O'Reilly vs. Kardashian - For the DEFENSE!

Say the name Kim Kardashian and, depending upon the company you're in, the response may be either positive or negative. Love her or hate her, the one thing that's certain, we all know who she is. But it's WHY we all know who she is that's the REAL story here. She's famous, yes. But WHY is she famous? Unlike other celebrities, she has NO discernible talent that I am aware of. If she can sing, play an instrument, or act it's news to me. But she IS famous, mostly for being INFAMOUS and that is her BRAND which she has carefully and assiduously nourished over the years. Kim Kardashian has done what was before only a fiction in the advertising industry, branded and marketed a NON existent product. That was the premise of an old Doris Day movie about the advertising business in which a New York advertising executive created a marketing campaign around a fictitious product known only as “Vip”. When brought before the ad council on ethics charges he finally presented a hastily concocted product,  a candy that was made with REAL alcohol and was capable of inducing intoxication upon consumption.

Kim Kardashian is like “Vip” and LIKE the fictitious product "Vip", she too is capable of inducing intoxication, but merely upon exposure. How ELSE can one explain the legions of fans of all ages and genders who make it their “mission” in life to “keep up” with the Kardashians, particularly Kim Kardashian, herself.   In a self started and driven publicity campaign that would make even the biggest names in Madison Avenue advertisers blush with PRIDE, she's waged a one woman marketing campaign that, judging by its results, is worthy of a Clio award at the very least. She has demonstrated the skills of a publicist, a marketer, promoter, and adult film star in her rise to fame and success. And she has parlayed that fame (or infamy) into an enterprise that not only produces television shows, but an impressive array of other merchandise as well.

Kim Kardashian is an entrepreneurial success story in the FINEST American tradition. So, imagine my surprise when last week I hear none other than Bill O'Reilly remark that Kim Kardashian is an example of what's WRONG with America today. Is free market entrepreneurial capitalism what's WRONG? That sounds more like the mantra of the Occupy Wall Street flotsam, most of whom probably FOLLOW Kim Kardashian on Twitter or Facebook and leer at photos of her in various states of undress while sponging off their parents, squatting on public property and screaming “down with capitalism.”

So, shame on you, Bill O'Reilly. Kim Kardashian is not what's WRONG with America, but rather what's RIGHT with it. She took what could have just as easily been her “fifteen minutes” of ancillary fame when the cameras were following her FATHER, Attorney Robert Kardashian, during the O.J. Simpson homicide trial. We all remember Robert Kardashian, the swarthy and stylish gentleman with the leonine head of salt and pepper hair and stylish and well tailored suits sitting right next to O.J. Simpson at the Defense table day after day. The paparazzi and media couldn't get ENOUGH of the “dream team” and so it pursued them into their private lives. When they discovered that Robert Kardashian had a trio of exotically attractive daughters, they suddenly began the process that would later become known as “keeping up with the Kardashians.”

When the trial ended the media spotlight could easily have faded away had Kim Kardashian not taken it upon herself to keep that light pointed and focused in HER direction, and to achieve this she gave us quite a show. It was that show that she parlayed into a media career first in modeling, then reality television, and later into a merchandising enterprise. There's NOTHING wrong with that. Sure, she had a privileged upbringing and she got her initial opportunity by happenstance, but she CHOSE to make the MOST of it and took ACTION to make it happen.  As a result of choices she made and actions she took, she has succeeded and on her OWN terms. That USED to be a GOOD thing, Mr. O'Reilly. Personally I think it STILL is.

In my opinion,  the people that Bill O'Reilly and other commentators and pundits are REALLY referring to as the problem in America are the legions of "lemmings" who care more about keeping up with a Kardashian than they do about what's happening in the REAL world, such as the war in Afghanistan, or the upcoming Presidential election. But there's an old saying about which is the bigger fool, the fool or the fool who FOLLOWS her? Kim Kardashian is not the problem here. It's the people that are obsessed with keeping up with her for all the wrong REASONS that are the REAL problem. 

These days it seems ANYONE can become a “celebrity” if they're willing to show enough skin, or make a fool of themselves on YouTube. Gone are the days when you had to find Lana Turner working the soda fountain in a Hollywood drug store, or the next big musical act playing to the dinner crowd in a spaghetti restaurant in Eerie, Pennsylvania. Celebrities are now more often than not plucked from obscurity on either a reality based contest show, or just by the sheer number of views their videos get on YouTube. If they get enough views it's called “going VIRAL", and it's the video equivalent of self publishing.

