Let me start off by saying I offer my most sincere condolensces to the family and close friends of Kirstie Alley. I may not have agreed with her on some things she said these last fews year (and she said a lot). I’m no monster. Cancer is a hard way to go for anyone and it takes a toll on someone as well as those around them. I’ve lost a few loved ones to cancer too. It’s never easy.
By Hollywood standards at the time, Alley was already an Old Maid when she first appeared in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan as Saavik, a Vulcan who may or may not be attracted to Adm. James T. Kirk. She was 31 and spent the next few years bouncing around in many forgettable movies. She was in the Blind Date movie that didn’t star Bruce Willis and Kim Basinger. She had a small role in the sci-fi thriller Runaway alongside Tom Selleck and Gene Simmons. Then, she appeared alongside Mark Harmon in Summer School. At 36, she was playing the love interest of Mark Harmon (and becoming the envy of many mothers and grandmothers in America).
But movies come and go. She was appearing on the hit show Cheers replacing Shelly Long, who had left to pursue her own film career. It was a big gamble as she was a new addition to a very popular show. Depending on who you talked to, Alley was a great replacement because the whole Sam and Diane thing had run its course or she was a poor substitute for Long and almost ruined the show. Granted, the first couple of seasons with Alley, the writers seemed to be obsessed with the Sam and Rebecca dynamic, but it wasn’t until they started to move away and focus on the relationships of all the characters that Cheers got better in my opinion.
Alley would also take criticism as she got into her 40s for her appearance. The 1980s fitness craze was over and Sir Mix-A-Lot said it was okay for women to have a bigger butt and women in their 30s, 40s, or 50s were tired of looking like Barbara Bush. Alley would appear in movies and TV shows looking like actual women her age. She even appeared in the TV show on Showtime Fat Actress. A compulsive eater, she partnered with Jenny Craig and lost about 75 pounds but gained it all back when she left.
Off-screen, she became more vocal for her support of Donald Trump even saying it led to her being “blackballed” in Hollywood. She openly praised Trump a lot and his response to the Covid-19 pandemic. As a Scientologist follower, she never appeared on the Cheers spin-off Frasier because the character was a psychiatrist. The Church of Scientology has an aversion to psychology and psychiatry. But Alley took it a step further and blamed the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, which killed 60 people and wounded over 400 on pyschiatric drugs. She criticized the MeToo movement and how some were quick to rush to judgment.
Now, I don’t agree with Alley on a lot of things and I feel Scientology is a cult. I also believe a lot of what Alley said was horrible to say especially about shooting. That being said, I think Alley did it to herself in Hollywood on how hard it was for her to find work. Conservatives celebrities play the same tune whenever they think they’re being blacklisted, but I think it’s more about the fact that some conservative celebrities just lose their popularity. It’s the one thing that many celebrities can’t deal with – losing their clout. Trump especially has made himself relevant time and time again. That’s why he ran for President in 2012. So, celebrities turn against the people who helped them along the way, burning bridges and then saying they’re not all. owed to be in hit movies and TV shows anymore because of how they voted.
Yet, they will openly criticize other celenbrities and people while claiming they’re the ones being persecuted. And we’ve seen a lot of that the last week or so. Last week, the Metzger Bar and Butchery in Richmond, Va., refeused to serve the Family Foundation of Virginia over their aversions to same-sex marriage and abortion rights. The proprietors canceled the service because they have several women and members of the LGBTQIA community on staff. Businesses have the right to refuse service to anyone.
However, the Family Foundation claimed they were the victims. Victoria Cobb, president of the lobbying organization said, “It’s alarming and disgraceful that a restaurant has a religious or political litmus test for who gets in the door.” Yet, the same thing doesn’t apply to a baker who refuses to bake a cake for a same-sex couple. Or say, a web designer, who doesn’t want to make websites for same-sex couples. That’s the case with Lorie Smith, a web designer, whose case was heard before the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month.
Smith, a devout Christian, and she says she doesn’t want to design websites for same-sex couples. So, let me clarrify this. She wants the right to refuse service based on a “religious or political litmus test.” Do I have that clear? Metzger should serve everyone under the sun and not let politics and/or religion get in the way. Yet, another business should be allowed to do so because of their beliefs?
I never hunted for sport. Yet, when I was working as a news editor, I welcomed all hunting pictures and info. This is an area with many recreational lakes and wildlife management areas. People hunt. They like to see themselves and their friends in the paper. They like to go fishing. You accept a job in which you are dealing with the public, you have to deal with the public regardless of how they or you think about things.
It’s really alarming how crazy we’ve gotten as a society to allow Christians to get away with things left and right because we’re too afraid of how we’ll be perceived. This is another step in turning America into this Christian Nationalist theocracy conservatives have wanted. The problem is, it’s going to hurt more people than it’s actually going to help. Justice Samuel Alito argued whether a black man dressed as Santa Claus could refuse to have a boy sit on his lap if the boy was dressed in a Ku Klux Klan outfit. I would be very surprised to see a young boy in a KKK outfit at the local mall. I’m pretty sure they’d be no way the child would’ve gotten from the paking lot to inside the mall without a lot of problems.
I don’t think Alito understood his analogy. If the Supreme Court votes in favor of Smith, it could open the doors in ways they didn’t anticipate, such as Metzger being totally within the boundaries of the law for doing what they did. A store owner can refuse service to a law enforcment officer or anyone who is brandishing a firearm because their religion prohibits it. With the House approving the Marriage Equality Act and President Joe Biden likely to sign it as fast as he can, it’s going to create a huge mess in the future. As usual, conservatives just want instant easy wins without realizing the long-term ramifications and consequences of their actions.
And at the same, the conservatives and Christians are trying to do everything they can to make the release of two-time Olympic gold medalist and WNBA play Brittney Griner from a Russian prison anything but great news. Griner, who is black and in a same-sex marriage, has been in Russian custody since February for being in possession of medical cannabis, which is illegal in Russia. It’s likey she didn’t know this or the vaporizer cartridges were in a bag that she normally travels with.
Either way, she spent much of the year in Russian jail and prison. Online American commenters actually sided with Russia stating that she should’ve obey their laws. However, when the Biden Administration negotiated a transfer of Griner in exchange for weapons dealer Viktor Bout, the conservatives went nuts. They brought up the issue of Peter Whelan wasn’t part of that exchange (or more importantly for some Americans, the only one exchanged.)
Yes, here we are two weeks from Christmas when we are supposed to come together and love each other and Americans are criticizing the value of one person over another. How American. How Christian. In fact, Whelan was convicted on espinoage charges. He wasn’t a Marine as it’s been stated but a former Marine because he got a dishonorable discharge for criminal charges which cuts off any pensions or benefits he’s due. He’s also been in prison in Russia since 2018 during which time Trump had two years to negotiate a way for him out. Instead, Trump accepted a soccer ball from Vladimir Putin and released thousands of Taliban prisoners.
The double standard has never been more relevant than it has over this month so far. The end with the cherry on top, Kyle Rittenhouse tweeted “People need to to start being held accountable.” We’re not perfect. But I don’t like people who are constant hypocrites. And the way the conservatives and Christian have acted so much, the kettle couldn’t get more black. And if they did, their racism wouldn’t allow them to drink out of it anyway.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 