Robert Englund, the actor who played Freddy Krueger in the Elm Street movies, is upset over a few things and unfortunately he decided to share them with us.
What has Englund so upset? One might be tempted to think that a contributing factor might be that the actors two major claims to fame are getting big budget remakes and both have seemingly issued restraining orders against him preventing him from coming within 500 yards of the set. Nightmare on Elm Street is being remade and instead of Englund, Jackie Earle Haley got the role. Frankly, I am more scared already. His other claim to fame, V, is now being remade into a series. Near as I can tell, Englund did not so much even garner a cameo in either film.
So besides being washed up, what has Freddy in a dither? Well it seems that “Tea Baggers” opposition to health care, bottled water, pseudo-eco Escalade driving soccer moms, and kid’s lack of adventure. For the sole reason of his opposition to health care, the Huffington Post decided to give this aspiring D-lister a forum.
Normally, I embrace fear. I traffic in fear. Fear has been good to yours truly.
But if there’s anything scaring me these days, it’s the blatant misuse of fear in regards to health care reform. I am appalled at the brazen lies being propagated by opponents of reform specifically to scare the elderly and other vulnerable segments of our society. Pushing untruths about “death panels” and “pulling the plug on Grandma” are not helping the debate.
If we’re going to achieve effective health care in this country, we need an honest public discussion based on facts: how do we pay for reform, how will it work, who will be covered?
These are important issues than cannot be solved while lobbyists, pundits and “tea-baggers” are muddying the waters by marketing fear. The only people who should be scared by health care reform are those who make a profit off of other people’s suffering and illness.
Other things that frighten me:
I’m scared by the enormous amount of bottled water being consumed today, instead of people drinking filtered tap water. Did you know that nearly 90 percent of those plastic bottles are not recycled and wind up in landfills where it takes thousands of years for the plastic to decompose? Hey, there’s only so much room on this planet folks…
Also on the environmental front, I’m scared by the liberal contingent of Escalade driving, thug wheeled, Blackberry-yakking, GPS-searching moms who idle their huge vehicles in front of elementary schools for 30 minutes a day while waiting to pick up their children. Yeah, they’ll give lip service to being eco-friendly, but five days a week they’ll sit in their SUV’s spewing carbon monoxide into the air. And hey, when did kids stop walking to school?
…
Please, make it stop. Seriously, this is even a new low for the HuffPo. Now I know why Englund didn’t even get a cameo in any of the remakes. I was bored at “Normally, I embrace fear. “
You know what scares me Mr. Englund? How about has-beens throwing a hissy fit in language unworthy of a high-school sophomore with English as a second language in defense of a bill that will fund the systematic murder of millions of children while handing over 1/6th of our economy, our health, our lives, and our liberty to the same idiots who authorized a AF-1 flyby of the statue of liberty? Now that is scary.
What is not scary but pathetic? Washed up actors on a break between installments of “Zombie Strippers” lecturing us. What of Escalade driving soccer moms drinking bottled water with their kids in the back playing Nintendo on their way to a teaparty or a remake that you are not in? I call that the feel good comedy of the year.
November 2, 2009 at 4:03 am
Hee hee. He sounds like a victim in a Nightmare movie, trapped in a horrifying dream and he can't get out.
November 2, 2009 at 5:02 am
Meh. If you are going to critique someone's argument better to make it a substantive critique rather than "Ooo he's an unsuccessful actor!"
I certainly agree with Englund about bottled water. It does, quite factually, create a large amount of plastic which has to be placed in landfills.
November 3, 2009 at 1:40 pm
I certainly agree with Englund about bottled water. It does, quite factually, create a large amount of plastic which has to be placed in landfills.
(??) Um… I'm not the most progressive egg in the basket, by any means, but even I (in my back-water rural area) am surrounded by recycling bins full of plastic bottles. Plastic bottles are largely the only thing *found* in said recycling bins, in fact. In short: whose fault is it if they're *not* recycled? (And where does he think the filters from water filtering thingies go, anyway? Ours go in the garbage…)
November 5, 2009 at 5:33 am
How many litres of water get filtered before you have to replace it?
Really I think minimising the amount of plastic that either has to be dumped or recycled is a no brainer. Taps and fountains are better because they reduce the amount of plastic we end up dumping.