It is much easier to self promote these days than it was back in the nineties when Kim Kardashian first started grabbing for the spotlight, but she made the effort and that effort has paid off in a HUGE way. There's even rumors she's planning to back and star in her own SCRIPTED sitcom on a major television network in addition to her other reality shows on the cable entertainment channel. Some may say she doesn't “deserve” that as there are many more qualified “real” actresses out there, but if she's backing the show with her own cash, why NOT let her do it. We KNOW she brings EYES which translates to RATINGS which means MONEY for the network, and if she can DO it, more power to her. If she can't, she'll FAIL and that's all right, too. It happens to the best of us sometimes. Just ask Oprah Winfrey whose OWN cable network enterprise is struggling, But don't hate her for doing what she does. She earns major BANK for doing it, pays her TAXES, and in the process creates more JOBS than any Washington politician can honestly claim to have done.

There are only two possible “reasons” to “hate” Kim Kardashian, and they go to the old “sour grapes” psychological term rationalization; or, as Aesop put it in his "Fox and Grapes" fable - "It's EASY to DESPISE what you CANNOT get."  If you're a woman hating on her, it's because you can't BE her and have her LIFE;  or, your MAN is fantasizing about being with HER instead of with YOU. If you're a MAN hating on her, it's because you can't be WITH her. But these are superficial reasons at best that reflect human nature at its WORST. 


 In the case of Bill O'Reilly, I believe his scorn is misdirected. Or maybe it's that he's “just not that into her.” I suspect the feeling's MUTUAL on her part, too. But even if it's not, and Kim Kardashian is a regular “Factor” viewer, she's also a successful entrepreneur and media mogul deserving of our respect, if not our admiration. And thank God for the internet, as I'm sure there's a copy of her sex tape floating out there somewhere. If you're a MAN, you gotta love that. And, if you're a woman still hating on her, you can find her video and compare how she looked THEN to how she looks NOW. Maybe you'll find some minor flaw or sign of aging you can point to and feel all superior, if only for a moment. God BLESS America, land of opportunity. And to borrow a line from a James Bond theme, when it comes to being “famous”, “nobody does it better” than Kim Kardashian.

An Open Letter to All Celebutards!!!

Dear Celebutards: (And you KNOW who you are)

Have any of you ever heard the phrase "biting off the hand that's feeding you?" Well, that is exactly what you're doing when you consistently attack this country's free market capital economy, for it is only THAT economy that makes your pampered, privileged, and overindulgent lifestyles possible. At the risk of breaching that dreaded "separation of church and state" you have been endowed by your creator with a gift. Whether that gift is a talent, athletic ability, the ability to string words together, or even just the vicissitude of good genes that makes you look good in jeans or a bikini, that "gift" together with some action on your part, enables you to live the lifetstyle and have the fame and adulation you now enjoy. It is that adulation that enables you to command attention when you speak. Sadly, most people don't actually LISTEN when you speak because they are too busy either mentally undressing you, or wishing that they WERE you to hear what you're saying. That enraptured state means that whatever you say will permeate the brains of your fans without any critical thinking intervention on their part so they will parrot what you say as if it were some kind of gospel.

To quote one of your own, the great Stan Lee, "with great power comes great responsibility" In case you don't recognize it, that was the sage Uncle Ben to the young Peter Parker, aka Spiderman. I realize that many of you did not ASK to be role models, and that you would probably rather NOT have gaggles of teenaged boys and girls aping your every move and hanging on your every word. In a perfect world that would not happen, but in THIS one, alas, it DOES. In a PERFECT world your drug and booze fueled exploits wouldn't get found the clock attention from tabloid press and the networks whose sole reason for existence is to expose us to what you do when you're not doing your so-called JOBS, bur without the Lindsey Lohan's of the world, where would the tabloids, the paparazzi, and shows like Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, or the entire E network be? But, because of the aforementioned entities, things you do and say are exposed to young and old alike so for God's sake please THINK before you speak.

