Do right-wingers really hate this show?

Why do you even care?

Let's keep the politics out of this meaage board!

Sadly, I have come to expect a complete double-standard from the the liberal community--not all liberals, but at least a majority of them. For all of their protests about despising stereotypes and generalizations, they have no trouble lumping conservatives together as a bunch of nuts. For all of their talk about the sanctity of the First Amendment and freedom of speech, they immediately vilify any conservative who chooses to speak up. I've found this intolerance to be especially true among better educated liberals, who are so convinced of their own intellectual superiority that they can't bear to think of another intelligent person who would dare to disagree with them.

What is really funny about this is that most of the conservatives I know are pretty tolerant of liberals. I, for one, would hate to live in a world where everyone agreed with me. I think it is important for a healthy democracy to have a wide and divergent set of opinions among its citizens. There are relatively few liberals whom I truly dislike. I may find them misguided, but I respect most of them. On the other hand, I'm just blown away by the amount of hate leveled at conservatives by top-tier liberals. Again, it is utterly hypocritical, but they don't recognize this at all.

Furthermore, despite the accusations which are so often hurled at conservatives, we conservatives are capable of rational thought and can separate the opinions espoused by an actor from the shows in which they appear. Again, it is dumbfounding to me that so many actors, including Lord, can appear in TV shows and movies that glorify violence--especially firearms related violence--and at the same time tell people they are too stupid to own guns. The Hawaii portrayed in Lord's show was far more violent than the actual state--being packed top to bottom with mobsters, hit men, and crazies, but his show was full of victims who just sat there like slaughterhouse animals, waiting for the axe to fall with no ability to fight back. Small consolation to the dead people that McGarrett would catch the murderer. I'd rather defend myself and stay alive than know that the Five-0 team would eventually catch the killer, who in the state of Hawaii had nothing more to fear than a supposed "life in prison" sentence. Never-the-less, it was a fun show that I still enjoy.

I recently came across a great example of the sort of double standard that is commonly espoused by so many elite Hollywood liberals. In Mathew Modine's memoir about shooting the film "Full Metal Jacket," he describes going to Stanley Kubrick's home and shooting an arsenal full of automatic weapons in the director's back yard. These shooting sessions have nothing to do with the movie. He even talks about shooting watermelons with an full-automatic shotgun! What's more, these sorts of weapons were (and are) completely illegal for civilians in the UK! Apparently he didn't feel the law applied to an ivory tower philosopher such as himself. And this is a guy would cheerfully support outlawing weapons for most of us! It is a common view held among so many liberals--the laws which they support for all of us peasants should not apply to themselves. Does this make me angry? Sure. But does it mean I will never watch Full Metal Jacket again? Hardly.

After all, R. Lee Ermy is in it! ;-)

"He was running around like a rooster in a barnyard full of ducks."--Pat Novak

McGarrett definitely had a few drinks in Season 1, and may have smoked once or twice (on that score, my memory fails me), but after that, he absolutely set an example that was ahead of its time by not drinking or smoking, or even dating women onscreen after a few hints during the early episodes.

Jack Lord was indeed a lovely person. I remember the radio ads in 1978 where he read from Genesis: "'And God created great whales,'" he quoted, after which he implored people to prevent the destruction of these beautiful creatures. I was 15 at the time, and had always liked "Hawaii Five-O" and Jack Lord. His love and compassion for environmental causes turned him into my hero forever.