October: Millionaire pop stars campaign relentlessly for Barack Obama.
November: Pop stars campaign against big government being involved in their livelihoods:
A coalition of 125 celebrity musicians, including pop singer Katy Perry, have joined forces with anti-tax advocates including Grover Norquist and the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) to oppose an intellectual property “reform” bill that critics charge expands government to the detriment of the free market.
Opponents say the Internet Radio Fairness Act, being pushed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), would mandatorily lower the licensing fees paid by Internet radio giant Pandora, moving the royalties system further away from a free market and instead entrenching a system in which government sets compensation rates while picking winners and losers.
It reminds me of the celebs who’d campaign for gun control and then turn around and use their celebrity, money and pull to get carry permits for themselves (Bill Cosby) or their bodyguards (Rosie O’Donnell).
And don’t get me wrong – I’m all for getting government out of as much of the market as we can, while we can.
But it’s the hypocrisy, stupid Katie
Hey, those musicians didn’t build that, they benefit from the government copyright system so they have no moral claim on the royalties. At some point, you’ve made enough money. To avoid the fiscal cliff, we’ll need to sharply raise taxes on The Rich, especially those who profit from activities that don’t actually manufacture goods. Instapundit is on the right track with his Hollywood tax. I propose a 50% tax rate on income derived from entertainment (musicians, actors, sports players, television talking heads). Anybody who objects is a racist.
“….have joined forces with anti-tax advocates including Grover Norquist…”
And just as Grover Norquist was being morphed by the Obama for America folks as the new version of Emmanuel Goldstein from the previous version, Mitt Romney. This is going to be tough thing for the low information-celebrity worshipers who comprise the bulk of Mr Obama’s voters to sort out.
Can’t wait for Bruce Springsteen to start squirting tears on stage while singing “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”
If I had any hope that the involved artists were semi-literate I’d send them copies of “Atlas Shrugged.” Alas, I fear they all signed on because their accountants told them too
Or corporate welfare for Big Hollywood. Why do states pay hollywood millionaires to film movies in their states?
swiftee….Bruce occasionally sings “we shall overcome” at his concerts. There is nothing more moving than hearing a white guy from New Jersey, who has a net worth of $200,000,000, singing along with a bunch of fat white middle aged people,
that great civil rights song.
On the gun issue, there is also the hypocrisy of David Brock, CEO of Media Matters that was so afraid that the evil right wing gun nuts would kill him, he carried an unregistered weapon in Washington D.C. where no one other than law enforcement can even have one.
Yea, golfdoc, you could send them the copies of Atlas Shrugged, but they wouldn’t be able to understand it, let alone read it!
Liberal artists don’t see hypocrisy as wrong. Their duplicity is called “enlightenment.” Their flip-flopping on principle to suit their own interests is called “nuance.” We need to quit calling them hypocrites and call them what they are – selfish.
Chuck says:
[singing along with a bunch of fat white middle aged people]
For a moment I thought you were talking about the GOP base……
bosshoss says:
[..you could send them the copies of Atlas Shrugged, but they wouldn’t be able to understand it, let alone read it!]
Turgid is the word I use to describe Rand’s fiction. Shortened to a ten page essay, and taken in the context of political and economic thought in the 1950s and 1960s, she makes good points. But it’s bad writing. It’s also instructive only in a negative way. Just as Das Kapital is a critique of capitalism, rather than a roadmap for communism, Rand’s books are a cutting critique of socialism, but offer us little in terms of a practical guide for the libertarian utopia which is her ideal. Both Rand and Marx seemed to feel that the existing system would collapse under its own weight, and that after the fall, rather than chaos, their utopia would emerge like a Phoenix from the ashes. A well-rounded politician should struggle through Atlas Shrugged (and Das Kapital), but I do not trust any who cite her work as an inspiration for political reform. Anyone who finds her characters heroic, rather than cartoonishly one dimensional, doesn’t have a lot of depth to their understanding of humanity.
Worshipping Rand is not unlike worshipping Marx. That’s the path Lenin started on, and that path led to Stalin, which I think was not what Marx had in mind.
Emery, Rand is hard. That’s why sensible people worship Heinlein.
Nate, I agree and completely ‘grok’ your reference to Heinlein.