Then there are the real hypocrites, like Michael Moore and Al Gore, who reap for themselves the benefits of free market capitalism while advocating for a form of governance that will effectively deny those same benefits to those who come after them. Michael Moore is the worst for he KNOWS that if he achieves the world he claims to want, he will have no place in it. It is only through free market capitalism and free enterprise that he enjoys the lifestyle and menu choices that he has clearly enjoyed with great relish. Hypocrites like these who talk the talk, but don't walk the walk make me ill. Though I totally disagree with the "greenies" like Leonardo DiCaprio, Ed Begley, Jr, Darryl Hannah, Matthew Modine, etc. I can at least respect them because unlike Moore and Gore, they PRACTICE what they preach. But Leo, you can only drive that Tessla sportscar and live in that green condo because people are willing to invest their hard-earnred GREEN so the studios can make your movies and people can buy tickets to SEE those movies. Again, I applaud you for your commitment to the environment, but remember that not everyone can AFFORD to do what you do. Same with Brad and Angie and all the other celebs that have helped out in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and again in Haiti. I applaud your generosity and your selflessness. But again remember that you could only DO those things because of the free market and capitalism.


The reason I chose the Sean Penn/Harvey Milk caricature as the illustration for this essay was that he and others in hollywood LIKE him bring to mind the old commercial that starts out with a soap opera actor saying "I'm not a Doctor, but I play one on TV" and then proceeds to advise us to buy some over the counter antacid.  What does he know?  He flat out said he's NOT a Doctor. At least that commercial was honest enough to give you a disclaimer so you could take the "doctor's" advice for what it was worth.  Sadly, actors like Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Natalie Potman, etc. do NOT give you that disclaimer before they proceed to give political advice or speeches but c'mon, this is Jeff Spicoli we're talkin' about.  Just cuz he's PLAYED politicians doesn't he he KNOWS politics.  In fact he and his ilk are so far removed from the real world consequences of politics they have no business EVER getting involved in them, but thanks to Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack and their involvement the Kennedy campaign, there's been an unholy alliance between the fantasy merchants of Hollywood, and the political fantasies of Washington, DC.  Problem is that WE in the REAL world have to LIVE with those politics, Hollywood is, for the most part, insulated by layers of wealth and privilege and therefore do NOT experience the horrors they inflict on us by virtue of helping elect "Stuart Smalley" to the United States Senate.


It's not at all surprising to me that more and more celebrity types seem to embrace the "total government" concept of Marxism.  If they're under the age of 40 and attended public school, they've been indoctrinated by left leaning teachers and school administrators since pre-school.  If they went on to attend college, as many actors and athletes did, the indoctrination went into overdrive.  If they never got out of the protected bubble envicornment of academia and into the REAL world prior to achieving their "celebrity" status, they've never had a chance to learn the way th world REALLY works for themselves.  I had the same public school education.indoctrination and also attended a very liberal univeristy, but it was my military service and business entrepreneurial  adventures that taught me (the HARD way) that everything I had been taught to believe in was a crock of SAND.  Today's youg people are having the same realizations I did, but sadly, thanks to liberal thinking a social experimentation, the lack the coping mechanisms to deal with their disappointments.  This is the reason for the phenomenon known as the "quarter life crisis."  In Hollywood, it's what happens when a child star can't make the transition to adult actor cuz he's no longer the cherubic cutie pie he was when he was six.  In sports, it's when an athlete peaks in high school or college and never quite makes it to the big game.  In business, it's when you realize there's no such thing as a participation triphy, and that if you mess up, you don't see a purple pen mark, you grt a PINK SLIP!  If you've never been allowed to fail before, how can you be expected to handle a failure in later life?


The older hollywood liberal/radical types like Sean Penn are the product of indoctrination both in schools, and in their day to day acting experiences.  They were first the protegees of actors from the Boomer generation, many of whom were the drug addled hippies of Woodstock, and they've become drug and alcohol addled themselves.  Add to that a steady diet of memorizing lines written by writers who are (for the most part) to the left of Nikiti Sruschev going back to the days of the early twentieth century when Communism and Progressivism were hip, slick, and cool and attracted the likes of playwright Eugene O'Neil and Hollywood Ten writer, Ring Landner, Jr. and you can see how the post boomers come to think as they do.  As many actors become producers, again due to the beuefit of free market capitalism, the cycle is perpetuated from mentors to protegees.  Notwithstanding all the foregoing, Hollywood is a BIG Union controlled town, and all know where UNIONS come from.  I'm sure that most of this is new information to you, and it's an arrogant person indeed that doesn't think he or she still has much to learn in this life.   The reason the celebutards do not know these things is because they have not been permitted to LEARN them.  Our history and the true nature of what it means to be an AMERICAN has been stolen from several generations of our citizens and it is only NOW that we're starting to realize this and seeking to regain that knowledge for ourselves.


