Free Speech Impediment

Poor Phil Robertson, patriarch of the Duck Dynasty. He said some things about homosexuality that echo my comments of December 24th, 2005 in my review of Brokeback Mountain. I wrote:

The cinamatography was stunning. The mountains in Wyoming were very tall, rugged, untamed, exactly like the men you would expect to inhabit such grandeur. Only these two rugged men, living isolated watching over a flock of sheep, decided to make the sheep safe, and fell in love with each other. Then after the tryst, with Jack Twist, Ennis went off and married a beautiful woman and had kids and Jack went off and married a beautiful woman, had a kid and sneaked off to Mexico for male prostitutes. Sure, the poor boys pined for each other, enough to recall every lost love you’ve ever had. Every other month or so over the next ten years, Jack and Ennis, would leave all family responsibilities behind and get together for manly love.

 Needless to say, my wife enjoyed the movie more than I did. I have a few “nits” with the film. It seemed that Jack Twist was experienced sexually and Ennis Dalman was a virgin. I base this conclusion on a conversation the two had around a camp fire. Ennis was talking about sin and going to hell. Jack thought both would go to hell, since we are all sinners. Ennis disagreed since he was without sin, unlike Jack. Now, I am inexperienced in the nuances of gay love, but the two’s first sex is anal sex performed by Ennis on Jack. Wouldn’t you just play around the first time. If you are horny, living out in the mountains with sheep, wouldn’t you predict that the sheep would be first to be tried.

Phil Robertson has been fired for his comments, quickly I might add, while Martin Bashir's comments about Sarah Palin only caused his resignation after weeks of protest by conservatives. It's dangerous to your career to exercise your right to free speech only if you're not a liberal.