Tell It Like It Is Sean Penn

Sean Penn Reflects on His 2002 Letter to 'Wash Post' on War


Published: January 09, 2005 1:00 PM ET


NEW YORK In the transcript of an interview with the Boston Globe's Ty Burr, published this weekend on the newspaper's Web site, actor/activist Sean Penn reflected on the criticism he received in the media around his two visits to Iraq.

"I wrote a letter to the Washington Post a couple of years ago, before we went into the war," Penn said. "The very things I was criticized for saying then are now being reported by Bill O'Reilly. I was criticized for suggesting the possibility there were no weapons of mass destruction.

"But the bigger issue is that it's an absolutely stupid notion that you should take the title of someone's profession and attach it to what they should not do. It has nothing to do with citizenry. I think they should shove it with their hypocritical Ronald Reagan standard right up their ass."

Um, thanks, but you shouldn’t have

William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said that the Tsunami was Asia’s gift to the world. I know, I know, in the aftermath of catastrophe, we often look for ways to explain why there is so much suffering. The Tsunami, he is saying, is a wake up call for everyone. Life is fragile. Live each day to the fullest. For God’s sake, floss.

What happened in South Asia is not their gift to us. They would have been much happier to give us a $25 gift card to Best Buy. And honestly, with everything that is going on in the world today -- and for Americans, since 9/11 -- did we need another wake up call? Nature provides catastrophe, and humans provide narration. We don’t always get the words right. I’m weary of the Donohues in the world saying that it was God’s will, who are we to judge God, he calls his children home when he’s ready for them, yadda, yadda, bite me. I don’t know if he’s right. I don’t know if he’s wrong. But I don’t think he’s right, and I’m offended for the people in South Asia by his comments. I’m offended that anyone would think that answer would supply conciliation.

Snow job in Vegas

Hell has frozen over, does this mean that I have to turn Republican?

Seriously, it snowed today in Vegas. It's never supposed to snow in Vegas. That's why we moved here. Of course, it snowed here about the same time last year. People in town were so darn giddy that the desert looked like a winter wonderland, that I can't muster up the anger to write about anyone behaving badly. The closest I can come to it is by providing a link below about Brad Pitt and Jennnifer Aniston's break up. It's a shame we'll never get to see the results of their procreation, but maybe for us normal mortals, it's a good thing. We just have one less star to envy. And, wait, here's the people behaving badly connection, face it, we love it when bad things happen to fortunate people. It makes us feel better about our own mundane lives. Walker Percy covered this best in his wonderful book, Lost in the Cosmos. So for the rest of you today who weren't giddy from the season's first/only snow, here's an article on these two fabulous stars' breakup. Their heartache is your little "oh good, someone else is unhappy, too," moment. And if you have nothing to read (which is what I plan to do since the streets are full of slush) try a Walker Percy novel. Any book will do, but my personal fave is The Moviegoer. Talk about Coming of age angst, Binx Bolling has it in spades.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/people_pitt_dc

Well that’s not very ladylike

Women Concerned For America oppose a liberal agenda and are even known to go after conservative groups that don’t tow their line. This group is opposed to your standard Christian Right sore spots: Abortion, gay marriage, disagreeing with them, vegetarians, PETA, ACLU . . . you know, the typical stuff that “Good Christians” hate. (By the way, did Jesus have all that many bugaboos? He didn’t strike me as the pissy type). What’s not laughable is that they evidently oppose hate crime legislation. Their logic? If you make attacks on gays a special crime, it then appears the government approves of homosexuality. How is advocating violence Christian? Sounds like the devil got into these girls, that or they’re looking for a good jihad. Click on the title of this post to go to an article about these wild women

Gonzales is W’s kind of guy!

Alberto Gonzales sounds like a typical person behaving badly, which makes him a fabulous choice for W’s cabinet! There’s been much in the news about this bad ass’s bad behavior, but here are a few of my favorite things (not to invoke the Sound of Music – Although, I wish some great songwriter would take the low points of W’s administration and write them to the tune of “These are a few of my favorite things”).

GONZALES SAYS GENEVA CONVENTION IS QUAINT AND OBSOLETE: In a 2002 memo, he wrote, "the war against terrorism is a new kind of war . . . this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions." The memo argues that al Qaeda and Taliban detainees should be exempt from the Geneva Conventions' provisions on the proper, legal treatment of prisoners. The administration has been adamant that prisoners at Guantanamo are not protected by the Geneva Conventions. I hate Osama’s crew and the Taliban, too, but Nazi’s weren’t exactly golden retriever puppies, and we applied the rules of the Geneva Convention for them, yes?

EVEN GONZALES THINKS HE’S BAD FOR THE MILITARY (So why doesn’t W agree?): In the same memo mentioned above, Gonzales acknowledges that ignoring the Geneva Conventions could create problems for the military – they might do bad things like stacking prisoners naked on top of each other and snapping photos to keepsake the fun. He says that failing to apply the Geneva Conventions "could undermine U.S. military culture which emphasizes maintaining the highest standards of conduct in combat, and could introduce an element of uncertainty in the status of adversaries," Kind of like Abu Ghraib. Okay, just like Abu Ghraib.

GONZALES REDEFINES TORTURE, AND IT”S NOT QUAINT:
According to Newsweek, an August 2002 Justice Department Memo was drafted after meetings convened with Gonzales. The Memo opined that laws prohibiting torture “do not apply to the President’s detention and interrogation of enemy combatants.” They meant like the French or Michael Moore, oh, and Al Quada, too. The memo redefined torture as “injury such as death, organ failure, or serious impairment of body functions.” Why go to so much trouble? Just make them watch reruns of all of W’s speech. Listen to how he says “Tourist” instead of “Terrorist.” At first it may seem funny, but after hearing it for the 50th time, they’ll beg to have some organ failure.

Talk about people behaving badly

My dear friend Betsy, a writer in San Francisco, pointed me to mediamatters.org. There’s an article there called the Top Ten Most Outrageous Statements of 2004. They aren’t kidding.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200412230005

Scenes from New Year’s Weekend

On New Year’s Day, driving from Park City to Salt Lake, we saw a young woman on the side of the road, puking away the merriment from the night before.

At the airport, saw a man complaining to an employee that the kiosk for getting boarding passes was too long. There was only one person in front of him.

At security checkpoint, saw a young woman puking into one of those gray bins travelers use to put their accessories into.

On the plane, a child kept yelling, yes, yelling, BLOP. BLOP. BLOP. He had a nice rhythm going. He’d yell, BLOP. Then pause a beat, then yell BLOP again. All his mother could say was, “Shhhh, sweetie.” And her rhythm was not as consistent as his. The kid kept this up the entire trip. I overhead one woman say, “I wish she’d shut that motherf*&^#r up. Wait a second, that woman was me.

Of course, none of this matters because in Southeast Asia, over 120,000 people are dead and the survivors have lost everything.

Happy New Year.