"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later, you run out of OTHER people's money."  That's a quote from the "Iron Lady"  herself, Britain's Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.  So my dear celebutard, if yiou think your lifestyle will not be affected if the government you champion gets the total control it's craving, think again.  If we are no longer a free marked capitalist economy, where will the money come from for YOU?  There will only be ONE patron left that can afford you, and that patron will be the government.  Evern wonder what it was like to be an enetertainment or sports celebrity in Nazi Germany?  Wonder what it was like for Max Schmelling to return to Gernmany and face the likes of Hermann Goering and Adolf Hitler after getting his butt beat by a black man?  I sure it was NOT a pleasant experience for him.  And I have first hand knowledge of what it was like to be a dancer in the Moscow Ballet back in the days of Leonid Brezhnev cuz I met a woman who used to be one and subsequently became the mistress of the said Leonid Breznev, a man who was about as attractive to her as a bullfrog, but who was able to give her a nicer apartnment, better clothes, jewelry, etc. until he tired of her and moved on to a younger woman.  She fell from grace almost as quickly and found herself in her middle aged years working in a factory that produced parts for tanks.  It was NOT a glorious existence.  Think it can't happen to you?  You're too young to remember the days of the studio bosses, but how about the child stars of Different Strokes?  Their fortunes were stolen out from under them and they turned to lives of prostitution, pornography and crime.  They all DIED well before their time, too.  Think it can't happen to you?  If we get a Totalitarian government that craves money, how long do you think it'll be fore it wans YOURS?  After all, when asked why he robbed banks, famed bank robber Willie Sutton replied, "cuz that's where the money is."


As a small business entrepreneur and free market capitalist, I don't begrudge you your success.  I understand that your pretty face, hot body, talent pool, ability to punt, hit, or catch a ball, are your stock in trade.  Unlike the President you so giddily supported in the last election, I don't think there ever comes a time that "You've made enough money." because I understand that as long as people are willing to buy what you sell, you're entitled to be paid.  If you likeness sells tickets, DVDs, sports drinks, cereal, sneakers, etc., you're entitled to a share in that revenue and it should only be the free market itself that places a cap upon your earnings, not a governmental entity.  I'm sure you see it the same way now that we're talking about YOUR money don't you?  But if that government you champion takes away OURS, then we won't be able to hire people so neither we nor they will be able to buy those things, or tickets to see your movies, concerts, or sporting events.  Should that happen, you won't have the millions to party with, either.  And if that government chooses to increase the taxes you pay, how many of you will keep company with Wesley Snipes in federal court trying to protect what is YOURS from a greedy, grapsing, intrusive federal government.  How long do you think it will be before that same government tells you what kind of content you can produce, or how much skin you can show, etc.  Where does it end?  The reality is, that it DOESN'T end.  Power and control only create a desire for MORE power and control.  If you think your parents and coaches are bad, try a nanny state GOVERNMENT on for size.  I've SEEN what kind of government can do, and it's not pretty.  I've walked in the ruins of the former Soviet Union and belive me, you don't want THAT here.


So, in conclusion, Dear Celebutard, SHUT UP and sing, act, dance, and hit, bounce, or kick that ball, or do whatever it is that you do to deserve your celebrity and notoriety (and believe me when I say for MANY of you, I have no CLUE what that is) secure in the knowledge that, unless we actually GET the government you champion, life will be wonderful for you.  But leave the politics to those of us who live the REAL world and do the things that make your fairytale existence possible.  If you continue to bite the hands that are feeding you, one day there might not be anyone left to do so.  Can you imagine Michael Moore on a DIET?  Unless you want to go back to waiting tables, digging ditches, or flipping burgers, be careful what you wish for because in the words of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, "that government that is big enough to give you anything you want is also strong enough to take away EVERYTHING you have."



Sincerely,




Silence Dewgoode (GOOGLE HER)
Flyover Country,(what the glitteratti refer to as the land between Hollywood and New York or Washington, DC)  USA