Episode 199: Harvey Weinstein / UK’s Medical Crisis

Hollywood was shaken up with allegations of the sexual harassment of Harvey Weinstein. Well, they knew about it, for years, so it doesn’t seem like it was shaken all that much. Stirred, perhaps. Maybe he could have learned something from Mike Pence.

The UK medical system had a crisis of care this summer, but it’s a crisis that it usually sees in winter. If they are this bad off already this year, will they be able to survive the winter? And yet, it’s a crisis coming to a country near you (i.e. the USA) if we don’t get out from under our attempt at socialized medicine.

Mentioned links:

Harvey Weinstein’s Fall Opens the Floodgates in Hollywood

How Did NBC Miss Out on a Harvey Weinstein Exposé?

NHS ‘sleepwalking into winter crisis’ as waiting times soar to nine-year high

Show transcript

What was apparently the worst kept secret in Hollywood was finally publicly acknowledged recently. The casting couch was not dead, and Harvey Weinstein was one of the worst offenders. I’ve got a few bullet points to hit on this story.

If accusations against Bill O’Reilly and Roger Ailes speak ill of conservatives in general, then you have to be consistent and apply Weinstein’s actions to liberals. And actually, Weinstein’s fall opened the floodgates to accusations of other Hollywood liberals, including people behind and in front of the camera. Shall we use the same broad brush on everyone who has their same voting record? Be careful when playing the politics card.

Ronan Farrow, the reporter who had put together the evidence for the Weinstein story, got one roadblock after another and foot-dragging at NBC, for whom he was writing the article. NBC denies there was any attempt to block the story, but when Farrow took it to the magazine The New Yorker, they knew what they had and published it. My question would be that, if it was good enough for The New Yorker, why wasn’t it good enough for NBC? It could be they’re too cautious, but it seems like they either were reluctant to go with, or they were mired in bureaucracy. Whatever it was, NBC doesn’t come out of this looking very good.

As I said, Hurricane Harvey was one of the worst kept secrets in Hollywood, but at their award shows, these people, who sheltered powerful abusers from the world’s eye, would lecture us about how virtuous they were because they had liberal values. And let’s not forget the applause they would give to the likes of Roman Polanski. They made movies and music that glorified the sexual “revolution” and then said they were shocked – SHOCKED – to find out that the culture, including their culture, took to it. Christian writer and novelist C. S. Lewis described it this way, when the culture untethers itself from transcendent virtue, “We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.”

Y’know, Vice President Mike Pence got lots of ridicule from the Left when it became known that he had a rule not to dine or work late alone with a woman. Harvey Weinstein could’ve used a rule like that, but that would presuppose that he even cared about doing the right thing. Pence tried to avoid evil and he was pilloried. Weinstein embraced evil, and now (finally, after decades) he’s pilloried.

To the dominant culture, I set before you Weinstein and Pence. Choose one. Oh, and  if you lauded Hugh Hefner at all, you’re part of the problem.

“We need socialized medicine!”, they said.