Sean Connery and Arnold Schwarzenegger to the list of mostly hot-shot-has-beens who promote guns and violence via their movies but advocate for gun control.

  • Beer Foul! Bud-weis-er heir cans NRA

Adolphus Busch IV: "I fail to see how the NRA can disregard the overwhelming will of its members who see background checks as reasonable." Busch, the heir to the Anheuser-Busch beer fortune terminated his membership in the NRA immediately after the United States Senate failed to pass background check legislation for firearm sales. Somebody hand him a napkin before he cries in the beer! I wonder if he belongs to the same NRA as everybody else because I understood the majority of NRA members were pleased to see the gun bills fail.

  • King of spooky guys spooked by guns

Stephen King: "Autos and semi-autos are weapons of mass destruction. When lunatics want to make war on the unarmed and unprepared, these are the weapons they use... I have nothing against gun owners, sport shooters or hunters, but semi-automatic weapons have only two purposes. One is so that owners can take them to the shooting range once in a while, yell yeehaw and get all horny at the rapid fire and the burning vapor spurting from the end of the barrel. Their other use – their only other use – is to kill people."  King, master of the macabre, author of the popular Dark Tower/Gun Slinger series has made a fortune depicting blood, gore and violence in his books. Last year King self- censored Rage (a book about guns, youth and violence). King authored a contentious essay on gun control earlier this year and recently donated a five figure sum to a gun control group in Maine. CBS is heavily promoting Under the Dome, a new series based on a novel by King.

Not being a fan of King or TV – boycott – no problem.

Vickie Downing
Vickie Downing
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Actors, authors and silver-spoon heirs pandering to a gun-grabbing demographic are really just preaching to the choir. How wise is it to antagonize and demonize the gun-toting, beer-drinking demographic of their real audience? It has to be a PR nightmare!

Something is seriously wrong in the juxtaposition of money and morals. If one's objection to guns in our society compels one to speak out so stridently against them - where is the integrity in making a fortune exploiting guns and violence by way of one’s trade? It may be just a casual observation but I fail to see how inflammatory anti-gun commentary directed at the largely pro-gun demographic equals big dollars at the box office, the book store or the bar. Do they think we are not paying attention?

One more thing – it is a near certainty the same people who want to control, ban or confiscate guns because of the insane idea that guns are dangerous, scary and promote violence will eventually turn on movies and books for the same reasons. Heads up celebrities! Gun grabbers who do not respect personal property or the second amendment have given no indication they respect intellectual property or the first amendment more so. They will simply become the movie-grabbers and book-grabbers of tomorrow.

When books and movies like firearms are scrutinized by a lower form of intellect and dubbed violent and scary it shall lead to books and movies being banned and confiscated or burned in the streets.

I am guessing beer will make an admirable accelerant.

Vickie Downing is a geographically challenged Texan now living in Fort Collins – She loves books and rides on the Harley.  Her support for our Veterans and the Military goes above and beyond and she bleeds red-white and blue everyday. Check back next week for another topical view of the world today.

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